CHapter 14 Part 10

18 + SNVL
© Oyinloye Oluwatosin Emmanuel

Different thoughts ran through Stephanie’s mind at the backseat of the cab where she sat with another passenger. She had gotten some secrets from her mum on her last visit and wanted Dave to help her verify the details.

‘Madam, this is Fadel Cool Creamery,” The cab man said to Stephanie, pointing out through the window to show her the place. He found a good place and pulled over for her to come out.

‘Thank you,’ she said as she paid him the fee. She got out of the car and walked back to Fadel Cool Creamery. She stopped for a minute at the front to admire the beauty of the building.

Dave spotted her from the table he was seated at immediate she stepped in and waved to get her attention. She walked to him all smiles and he rose up to welcome her.

‘Good afternoon,’ she greeted first as she received his handshake.

‘Good afternoon,’ he replied, smiling back at her. ‘Please be seated.’

They both settled into their seats and Dave beckoned on a waiter. ‘What would you like to take?’ he asked Stephanie.

‘Oh! Thanks, don’t bother, I had something before coming.’

‘I understand, but don’t you care for ice cream? We could take that while we’re discussing.’

‘No, thanks. Maybe a bottle of water would do.’

Dave turned his face to the waiter and said, ‘Two bottles of water and two plates of ice cream’. He paused and turned to Stephanie, ‘What kind of cream would you like?’

‘Don’t bother, I’m very much okay with water alone,’ Stephanie replied.

‘I know, I’m talking about something you’d take along with you when you’re leaving.’

‘Well, anything milk will do.’ she said to the waiter.

‘Get the same for me,’ Dave said to the waiter who nodded and mumbled a reply before turning to leave.

‘I called for this meeting, so I’ll be taking care of the bill.’ she said to Dave after the waiter walked out of earshot.

‘Hehe!’ Dave chuckled. ‘I won’t allow you to that of course.’

‘I will.’

‘You will not, they won’t take your cash or card from you. I already paid some money while I was waiting for you.’

‘Oh! Nice of you but you shouldn’t have bothered.’

Dave shrugged, ‘I guess it’s what a gentleman should do.’

‘Thanks, so can we go to the reason we’re here?’ Stephanie asked.

‘Yes please, I have an appointment with someone by two pm.’ Dave said and glanced at his wristwatch.

‘Okay, we can’t stay up to that time here.’ Stephanie said, also glancing at her wristwatch. ‘I need a favour from you,’ she began.

‘And what could that be?’ Dave questioned, wondering why she went quiet again.

‘My mum told me some things which I’ll like to verify but I don’t know the way to go about it.’

‘Is your mum still in Nigeria?’

‘No, of course. She left a long time ago and I’m not even talking about madam Henrietta.’

Dave raised a brow, ‘Then who are you talking about?’

‘My real mother, Madam Henrietta is just my guardian.’

‘Wow!’ Dave shone his eyes in surprise. ‘Quite a revelation! So where is your real mum?’

Stephanie’s face turned sad, she inhaled and exhaled deeply. ‘She’s not feeling fine, so she’s been in a rehabilitation home.’

‘Oh! Sorry about that, I pray she gets well soon.’

‘Amen, thank you,’ Stephanie said with a brief smile. ‘I was with her three days ago and she was talking to me about how Madam Henrietta helped her, and she mentioned something about the Vice President that I need to confirm.’

‘Well, what could that be? I do hope I have the answer.’

‘I’m not sure you have the answer, I just need you to assist me in finding the answer.’

‘Okay, just tell me. I’ll do everything I can to help you.’

‘My mum told me how my father used to work with Chief Elvis Richards while he was the deputy governor of Lagos State and how my father and siblings death were arranged by him, then they made the world think that it was an accident.’

‘I don’t really understand,’ Dave said with a frown. ‘Maybe you have to first tell me more about your father and who he was.’

‘Okay…’

______

Kurudu

Henry pulled over just behind Cole’s car. He took off the seat belt and stepped out of the car without turning off the engine. He walked to the car in front and entered through the backseat. Tomi stepped out of the car after him and also joined at the backseat.

‘Cole,’ Henry called as he entered.

‘Henry, where’s the boss?’ Cole replied him without turning back but looking at his face through the rearview mirror, their eyes met there.

‘She dropped on the way, she’ll join us later.’

‘What’s her instruction?’

‘We would book three rooms, but still wait in the car for her,’ Henry replied.

‘How do we pair?’ Cole asked, now casting his gaze back. ‘And how do we handle him?’ he added, flashing a look at Dr Ekwueme who was at the front with him.

‘Do you still think I would cause any trouble for you? I would have done that when we were alone and there were better chances of getting away,’ Dr Ekwueme cut in, in a very weak voice.

The three others in the car turned their gazes on him. Cole smiled faintly and looked away for a second. ‘I would have killed you straightway and explained later to the boss,’ Cole said in his mind.

‘The problem is not really you trying to make trouble, the real problem is trouble coming because of you. Just imagine a case of someone seeing and recognizing you with us in the hotel, that’ll be dangerous. The person would report to the police silently and they’ll come for us without we expecting them.’

There was silence for about thirty seconds. The doctor closed his eyes and leaned his head on the headrest.

‘Tomi would go in now to book the rooms while you remain here with him,’ Henry said to Cole.

‘What about you?’

‘I’m going to dump the car somewhere far from here, I’ll get us food on my way back.’ Henry replied and then opened the door.

‘Okay.’

______

‘What’s going on here? Please slow down a bit,’ Tarasha said to the cab man driving her as they drove past the base Rex and the officers had just attacked.

The gate of the place was wide open and some police officers could still be seen inside the compound, while two of their vehicles were parked outside. Tarasha had left Cole and Tomi and turned back to the place after visiting a boutique and changing her clothes there. She was also putting on a wig to cover her low cut.

‘No Madam, I can’t slow down here. Can’t you see the police tapes?’ the cab driver replied after casting a look of surprise at her.

‘What happened here?’

‘Hmm…’ the cab man folded his lips in and shook his head slowly like someone who was getting ready to gossip. ‘If you came here about ninety minutes ago, then you would have asked me to speed up instead of asking me to wait. About twenty armed robbers attacked the place and were shooting for almost an hour, it was terrible…’

The man continued to blab on while Tarasha paid attention to observing the environment.

‘I’m stopping here,’ she finally said to the cab man after three minutes. The man continued talking as she paid him and stepped out of the car. It wasn’t until she walked away from the car that he stopped talking and drove off.

Tarasha opened her handbag and took out her sunshades. She looked around before putting it on. She was now some distance away from the base of attack and she was sure the police officers were going to take that route back to their station. She wanted to wait until they left and go back close to the base and take pictures as a journalist. She walked away from the side and the road and stepped into the verandah of a locked shop with a bench in front of it.

______

2:40pm

Dave dialed Lizzy’s number and it rang for the fourth time without being answered. He sighed and glanced at Stephanie’s face, ‘She’s still not answering.’

‘I think you should just wait a little more for her,’ Stephanie said.

‘We’d leave in the next three minutes if she doesn’t show up,’ Dave replied after confirming the time to be twenty seven minutes past two.

‘Are you sure that wouldn’t get her upset?’

‘No, it won’t. I’m sending her a text message already,’ Dave replied, typing in a message on his phone.

‘I still think you should wait, she could be on her way.’

‘Today is Sunday and the library would be closing by four pm, it’s open twenty four hours everyday except from Saturdays and Sundays. Today affords us a very good opportunity to use it with less protocols,’ Dave said.

‘Well, if you insist.’ Stephanie shrugged.

‘Let’s move,’ Dave glanced at his wristwatch again before getting up from the seat. Stephanie picked her bag and followed him.

*

Lizzy walked back towards her car, pondering on all he had said to her. He wasn’t telling a lie when he talked about her crushing on Dave, she knew it was true but would not admit to him. It had caused an argument between them with no side winning the debate but the part that made the argument a heated one was what he said about Dave, she would never agree with him, even though she didn’t know so much about Dave except what she knew as a colleague. She knew he was closer to Dave and should know more about him than she knew.

She opened the door to the driver’s side of her car and entered to take her phone which she had forgotten inside before entering the main facility of the creamery. Her phone’s screen was on as she picked it, a text message had just entered.

‘I just got a text from the chairman and I’m on my way to meet with him,’ the message from Dave read. She heaved a sigh after seeing the message and was already complaining inside of her when she scrolled down her notification bar and saw his missed calls. She agreed it was partly her fault; he had been calling before two pm and it was likely he had wanted to call off the lunch earlier.

She took in a deep breath and glanced back unconsciously towards the entrance of the creamery. She fixed her gaze there when she recognized someone walking out of the place. It was Dave and he was with another girl. She quickly checked through her phone again to confirm if it was him who sent the message. She turned back to look, Dave was walking towards the garage at the other side with the lady. Lizzy opened her door and tried to sit inside, so as to reduce the chances of Dave seeing her if he mistakenly turned back but stood up again as sitting inside would not allow her watch him anymore because of the other cars parked around blocking her view.

She watched as Dave opened the passenger’s side door for the lady and turned to the driver’s side. Soon, the car was moving. Lizzy entered into hers and turned it on, she waited for them to drive out through the gate before following after them.

____

Rex stepped out of the bathroom with his towel wrapped around his waist, he took it off on getting close to the wardrobe and began to clean his body with it. He turned back on hearing his phone ring. He walked to the bed and picked the phone, the Vice President was the caller.

‘Good afternoon Elvis Richards,’ he answered the call.

‘Hey Rex! Congrats man, I’ve just been told that the Inspector General was rescued from Samantha Osman.’ Chief Elvis’ voice came enthusiastically from the other end.

‘Yea, he was, and he’s still alive. I’m hoping nothing happens to him,’ Rex replied.

‘What do you mean Rex?’ the excitement in the VP’s voice reduced. ‘If you think she could still try to attack him, then you should tell us.’

‘Attack him for now?’ I don’t think so,’ Rex said as he turned back and proceeded to the wardrobe. ‘She would not attack him now that there are over fifty security officers guarding and monitoring the hospital he is.’

‘So, why did you suggest that something bad will happen to him?’

‘I’m only hoping that she hasn’t done any damage to him yet, she could have done all she needed to do before escaping.’

‘I spoke with the IG some minutes ago and he told me he’s fine and only needs to gain his strength back.’

‘Okay, I would need to speak to him too and find out what his encounter was like.’

‘Okay, did you go after Samantha Osman?’

‘No, that would be a bad move. She had the chance of killing the man Rikau before escaping but she left him alive, following after her would be like walking into a trap.’

‘Okay then, I guess we’d talk about that later.’

‘Yes, we would.’

‘Thank you.’

Rex replied his appreciation with the sound made by clearing his throat. ‘Well, I need you to facilitate stainless’ release.’

‘Stainless, what happened to him?’

‘He passed out and was taken to the hospital by the police, I’m sure he’d be taken to their station from the hospital.’

‘Okay, Agent Tim is in charge of the case and it’ll be easy to get him released.’

‘Good.’

Rex ended the call and flung the phone to the bed. He hung his towel in the wardrobe and picked out a new set of clothes to put on.

He remembered being confused the day before. He had gotten a text from the Inspector General to kill John Bisong and had almost fallen for it. He was suspicious of the text initially but decided to go ahead to carry out the instruction when he got another text to kidnap the man instead of killing. Stainless had called him that afternoon to tell him of having being able to trace one of Samantha Osman’s men. He had almost finalized his plans when the news about the Inspector General’s kidnap hit the airwaves. He informed the Vice President of his need to return early the next morning and the Vice President made it possible for him to get an early flight on a Sunday morning.

____

The journey was a straight one and it wasn’t difficult for Lizzy to follow them without being noticed. She followed until Dave’s car stopped at the front of a gate. She waited for a minute after they drove in before following after. She stopped at the gate of the place and took note of the name and function, it was a library and relaxation centre.

She let out a breath before driving off. Dave had cancelled the lunch with her to spend time with another lady. Maybe what was said about Dave was right after all. Maybe she was never going to get his attention like she wanted except for the flirtatious remarks he made at her occasionally.

She decided to watch him more carefully from that moment aand see if he was really fighting for the truth or just after his own belly and only deceiving her.

To be continued

Read Chapter 15 here - www.youngicee.com/category/tarasha-season-2

Chapter 14 Part 11


® 18+ SNVL

© Oyinloye Oluwatosin Emmanuel

4:23pm

Someone tapped the glass at the left backseat to get the attention of those in the car. Cole and Tomi looked at him, it was Henry, dressed in a totally different way. Tomi opened the door for him and he passed the bag in his hands to her first before entering.

'Hey guys!' He said as he got into the car.

'Hey Henry, I can smell fried rice, is that what you got for us?' Cole replied. Tomi was already taking out the plates from the nylon bag Henry gave her.

'Yes, fried rice. You don't like it?'

'Does liking it matter now? I'm very hungry, just pass me mine to me,' he said, casting his gaze at Tomi.

Tomi passed the food with a bottle of water to him and Cole began to open it in a rush. He suddenly stopped and glanced at Dr Ekwueme who was asleep before but now yawning. He completed the opening of the food and passed it to the doctor, he also cut the seal of the bottle and passed it to the man.

'The other plate,' he said, looking back at Tomi again.

She stared at him for a while before realizing that he had given the first one to the doctor, then she gave him another.

'Has the boss called you?' Henry asked Cole.

'Not yet, did she call you?' Cole replied, opening his new pack of food.

'No, she didn't.'

'I think we do have to call her, staying here any longer is not a nice idea. It's inconvenient and could also attract unnecessary attention to us,' Cole said. He reached for the air conditioner to regulate it. That feature of the car was what had been keeping them comfortable there even with the scorching sun outside.

'I'm calling her already,' Henry replied

______

POLICE HEADQUARTERS

'Who's that?' Agent Tim said in an irritated tone. Someone was knocking roughly at his door. 'Come in,' he added without waiting to hear the person's response.

James entered into the office and closed the door. He proceeded towards the man's table with a frown on his face.

'James, you?' Agent Tim stared at him in surprise. He had thought it was his lousy wife who he was expecting or another Agent of the same rank as him. 'Why did you knock like that?' he added, raising his brows, really wondering what gave James the audacity.

'I'm sorry sir but I was at the hospital some minutes ago and I found out that some of the suspects we took there for treatment from the crime scene have been released,' James voices out in anger.

'And so what?' Agent Tim replied in a nonchalant manner.

James stared at him in surprise and was unable to speak for some seconds. 'Sir...' he stammered as his eyebrows gathered together. 'I was told that you commanded their release.'

'Yes?' Agent Tim shone his eyes at him. He dropped the pen in his hand and rested his back, still staring at James' face. 'So you came to beat me up?'

James was silent, he looked confused and wondered how the man could take such decision boldly without fear of being queried.

'But sir... How could you have let them go? We've not even conducted any interrogation yet.'

'Who are you to question my authority?' Agent Tim replied. 'Who do you think you are?'

'Sir...'

'Shut up and get out of my office!' Agent Tim barked.

'Sir...'

'Get out of my office,' Agent Tim repeated. 'I'm going make sure I deal with you next time this repeats itself.'

_______

AGUDA HOUSE, ASO ROCK

Elvis Richards had barely settled in his living room when he heard his phone ringing. He sank into a sofa tiredly as he waited for his assistant holding the phone to bring it to him.

'Who's calling?' he asked as the assistant got closer to him.

'Agent Tim,' the man replied.

'Okay.'

The Vice President collected the phone and answered the call. 'Good afternoon Agent.'

'Good afternoon your excellency,' the Agent replied from the other end. 'Sir, I think it's time to take your son James off this case totally. He seems to be getting bolder everyday, he confronted me today asking me why I ordered for the release of the men you asked me to.'

The Vice President sighed, he placed a palm on his forehead and rested his back. 'And did you tell him I asked for their release?'

'No, of course, I didn't.'

'Just do anything you'd like to do to him, let him pay for any wrong stuff he does.'

'Okay sir, I just wanted to inform you.'

'Thank you Tim.'

The call ended and the Vice President returned the phone to his assistant. He then bent forward and held his head with his two hands like someone in pains.

'Is everything okay sir?'

'Arrggh... I'm okay, just feeling a bit feverish.'

'Do we call the doctor?'

'Don't worry, I'll walk to the clinic myself.' the Vice President replied and managed to get on his feet.

'I told you we would get the newspaper here, this place is ancient, ' Dave said to Stephanie in a relaxed tone.

'We've not gotten the exact year yet,' Stephanie replied, her tone showing she had not seen any reason to celebrate yet.

'Didn't you say that the article was a viral one?'

'Yes, that particular article went viral both online and in the real world.' Stephanie replied.

'Well, searching online would have been a better way to find it but...'

'The blogs and news sites were ordered by the President then to take down the article and according to my mum, they all did, so it means we can't find it online.'

'Where was your Dad working then?'

'I don't know, my mum didn't tell me.'

They remained in silence for a while, each pulling out stacks of newspapers from the shelves and checking the date of each one.

'I think I've got it here,' Dave said after pulling out a particular newspaper and reading the headlines. Steph stopped and turned to him. 'What's your father's full name again?'

______

1 Hour later.

ASO ROCK CLINIC.

'Sir, here are some drugs for you to use and you also need to rest very well, you've been putting a lot of stress on yourself lately.' the doctor said as he handed a small nylon of tablets to the Vice President's assistant.

'What exactly is the issue with me?'

'Sir, you have symptoms of malaria.'

'Malaria?' the Vice President shone his eyes in surprise. He and his assistant exchanged quick glances.

'Yes sir,' the doctor replied.

'But how is that possible? How can I get malaria without mosquito bite? There are no mosquitoes in the Villa.'

'You can never tell sir, it might have been somewhere else you didn't spend so much time at.'

'No, I only got bitten by mosquitoes yesterday when I spent much time at the farmyard but it isn't even up to seven days yet, twenty four hours is not enough incubation period.'

'It can't be yesterday's bite sir,' the doctor said.'

'Then where could it have been from? I...'

'Sir...' the assistant joined, raising a finger slightly. 'Ermm... Not up to two weeks ago, we travelled and visited people at the displaced peoples' camp, we spent so much time with them on each of the three days we visited.'

'So are you saying I got it from there?' the Vice President shone his eyes at him.

'Ermm... No sir but, ermm... Three other fellows who were there with us have also been treating malaria in these past few days.'

The Vice President took in a deep breath and remained silent for a while. 'Okay, thank you doc, I'll take the drugs, let me return to my quarters now.'

______

5pm

KURUDU

'Henry, it's five pm already, 'Cole said to Henry who was busy with the phone. 'Remember she asked us to call her by five.'

They were now at a different location, they had to move so as not to attract people's attention.

'She asked me to call when I'm done with clearing the NSCC records, and I'm not done yet.' Henry replied him.

'Why is taking you so long to do that?'

'We've not just been to one location today, we've been to several places and I have to clear each record of everyone.'

'Well, I'll call her to find out what she has for us while you continue with that.'

'You can go ahead,' Henry shrugged.

Cole pulled out his phone and dialed Tarasha's phone number. She answered after the first ring.

'Hey Boss, it's five pm.'

'Has the NSCC records been cleared?' Tarasha replied from the other end.

'Ermm... Not yet, just a little bit left I believe.'

'After the NSCC records have been cleared, you can start driving to Gwagalada, I'll send you the exact address.'

'Okay boss.'

Cole ended the call and placed the phone on his knee.

'What did she say?' Henry asked.

'We would drive to Gwagalada after clearing the NSCC records,' Cole replied.

'What about the rooms we booked at the hotel?'

'We have to forget about that, I believe she has somewhere safer for us.'

'Okay.'

Just at that moment, the phone in Cole's pocket began to ring. He took the one on his knees and kept it inside the other pocket before bringing the ringing one out. He already knew who the caller was, Patricia. He sighed as he stared at the caller ID. He didn't feel like answering, he didn't want to raise the tension at that moment especially for Tomi. He however answered the call on a second thought and began to speak in low tones.

'Hello.'

'Hi Victor, how are you doing?' Patricia voice sounded through the phone speakers. Cole reduced the volume to the lowest he could, to ensure that Tomi or no one else heard what she was saying to him.

'I'm fine, what about you?'

'I'm fine too Vic. It's strange that we've not spoken to each other since morning, I guess you're so busy today.'

'Exactly, I've been so busy. I'm sorry about that,' he replied.

'It's okay my love, I just wanted to hear from you, we'd talk more later tonight.'

'Okay thanks.'

______

6pm

NIS UNDERGROUND FACILITY

'You're welcome,' Lizzy replied before ending the call.

She dropped the phone and picked her tab. The tracking app was on and it had already located Victor's device, it was showing the exact address in Kurudu. She wondered what Victor was doing at Kurudu. Maybe he had just gone there to buy something or get something done, she concluded in her mind. That she would confirm when they speak next on phone.

The place was deserted already, the few people who had come to work that Sunday had left already. Dave could hear his own footsteps sounding loudly as he hurried back to his office, he was surprised to meet Dan on the way. Dan was with his bag and was obviously on his way home.

'Agent Dave, where have you been?' Dan asked as they got closer to each other.

'I'm sorry I left that way, I was frustrated, I just had to cool off my mind.' Dave apologized instead of answering the question straightforward.

'It's okay, we'd see tomorrow morning.' Dan said before walking away and Dave continued on his way to the office.

He met another surprise as he turned into a new passage, Lizzy was just leaving the office too.

'Lizzy, what are you still doing here?' Dave stared at her in surprise.

She folded her hands and stared at his face without replying. She had an angry look on and Dave recognized that she wasn't happy with him.

'Come on Liz, I'm sorry for today. I guess you came later to Fadel Cool Creamery,' Dave said apologetically. Lizzy continued to stare at him without saying a word. 'Didn't you get my text message?' Dave added.

Lizzy opened her hand bag to take out her phone. 'I didn't, please show me.' She stretched it to him to take and show her the text message which she had already deleted.

'Come on Liz, you don't expect me to lie, do you? I sent a text message to inform you that I was leaving the place, I waited until two thirty pm.' Dave replied, he didn't take the phone from her.

'I've heard you, thanks. I'll take my leave now,' she said and stepped aside to continue her walk.

'Come on Liz, I'm sorry.' Dave pleaded. 'It was urgent I leave.'

'It's okay, I heard you already. I was also late, so it's partly my fault.'

'No, it's my fault, I should have waited for you.'

Lizzy sighed tiredly. 'Oh Dave! I'm not in the mood for this this evening, just allow me leave please.'

'It's okay,' Dave sighed. 'We'd see tomorrow,' he added as he made way for her to pass. 'Goodnight,' he said as he watched her leave, she didn't give him a reply.

He took in a deep breath after she walked out of sight. He couldn't afford to lose Lizzy on his side, he knew his work would be difficult without her. He had to think of something to make her forgive him.

______

8:42pm

GWAGALADA.

Samantha Osman's team was settled in a new apartment. Not an ideal one for their job, but it was something good enough to keep them safe for a short while.

There was no preparation of meal that night, Henry had gone to get dinner for all of them just like he got lunch. They finished eating and gathered in the new living room to listen to the news as their custom was.

