Tarasha 2 Chapter 15 Part 1 – Oyin Oluwatosin Emmanuel
® 18+ SNVL
© Oyinloye Oluwatosin Emmanuel
May 5, 2031.
7:45am
‘Could it be true?’ One of the officers seated at the traffic warden’s post said to his colleague. They were at a junction and another colleague of theirs was on the road directing traffic.
‘Hmm… We can’t tell yet,’ the other one shook his head. ‘There were pictures on those blogs to proof his involvement except he comes out to prove that the pictures are fake or were forged.’
‘I’m just wondering why he has been so aggressive against Child Traffickers, you know he was one of the ones that facilitated the new bill against them.’
‘Don’t mind him,’ the man replied with a hiss. ‘I believe all those things he did were to cover up, just to make him look innocent and for us to think he is a saint. ‘
*
Cole and Henry drove past the junction and soon stopped at a motor park for interstate transportation. Cole attached a beard to his chin and put on his face cap before stepping out of the car. Henry also put on his face cap and stepped outside the car, he stood by the door and leaned against the car.
‘I’ll be back in few minutes,’ Cole said to Henry as he proceeded towards the office in the park. He proceeded slowly between the cars, listening to the discussion of the drivers and the passengers in some vehicles. He stopped behind a particular bus to listen to the passengers’ conversation.
______
Base C.
‘Have they been able to break through them?’ Agent Tim asked as he stepped into the room.
It was the control room of the Samantha Osman’s gang in their recently invaded base. The police officials had found the computer room in the place and were trying to gain access into the computer systems. Agent James was there with some police computer experts and was supervising the job.
‘No sir, I don’t think we’d be able to access these systems. They have the systems totally locked.’ James replied the Agent as he got up from his seat and proceeded to the door.
‘Are you leaving?’ Agent Tim asked James.
‘I need to do some checks in the other rooms,’ James replied, turning back after holding the knob.
‘Have you found out who the legal owner of this facility is?’ Agent Tim asked.
‘We sent messages to Ministry of Housing early this morning, they asked for an hour to get back to us.’ James replied.
‘At what time did you make the call?’
James took out his phone and opened the call dialer to confirm the time of the call. ‘I called them by two minutes past seven.’
Agent Tim took a quick glance at his wristwatch, ‘That means we have only seven minutes left to get their reply.’
‘Yes sir,’ James agreed.
______
Aguda House, Aso Rock.
‘Find out the owners of the blogs where the news originated from and find their location within the next one hour, I don’t want any excuses.’ Elvis Richards barked into the phone. He flung it to the bed after and began to pace around his room furiously.
That morning, the DIG had woken him up with a call. He called to inform him of the news going round the internet, and since then, Elvis Richards had lost sleep and began trying to reach the necessary authorities. Unfortunately for him the offices were not opened then and he couldn’t reach them till eight o’clock.
He was startled by a knock at the door, he had informed his assistants to stay away from him until he called for them, so he wasn’t expecting anyone to knock his door.
‘Who’s it?’ he shouted.
There was no answer. Another knock sounded.
‘Who the hell is that?’ he shouted louder.
There was silence for a while and then the door opened gently. Vivian poked her head in and her eyes met with the Vice President’s. The man heaved a sigh on seeing her and shook his head before turning to face the other side. She stepped in slowly and closed the door.
‘Good morning Dad,’ she greeted shyly.
‘Good morning Vivian, what do you want?’ Chief Elvis replied.
‘Ermmm… I actually wanted to ask how you’re doing now? I’ve not seen you since you returned from the clinic last night.’
‘Oh!’ Chief Elvis Richards exclaimed, just remembering that he was supposed to use his drugs early that morning. He closed his eyes tight and shook his head, he still had headaches and was still feeling feverish. ‘Thank you dear, I’m better now, just a little headache but I’m sure they’ll all go when I use the drugs I got from the clinic.’
‘Okay, why don’t you come out to eat now so that you can take your morning drugs early enough? Your food has been served already,’ she said.
‘I’m coming out to eat, you go first and I’ll meet you there.’
‘Okay sir… Ermm… My elder brother called this morning.’
‘Which of your brothers called? James?’
‘Yes,’ she replied, emphasizing with a nod.
‘You shouldn’t be talking to James, he’s unserious.’
‘Dad, I don’t believe you just said I shouldn’t be talking to my elder brother.’
‘Yes, I said that because I don’t want him to influence you, you wouldn’t understand what I mean now.’
‘Whatever that means Dad, I’m not really interested’ she said, shaking her head. ‘He called to find out how you are doing since I told him yesterday when you went to the hospital.’
‘Well, that’s thoughtful of him, did you tell him I’m doing fine?’
‘No, I told I’ll get back to him after seeing you.’
