TARASHA Episode 20 Pt 3 – Oyin Oluwatosin Emmanuel
**February 10, 2031 **
The nation woke up to be greeted by the sad news of the Senate President’s demise, the other news in circulation was Henry E.G’s abduction. The atmosphere was filled with sorrow and grief, most of the citizens were asking God questions of what the nation did that warranted the loss of some of their respected citizens. No one knew exactly what the problem was but some of the citizens began to carry rumors that the victims of the assassinations could have been members of a particular cult group.
Immediately the Senate President was confirmed dead, President Emeka and his Vice called for an urgent meeting with the security staffs and top police officers. He told them about the need to double up their efforts like never before, he also asked that top officers who they thought could make the work fast should be summoned to headquarters in Abuja immediately.
Meanwhile, work at the NSCC continued to go fine. The cameras were working well and the officials especially Kimberly, were coming up with new innovations that would improve the quality of their job.
__9.30am__
Chief Elvis Richards stepped out of his bathtub and picked the towel from the rope, he stared into the mirror as he cleaned his body. As soon as he got out of his bathroom and entered in his room, his phone beeped, it was a text message notification. He moved closer to the table where his phone was and unlocked it, he was actually expecting a message from the Governor of his State of origin.
The message he saw there was a strange one and it made him begin to think deeply. ‘How are you planning to pay for your sins?’ he read it again and again. After thinking deeply for a moment, he decided to check the sender as the ID was not displayed where it should be, the name he saw on checking was ‘Samantha Osman’. A sudden fear gripped his heart and he held the phone close to his chest, he could feel and hear the sounds of his fast beating heart.
He tried to check for the phone number carrying the name but there was none, he also tried to reply the message but the message could not be replied.
He stared blankly at the wall, having only one prayer point in mind; a prayer for the assassin whom he had hired to be stronger than Samantha Osman.
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__11pm, same day __
‘Thank you,’ Henry said to the driver as he came out of the cab. The cab drove away immediately. Henry covered his head with the hood of his pullover and then stared round the place before crossing over to his gate. He knew where the cameras on the streets were, so he made sure that he wasn’t facing anyone or revealing his face. He pushed something on the gate and a flat box rolled out for him, he pressed in a code and the gate opened for him to enter. Soon, he got into his house and proceeded straight into his upper rooms where he locked totally and made inaccessible to anyone else. After about two and half hours of working upstairs, he came back with two bags, one strapped to his back and one held in his hands. He took another glance at the three seater sofa where he laid while Tara set up the drip, he also recalled how she appeared to him suddenly after the darkness that day disappeared. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before walking out of the place.
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**Next Day, 10:50am**
The security at the Vice President’s House was tightened up immediately he got the first message. He had immediately called the Inspector General to tell him of the development and then asked for competent officers numbering about twenty who could join his large security team.
‘Good morning sir,’ Tarasha stood up to greet as she saw the man coming towards her in the living room.
‘Good morning Kim,’ Chief Elvis greeted back. ‘Please have your seat,’ he said, taking a seat directly opposite hers. He first busied himself with something on his phone for a minute before he started to converse with her. ‘How are you Kim?’ he said, still doing some final pressing on his phone.
‘Fine, thank you sir.’
‘Okay, I’ve heard about the good works you started already and I want to commend you; you’re really good at what you do.’
‘Thank you sir,’ she replied with smiles.
‘I also got reports from you about thrice but sorry I didn’t acknowledge receipt, it’s just that I already have someone doing a similar job for me,’ he said.
‘It’s okay sir,’ she replied, wondering who could be doing the job for him or if the man was just saying without meaning it.
‘Okay, the reason why I called you here today is simple,’ he continued speaking with a tone of seriousness and then adjusted himself on the chair. ‘I heard about your recent work of raising alarms through the camera system whenever one of the suspected assassins’ appearance is captured by the camera, is that true?’
‘Yes sir, it is.’
‘Can you do the same for me in this house?’ he asked.
‘Yes sir, it can work.’ she replied.
