Tarasha 2 Chapter 1 Part 5 – Oyin Oluwatosin Emmanuel
‘Do you think we’ve done well?’ Aisha asked as she took off the mask and Cole killed the engine of the truck.
Cole ignored her question and quietly unfastened his seatbelt, he took off his face mask and opened the door. Then he picked the bag beside him and jumped down from the truck, Aisha followed his example. They both hurried into the car parked behind the truck. Cole pressed the button on the remote control and the doors of the car were unlocked, Aisha stepped into the passenger’s side first while Cole opened the door to the back seat and dropped his bag into it, he also looked around for a few seconds to see if anyone was looking at them before opening the door and entering into the driver’s side.
‘We did what we were asked to do,’ Cole said to Aisha as he started the car engine. ‘We caused enough distractions, I’m sure she’ll be on her way out of the place too.’ He said as he drove off.
‘Damn! This mask and gloves stuff is really tiring,’ Aisha said as she looked into a small rounded mirror. ‘There are marks on my face.’
Cole took a glance at her and chuckled, ‘you didn’t wear it properly, that’s why the lines are showing there.’
‘No, I did wear it well.’ Aisha argued, ‘I still prefer using makeups.’
‘Makeups? Who the hell fancies that?’ Cole asked with a look of contempt, taking a quick glance at her and focusing his eyes back to the road. ‘You get all sweaty in the face and you can’t scratch or wipe your face with an handkerchief because you don’t want to clean off the damn paints.’
‘It’s still a better way of hiding identity, it eliminates the possibility of alarming unsuspecting victims.’ Aisha said.
‘Yes, I agree but everything just has it limits. The boss has said we can only have three proper versions of ourselves disguising with makeups, trying more would make it obvious that you’re hiding something on your face…’ Cole paused as the head of the wristwatch on his hand turned. He took a glance at Aisha, she was also staring at the wristwatch as she had gotten the same signal.
‘Track her and feed me details,’ Cole said as he increased his speed.
_____
‘Humn,’ Omotara made a humming to Henry as he got closer to the ground. Their bodies had dragged cobwebs along as they proceeded downwards, mosquitoes and other flying insects also attacked them but they were not stopped.
He raised up his head to look at her, she made a signal with her hand for him to stop. Henry stood with his legs spread out to both sides on the third steps before the ground level while she slipped past carefully and dropped to the ground. The ground of the well was dry and very dirty.
‘Are you okay?’ He asked as he took a quick glance downwards. She didn’t answer him but squatted and took out a metal from her bag. With her hands, she began to search around the lower part of the rim just before the ground. She stopped searching after almost a minute when her finger entered a hole. Then she used her hand to dig out and clear the sand at that part until her fingers touched concrete. She widened the dug area and found the openable semicircular shaped part of the concrete which led to the underground, it was more than quarter of the whole ground and was wide enough to allow a body at a time. Then she thrust the metal into the hole which she found by the sides of the rim, the semicircular part loosened. She pushed it down, it opened inwards without falling in.
*
Dakolo eyes were heavy as he struggled to get up from the floor, he staggered like an intoxicated person, holding a table to support himself. For the first few seconds, the only thing that bothered him was the throbbing headache he had developed. Then as he stared around the place and saw several officers like him, he recalled the event which sent them to the floor. He quickly picked up his gun from the floor. He remembered seeing Henry’s lawyer enter into that office while tried to stand up, he would have stopped her with his gun then but it had fallen far from him and the cough would not allow him get it. He then remembered seeing the lawyer drop a bottle to the floor and walk out of the office again. His eyes had suddenly became hot and peppery and his knees weak as he tried to stand, he struggled for about one more minute before he finally fell to the ground. He had to remain on the floor for several minutes.
Several officers with helmets on their heads and rifles in their hands could be seen from inside the open office running in from the direction of the exploded reception.
About five of the officers entered into the office while the several others spread themselves outside. The effect caused by the gas had totally disappeared.
‘Agent Dakolo,’ Officer Clem came running with them into the office. He stopped abruptly as he met the whole place disorganized and his boss looking ruffled.
‘Yes, Clem. Did you see them?’ Dakolo asked as he tried to rise but sank back into his seat. Water was falling from his eyes in drops like one who had an eye infection.
‘No sir, they were gone before I got there.’
‘What do you mean by they were gone? What about the prisoner, didn’t he run back into his cell?’
‘No, he wasn’t in his cell,’ Clem replied, jittery. ‘I’m afraid sir, the lawyer might just be connected to the presumed terrorists. I met the visiting hall in a mess.’
‘What kind of mess are you talking about?’
‘Sir… I mean all the officers were down, all of…’
‘Agent Dakolo,’ one of the officers who had just come in interrupted, proceeding towards Dakolo with the other senior officer who had called the head office for support. ‘Did you witness what happened here?’
‘Agent Tim,’ Dakolo sighed on seeing the man’s face. Agent Tim was a senior Agent to him and they worked in different departments. ‘I was here when it started, but I’m not even sure about what really happened.’ Dakolo replied.
‘I was told the lawyer of one of your prisoners just escaped with the prisoner,’ Agent Tim said.
Dakolo sighed again without responding, he buttoned up his shirt and rose up from the seat. He was more stable now. Agent Tim took his silence for a ‘Yes’.
‘How come you didn’t conduct a proper search on the lawyer? I was briefed that she singlehandedly took out the six officers in the visiting hall and even more outside.’ Agent Tim added.
‘Agent, you should know me better. A proper search was conducted on her by my team and even the prison warders. They certified that she was harmless before allowing her in.’ Dakolo replied, staring around the whole office in a mess.
‘Hmm… She’s definitely connected to the other attack, those guys did not take anything from the prison. They turned after bombng the reception, an in-house member must have told them how to catch the security at the front gate off guard.’ Agent Tim said. There was a long silence between them and all the officers listening. Then Agent Tim signaled to Dakolo for them to have a discussion in private. Both of them moved out of the office and continued to walk slowly in the prison yard.
‘Agent Dakolo, do you think it’s an attack from the Samantha Osman gang?’ Agent Tim asked as they took what was like a stroll together but definitely not leisurely. The facility was filled with activities of officers roaming the place, trying to clean it up and others trying to make sure there was nothing of the attackers left behind.
‘Of course, it’s from the gang,’ Dakolo replied in a sad tone.
‘How come it wasn’t detected by you of all people?’ Agent Tim stopped walking abruptly and stared Dakolo in the place.
‘Agent,’ Dakolo closed his eyes and let out a deep breath. ‘Those guys are intelligent, there was nothing on the lady’s body to suggest she was coming in to do anything.’
‘But I think you should have been more careful.’
‘I was careful sir.’
‘Why then didn’t you allow her see him inside the main prison facility? You could have also allowed them to meet inside the cell?’
‘Sir, Henry is not a convict yet. Even keeping here is very wrong and illegal, we just had to do that because we wanted to ensure he doesn’t escape. The lawyer knew her job and was demanding for the right thing to be done. And I also wanted to monitor them closely, I placed a recorder under the table but…’
‘But what?’
‘She didn’t use the table we set up for her, she moved to another.’ Dakolo said.
‘But I still expected you to be around the place where she was seeing the prisoner,’ Agent Tim said with a frown.
‘I was around, staying outside. Staying in the same room with them would make them too cautious but I received a call…’Dakolo stopped abruptly and widened his eyes as a thought popped into his mind. He remembered that the location of the call was not successfully traced, he must have been purposely distracted with the call.
