Rukkydelta:
Oyin bless us with enough updates today Nice one More grease to your elbow

Thank you

I'm inviting all of you to read this:
https://www.nairaland.com/4080086/behind-mask-short-story#60845697

I dey follow you back to back.

started reading this story a week ago, it has really kept me busy. i love this story, as i was reading it, it felt like i was watching it. it look so real in my imagination.

thanks for such a lovely piecet Mr Oyinprince.i wish i will finish this story with you.

ftosino:
started reading this story a week ago, it has really kept me busy. i love this story, as i was reading it, it felt like i was watching it. it look so real in my imagination.

thanks for such a lovely piecet Mr Oyinprince.i wish i will finish this story with you.

Thanks Tosino

Chapter 11 Part 2


'Yes, look here Henry. News outlets have already started giving reports about an accident along the road but Tarasha has checked it and noticed that it was only an arranged accident.'

'Arranged accident, what does that mean?'

'No accident occurred, it was only set up to look that way.'

'For what purpose?'

'To make the event look like something other than a kidnap.'

'I don't still understand.'

'You don't have to understand bro,' Cole slammed at him, tired of explaining the situation.

'I need to understand, it's my mother we're talking about here.' Henry fired back.

'They took your mum out of the place in an ambulance like an injured person who they are taking to the hospital.'

'Is she truly injured?'

'No, she isn't, they only made it appear like that. The ambulance took her somewhere else and not an hospital.'

Henry took a pause to think about Cole's explanation and make sense out of it.

'But how long do we have to wait for Omotara?'

'I directed her to a place she can find a car but she can't arrive here anytime earlier than tomorrow morning.'

'And what assurance do we have that nothing would have happened to my mother?'

'You've not replied the message, have you?'

'No.'

'There's no way those guys are going to know that you've gotten the message.'

_______

Stephanie took a brief pause to look out through the car windows as they met a traffic jam. She checked her wristwatch for time and sighed on seeing that it was already evening, it meant she only had a short time to spend with her mum if she wanted to return to town that day, the other option which she hadn't considered was to stay longer and sleep over in a nearby hotel and return to school very early the next morning. Weekends were always the best period to make visits but she had been busy with functions for the past week.

It was the second time she was visiting after her foster mother - madam Henrietta - had left for the United States. Their relationship had normalized even though the woman still reminded her from time to time how she wanted them to live in the same country. Stephanie couldn't think of leaving yet, not until she could get her real mother to be in her own custody.

Her life had returned to normal, she had gone back to being the President of the SWAD team and returned to her normal activities in school. The betrayal amongst the SWAD team members had also been arrested by the police and security for her in the school premises had been tightened up by the rest of the SWAD members.

Just as the roads cleared and vehicles began to move normally, Stephanie's phone notified her of an incoming call. She took it out of her bag and stared at the screen for a moment, trying to recognize the unsaved number.

'Hello, who am I speaking with?'

'Good evening Steph, how are you?'

'I'm fine, thank you. So who am I speaking with?'

'It's Dave, remember me?'

'Dave... Sorry, I don't really remember, can you tell me where we met?'

'We met at the hospital after your encounter with Samantha Osman,' the voice replied.

'Oh! The guy that came like a Doctor?'

'Yes, how are you?'

'I'm fine, how about you?'

'I'm excellent.'

'Nice to hear from you again.'

'Yea, really nice. So have you heard recently from the police?'

'They came about two weeks ago to ask if I could now remember what happened?'

'And what did you tell them?'

'That I can't remember anything of course.'

'Thank God, do you recognize the officers that came to you?'

'Agent Tim and officer James.'

'Okay, please let that secret be kept between us for now. If anyone knows you remember, your life would be in danger.'

'I know.'

'Thank God you know, I just hope Samantha Osman would meet her Waterloo very soon, so that we can forget everything about her.'

'Hmm... But I don't really think she's someone bad.'

'She's an assassin, she has killed several people for money and that is bad enough. Don't pity her because she didn't hurt you.'

'Well, I'm just saying how I feel.'

'I understand you but it's dangerous to have compassion on assassins or other hardened criminals, they would take advantage of that and cause more harm to the world through you.'

'I've heard you.'

'Good. So have you heard from her recently?'

'Heard from who?'

'From Samantha Osman.'

'No,' she sounded surprised at his question. 'I don't have her contact and she doesn't have mine, what do you expect her to reach me for?'

'Don't get pissed dear, I was just asking.'

'I'm not angry, I'm only surprised. Do you think my mind would be at rest if ever I come across her again?'

'I understand you. Why don't we just forget about Samantha Osman and the police for now. How's school?'

'School is fine, how is work?'

'Fine too, just been stressful these days. How were you able to cover up all you missed during your absence from school?'

She chuckled. 'I have friends who helped me with notes and explanation on some difficult courses, so I didn't find it difficult to level up with the others. We just finished our exams last week and I think I did well.'

'Oh! That's good. So it means you're on break right now?'

'Yes, on first semester break already though I'm still busy with the SWAD activities and some other functions in school.'

'Alright, I hope we'll be able to spend some time out when you're finally available.'

'I hope so too.'

'When will that time be?'

'When I'll be free?'

'Yes.'

'I can't really say for now. I plan on spending more time with my mum during this break, it's a very short one.'

'I thought your mum has gone back to the States.'

'Ermm... No,' Stephanie realized he was talking about Madam Stephanie but decided not to talk about her real mother. 'She's in Nigeria.'

'Okay but it doesn't stop us from spending an hour or two together.'

'I know but.. Please Dave, you have to call back later. I'm in a cab and I'm close to where I'm going to.'

'Alright then, till later.'

________

Jumoke sat in the dressing room gisting with the other nurses who were getting dressed and making preparations to resume duty. She was dressed up and ready to resume duty already, she had gotten to the hospital hours before the time of resumption.

'That man messed up the ward big time, the cleaners had a difficult time making the place neat again.' One of the six nurses in the room said and the others burst into laughter. Their subject of discussion was a dirty patient who through his admission in the hospital kept messing up the room, giving the cleaners extra work to do and making the environment uncomfortable for the nurses and doctors whenever they needed to attend to him there.

'Thank God I was never assigned to handle his case, I could have given a piece of my mind.' another nurse said, forming a 'no-nonsense' look on her face.

'I think one of the nurses on morning duty tried to correct him and it almost turned into a fight,' the first nurse said again.

'Na wa o,' Jumoke commented as she and the other nurses laughed again. She couldn't pay attention to their gist anymore as her phone began to ring then, she took it out of her purse and saw the incoming caller's name, Dave.

'Hello Dave,' she answered the call and proceeded towards the door to leave the noise area.

'Good evening Jumoke,' he replied in a pleasant tone.

'Good evening Dave, it's nice to hear from you again, I thought you were never going to call.'

'I'm sorry I don't call as often as you do but I'm trying to do better.'

'You're really doing better these days, the last time you left for work, you didn't call or send a message for several months until you miraculously appeared again.'

'Well, I refuse to take that as a compliment. I just called to find out how you're doing.'

'Thanks, I'm doing fine, how about you?'

I'm also doing great. How's the hospital?'

'Fine.' she replied with a smile.

'Well, do you guys still get visits from the police?'

'No, it has stopped a long time ago.'

'Hehe...'

'Dave, when are we seeing again?'

'Hmm...' Dave accompanied his hum with a sigh, that was the question he was expecting. 'I don't really know, I just have this project on Samantha Osman that's taking so much of my time. I'm planning to move completely to Lagos when I'm done with the job.' He sighed again. 'It's getting tiring already, like she's never going to be discovered. No one seems to have seen her or have information about her and that's what's making the job so difficult.'

'What do you need from people who have seen her?'

'I just need to ask them a few questions,' Dave replied. There was silence from the other end, so Dave continued. 'I think she threatened those who didn't die after meeting her and that's why they're so scared of talking about her to anyone.'

'Yes, they would be scared. What if she finds out? It could lead to their death.'

'How in the world is she going to find out? She's not every where for God's sake, how would she get to know of their private conversation with me? A lot of people are just too scared to take a simple move that could cause a great change and victory for the country,' Dave said in a loud aggressive tone.

'Hey! Calm down Dave,' Jumoke said in low tones. 'Can you call me tonight between eleven thirty to twelve?'

'Eleven thirty to twelve? Isn't that too late? Are you at work?'

'Yes, I'm at work and that's when I'll be able to talk to you.'

'Hope there's no problem?'

'I have something to tell you Dave,' she replied in low tones, taking a glance back at her colleagues who were now silent.

'Okay, I'll call you then.' Dave replied and hung up from his end.

Jumoke closed her eyes and took in a deep breath holding the phone with her two hands close to her chest. She could see Samantha's face clearly in her mind. She recalled how Samantha was carried into her room and treated that night and also remembered the warning given to her.

'Who was that?' one of the nurses asked in a tone of mischief as she turned back into the dressing room. The other nurses in the room also had their eyes fixed on her inquisitively.

'Just a friend,' Jumoke answered and returned to her seat without looking at their faces again, she knew where they were driving at.

'You'll be calling someone who's just a friend by eleven thirty?' she was questioned further.

'It worked, she's going tell something good when I call back tonight.' Dave said in a calm tone and dropped the phone on the table. He pulled the laptop closer to his front and began to type using his keyboard.

'But this babe could kill you when she finds out that you're playing with her feelings,' Lizzy who was seated beside him replied.

'But I don't have a choice, I just have to do it this way.' Dave countered.

'You do have a choice, you don't have to lie to her and make her think you have feelings for her and that she has a future with you when you're planning to dump her after the whole game.'

'Lizzy, I do not have a choice. I'm just doing the same thing you do to the men to fulfill your purpose.' Dave said, facing her.

'I don't do the same, I don't toy with feelings of innocent men. Whoever I play the game with must be a criminal himself.'

Dave looked away from her and kept his stare on the laptop's screen as he pondered on her words. He shook his head after a brief moment and took a brief look at her, 'I've gone too far to stop now, there's nothing I can do about it.'

'I know you've gone far, I just have pity for the lady, it'll cause her a lot of of pain at the end.'

'Do you also pity the guys you break?'

'No, they are criminals and they need no pity.'

'I see,' Dave said and turned back to his laptop.

'What are you going to do about Jumoke?'

'I'll think about it later, let's settle the matter at hand first.'

A deafening silence dominated the next five minutes, Dave worked on the laptop while Lizzy watched and jotted down the necessary details from his work.

'What you need to do is gain Cole's trust first and gain access to his devices, from that we can extract his usernames and passwords for a lot of things. I want you to also chip in general talks about Samantha Osman during your conversations and hear how he responds.'

'Alright, I understand all that you need from him but it may take a very slow process, depending on how gullible he is. I'll have to show him some care first before he gets to trust me.'

'I don't really think it'll be slow, the guy is in love with you already,' Dave said in a confident tone.

'Well, I'm still doubting that and I'm getting more afraid. I told you before that he acted too simple to get, I don't think an assassin trained like Samantha Osman should have given in so easily.'

'Hey Liz, I think you're getting something wrong here.' Dave took a brief pause to open the saved profile of Cole on the computer. 'Cole is not as trained as Samantha Osman and if he even received any training, that'll be just gun training and some little self defence stuffs. So stop looking at him from the same angle you're viewing Samantha, he was just a cultist in Don's cult who graduated and started to practice assassination.'

'I see... He really can't be as trained as I was thinking.'

'Yea, that's even if he ever received any form is training.' Dave emphasized. 'He might just be an errand boy for Samantha.'

'Hmm... But there's still one thing bothering me that makes me think he has fallen yet.'

'What's that?'

'He hasn't called or sent any message since we parted ways yesterday.'

'Is he supposed to send any?'

'Yes, his actions yesterday depicted him as someone who was in love but since we departed yesterday, he has not called or sent any message till now, not to even ask of my well-being.'

'I told you he went directly to the club yesterday, he would need to rest after the heavy boozing.'

'I know, but this is past six, evening already and someone who is supposed to be crazily in love with me hasn't called to find out if I arrived safely or even thank me for the outing.'

'You're saying the truth, is it possible that something has happened to him?'

'I don't think so but I think we should just wait and see how it goes.'