Like they expected, news of the attack on their base and rescue of the Inspector General made the headlines with the media giving praise to the police for being able to rescue the Inspector General. After the news, Tarasha began the important discussion that they all were waiting for.

'Everybody's devices would be left in this living room this night, no receiving or making of calls until we know our next step.' she began. 'One thing I'm very sure of is that everything ends in a few weeks but before we proceed we need to find out who sold us out.' she stopped and fixed her gaze on Tomi's face.

Tomi began to vibrate on her seat. The boss' gaze was piercing through her body and sending dangerous currents all around.

To be continued

You can read up to chapter 16 on www.youngicee.com/category/tarasha-season-2

Chapter 14 Part 12

18+ SNVL

© Oyinloye Oluwatosin Emmanuel

Tara did not need to hear Tomi speak before she knew of her guilt. Tomi was vibrating all over in fear of the judgement the boss would make. All eyes were on Tomi. Cole was surprised by her reaction but Henry was not, he had suspected foul when he saw her communication with Stainless earlier.

Tomi fell on her knees in tears, with the way everybody's gaze was piercing her body, she knew she had been caught already.

'How much were you paid?' Tarasha asked in a calm tone.

The place was dead silent. Everyone listened for Tomi's response but she had none to give yet, her eyes were closed and her head bowed.

'How much were you paid?' Tarasha asked again after some minutes of waiting for a reply.

Her voice sounded harsher this time and Tomi knew that Tarasha was already losing her patience. She wiped off formed around her eyes and raised her head. 'I wasn't paid, it happened unknowingly.'

'You brought them to the base unknowingly?' Tarasha raised her brow.

'I never knew Stainless worked with the other side, I met him yesterday when I went out for drugs and told him I was now working with Cole, I believe he traced me to the base from there.'

Tarasha turned her gaze to Cole's face and their eyes locked for a moment. She placed the gaze back on Tomi who turned her face down again. She didn't know whether to believe Tomi's story or not. Tarasha could see sincerity from Tomi's body language but she didn't want to judge from that. Judging assassin with that criteria alone could be dangerous because she has one knew how to put on a different body language for a different situation.

'Cole,' Tarasha called as she rose up from her seat.

'Boss,' Cole answered and got up to his feet also.

'Take her away, search her and search through her devices, identify every lie she has not mentioned yet.' Tarasha said before she began to walk out of the place. 'Everyone's devices should be left in the living room.'

15 minutes later

Cole placed an eye on Tomi as he worked on her phone. Both of them were in another room, one which was almost empty save for the plastic chair Cole was sitting on and the table he was using. Tomi stood by the window, holding the burglary proof and staring at Cole who she considered as the cause of everything.

‘Who is this person?’ Cole asked, turning her phone’s screen to her. He was on her call register and was checking through the recent calls she made. He noticed that the several calls from the contact named ‘B***h’ was at the same time Tomi went to get drugs the day before.

‘I can’t see what you’re showing me,’ Tomi replied, not willing to leave the window side to answer his question.

Cole got up from his seat and took the phone to her. She looked at it briefly and looked away. ‘Who is this person Tomi? You called the number before going out that afternoon.’

‘Why don’t you check the digits, don’t you recognize the phone number of the b***h you go around town with?’

Cole stared at her speechlessly for a moment, wondering what she was talking about and how she still had boldness to talk after betraying the gang.

‘That’s Patricia, the slut you go around with.’ She slammed at him and walked away from his front, she stopped at the table he was previously seated at and sat on the chair.

Cole stared at her with his mouth left ajar in shock. ‘Patricia?’ he said as he clicked on the contact to the view the digits ‘**** you Tomi, how did you get this number?’ he charged towards her in anger.

She hissed and looked away without giving him a response.

‘I’m talking to you,’ he grabbed her by the shoulder and turned her face to himself violently.

‘Are you crazy?’ she slammed at him and hit him on the waist with her fist. ‘Shouldn’t you be asking why your b***h is calling me? You should be asking why she calls me when you people are having sex and you’re moaning like an id**t!’

‘Are you crazy? What are you talking about?’ Cole squinted at her, confused.

‘No, I’m not.’ She said and snatched the phone from his hand. ‘You really moan like an idiot while having sex, she’s turned you to a monkey.’

‘Give me the phone,’ Cole said in an angry tone but she refused and stepped back as she tried to scroll through. He stepped closer to her and tried to take the phone back from her. She struggled for the phone with him and he felt tempted to hit her on the face but he resisted the urge, he was able to take it from her after pushing her to the wall. ‘What are you trying to do?’ he shouted at her. ‘You think you can save yourself from the boss’ punishment by bringing me in?’

Chapter 14 Part 12 Contd


‘You’re crazy,’ she cursed again. ‘You’re a fool, the boss needs to know how you moan under the influence of that girl.’

Cole narrowed his gaze at her and shook his head, he was struggling not to hit her.

‘I have your voices recorded on my phone and the copy on other devices, that girl would lead you to hell soon.’

Cole was more confused now, ‘What are you talking about?’

‘I have your voice on that phone, go to the voice recorder file and play the last recording.’

Cole stared at her for some seconds before opening the file manager on her phone, he got to the voice recorder file and played as she instructed him. He was shocked beyond words when he heard his voice and Patricia’s. He was shouting loud in the recording and telling her how much he loved her while she was asking him to say it louder.

He quickly stopped the recording as he heard a knock on the room door that moment and the door opened after, Henry poked his head in and stared at both of them. They knew he must have heard them shouting at each other. He stared at their faces for a while before closing back the door.

‘We are making so much noise,’ Cole said to her in low tones after Henry left.

‘Are you just realizing that?’ Tomi questioned him, she knew he had been humbled by the recording he listened to.

Cole unlocked the phone and deleted the voice note. ‘How did you get this voice note?’

‘Your b***h called me while you guys were at it and I recorded the call.’

‘Well… It’s…’ Cole stammered as he tried to speak. His heart was greatly aggrieved and he wondered if she was saying the truth about Patricia. ‘So, you sold us out because of my relationship with Patricia? How dumb you are.’

‘I didn’t sell us out, you never told me that Stainless was working with an enemy gang now and I didn’t plan to meet him when I went out that yesterday.’

Cole stared at her thinly for a while, wondering whether to believe her or not.

‘I really do hope that you are not trying to deceive yourself, be rest assured you won't get away if we find out that you're on the other side.' Cole said to her and walked out of the room.

He proceeded into another room where Tarasha was seated and working on table with three laptops on top.

'Boss, I couldn't find anything in her devices, I believe she has told us the truth,' he said to her as he got beside the table.

She continued with her work as if she didn't hear him talk, not even granting him a glance. He stood there patiently, knowing there was no need to repeat himself.

She finally replied him after five minutes, 'So, you think we're free to go back to Base B?'

'Yes, since she was traced to Base C, they couldn't have found out about B.'

'So when should we return there?'

'I don't know, it depends on you.' Cole replied.

'I'm already setting up security for this place, we'd stay here for sometime.'

'How long will it take for the security to be up?' Cole asked.

'Twenty four hours and it means all your devices would be with me till it's up.'

'I understand,' Cole said and dropped Tomi's phone on the table where he saw the other phones and tablets devices kept.

'You'll be on the streets with Henry very early tomorrow morning, I'm publishing a news article by four am and I need you to get the reactions of the people on the streets. I briefed Henry about it already and he knows what to do. You two should be up early to wear a perfect disguise.'

'Okay boss.'

'Yea, I think that's all I've got for tomorrow, for now.' Tarasha said in a dismissing tone. She turned back to the laptops in front of her and continued her work.

'Goodnight boss,' Cole said and took a slight bow before walking out of the place.

He paused for a minute outside the door and leaned against the wall. His thoughts drifted to Patricia and Tomi's accusation against her. He didn't remember seeing Patricia making a call on that day they had sex. He remembered it clearly, it was on the day she had called him to come celebrate her new job with her.

He would have called Patricia immediately to clarify things but his phones were with the boss. He closed his eyes briefly and heaved a sigh before walking away to his room.

He stopped on getting to the front of the room assigned to him, he had suddenly remembered that he was to share the room with Tomi. He heaved a sigh of frustration and shook his head, arguing within himself why he couldn't stay in the same room with Tomi that night. He decided in his mind to pick a cover cloth from the bed and return to the living room.

He pushed the door open and entered.

'Stop avoiding me, you caused it all. I hate you!' Tomi welcomed him with harsh words.

One of the phones on the table began to ring some minutes after Cole left. Tarasha reached for it and checked the screen, the caller's ID displayed was Patricia. She ignored the call and dropped the phone.

She continued with her work for five more minutes before completing all she needed to do about the security. She took her phone and checked her to-do list for the next thing. She heaved a sigh before exiting the list.

She opened the Bitcoin wallet app on her phone to check her balance. After that she switched to the contacts list and dialed Chief Gab's foreign number. It took a while before it was answered.

'Hey Chief, Good evening.'

'Tarasha, Good evening.' the Chief replied in a sleepy voice. 'It's late, hope there's no problem tonight.'

'Did you hear the news about Samantha Osman today?'

'Yes, I did. I heard you kidnapped the Inspector General and he was rescued from you.'

'Yeah, but that's not the problem. The problem is the location they met us at.'

'I don't get you.'

'They met us at the new facility you provided for us, didn't you see it on the news?'

'Which new facility?' Chief Gab asked. There was silence for a while. 'Chief Nonso's facility which I prepared for you to stay?'

'I don't know who owns the facility, I'm calling to find out what we can do to protect the owner from being probed by the police.'

'It's for Chief Nonso, I hope he's not in trouble already.'

'That's why we need to do something on it quick, send me his contact details so I can discuss with him personally.'

________

AGENT DAVE'S RESIDENCE

Dave sat alone quietly in the room, his hands placed on the table and his eyes scanning through the page on the laptop. He scrolled down a bit with the mouse and continued reading for some seconds before he was distracted by a beep sound on his phone. He reached for the phone and unlocked.

'Oh!' he exclaimed happily on seeing the WhatsApp notification. Lizzy had just replied his message after reading a long time ago. He opened the notification and clicked on the chat.

'I already told you I'm not angry with you,' was Lizzy's reply.

'I wasn't just pleased with the way you left earlier, it's unusual of us to part that way.' Dave typed and sent. He waited for about two minutes to see her reply after his message was marked delivered but he got none. He dropped the phone on the table and continued with his work on the laptop.

He was on the Federal Ministry of Works And Housing website and was logged in as an administrator. He minimized the browser and copied an address in text from the notepad application running at the background. He opened the browser again and pasted the address in the box provided. He clicked on enter and waited while his request was being processed.

His phone beeped again, he picked it up and unlocked. He had received two messages from Lizzy

'I don't have to leave the same way everyday

I'm about to end my work on Samantha's man Victor, I think I've been able to pull out enough from him.'

'I just hope you're truly not angry with me,' Dave typed as an answer to the first message. 'Yes, you've done so well, very well indeed, Thank you so much. But you know we're not there yet, you can't abandon me there now.'

'We were there today, I led you to their base, I led you to Samantha Osman. It was your opportunity to have caught her red-handed but you missed it.'

'But you know I tried my best, it wasn't my fault.'

'I don't know whose fault it is but I did my part excellently.'

'I know Liz, I'll be lying if I don't agree with you. But I beg you to stay a little more with me.'

'I'm not backing out yet, I'm taking one more trial, not for you but just to satisfy myself, I want that Victor behind bars, he disgusts me.'

'Hmm... Thanks Liz, I'll try my best to make use of the next available opportunity.'

'Yes, you have to do. I'm sure Victor would be doubting me soon if he's not stopped, I've done a lot of things that'll make him suspect me.'

'I'll try my best Liz,' Dave reassured.

The message was read and Lizzy went offline without replying. Dave thought for a moment, he knew she was still angry at him. He thought of the best way to make her forgive him. After some seconds, he opened the chat again and sent her a message.

'Lizzy, please allow me make up today's fault to you. Can we meet by 2pm for lunch tomorrow? Please...'

Dave dropped the phone and turned his eyes to his laptop's screen. His request had just finished processing and the details of the facility owner was displayed. The name was 'Nonso Abel' and his current address, his occupation and other details about him were shown below his name.

To be continued.

Read more episodes here - youngicee.com/category/tarasha-Season-2

Chap 15 Part 1


® 18+ SNVL
© Oyinloye Oluwatosin Emmanuel

May 5, 2031.
7:45am

'Could it be true?' One of the officers seated at the traffic warden’s post said to his colleague. They were at a junction and another colleague of theirs was on the road directing traffic.
'Hmm... We can’t tell yet,' the other one shook his head. 'There were pictures on those blogs to proof his involvement except he comes out to prove that the pictures are fake or were forged.'
‘I’m just wondering why he has been so aggressive against Child Traffickers, you know he was one of the ones that facilitated the new bill against them.'
'Don't mind him,' the man replied with a hiss. 'I believe all those things he did were to cover up, just to make him look innocent and for us to think he is a saint. '

*
Cole and Henry drove past the junction and soon stopped at a motor park for interstate transportation. Cole attached a beard to his chin and put on his face cap before stepping out of the car. Henry also put on his face cap and stepped outside the car, he stood by the door and leaned against the car.
'I'll be back in few minutes,’ Cole said to Henry as he proceeded towards the office in the park. He proceeded slowly between the cars, listening to the discussion of the drivers and the passengers in some vehicles. He stopped behind a particular bus to listen to the passengers' conversation.

______

Base C.

'Have they been able to break through them?' Agent Tim asked as he stepped into the room.
It was the control room of the Samantha Osman's gang in their recently invaded base. The police officials had found the computer room in the place and were trying to gain access into the computer systems. Agent James was there with some police computer experts and was supervising the job.
'No sir, I don't think we'd be able to access these systems. They have the systems totally locked.' James replied the Agent as he got up from his seat and proceeded to the door.
'Are you leaving?' Agent Tim asked James.
'I need to do some checks in the other rooms,' James replied, turning back after holding the knob.
'Have you found out who the legal owner of this facility is?' Agent Tim asked.
'We sent messages to Ministry of Housing early this morning, they asked for an hour to get back to us.' James replied.
'At what time did you make the call?'
James took out his phone and opened the call dialer to confirm the time of the call. 'I called them by two minutes past seven.'
Agent Tim took a quick glance at his wristwatch, 'That means we have only seven minutes left to get their reply.'
'Yes sir,' James agreed.
______
Aguda House, Aso Rock.

'Find out the owners of the blogs where the news originated from and find their location within the next one hour, I don't want any excuses.' Elvis Richards barked into the phone. He flung it to the bed after and began to pace around his room furiously.
That morning, the DIG had woken him up with a call. He called to inform him of the news going round the internet, and since then, Elvis Richards had lost sleep and began trying to reach the necessary authorities. Unfortunately for him the offices were not opened then and he couldn't reach them till eight o'clock.
He was startled by a knock at the door, he had informed his assistants to stay away from him until he called for them, so he wasn't expecting anyone to knock his door.
'Who's it?' he shouted.
There was no answer. Another knock sounded.
'Who the hell is that?' he shouted louder.
There was silence for a while and then the door opened gently. Vivian poked her head in and her eyes met with the Vice President's. The man heaved a sigh on seeing her and shook his head before turning to face the other side. She stepped in slowly and closed the door.
'Good morning Dad,' she greeted shyly.
'Good morning Vivian, what do you want?' Chief Elvis replied.
'Ermmm... I actually wanted to ask how you're doing now? I've not seen you since you returned from the clinic last night.'
'Oh!' Chief Elvis Richards exclaimed, just remembering that he was supposed to use his drugs early that morning. He closed his eyes tight and shook his head, he still had headaches and was still feeling feverish. 'Thank you dear, I'm better now, just a little headache but I'm sure they'll all go when I use the drugs I got from the clinic.'
'Okay, why don't you come out to eat now so that you can take your morning drugs early enough? Your food has been served already,' she said.
'I'm coming out to eat, you go first and I’ll meet you there.'
'Okay sir... Ermm... My elder brother called this morning.'
'Which of your brothers called? James?'
'Yes,' she replied, emphasizing with a nod.
‘You shouldn’t be talking to James, he’s unserious.’
‘Dad, I don’t believe you just said I shouldn’t be talking to my elder brother.’
‘Yes, I said that because I don’t want him to influence you, you wouldn’t understand what I mean now.’
‘Whatever that means Dad, I’m not really interested’ she said, shaking her head. ‘He called to find out how you are doing since I told him yesterday when you went to the hospital.’
‘Well, that’s thoughtful of him, did you tell him I’m doing fine?’
‘No, I told I’ll get back to him after seeing you.’
‘Okay, you can see that I’m doing fine now. So, go tell him that I’m better. Is that all he asked you?’
‘No, he also wanted me to find out why you are not answering his calls.’
The Vice President gave her no reply. He had been seeing James’ call but refused to answer, thinking that the boy would only talk about the news about him spreading online.
‘Well, I told him you could still be asleep and promised to check on you.’ Vivian said when he remained silent.
‘You answered him well,’ he nodded with a fake smile.
‘But from what I can see now and what your assistants told me, you’ve been awake for a long time.’ She said with a raised eyebrow.
He frowned at her, ‘What do you mean?’
‘Dad, have you been avoiding his calls because of what the blogs reported this morning?’
The man stared at her coldly for a while, he then turned back and walked to his wardrobe. ‘I think you’ve overstayed your welcome in my room Vivian, please leave now, I want to be alone.’
‘Dad, if that’s why, I advise that you answer his calls, he means well and wants to find a solution with you.’
The man turned and gave her a look, wondering if what he just heard was true. The James he knew would never support him in anything; talk more of a criminal matter. ‘Just leave my room,’ he said and turned back. He chose to believe that James was only deceiving her.
‘Dad,’ Vivian called in a calm tone, she let out a sigh. Her father turned back after picking out a different set of clothes from his wardrobe. ‘Are you really guilty of all those allegations?’
Elvis Richards narrowed his gaze at her angrily. Rage was building up inside of him but he tried his best to control himself so as not to do something bad like he had done few years ago.
‘Vivian, are you crazy?’ he shouted in a loud tone. ‘How can you join some criminals to accuse your father of crimes he knows nothing about?’
‘Dad!’ the girl shouted back. ‘I’ve not accused you of anything, I’ve only asked if you are guilty or not.’
‘And what the **** does that mean? Doesn’t it mean that you doubt my integrity?’
‘Dad, yes, I doubt you. Yes!’ she shouted. ‘Who would not doubt you with the way you treat this matter and how you act these days. You don’t react like one who knows nothing about the accusation. If you have your hands clean, why do you have to force me into hiding my encounter with Samantha Osman’s man from the police?’
‘Vivian, you’re crazy! You’ve allowed James talk nonsense into your head. But I warn you, be careful not to regret your actions now. Be careful. I’m not a criminal and would never be one, time would prove it.’
‘Exactly Dad, exactly, this is what we want you to do. If you’re innocent, it’s time to prove your innocence.’
‘No, I don’t have to prove anything, the accusers are the one making claims and they have to prove their claims.’
‘Hey! They have proof already. They sent you a file containing documents that proves your involvement in those crimes and they uploaded some of them online today, its left to you now to prove to the world that those documents are fake like you claimed.’
‘I’d prove that soon Vivian, I would.’ The man said and walked into his bathroom without giving her another chance to say anything to him.
Vivian remained in the room for some more seconds before going out. She shook her head at her father’s assistants who she met standing outside the room and walked away.

Chap 15 Part 1 cont'd

15 Minutes later.
Elvis Richards was done with his bath and had put on his clothes. He was ready to go for breakfast when he got a call from the President.
‘Good morning Mr. President,’ he said as he answered the call.
‘Good morning Vice President, hope you slept well.’ The other man replied from the other end.
‘Yes, I did. Did you also?’
‘Yes, Thanks. Are you in the Villa?’
‘Yes sir.’
‘I’m aware of your appointment with the Ministry Of Finance by twelve pm today, but can I meet with you by ten am before you go there?’
‘I actually planned to leave earlier sir; I made a promise to visit victims of yesterday’s car crash this morning but I’ll postpone that since you want us to meet.’
‘Oh! No need for that, we can meet when later at night when you return.’
‘Thank you sir.’
He heaved a sigh as the call ended. He knew that the meeting the President was calling for was connected to the news going round online. He wasn’t scared to meet the President, the only thing he wanted to be sure of before meeting the man was his game plan. His game had been on for some time, part of it were all the attempts he had made to present Samantha Osman as the killer of Senator Garuba and Eze Okafor. Now, he needed to change the plan a bit and also intensify his attempt.
He dialed a number on his phone and placed the phone close to his ear. ‘Good morning,’ he greeted the receiver of his call first. ‘I’m coming to visit the victims of that car crash this morning.’
He walked out of the room after the call. His two assistants were standing outside, already dressed and ready for work.
‘Who is with my drugs?’ he asked as he walked past them.
‘I have them sir,’ one of them replied as they followed after him.
‘Okay, there’s a change of plans this morning. We’d be going to the General hospital first.’
_______

‘Sir, the Ministry of Housing has gotten back to us, they cannot find the copies of the house ownership documents online and they’ve asked us to give them some more time to find the hard copies and also rectify some things.’ James said to Agent Tim who was now seated in his car outside the building.
‘What happened to their online data store?’
‘I don’t know sir, they did not give any explanation for that.’
‘Okay James, I’d need your update on other things. I’m going back to the office now.’
‘I’m also returning to the office now, I think we’ve done all that needs to be done here.’