‘Okay, you can see that I’m doing fine now. So, go tell him that I’m better. Is that all he asked you?’
‘No, he also wanted me to find out why you are not answering his calls.’
The Vice President gave her no reply. He had been seeing James’ call but refused to answer, thinking that the boy would only talk about the news about him spreading online.
‘Well, I told him you could still be asleep and promised to check on you.’ Vivian said when he remained silent.
‘You answered him well,’ he nodded with a fake smile.
‘But from what I can see now and what your assistants told me, you’ve been awake for a long time.’ She said with a raised eyebrow.
He frowned at her, ‘What do you mean?’
‘Dad, have you been avoiding his calls because of what the blogs reported this morning?’
The man stared at her coldly for a while, he then turned back and walked to his wardrobe. ‘I think you’ve overstayed your welcome in my room Vivian, please leave now, I want to be alone.’
‘Dad, if that’s why, I advise that you answer his calls, he means well and wants to find a solution with you.’
The man turned and gave her a look, wondering if what he just heard was true. The James he knew would never support him in anything; talk more of a criminal matter. ‘Just leave my room,’ he said and turned back. He chose to believe that James was only deceiving her.
‘Dad,’ Vivian called in a calm tone, she let out a sigh. Her father turned back after picking out a different set of clothes from his wardrobe. ‘Are you really guilty of all those allegations?’
Elvis Richards narrowed his gaze at her angrily. Rage was building up inside of him but he tried his best to control himself so as not to do something bad like he had done few years ago.
‘Vivian, are you crazy?’ he shouted in a loud tone. ‘How can you join some criminals to accuse your father of crimes he knows nothing about?’
‘Dad!’ the girl shouted back. ‘I’ve not accused you of anything, I’ve only asked if you are guilty or not.’
‘And what the **** does that mean? Doesn’t it mean that you doubt my integrity?’
‘Dad, yes, I doubt you. Yes!’ she shouted. ‘Who would not doubt you with the way you treat this matter and how you act these days. You don’t react like one who knows nothing about the accusation. If you have your hands clean, why do you have to force me into hiding my encounter with Samantha Osman’s man from the police?’
‘Vivian, you’re crazy! You’ve allowed James talk nonsense into your head. But I warn you, be careful not to regret your actions now. Be careful. I’m not a criminal and would never be one, time would prove it.’
‘Exactly Dad, exactly, this is what we want you to do. If you’re innocent, it’s time to prove your innocence.’
‘No, I don’t have to prove anything, the accusers are the one making claims and they have to prove their claims.’
‘Hey! They have proof already. They sent you a file containing documents that proves your involvement in those crimes and they uploaded some of them online today, its left to you now to prove to the world that those documents are fake like you claimed.’
‘I’d prove that soon Vivian, I would.’ The man said and walked into his bathroom without giving her another chance to say anything to him.
Vivian remained in the room for some more seconds before going out. She shook her head at her father’s assistants who she met standing outside the room and walked away.
15 Minutes later.
Elvis Richards was done with his bath and had put on his clothes. He was ready to go for breakfast when he got a call from the President.
‘Good morning Mr. President,’ he said as he answered the call.
‘Good morning Vice President, hope you slept well.’ The other man replied from the other end.
‘Yes, I did. Did you also?’
‘Yes, Thanks. Are you in the Villa?’
‘Yes sir.’
‘I’m aware of your appointment with the Ministry Of Finance by twelve pm today, but can I meet with you by ten am before you go there?’
‘I actually planned to leave earlier sir; I made a promise to visit victims of yesterday’s car crash this morning but I’ll postpone that since you want us to meet.’
‘Oh! No need for that, we can meet when later at night when you return.’
‘Thank you sir.’
He heaved a sigh as the call ended. He knew that the meeting the President was calling for was connected to the news going round online. He wasn’t scared to meet the President, the only thing he wanted to be sure of before meeting the man was his game plan. His game had been on for some time, part of it were all the attempts he had made to present Samantha Osman as the killer of Senator Garuba and Eze Okafor. Now, he needed to change the plan a bit and also intensify his attempt.
He dialed a number on his phone and placed the phone close to his ear. ‘Good morning,’ he greeted the receiver of his call first. ‘I’m coming to visit the victims of that car crash this morning.’
He walked out of the room after the call. His two assistants were standing outside, already dressed and ready for work.
‘Who is with my drugs?’ he asked as he walked past them.
‘I have them sir,’ one of them replied as they followed after him.
‘Okay, there’s a change of plans this morning. We’d be going to the General hospital first.’
_______
‘Sir, the Ministry of Housing has gotten back to us, they cannot find the copies of the house ownership documents online and they’ve asked us to give them some more time to find the hard copies and also rectify some things.’ James said to Agent Tim who was now seated in his car outside the building.
‘What happened to their online data store?’