'What if you call him?'

'Hmm... Maybe I should send a message instead. I'll have to register this number on Whatsapp now.'

'Okay.'

Dave got up from his seat to stretch his body and before he could finish, his phone began to ring. He took the phone from the table and glanced at the screen, it was Inspector Dakolo calling.

_______

'Cole, what's happening now? Have you spoken to her again? She's not answering my calls.' Henry said on entering into Cole's room. He closed the door and stood right behind it. He could see Cole still working on the NSCC footages and trying to connect them.

'You should have sent her a message. But I know she's gotten a car already and she's driving back to Abuja.'

Henry took a glance at his wristwatch, 'It means she would get here before five tomorrow morning, isn't it?'

'Well, I think she's not driving by herself. She might get here earlier if the driver is conversant with the roads.'

'Okay,' Henry said and sat on the bed quietly. Both of them remained in silence for more than five minutes.

'So did you eventually take your lunch?' Cole asked, getting up from the chair to stretch.

'I did.'

'Cool. I think I need to take a little rest now.' he said and picked his phone from the table, then he eventually rolled into the bed. He positioned the pillow well and placed his head on it. He then took out his phone and unlocked it, he swiped down the notification bar and began to check the notifications one after the other and later clicked on the Whatsapp message notification.

'Oh! Damn it!' he closed his eyes and cursed aloud on seeing the last message received few seconds ago which was from Patricia. It had totally skipped his mind to reach out to her since the last night and didn't feel good she had to be the one to send him a message first. He could still feel the touch of her soft lips on his and the scent which filled his nostrils when he got closer to her and could see her walking down the road again, with her steps showing more elegance than that of a professional model. His heart longed for every part of her, her heart, soul and body.

'Is there any problem?' Henry turned to ask Cole.

'No problem,' Cole quickly opened his eyes.

Henry could see from his smiling face that there was no problem and that something on his phone was the cause of the reaction.

Cole exited the app and opened the dialer. In less than thirty seconds, he was connecting to her number.

'Good evening Patricia, I'm sorry I've not reached you since yesterday. How are you doing?'

'It's okay, I'm fine. How about you?'

'I'm also fine.'

'So how was work today?'

'Not bad, yours?'

'Beautiful.'

'I sent you a whatsapp message not too long ago.'

'Yea, I just saw it now. I've been busy all through the day.'

'It's okay, so can we chat on Whatsapp?'

'Yea, sure.'

The call ended and Cole opened the WhatsApp application again. He could feel Henry's eyes on him, but decided not to return the look. He clicked on the chat with Patricia and typed in a message in reply to hers. After sending his message, he clicked on her picture above the chat to view her profile. The first thing he did was to enlarge the picture and stare at it for a long while, smiling to himself as he admired her beauty. Then he exited it as he got the beep for her reply. He noticed from her profile as he was about to reply the chat that the WhatsApp account was newly registered and wondered for a second why she only recently created an account on the messenger.


Henry watched as Cole smiled all to himself and his phone. He felt bad but looked away immediately, he shook his head and ran his fingers into his hair simultaneously. He knew it would be out of place for him to expect Cole to be sad as he was, the guy had done what he could do already by being busy all day trying to connect the footages which could help them locate his mum. Henry took out his phone also, hoping to also relax his mind a little by chatting with Omotara or anyone else available.

As he unlocked the phone, he could see the email icon blinking at the notification bar. He swiped it down and clicked on the new message. The message did not waste time in loading and then he saw something that shocked him, a video of his mum's whole body tied to a chair alone in a room, she was sweating profusely and her mouth and eyes were covered. The video showed every part of her body and the tight ropes on it, then it also showed the sides of the room, there were no windows or visible openings except a small closed door. The view was repeated again and then a message appeared at the end, 'We know you ignored our first message, you may also choose to ignore this. But it'll be nice for you to know that the oxygen in this room would be used up in nine hours time and she would be left to fight for her life without oxygen. It's in your hands; you either kill her or allow her live. You have the address already.'

Henry was shivering and sweating all over by the time he finished reading the message. He jumped up at once and first rushed to the door not knowing what to do, then he rushed back to Cole's table.

Cole looked up at that moment and saw the panic, he sat up and stared at Henry while the other searched the table. 'What's the matter?' he asked.

'I'm going to get my mum now, I won't forgive myself if she dies because of me.'

Cole stared at him for a moment like he didn't understand the language he spoke, then he turned back and looked at the phone, he knew it had to do with something Henry had seen there. He reached for the phone and tapped the play icon on the video.

By the time Cole finished watching the video, Henry had already gone out with the car keys and a pistol. Cole rushed after him and met him outside, walking towards the car.

'Hey bro, wait,' Cole shouted, running after him. 'I called the boss already and she'll call back in five minutes to tell us what we need to do.'

'I'm not waiting for Omotara any longer, I don't care if I die or not, I have to make sure that nothing happens to my mum.' Henry replied without looking at him.

'Calm down bro,' Cole held his hand as he was about to open the door to the driver's side.

Henry dragged his hand out of Cole's and opened with the second hand. As he anted to enter the car, Cole held him firmly again by the arm above his elbow.

'Come on, get out of my way.' Henry stepped back and sent Cole a heavy blow on the face which sent the latter staggering backwards. He entered into the car and started the engine while Cole gently massaged his hurt face.



Cole raised his head and watched as Henry drove towards the gate. He knew Henry's mind was made up and there was no way he could be stopped took out his phone and redialed Tarasha's number.


...to be continued


Read more at www.youngicee.com

if i was in henry position, i would have done more than that.
kudos 2 u

Menh this trend is one hell of a good trend menh.
Weldone bro

Chapter 11 Part 3

'I thought you would have gotten the news before I did,' Dakolo said as he drove down the road with Dave by his side. He had called Dave earlier to ask if he had gotten any report about the accident that occurred that day and Dave had surprised him by responding negative. Then he called on Dave to join him for an investigation, hoping to use Dave to get into places he couldn't get to.

'Where exactly are we going to now?' Dave asked.

'To the transport service whose vehicle had the accident,' Dakolo replied.

'Don't you think going to the accident scene would be better?'

'The place would have been cleaned a long time ago, so I don't think you'll find anything useful there and it's even very far from here.'

'Okay but why is it necessary to visit the transport service when none of the victims died and none of them are even public figures?'

'Are victims who aren't public figures not worth investigating?'

'Inspector Dakolo, if we're to investigate anything, it should be the cause of the accident and I'm sure several other journalists are there already,' Dave complained with a frown.

'Yea, Dave I know.' Dakolo replied wryly.

'And I thought you said this stuff involves Samantha Osman.'

'Yes, it does. I got information from a reliable source that the mother of Henry E.G was in that vehicle.'

'Huh?'

'Yes.'

'They never told us when she was leaving,' Dave sounded surprised.

'Yes, to protect her, they say.'

'But how come her presence in the vehicle is only known by you and the reliable source?'

'I believe the officers in charge of the case are trying to hide it from reaching the news, the Inspector General wouldn't be glad if he found out.'

'Now, I get you.'

_________

'I can't stop thinking about you all the time, everytime you leave, I'm always scared you won't return anymore.' Tinuke said to her daughter. Both seated side by side on a two seater sofa, the daughter's head resting on the mother's chest and their fingers curled around each others.

For Tinuke, she saw her daughter as no different from the same little girl she used to hold and cuddle in her arms several years ago even though the size was now a lot different.

'But I've told you to stop being scared, I'm not going to leave you, I'll always be here for you.'

'I can't pretend, I'm scared.' Tinuke said as she rubbed her baby's ears. Stephanie raised her head gently and both of them stared at each other in the eyes for a brief moment. 'What if this thing that comes to me finally comes permanently?' Tinuke continued to voice out her fears. 'What if it makes you hate me? What if it makes you not want to see me again?'

'Hey! Mum, stop it!' Stephanie scolded, getting up from the seat. 'Why do you keep thinking negatively, I've told you to stop talking like this,' she added, forming an angry face.

'But I can't help myself.'

Tears rolled down Tinuke's eyes and she loosened her wrapper to wipe her face dry but the tears kept coming.

'Mum, stop doing this to yourself.' Stephanie sat back on the chair and dragged her mum closer to herself. It was her turn to cuddle her mum like a baby. She could feel the woman's weight against her body and could tell that she had not stopped loosing weight even though the keepers always claimed that she was taking the right diet. Stephanie had no reason to doubt them because they had been the same people there for so many years, other women like her mum who were there showed signs of proper nutrition and good health.

Her mum was a shadow of what she used to be years back, Stephanie could not remember how she looked then but could see from the pictures and compare. Many including madam Henrietta still believed that her mum would not be able to survive the predicament but Stephanie believed that her mum would leave the place safe and sound one day.

The home was a home for disabled people. Stephanie's mum was paralyzed from her waist down to the soles of her feet. An accident which took the lives of some other people had affected her Central nervous system, but not only her spine was affected, the brain was affected also. Lack of proper medical care immediately after the accident had contributed to the worsened condition. They finally got medical redress when they sought for one and instead of her whole body paralyzed, she was able to use her hands and move her head and also other parts of her body above the waist. After two months of being in her normal state of mind, those around began to observe her act occasionally in an awkward manner and as time grew on it became worse and more frequent. She could be in her normal state one minute and then the other minute become so violent and dangerous to those around her at that moment. What made her case so difficult was that the doctors were not able to certify those things that triggers the state in her, they made several suggestions but the triggers seemed to keep increasing in number everyday.

'Listen mum, I've told you that all these things are just a phase of life and it'll pass away very soon.'

'How long will it be? I can't even remember how long I've been year, by now it should be close to fifteen years or even more, when will it end?" The woman continued to cry louder.

'Mum, it all depends on us. But as long as we keep thinking the wrong things and vocalizing the wrong thoughts, we might just keep going in circles.' Stephanie tried to encourage her mum but she ended up also trying to fight back tears. They sat in each other's embrace in silence.

'Please go away from me,' Tinuke said after some minutes in a low but strict tone.

'No mum, I will never go away from you.' Stephanie answered back with a teary voice, not suspecting anything.

'I said go away from me, you devil!' Tinuke suddenly shouted in a loud aggressive tone and pushed her daughter to the floor.

'Mum?' Stephanie called as she landed heavily with her butt on the floor.

Her mum had gone wild again and was shining her eyes at her like a demon ready to pounce on its prey.

'Go away!' the woman shouted again in loud and fierce tone. At that point, she wasn't seeing her daughter anymore but was seeing an enemy who had taken her family from her. That was the major characteristics of her display whenever the attack comes, she was always fighting the nearest person and accusing the person of her woes and was always ready for a physical fight with the person only that her paralyzed legs would never allow get up.


Two of the keepers came to Stephanie's rescue, one of them helped pull Stephanie up while the other moved her mum into the wheelchair.

'You have to leave now,' the keepers who helped Stephanie up said to her.

Stephanie wiped her face dry and watched as they wheeled her mum out of the place with the woman still looking at her with angry eyes.

_________

Cole's eyes searched around for signs of the car Henry took as he drove up the road. He knew Henry was a fast driver and it would be difficult to catch up with him but he still hoped Henry would not be able to drive so fast because of the road to Kurudu which he had no knowledge of. His phone began to ring as he took a turn into another road, he glanced at his phone which was on the seat beside him and saw Tarasha being displayed as the caller's name.

'Boss,' he answered the call.

'Have you caught up with him?'

'No, I think he's far ahead of me already.'

'Okay, I'll call you and tell you what to do in the next five minutes.'

'Okay boss.'

The call ended and another came in from his other phone as he dropped the first, it was from Patricia.

'Hey! Why did you leave me waiting online?'

'I'm very sorry dear, I have an emergency I need to attend to and I'm driving at the moment.' Cole replied.

'It's okay, I hope it's nothing serious.'

'Not serious at all, it might just take a bit of time.'

____

'Okay, later then.'

Lizzy hung up the call and placed the phone on the table. Victor sounded a bit disturbed and in a hurry, she noticed from the call. She also sensed that he was saying the truth about driving presently. She tapped the computer keyboard and the screen came on. She hovered the cursor for some seconds around the desktop page before clicking on an app. She dialed Dave's number while she waited for the app to load.

