TARASHA Episode 19 Pt 5 – Oyin Oluwatosin Emmanuel
‘He’s going to recover soon,’ Dr Tobi said to the elderly Doctor who was handling Henry’s case before it was transferred to him. They were in the new ward where Henry had been placed and were running check up on him. An x-ray on his body had just been done and the doctors had found nothing dangerous in his system.
‘Thank God he’s okay, I can’t imagine the kind of troubles we would have faced from the police and the questions we would have had to answer them.’ the elderly doctor replied.
‘Thank God,’ Dr Tobi murmured under his breath and stepped back a little, staring at the patient in silence.
‘I just wonder why that lab scientist should attack our nurses and flee,’ the elderly doctor put in.
‘I wonder too, no one knows the content of the ampoule he left behind.’
‘That’ll only be for a short while, Dr Albert is working on it and I trust him, we’ll get the results soon.’
The door flung open immediately the elderly doctor finished talking. Both doctors turned to see the agent and two other officers approaching them.
‘I was told he was administered the cure and he’s safe,’ Agent Dakolo said to the doctors, fixing his eyes on Henry who was laying peacefully on the bed.
‘Yes sir, he’s alright.’ Dr Tobi replied him.
‘That’s good news,’ Dakolo gave a brief smile and glanced at the doctor’s face after feeling Henry’s skin with the back of his palm.
Dakolo took some steps back, still fixing his eyes on Henry. He placed his hands behind his waist and stood at ease and then took his gaze to Dr Tobi. ‘We’ve searched all around and have not been able to find that lab scientist or even discover how he left this vicinity.’ Dakolo said to Dr Tobi who replied him with silence.
‘In the absence of Dr David the lab scientist, we’ll have to take you in for questioning.’ Dakolo continued speaking, staring straight at Dr Tobi’s face to see his response. ‘You worked closely with him, so you may be able to tell us some things about him.’
‘I don’t know anything about him more than you do,’ Dr Tobi replied in a defensive manner. ‘Our relationship was strictly professional.’
‘So he didn’t mention anything about himself to you?’
‘Nothing,’ Dr Tobi answered.
‘Okay, but we still need to question you. He may have revealed some things to you without you being able to decipher them.’
‘All the questions would be done here,’ Dr Tobi asserted, ‘it’ll be done in this hospital.’
‘No, in the police office, that’s the excellent place for that kind of session.’ Dakolo retorted. ‘Because of the respect we have for you, we’ll let you come for the session tomorrow morning.’
‘I won’t have that kind of session with you,’ Dr Tobi protested.
‘You don’t have a choice doctor, you worked with him, don’t make us do it the hard way.’
‘I won’t,’ Dr Tobi insisted strongly.
‘Then, we’ll have no choice than to go hard on you,’ Dakolo said and turned to Inspector Clem to make a signal. Inspector Clem began to detach the handcuff attached to one of his belt holes.
‘Agent,’ Dr Tobi called in a strict and determined tone. ‘We worked with him. You permitted it after confirming that he was from South Africa, so if I’m going to leave here handcuffed, you’ll have to be handcuffed too and we’ll have to be questioned together.’
Dakolo paused and took in a deep breath, staring at Dr Tobi narrowly, impressed by the Doctor’s intelligence. He signaled for inspector Clem to return the handcuff, remembering that he truly permitted Dr Tobi to continue work with the lab scientist. He felt a bit embarrassed and defeated. ‘We do not mean to harass you doc,’ he said in an apologetic manner. ‘We only need you to answer our few questions. We’ll carry out the questioning here as you said.’
‘You do not want to harass me but you just tried to take me out of here handcuffed?’ Dr Tobi said angrily, shaking his head at the Agent in disbelief.
Dakolo was quiet for a while, he felt he had goofed big time, he should have used a different approach.
‘Excuse me sirs, it’s past closing hours already and I need to tidy up my office before leaving.’ Dr Tobi said and began to walk towards the exit. The officers allowed him pass and watched in silence, the older doctor followed suit.
‘We’re moving him out of here tonight,’ Dakolo announced to the doctors before the exit door was opened. ‘I already requested for that officially and I’m sure that directives on what you need to do would be on your table already.’ he said particularly to Dr Tobi.
Dr Tobi stopped at Dakolo’s announcement, he waited for Dakolo to finish talking before he turned back slowly. ‘You can’t take him away now, it will disrupt all that we’ve started.’
‘We will, we have to. It’s dangerous for him to continue staying here. We’re already making arrangements on how to fly him out of the country as soon as possible; most likely in two days time.’
‘Fly him out?’ Dr Tobi eyes widened in surprise, he took some steps back closer to the officers. ‘That would mean paralyzing him totally; it would totally eliminate all his chances of recovery. It’s not safe for him to fly yet.’
