TARASHA Episode 12 Pt 4 – Oyin Oluwatosin Emmanuel
Tears began to form in Henry’s eyes as he listened to Jefa’s narration of the Danjuma’s family disaster and how he got separated from the rest of his siblings. There was no difference between Jefa’s account from Evelyn’s. Henry could also see the same pain and torment that he saw in Evelyn’s eyes . But apart from the pain in Jefa’s eyes, there was something else that Henry couldn’t understand. It was the thirst for revenge.
‘So you think Evelyn does not recognize you?’ Henry cleared his throat and began after listening in silence for a long while.
‘Omotara’ Jefa corrected.
‘Sorry, Omotara’ Henry smiled softly.
‘I don’t think she knows who I am but I believe she felt a connection when she saw me’ Jefa answered.
‘Why didn’t you speak out then? You didn’t say anything, you could have called her by her real name, Omotara’
‘I didn’t know what to do’ Jefa sniffed in, more tears began to fall off his face. ‘I was so overwhelmed with the shock of seeing her, I didn’t know if I was ready to come back into her life. I was afraid to speak, I didn’t know how she would feel about me now, I couldn’t protect them as their eldest brother, I failed’ Jefa began to sob.
‘Wipe your face please’ Henry said and stretched out his hand to hold Jefa’s palm. He waited for Jefa to comply before he continued. ‘So what do you intend to do now?’ Henry asked.
‘I want to see her’ Jefa stated clearly, still wiping his face.
Henry paused for a while and closed his eyes as he inhaled deeply. He opened his eyes and stared into Jefa’s. ‘I don’t know where she is now’ he said. ‘She doesn’t work here in Elymax, she only came to stay here for a while. I don’t have any idea of her whereabouts’
‘No, no, no’ Jefa’s body vibrated in fear, the fear of not seeing his sister again. He couldn’t stand the regrets that would follow him all his life when he remembers that he didn’t take the opportunity immediately when he saw her.
‘I came here to look for her also and I’ve not gotten any clue yet’ Henry added. He took out a folded paper from his pocket, he opened it up and stared into it. That was Evelyn’s details which she provided to the hotel. It was all fake. She claimed to be a visitor from Canada, including a fake house and Street address. Henry felt no hope of seeing her again.
‘I must find her’ Jefa said to himself, loud enough for Henry to hear.
‘We can find her’ Henry joined excitedly suddenly remembering something, he took out his Android phone. He unlocked the phone by drawing the security pattern. He clicked on an application which began to process.
‘I can get access to everybody’s database in the country as far as I’ve got their real names’ Henry boasted with a reassuring look to Jefa. ‘I once worked in the National Citizens Affairs and we have the details of every citizen who is above the age of eighteen’
Henry could really gain access, illegal access though. He would have to hack into the country’s online database.
The application was taking time to load. ‘So where have you been all these years?’ Henry asked, trying to while away time.
‘It’s a long story…’ Jefa was about to begin.
‘Okay, okay’ Henry interrupted, the application had finished booting. ‘What did you call her full name again?’
‘Omotara Danjuma’ Jefa answered.
Henry typed in the name and clicked a command which began to process. Several options began to appear, in thirty seconds, there were over twenty options with middle names and it was still loading.
‘Humm… Could you tell her middle name so I can narrow down my search’
‘Omotara Cindy Danjuma’
Henry cleared the search and added the third name, the search process began again. This time only four options appeared. Henry clicked on the first option and it began to load. After sometime, it showed an error page. Jefa stared into the phone intently, though he didn’t understand what Henry was doing.
‘Oops! Inaccessible’ Henry read aloud to himself. That means that he couldn’t access the details from his IP address even if he could access the site. He smiled to himself. Other Nigerian developers were growing fast too, they have been able to add more security to the database. But it wasn’t something that could stop Henry permanently, he only needed more time.
A phone call from Sylvester interrupted. ‘Please, I have to answer this’ he said to Jefa before answering. ‘Hello sir’
‘Mr Henry, where are you at?’ Sylvester’s voice came hastily from the other end.
‘Somewhere around town’ Henry answered, surprised at the question.
‘Please, we need you in the office right away. We have some urgent questions to answer’ Sylvester said. Henry could have refused but Sylvester’s tone sounded really urgent.
‘Okay, I’ll be there in few minutes time’ Henry replied.
‘We’ll be waiting for you please’ Sylvester said and the call ended.
‘I have to go now’ Henry said to Jefa who was already staring at him expectantly. He stood up immediately.
