TARASHA Episode 17 Pt 4 – Oyin Oluwatosin Emmanuel
Tarasha paused to stare at the man in front of her. He stood at ease and narrowed his gaze at her, twitching his lips. She could see the gun curves showing at the pocket side of his trousers. At first she was sure that he was a policeman until he mentioned her name. Then she became uncertain, she wasn’t expecting the police to have made so much progress in investigating her. ‘Tarasha,’ Don called and took a step forward. She took two steps backward without responding to his call. Don paused to reason for a moment. The door behind her was opened, so it would be easy for her to get out and he didn’t want that to happen. ‘Tarasha, can we talk?’ He called again. Tarasha bit her lips now and stared straight into his eyes. Now she knew he wasn’t a policeman because no other person knew her name except for her employees and Chief Gab, and maybe some of Chief Gab’s associates who he might have spoken to about her. Was he one of Chief Gab’s associates? She asked herself. Or could he be Don? Henry, Aisha and Cole’s former Boss. That was the other person who could know her name, due to his past relationship with Aisha. She shook her almost invisibly, unsure of what conclusion to make about him. She kept a straight face. Don too was unsure of what to conclude. Was this Tarasha or someone else? The girl he was seeing looks so young and harmless to him. Her face even looks innocent and naive. Or maybe she was Alexandra Evelyn who he found out from the police case report could be the girlfriend of Henry. To make matters worse, she was not even replying or making any facial response. If she was Tarasha, there was a way he expected her face to respond when he called her name but if she wasn’t Tarasha, then she was supposed to be expressing fear which she wasn’t. But she was a trained Assassin like himself, his brain didn’t tell him that she could know all the tricks too. ‘Tarasha, let’s talk.’ Don tried his luck again. ‘Who are you?’ She finally spoke. ‘I’m a friend,’ he replied, still uncertain if she was Tarasha or not. ‘I won’t hurt you, I promise.’ He raised his two hands up to emphasize. ‘What do you want here?’ She asked, unmoved. ‘I’ve been looking for you,’ Don stated. For the first time, Tarasha made a facial response as a thought struck her mind. Was it possible that some of her employees have betrayed her and given her out to the police? Or Chief Gab had released informations which he wasn’t supposed to have. Don stood still, hoping she would take his offer to discuss with her. He saw her made a frown when he said he’s been looking for her and he got some information from that. He was about to make a conclusion when Tarasha’s voice sounded again, dismissing his information as false. ‘You don’t know me, why are you looking for me?’ She asked, intelligently confusing Don. Only criminals would not ask a question when someone states that he was looking for them, because they always expected the police to be in search of them. But now that she feigned surprise, he would think of her as someone innocent. But that would only work if he was unsure of who she was, and luckily for Tarasha, he really was. ‘Are you Tarasha?’ He foolishly asked. ‘Don, the police are here’ another guy appeared at Don’s back. ‘Oops!’ Don exclaimed, taking a quick glance at the back. ~~ ‘Sir, I don’t think we should go in now till we have our men here.’ Ken suggested, taking out his phone. ‘Just call and ask for reinforcement now,’ Dakolo shouted his order. Ken quickly complied with the order while Dakolo waited in front of the gate to get his response. He peeped through the small space by the wall to check if what the junior officer said was true. ‘They’re coming sir,’ Ken reported. ‘Okay, get the bluetooth communication devices out of the car for both of us.’ Dakolo instructed. Ken turned back into the car and brought out the devices hurriedly. Dakolo had already come closer to the car. The both of them fixed the devices to their belts and ears. ‘You stay and wait for the boys while I go inside,’ Dakolo began, ‘you should storm the the place with some others if you hear no word from me in five minutes.’ ~~~ Tarasha had no reason to wait anymore, she now knew that these men went officers. She fled through the opened door and was up on the fence in ten seconds. Don and his man followed outside, they saw her roll over to the other side. ‘Are you sure it was the police?’ Don turned back and asked impatiently, forgetting temporarily about Tarasha. He now needed no prophet to tell him that he was discussing with Tarasha, a usual girl couldn’t jump over the fence as easily as she just did, even he wouldn’t do it as swift as that. He felt stupid for being deceived by her looks. Was he even expecting anyone else? But what if he wasn’t deceived, maybe he wouldn’t have been able to do anything. It is easier said or thought than executed. A strange kind of fear flashed through his heart at the thought of having being engaged in a fight or gun duel with her. He didn’t come prepared to fight or ki*ll her, he had only come to gather information that would lead him to her. He was hundred percent sure that she wasn’t a poor specimen and it wouldn’t have been easy to take her out, he remembered stories of his strong men whom she had previously dealt with singlehandedly. But there was another problem at hand now. ‘Yes, it was the police. We heard some sounds at the gate.’ ‘Did you see them?’ ‘I saw one, I left the living room immediately after you left and I was at the extensions when I heard the gate creak, I quickly opened the curtain and peeped out through the window and I saw an officer sneaking back outside.’ Stainless explained ‘Damn! We must get out of here.’ ‘Yes, but not through that gate. The officers are there.’ ‘We’ll take the same place Tarasha took,’ Don said, staring at the spot corner of the fence. ‘Tara…?’ Stainless frowned his face. ‘Sorry… Samantha Osman,’ Don corrected. ‘Samantha Osman?’ Stainless widened his eyes in horror. ‘C’mon, call the other guy and let’s get out of this place now.’ ‘What about my two other boys?’ ‘You’ll call them later,’ Don said and stepped down from the house to the interlocked floor. ~~~ Dakolo finally got close to the entrance door which was broken. He hid his back by the wall and peeped in, the bulbs that turned off by the police the last time were now on and that was another sign that someone or some people were in the house presently. He entered into the first extension but nothing was there. He proceeded into the living room. He could hear running footsteps and voices inside the house. He followed after the sound and passed through the corridor of the inner rooms to the backyard, he saw a man trying to roll over to the other side of the fence. He quickly pointed his gun and quickly took a shot, it entered into the man’s leg but he still managed to roll over to the other side. Dakolo quickly followed, he jumped on the fence and peeped into the compound. He could see a man running out through the gate, another one following behind while the one he just shot was hopping after them in pains. He dropped off the fence and tucked his pistol into his pocket, he also ensured that all devices on his body were perfectly fixed. He took some steps backwards and ran towards the fence. He climbed and quickly rolled over. He took out his bluetooth device immediately he landed and connected with Ken. ‘Are the guys there now?’ He asked hurriedly. ‘Yes, they just arrived. I’m coming into the house now.’ ‘No need to come into the house anymore,’ Dakolo said, bringing out his gun as he followed after the injured guy trying to escape. ‘Get some men with you and hurry to the street behind. The men in the house are already escaping through the paper company here.’ ‘Right away sir.’ ‘Make sure you remain connected.’ Dakolo took some more shots at the hopping man, but none met the target. He took a brief pause on seeing the security men lying on the floor. He squatted and removed the pin from the neck of the first one, the man coughed immediately and drifted back to consciousness. ‘Don’t go anywhere,’ Dakolo commanded before getting up to continue following after the criminal. The man was already out of the gate before Dakolo got there but he had not gone far enough, his bad leg couldn’t carry him fast. ‘Halt or I sh00t?’ Dakolo shouted his threat to the man. The man seemed not to listen but kept hopping around and was trying to cross the road. Dakolo stopped and carefully aimed at the same leg, he knew that the man couldn’t go too far but he didn’t want the stress that the man could put him through if he mixes with people passing by. If the man had a gun, it was also possible that he could grab a passerby and hurt the person or decide to use the victim as an hostage. He took one shot and the man crashed to the ground. Dakolo looked around him before he proceeded to meet the fallen body. Pedestrians and motorists were already fixing their attention on the scene. ‘Did you see anybody else run this way?’ Dakolo asked a passing pedestrian. ‘Yes,’ the man answered. ‘I saw two guys, they were running that way.’ The man pointed to the direction where they took, that was the way to the roundabout. ‘Thank you,’ Dakolo felt like going after them but he knew it would be fruitless, he couldn’t pursue two men at once. It was better he focused on the one at hand. He squatted beside the shot man and searched his body, he took out the gun and knife from his pockets and kept it on the ground. Then he connected to Ken again. ‘Damn it! Where are you guys?’ He shouted. ‘At the roundabout sir, there’s a little bit of traffic.’ ‘What the hell are you talking about? Come on, clear the road and get here in the next five seconds.’ Dakolo ordered before disconnecting. He never liked to disobey traffic rules but when it ges to cases like this, he had to take extreme measures. Clearing the road would require them to order all other motorists to halt even if the traffic sign or official was commanding them to go. Dakolo returned his gun into his pocket and got up, he glanced around. He could see people staring towards him from every direction and the motorists also taking some seconds to observe him and the lying body. He took a glance at the body, the man was losing a lot of blood and could die if he wasn’t taken to the hospital soon. Ken and five other officers arrived in a police van one minute later. ‘This man needs to be rushed to the hospital,’ Dakolo said after the officers had jumped out of the van. Two officers rushed to the injured man and carried him into the van. Dakolo commanded them to drive to the hospital immediately while he was left alone with two other officers and Ken. ‘Two other guys got away,’ Dakolo said to Ken, finally keeping his gun back into the pocket. ‘What instructions did you give to the officers manning the gate?’ ~~~ Tarasha could hear the sound of the gun shot twice from where she was in a traffic jam. She also saw the police van that passed, commanding every other vehicle including hers to halt while they passed. All the while, she was boiling with rage. She wished she could see Henry and strangle life out of him that moment. He was the cause for all these. He was the one that returned her emotions into her life. Now because of that, she had already began to make several mistakes that could cause bigger problems. The road was finally cleaed and she heaved a deep sigh of relief as she drove off. She tried to get the recent encounter off her mind. Who ever was the man who called her by her name and the reason he wanted to speak with her, she would solve that later. She still had one more mission that night, her team had a special dinner with the Senate President in his house that night and she was going to attend, as the fourth person in the team who had gone to Lagos for inspection but has now returned. Cole had also hinted her that the man had offered for them to stay over in his house that night. A phone call disrupted her thoughts. ‘Mr Sylvester,’ she said after answering. ‘Hello Kimberly, I’m sorry I’ve not called you since morning.’ Sylvester’s fatigued voice sounded. ‘I’ve been busy running around about Mr Henry’s case.’ ‘It’s okay sir, I understand.’ Kimberly replied pleasantly. ‘How is your mum now?’ ‘Ermm…’ She stammered for a moment, temporarily forgetting that her excuse for not being at work was her mother’s illness. ‘Is she better now?’ Sylvester added. ‘Yes,’ she finally remembered. ‘Do extend my greetings to her and tell me if there’s any way I can be of help.’ Sylvester offered. ‘Thank you so much sir, I appreciate.’ ‘It’s okay, you can take tomorrow off also.’ ‘Oh! Thanks sir.’ ‘Goodnight.’ ‘Goodnight sir.’ The call ended. She returned back to her thoughts. She was sure that the Senate President’s life would be easier to take, now that there were lots of distractions and investigations for the police to handle, they wouldn’t expect the strike. Tarasha and her team had close to twelve hours to carry out the planning and execution. They were to get to his house for the dinner by eight pm and would leave before or by eight a.m the next morning. What she only needed to do now was to find a nurse to take care of her brother, Jeffery. …