‘Ermm… Our minds are made up already,’ Dakolo said, unconvinced about the Doctor’s claim. ‘It’ll be safer there for him.’
‘Your minds are made up to ki*ll him?’ Dr Tobi asked rhetorically. ‘Maybe you need to bring one of your Doctors from the office to read his case file, so that he’ll explain to you the danger of what you’re about to do.’ Dr Tobi said after which he turned back and walked out immediately. The officers were left with the elderly Doctor and unconscious Henry in the ward.
Dakolo pondered on what Dr Tobi said before leaving, maybe bringing one of their doctors to read the case file would tell if Dr Tobi was being truthful, he thought. Another thought struck his mind again, ‘what if Dr Tobi alters the reports in the file case to support his motion?’
He looked up at the staring face of the older doctor, he decided that he could trust him more. ‘Doctor,’ Dakolo called, proceeding towards the doctor where the doctor was standing close to the exit. ‘Please tell me, is it true that it’s not safe for him to fly now?’
‘That’s the truth you heard already, if you really want to render him completely useless, then you can go ahead with your plans.’ the doctor replied him in a stern voice.
‘Far from it Doc, his life is very important to us and that’s why we want to take this step. We want to fly him to the US where he’ll be safer.’
‘You think he’ll be safer there?’ the doctor questioned. ‘You’re aware that the US also has this same assassin problem and you’re still talking about taking him there? As far as reports and news have it, we here; I mean you security officers are doing better than other counties’ officers.’
‘Ermm… I agree with you doc, but it’ll be harder for the assassin following him here to reach him when we fly him to the US.’
‘I thought your IG has said that the assassin group here in Nigeria is in same organization with the ones that are functioning in other countries too. Don’t you think you’ll be exposing the patient to great danger instead of putting him here where you can watch over him by yourself.’
Dakolo began to ponder on the Doctor’s words, he began to question himself if it was possible for him to personally safeguard Henry and still go about with the investigations. It would be hard but it could be made possible in a way.
‘Nevertheless, we’ll take him out of this place today.’ Dakolo spoke after coming to a conclusion in his mind. ‘We’ll move him to a secluded place, Dr Tobi would continue to treat him; that means Dr Tobi would have to be excused for some days, probably a month. Do you think we can trust Dr Tobi.’
‘Of course yes, I can personally vouch for him. He’s one of our bests here and he’s also honest. But taking him away for one month? You have to sort that out with the authorities of the hospital.’ The elderly doctor said.
‘That wouldn’t be a problem,’ Dakolo said and began to walk towards the door.
++++
Benny stepped out of car immediately the engine was killed. He began to walk towards the door of the house, forgetting that he wasn’t with the key. He was forced to stand at the entrance of the house.
Cole and Aisha were watching him mystified, wondering what the reason was for his behavior. They walked towards the entrance where he was slowly and Cole took out the key to the door. Benny kept on avoiding their gazes until the door was opened. He rushed in at once and walked to the room he shared with Cole.
Cole and Aisha remained baffled, they stared at each other with questions in their eyes, they knew that neither of them had answers to the questions, so they bothered not to ask each other.
‘I’ll go prepare our meal right away, I think Benny needs some rest.’ Aisha said with a shrug to Cole before walking away.
Cole shrugged too and walked to the same room Benny entered, he opened the door slowly. He saw Benny where their clothes and bags were placed, searching furiously in the bags for something. Cole closed back the door and began to make his way to the room were the Senate President was kept.
++++
Tarasha kept thinking about her next line of action as she sat at the back seat of the cab. Now she was supposed to resume as soon as possible in the NSCC and she’ll be working in a post close to that of Henry, performing most of his responsibilities and duties now that he wasn’t fit and won’t be available; in fact, what she was expecting was the public announcement of his death. And the most exciting part about her new job was that she was going to be working closely with the Vice President and the Inspector General.
For the the two of them, she was going to attack them from a distance and also closely too, making use of the opportunity of her work with them.
She took out her phone and opened her browser, she typed in the address to a news website and waited for it to load. In less than thirty seconds, it had finished loading and she saw the news she was expecting to see.
‘Henry E.G attacked again in the hospital,’ she read the headline to herself. She clicked on the link to read the details of the news.
++++
‘What details have you been able to gather?’ Agent Dakolo asked as he entered into the computer room. The two officers sitting in front of the master computer got up immediately in recognition of his presence.
‘Sir, we’ve not gotten anything yet ‘ the lady was the one who replied.
‘What do you mean by that?’ Dakolo asked, walking towards them with Ken behind. He stopped beside them and looked into the system to see what they were doing. ‘Have you not been able to reach the hospital again?’