______

SM GANG’S NEW HOME

'It's causing a stir boss, almost everyone is discussing about it.' Cole reported to Tarasha.
'And what's their reaction like? Did they accept it as true or not?'
'Most people were undecided about it, they are expecting the Vice President to COME OUT WITH A DENIAL.'
'That means we've made a little impact already,' Tarasha said.
'Sure, we have.'
'Let's watch the results for some days before intensifying.'
_______
9:45am
NIS UNDERGROUND FACILTY
Dave stared at the screen in surprise. He was amazed that the data he had seen on the website the last night had been changed so quick. The owner of the facility was no longer documented as Nonso Abel but the Ministry Of Housing. He knew that the change wasn’t ordinary and was so sure that it was orchestrated by Samantha Osman’s Gang.
He opened the notepad file where he had saved the name and details of the owner that was gotten previously from his request on the website. He copied out the name and pasted it into the Google search box on his browser. The search results displayed and the result from Wikipedia was ranked first. He clicked on the Wikipedia link and it finished loading in three seconds. After taking time to read the article, several questions and hints were formed in his mind. In the article, he read about the connection between the man and late Chief Onwuli who died as an Enemy of Elvis Richards.
A knock sounded on his door at that moment. He looked up and stared at the door but gave no reply. He could see a lady’s legs through the transparent glass door but he couldn’t see her face as that part was translucent, he wasn’t expecting anyone and the only person (Lizzy) who could visit him without informing him first had told him she wouldn’t be at the office that morning.
‘Yes,’ he answered after the second knock. He had no choice than to answer as his office mates were not on seat.
The door opened and Lizzy walked in to his surprise. He couldn’t hide his surprise as his mouth remained slightly opened.
‘Good morning Dave,’ Lizzy greeted with a smile as she proceeded to his table.
‘Good morning Lizzy,’ he greeted back. He couldn’t still believe his eyes, he expected her to still be angry at him for disappointing her the day before.
‘How was your night?’ she asked as she settled into the seat.
‘My night was dark,’ he replied cheerfully. She laughed at his response. ‘Hope you slept well.’
‘Yes, I did.’
‘I wasn’t expecting you to come here this morning, I thought you said you won’t be at the office till evening.’
‘Yes, I did tell you that, but my plans changed this morning.’
‘Okay,’ he chuckled. ‘It’s nice to see you again.’
‘Yea, same here.’ She gave a faint smile after which she wore a serious look. ‘Humn… Victor has not picked my calls since last night, I don’t know what could have happened.’
‘When last did you speak with him?’
‘We spoke in the afternoon yesterday and he promised that we’d talk better at night but he never came online and didn’t answer phone calls.’
‘What do you think could be the cause?’
‘I don’t know. The only guess I have is that his girlfriend has told him all I did and he’s mad at me for it.’
‘Who wouldn’t be mad?’ Dave shrugged and chuckled. ‘I believe he would call you soon, maybe this morning, to demand an explanation.’
‘I called him this morning already, he didn’t answer.’
‘Well, soon, his call would come.’
‘I believe too. So, have you made any progress on the case?’
‘Yes, some progress has been made,’ Dave replied enthusiastically. He turned his laptop screen to her.
‘What’s this?’ she asked after thirty seconds of scanning through the Wikipedia article.
‘I think we are getting close to knowing the sponsors of Samantha Osman,’ Dave replied.
‘Are you kidding me?’ she replied, opening her mouth wide in surprise. She turned her gaze back to the screen and scanned through the article again. ‘So, this man, is one of the sponsors or the main sponsor?’
‘He’s definitely one of them, I don’t know if he’s the main one yet.’
‘This is big. How did you find out?’
‘He owns that facility where Samantha Osman was hiding the Inspector General, I got his name yesterday from the Ministry Of Housing Portal.’
‘Wow! This would be the first time we are able to trace the owner of the facility she uses.’
‘I think she didn’t expect the attack, so she just used any facility.’
‘Who attacked her? Was it the police?’
‘No, I don’t know who that person is but I believe it’s another assassin, the same one who has been tracing her from the clash in Lagos.’
‘This is good.’ Lizzy said. She paused for a while to stare at the man’s picture in the Wikipedia article. ‘I’ve seen pictures of this man’s campaign online. I knew him when he ruled as a governor.’
‘Yea, he’s one man we would follow seriously after.’
‘How do you plan to go about it?’
‘Plan?’ Dave smiled and dropped his shoulders. ‘I don’t know,’ he shrugged. ‘Maybe I would start thinking after our lunch this afternoon.’

Read up to Chapter 16 on www.youngicee.com/category/tarasha-season-2

Chapter 15 Part 2

® 18+ SNVL
© Oyinloye Oluwatosin Emmanuel
10:45am
NIS UNDERGROUND FACILITY
Dan and the third man were now in the office with Dave. All three of them were seated quietly and working on their different tables.
‘Dave,’ Dan took a pause and looked at Dave’s face.
‘Yea?’ Dave replied.
‘Have you gotten any word from Ilorin or Anambra?’
‘No, I haven’t, I think it’s time to call them.’
‘Yea, I’m about to reach out to Agent Godwin, I wanted to find out from you if you’ve heard from him.’
‘Okay, just go ahead and do it.’ Dave replied.
The silence continued for a moment. Dave was rushing up his work; he wanted to finish before twelve pm so that he could leave the office and have time for lunch with Lizzy.
His phone rang and he reached out for it, Stephanie was the caller.
‘Hey! Good morning Steph,’ he said into the phone.
‘Good morning Dave,’ Stephanie replied from the other end.
‘Hope you slept well?’
‘Yes, I did. What about you?’
‘I did too. So, is there any update?’
‘Yes, there is. I really need you to be here as soon as possible.’
‘As soon as possible? Is there any problem?’
‘It’s not a problem yet, but it needs to be attended to urgently.’
‘Okay,’ Dave sighed and glanced at his wristwatch. ‘Where do we meet?’
‘I’m at the Maitama address I gave you yesterday.’
‘Erm… I didn’t write it down; can you tell me the address again?’
‘Okay…’
‘Hold on, let me get a pen.’ Dave got a pen and a jotter to scribble on. She called the address for him and he repeated the words for confirmation as he wrote them down. ‘Alright, I’ll be there in some minutes.’
He ended the call and placed the phone on his table. He took some minutes to save his work on the computer and shut it down. Then he picked his car keys and his phone from the table.
‘I’m done for the day, I’ll be leaving right now.’
‘Is there anything I need to know?’ Dan asked him.
‘Nothing for now,’ Dave replied.
‘Okay, Good day then.’
________
2:05PM
Lizzy heaved a sigh of frustration as she tried his number for the third time without him answering. She closed her eyes and shook her head, regretting that she had to rush up her work for the appointment with him.
She rested her head in the driver’s side of her car where she sat and took in a deep breath. The sound of her ringing phone made her open her eyes again. Dave was calling back finally.
‘Dave, where the **** are you?’ she said angrily after answering the call.
‘Lizzy, I’m very sorry,’ Dave’s reply came hurriedly and in a low voice. ‘I’m in a very tight situation right now and I can’t make it anymore today, I’ll call you back as soon as I can.’
‘Dave, what…’ she tried to talk but the line had gone off.
‘Argh!’ she exclaimed in frustration and shook her head in regret. Why was Dave leading her on when he wasn’t ready to be with her?
She dialed his number twice after that and he didn’t answer her calls. She began to imagine all sorts of things. She believed Dave must be taking her for granted because she made herself readily available to him.
Someone knocked on the glass window of the car. She looked up, it was him again wearing a devilish smile. She knew he had come to taunt her.
‘You are thinking about DJ when he’s obviously banging another girl at the moment,’ the man said with a crooked smile.
‘No, you’re wrong. He’s not with another girl, he told me he’s in a tight situation and I know he must be very busy with work,’ Lizzy replied him, still defending Dave even though she wasn’t so sure of where Dave was or what he was doing and she was angry with him, she was still not going to admit it, at least not in the presence of this man.
‘Hehe!’ he chuckled. ‘I’m sure even you do not believe what you’ve just said. Anyway, I am a hundred percent sure that Dave is somewhere with another girl right now and I can provide you proofs, if only you would promise to take my deal.’
‘I’m not ready for any deal with you,’ lizzy replied.
‘Why are you adamant? Even after I have shown you how I care so much about you.’
‘Just get lost.’
‘You’d be mine Lizzy, you’d be mine.’ he said with a evil grin.
‘Get away,’ she shouted at him.
He smiled before turning away. He took only some few steps before he stopped and turned again.
_____
2:56PM
Stephanie was getting impatient where she sat on the driver’s seat of Dave’s car. He had left her there two hours ago and gone into the NDLEA headquarters building to confirm something she told him. The car was parked on the same street where the NDLEA headquarters was, only a few buildings away from there.
Dave showed up at exactly three o’clock. He was sweating profusely and his body was stained with dust all over. He opened the door to the passenger’s side and got in.
‘Where have you been?’ She stared at him in surprise.
He let out a breath and the pulled on the seatbelt. ‘I’ve working to get the documents you told me of,’ he replied and displayed a brown file which he brought along.
‘Did you really get them?’ she widened her eyes.
‘I don’t know if I got the exact documents, but I got something good enough to help us.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Yes, I am. Just get the car started and let’s get out of here before I start to explain things to you.’
‘Okay,’ she replied and pulled her seatbelt on. She started the car engine and soon drove out of the place. ‘So, can you start the explanation?’
‘Err… Yes, I would explain to you but I need to know first the reason you are seeking for these documents.’ Dave said.
‘Huh?’ she stared at him blankly, surprised that he could ask he such a question.
‘Yes, I need to know, so I can be sure I’m working with the right person.’
Stephanie took a glance at his face. She wanted to stare at him for a longer moment but couldn’t because she had to focus on the road. ‘I thought I told you already how my father was involved in this and how my family’s life ended.’
‘Yes, you told me that but you didn’t tell me the reason you want the case reopened.’
‘The reason? I don’t get what you’re driving at,’ Stephanie gasped.
‘Okay, I actually know why you’re doing this but I’m not comfortable with it.’
‘I don’t understand you.’
‘Steph, you’re doing this to revenge your father and siblings’ death, isn’t it?’
‘No, I don’t see any reason for that. Revenging would not bring them back to life.’
‘Then what’s your purpose for wanting to dig up the case again?’
Stephanie remained silent for a while. They got closer to a traffic light point on the road and stopped as the color displayed at that moment was red. She used the opportunity to look at his face. ‘To be honest, maybe avenging their death is one of the reasons but I actually left Lagos and came down here to find answers when I thought of the dangers of leaving them unpunished. It would mean injustice to several other people who might be under their wickedness at the moment, it would be injustice to the souls of the dead men and women who stood their grounds for the right thing.’
Dave stared at her face for a while and then looked away, he let out a deep breath. The traffic light turned green and Stephanie drove on.
‘These file documents the case of one Mr. George who I believe to be your father against the NDLEA. And there are some pictures that I don’t understand there.’
‘Wow! That’s exactly what I need, we’d compare them with what I have at home and I’m sure we’d be able to come up with something reasonable.’
‘I believe so too.’
‘But… I didn’t ask you how you were able to get the documents,’ Stephanie said.
Dave chuckled. ‘I’m a journalist remember, I have my ways of seeking for information.’
‘But this is extreme, you didn’t just get someone to tell you, you brought the documents which I believe no staff of the NDLEA would allow you have access to.’
‘I’d explain all these to you later. Now, we have to draw up something sensible from the documents we have now.’
They got back to Stephanie’s residence at Maitama ten minutes later. They parked Dave’s car outside in the unfenced compound and went in together.
Lizzy watched from her car as they walked in together. Her heart was bitter against Dave. She had hoped that the address and all what was said about Dave was false and was almost turning back away from the place until she saw his car approaching the house which address she was given. She took out her phone and unlocked it for use. She needed to keep herself busy while she waited to see how long Dave would be in the house with the girl.
‘Whose house is this?’ Dave asked as he settled on the rug with Stephanie where she spread some documents and pictures on.
‘It’s owned by Madam Henrietta.’ Stephanie answered.
‘But she uses here less often?’
‘Well,’ Stephanie shrugged. ‘I really do not know how often she uses this place but I never knew of it until I asked her about some of my mum’s properties which my mum mentioned to be with her, then she told me they were in this house, apart from the other official reason I’m in Abuja, they’re what I actually came to get here.’
‘Hmmm… The house is a nice one.’
‘Yea, truly nice.’

15 Part 2 cont'd

For almost thirty minutes, they continued to check the pictures and documents on the floor and make comments on them, both putting down notes on jotters which they kept aside.
‘So, these proves that your father didn’t go to the place they said he went to in their accusation.’ Dave said, showing her two documents.
‘Yes,’ Stephanie squinted as she scanned through the documents. She collected them from Dave and looked closely for a minute. ‘My mum told me before that he wasn’t there, he was framed. They did it because he would not agree to work with them.’
‘Yea, evidently.’
‘But what I don’t really understand is why my Dad was never able to prove the case in court.’
‘From what I can deduce here,’ Dave said and cleared his throat. ‘I believe that these proofs were not available when the case started, Mr. George couldn’t present the proofs before he died. I think they murdered him when they saw that he was likely to win the case. They had to kill him quickly so that he could die with the blame on him and they executed it in a very intelligent way, covering it up with an accident.’
‘Hmm…’ Stephanie inhaled deeply and closed her eyes. She rested her back on the door for a moment pondering on all Dave had said.
They were done with their work thirty minutes later and Dave got up to leave immediately.
‘Oh!’ Stephanie exclaimed with her eyes wide open. She covered her mouth with her palms and stared at Dave’s face. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t offer you anything.’
‘Oh!’ Dave smiled. ‘I wasn’t even thinking about taking anything too.’
‘I’m really really sorry,’ Stephanie apologized again, feeling embarrassed.
‘It’s okay,’ Dave smiled again. ‘I’ll take anything you offer me when next I come here.’
Stephanie followed him out of the house and walked him to the car.
‘I’m really grateful for sparing time for me, I’m very grateful.’ Stephanie said as they got to the car with Dave standing beside the door to the driver’s side.
‘I’m just doing my job,’ he replied her with a smile.
‘No, it’s not your job, you’re not going to get paid for this, at least, I don’t know how to pay you.’
‘Well, I’m still pleased to work with you,’ Dave replied. They smiled at each other. He stretched out his hand to give her a handshake but she stared at his face with a smile. She moved closer to him and hugged him tightly for almost a minute, almost forcing breath out of him. She finally released him but still held his hands.
Dave stared into her eyes thinly. He could feel a strange connection between them, something he had never felt with any other lady. He admired her beauty and elegant shape again. Her face glowed under the faint evening sunlight and it made him remember someone he had seen some weeks before – the lady on low cut who he had seen weeks in Anambra State.
She finally released her fingers from his but he still held tightly to her wishing he could have her embrace him again. She stared at his for a while, he seemed to be far away in his mind. She squeezed his fingers to bring him back to reality.
‘Hello, are you going to remain here staring at me all day?’
‘Oh sorry,’ Dave laughed and quickly turned to open the car door. He wished he could answer yes to her question. ‘I’ll see you again tomorrow,’ he said before entering the car.
Stephanie waited outside and watched until he drove out of sight. She drew in the cool breeze through her nostrils as she turned back towards the house.
Thoughts of Lizzy ran through Dave’s mind as he drove back home. He knew she would be terribly angry with him and it would be difficult for him to get her to forgive him this time. He began to think of what to say to her on phone when he got home. He discarded the thought on realizing that she would likely ignore his calls. He still needed to try his best to appease her, she had done so much for him and deserved more than to be paid in the way which he was paying her.
*
5:46pm
LIZZY’S RESIDENCE
Lizzy stepped out of the restroom with a handtowel. She sat by the edge of her bed and picked her phone. She had returned home more than thirty minutes ago after waiting at the place for fifteen minutes without seeing Dave come out. She assigned a junior officer in her team to stay and watch Dave.
She opened her WhatsApp messenger after unlocking her phone, she had received new messages from the guy she kept to watch Dave. She had three pictures and a video in it. She downloaded and viewed the pictures first. The first two showed Dave hugging the girl and the third showed them holding hands. She opened the video, it showed the same thing the pictures showed but she was able to tell how long the hug lasted and how long they held each other.
‘Delete this video and the pictures from your device ASAP, don’t ever keep history of what I asked you to do today,’ she typed into the chat box and sent to the guy.
Just as she wanted to drop her phone, Dave’s call came in. She answered at once.
‘Hello Dave,’ she said into the phone calmly.
‘He…Hi Lizzy,’ Dave answered from the other end. Lizzy could tell from his response that he wasn’t expecting her to answer his calls

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This is one hell of a kind story/novel...................Really happy for the author and I pray that God grant you more wisdom, knowledge and all the graces needed....
keep it up bro, you are doing wonders

Josephdominic:
This is one hell of a kind story/novel...................Really happy for the author and I pray that God grant you more wisdom, knowledge and all the graces needed....
keep it up bro, you are doing wonders

Thank you sir

15 Part 3

® 18+ SNVL
© Oyinloye Oluwatosin Emmanuel
‘I’m sorry Lizzy,’ Dave said, scratching his head as he thought of what else to say. He hadn’t thought she would answer the call and was only calling for him to be able to claim later on that he was trying to explain when he called.
‘Sorry for what?’Lizzy answered him coldly from the other end.
Dave heaved a sigh, he got up from the plastic chair and proceeded to his bed. ‘I know you must be very angry with me but I couldn’t…’
‘It’s okay Dave,’ Lizzy cut in. ‘It’s okay, you don’t have to explain. Let’s just keep our relationship formal, taking it informal wouldn’t work. I’ll help you as much as I can as a colleague and nothing more.’
‘Lizzy, you’re mad at me,’ Dave sighed again. ‘We’ve gone past ordinary colleagues to friends already and…’
‘No, we haven’t. I don’t know anything about you apart from the ones I know from the agency and you also do not know anything about me too, we aren’t friends yet.’
Dave heaved a sigh. ‘That’s exactly what I’m trying to make happen. We can get to know each other better if we spend more time out.’
‘But can’t you see it’s not working?’
‘But we can make it work, I promise to…’
‘Oh no, don’t make any promise Dave. I won’t accept any of your invitations anymore.’
Dave let out a deep breath and remained quiet for a while.
‘So, where did you go this afternoon?’ Lizzy broke the silence.
‘Ermm… Well, I got an important information about the Vice President and I had to go verify.’
‘Hmm… It’s okay. I’ve not tried Victor’s number again, I’ll wait till night to see if he’d answer me.’
‘Alright, thank you so much Liz.’
‘It’s okay, take care.’
Dave sank into the bed after ending the call. He laid back flat with his hands and legs spread widely. He shut his eyes for a while and pondered deeply on his recent activities. Maybe Lizzy was right when she suggested that they should keep their relationship as colleagues. He had thought he liked her and hoped that spending sometime with her will help reduce his stress and develop his feelings for her but Stephanie George’s appearance wasn’t making it work.
Was it because of the import of Stephanie’s case or was it because of the girl herself that he had to forgo his lunch with Lizzy? He asked himself. It happened a second time even after promising himself that he wasn’t going to let her down again.
The stress and struggles he went through to get the documents from the NDLEA office flashed back through his mind. He could have suspended his visit to the place to have the lunch with Lizzy. Night time would have even been the best time for him to get the documents without any stress or danger, but he still chose to go through the danger. He wondered why he made that choice. After some minutes of rigorous thinking, he discovered that he had changed his mind and decided to go for the documents that afternoon only because Stephanie had stated that she wished to have them immediately. He was beginning to like her unconsciously and was already making sacrifices for her. He now realized why her hug felt so important to himself.
Her beautiful face popped up in his mind again. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her since he met her the day before at the creamery, only that he was just realizing that she occupied his thoughts so much.
His phone beeped and distracted his thoughts for a moment. He opened his eyes and reached out for the phone. A new email had just entered, it was a newsletter from the Ministry Of Housing info website which he had subscribed to. He ignored the message and returned the phone. He remembered Nonso Abel as he laid back in his bed. He needed to do something quick with his investigation of the man.
*
*
May 6, 2031
7:29am
‘Boss,’ Cole called as he knocked the door of the room twice. He waited to hear a response and after some seconds he heard Henry’s voice. ‘Henry, I’d like to see the boss.’
The door opened and Henry stood at the entrance looking down with sleepy eyes.’Yes?’ he glanced at Cole’s face, he seemed not to have heard what Cole said.
‘Good morning, I want to speak with Tarasha,’ Cole replied.
‘Good morning,’ Henry yawned and then turned, he looked at the empty bed for some seconds as if he was looking for Tara. He turned back to Cole, ‘she came in very late last night and I guess she has left already,’ he paused and looked in again before concluding, ‘she’s not here.’
‘Okay, thanks.’ Cole nodded and stepped back. He heard the door slammed shut as he proceeded to the computer room which he had to pass through the living room to get to.
He found Tarasha at the center of the living room performing some exercises. She sat on the floor and turned to him immediately he halted.
‘You were looking for me,’ she said.
‘Yes, Good morning boss. Have you listened to or read the news this morning?’
‘No,’Tarasha took a glance at the wall clock. ‘It’s not eight o’clock yet, what happened?’
‘There was a robbery at a grocery store in Asokoro last night, about six million naira worth of goods were stolen.’ Cole said.
Tarasha stared at his face, wondering how the news he reported was her business.
‘Three people were killed and four others left injured. One of the female staffs was reportedly raped by the leader of the armed robbers who was a lady,’ Cole continued.
‘And what’s the significance of that to me?’