_______

Dave finally located the spot where the Inspector parked his car and he hurried towards the place. He could see Inspector Dakolo's eyes on him as he got to the front of the car. He opened the door to the passenger's seat and slammed the door shut.

'They refused to show me anything and they insisted it's against their policy to let any outsider see their records except with permission from the police.' Dave said to Dakolo who was waiting to hear the result of the visit to the transport service.

'Agent James called me when you left to inform me that he was here before us but discovered that other senior officers had come before him, he wasn't allowed to see the records too, I'm sure the first set of officers who came gave the instructions to the transport service managers.'

'Anyway it is, let's just get out of here.' Dave said and pulled his seatbelt on.

His phone began to ring as the Inspector started the engine, he took it out and viewed the caller, it was Lizzy. He didn't want to answer the call because of the Inspector's presence but he also did not want the Inspector to think he was hiding something from him.

'Hey baby,' he said, trying to use a cheerful tone. 'Where?' his tone changed as he got Lizzy's response. 'Okay, I'll be on my way there now, just give me directions from where you are.' he rounded up the call.

'Is there any problem?' Inspector Dakolo asked, taking a quick glance at him.

'Not really, but I have to meet with someone now.'

'Oh! And I didn't let you come with your car,' the Inspector said with a tone of regret. 'Is it somewhere I can take you to?'

'Please do not bother, just drop me at the junction and I'll find my way from there.'

'Are you sure?' Dakolo asked in a doubtful tone.

'Yes, you're returning to Asokoro but I'm going off town completely.'

'Okay, I get it.'

They drove for few more minutes before they got to the junction Dave asked to be dropped at.

___________

Cole was only forty minutes away from Kurudu and he had not seen Henry's car in front of him. He checked his wristwatch, it was already five minutes and Tarasha had not called back yet. He decided to call back in case the boss had forgotten to check her time.

'Boss, I've been waiting for your call.'

'I was about to, have you found Henry?'

'No, I think he's gone far already. I was thinking I'll be able to catch up with him because of the routes which he had no knowledge of but now I remember that it'll be as easy for him to locate the place as it for me because of the games we have been playing.'

'Hmm...'

There was silence for almost ten seconds.

'Hello boss, you're there?'

'Yes, I am.'

'You said you'll tell me how to stop Henry when you call back.'

'No, I said I'll tell you what to do when I call back but you called back.'

'Okay, should I cut the call?' Cole asked but the call had gone off before he finished.

'I'd like to stretch a little, please pull over.' Tarasha said to the driver who in reply looked at her through the rearview mirror and nodded to signify he heard her. The driver turned on the trafficator immediately but it almost took a minute before he located a good place to stop.

Tarasha got out of the car with her phone and looked around for a second. They were already out of Lagos State. As she dialed Cole's number, she noticed that the driver had also stepped out. She moved farther away from the earshot of the man.

'What weapons and tools did you take along with you?'

'Guns, tranquilizers and ropes. I had them in my bag before, so I just picked it up.'

There was another silence.

'Boss, are you there?'

'Yes, I am.'

'Speak on boss, tell me how to stop him.'

'There's no way you can stop him, his mother has only few hours to live if he doesn't get there.'

'So what do I do? You said before I left home that facing Rex in a place he set up by himself is not an option for now.'

'How close are you to the place?'

'About 40 minutes close, I've been driving since but I stopped only to hear the instruction from you.'

Tarasha was silent again. There was only one way to stop Henry, it was to kill him before he gets to the place.

'Boss, you're not talking.'

'How many minutes ahead is Henry?'

'He was about six minutes ahead before but with this stop I just had, it should be close to eight minutes.'

'Okay, you can't just invade the place with the weapons you have without studying the place first.'

'But there's no time to study now.'

'We have two options right now, the first is to let Henry go into the place alone.'

'But he might never come out and it will mean danger for all of us.'

'Yes, I know but we have to find a way to escape the danger.'

'Boss, maybe the second option is better.'

'Yes, I think the second option is better but I don't think you'll want to do it.'

There was a brief silence from Cole's end. Tarasha knew he was wondering why she was talking the way she was - instead of giving direct instructions, she was thinking of what he would want to do.

'Tell me boss, we've been preparing for sometime now. I'm not scared,' Cole replied confidently.

Tarasha could sense the confidence in his voice but she knew their preparation was not something to rely on because Rex must have also been preparing for them and not sleeping, and furthermore, the option didn't even have anything to do with their preparation.

'The option is to catch up with him and stop him totally.' Tarasha said, still hiding the option with words.

'How do I catch up with him?' Cole sounded surprised at the kind of vague instruction she had given him but he wasn't bold enough to tell her it was vague.

'I'll call him and ask him to wait for you to join him.'

'And what will I say to stop him.'

There was silence for a moment..

'Boss?'

'You kill him when you meet him.'

'What?' Cole exclaimed in a loud tone.

'Yes, you kill him.' Tarasha said plainly and turned back towards the car. 'Call me back in two minutes to tell me what choice you have made but you've got to start moving right now.'

She ended the call and entered back into the car. 'Let's move on,' she said to the driver who had entered back before her.

Her heart was pounding heavily as she thought of what she had just told Cole. It was the best option for the safety of the whole team even though she was hoping for Cole to choose the first option. She had left the choice in his hands to remove herself from being the one whose choice will turn things upside down for the team. But either ways, she was still the one who had the blame to take. Immediately Cole called to inform her that Henry had driven out, she was supposed to have given him the instruction to race after Henry and kill him immediately but she couldn't. And that's what happens when an assassin becomes weak; when an assassin begins to let the emotions take over; Henry was more of a danger than an asset to them and should be eliminated without thinking twice.

She stared at the phone in her hand, pondering on whether to call Cole back and tell him to forget the option of killing Henry or whether to wait for Cole's choice and take it as it is. Even though, she couldn't imagine how she would feel if Henry is killed by Cole but she knew that the first option would not even keep Henry alive, it was only going to prolong his life by some hours or days because Rex would never leave him alive after getting the information he needed. The option of killing Henry first was still the best.

Her phone began to ring.

She stared at the buttons for a while before answering.

'Boss, I can't kill him.'

Cole's answer came as a disappointment to her because it meant he was also judging with his emotions too but she had nothing to say because she was also guilty of the same thing.

'Should I drive back home and get some of the important things out first?'

'No, follow him there but make sure you are not noticed.'

'But what if he gives out information about the base to them? We have a lot of secrets there.'

'We'll get the whole place destroyed before they can access anything.'

Her eyes met with the driver's in the mirror, he was staring at her suspiciously but she was sure he couldn't be certain of what she was discussing about but could only remain suspicious.

'Get me updated as frequently as possible.'

'Okay boss, I'll connect a talkon to myself.' Cole replied and ended the call. A talkon was a voice transmitter.

She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. Possibility of still saving Henry after he got into the building with Rex began to mix with her thoughts, but it would mean facing Rex again earlier than she planned and without getting ready enough for him. Was she going to leave Henry in Rex's hands?

____

Forty two minutes later

Dave looked around carefully before getting close to the car. He checked his phone for the message Lizzy had sent him again, he was at the exact point of the map. He rested his bum on the bonnet of the car and clicked open the messenger on his phone. He took another look around and stylishly into the car before he opened the chat box with Lizzy.

'I'm in Kurudu now and I think I've found the car where the phone he used to call you is, but I can't see him anywhere around the car.' he typed and sent.

______

'Stop!' Henry heard a loud voice as he stepped into the first section of the building. He looked around to see the source of voice but couldn't find it.

The building was not too big but it smelt money and high technology. The walls of the section where Henry was except for the one which had the door were made of mirror glasses, he could see his multiple reflections at the different sides. There was no visible door leading into the other parts of the building rom the section but Henry was sure there was an hidden one somewhere that would become visible whenever the controller of the place wanted him to go beyond the section. His heart was racing fast but he knew there was no turning back for him, he didn't care to die so long as his mum was allowed to go in peace.

'Take out the metals on you,' the voice came again. Some straight thin red lines of light from unknown sources suddenly pointed to different parts of Henry's body after the voice spoke and all the places the red lights pointed to had metals there.

Henry took out the gun he had taken from Cole's room from his front pocket, he took out another one which he had found from the car from his back, he took out two knifes from his body and dropped them all on the floor. Two red lines were still pointing to his body.

'Take out the rest,' the voice said again.

Henry dipped his hand into his pocket and took out the car keys, then he raised up the his shirt to show that the other light was pointing to the metal buckle of his belt.

'Hehe! You can leave that on,' the voice said mockingly. 'Now, I want you to see something before you proceed.'

The mirrored walls all converted into screens immediately and Henry could see his mum again in the same room sweating more profusely than before.

'I'm here, let her go.' Henry shouted and his voice reverberated the whole place.

His mum suddenly jerked and started looking around in the video as if she had heard his voice but her eyes were blindfolded so he couldn't see her expression well.

'Hahaha, she can hear all you say and she's going to know if you do love her or not.'

...to be continued


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Oyin weldone ..more grease to ur elbow

Tarasha Chap 11 Part 4

'What do you want from me?' Henry shouted. He saw his mum jerk again on her seat and heard her make a groan. 'Can you just disconnect that and let us talk?'

'You don't tell me what to do,' the voice replied. 'You're a visitor here, I think it's necessary that I entertain you before discussing what I want from you.'

'Please let's go straight to the point,' Henry pleaded.

The wall facing him split open, creating a passage into the next room. There was a table and chair set in the next room. On the table was a meal of fried rice and salad, a pack of fruit juice, a bottle water,a glass cup and a pack of neatly folded tissue papers.

'Get in and eat, then we can talk.' the voice said.

'I can't eat when I know my mum is still where you kept her,' Henry insisted.

'But you have no choice, I have to attend to something else now, I'll be back before you finish eating.' the voice replied and the whole place became dead silent.

'Hey, hey! You can't go anywhere,' Henry shouted but all he had in return was his voice echoing back to him.

His knees buckled and hit the ground weakly as the thought of still losing his mum after all the efforts came to his mind. He remembered Cole's warning for him to wait for Omotara but that couldn't have been followed, his mum would have been long dead before Omotara would arrive Abuja. All he could now hope for was that Rex fulfilled his own part of the agreement.

______

Rex moved the screen view slowly with the mouse. He could see the vehicles passing in front of the building in Kurudu, so many cars were also parked around so it was difficult to determine if Henry had a backup car which followed him. Rex zoomed the view and checked every side of the road where he saw pedestrians walking and motorcycles moving. Everyone he saw were on the go and none seemed to be loitering the street.

'You take over from here,' he said to Stainless who was seated idly behind him at the left side. He got up from the seat and walked to the wall behind him. He tapped something on the wall and a section of the wall covered with timber opened. He took out a small bag which had a small handle on top making it easy to be carried around. 'If I don't return in two hours; open the doors for Mrs George and allow her take in oxygen.'

'What do I do with Henry?' Stainless who was now on Rex's previous seat said.

'Leave him there, don't talk to him except it's necessary. He cannot get out except you allow him.'

'I can't do that.'

'You dare not,' Rex said with an evil smirk. He buttoned the sleeves of his jacket properly and straightened it. 'I'm going off to check what Samantha is about,' he said before walking out through the available door.

Stainless turned back to the table and took time to view each object on it again. There was a large desktop screen on top and a keyboard, an external video camera, a tiny microphone and the speaker. He tapped the screen with his finger and the backlight came on immediately. He scrolled down the screen with tip of his finger and clicked the voice icon.

______

After some minutes of walking to and fro the place, Cole finally noticed that the guy seating on his bonnet had left. At first, he thought of crossing the other side immediately but on a second thought, he decided to walk about the road for a little more time. He wasn't sure if the guy who sat on the bonnet was just a street guy, he thought the guy could also be someone monitoring him, especially with the way he saw him looking around.

After taking another five minutes stroll around the area, Cole finally stopped to cross the road. He adjusted the face cap used to cover his face properly and inserted his hands into the pockets of the jackets. He crossed after looking right, left and right carefully and repeated the process to cross from the median. He walked straight to the car and entered into the driver's side. He took out his phone and dialed Tarasha's number.

