Tarasha 2 Chapter 15 Part 12 – Oyin Oluwatosin Emmanuel
® 18 + SNVL
© Oyinloye Oluwatosin Emmanuel
‘Agent, is the place surrounded yet?’ Dave said into the device as he watched Stephanie drive away in the car. He was walking hurriedly towards to join the other men who were at the front of the building they planned to invade.
‘The gate seems to be open, I’m going in with two other guys for a start, and you stay out and wait for the others.’ He got the reply through the earpiece.
‘Hey! Wait,’ Dave shouted as he could now see the officer at the gate from his distance. He was standing at the median and waiting for a clear way to cross to the other side.
The man at the gate had dropped the device already and seemed not to hear Dave’s shout. He pushed the gate open and stepped in gently, two other men followed him.
_____
Rex got the first alarm finally and he raised his head quickly to look at the computer screen. He minimized the window and switched to the monitor cameras dashboard. He selected the footage for the camera covering the gate.
It was dark but he could still see the activities going on vividly because they were happening close to the camera. He felt disappointed as he saw the figures of three men walking in through the gate. They began to spread out tactically and began to move closer to the building itself, in a slow and careful manner.
He knew at once from the pattern of movement that it wasn’t a group led by Samantha Osman that had entered but he still believed that she must have pointed them there. His guess was that she was trying to play games with him and had invited the police to the location like she had done previously at a particular time. He minimized the opened window and opened the app which controlled the lightening of the building and the surroundings. He then turned on the lights of the front yard of the house.
The men froze for a second as the lights came on before looking and waving their guns around. They knew they were being watched by someone and the three of them exchanged looks amongst themselves. The one who led them in took out his communication device and said something into it.
Rex took a shot of one of the men and zoomed the picture in. He checked the shirt and noticed it was that the men were putting on one of the several kinds of SSS shirts. He shook his head angrily and in confusion. Now, he wasn’t sure anymore if it was Samantha Osman who brought them to him. He looked at the computer screen again, the three men who entered first had moved closer to the building and tried to hide under shadows while three others were coming in through the gate.
He opened the app for the lights again and turned all the lights on, eliminating shadows at every part of the house. He pushed his chair backwards with his bum and bent to pick something from under the table. He took out a long gun and two short ones. He put the short ones in his pocket and hung the long one on his right shoulder.
His hand reached for the mouse and he switched to the cameras monitor again. He then selected the stream from the camera covering the front of the gate from outside the compound. There was no one right in front of the gate but there were two cars, each one parked at either side of the fence.
He switched the camera to another one showing the left side area of the fence more clearly. The doors of the car were opened and the men sitting there had one leg out each, a sign of readiness for being called at anytime. A man was behind the boot of the car and was making a call. He looked familiar. Rex zoomed the video to see his face clearly. He recognized him, it was Dave James. Now Rex realized that Dave must have led the SSS officers to them. Then he also realized that he had made a mistake; not for sparing Dave’s life but for not thinking that Dave could find a way to track their location. Since he had seen no signs of Samantha Osman, he began to think that Dave could also be the one who had been pulling the Chief Gab’s trick. He dragged his mouse to the shut down option of the computer system and clicked on it, and then he picked his phone and marched out of the room.
_____
‘I told you the Agent guy could double-cross us,’ Henry said to Tara as he drove the car with the other two in it.
Tarasha had just joined them in the car and was trying to take off her communication device from her body.
‘I didn’t trust him completely but we had no other option than to try the location given to us.’
‘We shouldn’t have told him we were coming,’ Henry replied.
‘I didn’t want to but I also didn’t want him to change his mind on meeting with me tomorrow morning. He could change his mind thinking that I would attack him because I attacked the location he gave to me without letting him know first.’
‘But haven’t we put Chief Nonso into more trouble now?’
_____
MADAM HENRIETTA’S RESIDENCE IN LAGOS.
Chief Elvis sat in the sofa shaking his legs impatiently as he watched Madam Henrietta search through the carton and the folders in it. It was the fifth carton she was bringing out from her room that night. He would have joined her in the room but the place was so stuffy due to lack of use for days.
Chief Elvis stared at her impatiently. He wondered why she kept the documents in cartons, most of the papers were rusting already. She had claimed that she didn’t need most of them anymore and had only kept them for its sake.
‘Here, I think this is one of the documents you want,’ Madam Henrietta said to the Vice President after pulling out an old white file whose colour had changed to brown.
Chief Elvis readily stretched his hand to receive the file as she brought it to him. He collected it from her and opened immediately. His eyes scanned through for some minutes before he looked up again, this time with a deep frown on his face.
‘This isn’t what I need at all, ‘ he said as he stretched it forth back to her. ‘This one was given to you by George before he died. I need the one that was given to you after his death.’