15 Part 3 continued

‘The armed robbers left a signature at two points, at the back of the rape victim and at the front wall of the store,’ Cole said. Tarasha raised her brow. ‘The signature was the same found on the ID cards credited to you in the car Senator Garuba’s dead body was found.’
Tarasha squinted as she took out some seconds to ponder on his words. She realized that she had just been framed for armed robbery by the same person who framed her up for the death of Senator Garuba.
‘Where did you read the news?’
‘It was reported by the punch online, desert reporters and several other notable blogs,’ Cole replied.
Tarasha sprang up from the floor immediately and proceeded towards the room area. Cole gave way for her to pass before following behind. She entered into her room (the same one Cole found Henry) and came out a minute later with her device, then she proceeded back to the living room.
‘We have to remain very careful,’ Tarasha said to Cole as they walked together back to the living room. ‘Have you made or received any call since I returned your phone last night?’
‘No, I only turned on my phones this morning, the text message carrying the news headlines was the first thing I saw.’
Tarasha settled on one of the sofas and turned on her tablet device. Five minutes later, she was surfing the Internet and had confirmed everything Cole reported to her.
‘Elvis Richards is playing an interesting game with us and we have to find a way to defeat him in his own game,’ Tarasha said aloud after some minutes of thinking. She rose up and went to turn on the television, she waited for it to finish loading before switching to a news station with the remote control. ‘It’s four minutes to eight, let’s see if the authorities have something different to say.’
Cole switched on his second phone while waiting for the news to begin. As he expected, he had received several messages from Patricia asking him if he was okay and expressing her worry about her inability to reach him.
The news began by eight and the expected item was read out as one of the major headlines. Giving the details of the news, the newscaster read how the grocery store was invaded by the culprits around eight pm the day before and how some staffs were killed and a lady molested by another lady who was part of the robbery gang. It was explained that the police didn’t catch wind of the robbery quick and arrived at the scene some few minutes to nine pm when the deed was already done and the robbers had fled. One of the Deputies of the Inspector General was interviewed by the press men and the interview was aired.
‘It is no longer news that Samantha Osman and her gang are now doing more than assassinations but are now involved in robbery, both petty and big ones. There are so many other cases of Samantha Osman’s robbery that has gone unreported. We can connect this robbery to the recent invasion of Samantha Osman’s base by the Police where we rescued the Inspector General. We believe she carried out this robbery to meet her need of a new apartment. We therefore advise the general public to report any suspicious thing they find immediately and remain careful and alert always,’ the DIG said before the newscaster continued with the news:
‘Vice President Elvis Richards has also reacted to the robbery this morning and the news in circulation about him. He connected both situations together and accused Samantha Osman of trying to divert the public’s attention by making false accusations against him. This statement was released by the spokesman for the presidency. The Vice President further urged the public to be careful of believing such news and accusations against him and other honest public officers as they hold no water and were mere fabrications.’ the newscaster completed that part of the news and moved to another.
Tarasha chuckled and rested her back. She understood what the Vice President was trying to do and needed to learn the rules of his game first before trying to defeat him.
8:36am
Cole stepped out through the backdoor to the backyard. He took out his phone and unlocked it, there were new missed calls from Patricia. He had put his phone on silence while listening to the news with Tarasha not to cause any distraction. He dialed back Patricia’s number and raised the phone to his ear.
The call was answered after a beep. Cole’s let out a deep breath as he heard her cool and calm voice.
______
NIS UNDERGROUND FACILITY
‘Victor,’ Lizzy spoke softly into the phone. She glanced at her office partners to see if they were listening to her conversation. Where have you been for Gods sake, Ive been so worried about you.’
Im sorry dear, I had some emergencies and Ive been so busy. Victor replied from the other end.
But you should have called me or at least answered my calls, you knew I would be worried you.’ She said as she pulled out her tablet device from her bag.
Im sorry, I wanted to but I couldnt gain access to my phone until this morning.
Well, how are you doing? Are you sure theres no problem?
Yes, Im fine, Victor replied with a chuckle. We need to see.
Yes sure, we really need to see.’
Lizzy opened the tracking app on her device.
So, are you free this evening, can we meet at my apartment?
Ermm What time?
Six pm should be okay, Victor replied.
No, six pm is too late. She complained. You know I started my new job already and I close by four pm, so it will mean Id have to wait till six after closing.
Oh thats true, sorry it skipped my mind. Lets make it quarter past four then. Send me the address of your new place of work, Id be there to pick you.’
Okay, Lizzy said before ending the call. She dropped the phone and focused on the processing app on her tab. It processed for one more minute before giving the message: location not found.
Lizzy locked the device and returned it into her bag, she took out her second android phone and opened her whatsapp messenger. She scrolled down and clicked on a previous conversation and began to type. I just reached Victor now, I tried to locate him but I couldnt. They are in a new protected place. We arranged a meeting at his apartment this afternoon. She clicked send after she finished typing.
______
HIGHLANDERS HOSPITAL
This way sir, one of the doctors said to the Vice President and his crew as they walked the passage between the hospital wards. They turned into another passage where two police officers were seen at both sides of a particular door. The doctor led them to the door the officers were standing and opened it, he allowed for the Vice President and his three escorts to go in before following.
The Inspector General was seen on the bed, the ward was a large and neat one. His head was well rested on a pillow, his whole body except his head was covered with a white cloth. The Vice Presidents assistant signaled for two of the other escorts to step out before proceeding to the bed with Chief Elvis and the doctor.
The Inspector General opened his eyes as the men came closer to him. He seemed surprise to see the Vice President; a faint smile appeared on his face and he managed to seat up.
Chief Rikau, the Vice President hailed as he got to the bed, his assistant pulled a chair closer for him to seat. How are you feeling now?
Im feeling much better, Chief Rikau answered. The doctors says that Ill be out of here sooner than I expect.’
Yea, I heard from reports too that youre doing fine, Chief Elvis said and took a quick glance at the Doctors face before turning back to the Inspector General. Im sorry Ive not been able to visit, I had several assignments to carry out.
Yea, I was told yesterday. President Emeka mentioned that you had so much to do yesterday.’
Oh! He visited yesterday?
Yes, he did.
I see.
So what has happened in my absence? Chief Rikau asked.
So much, all orchestrated by Samantha Osman as usual. Shes more desperate than ever. Chief Elvis answered.
That lady is crazy and has to be stopped. I received a call from the DIG of this zone, and hes coming here to brief me this afternoon.
Yea, he should. I also came with a briefing. The vice president said and rested his back in the chair. He took a glance at the Doctor and his assistants faces. Can you guys excuse us for a moment, we need to discuss some secret matters of the state.’
The two guys bowed and left quietly.
Samantha Osman is a b****, you cant believe that she has released those documents. Chief Elvis said after the men were gone.
How did she do that? What medium?
She released them online, she took shots of the documents and uploaded them online on several blogs telling the world a lot of details about the business with NOTD. I cant still imagine how she got to know those things she wrote about me.’
Thats serious, Im just hearing this too. So what are we supposed to do before things get out of hand?
Ive started a lot of things already, we did another yesterday. All we need to do is to keep distracting peoples attention and painting her bad until we are able to produce similar documents that can counter the original ones she has. Once we get those documents, we make sure the world sees it too.
But how possible is that? The court would definitely find out that our documents are fake and its not even easy to deceive the world.
Theres no way theyre going to find out that our documents are not the original ones since they are going to be presented by the concerned agencies themselves. The court would definitely accept what the agencies present and ask Samantha where she got theirs from. The idiots she got the sealed documents from are dead already and the world already believes that she killed them.
Hmm, it sounds like a nice plan. The inspector General said, staring thinly at the ground.
Its perfectly planned, Samantha cant win against us.’
But sir the inspector general suddenly realized something. What if theres an eyewitness to those cases who is still alive?
An eyewitness? Chief Elvis asked with a frown. I dont understand what you mean.
Yes, what if someone who took part in the signing of these documents is alive and what the judges that preceded over those cases in those years, they would be able to identify the original documents.
Well Chief Elvis sighed. He had never thought about the point the Inspector General was making. He pondered on the matter for a minute before coming up with a solution. I think we can draw up a list of all these people who may arise as eye witnesses and make Rex handle them for us.’
Handle them? Rikau frowned. The Vice president nodded a yes. If we start killing all those witnesses, havent we turned ourselves to assassins like her?’
The Vice President squinted at him for a moment, and then he chuckled and sat up. Are you the one talking about being an assassin like Samantha Osman? Is it because we are now in government offices? Have you forgotten what you do before? Have you forgotten who I was? Dont you remember how many people that had to for us to get to these positions we are today? Chief Elvis bombarded him with questions and then paused for a little while. Why should we now have to bother about the little more that will die for us to retain our positions?’
Youve said the truth sir, Chief Rikau heaved a sigh. But the utmost thing on my mind now is getting better.
Thats important, Chief Elvis commented and rested his back again. I suggest that you leave the country for a while after being discharged from here.’
________
NIS UNDERGROUND FACILITY
1pm
Dave, have you read the latest news? Dan said with excitement as he walked into the office.
Dave stopped his work and looked at him. Whats the latest?
Those blogs that accused the Vice President of drugs trafficking have just made updates to the news.
‘What update did they make?’ Dave asked anxiously, his eyes following Dan as the latter walked to his office seat.
‘They released more documents and challenged the Vice President to deny the proofs, ‘ Dan said and paused to take his seat. ‘Why don’t you check it yourself?’ Dan suggested on seeing Dave still staring inquisitively at him.
‘Oh true,’ Dave realized he could check online instead of relying on what Dan would tell him. He brought out his phone and in no time visited one of the news blogs. He saw the update and found it just as Dan had said, he also discovered that the a new blog had been opened with the domain name ‘samanthaosman.com’. The blog claimed to be the official information site for the Samantha Osman blog and was the first to release the new news update. The Vice President was also given seventy two hours ultimatum to prove the claims as false after which he’d be served court papers.
‘Hehe,’ Dave laughed. ‘ This is really serious,’ he said, looking at Dan.
‘It’s serious bro,’ Dan joined in.
‘The hilarious part is that she threatened to take him to court,’ Dave said and laughed again.
‘Yea, it is hilarious when a criminal is threatening to take someone to court, how would she appear?’
‘I believe she has a sponsor,’ Dave said.
‘Sponsor? Who do you think is her sponsor?’ Dan suddenly looked more interested.
‘I don’t know,’ Dave replied with a shrug.
Dan sighed, disappointed at Dave’s reply.
They remained in silence for a while before Dan returned to his work. Dave remained in the same position with his jaw on his palm and the elbow on the armrest of his swivel. The new documents that had just been uploaded on the Samantha Osman’s blogs were consistent with some of the documents and pictures Stephanie George had.
Dave’s heart skipped a beat as the possibility of a connection between Samantha Osman and Stephanie George popped up in his mind. He began to wonder who Stephanie George really was and he hoped he hadn’t been working with the enemy. And what if Stephanie George was even the same person as Samantha Osman? Fear surged through his body as the question came to his mind. But he remembered immediately that Samantha Osman was the one who took Stephanie and other kidnap victims to the hospital when Stephanie was kidnapped.
The sound of his ringing phone distracted his thoughts and he picked it up to check the caller, it was Stephanie George.
To be continued

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15 Part 4

® 18+ SNVL
© Oyinloye Oluwatosin Emmanuel
‘You would do what?’ Dave asked in a surprised tone, still holding the phone close to his ear.
‘Yes, I am ready.’ Stephanie replied confidently from the other end.
‘No, you are not ready for this yet?’ Dave disagreed. He wanted to keep talking freely but realized that Dan and their third office partner were in the room with him, he quickly changed the subject of discussion. ‘You are not ready to have a baby yet, I’m sure you aren’t.’ Dave said in low tones.
‘What are you talking about Dave?’ Stephanie asked, surprised at his deviation.
‘Oh! If you insist that you’re ready, you’re on your own. I’m not ready to be a father yet, so you would have to bear the responsibility alone.’ Dave replied.
‘Hey! Mr. Dave, this is Stephanie George.’
‘That’s your problem. Anyway you can call me back whenever you’re ready to do away with it.’ Dave snapped and ended the call.
He met the mocking faces of his partners as he dropped the call. Dan could not hold it any longer and burst into laughter. ‘Agent Dave, don’t tell me you’re asking a lady to get an abortion.
Dave hissed and looked away, ignoring Dan’s question. He tapped his computer keyboard and focused on the keys with a serious look.
‘But you’re always moving around with packs of golden circle, how come you missed this one?’ Dan asked mockingly.
‘Just leave me for now Dan,’ Dave said, acting pissed off.
‘Hahaha,’ Dan and the other partner jeered at him.
Dave forced himself to hold the smile that was trying to escape his lips. He picked up his phone again and turned on the data connection, he clicked on the whatsapp messenger to see if he received any update from Lizzy on her work with Victor. There was none yet, he turned off his data connection and switched back on his WiFi connection to the NIS hotspot.
He let out a breath and relaxed his back. He needed to find a way to excuse himself from the office and talk with Stephanie. She had just told him that she was ready to charge the Vice President to court. He wondered if she knew how dangerous the part she was about to tread was. It would be impossible for her to remain alive if she started the case without getting enough protection for herself. But was it even possible for her to get any protection? The police or other security officers who should be the ones to protect her would take orders from the Vice President instead as the heads of all the security officers were loyal to the Vice President just like Inspector General Rikau. The Vice President seemed to wield more power than the President himself in terms of security of matters of the law, the president had given him (his vice) the free hand because he was once in the force too.
Another thought came to his mind. Was it a coincidence that Stephanie George was taking the Vice President to court at the same time Samantha Osman threatened to also do? Or was it a plan by the assassin gang? Could it be a further proof of the connection between Stephanie George and Samantha Osman?
‘I need to take some fresh air outside,’ Dave said as he picked up his phone and got up from his seat.
‘Hmm, I guess the air conditioner in this room isn’t working fine anymore.’ Dan mocked.
‘Whatever,’ Dave said and walked out without saying any other thing.
Dave found himself a convenient place where he could make the call to Stephanie without being heard by anyone. He dialed her number and it connected immediately.
‘Hello Steph, I’m sorry for what happened earlier on’ He quickly apologized first. ‘I was with the wrong folks then and I had to talk that way not to make them suspicious of anything.’
‘It’s okay, hope you heard all I told you.’ Stephanie replied.
‘Yes, I did. But do you really think you’re ready to face the Vice President? Do you think you can ever win him?’
‘Yes, I can. I have the necessary evidence to prove his guilt.’
‘Have you gotten a lawyer?’
‘I plan on calling my lawyer this afternoon. I told him already that I had a serious case coming up.’
‘Okay,’ Dave released a breath. ‘And do you think you’d live to see the case won?’
There was silence for a moment.
‘I don’t understand what you mean.’
‘Do you think it’ll be difficult for the man that carried out the murder of your father and several other people to murder you without a trace?’
‘God forbid!’ Stephanie exclaimed. ‘Come on, why are you talking like this?’
‘I’m saying the truth to you as an experienced journalist, no one else is going to warn you if I don’t.’
Stephanie remained silent.
‘Steph,’ Dave called calmly. ‘We need to make sure you are protected before we make any move.’
‘But once the report is made, the police would offer protection.’ Stephanie argued.
‘Have you forgotten that the person you’re against controls these forces or do you have something else that protects you which I don’t know of?’ Dave said, trying to see if she would make any hint about her connection to Samantha Osman.
‘No, I don’t.’
‘Then, you have to be very careful. Let’s meet this afternoon by two o’clock, hope you’d be free by then.’
‘Yes, I would. Where should I meet you?’
‘I’ll be coming to meet you at your place.’
________
SAMANTHA OSMAN’S GANG NEW BASE
‘You did a great job with the news articles,’ Tara praised Henry as she walked into the computer room.
‘Thanks,’ Henry replied and glanced back at her. ‘But I didn’t do it alone, I got help from Dr Ekwueme.’
‘Oh! Talking about that man, do you think he’s doing healthy enough for him to keep working with us?’
‘Well, he doesn’t sound to me like someone who’s willing to leave us yet. I guess the man is enjoying the little bit of adventure he’s experiencing with us and doesn’t want to go back yet to his normal doctor routine.’
Tara chuckled; she pulled a seat closer beside Henry and sat on it. ‘And has he been able to adjust to this new place?’
‘I think he’s doing well, Cole shared the room with him last night.’
‘I know and I’m still wondering why that happened.’
‘You shouldn’t be wondering, its obvious Cole doesn’t want to have anything to do with Tomi anymore, that’s why he left her in the room.’
‘That’s their business anyway, I don’t get into people’s personal lives.’
‘Do you think so? Don’t you think you could help as the boss if you step in and hear what the problem is from the two parties?’
‘Help to do what?’ Tara asked in a surprised tone. ‘As the boss, I don’t think I should get into their personal affairs, anyone that messes up between them would face the consequences.’
Henry shrugged. ‘It’s okay if that is your choice.’
‘Are you fully monitoring the movements of the Vice President and the Inspector General?’ Tara asked after two minutes of silence.
‘Yes, as much as I can, I am.’
The door to the computer room opened gently and Cole entered. He stopped halfway and bowed slightly to the boss. ‘Tarasha, I want to take some time out from three thirty pm, I’ll be back before night.’
Tarasha glanced at the time, it was five minutes to two. ‘It’s okay; make sure you watch your back.’
‘Of course boss,’ Cole smiled faintly and bowed again before walking out.

15 Part 4 cont'd

2PM
MADAM HENRIETTA’S RESIDENCE, ABUJA.
Dave sat quietly, admiring the design of the living room. He wondered why Madam Henrietta spent so much on decorating a place she barely used. He had wanted to ask Stephanie what kind of job the woman did but it wasn’t the right time to do that yet.
Stephanie walked into the living room some seconds later with a pack of juice and a glass cup in a tray. She served Dave and sat beside him.
‘Thanks,’ Dave said after taking a sip from the cup.
She smiled at him. ‘I’ve prepared lunch for us, I don’t know if you’re ready to eat now.’
Dave widened his mouth in surprise and then smiled. ‘I hope you’re not trying to make up for yesterday.’
‘Uhmn…It’s afternoon already and even if nothing happened yesterday, it’s the right time for lunch today.’
Fifteen minutes later, both of them were seated at the table eating lunch. Stephanie had made spaghetti with fried plantains and chicken, garnished with green capsicums with tomatoes. The whole place was silent as they ate, only sounds of the cutleries against the plates could be heard.
Dave continued stealing glances at Stephanie’s face as he ate, it had been a long time he ate such a food in his home or in someone else’s. He wondered if she cooked the food herself or if she got it from an eatery, the latter seemed to be the most possible one.
‘Hope you like the food?’ Stephanie looked up and asked, both of them were almost done with their rations.
‘Oh yea, I do.’ Dave answered her with a smile. She had opened the opportunity for him to ask where she got the food from. ‘The food is excellent, which of the eateries did you get it from?’
She looked at his face in surprise, her mouth left ajar for a moment. ‘You can’t be serious with that question right? How can you expect a lady to get food from an eatery when she’s in her home? Or you think I don’t know how to cook?’
‘Erm, not that, I know you’d be a good cook.’ Dave said, forcing out laughter to make her feel he was only joking. He tried to make up a reason to give for asking her the question. ‘I was just wondering how you got to prepare the meal so quick considering the time we spoke on phone and when I arrived here.’
‘Well, the duration is enough time to prepare spaghetti, I only added enough quantities for both of us when I learnt you were coming.’
‘Nice, you’re such a good cook.’ Dave complimented.
‘Thanks,’ she smiled.
‘You’re welcome.’
They ate the rest of the meal in silence and finished at almost the same time.
‘So,’ Dave began after the meal, both of them still at the dining with the plates unpacked. He relaxed his back and folded his arms as he stared into her eyes. He was lost for a moment. He wanted to begin the discussion which he came to the place for but something in her eyes had made him speechless. He took in another deep breath as he stared unconsciously, wondering if the person seating before him was human or a goddess. He couldn’t explain why he was just finding her attractive even though he had seen her beauty a long time ago.
‘So what?’
Dave jerked back to reality to find Stephanie staring at him with her eyes widened. She appeared to have been trying to get his attention for some time.
‘So what? And why are you staring at me like that?’ Stephanie asked with a raised eyebrow.
Dave forced out a smile. ‘I’m sorry, so…’ He gasped. He had forgotten what he initially wanted to say.
‘So?’
Dave smiled again. He didn’t know what to say and how to explain himself.
‘Why were you staring like that?’ Stephanie asked, seeing that he had forgotten what he wanted to say initially.
‘I was just amazed at how beautiful you are,’ Dave wanted to say but the words only sounded in his head. Stephanie was still staring at him and waiting for a response. ‘I just remembered something,’ Dave lied.
‘Hmmm, it must really be something nice.’ Stephanie said and picked her glass cup to take a sip of water.
‘Why do you say so?’ Dave asked.
‘I know from the way you were smiling absent mindedly.’
‘Hehe,’ Dave chuckled mildly. ‘Let us proceed please,’ he readjusted his seating position. ‘So you plan on taking the Vice President to court?’
‘Yes, I told you on phone already and you stated your concerns about my security.’
‘And so, have you made up your mind?’
‘I thought that’s why you’re here, to help me make up my mind.’
‘Well, at the end the decision is all yours.’
‘What do you think I should do?’
‘I think we should gather more facts first, and then we make public accusations before involving the police. If we go the other way, they could silence us before even before the case starts.’
‘Okay… Ermm, since you’re a journalist, I believe making the accusations public won’t be a problem for us right?’ She asked and Dave nodded in response. ‘You also mentioned getting more facts, I do think that what we’ve gotten is enough for us to prove that my father was framed up and accused wrongly and also that his death was a murder and not an accident.’
‘Yes, we have so enough to prove your father’s case but if we could get facts to prove another victim’s plight, it would make us stronger and help us gain more attention from the outside world.’
‘I really do not need attention from the outside world, what I want is to stop the man so that others would not become victims of his wickedness,’ she paused and raised her shoulders a bit. ‘Haven’t you seen the accusations Samantha Osman made against the same Chief Elvis?’
Dave’s heart skipped a bit as she mentioned the assassin’s name. The thought of the connection between them came back to his mind. He decided it was the first time to find out if they were really connected. ‘What about Samantha Osman’s accusations, what do you know about those things she said?’
‘What do I know?’ Stephanie squinted, surprised at his question. ‘I know what I read online. She accused him of drugs trafficking and made several instances and periods where he did the transactions, she also made mention of some cases similar to my Dad’s case where several people had to be judged unjustly even though Chief Elvis was the culprit.’
‘Is that all you know?’ Dave narrowed his gaze at her, he folded his arms again.
‘What do you mean?’ Stephanie asked, her tone showed that she was surprised at his type of questions.
‘Hey! Sorry, don’t be offended,’ Dave apologized with a chuckle. ‘I was just exercising my journalistic instincts.’
Stephanie gave a wry smile and then relaxed her shoulders.
‘But since the last time we met, have you had seen or heard from Samantha Osman?’
‘No, I haven’t.’
‘Okay,’ Dave paused for some seconds to think. From Stephanie’s response and body language, it was obvious that her investigation wasn’t connected in any way to Samantha Osman’s accusations. ‘I’m thinking that your kidnap then wasn’t just for supremacy or cult reasons,’ Dave said in a thinking tone.
‘Why? Because this is coming at the same time Samantha Osman’s accusation is coming?’
Dave didn’t answer immediately. He stared at her face for a while, trying to understand her state of mind. He realized she was already thinking that he was accusing her of working with Samantha Osman. ‘No, it’s not the timing but the fact that the same person who kidnapped you had something to do with Samantha Osman.’
‘I don’t get you,’ Stephanie said with a frown.
Dave readjusted his seating position again. ‘Look at it this way; you and Samantha Osman have one common enemy, the Vice President. You were kidnapped at a time she had something to do with your kidnappers. She did not kill you or harm you when you met, rather she helped you and the other kidnapped people. Now, don’t you think someone was trying to stop you from doing what you’re doing today?’
Stephanie squinted at him. She looked confused and lost. Dave sat back properly and rested his back, waiting for her to ponder on his words and make out the meanings.
‘So you think someone was trying to stop me from reopening this case like I’m trying to do today?’ Stephanie asked after thinking for almost one minute.
‘Exactly, and they were trying to stop Samantha Osman also because of something she knows.’ Dave paused and took in a very deep breath. ‘Look here, the same way you are seeking for information is the same way Samantha Osman does. She got those documents she uploaded from her recent trips to Kwara, and Anambra State.’
‘But did she really kill the Senator and Sir Eze Okafor?’
Dave stared thinly at her face for some seconds without answering. He was considering if it was wise for him to tell her the truth he knew. He felt a strange feeling of safety with her but still didn’t want to risk it.
‘Well, I can’t say for sure but I think she didn’t. I think,’ he stressed the syllable ‘think’ to emphasize his uncertainty.
‘So who killed those men?’
‘I don’t know and I’ve not said she didn’t kill them yet,’ Dave replied, reemphasizing his point.
‘I believe she didn’t kill them,’ Stephanie said slowly and then fixed her gaze on his face. ‘And I do agree with your point now, I’m fighting the same person with Samantha Osman, she probably was another victim of the man’s wickedness.’
‘Hmm,’ Dave sighed, her words made sense to him.
They remained in silence for the following two minutes before Dave spoke again.
‘I think I know how we would go about it,’ Dave said, taking out his pen to make a notepad.
‘How?’ Stephanie asked and adjusted herself to a serious seating position to listen. She had already the plates from Dave’s front and hers to a side of the table.
‘Have you told anybody else about this? I mean your plan for the Vice President.’
‘No, I only told my lawyer that I had a case I wanted her to handle for me but I haven’t told her details yet.’
‘So, nobody else knows about this except the both of us?’ Dave asked, Stephanie nodded a Yes in response. ‘And even Madam Henrietta?’
‘Madam Henrietta knows nothing, I only asked her for the photo album and some files and she told me to come get them here when I continued pestering her.’
‘Good. So, you have to make sure nobody else knows about it or the plans we are about to make. Hope you can do this.’
‘Yes, I will.’
‘Okay, we’re going to make some news articles this week, accusing the Vice President of the crimes against your father, even though we aren’t going to upload proofs yet.’
‘Just like what Samantha Osman did?’ Stephanie asked. Dave nodded and mentioned a silent Yes. ‘Won’t people think she’s the one?’
‘No, I’ll be posting this on a popular blog of mine and not a fresh one like she did.’
‘Won’t that get you into trouble?’ Stephanie asked, her eyes filled with concern for him.
‘Yes, it will. The police will come looking for me for defamation of character but I would schedule more posts for evening and the next morning. We would have to keep the documents safe before then and also get your lawyer ready. You would wait till a day after I’ve been picked by the police before you speak up for me.’
‘What would I say?’
Dave chuckled. ‘I’ll tell you later.’
Stephanie let out a deep breath.
‘But we have to travel to Lagos tomorrow,’ Dave quickly added.
‘We?’ She raised her brow. ‘Why?’
‘To find out something related to Samantha Osman’s accusations so we can make ours.’ Dave replied with a lie. He actually wanted to take her along to help him in his job of finding facts about Chief Nonso Abel.