'Boss, I checked around so many times, it's still the same building, the very small one.' he said into the phone.

'What did you notice around?'

'Only one vehicle is outside; the one Henry drove.'

'Nothing else? How many external doors?'

'The presence of the fence around it didn't permit me to see the whole structure,I could only see the main entrance door and the windows at the sides.'

'Did you notice any special cameras outside the place?'

'No, they must have hacked into the NSCC cameras for surveillance.'

'Get back to the base, get out the listed items and stay somewhere with Tomi and wait for my instructions.'

'Okay boss, but I think we still need to keep an eye on that building.'

'Yes, we do but can I trust you to do that without being caught?'

' I and Tomi can do it on disguise.'

'Go ahead,' Tarasha said. 'But don't get caught,' she added in a warning tone.

______

Two hours later

'Tarasha seems to be making no visible movements, I can't find her around.' Rex said to Stainless as he walked back into the room.

'What if she decides not to come in at all? We already played the same game with Cole and Aisha's parents, she might not fall for it or have something different for us.'

'Something different like?' Rex asked, taking off his black gloves. 'What we're doing now is different from what we did in Lagos, the only thing that is the same here is having another of her men's parent.'

Stainless just stared at him blankly, not understanding his words or even knowing how to reply.

'Boss, I think we should start working on Henry right now. I don't think she'll come to help him like she did the previous time.'

'I told you I'm not doing the same thing we did in Lagos,' Rex replied as he returned to the previous place the bag he took along. He began to walk towards the chair and Stainless got up from the chair before he got there.

He tapped the screen on with scrolled down, he maximized an app and the window displayed, showing Henry still in the room. He dragged the tiny mic closer to himself and turned it on from the back, he turned off the external video camera and switched on the system camera.

'Henry, I see you've still not taken the meal we served you yet.' he said into the mic.

_______

Henry trembled as he heard the voice and looked around the place. He had been on his knees for more than two hours, shouting at times to get his captors' attention but didn't get any response. He had taken out his phone, hoping to make a phone call but to his disappointment, the room was devoid of network.

'I'm back, I'm surprised to see you haven't eaten at all.' the voice said again.

'Let my mum go now,' Henry shouted.

'Hey! Relax,' the voice spoke again and added a short laughter. 'You don't have any power here and you can't force me to do anything by shouting. Your mum wouldn't die once you tell me where Tarasha is.'

'That wasn't our agreement, you bast**d!'

'I don't think you want her alive anymore, I promise I'll get her executed right before you if you're not willing to cooperate with me.'

'I'm the wrong person to ask that question, I don't know where she is now.'

'You must be a fool to think I'll accept that, weren't you one of those who rescued her a month ago? Where did you guys take her to?'

'I don't know where she is truly, she's out of town.'


**

There was a brief silence.

Rex zoomed the screen to view Henry's face properly, he needed to see the facial expression well to decide if he was saying the truth or not.

'Where did she go to?' he zoomed out the screen back to the full picture.

'I don't know, I just know she traveled.'

'You lie bro, I guess you think I'm joking with you. I'm going to allow you think about it till dawn and tell me the truth after which I'll execute your mum right in your presence if you do not cooperate.' Rex threatened.

*

'My mum would die in that room before dawn,' Henry said in a trembling voice.

'She won't die from lack of oxygen anymore, she would die by this knife.' the voice said.

The walls by Henry's sides brightened again and a man seated behind a table was seen on the screen, from his neck down to the table; his face couldn't be seen. He pulled out a drawer under the table and took out a shining knife, displaying and turning around close to the camera. The screen went blank and came on again but this time Henry could see his mother in the enclosed room again, then a man whose face couldn't be seen came into the room and rolled his mum out with the chair.

'The earlier you speak, the better for you and your mum.' the voice said and everywhere went dead silent again.

________

'I saw him entering the car but I can't tell where he was coming from,' Dave said to Lizzy who was seated beside him in the car.

'Did you follow him here?' Lizzy asked, both of them staring at a car parked straight before theirs but at a slightly far distance.

'No, but I tracked him with that sim he used to call you. I think he still dropped it in the car and left it here, I don't know if he's going to come back.'

'I think I'll take my leave right away, he probably would call me back when he sees my missed calls.' she said and picked the bag from her side.

'Thank you so much Lizzy, we'll see at the office tomorrow.' Dave smiled at her as she opened the door and pushed it wide.

'Goodnight Dave.'

'Goodnight,' Dave replied and watched as she crossed to the other side of the road, entered her car and sped off.

Dave closed his eyes and rested his head on the headrest of the seat. He thought about the plans he still had for that night. He planned to visit the interstate transport service again when it was midnight to search through their documents and verify if Mrs George actually used their transport service, and to also find the vehicle she entered, names of other passengers, the driver and the destination. And here was he waiting for Cole again, hoping it would not be a waste of time like the other day he waited at the club.

_____

'You've still not told me where we're going to,' Tomi said to Cole in a defensive tone, sounding like they had been arguing all along.

Both of them were seated at the backseat of a cab, with another passenger seated at the front seat with the driver.

'Calm down Tomi, I'm going to tell you. I can't just do that here, can't you see?' Cole replied, making eye signals for her to remember that two other people were in the vehicle were with them.

'Where did you put the car you drove out?'

'You'll see it soon, just stop arguing.' he said to her and turned to the driver. 'Sir, we'll stop before the junction,' he said, pointing with a finger to the place.

Just as he finished talking to the driver and rested back, he saw the side view of someone familiar opening a car parked at the side of the road, she turned for a second to take a look at the cars driving by, giving him a complete view of the face. He stared at her intently even as the cab passed the car and saw as she opened the door, placed her bag into it first and entered. It was Patricia, he was sure his eyes weren't deceiving him.

'Please, drop us after the junction instead.' he quickly said to the driver who had slowed down and turned on the trafficator to signal to other drivers behind that he was about to stop. The driver grumbled but had no choice than to obey the order. He drove forward and stopped behind a car, there was a little holdup at the junction.

'Who is that?' Tomi who had seen him staring asked.

'It's someone you don't know and don't need to know,' Cole replied her and she hissed at him in reply.

He took a glance at his wristwatch, it was five minutes past ten already. He took out his phone to dial her number but realized that the phone which he could use to call her was in the car. He returned the phone and looked back, other cars behind had covered his view of the car but he was sure she would have moved the car, or could be indicating to move into the road if she was slow with it.

The road cleared after a minute and the driver drove past the junction and pulled over.

'Thank you,' Cole said as he handed the man the fare and stepped out with Tomi. They turned to the boot of the cab and took out two big bags and a small backpack.

'Are we crossing?' Tomi asked, seeing Cole face the road.

'Yes, we would.' Cole said, strapping the backpack. Both stood at the side of the road waiting for the cars to clear and Cole also waiting to see Patricia's car pass by. He used his face cap to cover his face well even though he was sure she wouldn't recognize him with the makeup disguise he and Tomi had on.

The car came into view and Cole stared intently as it approached. The driver was Patricia, he was sure, but surprised. He was surprised to see her in such an expensive car and at that time of the night. He remembered she claimed to live with her parents who would complain bitterly whenever she gets home late. He also never expected her to own a car, she never talked about her parents being rich and she also claimed she only started working recently so she couldn't have saved so much to buy such a car.

The car passed by and went it's way while he and Tomi also crossed to the other side, Tomi holding one bag and Cole with the other two. They walked back a bit to where Cole had his car parked and dropped the bags into the boot before entering. The first thing Cole did in the car was to search for the phone he left in it. He saw a notification of five missed calls immediately he turned on the screen. The only person who had the phone number was Patricia and she was the missed caller. He dialed her number back and placed the phone close to his ear.

_____

Lizzy was surprised to hear the ringtone sounding from her bag, she wasn't expecting him to call her back that night since Dave said he dropped the phone in the car. She turned on her trafficator after moving to the slow lane and soon pulled over. The phone stopped ringing but started soon again.

'Hello Victor,' she said with a cheerful voice as she answered.

'Hi Patricia, I saw your missed calls. Sorry I've been so busy today.'

'It's okay, hope you are doing fine?'

'Yes, I am. What about you?'

'I'm fine too.'

'Okay, I just wanted to hear from you and find out if you've resolved the urgent issue you told me about.'

'Oh! That's really nice of you. Thanks.'

'You're welcome,' Patricia said and let out a deep breath like someone feeling very tired and sickly. 'I guess it's a convenient time to say Goodnight.'

'No wait a bit, I want to hear more of your voice.'

'Hehe,' she chuckled even though she was a bit suspicious of his last words.

'So where are you now?'

The question got her more suspicious and she quickly realized that he could have returned to the car he parked or see her around that area.

'I'm just leaving Goodluck road now, I had to pull over to answer your call.'

'What are you doing at Goodluck road by this time of the day?'

'I'm on an errand for my boss, he asked me to use his car to drop some of our goods at his relative's house.'

'Oh! How can he send a lady an errand at this time of the night? That's bad of him. So how are you going to get home?'

'I'm not going home tonight, I'm sleeping over at the staff quarters.'

'That's better, just be careful.'

'Thanks. Thank you so much for calling back.'

'It's okay baby, drive safely and have a wonderful night rest.'

'Thanks, you too.'

Lizzy stared at the phone's screen for a while after the call ended. She wondered if he was suspecting her already and hoped that he hadn't seen her come out from Dave's car, else all the other lies she told would be a waste of time.


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Thanks Man

Oyinprince:
In case you've not read Tarasha 1, Find the Link Below


https://www.nairaland.com/2563770/tarasha-action-thriller-story-month


Story So Far


Tarasha arrives in Nigeria to work for Chief Gab, she is given Cole, Aisha & Benny; three of Don Dan's former loyal men to work with. She starts with killing the minister of health, then the Rivers State Governor and then Chief Jubril Lawal, former minister of Defence.

Inspector Dakolo, Inspector James, Inspector Ken are all determined to see the end of this assassin but none seems to be able to tame her.

Along the line, Tarasha starts to have an explainable feeling for Henry, a Developer and seasoned Hacker. She refuses to admit that the feeling is love. She also meets with her elder brother Jeffery who makes her feel the joy of coming from a loving family again. He becomes her most prized possession.

Henry finally succeeds in convincing Tarasha to live a good life and stop killing after sacrificing himself to be imprisoned, not willing to give information about her to the police. But just when she made the decision to change, Jefa her brother is killed by a group led by the same terrorist who killed her parents, IG Rikau. Rex, an assassin who is her match is also in town and in the group of the enemies.

it getting really annoying that up till now I can't access ur website to read my tarasha

SOPIGO:
it getting really annoying that up till now I can't access ur website to read my tarasha

Sorry but the fault isn't from us or the website, if you're using Glo network, I already told you users with glo have not been able to access blogs hosted on blogger recently. It's not a youngicee.com thing

Tarasha 2 - Chapter 11 Part 5

Dave opened his eyes and sat up, he was about to push the start button when he looked forward and noticed two people already seated in the vehicle he had been monitoring, a male and a female. The man was seated at the driver's side and making a phone call while the lady sat quietly beside him watching him from time to time.

He arranged his seat properly and paused to watch properly, waiting to see their next move. The man dropped the call and turned to speak to the lady beside him. Dave continued to watch keenly, wishing that he could hear what was being said.

His phone began to ring, Lizzy was calling.

_____

'Who's she?' Tomi asked immediately Cole ended the call.

'I told you it's none of your business,' he shot a cold look at her.

She eyed him and turned forward, folding her arms across her chest. 'Where are we going from here?'

'We're going to place a building under close observation,' he replied briefly.

'Which building?'

'You'll see it when we get there.'

'Am I going there just to watch you work?'

'No, you're going to be assisting me of course.'

'How come you aren't telling me the details of what we're going for then?'

'It isn't the right time, I'll tell you when it is.' Cole snapped at her. He turned on the screen of his phone and clicked on the messenger.

'We're out of the house, boss. Henry's number is unreachable.' he typed into the chat box with Tarasha.

______

'Dave, he just called me.' Lizzy's voice sounded through the phone.

'He called you? What did he say?' Dave replied.

'He asked where I was.'