‘I’ve reached them already but they denied having any previous conversation with us yesterday.’
‘What?? Were you not the one who spoke with them yesterday?’ Dakolo asked with seriousness in his voice.
‘He was the one,’ the lady replied, looking to the man.
‘Yes sir, I was the one who spoke with them. They confirmed him to be one of their lab scientists and even sent his profile to us, which I forwarded the summary to you,’ the man defended himself.
‘Can I see the profile that was sent?’ Dakolo asked, folding his arms.
The man sat back and minimized the application opened, he clicked on a folder icon on the desktop and began to search for the profile sent . ‘Here’s it,’ he announced as he clicked on it.
A saved webpage opened on the Google chrome browser and the profile of the lab scientist opened. Dakolo and Ken looked into it, they saw the same passport and details that had been seen on the lab scientist’s identity card.
‘Then why are they denying having any conversation with you?’
‘I don’t understand sir, in fact, we’ve sent this profile back to the mail they used in sending and we’re expecting their reply. They can’t deny this.’
‘Since when did you send it?’ Dakolo asked.
‘Thirty minutes ago sir,’ the lady replied. She also took her seat and took the mouse from her partner. She opened the email application to show the message sent.
‘Call back now and ask them to confirm receipt and also send their reply,’ Dakolo ordered.
The lady took her phone which was on the table and dialled the number immediately, she placed it on loudspeaker.
‘Hello, officer Kemi from the Nigeria Police Headquarters… I called an hour ago to ask about Dr David who is a…’
‘We do not have any lab scientist named Dr David,’ the receiver cut in. ‘I told you that before and you said you’ll send a mail to us which I’ve been expecting since and I’ve not seen.’
‘You’ve not seen it?’ the lady asked in a surprised tone.
‘No, it’s better you send it now. I’m about to close for the day and you’ll have to start from the scratch in explaining your request to another representative.’
‘But have you also been able to confirm the person who spoke to us yesterday?’
‘No, I already told you that we don’t have any care representative named Kelvin.’
‘Okay, please can you send your email address in a text message to this number, so that I can be sure that we’re sending to the correct email address.’
‘Okay,’ the call ended.
‘But the man that I spoke with yesterday introduced himself as Kelvin.’ the male computer operator argued.
‘Call the Network provider now and report to them, request for the recording of your call yesterday to serve as proof to us,’ Dakolo said to the man who immediately took the suggestion and brought out his phone.
‘Sir,’ the female computer operator called to Dakolo. ‘The text message is here already,’ she said squinting into the computer.
Dakolo bent down to also look. ‘These emails are different,’ Dakolo said, comparing the email in the text message to the one on the computer screen. ‘This one is [email protected] while the fake one of [email protected]. You guys have been deceived.’
Dakolo turned to the male operator, ‘are you sure it was this same phone number you called yesterday?’
‘Yes,’ he answered in an aggrieved tone. ‘I was surprised when it was denied today. I was in a serious argument with the lady who answered until my colleague decided to help me.’ he said, pointing to his female partner.
‘Then, call your Network provider immediately. Also tell them to provide you the exact location where the call came from.’ Dakolo said to the man and turned back to the lady. ‘You send the profile to the new email address for confirmation.’
The computer operators began work immediately. Dakolo stepped back and glanced at his wrist watch, it was some minutes past eight pm already, he was supposed to have closed for the day, same for computer operators and Ken but the urgency of the case wouldn’t allow them to. He heaved a sigh as his eyes met with Ken’s. He felt guilty for being careless and keeping all of them till that time, he shouldn’t have allowed that Lab Scientist at all, knowing that the assassins have high technology measures and hacking skills which they used in deceiving their victims.
‘Sir,’ Inspector Ken interrupted his thoughts. ‘I think it’s time to go back to the hospital now, they asked us to be there by eight thirty.’
++++
‘It’s the boss,’ Cole announced to Aisha who was seated on one of the sofas in the living room. He was peeping through the front window and he could see Tarasha opening the gate to drive in her car.
Aisha got up from her seat and they both walked out to meet the boss. Tarasha drove the car in while Aisha helped her to close back the gate. She took sometime before stepping out of the car. She looked quite simple and relaxed under the bright moonlight that night, she had stopped at the house in the city to change her clothes and pick the car.
‘Where’s Benny?’ she asked Cole, taking in a deep breath as the cool breeze blew her jacket and hair sideways.
”Ermm… Benny, I don’t really know. He said he wanted to get something outside and hasn’t returned since then.’ Cole replied.
‘Boss, Benny has been acting strange since he finished the task.’ Aisha added.
‘Why? But he was successful, it’s all over the news that Henry was attacked.’
‘Yes, I don’t just seem to understand. He was looking very disturbed.’ Cole said thoughtfully.