15 Part 4 cont'd


He looked at her face, she was staring blankly at the wall, already lost in thoughts.
‘Stephanie, you have to trust me.’ Dave said, thinking she was considering rejecting his request to travel with him.
‘No, I trust you, that’s why I came to you. I was only thinking about Samantha Osman,’ she replied and stared thinly again.
‘What are you thinking about her?’
‘I feel like meeting her right now and asking some questions. She gave me a device that day to easily contact her. I wish I still had it with me.’
‘Hmm,’ Dave heaved a sigh. He also had the same wish as her. It was the first time he wished to see Samantha Osman, not to arrest her or fight her for her crimes but to talk to her as a friend and listen to her explain some of her actions.

Read more episodes here - www.youngicee.com/category/tarasha-season-2

15 part 5

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© Oyinloye Oluwatosin Emmanuel

3pm

LIZZY’S RESIDENCE.

Lizzy began to dress up for her meeting with Victor after lunch. She had a feeling of relief whenever she remembered that her days with him were numbered and that his gang was close to their waterloo.

After dressing up, she stood in front of the mirror and stared at her reflection for a while. She smiled to herself as she admired her beautiful figure and the curves of her body which made her irresistible to men whenever flaunted. The smile disappeared from her face as she remembered that she had had to subject her beautiful body to fulfill the lusts of criminals like Victor. That truth made her feel sick for a moment.

A thought came to her mind. She turned back to her bed and reached for her phone. She searched out Tomi’s number and dialed.

‘Hello,’ the call was answered from the other end with a muffled voice, it sounded like Tomi was chewing something and she seemed not to have checked who the caller was before answering.


‘Hello dear,’ Lizzy replied in a playful tone. ‘Hope you’re doing fine today. I called to confirm if you have agreed to the deal I offered you two days ago.’

The chewing sound from Tomi’s end stopped and there was silence for some seconds.

‘Hey you b****!’ Tomi cursed, it appeared she had just realized who the caller was. ‘You’re not going to get tired of ******g with my boyfriend right?’

‘Baby Doll, he never told me about you, I guess you don’t exist in his mind. But I also think he may be trying to deceive me and that’s why I’m trying to offer a deal to you…’

‘Shut the **** up, you can keep ******* with the dog for all I care,’ Tomi slammed. Lizzy giggled. ‘He knows what kind of a b**** you are already, I allowed him hear how he was barking like a dog while having sex with you and how you were mewing like the screwed ****y that you are.’

‘Ermm… What do you mean?’ Lizzy seemed tensed for a moment.

‘You heard me right b****. I recorded that phone call and played everything to him,’ Tomi replied. ‘Now, **** off the line.’

The call ended but it left Lizzy dazzled. She tried to process in her head all that Tomi had told her, then it made sense to her why Victor sounded pained while asking to see her that evening. She never imagined that the call could have been recorded. The only effect she expected from the call was to leave Tomi brokenhearted and angry with Victor. She began to imagine several reasons the call was recorded for. Maybe it wasn’t only Victor who listened to the recording, their boss could have listened to it too.

She got up from the bed and reached for her bag, she put the phone into the bag before getting her shoes. She knew Victor was going to be throwing her questions and she needed to get ready answers to all his possible questions.

4pm

COLE’S RESIDENCE

Victor glanced at the giant wall clock again, it was exactly four o’clock. It had taken so long to come and the fifteen minutes for which he had been waiting for seemed like eternity. He picked up his phone and opened his call dialer, he selected Patricia’s number and wanted to dial but stopped on a second thought. He glanced at the wall clock again, it was a minute past four, it was still too early to call and ask her where she was. He closed his eyes and rested his head on the backrest of the sofa.

He was about sleeping off nine minutes later when he heard a sound of the door opening. He sat up immediately and stared intently at the door until she entered.

The scent of her perfume filled the whole place as she entered. She stopped at the door and stared straight at Victor’s face. Their eyes connected deeply at that moment. For Victor, the connection was deeper than just the eyes, it was their hearts connecting. It felt like he was just seeing again her after so many years. She looked more beautiful and radiant to him. On the other hand, Patricia stared at him with so much hatred for him in her eyes, her desire to see him being executed for being a murderer seemed to grow stronger at that moment.

‘Pat,’ Victor called with a soft voice as he rose to his feet. She walked closer to him and they engaged each other in a tight hug for some seconds. Patricia continued to twitch her body uncomfortably until he released her.

‘I missed you dear,’ Victor said in happy tone.

‘I missed you too,’ she replied with less enthusiasm.

They both settled beside each other in the three seater sofa.

Patricia held his hands in hers and looked into his eyes as she began to speak. ‘Please Victor, I want you to tell me the whole truth.’ she said and Victor stared into her eyes more intently. ‘Do you have another girlfriend?’

Victor’s muscles relaxed a bit, his shoulders dropped and his eyes closed for a second. ‘Why do you ask? I thought I told you I never had a relationship before I met you.’

She let out a breath and released his hands from her grip. Her facial expression changed and turned angry all of a sudden, tears could be seen in her eyes. ‘If you’re not in a relationship, then who is Tomi?’

Victor froze for a second, wondering what was happening. He had thought he would be the first to bring up the matter but here she was talking about it before him and even very angry about it.

‘Tomi is not my girlfriend,’ he answered. He sat up and raised his gaze to her face.

‘Then who is she?’

Victor was confused for a moment. He didn’t have the right words to describe Tomi’s relationship with him and was trying his best to be careful so as not to complicate the issues.

‘She works with Evelyn Alexandra and I got to know her in the house, we had sex twice before I met you, but I swear, there’s nothing serious between the both of us.’ Victor explained with his voice and his facial expression depicting seriousness.

Patricia shook her head gently in disbelief, squinting at his face as she folded her arms. ‘I don’t believe any single word of yours, why didn’t you tell me about her before.’

‘Why do you think I would lie to you?’ Victor asked, spreading his palms wide as he stood up to his feet. ‘I had nothing serious going on with her, so there was no reason to tell you.’

He tried to move closer to her but she stepped back farther.

‘This is what all guys say when they’re caught, they always make an explanation.’

‘Believe me Pat, I’m telling you the whole truth. She’s nothing to me.’

‘Why then did you record our voices four days ago and how did she get it on her device?’

‘Record our voices?’ Victor halted and frowned. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘I’m sure you must have a camera somewhere here,’ Patricia said and began to look around the ceiling and it’s edges.

‘What camera?’ Victor asked, following her as she looked everywhere. He stepped closer to her and tried to hold her but she resisted.

‘Don’t touch me until you tell me why you recorded our voices and how she got it.’

Victor halted again. He was confused, wondering if she was talking about the same recording Tomi played for him to listen to or a different one. ‘What did you intend to achieve by that? You planned to humiliate me?’

‘No, why would I want to humiliate you? I don’t even understand what you’re talking about,’ Victor said helplessly.

‘You shameless liar, I hate you.’ she shouted at him and turned. She picked her bag from the center table where it was dropped and proceeded angrily to the door.

‘Hey Pat, please listen to me,’ Victor pleaded and ran after her. He stopped her from opening the door and gripped her wrists. ‘Listen, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Why don’t you allow me listen to the audio you’re talking about?’

‘Please let me be,’ she hissed and tried to wriggle her self free from his grip but he held her firmly. ‘Let me be,’ she screamed in a loud voice and he had no choice than to release her hands but still blocked her from touching the door. ‘Why should I allow you listen to anything. You’re a liar, the audio had the voices of both of us and we were the only ones in this house that day except you have someone else living here that I don’t know about.’

‘No Pat, there’s no one else that comes here apart from the both of us and there was no one in the house with us that day. But why would I make any recording? What do I have to gain from it?’

‘I don’t know, please can you just let me leave here now?’ she screamed.

‘No Pat, please let’s settle this.’ Victor pleaded and reached for her hands again. ‘I think Tomi played that same audio for me to listen, I swear, I don’t know how it was recorded.’

Patricia remained mute for a moment, staring into his eyes angrily and breathing loudly. She had been able to make him confirm that there was really a recording and that Tomi played it for him to listen. ‘I don’t believe you, we were the only ones here that evening, who else could have done it?’

‘You have to believe because I’m saying the truth,’ Victor said and let out a deep breath. ‘Okay, let’s look at it this way, let’s say one of us mistakenly recorded that day…’

‘No, I didn’t record anything. You did. You own this house and you must have set everything up before that evening.’

Victor heaved a sigh. He had never begged a lady for anything this way and he was getting tired of trying to convince her but he just couldn’t stop himself, the last thing he wanted was for Patricia to hate him.

15 part 5 contd

________

6pm

ASO ROCK CLINIC

‘I’m not feeling any better Doctor, it seems to have gotten worse than it was two days ago.’ Chief Elvis Richards complained to the doctor, his eyes closed as he held his forehead with his palm.

‘I’m sorry about that sir,’ the doctor replied, staring at the man with a pity face. ‘But sir, did you follow the prescription carefully?’

‘Yes, I did. Even when I almost forget, I always have people to remind me.’

‘Hmm,’ the doctor opened the case file again and read through for some seconds. ‘The symptoms you complained of are still symptoms of Malaria fever but you’d have to go through another blood test for us to ascertain what’s wrong,’ he said before closing the file. He picked up his phone and dialed a number. He instructed a nurse to come get the Vice President’s blood sample.

Fifteen minutes later, the result of the test was out and the doctor had gone through it.

‘Sir, it’s still malaria but it’s severe malaria. We have to prescribe stronger drugs for you.’ the doctor said after drawing out a conclusion from the test results.

__________

SAMANTHA OSMAN’S NEW BASE

6.33pm

Tomi was in the kitchen, washing used plates and pots when she heard someone’s footsteps entering the kitchen. She looked back and was surprised to see Cole charging towards her. But there was no time for her to express her surprise as Cole grabbed her suddenly by the neck and put a gun on her forehead.

‘Tell me, where did you get Patricia’s number?’ he barked at her.

Tomi was shocked and unable to look at his face. She stood there fidgeting and struggling to breathe as Cole’s grip on her neck was tight. ‘Cole, put that gun down and let me go.’ she managed to say.

‘I won’t allow you go until you answer my questions,’ Cole barked at her, still holding the gun to her head and pushing her body against the kitchen slab.

‘Cole, you’re crazy, please let me go.’ Tomi pleaded in a terrified voice. With the look on Cole’s face, he wasn’t going to let her go until she gives out her last breath.

‘Tell me how you got Patricia’s number and why you started sending her messages,’ Cole insisted.

‘I got it from your phone,’ Tomi muffled. Her eyes were becoming hot and her body vibrating more. ‘You’re hurting me, please let me go.’

‘You idiot…’

‘Cole!’ Someone shouted authoritatively with a loud voice from behind and Cole looked back briefly. It was Henry. ‘Are you crazy?’ Henry asked.

Cole eventually released her neck from his grip but still pointed his gun at her for some few more seconds. ‘I’m going to kill you next time I get reports that you speak to her again,’ he said before turning back and walking to the door angrily. He stopped at the entrance for a second and flashed a look at Henry’s face before walking out.

‘My Goodness, are you okay?’ Henry entered into the kitchen to meet Tomi who was now on her knees and was coughing out. ‘Do you need water?’ he asked and she raised up her hand to signify a No. ‘The boss has to do something about it this time,’ Henry said to himself.

Cole bolted the door from behind after entering into the room. He sank into the bed heavily and dropped the pistol in his hand beside him before covering his face with a pillow. He let out a deep breath. He knew it was inevitable for him and Tomi to be summoned by the boss for an explanation. He had made some noise this time but he didn’t consider it as going too far. Tomi was the one who had gone too far by threatening to hurt Patricia and also sending the horrible record to her – at least, that was what he was made to believe by Patricia. He still wondered how the recording came to be that day. Was it possible that Tomi had attached something to his cloth that day without him realizing it? He asked himself. Henry’s intervention was what had stopped him from asking and getting the answer to all his questions. He didn’t know what to think. His thinking faculties weren’t working properly anymore and he wasn’t able to think of anyway that the fault could have come from Patricia. Tomi’s admission to have taken the number from his phone made him surer that Tomi was the one who initiated the first call to Patricia and began the whole madness. Now Patricia was angry at him and he wasn’t able to stop her from leaving the house angrily when he couldn’t explain how the recording came about.

He forced himself out of bed and began to take off his clothes. He needed to change into another set of clothes and leave the room before Tomi comes knocking at the door.

______

May 7, 2031

7:46am

Stephanie and Dave walked side by side into the airport with their backpacks strapped to their backs.

‘We still have thirteen minutes more,’ Stephanie said to Dave as they walked into the waiting lounge.

‘That’s if the flight would not be at least ten minutes late,’ Dave replied her.

They located some empty seats and sat side by side, waiting for the announcement for their flight.

‘Hope you remember all I taught you,’ Dave asked as he took out a phone from the backpack.

‘Yes, I do but I do not really understand why we are doing it that way, isn’t it supposed to be the job of the police?’

‘It is, but the police are not doing their jobs and so journalists have to come in.’

‘But won’t this cause problems for us if we’re discovered?’

‘Relax dear,’ Dave smiled and reached for her palm. He squeezed it in his and looked into her eyes. ‘I’ve been investigating top criminal cases as a journalist for years and I’ve never had problems, all you have to do is follow the instructions and guidelines I gave to you.’

They sat in silence for the rest of the waiting period, both left to their individual thoughts. It felt like a dangerous adventure for Stephanie. She and Dave had spent several hours together in her house the day before, planning and preparing for the journey. It took so long for them to finish that Dave had to leave the house ten pm at night after having dinner with her. Dave had instructed her to act like his partner working with him in the Desert Reporters firm and lectured her on the ethics of the job. He had also given her an ID card that morning. He also lectured her on asking questions and how to make the interviewee release answers they didn’t plan to. They had fixed a session with the man already that day and the man asked them to visit his residence by evening.

Dave had a positive mindset about the journey. He saw Stephanie that was determined and would not take no for an answer but at the same time also applies common sense to her dealings. It had been easy for him to take an excuse from work, he had told the agency that he needed to visit a sick family member and explained to Dan that he was going to see his hospitalized girlfriend.

______

8:25am

SAMANTHA OSMAN’S NEW BASE

‘Good morning Tara,’ Henry greeted as he walked into the computer room.

She flashed a look at him and replied, ‘Good morning Henry.’

‘You returned to the house past three am this morning, I hope there is no problem.’ Henry asked.

Tarasha smiled chiefly, ‘There is no problem.’

‘So where exactly did you go?’ Henry asked as he took a seat beside her.

She stopped what she was doing on the computer and turned to him. She folded her arms and looked into his eyes for a moment. ‘I went to Base B to get some important documents.’

‘Why didn’t you ask for help when you knew it would take you so long?’

‘It didn’t take me so long. I got there by one a.m. and left past two.’

‘Hmmm and where were you the whole evening?’

‘Going around town to check people’s reaction to our last post before I make the post about the Inspector General by twelve o’clock.’

‘Okay, that reminds me of something I discovered last night while waiting for you,’ Henry said with a serious look and readjusted his seating position. ‘The Inspector General plans to leave the country this Saturday.’

‘Oh!’ Tarasha widened her gaze and let out a wry smile. ‘The allegations would be out today, he wouldn’t be able to travel.’ she said and shrugged. ‘For now, I’ve got some work for you,’ she paused and turned back to the computer.

________

ASO ROCK CLINIC

9:30am

‘Are you sure I’ll be okay soon or do we need to go to a specialist hospital?’ Elvis Richards asked the doctor.

‘No, it hasn’t gotten to that stage yet, we can handle it here,’ the doctor replied, holding the man’s hand and checking for the right vein he could put a syringe.

‘How many injections do I have to take?’ Chief Elvis asked again.

‘After this, you have one tonight and another tomorrow morning, I’ll suggest that you stay at home today and rest, you need a lot of rest. Right now, we’re treating you for low PCV and we hope that it rises soon.’

‘What’s low PCV?’

‘Low PCV is an effect of the severe malaria, PCV is the percentage of red blood cells in circulating blood.’

‘Oh well, whatever that means, all I need is to get better.’

The doctor was through administering the injections in ten minutes time and the Vice President’s phone was brought to him by one of his assistants, the Inspector General was calling.

‘Good morning Inspector General,’ Chief Elvis greeted.

‘Good morning sir, I hope you’re feeling better now.’

Yes, I am. What about you?’

15 part 5 contd

‘I’m fine too, it’s just the leg that has gone worse.’

‘Sorry about that,’ Chief Elvis sympathized. ‘Just get ready for Saturday so that you can receive specialist treatment.’

‘Yes, I’m ready, I’ll be leaving here this evening.’

There was a brief moment of silence.

‘Sir, did Rex call you too?’ Chief Rikau asked.

‘Yes, he did.’

‘We’re finally making some progress; I told you there would be a difference if we involve the chairman.’

‘Yes, you did. Let’s talk later, I’m at the clinic now and its not a good place to discuss deep matters with you.’







In the next episode, Dave meets a shocking surprise in Lagos that turns everything around.

continue reading the episodes here - www.youngicee.com/category/tarasha-season-2

Chapter 15 part 6

®18+ SNVL

© Oyinloye Oluwatosin Emmanuel

Cole walked draggingly into the computer room, he knew from the moment he saw the boss’ call on his phone that it was time to make an explanation for what happened with Tomi the day before. He closed the door and stopped behind it, expecting her to beckon on him to come forward. He eventually moved forward when he saw that she wasn’t going to respond like he expected.

‘Good morning Boss,’ he stopped beside her and greeted.

‘We’ve seen this morning already,’ she replied coldly before turning to him. She stared at his face for about ten seconds without saying anything. ‘You know why I called you right?’

‘Ermm, I’m not really sure,’ Cole replied her, trying to feign ignorance.

‘I’m sure you’re sure, you still need to learn how to hide truths from your facial expressions.’ She paused a bit and picked her phone from the table. ‘So, start explaining, I’d like to know why you wanted to kill her.’

Cole heaved a sigh and shook his head gently. ‘I didn’t want to kill her; I was only threatening her to make her tell me the whole truth.’


‘What truth did you want from her?’ Tarasha asked, her face suddenly turning angry.

He noticed the change on her face and stepped back a bit. Her changed mood had suddenly caused him to become short of words. He stared at her face without knowing what to say and not even willing to tell her the truth.

‘Did you know she was preparing the meal for everyone of us when you attacked her?’ Tarasha asked after waiting for seconds without getting a reply.

Cole’s eyebrows gathered together. He didn’t remember if Tomi was cooking when he met her in the kitchen but he wondered why Tarasha mentioned it in a serious way.

‘Do you remember my warning to you when I found you both smooching on a sofa weeks ago?’

Cole squinted and racked his brain hard, trying to remember what she was talking about. She continued to stare at his face and he knew she was waiting for his answer this time, and she wasn’t going to speak again until he gave her one.

‘You warned us that our personal relationship shouldn’t affect our jobs,’ Cole replied in low tones, hoping he answered correctly.

Tarasha stared at him silently, he turned his gaze to the floor, he could understand the meaning of the look on her face. He wondered how the situation was affecting or had affected their jobs.

She spoke at that moment, as if she could read his thoughts, ‘So you attacked and hurt her while she was doing her job, for personal reasons. Isn’t that the case?’

Cole heaved another sigh. He could understand her view but he never expected her to see it that way.

‘I’m not concerned about what your reasons were since you never deemed it fit to tell me about them first but I’ve decided your punishment already,’ Tarasha continued. She paused a bit, relaxed her back and folded her arms. ‘You won’t get your pay for this month,’ she said and turned back immediately to the computer.

‘But boss, I didn’t…’ Cole tried to protest.

She turned sharply and shot a cold look at him which made him stop talking immediately. He knew he would be in trouble if he continued at that moment. He stood there panting angrily but unable to express himself. He thought it unfair that he would have to pay with his one month salary for having a clash with Tomi.

‘You should have made your explanations before I announced your punishment,’ Tarasha said and immediately turned back to the computer.

The room door opened at that moment and Henry walked in. He proceeded to the table and stopped briefly to glance at Cole’s face. Cole turned back at that moment and walked out of the place.

‘What happened with him?’ Henry asked as he sat beside Tara. He was holding a small laptop in his hands and a mouse.

‘He got his punishment for attacking Tomi yesterday,’ she replied Henry without looking at his face.

‘Did he tell you what the matter was?’

‘No, he did not.’

‘You didn’t ask?’

‘His personal issue is none of my business, he knew why I called him and could have explained anything he wanted to explain before I announced his punishment but he waited until I announced it before he started to speak.’

‘But you should still have allowed him talk, I don’t think this punishment would put a complete stop to the problem.’ Henry argued.

‘It wouldn’t stop their problem, I’m aware.’ Tara replied sounding totally unconcerned.

‘Then why didn’t you allow him talk?’

‘I gave him enough time to talk but he didn’t. When he was ready to speak, he was only willing to speak because of the punishment attached.’

‘I don’t understand you Tara, don’t you think that the wellbeing of your employees could affect the progress of the whole team?’

‘This team is supposed to be a team of assassins and not sissies, giving room for more emotions to come to play would make us weaker than it has already done. An assassin should not keep an emotion and when there’s a feeling of one, it should not be allowed to take over the senses.’

‘But Tara, we are not assassins,’ Henry said in a loud tone, holding her by the hands and turning her body to face him.

She stared at his face for a second before turning back, ‘I am an assassin even though I’ve become weaker since I met you,’ she said in a sad tone. ‘I’m trying to get myself back and I can’t allow for any of us to be weak again.’

‘But do you know Tomi is weak already because she loves Cole but Cole has decided to have nothing to do with her?’

‘Cole is weaker than she is. Tomi hasn’t allowed her emotions to take control yet but Cole is the one who isn’t able to control himself.’

15 part 6 contd

‘Anyway you see it Tara, it’s dangerous if we don’t come in between them. Cole has shown his weakness yesterday, what if it had happened at a critical moment, won’t it have cause problems for the rest of us?’