Jefa stared at Henry with a pity face, looking like his last object of hope was about to disappear.
‘Can I get your phone number too?’ Henry asked after handing Jefa his business card.
Jefa called out the digits for him and Henry stored it in his phone. ‘Where are you going? Maybe I could drop you off the way’ Henry offered, taking out his car key from his pocket.
Henry’s phone beeped again. His device locator had a notification, one of his tracked devices had just been located. Henry ignored the notification temporarily and walked out of the building with Jefa.
~~
The phone booted with a medium volume power tone. Benny waited patiently for it to boot so he could see the features in it but he was disappointed when it finally booted, it was protected with a password. He flung the phone back into the wardrobe and picked out his shorts. He quickly changed into his shorts and left the room.
Tarasha was seated upright when he passed the living room, he avoided looking at her and walked out straight to join Cole and Aisha.
‘You’re back again for more?’ Cole taunted. Cole and Aisha were already in the middle of a round. Cole had taken Benny’s former seating position which was opposite Aisha so Benny opted for the available space which Cole used before.
‘I’m not ready for you today’ Benny replied Cole. ‘I’ll deal with you both some other time’
‘Okay, let’s hope so’ Cole said with a short laugh.
‘Who’s got that phone you have inside?’ Benny asked Cole.
‘Which one?’
‘It doesn’t have a label. It dropped from one of your trousers’
Cole hissed. ‘I don’t really know who has it, I picked it from the car we rented for the last operation and I’ve been expecting for the Boss to ask if it’s hers. I think it’s for the guy that was in the car with us’
‘Okay, but you better ask the boss. It’s useless to you anyway’
‘Useless? Because it’s passworded?’ Cole questioned. ‘I could flash it if I have need of it’
‘Just speak to the boss about it’
‘It’s not hers jare’ Cole sounded convinced.
‘Then why are you keeping it?’
Cole paused to stare at him. ‘Don’t you see it’s not an ordinary kind of phone. It may be useful for something’
Benny shook his head at Cole’s stubbornness. ‘It’s okay, as you wish’
~~
‘Hello Chief Gab’ Tarasha spoke into the phone in a pleasant voice.
‘Tarasha, how are you?’ Chief Gab sounded cool and happy.
‘Fine Chief, thanks’
‘Okay, how soon are we going to see again?’
‘See again? Who says we’re going to see again?’
‘I mean about the next job’
‘How many of our targets do we still have left?’ Tarasha drifted a bit and asked a question which kept Chief Gab mute for seconds.
‘Two’ he finally said. ‘Two main targets but more enemies may come up along the line’
‘Send me details of the two and let’s see how we can take them out together at a time’
‘Do you think it would be possible that way?’
‘I have to get their details first to be able to analyze that. We have no options than to try it that way. Things are getting more complicated and the country is tightening up their security’
‘Alright, I’ll mail them to you now but do you know our deal does not end with the death of the targets?’
‘What ends the deal?’
‘It’s a two year deal’
‘So you’re gonna keep me even if there’s no job to do?’
‘There’ll always be a job to do’ Chief Gab sounded confident.
Tarasha paused and took in a deep breath. ‘Send me the details as soon as possible’ she said before ending the call.
~~
Dakolo’s job had began already, he was already in the NSCC’s head office for questioning. Part of the reason he had come to Abuja before his official arriving date was to make some secret personal investigation.
He had just seen Mr Sylvester, the head of operation in the corporation and asked him about the steps the corporation was taking to stop the recent security breaks.
‘While we are not assuring you of finding the source of the previous disruptions, we are doing our best to ensure that none of it happens again’ Mr Sylvester had answered.
‘But what about the one which happened recently here in your backyard?’ Dakolo had replied him.
Sylvester replied with a shocking look. ‘What do you mean? Which one happened here?’
‘Oh! You’re not aware that there was no transmission from the street cameras all close to the location of the recent assassination during the time of assassination and two hours after it’
‘Which one are you talking about?’ Sylvester still looked ignorant.
‘Chief Jubril Lawal’s assassination on his birthday’ Dakolo stated.
‘No, nothing like that has been reported. There was no failure from our systems that day’ Sylvester refuted.
Dakolo gave a mock chuckle. ‘Okay, can I see all footages from the street that day?’ Dakolo then requested.