'And what did you tell him?'

'I told him Goodluck Street, because I suspect he might be around and might have seen me.'

'I think so too, because he just got into the car with a girl. You did well by telling him the right address.'

'I see... Well, I wish you luck with him tonight. Hope the girl is not one of those girls he passes the night with else you'll waste your time like it happened the other time.'

______

** 4.45am next morning**

The lights in the dark room suddenly came on again, brightening the whole place. The walls reflected lights from every angle and the ceiling beamed with different colours.

Henry's eyes could not accommodate the light but he struggled to sit up from his sleeping position using the back of his hand to cover his eyes. The room was colder than it was at night and there were no sounds anywhere except for the movement of the walls and other mechanisms around.

Soon, the door which opened the way to the meal the previous day opened again and a man could be seen coming in from there. Henry saw his legs at first approaching him but looked up and saw his face with difficulty as the lights still obstructed his view.

Stainless stopped beside him and squatted, he placed a hand on his shoulder. Henry was already looking down.

'Brother, I wan borrow you one money.' Stainless began in Nigerian Pidgin English to get Henry's attention. 'See ehn, make I tell you one truth wey go help you.' he continued and switched to correct English after being sure he had Henry's attention. 'Rex is ready to kill your mum if you don't give out Tarasha to him and then he's going to kill you after. If you really do want to help yourself, you should do whatever he says, he's awake and would soon be talking to you.'

Stainless concluded and rose up without waiting for a response. He proceeded towards the door through which Henry had entered the last night, he tapped a button beside the door and waited for it to open.

'Wait, can I speak to you for a second?' Henry called unto him.

Stainless turned back but gave no reply, he turned back to the door and stepped out as soon as the door opened. Henry got up and walked to the door but it closed before he got there. He pushed the same button he had seen Stainless press and to his surprise he began to hear sounds of the door preparing to open like it happened with Stainless. The door opened widely and then he was left confused whether to go out or not. The day was still dark though there were lights outside everywhere, but he couldn't see Stainless who had just gone out. The door was still opened. He took another look back again, there was no visible person watching him and nothing stopping him from going outside. He looked outside again to see if anyone was watching.

He took a step out, leaving one in and still contemplating on what to do. After about one minute of indecision, he stepped outside completely and climbed the balcony. He turned back on hearing a sound, it was the door closing by itself. It was too late to go back in.

He looked around and located his car, it was still parked at the same spot he left it the previous night. The rain began to drizzle on him as he proceeded towards the car.

_____

'Wake up Cole!' Tomi shook Cole repeatedly on the shoulder.

'Yes, did you see anything?' Cole asked in a sleepy voice, taking her hand off his shoulder while she shook him. He had watched all night till three o'clock and decided to catch some sleep while Tomi took over the guard. He was sure that he would be up before Tarasha arrives the place.

'I saw Henry, he's walking somewhere right now.' she replied, looking out through the car window with a viewing device.

'Henry?' Cole sprang up at the sound of the name. 'Where?' he adjusted the driver's seat back to position and collected the device from her. She gave space for him to also check what she was seeing. 'He's the one,' Cole confirmed. They couldn't see the face properly from the device because of the darkness of the day but they were able to tell it was him from the colour of his clothes and his stature. The drizzling rain made the vision become fainter.

'So, what's next?' she asked, trying to move Cole's body away from hers. He had a knee placed in between her lap and his side almost covering her face allowing for only very little air.

'We have to wait and watch a little,' Cole replied as he returned to his seat.

'Wait and watch? Isn't that all we've been doing overnight? I thought you said we would act immediately we see Henry come out.'

'We can't just do anything yet, we don't know why he's out and if anyone is watching our following him.'

'I saw someone pass there some seconds before Henry came out but the person turned to the back of the house, it looked like Stainless, I'm not so sure.'

Cole leaned towards her again and used the viewing device the second time.

'I'm sure the one we saw now is Henry, that's the cloth he wore out of the house.'

_______

The vibration in Henry's pocket made him realize that there was now network signal on his phone. He closed the car door and took out the phone. At that moment, he remembered that he had been stripped of all the weapons he came to the place with and had nothing to fight with if the need arose. But did he even need to fight anyone?
He checked the phone's screen and saw the network box full, he quickly swiped down to see the notifications. He had different messages from Cole and Tarasha and the latest one from Rex. He opened Rex's message which just entered not more than a minute before. It read;

'Since you choose to leave, you have one more hour to make your choice'

He exited the message and dialed Tarasha's number, it was answered at the first ring.

'Henry, where are you?' Tarasha's voice sounded through the speaker.

'Kurudu,' Henry replied in a tired voice.

'And what about your mother?'

'They've refused to release her yet.'

'What do they want?'

'They want you.'

There was a minute silence.

'And what did you tell them?'

'I told them you weren't in town.'

'What was their response?'

'They don't believe me and they've threatened to kill my mother in the next one hour if I don't comply.'

'Where exactly are you now and how are you being able to talk to me? Is your call being monitored?'

Henry took some seconds to look around. 'I'm sure this call isn't tracked because my phone wasn't touched but I'm sure someone is watching me from somewhere. They didn't lock the doors of the place I was kept and I was allowed to go out without being stopped.'

'Okay,' a deep breath could be heard from Tarasha's end. 'You should go back into place and tell them about this call and lead them to me.'

'Huh? I should do what?'

'Yes, tell him I'll be there in an hour time.'

________

Rex heard the door open but he didn't bother to look back to see who it was, he just looked at the small magnifying glass resting on the wall behind the desktop and he saw Stainless. He returned his focus back to the screen where he could see Henry speaking to someone via phone call.

'Get ready, he's connected to someone on phone now, we will have to act and vacate here soon.' Rex said without turning back.

'He took the bait and went out?' Stainless asked in a surprise tone as he approached where Rex was seated, fixing his gaze on the screen. 'I think he believes his mum will live since we took her out of that room.'

'We're going to kill that woman and he'll know we're not joking,' Rex said nonchalantly. 'Which room did you keep her?'

'In one of the rooms.'

'Here or the other building?'

'The other one.'

'Which of the rooms 'cause we got four big ones in there?'

'I think the third one.'

'Good, she dies this morning. Whether or not we see Tarasha.' Rex said and turned back. His phone was ringing.

'Hello Vice President,' Rex answered immediately.

'Rex, I think this thing is backfiring already.' the man's voice sounded urgent.

'What's the matter?'

'News about the kidnap is already being reported by Nigerian blogs already, it could be on World news by dawn.'

'Huh?'

Dave finally released the mouse after clicking publish. He got up from the seat, yawned and stretched a little before seating back. He picked the mouse again and minimized the app and opened the system's native browser. The homepage www.youngicee.com loaded and he opened another tab after quickly going through all the recent updates and bookmarking the ones to read. He typed in the address of the first of five blogs he had published the article, it already had six comments. He smiled to himself, the article was pulling much traffic like he expected it. He was going to get the attention and noise he desired and also get well paid for it. He clicked on the navigation bar and typed in the Nairaland web address, the homepage displayed in some seconds and he saw one of the top articles with a similar headline to the article he created. He clicked on it to confirm if it was the same. The title of the article was 'Police releases Mrs George (Henry E.G's mother) to the hands of kidnappers'. The article was no different from the one he had posted but it was posted by a different user and had made the front-page instead of his own due to the popularity of the poster. Dave didn't mind because the poster still did well enough to add the source of the article beneath it.

_______

'Boss, I've been trying to connect to you for some minutes now. We just saw Henry come into his car from the building a few minutes ago and now he's proceeding back into the building.' Cole said into the phone. He was now seating properly at the passengers' side where he could view properly while Tomi had moved to the driver's side.

'He just called me and I asked him to go back in, they gave him one hour to comply before they execute his mother and that's just about the same time I will get to that location.'

'Okay boss, what exactly should we do now? Should we wait for some minutes before the given time?'

'Just watch what happens, I've told him to comply. I hope nobody knows you're there.'

'Nobody knows, I've been here with Tomi alone and I didn't let her know what we were coming to do until we got here.'

'Great, I will join you soon.'

_______

'Damn! How in the world could this have leaked out?' Rex cursed aloud, slamming his fists on the table as he read the news on the screen.

'I'm suspecting Samantha, you said she was nowhere to be found. This is what she must have been up to,' Stainless who stood by his side suggested.

'I wonder what she's trying to do,' Rex said with a confused look on his face. 'How can she be investigating the kidnap instead of facing her work?' he asked himself in a loud voice. He placed a finger on his lips and turned his swivel one eighty degrees, balancing his back as he thought of what next to do. After some seconds, he turned back to the table and picked his phone. He dialed Chief Rikau's number.

'Inspector General, someone is giving out information from your end, you have to fish out that person.'

'It can't be from here, we made sure no one heard about this except the man in charge of Samantha Osman's case.'

'It isn't from here also because I work with only one man, Stainless, and he would not dare sell us out to Samantha.' Rex said, giving a threatening look at Stainless.

'Then how did it get to the news? Didn't you use the kidnap to threaten Samantha?'

'To threaten Henry,' Rex corrected.

'But they work together and the main focus is Samantha.'

'Listen, even if she decided to let out the news to gain public sympathy, there's no way she could have gotten so much details without an insider giving her. They even reported the motor service used, the type of car and even time of departure.'

'Rex, I don't know how that happened. You know I've been against this plan all along and I warned you and the Vice President.'

'You should learn to calm down a bit more, things have not gotten out of hand yet, you should have called me first before calling the VP.'

'See you talking about who I should have called first...'

'Till later, IG.' Rex interrupted the man and cut the call on seeing something on the computer screen.

He maximized a blinking window and the interface for the cameras showed. He could see from the several clip options that Henry had come back into the place.

'What the hell is he doing here?' Rex asked rhetorically. His face was full of shock, he never expected Henry to return and he wondered what Tarasha was up to. He had thought she would fight back since he made the kidnap but she didn't and now Henry was back instead of running to her like he expected. 'What is she up to?' Rex asked aloud again.
_____

'I'm BACK!' Henry shouted again in the room as he looked around but got nothing except echoes in response. He remained silent for some seconds, thinking that his hosts had left the building already. But just before he concluded, the walls of the place brightened and the full lights came on again.

'I see you made the decision to come back, I hope it is to cooperate.' the voice came out loud but not sounding too confident like it always did.

'Yes, I just called Samantha some minutes ago. She's on her way here now and I can lead you to her if your want me to.'

There was a long silence, longer than expected. Henry had thought they would be glad at his acceptance to take them to her but he wasn't sure anymore as the response was withheld from him.

'Give me a second,' the voice finally replied and everything went dead silent.

__

'Damn it! That girl is smart,' Rex exclaimed painfully, biting his lips. 'How did she get to know my plans?' he muttered to himself.

Rex's attention moved to his phone which vibrated on the table. He picked up the phone and answered the call.

'Rex, I want Mrs George returned right away. Where do we meet you to get her?' the Vice President barked in a serious tone.

'Give me two minutes to get back to you,' Rex replied in low tones and ended the call. He closed his eyes and heaved a heavy sigh. 'We have to take Mrs George back to the police,' he said to Stainless after a minute of thinking silently.

'Okay, so what do we do to the woman we planned to use?'

'That woman does not need to die anymore, her death won't be useful to us.' Rex replied.

His plans had been totally foiled. He had used Henry's mother to lure Henry to himself and planned on killing another woman in place of the mother but make it look as if it was Henry's mother that was killed, only to Henry and his colleagues but secret to the general public. This, he intended to use in causing friction amongst Tarasha and those in her camp. If he had been successful in making Henry think his mother was killed because of Tarasha's negligence, insensitivity or incapability, he would have done the same with Cole. That would have made both Henry and Cole weaker forces in her team and he would then strike through the weak links. But he couldn't go ahead with the plans anymore because the news of the kidnap would have gone round the country by dawn and it was against his agreement with the Vice President and Inspector General.
_______

5:25am

Cole stepped out of the car immediately he saw the car park right at their front. He already recognized the car to be a property of the transport service he had recommended to Tarasha.

She already stepped out of the car by the time he got there, she was taking out her bags from the backseat.

'Cole, where is the building?' she asked first before he could say anything to her.