Tarasha paused for a moment to consider his last question. It took her a minute before she finished pondering over it. ‘You know what?’ she faced him. ‘I can’t handle situations like this, the only solution in my head to kill the both of them for being weak,’ she said in a sad tone. ‘The punishment for harboring emotions is supposed to be instant death but I’ve left them to live,’ she paused for another minute. ‘I think you should handle them both and get back to me when you make a conclusion, I’ll go with whatever conclusion you make.’

‘Oh! Are you serious?’ Henry asked with his eyes wide open in disbelief.

‘Yes, do that for me and let’s settle what’s happening between them.’ Tara replied.

‘Thank you,’ Henry said and let out a smile.

‘So, how far have you gone with the processing?’ Tara changed the subject immediately.

Henry opened up the laptop he dropped on the table. ‘I’ve copied the fingerprint patterns into the directory but I don’t understand the other instruction you gave.’

Tarasha turned to the system in front of her and tapped the keyboard. ‘Look here,’ she said, pointing to something on the screen. ‘The system installed on your laptop is for tracking individuals who have their finger prints stored in files in the directory. After converting the fingerprint file you have into a vvt file, we should be able to get the location of that person at any point in time as far as radio signals are available there, except the person puts on a hand glove.’

‘Are you kidding me?’ Henry’s face glowed with excitement. ‘I’ve only heard of this before, never seen it being used anywhere.’

‘It’s a recent development and only being used in few countries at that moment, I learnt how to set it up and use it during my last contract at the United States.’

‘Wow!’ Henry exclaimed excitedly and continued to punch in commands on his laptop using the keyboard. He suddenly stopped and turned to Tara, ‘Whose fingerprints do we have as the samples?’

‘The Inspector General’s fingerprint, I took it while he was here with us.’

_________

4:48PM

LAGOS, NIGERIA.

Chief Nonso Abel’s Residence

‘Please have your seats,’ Chief Nonso ushered his guests into the living room.

‘Thank you sir,’ Dave replied for the both of them before they sat. Both of them were dressed corporately with their faces lightly disguised with makeup. They both sat on a long sofa and their host sat on the one seater sofa directly opposite them.

‘Welcome to my home,’ Chief Nonso began with a smile. ‘What can I offer you?’

‘Oh! Thanks sir, we’re full already. We’d like to proceed straightaway to the interview.’

‘Okay, if you want it that way.’ Chief Nonso replied and then relaxed himself on the seat to set himself for the interview.

‘Sir, like you already know, we represent Desert Reporters and this interview is supposed to focus on your presidential bid. However, we’d like to digress a bit and dig into your political background, I hope you do not mind sir,’ Dave began.

‘Well, I have the rights to answer or not,’ the man said with a playful smile and shrugged.

‘Yes sir, you can tell us if you’re not comfortable with a particular question.’ Dave replied.

‘Okay, lets proceed then.’

‘Thank you sir,’ Stephanie pushed forward a bit and began the session. Dave brought out a device and tapped it on, it looked like a timer and recorder.

‘Sir, we would like for you to tell us how you started politically, what was your drive and what were the stages you passed through?’

Chief Nonso began to answer every of their questions in details, hiding nothing from them. None of the questions seemed to unsettle him until Dave asked one.

‘Sir, it is noised publicly that your political mentor was late Chief Onwuli, how true is that?’

‘Well, not entirely true. He wasn’t my political mentor, he didn’t live that long for him to mentor me politically. But he was like a father to me, he made me who I am today.’

‘So, with your connection to Chief Onwuli, how would you cope with your competitors in the Presidential race?’

‘I don’t understand that, can you rephrase please?’

‘Okay, everyone knows that before Chief Onwuli’s death, he was at loggerheads with Chief Elvis and reports even has it that you accused Chief Elvis then of killing him, so how are you going to cope now that Chief Elvis is in the same Presidential race as you?’

‘Cope? I don’t have to “cope”, I run my race and he runs his, there’s no connection between the both of us.’

‘Do you still believe that he killed Chief Onwuli?’

‘Emphatically Yes, he did. It’s a pity that our judicial system has always messy and it is still messy today, that’s part of what we’re trying to change by coming into governance.’

‘Is there any possibility that your political ambition is motivated by your desire to punish Chief Onwuli’s enemies? Past records in newspapers stated that you swore to punish every of his killers.’

Chief Nonso was quiet for a while, his facial expression had changed. He wondered if he had made a wise decision to join the presidential race at that time. It seemed to him that following Chief Gab’s advice to contest in the next one would have been the best decision. By then, Chief Elvis Richards and all their enemies would have been taken out of the picture. And even though he was not really serious about the Presidential race – he wasn’t expecting to win the primaries – his declaration of interest had drawn so much attention to him.

‘My only motivation is the will to serve my nation, I don’t have any personal vendetta,’ he finally replied. ‘The results during my eight years as a governor proves that I’m someone who is focused on serving his people in the best way he can.’

‘Sir, rumour has it that so much money was embezzled during your term as a governor and part of it was used to set up drugs trafficking ex-convict Chief Gabriel after his release from prison, how true is that?’ Dave asked. A device made a beep sound n his breast pocket.

‘Rumour you say,’ Chief Nonso said in a loud aggressive tone. ‘It’s just market women’s rumour, there’s nothing like that. Chief Gab is somewhere far away in an African country; I don’t even know where he is.’

‘Sir, but…’ Dave tried to speak but the device in his breast pocket began to make more noisy sounds that and he had to stop and take it out.

‘Isn’t that your car alarm?’ Chief Nonso asked, looking at the device in Dave’s hand.

‘Yes, it is,’ Dave replied, getting up to his feet hurriedly. ‘Someone must be tampering with the car, I need to check it where we parked.’

‘Didn’t you park it in the garage here?’ Chief Nonso asked.

‘No, we left it outside, just across the road.’ Dave replied and proceeded to the door.

‘You shouldn’t have done that,’ Chief Nonso rose up to his feet, intending to follow and help Dave.

‘No, don’t bother sir,’ Dave turned to stop him. ‘She would continue with the interview while I take care of it.’

‘Okay,’ Chief Nonso sat back. They both watched Dave leave before Stephanie continued with the interview.

The Chief continued to answer questions until someone called his phone, he took out the phone to answer but it went off before he could. He placed the phone on his thigh and wanted to continue with the interview but the same number flashed his phone again.

‘Someone unserious is flashing my line,’ he said with a smile to Stephanie. She smiled faintly back at him.

He unlocked the phone and tried to identify the caller but couldn’t. He was about to continue with the interview when the caller flashed again. He hissed and then put the phone on silence. He placed it on a nearby footstool and faced Stephanie.

‘Please lets proceed, I’ll attend to whoever it is when we’re done.’

‘Why don’t you just do it now, I can wait.’

‘No, lets continue please,’ the Chief insisted.

Stephanie tapped on the phone in her hand and looked into it as if she was trying to read the next question but she was trying to send an already composed message to Dave. ‘Sir, would you be able to work with Chief Elvis Richards if a situation comes up?’ she looked up and asked after clicking on send.

‘Why not? I’m a principled person, I don’t mix personal issues with national matters.’

The phone placed on the stool continued to ring at intervals but was unattended to. Two minutes later, the gateman walked into the house and called for the attention of the Chief.

‘Sir, there’s a man outside demanding that he needs to see you.’

‘Which man?’ Chief Nonso gave the gateman a nasty look.

‘He says he’s a police officer and needs your help concerning something on the street,’ the gateman replied. ‘I told him you were with visitors but he insisted that it was urgent and wouldn’t leave the gate,’ the gateman quickly added on seeing that the man was staring angrily at him.

‘Isn’t there someone else in the house to attend to him?’

‘No sir, Madam hasn’t returned yet.’

‘Okay, I’ll join you in a minute.’ He said and dismissed the gateman. He turned to Stephanie, ‘Please miss, you’ll have to excuse me, I won’t stay long.’

‘There’s no problem sir.’

The Chief rose and glanced at his phone, he wanted to take it along with him but changed his mind as he saw the same number still disturbing. He proceeded to the door hurriedly.

Stephanie watched the man walk out. She remained at the same spot for some seconds, staring at the walls and decorations of the living room. Her phone beeped and she quickly opened the received text message. ‘Act Now,’ the message read, it was from Dave.

She got up hurriedly from her seat and reached for the man’s phone. It was locked. She quickly tapped on the power button to turn it off. She opened and glanced through word document on her phone where she had stored the instructions Dave had given her on how to access the phone’s files even if it was locked.

‘Officer, what may I do for you?’ Chief Nonso asked in an angry tone as he stepped down from balcony. The officer was standing at the entrance of the gate with the gate man still trying to stop him from getting in, he was putting on the shirt of the SSS.

‘Sir, there’s a car across the road, the driver says he is a journalist from Desert reporters who came to visit you.’

‘Can I have a look?’ the man asked as he approached the gate. The officer gave way for him to look. Dave was already crossing from the other side of the road to the gate.

‘Sir, these guys are harassing me,’ Dave said as he approached them.

‘Are you talking about him?’ Chief Nonso asked the officer.

‘Yes, him.’

‘He’s my guest and a representative of Desert Reporters,’ the chief said.

‘Have you confirmed that he’s really a journalist?’

‘Yes, I have. The request letter for the interview was sent to me directly from their headquarters email.’

The SSS officer frowned. ‘Well, if you say you are sure he is. We’re really sorry for the inconvenience, we had to verify because we saw the company’s tag on the car and you know they’ve been complaining of impersonators recently.’

‘No, you didn’t want to confirm for their sakes, you are only trying to harass them because they always say the truth about your government.’ Chief Nonso blasted.

‘It’s none of that sir,’ the SSS man said with a sorry look. ‘I apologize once again,’ he bowed slightly and turned to leave. ‘Sorry mister,’ he said to Dave before crossing back to the opposite lane carriageway. Dave replied him with a cold look and hissed.

‘Is your car safe now?’ Chief Nonso asked Dave.

‘Now that you’ve intervened, I believe they should leave the car.’ Dave replied, turning his back to the gate and looking towards the car parked at the other side with some SSS officials around it. His phone beeped and he quickly opened the new message. ‘I’m done with it,’ the message from Stephanie read. He locked back the phone and put it into his pocket. He and the chief waited until the SSS men entered their cars and drove away.

‘Why did you park your car so far?’ the man asked Dave as they proceeded back together into the house.

‘We left it there so it would be easy for us to leave, there would be no need to go a long way before turning.’ Dave replied.

‘Next time, don’t leave your car so far from you. Those SSS guys have been desperate since Samantha Osman published the news about the Vice President; they’ve been attacking all media houses. I heard your media outlet was one of those that published articles supporting Samantha Osman’s allegations.’

‘Yes, some of our writers did write some articles about it.’

They both walked back into the house and were surprised not to find Stephanie seated where she previously was.

‘Miss Lucy,’ Dave called out, looking around and wondering where she was.

‘Where did she go to?’ Chief Nonso asked as he walked back to his own seat. He picked his phone which was on the stool, believing that the person disturbing should have stopped.

Dave eye’s wandered to and fro and landed Stephanie’s phone on the floor with the back cover removed and the screen cracked. It sounded an alarm for danger in his brain. ‘Here’s her phone,’ he said aloud, still looking as his hand touched his belt side where he hid his revolver.

‘Her phone, where could she have gone to?’ the Chief asked as he got up from his seat to pick the phone.

Dave’s wandering eyes settled on a spot beside the curtain of the passage from the living room to the other rooms of the house and he saw the mouth of a pistol hidden behind and directed to his head. A bullet was released at that same moment.

________

ABUJA, NIGERIA.

AGUDA HOUSE.

The laughter of the Vice President filled his room. He was in the bathroom, sitting in the bathtub, smoking lightly and making a call.

‘I never knew why I underestimated that Nonso,’ he said into the phone. ‘He would be sorry for himself by the time Rex is done with him.’



Read up to chapter 17 on www.youngicee.com/category/tarasha-season-2

15 part 7

® 18+ SNVL

© Oyinloye Oluwatosin Emmanuel



Tarasha walked into her room to hear the sound of her phone’s ringing tone. She wiped her wet hands with a napkin and picked the phone on the table, Chief Gab was the one calling her.

‘Hi Chief,’ she answered the call.

‘Hello Tarasha, it’s me Chief Gabriel.’ The man’s voice sounded from the other end.

‘Yea, I know,’ Tarasha replied, wondering why the man was introducing himself again.

‘I called to tell you that I’ve transferred all the outstanding payments to your bank account including the salaries of your workers for this month.’

‘I’ve not checked my messages yet, so I don’t know if I’ve received an alert.’ She said as she sat at the edge of her bed. ‘I hope you sent the accurate numbers.’

‘Yes, I did.’

‘Okay, I’ll get back to you once I confirm.’



Tarasha ended the call and checked the time before putting down the phone. It was twenty minutes left for the news about the Inspector General which she had scheduled for posting. She fell back into the bed with her hands spread wide.

She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. She began to think of the steps she needed to take next. Things were moving too slowly and she didn’t like the way they were going but wanted to stick to the plan because of her promise to Henry not to go the killing way. She was monitoring the Inspector General now and could tell his location at any point in time with the fingerprint tracking machine.

Her thoughts were distracted as someone opened the door. She paused to listen even though she knew it was only Henry who could open the door without knocking as they shared the room together. She counted every of his step from the moment he closed the door till he got to the side of the bed where she was laying. He also sat and laid beside her.

They both remained in silence for a long while, both busy with their imaginations even though they could feel in their hearts that their thoughts were connecting to each other’s.

‘Are you thinking about me?’ someone asked.

Tara froze for a moment, wondering whose mouth the question had come out from. She turned her face to his side and met him already looking at her.

‘Why do you think I should be thinking of you?’ Henry asked back and Tara realized that the question had come from her.

‘I don’t know.’ She replied and turned her face back to the ceiling. She could still feel his eyes focused intently on her face.

‘Is it because you’re also thinking about me?’ Henry asked.

She turned back to him. ‘I don’t know.’

‘You were not thinking about me?’

‘I was,’ she answered and looked up again.

‘You just said you don’t know.’

‘Yes, I don’t know why I think you also should be thinking about me.’

Henry took in a breath and swallowed in. He turned his face to the ceiling, ‘I was thinking about how happy we could be together once this is all over.’

‘Would that day really come?’ Tara asked with a sad look on her face.

Henry turned his face back to her immediately, wondering why she sounded like she was so full of doubts. ‘Of course, it would come. Don’t you want it?’ Henry asked, staring straight into her eyes. He could see something he had never seen before in her eyes, fear - fear of the future.

‘I do want it,’ she answered and turned her face back up. ‘But it seems to be coming too slow.’

‘Patience Tara, we need patience to fight the rest of this battle and win.’

‘I hope we win with patience soon, because I’m already running out of it.’

‘Please don’t, lets hold on till the end.’ Henry said in a pleading tone.

Tara was about to reply him but an alarm sounded on her phone. She reached for it and checked the screen before rising up. ‘It a minute to the publishing time of the new post, we have to go create discussion topics for it on social forums.’

Henry rose hesitatingly with her. ‘How I wish someone else could do that right now.’

‘Every other person has his responsibilities,’ Tara replied. She stripped off her shirt and opened her wardrobe to take out another.

‘Yea, Tara!’ Henry called out loud. He seemed to have just remembered something.

She turned back and gazed at his face.

‘I got a credit alert from Chief Gabriel; he just paid the outstanding salary debts and this month’s salaries.’ Henry said.

‘Yea, is it complete? He called to tell me.’

‘Yes, it’s complete.’ Henry replied. He followed behind Tara who had finished putting on the new top and was proceeding to the door. ‘How have you being paying everyone if you’ve not been receiving payments from him?’

‘I pay from my money,’ she replied him. ‘I have and can get enough to pay triple of the salaries for a whole year.’

Henry’s mouth was left agape. He knew she was speaking the truth and was amazed at the level of her wealth.

________

LAGOS NIGERIA.

'Sh*t!' Dave cursed as he landed on the ground to dodge the bullet. He rolled to the back of the sofa close to him and pulled out his gun. He peeped carefully to check Chief Nonso and found the man already lying on the floor and trembling. He dashed out from his hiding place and took two three shots towards the place where the gunshot came from. He hid behind another sofa where he could see Chief Nonso, the man had gotten up and was trying to leave the place with his head bowed in fear.

'Hey! Come here,' Dave called him in whispers. The man looked back in fright and his eyes met with Dave's, he quickly turned and journeyed towards Dave.

Dave sprung up from his hiding place and shot twice towards the passage where the bullet came from again, directing the Chief with his left hand to hide in the spot he just stood from. He hid again at the initial place and turned to talk to the Chief who was hiding behind the other sofa.

‘How many entrances and exits do you have in this house?’ Dave asked the chief.

‘One at the back, and two others at the left and right sides of the house.’ the man replied.

‘Who is that person shooting and what does he want?’ Dave asked again, really hoping to get an answer from the man.

The man stared back at him with a pity look on his face. ‘I don’t have an idea who it is or what the person wants, the only person that was in the house with us was your partner.’ Chief Nonso replied.

Dave hissed gently. He knew the man was trying to insinuate that Stephanie was the shooter but Dave didn’t think it was possible, of course except his suspicions about Stephanie working with Samantha Osman was true. He however was it couldn’t be true. It made no sense. If Stephanie had wanted to kill him or the man, she had gotten enough chance to do so without any problem, her phone which he found on the floor also further proved that she had been captured by whosever the shooter was.

He didn’t waste much time on thinking. He needed to act fast before the enemy.

‘Sir is there any other place we can leave this house apart from the front gate?’ he asked the Chief again in whispers as he refixed his gun.

‘No, the whole place is fenced, the gate is the only way to get out of this compound.

‘Okay,’ Dave paused and looked around the place for thirty seconds. ‘You go out through this door at the count of three, wait for me at the corridor, I’ll meet you in a second. Do you get me?’

Chief Nonso nodded in reply. He watched as Dave handled the gun, wondering how a journalist was handling the machine so perfectly and what made him come to the interview with a gun. He remembered the SSS officer’s words and began to suspect that Dave and his partner were not real journalists.

‘Okay,’ Dave looked up and stared at the man’s face. He was ready with his gun in his right hand and his phone in the left hand. He was dialing a number. ‘1…2…3,’ he counted and the man sprang up to his feet immediately and headed for the door. Dave also got up at the same time and began to shoot sporadically at the opposite side as he also moved to the front door walking backwardly. ‘Wait,’ Dave stopped the man from steppingdown the balcony. He jammed the front door of the house and pulled the chief to hide behind his body. He moved closer to the rear of the balcony leaning against the wall and tried to peep to see if anyone was coming. He raised his gun and almost shot but his fingers could not pull the trigger. He saw a man dragging Stephanie by the neck and holding a gun to her head.

‘Hey Mister!’ the man dragging Stephanie said with a crooked smile. He stopped about six metres directly opposite the corridor where Dave was standing and pointing the gun from. He held Stephanie close to his body with his arm tightened around her neck and his positioned at the side of her head.

Dave was still pointing his gun at the man but he didn’t dare to shoot. He noticed a black spot on Stephanie’s face and he clenched his teeth in anger, he knew the man must have punched her in the face. Stephanie was looking directly into his face and shivering in the man’s hands. Dave knew that her life depended on any step he would take at that moment and he was feared making any mistake that would cause her to be killed.

He placed his gaze on the face of the man behind Stephanie for a moment. The face looked familiar but Dave couldn’t place where he had seen it before. He thought it could be one of Samantha Osman’s boys whom he had seen during his investigations on her.

‘Let’s strike a deal,’ Stainless finally began to talk. He tightened his grip on Stephanie’s neck harder and looked directly into Dave’s face. ‘You release the man to me and I release her to you,’ he said, talking about Chief Nonso who was behind Dave.

Dave was careful not to turn back to look at the Chief but he was sure that the man was hiding his face behind his.

‘What do you want him for?’ Dave asked.

‘The same thing you want him for,’ Stainless replied with a smirk.

Dave looked at Stephanie’s face again. He couldn’t bear to see her in pains like she was in at that moment. He took a quick glance at the face of the man behind him. He knew it wouldn’t make sense to release the man to get Stephanie but he was willing to do it to ensure the pain stops for her.

‘I came here for an interview,’ Dave replied. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘Shut up! You *****ng lying bastard.’

‘Hey, take it easy,’ Dave said and tried to take some steps forward  but stopped on seeing Stainless threatening look with his fingers close to the trigger. ‘Hey! Be careful, don’t touch the trigger,’ Dave said in a frightened voice.

‘Step back and release the man to me,  I know you’re here because you know his connection to Samantha Osman, you know he sponsors her.’ Stainless shouted at him.

Dave heart skipped a beat, he tried to speak again in defence but no words came out from his mouth. He stayed quiet, staring into Stainless’ eyes. He tried positioning his gun well as he studied Stainless’ body and hands movement with his eyes to see whether he could get a clean shot into his forehead. Suddenly, he heard the door open from behind. He turned thinking that Chief Nonso was the one trying to run back inside the house out of fright but he didn’t have the opportunity to see who it really was. Something hit his head and he fell to the floor and blacked out.

________

ABUJA

AGUDA HOUSE, ASO ROCK.

‘Inspector General Rikau,’ Vice President Elvis shouted into the phone as he walked into his room. He was previously seated at the living room and watching a TV program where the speakers were analyzing political issues when his daughter Vivian joined him in the living room and showed him a news headline on the youngicee website stating that Samantha Osman had released new allegations against the Inspector General of the nation.

‘But youngicee website isn’t a news website but a fiction story site, how are you sure this news isn’t fiction?’ He had asked his daughter with doubt in his eyes. She clicked on the topic to read the full post and the father joined her in reading. Samantha Osman had accused the Inspector General of being a leader of a section of the BokoHaram group which troubled the nation over fifteen years ago.

The Vice President took the phone from her and typed in a news website address into the navigation bar. The top item on the newly loaded website had a similar heading to the news on the youngicee website. He opened the post and read the article; it contained almost the same content, only written in other words. It was then he picked his phone and proceeded to his bedroom.

‘Hello sir,’ the Inspector General replied from the other end. His voice was cool and calm, he seemed not to have heard about the news.

‘Have you heard all the things Samantha Osman said about you?’

‘About me?’ the Inspector General asked with a doubting tone, he seemed not to believe that she could have said something about him.

‘Yes, she just published an article about you and I’m afraid all the things she alleged in the post are true just like mine.’

‘I don’t understand you sir, what did she say I did?’

‘She talked about your involvement in Boko Haram and Child trafficking, and she also mentioned every detail on how you progressed to being a police officer and Inspector General.’

‘Oh! Yarosullulahi!’ the Inspector General exclaimed in Arabic language, calling to God for help in trouble. ‘Let me confirm this please.’

The Vice President dialed another number immediately the call ended. ‘Hello,’ he said in an impatient tone immediately the call was answered. ‘Carry out another one tonight, and increase the fatality,’ he said to the receiver without replying to the person’s greetings.



He sat on a stool beside the bed and placed his forehead on his knees, letting out a deep breath. Samantha Osman was frustrating his plans and threatening his existence and he was running out of ideas already. There was one more person to call, he raised his head slowly and took in a very deep breath before dialing the number.