‘What about my office and other houses?’
‘Yes sir, it can work anywhere it is installed.’
‘Nice, I want you to install the process here for me. How long will it take you to do it?’
‘Hmm… A week for installing the process at a new location.’
‘Okay, when are you going to start the job? I mean start installing it in this house.’
‘As soon as you want it and once I’ve been permitted to be absent from the office for that duration the job is going to take.’
‘Permission? Who’s going to permit you?’
”Ermm… My boss sir,’ she replied stammering.
‘Forget about the permission,’ he said with a wave of the hand. ‘You’re working for me and I’m permission myself.’ he added and both of them smiled. ‘So how do you start?’
‘I’ll start by first locating the points at which all cameras are in this house.’
‘Okay, come.’ he said and got up immediately. ‘Let me show you who you’ll work with.’
___ February 13, 2031- 3 days later___
**5pm**
Benny rose immediately to his feet as he saw the big loaf of bread being tossed to him from the small opening. A bottle of water was also thrown to him. He picked the loaf of bread and began to devour like an hungry lion, that was the only meal he had gotten in three days now.
He wondered why Stainless and Don were still keeping him alive, even though they were sure he wasn’t going to ever tell them what they wanted. Maybe they wanted to punish him by giving him a slow death, he thought.
He gulped down the water after finishing the bread in one minute. Surprisingly, another loaf of bread of the same big size was tossed to him again with another bottle of water. He picked them up this time with suspicion in his heart, was it that they had finally agreed to ki*ll him by putting poison in his meal? He stopped to think for a while.
After a minute of considering everything he could, he began to devour the second loaf too. Even if they wanted to ki*ll him, he had no problem with that, he thought he was better off dead already.
In another two minutes, he was done with the second loaf. He gulped down the second bottle of water and gave a loud belch, then he moved to the corner where he always sat and rested his back on the wall. After ten minutes, he began to feel dizzy. He knew it must be a result of the bread he ate as he had just woken up from a long sleep before eating the bread. Maybe it was his death finally coming, he positioned himself properly in readiness to die, thanking Don and Stainless in his heart for giving him a peaceful death.
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**5.30pm**
It was the third day of Tarasha working in the Vice President’s House, and the man was getting closer to his death but he seemed to be very confident by the security measures he had put in place.
Chief Elvis had already informed the police about the threat messages he was being sent on phone but warned them against releasing information to the press. The police had tightened the security in his house and in the area where he lived in, the NSCC regional office for the area had also kept the place under close observation.
Tarasha drove home quietly, her plans were going on smoothly. After taking out Chief Elvis, then she would have been through with her work for Chief Gab, though her contract period wouldn’t expire until a year after.
Immediately she’s done with Chief Elvis, she’ll go one after the other for those who destroyed her family’s peace and kept her brother in pain for years, starting with the Inspector General.
Tarasha was already driving into the street to her home when she noticed that a car had begun to follow behind her. She monitored the car for a while and decided to play along, she drove past the house and continued to watch the car. It followed her for a while but she could see that it was with reluctance after passed the house; then she knew that the person or persons in the car must know that she had driven past her house.
After driving for twenty minutes more, she stopped to think for a while and then turned back. She had a feeling of fear that something could have happened to her brother at home, but she discarded the fear immediately, there was no way anybody was going to enter into that house without her receiving an alarm on her device and there was also nowhere her brother could have gone without her knowing. She began to drive back home but before she got back to the house, she noticed that the car had stopped following her.
As she got to the balcony of her apartment, she noticed a visitor’s shoe at the entrance; then she heard two people laughing inside. She could deduce that it was her brother who had a visitor but the surprising thing was how the visitor had come in without her receiving an alarm of intrusion on her device.
She ensured that her gun was ready in her pocket before she entered into the house.
‘I think Tara is back,’ she could hear her brother say as she opened the door.
‘Oh! Okay.’ a familiar voice replied.
She walked into the living room to meet a very big shock. Henry was seated comfortably with her brother, watching television and sipping wine.