'Over there,' he pointed far across the road.

'Which one?' she asked. There were several small buildings and houses where few was pointing at.

'It's the bungalow painted white,' Cole specified and handed over his viewing device to her.

She collected the device and used it to locate the exact building he was talking about. 'I can see one of our cars there,' she said as she returned it to him.

'Yes, that's the one Henry drove.'

'Okay, keep these bags.'

She handed to him the briefcase she got from Chief Gab and a backpack. 'I'm going in there, watch and listen for instructions.'

'Boss,' Cole opened his eyes and mouth in shock, wondering if she was really going there as she said. He scrutinized her body and noticed she was well dressed. He could see the signs of the several guns, knives and pins hidden in her cloth and he knew she also wore a Kevlar underneath but he was still scared of her going to meet Rex.

The car which dropped Tarasha drove away after the driver waved at them.

'I want you to take these things to Base B, I'll meet you there with Henry hopefully.' Tarasha said. 'Turn off every traceable device with you. I called the police for reinforcement already.'


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weldone oyinprince .
Trasha i dey gbadun u jare.

Rex ur end is near

I'm liking this

Oyinprince:
Sorry but the fault isn't from us or the website, if you're using Glo network, I already told you users with glo have not been able to access blogs hosted on blogger recently. It's not a youngicee.com thing

abajo... It's really annoying sha but ill cope. I didn't know we glo users are d only one tot ur blog has a problem Ni. Well,thanks sha

chillychill:
abajo... It's really annoying sha but ill cope. I didn't know we glo users are d only one tot ur blog has a problem Ni. Well,thanks sha

CHAPTER 11 Part 6

'Hello Agent, how come you're sleeping?' Dave said into the phone as he drew the seatbelt.

'Sorry Dave, but you should have dropped a voice message instead of calling repeatedly.' Dakolo replied from the other end with a sleepy voice.

'Hehe!' Dave smiled and shook his head. He considered the police lazy and believed it was why they always had unsolved cases. He was still awake going about a case Inspector Dakolo had giving him lead on but the man himself was asleep and even unwilling to rise at the sound of his phone ringing.

'I slept late last night Dave, I slept by two a.m.'

'Hehe,' Dave laughed the more. He felt the urge to tell the man that he hadn't slept for more than two hours for two days but he resisted it, knowing that it would make the man suspicious about him. 'Sir, I got the evidence from one of their workers and I have the news on several news blogs already.'

'What news?'

'News about the kidnap of Henry E.G's mother.'

'What? But we've not gotten anything to prove yet,' the man's voice was getting clearer.

'I have proof,' Dave replied confidently.

'Where did you get evidence from?' Dakolo asked even though Dave had already mentioned where he got it from.

'From one of the workers at the motor service. I had to pay him heavily to take pictures of the registers and send the photos to me.'

'So, so what are the contents of your news?'

'I just reported all I know about the issue and posted parts of the pictures necessary.'

'You posted the pictures too?'

'Yes, it's pulling much traffic and would be over a million hits by dawn.'

'What? You might have done the wrong thing. You should have reached me first, I thought we started this together.'

'Yes, we did start it together but you went to sleep while I continued.'

'But... But it could disturb the ongoing police investigations.'

'No, it would only disturb their lies.'

'Well, I should get to see you before the day runs out. I would also get up to check the news now.'

'Okay, Inspector.'


Dave ignited the car engine and sped down the road. He had to get back to Kurudu fast. He had not gotten the pictures from any of the transport service workers like he told Dakolo, he had left monitoring Victor to get into the transport service facility at midnight where he had gotten their documents and register where Mrs George's name had been filled. It formed part of the evidence he presented in the viral news article he published.

Minutes ago when he had checked the location of Victor's phone, it was still the same spot at Kurudu where he left Victor and the girl in their car. He would have loved to catch some sleep but he was curious to find out what or who they were waiting for at that place. He thought it better to sleep off after getting there. At least, it would be said that he made an effort, instead of dozing off at home.

____

It was ten minutes to the time given for his mother to be executed. Henry had shouted out loud several times to get their attention and to also remind them that he was asked to wait but it seemed that his hosts had left him alone in the place. After thirty minutes of waiting, the lights in the place had gone dim and that confirmed to him that he had been abandoned again.

Henry checked his time again, it was nine minutes left. He trembled as he looked around again for signs of anyone watching him.

'Rex, I'm ready to comply. Where are you?' be shouted out loud again but all he got were his words echoing back to him.

Suddenly he heard the sound of the door opening behind him, he turned and faced the door in readiness for whoever was coming. The door opened widely but no one was seen at the entrance. He stared for some more seconds before he began to approach the door slowly. He was only few steps away when Tarasha stepped in, holding two revolvers in her hands. He stopped in shock and stared at her like she was a ghost.

She proceeded forward and walked past him to the wall at the other end of the room without saying anything to him. The door she entered through did not close automatically like it was supposed to, it had been destroyed from behind. She walked about the wall from edge to edge for some seconds, then she turned and walked back, she stopped at the spot Henry dropped all the weapons and metals he had with him the last night.

'Who has all these?' she asked.

Henry turned to her. 'I brought them.'

She looked around again for some seconds. 'Who was here with you?'

'I only saw one person, the other was talking to me from the screen.'

She returned one of the guns into her pocket and walked closer to Henry, she stopped a metre before him. 'There's no one else in this building with you anymore, I checked around before entering.'

'I saw a guy, he came in to talk to me and left through this door.' he replied, pointing with his head to the door behind.

'Let's leave this place,' Tarasha said and tried to pull his hand along with her. She was sure Henry's threateners had vacated the place.

'Leave?' Henry resisted. 'My mother is still with them.'

'Nobody is here Henry, they evacuated this building already.'

'He was talking to me on the screen, they had screens implanted in the walls.' Henry explained.

'I've heard you and I understand, but the person isn't here, I don't know if your mum was here, but nobody except me is here anymore.' she said and pulled him by the hand again.

*

*

*

'Just follow you and watch without knowing what's happening to my mum?' Henry continued to nag as Tarasha drove in the car. He sat at the passenger's side and kept looking back as if to come down from the car and run back on foot.

She continued to drive without looking at him. She had had to keep up with him like that for the past thirty minutes and wasn't going to answer him until they got out of danger totally. She pulled over to a curb after driving past the busy side of the road. She took off the seatbelt and looked out for some seconds. The day was brighter and the roads are busier, commercial vehicles had also began to operate.

'Get out of the car,' she said to Henry as she opened the door.

'Huh?' Henry seemed like he wasn't going to respond.

'Come out of the car,' she said, bending to look back into the car since we was already standing outside.

'What for?' Henry argued. 'My mum is somewhere being held for you and you're here throwing orders around.'

Tarasha stood upright and closed the door. She didn't have time to argue with him, he was in a confused state of mind and arguing with him will not help matters.



She stepped away from the car to the back and began to take slow steps back, facing the road like she was waiting for a cab. Soon a cab stopped and she waved for it to stop.

She bent through the passenger's side to talk to the driver. 'Can you park properly here, our car broke down and we need to move something out from the boot?' she requested, pointing for him to park just behind the car she brought with Henry.

She walked back to the car and stood by the door where Henry was seated. 'Let's get into this taxi, we can't proceed with this car.' she said to him in low tones.

'There's no need to go anywhere else, I'm not sure my mom is safe yet, just leave me here if you're not going to help me get her back.' Henry replied stubbornly.

'Your mum is safe,' she bent and said to him in a very low but desperate tone. 'They can't do anything to her because everyone knows she's missing now.'

She stared at him for some seconds and it seemed he was not going to budge until he finally opened the door and stepped out. She heaved a sigh of relief and closed the door of the car he left open.

'Get into the front seat,' she said, following him as he walked to the taxi. She turned towards the driver's side. The man had been honking impatiently to call her attention. He thought it too early for him to waste time.

'Where's the load you wanted to move into my boot?' the driver asked as he turned to Tarasha after taking a glance at Henry who entered from the right side.

'Good morning baba,' Tarasha said as she forced his door opened. She pointed a gun at him and ordered for him to step out which he quickly did. 'Before the end of today at this same place, your car and your payment would be waiting for you.' she said to him before she entered into the car and drove off.

'Why did we have to take his car forcefully?' Henry finally broke the silence between them after ten minutes drive.

'I promised to return it back there with a payment for the rent,' she replied without looking at him. 'We can't drive back to the base with that car you took there, they'll track us with it.'

______

7.30am

Dave hummed noisily in the bed where he was, he stretched and opened his eyes to locate his phone where it was ringing. He reached for it and checked the caller, it was Agent Dakolo. He silenced the phone totally and tossed it away, it was his time to ignore the agent's call. The man must be calling after seeing the effect his news article was causing online, but Dave needed rest now and couldn't manage to have any conversation. He had met with disappointment after getting back to Kurudu and Victor (Cole) was gone, his number was also unreachable and untraceable. He had to drive back home to get the sleep he needed but was willing to give up to get Victor, but now he promised himself not to get off the bed for anything else untilhe rested well enough. The only mistake he had made was not putting his phones on the silent mode.

_____

'But you were sure she left yesterday,' Dakolo said to James with a serious look on his face, though he was holding a phone close to his ear.

'Yes, I checked and I confirmed.' James replied, he also had a confused look on.

Both were seated in Inspector Dakolo's office in the Police headquarters. Dakolo had woken James up to tell him about the news on the internet. James had checked and verified the details to be true. They had no problems with it until James resumed work that morning and met with Agent Tim. He overheard the man talking to the Inspector General and receiving instructions on how to address the nation to debunk the rumours of the news of Mrs George's kidnap. He also heard Agent Tim promising to make sure that a video record of the woman was done with them and shown to the whole nation as proof that the woman was hale.

'Then how are they planning to make the video of the woman to debunk the news?' Dakolo questioned. He put down his phone from his ear, he was calling Dave and the call wasn't being answered.

'It only means two things; it's either the video has been recorded before or that the kidnap was masterminded by Agent Tim and the IG like we are suspecting already.'

'We'll confirm that only after we see the video by eight o'clock. But what about the call from Kurudu?'

'Agent Tim already gave orders to that effect before I resumed, I can't go there, I'll be seen.'

'Who did they say make the phone call?'

'I'm not sure of the name but they said it was a lady's voice and she claimed to have information about the whereabouts of the missing Mrs George and that the culprit is holding her at a building in Kurudu.'

'How did Agent Tim give the officers directives to go if he was really sure of where Mrs George was?'

'That, I can't explain,' James said as he stood up to his feet. 'But I have to go now before my presence here is known by Agent Tim.'

'Yes, you have to go.' Dakolo said, also getting up to his feet.

'But we need to get that journalist and verify indeed if the documents from the transport service he presented were real.' James said before turning towards the door.

'Yes, I'll get back to you as soon as I reach him. I also have to visit Kurudu now,' Dakolo said, following after James as he tucked in a pistol into the right side of his trousers.

______

'Rex, have you been able to track the number?'

'No,' Rex replied without looking back to see the owner of the voice. He recognized the voice as the Vice President's own and he could also hear the sound of the man's walking stick and the Inspector General's wheelchair approaching.

Rex used the side eye to look at Stainless who was supposed to be watching with him but the dude had slept off. Rex had been mute since he had been forced to return Mrs George to the Inspector General. He had remained in that room (one which was allotted to him in Chief Rikau's house), trying to set up somethings on the computer system to monitor the tracker he placed on the car Henry parked outside the building in Kurudu. He had given up his plan to use Mrs George, thinking that Tarasha had masterminded all the rumours of the kidnap spreading but he was more surprised when he was told by the IG of a call that was made to the police headquarters by a lady who called herself Samantha, informing them about the kidnap and Rex's whereabouts at Kurudu.

He had thought it was enough that she caused the noise online and also tried to use the police to work against him but the real shocker came after setting up the temporary system in the IG's house and connecting to the facilities in Kurudu to watch and track Henry's movement from there. He was taken aback and totally confused when he saw Tarasha, captured in the footages of the security cameras at the facility in Kurudu. He never imagined she would be coming there at that time especially after calling the police. He would had waited all night for her to show up or make a reasonable action and she didn't, but would have waited more if he ever thought she was still going to come, even though he knew that would have been a stupid decision for him to make. He himself couldn't tell if he was just confused about or now being scared of Tarasha.