______

LAGOS



‘Move man, move,’ Rex said to Chief Nonso who was now without help. The man raised his hands in the air and climbed down the balcony shakily, he took a brief look at Dave who was now laying motionlessly on the floor.

‘Boss, what do we do to her?’ Stainless asked about Stephanie as Rex stepped down the balcony after the Chief.

Rex stared at Stephanie’s face for a moment. ‘Just let her be, the only person we have a business with here is this man.’

‘What about the SSS officer?’ Stainless asked again, pointing to Dave on the balcony.

‘We still need that dude alive, he’s been very helpful to us.’

Stainless pushed Stephanie violently away and ordered her to stay on her knees before turning back. He walked quickly into the gateman’s office where the frightened gateman was hiding, thinking he hadn’t been seen. Stainless came out few seconds later after a gunshot was heard.

Rex was already standing by Chief Nonso’s car side, still pointing a gun at the man. Stainless quickly opened the gate and hurried to join his boss. Rex got into the backseat with the man while Stainless drove the car.

They drove out of the compound leaving Stephanie on her knees and the gate wide opened.



Stephanie got up to her feet immediately after the car was driven out of sight and rushed to the gate to check their distance. She rushed back into the compound to meet Dave, Dave was already trying to get up from the floor.

'Dave, are you okay?' she asked in a frightened voice as she knelt beside him and tried to help him to sit up.

‘Arrgh, what happened to me?’ Dave groaned with his eyes closed tightly and his hands on his head.

‘Hey! Are you okay?’ Stephanie asked, supporting his back with her arm.

‘Steph, what happened here?’ Dave asked. He managed to open his eyes and turned back to look at Stephanie.

‘They hit you with something on your head and you fell to the ground,’ Stephanie replied to him.

‘Arrgh! Dave groaned in pain and he closed his eyes as he held his head with his hands again. He let out a deep breath and shook his head briefly before opening the eyes. He placed his two hands on the ground and began to look around the place, his eyes searching for something which seemed important.

‘They took him,’ Stephanie said, realizing he was looking for Chief Nonso.

Dave suddenly remembered all that happened, he remembered the sound of the door opening and he turning back to see what the Chief was up to only for him to see an iron rod wave across his face and hit his head. He didn’t see the face of the person who hit him but he was sure it wasn’t the Chief.

He hadn’t prepared for it, he had thought that there was only one intruder in the house and wasn’t expecting anyone else to surface from elsewhere.

‘Let’s get out of here,’ he said to Stephanie as he managed to get on his feet. Stephanie held his hand to help him maintain balance as she followed behind. ‘We need to leave immediately, before the police shows up.’ Dave said as they walked out through the opened gate.

‘They killed the gateman also,’ Stephanie informed Dave. Dave seemed not to have heard, he was managing to walk in pains.

‘Arrgh!’ Dave closed his eyes and winced in pain again. His vision was blurry and his legs still shaky, he leaned on Stephanie for support. They both stood by the road side and waited for the road to clear before crossing to the other side. They crossed to the other end and proceeded straight to the car. Stephanie got into the driver’s side while Dave entered into the passenger’s side. She started the engine and drove off in few minutes, they began to hear police sirens approaching from the return lane as they drove on.

‘Where are we driving to?’ Stephanie asked Dave.

‘Back to the hotel,’ Dave replied. He had taken out his phone and was trying to dial a number.

‘Why? I think you need quick medical attention now,’ Stephanie suggested.

‘No, back to the hotel,’ Dave replied in a strong tone. ‘We can’t go to the hospital now.’ His phone call was answered and he began to speak to the receiver. ‘Hello sir,’ he said into the phone.

‘Agent Dave, we heard some gunshots, hope all is well.’ The receiver replied.

‘Yea, thanks for your help but things have gone wrong, I didn’t plan for what we met in there. It happened we had enemies in the house waiting to kidnap the man. They have him now and I don’t know where they’ve taken him to.’

‘That’s serious, what do you intend to do now?’

‘I need another favor from you guys.’

‘What’s that?’

‘Please do not mention anything about my involvement or yours in this to anyone, not even trusted NIS officers, please.’ Dave pleaded.



Dave gasped and closed his eyes after the call ended. He rested his head and took in a deep breath. He stayed in the position for two minutes before opening his eyes again.

‘Steph, I think we need to make contact with Samantha Osman.’ He said to Stephanie, placing his gaze on her face.

‘How do we do that?’ Stephanie asked and took a brief glance at him.

‘I was thinking of contacting her through the forms available on the websites but that may not really be effective,’ he said and took in a breath. ‘We would make our allegations public tomorrow. With that she might try to contact us and find us herself.’

‘Are you sure that would work?’

‘I think it would work better than the first idea.’

‘But what reason do we need her to contact us?’ Stephanie asked, staring at her face with a doubtful look. ‘And is it true that Chief Nonso sponsors Samantha Osman? Is that why we held the interview?’

Dave was shocked by her questions and turned away sharply. ‘Where did you get that from?’ He had asked already before remembering that the man who held her hostage accused him of knowing what she mentioned. He bowed his head slightly and closed his eyes for some seconds.

‘So it’s true?’ Stephanie continued. ‘You knew that Chief Nonso sponsors Samantha Osman and you brought me here to help you get information from a criminal associate?’ She asked him, looking disappointed at him. ‘What if they killed me?’ she added in a sad tone.

‘I’m sorry Steph,’ he raised his head and looked at her. ‘I’m sorry I lied to you, I’d explain better when we get back to the hotel.’

Stephanie sighed and shook her head.

‘For now, we can’t take this car back to the hotel, we have to discard it somewhere.’

Stephanie turned to him sharply again, her eyebrow gathered together and her lips twitched, demanding for an explanation on why they had to discard the car.

‘Trust me Steph,’ Dave said calmly, looking into her eyes. ‘I’ll explain everything to you.’



_______
SAMANTHA OSMAN’S BASE
10pm

All the members of the gang were seated in the usual fashion in the living room, listening to the news and making comments. The news headlines were read out by the Newscaster and one of the items read stated that Samantha Osman and her gang had attacked another store in Lagos State and got away with goods not less than five million naira, leaving three people dead and five others injured.

‘These guys are desperate,’ Henry voiced out. The rest of them continued to watch in silence.

Fifteen minutes into the news, Tarasha received a message alert on her phone. An email had entered. She opened the mail app to read and was shocked at the pictures she saw. Chief Nonso had been captured and was tied to a chair in the pictures. There was a male figure standing beside him which looked familiar. She realized that it was Rex.

Another mail entered and she opened quickly. It contained only few texts. ‘Your godfather is in our custody, you have twenty four hours to drop the allegation against Chief Elvis Richards or you get his dead body sent to you.’

Tarasha gaped out loud and sprung to her feet in a manner which alarmed the others. They all fixed their gazes on her while she stared blankly at the wall.

‘Our current strategy is failing,’ she began, not looking at anyone in particular. Cole reduced the volume of the television to hear her well. ‘Chief Nonso Abel has been captured by the Vice President and they’re threatening us to drop all allegations we have against him. We have to change our strategy; the new plan is to kill anyone at the slightest opportunity we have.’



Tarasha is about to employ more desperate and dangerous measures. The story gets more exciting as the gets nearer.



I read a some comments here of people asking me to make the updates 3 times a week. I’ll like to state here that it can’t work for me, not even now that I’m busy with school work and my final year project. And I see a lot of you believe that I’m copying from somewhere or I’ve completed the story already and only decided to keep posting twice. No, story is not completed yet, this episode is what I just finished writing this night.



Read more episodes here - www.youngicee.com/category/tarasha-season-2

15 part 8

®18+ SNVL

© Oyinloye Oluwatosin Emmanuel



‘Our current strategy is failing,’ she began, not looking at anyone in particular. Cole reduced the volume of the television to hear her well. ‘Chief Nonso Abel has been captured by the Vice President and they’re threatening us to drop all allegations we have against him. We have to change our strategy; the new plan is to kill anyone at the slightest opportunity we have.’

‘No Tara, we can’t go that way,’ Henry protested as he got up from his seat. His tone and voice made the protest sound rather like a gentle plea. All eyes turned to him while he fixed his gaze on Tara’s face. ‘Please don’t let them influence us, we should not be turned to murderers because of what they do, please. Remember, we’re fighting to take the darkness away, we should not fight darkness with darkness.’

Tarasha eyes locked with his for a moment. She could make sense from his words and could see in the sincerity and passion in his eyes but she decided to be unmoved. She took her gaze off his face and glanced at the other guys, ‘We might need to spend some days out of this city, to plan, re-strategize properly and also train.’ She paused as her eyes met with Henry’s again. ‘I’m considering taking off the allegation for Chief Nonso’s safety but if we do, it would make the world believe more that we carried out the robbery operations.’ She paused again and looked at each one’s faces one after the other. ‘From this moment, no calls should be made or received in this building, no chats or messages should be replied to, until we move out. And start packing your bags right away, we should leave here first thing tomorrow morning. Henry would help the doctor with his bags and Cole, you see me in the computer room in the next seven minutes.’ She concluded and walked away from the living room, leaving everyone speechless and baffled.



She got into the computer room and quickly turned on the laptop she was using as the server in the base. She heard the door open while waiting for the computer features to load, she could smell Henry’s perfume as he walked closer to her.

‘Don’t try to change my mind, I won’t listen to you,’ she said in a strong tone.

Henry halted and stared at her thinly for a while. He shook his head and proceeded forward, still wanting to try his best to convince her. He pulled a chair close to her and sat.

‘Before I try to change your mind, I think I should tell you that the abduction of Chief Nonso is on the news already and the police have credited it again to Samantha Osman, they claimed she kidnapped Chief Nonso just like she did to the last two men who were killed.’ Henry said to her.

‘I’m not surprised about that, I was expecting them to.’

‘Listen to me Tara, there are better ways we can handle this issue that’ll be more productive than killing people.’

She heaved a sigh of tiredness and tilted her head backwards with her eyes closed.

‘I have an idea…’

She cut him short by raising her hand and facing her backpalm to him. ‘I’m not about to listen to you Henry, please don’t discuss this with me anymore.’

‘But we can…’

‘Shut the **** up Henry,’ she slammed and pulled out a gun. She pointed it to his chest.

He shifted back in fear and put his two hands in the air.

‘It’s either you listen to me and follow my instructions from this moment or you quit,’ she said to him in a strong tone. ‘Get the **** out of this place,’ she ordered, pointing the gun to the door. Henry got up slowly and proceeded out of the room. Two minutes later, Cole came into the room.

‘Cole, who did you tell about Chief Nonso?’ she asked as he walked towards her.

Cole stopped in shock, wondering why she was asking him such a question.

‘Boss, nobody heard anything about Chief Nonso from me. Besides, I barely know the man.’

‘Prior to this time, you’re the only one who knows about Chief Nonso’s association with us, Tomi might have only heard me mention Chief Gab a few times and even Henry knows nothing about Chief Nonso.’

‘Boss, do you think I told someone of his association with us?’ Cole asked in a calm tone with his eyebrows raised. He felt bad and disappointed that she could think he would sell them out.

Tarasha stared into his eyes for a few seconds, she could see the disappointment in it. She had doubted that it could be from him but still had to ask to give no room for errors. ‘We need to find how Chief Nonso was captured, how and when they found out he’s connected to us and if they also know about Chief Gabriel.’

‘How do we do that?’

‘First, you get all today’s NSCC records for the area where he was kidnapped from and let’s see the manner at which the kidnap was carried out.’

Cole hurried to another seat immediately and opened up a laptop to begin work.

After fifteen minutes of total silence, Tarasha received a call from Chief Gab.

‘Hello Chief,’ she answered the call with a calm tone.

‘Tarasha, I just heard you kidnapped Chief Nonso,’ Chief Gab stated from the other end, in a rather accusing manner.

‘No, I didn’t, Chief Elvis’ men did,’ she replied.

There was a sudden gasp from the other end and a silence of almost ten seconds. ‘Are you kidding me Tara, Chief Elvis took Chief Nonso?’

‘Yes, he did. I’m thinking they could have found out he was associated to us through the previous building where we were attacked.’

‘But Tara, you said you were going to do something about it.’

‘It appears they had the owner’s name before attacking us, I should have removed the name earlier before moving there if you hadn’t said the house was still needed.’

‘So what do we do now?’ Chief Gab asked in scared shaky voice.

‘I’ll get back to you Chief, everything would be over soon.’ She replied in a confident tone.



It took her five minutes more after the call to confirm that the removal of Chief Nonso’s name from the Ministry’s portal which she had done before was indeed successful. Then she was sure that Rex and his gang must have known the owner before coming to attack them. She knew things had gone complicated and it could get more difficult, especially if Chief Nonso was the lily-livered type. She remembered speaking with him on phone that night, she had implored him that even after she must have removed his name from the Ministry’s portal that night, he could still be questioned by the police or any other security group and therefore should deny having anything to do with the building or with her.



‘Are you making any progress yet?’ she asked Cole as she got up from her seat.

‘Yes, the footages should be ready in ten minutes time.’ Cole answered.

Tarasha walked out of the computer room and proceeded to Dr Ekwueme’s room. She knocked on the door and waited till the man asked her to come in.

‘Good evening Doctor,’ she greeted after closing the door, rubbing both palms together.

‘Good evening Samantha,’ the doctor replied. He was seating close to the headboard in the bed and staring at her in confusion, wondering what she was doing in the room. It was her first time of entering the place and their first time of seeing that day.

‘Hope you rested well today,’ she said and he nodded in response. ‘Okay, I’m going out tonight and I want you to come with me.’

‘I would, I don’t have a choice anyway.’ The man shrugged.

‘We might be working overnight; I do hope you still have enough strength for that.’

‘I can work all night, as far as you don’t give me heavy loads to carry.’ The doctor replied in a cheerful tone.

‘Good! We’d be leaving in the next forty five minutes, prepare’ she said and turned back to proceed out of the room.

15 part 8 contd

_______

LAGOS

'Do you have any idea how those guys got into the house?' Dave asked Stephanie as they both stepped into the elevator.

Both of them were properly now washed, the makeup on their faces had been cleaned off and their hairstyles returned to normal. They'd just finished having dinner in the hotel hall and were returning back to their rooms.

'No, I don't know how they came in. All I saw was a gun pointed to my head.' she replied.

Two other people joined them in the elevator, so they had to pause their discussion until they got off to their floor.

'And what made him hit you on your face?'

'I think I turned after he asked me not to look back,' she replied.

Dave stared at the black spot on her face for a while and shook his head angrily. He wished he could see the guy at that moment and punch his face hard in return.

They were lodged in separate rooms but the doors just beside each other. The length of wall separating their door was less than half a metre.

Stephanie stopped in front of her door and Dave stopped in front of his. They turned and stared into each other's eyes for a minute which seemed like forever.

Stephanie was the first to look away and she immediately began to search her bag for the key.

'We need to talk tonight,' Dave said to her.

'Do we really need to?' Stephanie asked with a frown. 'I'm feeling quite and I need to rest.'

'I know you're tired and I'm sorry for making you pass through all you did today but we still have to talk before morning tomorrow. Would you prefer I wake you up by two a.m. ?'

'Two o'clock?' Stephanie widened her eyes in surprise.

'Yes, it's important we discuss before morning.'

'I'll call you when I'm done having my bath tonight,' she said as she unlocked the door with the key.



Forty Minutes Later



In Stephanie's room. She had changed into a short sleeping gown while Dave was just on a white singlet and black trousers. He sat on the long sofa in the room with a laptop on his right lap while she sat conveniently in the bed close to the edge with her back leaning against the headboard of the bed.

'We have to leave this hotel as early as five o'clock tomorrow, ' Dave said to her, his gaze fixed on the laptop screen and his fingers working on the keyboard.

She folded her arms and stared at his face. His face looked dry and white just like hers. They had visited a nurse who treated the wound on his head and recommended some drugs to him.

'Why should we leave so early? You have a wound on your headand you need to rest well,' she said, making it sound more like a complain.

'Steph, there's no time to rest now.' Dave replied back in a gruff voice, now staring at her. 'We don't even know if we're safe yet.'

Stephanie frowned as she heard his last statement, she tried to imagine what he meant but couldn't come up with anything. 'What do you mean by that?'

'We were in the middle of an interview today and our host was kidnapped, we don't know who did it or why they did it. If the police gets to know of our involvement, they would come looking for us first.' He said, wanting it to sound like a threat which would make her willing to listen to him.

Fear crept into Stephanie's heart slowly and she began to imagine different negative scenarios.

'You don't have to be scared, we only need to plan and we'd have no troubles.' Dave said on noticing she was beginning to fear.



Her gaze dropped from the ceiling where it was focused and fell on his face. She was almost regretting why she had agreed to follow him for the interview. If he was a real journalist, he might get the backing of his media house if he got into trouble but she had used a fake identity card which he provided and it could get her into more trouble.

'I have a plan and if we follow it carefully, we would have no problems.' Dave continued. 'I read on the news some few minutes ago that the police has credited the kidnap to Samantha Osman. They mentioned that her signatures were all over the place but thank God, they didn't mention anything about us.'

Stephanie looked away for a second on remembering something, then she looked at his face again. He was about to continue talking when she interrupted. 'That guy said Chief Nonso is one of Samantha Osman's sponsors and he also said you knew about it. You haven't explained that yet.'

'I was coming to that part,' Dave cleared his throat. 'But since you brought it up now, let's do away with it.' he said and dropped his laptop beside him on the sofa. He took something out of his pocket and proceeded towards her. He placed a knee on the ground close to where she was seated on the bed and placed his elbows on the mattress with the item he took out of his pocket still in his right hand.

'Stephanie, that guy that held you, can you identify him if you see him again?'

'Yes, I should be able to.'

'But do you recognize him from anywhere? I'm sure you must have seen him before,' Dave asked, squinting into her eyes.

Stephanie paused to think for a moment. She closed her eyes and pictured his face in her mind for some seconds but she couldn't see any resemblance to anyone she had met before. 'I don't think I've ever seen him.'

'You have, but you couldn't recognize him, I believe you couldn't because of his changed hairstyle. He also have his eyebrows and moustache totally shaved off, I also did not recognize him at that moment.'

'Who is he?'

'He was a friend of the late criminal Don Dan, he was there when you were kidnapped, they worked with the cult group.'

Stephanie tried again to recall if she had seen his face but she still could not.

'What about the other guy that hit my head from behind, can you recognize him?'

Stephanie frowned for a moment. 'No, I only remember he had a band covering his forehead. I couldn't look at his face boldly because he was pointing a gun at me and the other one also had his on my head.'

'Well, I suspect that those guys are from another group of assassins employed by the Vice President to follow Samantha Osman.' Dave said.

There was a brief silence in the room. Stephanie pondered on his words and tried to see the picture of another assassin being after Samantha Osman. 'But you said the police reported that Samantha Osman kidnapped the Chief.'

'Yes, that was what they reported but it's not true.'

'Well, does this mean that you truly knew that Chief Nonso was a sponsor of Samantha?'

'I don't know but I suspect he is. I think he's been suspected by the Vice President too and that's why the Vice President's assassins came to get him.'

'So, they're going to kill him? What if he's innocent?' Stephanie asked in a terrified voice.

'I don't think they'll kill him, they would rather want to use him to lure Samantha to them, or threaten her to take back the allegations she made against the Vice President.'

'How do you know all these? Aren't they too much for a journalist?' Stephanie asked, in doubt of who Dave really was.

Dave reached for her two hands and squeezed her palms in his softly, then he placed his hands gently on her knees, still holding her palms.

'I'm sorry I lied to you, but I'm not a journalist,' he said softly, looking deeply into her eyesas she stared into his too.

She released one of her hands from his grip and reached for the item he had dropped on the bed, the one he took out from his pocket earlier. It was an identity card and it had Dave's passport photograph at the upper right hand side. She stared at it for a few seconds and then looked at Dave's face.

'So you're a secret Agent?' she asked in low tones, giving him a thin stare.

He nodded and gently squeezed her palm which was still in his left hand. She stared at the identity card for few more seconds before returning it to the bed.

'So, what about your desert reporters'ID card? Is it fake too?' she asked.

He was silent for a moment. He had expected her to be angry and blame him for involving her in something so dangerous without considering her safety.

'I'm a journalist for Desert Reporters, I submit news articles also but I've only been to their office once. My work with them is majorly online,' he finally replied.

'I knew there was something more to it,'Stephanie began, now staring blankly at the wall. Dave reached for her second palm, hoping she wasn't going to flare up at him. 'A journalist had no business coming into the hospital to help me like you did, so I didn't believe when you told me you were one. I only got a bit confused when I saw the Desert Reporters' ID card with the original seal this morning but we had gone too far for me to start asking questions then.'

Dave stared at her lips as she spoke, wondering why she was still speaking calmly instead of getting mad at him. She looked down and stared at his face also. He felt bad once again seeing the spot on her eyes.

'So why did you have to tell me that you're an Agent, I thought your service is supposed to be secret?'

Dave felt surprised at her question. He blinked his eyes and chuckled, then he rose from his knees and sat at the edge of the bed facing her directly and part of his body touching her legs.

'I want you to decide what to do, it's dangerous to work with me. You can choose to return to Abuja today if you want to,I would still join you work on your case against the Vice President.' he said and waited for her response.

'I'm not going anywhere,' she replied, squeezing her face. 'If you wanted me to decide, you should have told me before we left Abuja.'

Dave closed his eyes for a second. 'When it comes to my job, we don't allow people decide to work with us or not. I actually thought I could do to you like we do to the others, but I can't.' Dave confessed. He stared down for a moment before looking at her face again. 'So, I'll fix the flight for you to return to Abuja tomorrow morning. I'll check you once I get back there,' he said and got up from the bed.

'No, I'm not going anywhere. What about the plans about making the allegations public?'

'I'll do that here, we don’t have to be together.'

'I'm not going anywhere, I'm here already.' she said stubbornly.

'Stephanie,' he returned to the bed. 'Listen, it's really dangerous to go around with me. I could get killed at anytime.'

'But you've been at this job for a long time and you are still alive.'

'Yes, I'm alive but I'm not sure of being alive tomorrow.'

She shook her head stubbornly and folded her arms.

'Stephanie, what you saw is little today. My job gets so dangerous at times.' Dave said, trying to convince her. 'I was the one who led the chase on Samantha Osman from Crescent Moon Hotel in Anambra State someweeks ago, I almost got killed.'

'Do you chase after her everyday?'Stephanie asked.

Dave heaved a sigh and remained silent for a moment. 'Do you really want to stay here even after knowing I'm not a journalist?'

'I didn't come here with you because you were a journalist, I wouldn't leave because you're not one.'

Dave let out a breath and stared at her silently for some seconds. Then he moved closer and held her hand again. Stephanie tried to shift her legs to give space for him but her night gown opened and her left thigh was revealed. She quickly covered it back and remained in the previous position.

'I've seen only one lady in recent times that caught my attention like you do, I wanted to go after her that day...' Dave suddenly paused. He narrowed his gaze for some seconds as if he was thinking about what next to say. 'Not that I really had anything to say to her but I just wanted to know her,' he said and paused again. 'The truth is, I didn't ask you to come with me just for you to help me in my investigations, I only wanted to be close to you.'