‘Hello Tara.’ he said to her with a crooked smile as their eyes met.
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*5.30pm*
Benny didn’t die but was still dizzy and finding it hard to close his eyes. A strange kind of ache visited his head, almost running him mad. He couldn’t understand himself anymore, everything had turned double; the door, his shoes, the floor and even his body. The Nigerian praise song, ‘Everything na double double’ began to ring in his head.
Not long after, he heard Don and Stainless coming closer to where he was. They got to the door and opened it gently, more light entered in through the door, making Benny to block his eyes with his hands. They both stepped into the place and approached him slowly, Don squatted before him.
‘You refused to tell us the location of your boss right?’ Don said in a mocking tone, Benny gave no reply. ‘I know it’s more than just loyalty, you must have been sleeping with the wh*ore,’ he accused in a threatening tone.
Benny’s vision was becoming clearer as he could now see Don as one and not two anymore but he felt very weak in his body, it was as if his whole body except his brain was paralyzed.
‘Tell me, how sweet is she on bed?’ Don continued taunting. ‘Is she very good in the act like my Aisha or she’s manageable or useless?’
Don rose to his feet and continued with his speech, ‘I’m sure her body on bed must be like a log of wood, poor thing!’ he exclaimed in a mocking tone. ‘But what I don’t understand is how she could get you to be loyal with the poor sex she offers you. Maybe I’ll bang her one of these days to see what you’re enjoying.’
‘You…can…never,’ Benny said, his lips were heavy and trembling. ‘She…is not like…your Aisha whom I have banged her brains off.’
His last words infuriated Don and it earned him a blow on his mouth. Benny’s headaches increased and his vision became blur again.
Stainless and Don dragged up Benny together and began to pull him out of the place. Benny could not resist as he was being carried out, he only hoped that they were taking him out to ki*ll him finally but his hope did not materialize yet.
They placed him on a metal chair and made him sit up right, they chained his arms to the armrest of the chair and chained his legs too. Then Stainless picked up a syringe and drew into it some liquid from a bottle and then passed it into Benny’s veins.
Benny felt weak and hot all over his body, then suddenly he felt cold again and began to see visions. Don and Stainless standing at his front had turned to carton characters, Pinky and the Brain. He began to laugh hysterically as he saw them dancing together, hitting their butts against each other.
His laugh earned him another resounding blow from Don, his vision suddenly became clear again, like a miracle.
‘Now, tell me. Where does your boss operate from?’ Don barked at him.
‘I…will…never…tell…you…that,’ Benny spoke in low tones.
‘Tell us and stop suffering yourself,’ Stainless said as a kind of advice.
‘No…you two should…stop… suffering yourselves… Just ki*ll me now,’ Benny replied. Don threw him another blow. Benny felt like his head had fallen but it was still there; just that it had become too heavy for his neck to carry.
‘Inject him again,’ Don said to Stainless who repeated the process with the syringe again.
Don supported Benny’s head with his hands, ‘Now, tell me Benny boy, where does your boss operate from?’
Benny gave a short weak laugh, he closed his eyes and opened again. Don removed his hands from his head making his neck bend sideways again. ‘My…boss operates…operates from Cotonou,’ Benny said and added another short weak laugh.
Don wanted to blow him again but Stainless restrained him. ‘Don’t let him pass out without us getting what we want; remember we were told to keep injecting him and even leave him for a while if he doesn’t speak immediately. Don breathed heavily and stepped back for Stainless to take over, not wanting to spoil things with his anger.
Stainless injected Benny the third time and waited for five minutes before asking the question this time. ‘Tell us where you boss operates from.’
Benny stared at his face sleepily for a while before speaking, ‘we… have two main places of opera… operation…in…Abuja.’
Stainless quickly picked up his phone to write down the information Benny was about spilling.
‘One… is… in Gwagalada and…the other one…Asokoro. The addresses are…’ Benny said everything in details before his eyes closed and he slept off.
…to be continued
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