.

His confusion would have been greatly reduced only if he knew there was a Dave somewhere and a police officers giving Dave information.

.

'The police IT guys have also not being able to track that number Samantha used in calling. A driver from a motor service in Lagos showed up not too long ago, he claims to have some information.' the Inspector General's voice brought Rex back to life. The two men were now standing beside him, one at the right and the other at the left side.

'Her number cannot be traced,' Rex replied. 'I should have waited there if I knew she was going to come there,' he added with a tone of regret.

The two men at his sides exchanged quick looks, they had never heard Rex speak like that. The Vice President shrugged, he could feel Rex's disappointment in his voice and pitied him , knowing that Tarasha could have been dead if he hadn't insisted on killing her himself. Both of them had come to blame Rex for almost getting the IG into trouble but they could hear from Rex' voice that he already did more than blaming himself.

'If she had met you there and there had been a gun scuffle, you could have injured Mrs George.' the Vice President put in.

'Mrs George wasn't in the same building, we only used her for a video, it was another woman entirely we had in the building with us.'

There was silence for some seconds.

'Well, you have to find another way to get Samantha now. I never supported this method before, it failed from the beginning.' Chief Rikau spoke, still finding a way to bring in the blame on Rex.

'I have to get out of here very soon,' Rex said and turned to the Vice President.

'You can't leave now, Mrs George is here and the press members are lurking outside. It has to be when the noise has reduced.' Chief Rikau answered him from the back.

'Yes, you can't leave now. Even I will have to say I came to verify Mrs George's presence here.' the Vice President put in. He checked his wristwatch and then flashed a look at the IG, 'I have to go now, I have a meeting with the President and some elder statesmen later this morning.'

____

Henry was the most anxious as they watched the news. He stared and trembled at every sound like he wanted to enter into the television. He didn't believe any word about the safety of his mum from the newscaster and the live interview from the Inspector General until the man was shown with his mum and he saw her put on a smile.

'They didn't allow her talk,' Henry still complained after the newscaster continued with the other items.

'They couldn't have,' Cole replied him. He laid on the three seater sofa in a sleeping position but was widely awake. Tomi had slept off on the rug at the center of the living room while Tarasha sat in the one seater sofa just beside Henry and was watching in silence.

'They are trying to cover up a lie, so they cannot allow her speak.' Cole continued. 'But I think the most important thing is that she is alive and they can't harm her anymore because the news has gone public.'

Cole closed his eyes after speaking even though he saw Henry staring at him and looking like he still wanted more explanation. Henry turned to Tarasha after Cole began to doze off noisily. Tarasha on meeting his eyes also let out a yawn and readjusted herself into a position of sleep. He looked around and everyone was sleeping, a yawn also seized his mouth at that moment and tears dropped from his eyes. He moved his bum from the seat to the tiled ground. It felt cool but just like the other people in the living room, he was too tired to get up and go inside one of the rooms. He placed his backhead on the floor and closed his eyes. He took in a deep breath in peace, knowing that his mum was safer now even though may not be totally out of danger.

... To be continued



Read more here : www.youngicee.com

Which one is google profile on nairaland

fidek:
Which one is google profile on nairaland

Kindly ignore that, it's for people following on youngicee.com . We are already at Chapter 12 Part 7 there. You can see that what I said there was in the month of September

*THE DEFENCE OF INTOXICATION*
The 31st of December, 2016! Everyone was happy this beautiful day. Calls were competing on her phone as if callers were hoping to win an Olympic gold medal. Texts were rolling in her telephone line like the waves of the atlantic ocean. All her social media were flooded with greetings and best wishes just for her on this memorable day.
What was special about this day? It was very lit in the living room of the Akunades which was usually nothing short of a serene atmosphere. The room housed a set of succulent sofa which provided a heavenly feeling to anyone who sat on them. The music from the home theatre was pounding the silent in the room with the strong bass it exuded.
An Italian glass-made dinning table clothed with glittering dark colour was also noticeable in the living room. A mighty cake with a touch of sophisticated design was sitting gallantly on the dinning table while being surrounded by bottles of exotic wines. Cup cakes, assorted meats, chocolate crackles, small chops among other recipes also proudly supported the cake while the beautifully designed greeting cards passed the requisite message.
One would definitely wonder, "what's it with this day?" It was exactly 7:30am; Toyosi who has been indoor receiving calls and reading texts came out to the living room. She was so amazed at the sight of the dinning table. "Omotoyosi mi, omo Akunade, Happy celebration to you. It's your 25th birthday! Cheers to a new age my darling. It's the beginning of something great", Mrs. Akunade whispered to her ears from behind.
Toyosi's father, Dr. Akunade who gladly watched them from the entrance of the master bedroom happily chorused, "Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you!! Happy birthday to you my baby, happy birthday to you!!!". Yes! It was the 25th birthday of Omotoyosi Akunade, the only child of Dr. & Mrs. Akunade.
Toyosi who was short of words employed her two hands in covering her mouth with great shock written all over her face. Within a twinkle of an eye, a troubling noise from outside penetrated the living room and they wondered what could have have happened. Mrs. Akunade ran to the main door, locked it firmly and kept the key under the sofa.
Suddenly, someone knocked at the door, "ko, ko,ko". "Who is that?", Dr. Akunade asked. The person sounded, "I am". "It's only the Almighty God that's 'I am'. Who are you?", Mrs. Akunade cut in. "It's no other person that the visitor you've been expecting", person replied. "Don't you have a name?", Dr. Akunade asked angrily. By this time, Toyosi was already hiding inside the visitor's toilet in the living room.
"Happy Happy Birthday! That is all I can say. I wish you many, many happy returns. Toyo Baby, happy birthday to you!!". At the hearing of the name "Toyo Baby", Toyosi ran out of the toilet straight to the sofa and picked the key to the door. All efforts by her parents to prevent her from opening the door, since they didn't know the identity of the person in question, proved abortive.

Enjoy your reading and don't forget to leave a comment

http://www.thelegaldiary.com/the-defence-of-intoxication/
THE LEGAL DIARY
Joseph Jagunmolu Ogunmodede

Withambition:
*THE DEFENCE OF INTOXICATION*
The 31st of December, 2016! Everyone was happy this beautiful day. Calls were competing on her phone as if callers were hoping to win an Olympic gold medal. Texts were rolling in her telephone line like the waves of the atlantic ocean. All her social media were flooded with greetings and best wishes just for her on this memorable day.
What was special about this day? It was very lit in the living room of the Akunades which was usually nothing short of a serene atmosphere. The room housed a set of succulent sofa which provided a heavenly feeling to anyone who sat on them. The music from the home theatre was pounding the silent in the room with the strong bass it exuded.
An Italian glass-made dinning table clothed with glittering dark colour was also noticeable in the living room. A mighty cake with a touch of sophisticated design was sitting gallantly on the dinning table while being surrounded by bottles of exotic wines. Cup cakes, assorted meats, chocolate crackles, small chops among other recipes also proudly supported the cake while the beautifully designed greeting cards passed the requisite message.
One would definitely wonder, "what's it with this day?" It was exactly 7:30am; Toyosi who has been indoor receiving calls and reading texts came out to the living room. She was so amazed at the sight of the dinning table. "Omotoyosi mi, omo Akunade, Happy celebration to you. It's your 25th birthday! Cheers to a new age my darling. It's the beginning of something great", Mrs. Akunade whispered to her ears from behind.
Toyosi's father, Dr. Akunade who gladly watched them from the entrance of the master bedroom happily chorused, "Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you!! Happy birthday to you my baby, happy birthday to you!!!". Yes! It was the 25th birthday of Omotoyosi Akunade, the only child of Dr. & Mrs. Akunade.
Toyosi who was short of words employed her two hands in covering her mouth with great shock written all over her face. Within a twinkle of an eye, a troubling noise from outside penetrated the living room and they wondered what could have have happened. Mrs. Akunade ran to the main door, locked it firmly and kept the key under the sofa.
Suddenly, someone knocked at the door, "ko, ko,ko". "Who is that?", Dr. Akunade asked. The person sounded, "I am". "It's only the Almighty God that's 'I am'. Who are you?", Mrs. Akunade cut in. "It's no other person that the visitor you've been expecting", person replied. "Don't you have a name?", Dr. Akunade asked angrily. By this time, Toyosi was already hiding inside the visitor's toilet in the living room.
"Happy Happy Birthday! That is all I can say. I wish you many, many happy returns. Toyo Baby, happy birthday to you!!". At the hearing of the name "Toyo Baby", Toyosi ran out of the toilet straight to the sofa and picked the key to the door. All efforts by her parents to prevent her from opening the door, since they didn't know the identity of the person in question, proved abortive.

Enjoy your reading and don't forget to leave a comment

http://www.thelegaldiary.com/the-defence-of-intoxication/
THE LEGAL DIARY
Joseph Jagunmolu Ogunmodede

This is derailing bro, you should not be posting another story here

CHAPTER 11 Part 7

® 18+ SNVL

© Oyinloye Oluwatosin Emmanuel


Dave gently stirred the tea in the cup with the spoon in it, his palm carefully placed under the saucer. He released air from his mouth to blow the hot vapour escaping the cup and proceeded to his living room with it. He dropped the cup with the saucer on the footstool before settling into the sofa beside it.

The alarm sounded. It was twelve PM. He quickly rose to find the remote control and turned on the TV. The news would be on and he didn't want to miss any of it, he also hoped to hear more about the stir his article was causing. He listened from the sofa where he sat in a relaxed manner and took slow sips from his cup of tea. The news item he expected was the second news item read out, but he was amazed at the new turn of events.

The Inspector General, represented by Agent Tim had debunked the news of the kidnap, adding that the woman was safe and sound. He urged the general public to stay away from unreliable news websites and blogs of hungry bloggers who fabricate cheap news to get traffic. He further stated that the pictures of the registers from the transport service were forged and that the workers there claimed not to have anyone like Mrs George patronize them. A video showing the woman in a happy shape was aired.

Dave dropped the tea cup after finishing it halfway. A worried look appeared on his face. His eyes searched around for his phone and he realized that he had left it in the room. He got up to go into his room and returned two minutes later. There were several missed calls on his phone. He had received different calls from Inspector Dakolo, several other journalists and bloggers who he knew were calling to accuse him of providing a false news item. He dialed back Inspector Dakolo's number.

'Dave!' The call was answered at the first ring.

'Sir, I woke up to see that you've tried to reach me.'

'Yes, I know that you should know by now that everything has turned around.'

'Yes, but...' he paused and stared a bit at the television. 'I also saw something about a false lead to Kurudu.'

'Where are you Dave?'

'In my apartment?'

'Can you come down to the headquarters?'

'The Police headquarters?'

'Yes.'

'No, let's meet elsewhere. I'll call you back when I'm ready.'

Dave dropped the phone and continued with the remaining content of the tea cup.

______

'Can I leave now Inspector?' Rex was first to talk as he saw the man wheel himself into the room.

'Yes, I came to tell you that the way is clear,' the Inspector General replied him. He signalled to the guard behind who had opened the door for him to close it and leave.

Rex let out a breath. His eyes met with the IG's eyes which were focused on his face but he moved his gaze to at Stainless and made a signal to him with his eyes.

'Did you get breakfast?' the Inspector General asked.

'Yes, I did.'

'Hmm,' the man chuckled. He expected Rex to be humble now that he had failed but he could still see the arrogance all over Rex.

'Do you guys have any useful information?' Rex asked Chief Rikau. He was already up on his feet and packing his things. 'I mean the police,' he clarified on seeing that the man didn't know what response to give.

'A guy came earlier claiming to have useful information. He is a member of the National Union of road transport workers from Lagos. He said the lady he drove down to Kurudu from Lagos overnight could be Samantha Osman. Her calls overnight were suspicious and he also heard her calling the police to meet them at Kurudu.'

Rex stopped all he was doing and stared intently at the man. 'Does he have any information about her whereabouts?'

'Sadly, he doesn't. But he said she met with two people at Kurudu and gave them her bags, a man and a lady.'