She folded her lips in, staring at him speechlessly while he continued to talk. 'I want to ask you again, do you really want to stay here?'

She squeezed her eyebrows and pouted her lips for some seconds. 'Yes, I'm not leaving here...'

She couldn't complete her words as he pulled her into a tight hug at that moment. She felt shocked at first but got to relax her body.

'You're choking me already,' she complained a minute after. Dave seemed to be totally lost.

'I'm sorry,'he released her and quickly jumped to his feet.

She gave him an awkward stare for a moment while he also stood on a spot and stared back at her. 'I thought you said we had to make plans for tomorrow.'

'Oh! That's true.'

Dave returned quickly to the sofa and continued to work with his laptop.

'Can you come here, I'd like to show you something?' he said motioning her to join him on the sofa.

She got up and joined him there. She looked at the computer screen to see what he was doing but couldn’t understand.

‘You lost the phone I gave you, you see why I asked you to leave your own phone in your room?’

‘It dropped from my hands when the man hit my face. Did you know I was going to lose the phone?’

‘No, I did not; I didn’t take my phone with me too. As a secret agent, I don’t go around with things that I could be easily traced with.’

‘Hmmm, I get you.’

‘Here,’ Dave pointed to something on the laptop.

She looked at the screen. There was a large map now being displayed and a green shaded circle covering a point.

‘The Chief should be right here,’ Dave said. ‘They’re hiding him somewhere in Igbede.’

‘Is that in Lagos State?’ Stephanie asked.

‘Yes, this is Lagos map. Igbede is a community close to Ajangbadi in Ojo.’

He let her stare at the map for some more time before speaking again. ‘The man was taken with his phone, the installation you made on it before you were attacked apart from recording his phone calls for us, enables us to track the location of the phone on earth at point in time even if it is switched off.’

‘That’s interesting,’ she glanced at Dave’s face. ‘So, do we give this information out to the police?’

‘Police? No,’ he stared at her face. ‘The Vice President controls the police through the Inspector General, we would handle it ourselves.’

‘How? Just the two of us?’ Stephanie asked.

Dave nodded.

‘Can’t you get the other people from your agency involved?’

‘That should have been the case, but sadly my colleagues have also been compromised.’

‘Are you sure we can go there alone?’

‘We won’t go alone, Samantha Osman would be there before us.’

‘I don’t understand,’ Stephanie frowned.

‘I’ll send her a message and give out their location. If she responds to it as expected and he’s truly her sponsor, she would be the one to go save the Chief.’

‘Oh!’ Stephanie was about to ask another question when a ring tone distracted her. ‘That’s my phone,’ she said as she got up and walked to the bed to pick it.

‘Hello,’ she said after answering the call. ‘Mom!’ she exclaimed as she turned back, her eyes filled with happiness as it met with Dave’s. ‘Are you just landing?’

‘I heard you are in Abuja,’ the mom said from the other end.

‘Oh yes..sss… I was in Abuja,’ she answered hesitatingly.

‘Oh! I landed in Abuja and I was wishing I’d meet you at the house.’

‘No mom, I left already but I’ll soon be back.’

‘It’s okay, I’ll see you later dear.’

‘Yes mom, Goodnight. It’s good to have you back.’

Stephanie heaved a sigh after the call ended and returned to the seat.

‘So, now that Madam Henrietta is back, would you like to return to Abuja tomorrow?’ Dave asked her.

_______

11PM

IGBEDE, LAGOS.

Stainless pushed the door gently open and peeped in. He looked around the room, it was so dark and he couldn’t tell where Rex was seating but he was sure because he could smell the smoke from weed which filled the room.

‘What do you want Stainless?’

Stainless was startled by the voice. He looked towards the direction of the voice and was finally able to see a figure looking very dark from afar.

‘The man is now awake.’

‘Yes, I know he is. The effect of the drug should have expired.’

‘Ermm… Aren’t we doing anything to him tonight?’

‘We’d work on him from tomorrow, Chief Elvis Richards will be joining us.’

_______

ABUJA

3:45AM

Tarasha followed behind the Doctor as they walked into the house. She dropped the box she was holding on the floor to close back the door before proceeding with it again. She had gone with the man to the former base and they had used the laboratory there to prepare different liquids and mixtures. Tarasha had done most of the job, the doctor only supported. He wasn’t a lab scientist or expert in mixing and preparing poisonous substances but was helpful to her due to his ability to use the lab tools and his medical knowledge.



They met Cole sleeping on the long sofa in the living room. He stirred and sat up as he heard them approaching him.

Tarasha stopped at the middle of the living room and stared at him as he stretched and yawned while the doctor proceeded into his own room. She didn’t need to ask him why he was sleeping in the living room. She knew he hadn’t been sleeping in the room meant for him and Tomi and since Dr Ekwueme whose room he shared wasn’t around, he must have decided to use the living room.

‘I got your text message, can you explain more to me?’ Tarasha asked.

‘It’s a message from Dave James, he sent a location to us and claimed that Chief Nonso was taken there.’

‘Isn’t that the Secret Agent who works like a journalist?’

‘Yes, he sent the message as a journalist who was providing information to us, he doesn’t know we know who he is yet. He wants us to be at the location tomorrow morning. Ermm… I mean today actually.’

‘Let’s see the message,' she said and marched towards the direction of the computer room. Cole followed her. ‘Do you think he’s saying the truth?’

‘I think so, from the footages, two Desert Reporters Journalists were present in the Chief’s house when he was kidnapped, a male and a female. I think Dave James was the one disguised as the male.’

‘We’d have to confirm that,’ Tarasha said as she opened the computer room door.


Read more here - www.youngicee.com/category/tarasha-season-2

THE CHRONICLES OF TAOFIK SHAKITIBOBO -


THE MIRACLE MISTRESS
So jejely I’m just sitting at Iya Bode’s bar sipping my beer. I kuku don’t have any runs for this weekend. Bimpe had told me earlier today that her dog was not feeling fine and she would be taking her to the vet this weekend. But that Bimpe girl sha! With her sexy figure 8! After all these years of secret office dating with nothing to show for it (No kissing, No Hugging), I finally managed to convince her to spend the weekend at my place this weekend but that’s when her yeye dog knows she is going to be sick (that's her excuse). Kunle my roommate thinks she is playing me but i disagree, that girl loves me too much and i don't want anything bad to happen to her dog because of me. The yeye Kunle must be feeling like one winner now that he has the main room to himself after we had argued for almost like forever about whose turn it is to use the main room this weekend. The thought of going to Lucky our usual ashawo joint crossed my mind but the way I was beginning to have feelings for that Belinda girl is getting me scared. I mean how can a whole me Taofik shakitibobo himself be having feelings for a call girl? L’aye! Kole wek! So that brings me to why I settled for Iya Bode’s place. At least after my regular 2 bottles of beer and maybe one or two plates of pepper soup (depending on how the night goes) I will go and sleep in peace on the couch in the other room.

I was thinking of how boring this weekend is going to be and how to face Kunle when I get home, I’m sure he will definitely want to rob it in (I too make mouth about my Bimpe runs). I was so caught up in my thought I didn’t notice a lady collapsing into the chair beside me. ‘What are you drinking?’ her voice brought me out of my thought. ‘Sorry, you said’ I replied. She then looked at me more closely the way a medical doctor would his patient ‘good evening, is everything ok? You don’t seem to be here at all’ she quizzed, I’m like ‘I’m ok jare, just a little tired after the day’s work, at least thank God today is Friday, I’ll have enough time to rest’, she smiled and said ‘eeya sorry, so what’s the name of your drink, your bottle has no label’. That’s true my bottles usually has no label, I peel them off almost immediately after opening the crown cock on it, meanwhile in my mind I’m like who is this JJC girl at a bar all by herself asking me for the name of my drink, she wan pay for me? ‘Eagle….that’s the name of my drink’ I tried to pay more attention to her face, I mean, if I’m going to be chatting with a stranger- a girl for that matter- I should at least know what she looks like. She looks like an omo butter kind of girl but damn, this babe fine sha! Dark skinned, plumb body, not plumb like fat oo, like Omotola Jolade kind of plumb, big Ghana weaving hair style, her age should be between 23 and 25 and to make matter worse she even has a dimple to match her flawless dentition, omo-boy gass try his luck on this one.



PLEASE READ THE COMPLETE STORY HERE --------> https://www.nairaland.com/4490126/chronicles-taofik-shakitibobo-miracle-mistress

Madera001:
THE CHRONICLES OF TAOFIK SHAKITIBOBO -


THE MIRACLE MISTRESS
So jejely I’m just sitting at Iya Bode’s bar sipping my beer. I kuku don’t have any runs for this weekend. Bimpe had told me earlier today that her dog was not feeling fine and she would be taking her to the vet this weekend. But that Bimpe girl sha! With her sexy figure 8! After all these years of secret office dating with nothing to show for it (No kissing, No Hugging), I finally managed to convince her to spend the weekend at my place this weekend but that’s when her yeye dog knows she is going to be sick (that's her excuse). Kunle my roommate thinks she is playing me but i disagree, that girl loves me too much and i don't want anything bad to happen to her dog because of me. The yeye Kunle must be feeling like one winner now that he has the main room to himself after we had argued for almost like forever about whose turn it is to use the main room this weekend. The thought of going to Lucky our usual ashawo joint crossed my mind but the way I was beginning to have feelings for that Belinda girl is getting me scared. I mean how can a whole me Taofik shakitibobo himself be having feelings for a call girl? L’aye! Kole wek! So that brings me to why I settled for Iya Bode’s place. At least after my regular 2 bottles of beer and maybe one or two plates of pepper soup (depending on how the night goes) I will go and sleep in peace on the couch in the other room.

I was thinking of how boring this weekend is going to be and how to face Kunle when I get home, I’m sure he will definitely want to rob it in (I too make mouth about my Bimpe runs). I was so caught up in my thought I didn’t notice a lady collapsing into the chair beside me. ‘What are you drinking?’ her voice brought me out of my thought. ‘Sorry, you said’ I replied. She then looked at me more closely the way a medical doctor would his patient ‘good evening, is everything ok? You don’t seem to be here at all’ she quizzed, I’m like ‘I’m ok jare, just a little tired after the day’s work, at least thank God today is Friday, I’ll have enough time to rest’, she smiled and said ‘eeya sorry, so what’s the name of your drink, your bottle has no label’. That’s true my bottles usually has no label, I peel them off almost immediately after opening the crown cock on it, meanwhile in my mind I’m like who is this JJC girl at a bar all by herself asking me for the name of my drink, she wan pay for me? ‘Eagle….that’s the name of my drink’ I tried to pay more attention to her face, I mean, if I’m going to be chatting with a stranger- a girl for that matter- I should at least know what she looks like. She looks like an omo butter kind of girl but damn, this babe fine sha! Dark skinned, plumb body, not plumb like fat oo, like Omotola Jolade kind of plumb, big Ghana weaving hair style, her age should be between 23 and 25 and to make matter worse she even has a dimple to match her flawless dentition, omo-boy gass try his luck on this one.



PLEASE READ THE COMPLETE STORY HERE --------> https://www.nairaland.com/4490126/chronicles-taofik-shakitibobo-miracle-mistress

Mr man stop derailing this thread

15 part 9

® 18 + SNVL

© Oyinloye Oluwatosin Emmanuel



4:12AM

'Boss, Boss,' Cole called twice to get Tarasha's attention where they sat in the computer room.

Her eyes turned to him but she didn't look startled even though she had previously been staring like someone who was lost in deep thoughts.

She raised her eyebrows at him when he stopped talking after calling her attention.

'So, what are we going to do? The stature of the guy in those footages is exactly the journalist's stature, we're sure he's the one who was with the Chief before the abduction, we also saw someone with Rex's stature.'

'I'm trying to be as careful as possible, it would be foolish for us to fall into a trap at this stage. It could be the end of the road for us,' Tarasha replied.

Cole sighed and rested his back. They remained in silence for almost five minutes.

'Okay, we would reply his message while we start the move to Lagos. I'm trying to be sure he's not working for the Vice President too.'

'So, what do we send back to him in reply and how do we move to Lagos?'

'You should book the next available flight for all of us while I handle the message,' she said to him and turned back immediately to the computer to begin work.



_____



8AM

IGBEDE, LAGOS STATE.



Chief Nonso shivered in the room as cold breeze blew in through the opened window. He opened his eyes and looked around. He was still on the same chair with his hands and legs fastened with ropes and his mouth covered with a tape. He stared at the window for a while, trying to guess what time of the day it was. It was turning bright already but the sun wasn't out yet.

Another gentle wind blew in again and after it followed the sound of water droplets on the ground. Chief Nonso was now beginning to perceive the smell of rain. Soon the winds began to rush in more violently as a sign of a coming heavy rain. It continued for some minutes before Stainless walked into the room and went straight to the window to close it. He walked out back without saying anything to the Chief. Just as he closed the door with a loud bang, the rains began to pour down heavily

Twenty minutes later, Stainless returned into the room with another man. The lights in the room were turned on and the dark place became very bright. Rex dragged a chair to the front of the man and sat down.

‘Good morning Chief,’ he greeted in a cool voice.

Chief Nonso stared at him without blinking. He recognized Rex as the man who ordered him into the car the day before.

‘I see you have no time for unnecessary formalities, so I’d go straight to business.’ Rex said and adjusted his seating position. ‘We have a deal for you, it’s either you agree and go free or disagree and pay heavily for it.’ Rex paused to get a response from the man but the Chief remained mute. Rex got up from his seat and placed his feet on a little space on the man’s seat, he rested his arms on the knee of the leg placed on the seat and leaned forward o look into the man’s eyes. ‘Well, we want you to deliver Samantha Osman to us, how easy would it be for you to do that?’ Rex paused again to get a response from the man but still got none, he was getting angry already but tried his best to maintain his calmness.

He placed his feet back to the ground and took in a very deep breath. He walked some steps away from the man to the left side of the room and faced the wall. ‘I want you to realize that you do not only stake your own life but that of your wife and children and even your extended family’s life.’

Chief Nonso was shaken a bit by the threat but he tried to hold himself in. He remembered what was done to Chief Onwuli, how the man was killed and his whole family was wiped out after him. He couldn’t imagine the same happening to him but he knew that the same person who ordered Chief Onwuli’s death was still as wicked as ever and would not mind wiping out his family just like his abductor threatened.

‘Who are you and who sent you all these?’ Chief Nonso finally spoke out.

Rex turned back and faced him. ‘I’m out to stop Samantha Osman, bring Samantha Osman to me and I would let you and your family be.’

Chief Nonso gasped out. He didn’t know whether to believe his abductor’s words or not.

‘What are you considering? If I would keep to my words?’ Rex asked, raising his upper lips in scorn. ‘You have no choice, no one knows you’re here and no one can save you.’

‘I have to be go**** sure that you will fulfill your part of the bargain before I agree,’ Chief Nonso slammed angrily.

‘Calm down Mister, I could have chosen to force out the location from you but I chose to give you a choice.’ Rex said as he walked back to his seat and sat down.

Chief Nonso pondered on the matter for a while and concluded in his heart that it was better to give in than risk the lives of his family members.

He looked up and stared at Rex’s face. ‘But the truth is I do not know where she is right now, I don’t even have an idea.’

‘But you can help us bring her to a location we want,’ Rex said with an evil smile.

‘How?’

Rex turned back and flashed a quick look at Stainless. Stainless moved closer at once and took out two phones, he handed them to Rex and stepped back.

‘In which of them do you have Samantha Osman’s number stored?’

Chief Nonso pointed to his own phone, the second one was the female journalist’s phone which he had picked from the floor in his house.

‘Our first task for you is to call her and tell her to deny all her allegations against the Vice President,’ Rex said and got up to his feet to help the man take off the ropes fastening him to the chair. It took Rex a  minute to take off the rope binding the man’s hands off but he still left the ones binding the legs. He handed the phone to the man and returned to his seat. He turned to Stainless and made a signal, Stainless understood and quickly walked to stay behind the man to monitor the call.

‘I’m not sure if I would be able to reach her,’ Chief Nonso said, still waiting for the phone which he had just powered on to finish loading.

15 part 9 contd

Rex raised his eyebrows, demanding for reasons the man was speaking of possible inability to reach Samantha.

‘She has only called me twice on this number, but it never connects when I try to reach her.’ The Chief explained.

‘Is that the only phone number she uses?’

‘That’s the only one I have.’

Chief Nonso placed the phone on loud speakers for the two of them to listen. His call was directed to voice mail.

‘Drop a voice mail if her number wouldn’t connect and send a text message after the voice mail, she would get one of the both,’ Rex said.



______



AJANGBADI, LAGOS STATE.



'Palace Hotel!' Dave shouted out loud, calling unto a passing cab. The cab which speed had been slowed for him sped off immediately the driver heard the location. It only meant one thing, the driver was going to the location or anywhere close by it.

Dave heaved a sigh and shook his head. He was totally drenched already with the rain water and it was still pouring down on him but he refused to leave the road side and join Stephanie where she was hiding under the balcony roof of a closed shop. Stephanie had asked that they waited until the rain intensify reduced but Dave wasn't willing to wait, he needed to get to the hotel as quick as he could so that he could check his mail for Samantha Osman’s response and also check the flight bookings of Abuja to Lagos to see if he would notice her movement. He knew it was possible for her not to be coming from Abuja, so he had already made plans on how to get an overview of those who lands in a flight to Lagos that day from any state.

Fifteen minutes later, a cab going to his destination finally stopped by. He beckoned on Stephanie as he opened the front door of the cab and entered, Stephanie quickly walked into the rain from her hiding place and entered into the car. They got to the hotel not too after and were lodged into two separate rooms close to each other like the first. Both of them settled in their individual rooms and began to do their different works.

It took some few minutes for Dave to set up his laptop. The first notification he received after setting up the laptop was the email reply he was expecting. He eagerly opened it, thinking that she had accepted his offer but he was disappointed with the reply he saw.

‘Mr. Dave James,

I kidnapped the only Chief Nonso Abel yesterday as the news reports, which other Chief’s location are you reporting to me?’

Dave paused for some minutes to think. He couldn’t understand what game she was trying to play. After a while he realized that she must be doubting the location he sent to her and his claim to know how the man was kidnapped. He clicked on the compose tool and began to type in a reply to her.

‘Samantha Osman,

I know you didn’t kidnap the Chief, and I know how that the known signature is not yours. The location I provided you is real and I hope that you do act before it’s too late.’

He proofread the message after typing before he sent. He stared at the screen for a while after the message was sent, expecting an instant reply from her but he realized he wasn’t chatting and that it could take her several hours to see the message.

He felt a growling sound in his stomach and he knew that it was his body crying to get some food. He got up from his seat and proceeded to the bed to get his phone. He wanted to call Stephanie and ask what she wanted to take for breakfast.

A call came in just as he was about to dial Stephanie’s number.

‘Hey! Agent Dan, Morning.’ He saluted his colleague.

‘Morning sir,’ the caller replied in the same tone as his. ‘How are you doing this morning?’

‘I’m fine, how about you?’

‘I’m fine, and what about your girlfriend, is she better now?’

‘Yes, she is even though she’s yet to regain her memory but the doctor says its only temporal.’

‘That’s sad, but I pray she gets perfect soon.’

‘Yea, Thanks.’

‘Alright bro, hope you remember you are to resume work tomorrow,’ Dan said.

‘Oh! Yea… I do,’ Dave replied, sounding not too happy to be remembered. ‘I’ll see you at work tomorrow.’

‘Okay, safe trip.’

‘Thank you.’

Dave heaved a sigh after the call ended. He wasn’t planning to return to Abuja before the next day and there was no way he would resume work. His job was at stake and he knew it. The only way he could get permission to stay more was if he reported to the office that he got a good lead or headway on the present case and he had to remain there to investigate further. If the chairman accepts his lead or headway as good enough, he would be permitted to stay for as long as it takes to solve the case but would have to send reports every forty eight hours to the office and might also be sent people to work with him. His major fear was that the person or persons sent to him would be like Dan who would have been compromised with money.

A message ringtone sounded on his laptop before he could think of dialing Stephanie’s number again. He dropped the phone and quickly walked back to the laptop, he had gotten a reply from Samantha Osman.

‘Dave James,

Meet  by five am tomorrow before at Newton’s College in Okokomaiko.'



A worried look appeared on Dave's face after reading the new message. It was obvious Samantha Osman still did not believe him. He took some minutes to think of what to do and decided to send her another message.

'Tomorrow might be late, the man's life is in danger.'  he typed and sent. He placed his elbows on he table, one on each side and buried his face in his palms. A reply came to his message in less than a minute.

'In whose custody is the man?'

He began to type his own reply immediately. 'He was kidnapped by the same man who killed Senator Garuba Ahmed and Mr Eze Okafor.' he paused for a minute to read through again before clicking on send.

'I killed both men, what are you talking about?' her reply came seconds after. The conversation was becoming more like an instant messenger chat.

'I believe you didn't kill them, the real person who killed them just kidnapped Chief Nonso.'

'Mr. Dave James, see you at Newton's College tomorrow morning.'

'I insist that tomorrow morning might be too late,' Dave typed in and sent.

He waited to get a response like the previous ones but stayed for ten minutes without getting any. He placed his forehead on the table beside the laptop and was about sleeping off when he heard a knock at the door.

'Come in,' he said and turned towards the door, thinking that it was a room service agent.

The door opened slowly and Stephanie walked in. She closed the door and stopped just behind it.

'You were not answering your calls,' she said and began to walk towards him slowly.

‘Oh! You called him,’ Dave asked with his eyebrows raised. He got up from his seat and got up to look for his phone. He discovered that he had tossed it under the pillow and that had muffled the sound of the ringtone. He had also gotten two missed calls from Lizzy.



‘Aren’t you going to get something to eat this morning?’

‘I would of course, I already thought about coming to ask what you would like to take but I’ve been waiting to receive the reply from Samantha Osman.’ Dave answered as he walked back to the seat.

Stephanie sat at the edge of the bed and crossed her feet. ‘Is it possible that she didn’t receive the message yesterday?’

‘She did, I’ve gotten a reply to yesterday’s message already and I’ve exchanged a couple of messages with her during the last thirty minutes.’



‘So what did she say?’

Dave remained quiet for a while. He refreshed the email application to see if it was network delaying the entrance of her reply.

‘She wants to meet me tomorrow morning in a school at Okoko,’ Dave replied.

‘Oh!’ Stephanie’s eyes turned bright. ‘Would we go together?’

Dave glanced at her briefly and then looked at the computer screen again to check if any message had entered.

‘Are we going together?’ Stephanie asked again.

‘Steph, I’m not sure if I would go yet.’

‘You won’t go?’ Stephanie asked in a disappointed tone.

‘Yes, I won’t. It’s dangerous, I don’t know what she could have in plans for me.’

‘But we’re trying to help her by telling her how to help the Chief.’

‘She doesn’t know that yet and even if she does, she still remains a criminal and a very dangerous one at that.’

‘So what do we do?’

‘I don’t know, I’m still thinking about it.’