‘Of course, I can get that for you now’ Sylvester began to punch commands hastily into his computer system. After minutes of searching and not finding anything, Dakolo’s allegation began to seem true to him. He put a call to the NSCC official in charge of the assassination area to report and waited some minutes for reply. The official couldn’t find any record too. Dakolo had no other choice than to call on Henry. Things were getting out of hand already and he was scared that he could lose his job if it was mentioned in the public that even he as the chairman of the corporation had no knowledge of their recent system failure. He silently thanked God that the police had not released information about it to the press.
Henry arrived some few minutes later and went into a secret room where Sylvester was waiting for him.
‘Mr Henry’ Sylvester got up from his seat as Henry walked in. ‘Here’ Sylvester handed a document he just printed to Henry after offering him a handshake. He ushered Henry to a seat behind the computer.
‘There was a breach on Thursday?’ Henry asked with a flabbergasted tone.
‘Yes, I didn’t believe it too when I was told ‘ Sylvester joined in. ‘And to think that the incompetent fools in charge of the area did not notice anything nor did they make any report’
Henry remained silent for some minutes and focused his attention on the computer. ‘But why was there no alert? Or alarm raised by the system?’
‘Sir, there have always been no alarm raised since the security breaks started’
‘And does that also mean that…’ Sylvester’s phone rang aloud interrupting their conversation.
‘The agent’ Sylvester whispered before answering the call. ‘Hello… I’m coming with him already’
‘Do we have to go now?’ Henry whispered back.
‘Yes, I’ll be there with him in some few minutes’ Sylvester concluded with his call before answering Henry. ‘Let’s go explain things to this man. He’s a top security agent, his report about us could cost me my job’
Henry had no choice than to smile at the sound of the word “job” from Sylvester again. The man was always scared of losing his job. ‘Okay, let’s go’ Henry got up from the seat.
Few minutes later, they walked into the room where Dakolo was seated. Dakolo who was facing front turned back his swivel at their entrance.
‘Oh! Henry’ Dakolo was first to notice.
‘Officer Dakolo’ Henry was surprised too.
‘Agent Dakolo’ he corrected.
‘Sorry, agent Dakolo’ Henry said with a smile.
There was an handshake between them again. ‘Are you by any chance the person I’ve been waiting for?’ Dakolo asked.
‘I guess so’ Henry replied, turning around the table to seat behind the computer.
‘So you’ve been working with NSCC?’ Dakolo asked.
‘I’ve actually come to help for a short time. I joined few weeks ago’ Henry answered.
Sylvester was smiling sheepishly as he watched the two talk like people who have been friends for a long while. He believed that things would work out easier now and the Agent wouldn’t be too mad at the corporation, and his “job” would be secured
‘Thank God I have you here, I was already thinking of calling you in. Well, I’m here in respect of the recent breaks in streets cameras transmission’
‘I’m aware sir, I’ve actually been working on a program that would stop the breaks permanently, although it may not guarantee us the real locations of those who try to break it’
‘So, can you try locate those who did the recent one? How come you guys were not even aware?’
‘Truly, the guys monitoring the place were not vigilant enough’ Henry replied.
‘Damn! They were too careless’ Dakolo said. ‘Has anyone of them been queried?’ Dakolo asked. He received no answer from Henry who had turned his full focus to what he was doing on the computer. Dakolo turned to Sylvester for an answer. Sylvester shook in fear, not knowing what to say, he stared at Henry, hoping he’ll come to his aid.
‘Wow!’ Henry exclaimed and exhaled through his mouth. ‘These guys are intelligent!’
‘Which guys?’ Dakolo asked. Sylvester also seemed very interested.
‘The guys involved in this crime’ Henry said, relaxing back into the swivel. ‘What they actually do is to deceive those monitoring the transmission and footages. They stop the cameras from transmitting and send signals of repeat transmission of previous days to the monitors . So the supervisors would not notice there was anything until they are asked to provide the tapes’
‘Interesting! So you mean there was something playing on the screens of those monitoring it while the real transmission had already stopped?’
‘Yes, the only places that would not receive the fake signals is here in the headquarters, in the Lagos head office and head police cameras division. These places have the direct servers while the others don’t’
‘Then why wasn’t it noticed here?’ Dakolo asked.
‘There’s no way we can monitor everywhere at the same time. That’s why branches were set up’
‘So, what are we going do now?’
‘We’ve only just found out the mode of the failure, we can be able to find a solution now’ Henry said softly. ‘But as for finding the source of the failure, we have less than 1% probability. The hacker who did this is smart and would definitely lead one into a trap if we’re desperately trying to follow his already covered tracks. He’ll just create another track leading to his trap . That explains what happened to Robin Kahn and his men’
… To be continued