Rex calculated in his mind the sensibility of the information he was getting. She didn't show up or take any action throughout the night, could it be because she was in Lagos the day before, just like Henry E.G had said she wasn't in town. And maybe that was equally the reason she decided to pull the rumour stunt to destroy his plans. But how did she get the pictures of the transport service registers showing the date and Mrs George's name? He asked himself. She could have only gotten that if she was in Abuja. It began to make more sense. She didn't take any action neither did she send Cole or anybody else that was working with her to do anything, but she could have sent someone to the motor service to get the register, and that was what they did instead of following Henry to Kurudu to support him. The transport man who showed up at the Police's claimed Samantha met with two people at Kurudu and gave them bags. Maybe it was that morning they planned to launch an attack on him.

'Damn it!' he cursed aloud. He would have waited for her at Kurudu but he never thought she would appear again, there was no way she could have defeated him with her men. He had set up facilities and weapons to ensure her capture. The only thing that could have restrained him was the police which she invited to Kurudu.

'What Rex? What?' the Inspector General barked at him, feeling disrespected and ignored.

Rex gave the man a cold stare. 'Let's get the hell out of here,' he said to Stainless.

________

A delicious aroma was what woke Henry. He found himself sprawled on the floor of the living room. Only Cole was still there with him, sleeping on the sofa but was wide awake. He sat up and yawned. It was afternoon already.

He got up and stretched as he walked. He traced the aroma to the dining room and found Omotara there seated with Tomi and eating. He could see two other plates served, his and Cole's.

Two hours later, everyone had eaten and had freshened up. Tarasha requested that they had a brief discussion before they all continued with their rests which she knew they may still need to get more of.

She sat at the sofa by the left. Cole sat at the three seater in the middle, Henry at the one seater beside Tomi and Tomi on the one seater facing Tarasha directly. All had their faces turned to Tarasha. The whole place was dead silent.

'Today, we escaped narrowly. That news saved us. It could be because of carelessness on their part or the hardwork of the journalist even though now he or she would be facing queries as the government have turned his report to a lie. If Rex had been at that place when I came, I would have given him a good fight but he was readier than I was and he had the location set up, he had that advantage. But that's why I involved the police, to distract him and shake his plan a bit. There was no fight at the end, he probably left it for another day or was ordered to retreat by his sponsors. But we have to tighten up now and get ready for the other day coming. Rex is not our target, we have no business with him but since he's a barrier, we'll make plans for him. We're taking things one after the other but not slowly. Our targets are Vice President and the Inspector General. The strategy to get them is not fully made up yet, in fact not up to twenty percent. But we now have our weak links closed, Rex cannot intimidate anyone using their families anymore, and then we have a new asset.' Tarasha paused and moved her gaze from one person to the other, she balanced her gaze on Tomi. 'That asset is you, no one knows about you with us and we can still use your real identity without needing a disguise.'

She looked away from Tomi and stood up. 'Like I said, we have our weak links closed. We only need to finish up our strategy and I'll be leaving Abuja again tomorrow for this cause.' she stopped and began to look at each one's face one after the other. 'The most important thing we need to do now is to ensure we don't create any link for the enemy to come in.'

___________

Location: The Presidential Villa. Aso Rock, Abuja.

Time : 3:32pm

On a large dining table, there were assorted dishes and drinks. Seven men were seated around it. President Emeka sat at the middle, three people including the Vice President at the left and three others at the right. The other five people at the table included elder statesmen and politicians. They dined quietly and exchanged jokes occasionally. There had been a two hours meeting earlier where they discussed several issues affecting the country and decided to wrap up the meeting with lunch.


'Will you be contesting for President next year?' one of the men seated at the right asked, looking straight at the Vice President with a serious expression on his face.

The Vice President spilled the drink in his hand as the question met him by surprise. They had all finished eating already.

'Sorry,' Chief Elvis Richard apologized as he wiped the table with a napkin. His mind searched for the right answer to give. The truth was that he had the Presidency in mind but had never made his intention known public and wasn't ready to say it until the last minute.

He looked up after folding the napkin back to shape. All eyes were on him. He cleared his throat. 'I do really think so sir,' he finally replied. 'Yes, I think I would love to continue the good work President Emeka has been doing.'

'Nice.' Another man commented. He was the President of the country years ago, now in his old age.

The place was dominated by silence.

The man who had asked the question was Chief Afeez Abdulkadir, a retired politician, stinkingly rich and highly respected in the country. His age could not really be told from his looks but with his experience and how long he had been on the scene, one could guess he was in his eighties or probably early nineties. He still had a strong figure, clear voice and manageable vision. He never contested for the office of the President during his days but he was influential and his say always affected the elections in different states. For several years he had been quiet and living his life peacefully. He never really got close to any President except for Emeka who once worked as the CEO of one of his companies.

Elvis Richards also greatly feared and respected the man. He had gotten the opportunity of working with the man closely during his career in the security force and he knew how secretly powerful this man was, especially in the northern region where he was from and which was the most populated region of the country. He knew how the man's opinion could affect his chances of being the President.

'Have you ever made your intentions know to anyone?' Chief Abdulkadir asked.

'Not until now sir. We've been so busy with the progress activities in the nation that I hardly have time to think about this or talk about next year elections.'

Chief Abdulkadir licked his lips gently. He picked a glass of water and drank a little. 'I was just thinking about the recent security issues, the assassinations and the attempt, the trial on your life. Could they be political? Could it be that someone sees you as a potential candidate and a threat to him?'

There was silence for a couple of seconds.

'But I never mentioned this out, I hardly even had time to think about it.' Elvis Richards said in a thoughtful tone.

'You don't need to say anything about it, people are watching you and they know your potentials.' Chief Abdulkadir said.

President Emeka comes in, 'But sir, in recent times. We have not really had any case of political assassinations. Our elections have been an example to other African countries and the world.'

'Yes, your excellency.' Chief Abdulkadir courtesied. 'There has not been any case of political assassination recently, it doesn't mean there were no intentions. And you see, since the outside world began to term our country as developed or close to being developed and our security and military became tight, it's difficult for an attempt to be made. And you'll agree with me that the recent assassinations were well strategized and must have been heavily paid for.'

Everyone on the table nodded thoughtfully in agreement with his words.

'We need to watch it carefully. I think we need to beef up security as the elections draws nearer. Several people have come out to state their intentions to contest and we need to prevent a case where there would be bloodshed.'

'Hmm... Thank you sir for bringing this up,' President Emeka smiled thoughtfully.

_________

Wednesday Night

Cole smiled at the image of man formed in the mirror. He had just had a shave, so his beards and the hair on his head were neater. He had chosen for the date a black jean jacket, a blue v-necked top underneath and a black shredded jean trousers. He decided to maintain his normal 'bad boy' look instead of trying to impress by dressing like a gentleman.

He sat at the edge of the bed and slipped on his sneakers. His phone began to ring as he fixed the lace, Patricia was calling. He left the lace and reached for his phone by the pillow side.

'I just wanted to find out if you are through from work,' he said into the phone. He knew she was calling back because she had seen his missed call.

'Yes, I am. I was trying to get a cab when you called then.'

'So, where are you? Should I come and pick you there?'

'No, don't bother. I'm at home already. I just need a few minutes to change my dress.'

'Okay, I'll be at your estate gate in twenty minutes.'

He sat back at the edge of the bed after cutting the call. He finished up with his shoe lace quickly and proceeded to the door with the car key. The door flung open as he got there, narrowly missing his face.

'Tomi, hey! You should knock,' Cole shot her a cold look.

She ignored him and sized him up from head to toe with her eyes. 'Where are you going to?' she asked with a dominating tone of a mum questioning her son. She moved a step back and placed her hand on her waist.

'When did I become accountable to you?'

She stared at him silently for a moment. She then blinked and let out a breath. 'Why have you been avoiding me?'

'Avoiding you?' he gave her a side look. 'To my knowledge, we see and work together everyday, how can I avoid you?'

'You know what I'm talking about Cole,' she eyed him wickedly.

'Don't you get tired?' he asked raising his brow. 'Well, you can see I was on my way out before you showed up.'

He pulled the door handle to close it as he stepped out. She gave way.

'So, the boss travelled today and you're going clubbing again tonight?' she turned and watched as he walked away.

'It's none of your business. The boss never stops me from clubbing even when she's around.'

He walked on without turning to give her another look.

*

*

Location :Fadel Cool Creamery, Asokoro


35 minutes later.

'Wow! I never knew this place was this beautiful,' Patricia exclaimed, looking around the place admiringly.

'I'm glad you like it,' he smiled as he saw the ecstacy in her eyes.

She stopped looking around and turned back to meet his smiling face, he kept his gaze on her face without blinking.

'What?' she asked with a laugh. He wouldn't stop staring at her.

'Damn it! I can't contain your beauty,' Victor let out with a long breath. Her beauty that night was truly different. It had taken him great effort to take his eyes off her and focus on the road while driving to the place.

He had gotten to the estate gate before her and stood outside his car to wait for her arrival. He was stunned when she showed up at the gate. She was putting on a perfectly fitted cream coloured gown with flowery design all over, it stopped slightly above her knees. Her makeup was noticeable but modest and perfect for her face. He also noticed she had changed her hairstyle into a longer one. She was totally different from the kind of girls he was used to. The girls he hanged out with were always either sluttishly dressed or like gangsters. This was totally different and it had a different effect on him.

'Come on, would you stop saying that. You've said it so many times today already,' she chuckled with her response.

The attendant arrived with a tray containing two cups of cold refined milk and snacks.

'Well, I tried to reach you yesterday. Your number was switched off all through.' she said after the attendant left.

'Oh, yes. It was, I had a problem with my phone.' Victor lied. 'You were the first person I called after fixing it this morning.'

He had turned on the phone at Kurudu on Tarasha's order (to turn off everything that could be used to trace them) and forgot to turn on it after they got to the base. When he finally remembered at night, he decided to secure the IMEI of the phone before using it again. He secured it that night, making it and anything used with it untraceable.

'That was around six am, how did you finish fixing it at that time?' she asked.

'Ermm... I have good knowledge of phones, so I did it myself, that morning. No need for repairers.' he said with a proud smile.

'Wow! So you're handy too?'

'Yes, I learnt that at a very young age.'

'Oh well, it's good.'

They stopped taking for a brief moment and engaged themselves with the milk. The sweetness of the milk could be seen in the smiles on their faces after taking the first spoon each.

'It's actually my first time of coming here too, I only dropped by once to get a cup of milk for my sister.' Victor confessed.

'Your sister must have taste for good things,' Patricia put in. 'Did her husband or hubby use to bring her here?'

'I can't tell, I don't know where she does her dates. She isn't married yet,' Victor said.

'What about you?'

He smiled at her. 'Are you asking if I'm married?'

'Yes.'

'Of course, I'm not.' he said, raising up his fingers to show the absence of a ring. 'You thought I could be married?'

'What about your girlfriend?' she ignored his question.

'Girlfriend? I don't have a girlfriend.'

'Oh! Your ex, what happened with her?' Patricia asked.

He paused a bit and stared at her. She could see the uneasiness on his face.

'Oh! Sorry I asked that,' she apologized.

'It's nothing, I really never had an ex.'

'Huh?' she shone her eyes widely at him.

He felt a bit embarrassed. He had only loved once in his lifetime, in his first year at the university and never really dated the girl. He didn't know how to tell her he never had a girlfriend but only bed partners.

'You never had a girlfriend, are you a monk?'

He laughed loudly and relaxed his back, shaking his spoon playfully in his hand. 'It's not like that. I had one in school but...' he struggled to find words to form a lie.

'She broke your heart?'

'No, things didn't just work out.'

'And then, how many years now? You locked your heart?'

He leaned forward and placed his spoon into the cup. He put his elbows on the table and rested his chin in his palms. 'I didn't, it got locked by itself.'

'Then open it,' she said nonchalantly as she took a spoonful of iced milk.

'You opened it already,' he said calmly, looking thinly into her eyes. She didn't seem to hear the last thing he said. 'I'm in love with you Pat,' he said, in a voice loud enough for people at the neighboring tables to hear.



...to be continued


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