‘I don’t know sir, they did not give any explanation for that.’
‘Okay James, I’d need your update on other things. I’m going back to the office now.’
‘I’m also returning to the office now, I think we’ve done all that needs to be done here.’
______
SM GANG’S NEW HOME
‘It’s causing a stir boss, almost everyone is discussing about it.’ Cole reported to Tarasha.
‘And what’s their reaction like? Did they accept it as true or not?’
‘Most people were undecided about it, they are expecting the Vice President to come out with a denial.’
‘That means we’ve made a little impact already,’ Tarasha said.
‘Sure, we have.’
‘Let’s watch the results for some days before intensifying.’
_______
9:45am
NIS UNDERGROUND FACILTY
Dave stared at the screen in surprise. He was amazed that the data he had seen on the website the last night had been changed so quick. The owner of the facility was no longer documented as Nonso Abel but the Ministry Of Housing. He knew that the change wasn’t ordinary and was so sure that it was orchestrated by Samantha Osman’s Gang.
He opened the notepad file where he had saved the name and details of the owner that was gotten previously from his request on the website. He copied out the name and pasted it into the Google search box on his browser. The search results displayed and the result from Wikipedia was ranked first. He clicked on the Wikipedia link and it finished loading in three seconds. After taking time to read the article, several questions and hints were formed in his mind. In the article, he read about the connection between the man and late Chief Onwuli who died as an Enemy of Elvis Richards.
A knock sounded on his door at that moment. He looked up and stared at the door but gave no reply. He could see a lady’s legs through the transparent glass door but he couldn’t see her face as that part was translucent, he wasn’t expecting anyone and the only person (Lizzy) who could visit him without informing him first had told him she wouldn’t be at the office that morning.
‘Yes,’ he answered after the second knock. He had no choice than to answer as his office mates were not on seat.
The door opened and Lizzy walked in to his surprise. He couldn’t hide his surprise as his mouth remained slightly opened.
‘Good morning Dave,’ Lizzy greeted with a smile as she proceeded to his table.
‘Good morning Lizzy,’ he greeted back. He couldn’t still believe his eyes, he expected her to still be angry at him for disappointing her the day before.
‘How was your night?’ she asked as she settled into the seat.
‘My night was dark,’ he replied cheerfully. She laughed at his response. ‘Hope you slept well.’
‘Yes, I did.’
‘I wasn’t expecting you to come here this morning, I thought you said you won’t be at the office till evening.’
‘Yes, I did tell you that, but my plans changed this morning.’
‘Okay,’ he chuckled. ‘It’s nice to see you again.’
‘Yea, same here.’ She gave a faint smile after which she wore a serious look. ‘Humn… Victor has not picked my calls since last night, I don’t know what could have happened.’
‘When last did you speak with him?’
‘We spoke in the afternoon yesterday and he promised that we’d talk better at night but he never came online and didn’t answer phone calls.’
‘What do you think could be the cause?’
‘I don’t know. The only guess I have is that his girlfriend has told him all I did and he’s mad at me for it.’
‘Who wouldn’t be mad?’ Dave shrugged and chuckled. ‘I believe he would call you soon, maybe this morning, to demand an explanation.’
‘I called him this morning already, he didn’t answer.’
‘Well, soon, his call would come.’
‘I believe too. So, have you made any progress on the case?’
‘Yes, some progress has been made,’ Dave replied enthusiastically. He turned his laptop screen to her.
‘What’s this?’ she asked after thirty seconds of scanning through the Wikipedia article.
‘I think we are getting close to knowing the sponsors of Samantha Osman,’ Dave replied.
‘Are you kidding me?’ she replied, opening her mouth wide in surprise. She turned her gaze back to the screen and scanned through the article again. ‘So, this man, is one of the sponsors or the main sponsor?’
‘He’s definitely one of them, I don’t know if he’s the main one yet.’
‘This is big. How did you find out?’
‘He owns that facility where Samantha Osman was hiding the Inspector General, I got his name yesterday from the Ministry Of Housing Portal.’
‘Wow! This would be the first time we are able to trace the owner of the facility she uses.’
‘I think she didn’t expect the attack, so she just used any facility.’
‘Who attacked her? Was it the police?’
‘No, I don’t know who that person is but I believe it’s another assassin, the same one who has been tracing her from the clash in Lagos.’
‘This is good.’ Lizzy said. She paused for a while to stare at the man’s picture in the Wikipedia article. ‘I’ve seen pictures of this man’s campaign online. I knew him when he ruled as a governor.’
‘Yea, he’s one man we would follow seriously after.’
‘How do you plan to go about it?’
‘Plan?’ Dave smiled and dropped his shoulders. ‘I don’t know,’ he shrugged. ‘Maybe I would start thinking after our lunch this afternoon.’