‘The one that was given to me after his death?’ she frowned at him. ‘How could he have given me any document after he died?’
‘No, I didn’t say he gave it to you himself. It was given to you by his lawyer,’ The Vice President replied.
Madam Henrietta’s frown deepened, she seemed to be totally confused.
‘I sent men to George’s lawyer’s chamber, the lawyer is late now but my boys were able to check through the records in his place and found it written that the documents were handed over to you before the lawyer’s death because he trusted you as the woman in care of George’s only surviving daughter.’
‘Oh!’ She exclaimed, staring up at the ceiling for remembrance. ‘I think I recall now, the lawyer gave them to me,’ she gasped. ‘But…’ she paused to think.
‘But what?’ Chief Elvis was impatient.
‘I don’t think I’d be able to find them this night, you should go back home now, I’ll bring them to you before evening tomorrow.’
‘No, I have to get it now, anything could happen as long as they remain with you.’ Chief Elvis said in a loud and strong tone, shaking his head to show his seriousness.
He stared at her with a commanding look while she stared at him in a confused manner. She wondered why he didn’t ask for the documents several years ago when they were given to her and wondered what he needed them for. He seemed so desperate to get the document; she had told him that she would bring it to him at the residence but he insisted on following her to her house and now, he wasn’t going to return without getting it.
‘Would you stop staring at me and get me the documents?’ Chief Elvis barked at her when she kept staring at him on a spot without moving.
‘Okay, but you would have to be patient sir. I’m not sure I have the documents somewhere nearby,’ she said as she made her way into the house.
‘Just get to work immediately,’ he slammed at her.
He raised his wrist to check the watch. It was getting late already but he wasn’t bothered since he had nothing else to do that night, Rex had already asked him not to come any longer.
He began to hear the ringing tone of his phone. He looked back towards the door and saw his personal assistant who just entered into the living room bringing the phone to him. The assistant got to him and handed him the phone. He checked the screen, the caller’s ID was ‘Emergency’. It was Rex, he used the ID to save the number so as to avoid suspicions from anybody who sees his call records and number of times he conversed with that caller.
‘Hey,’ he said as he answered the call.
‘Damn you Chief, damn you!’ Rex cursed. His voice sounded shaky, he was on a running motion.
‘Rex, b careful with your words, what’s the matter?’
‘The SSS officials have intervened, I have over ten of them here now, that damn secret agent led them here…’ the line went dead.
‘Rex…’ the Chief called again before checking the phone’s screen. He quickly redialed the number and it began to ring but wasn’t answered. He tried two more times but it still wasn’t answered. Then he dialed the NIS chairman’s number.
‘Hello…’
‘Hello Chief, I’m surprised to get your call this night.’ The chairman replied in a friendly tone from the other end.
‘Why did you approve for your secret agent to bring other officers to attack my man?’
‘Huh? I didn’t approve anything of such.’
‘Then why did that silly agent of yours led ten men to my man.’
‘Ten men?‘ The man gasped. ‘I think that should be Dave, but he told me he needed men to invade a place he suspects Samantha Osman took Chief Nonso to.’
‘Oh! Damn it,’ Chief Elvis cursed angrily but he realized that the NIS chairman wasn’t aware yet that it wasn’t Samantha Osman that kidnapped Chief Nonso. ‘I told you to live anything about Samantha Osman to me, didn’t I? Let that secret agent of yours keep working without help, all we need from him are the secrets and things he finds out about Samantha Osman that can help us. And I think it’ll be proper to have him dead once everything is over.
‘I’m sorry sir, I never knew…’
‘Shh…’ the Vice President hushed him. ‘Don’t apologize yet, I won’t accept it, just do the right thing and make sure nothing happens to my man.’
Chief Elvis ended the call and immediately. He dialed Rex’s number again but it only rang without being answered. He heaved a sigh and rested his head on the headrest of the seat.
______
Rex had begun to hear the sound of someone’s footsteps coming closer to where he was when he stopped talking to Chief Elvis on phone and kept away the phone without concluding the conversation with the man.
He leaned back against the wall less than half meter to the opened doorway, he was sure the person coming must have heard his voice while talking on phone. He held his gun up as he saw the shadow on a man formed on the ground right in front of the opened door. From the movement of the shadow, he could tell the man was walking carefully.
He carefully timed the man’s movement as the shadow turned towards the room. He grabbed the man by the neck just as he took a step in and hit the back head of the man with the gun. Another man rushed out from the opposite room at that moment and Rex sent him to the ground with a quick bullet into his chest. He dropped the first man to the floor and proceeded out of the room. He still had more of them to ki*ll.
_____
Dave was alert with his gun behind the car, ready for the moment he would get an instruction from those who had gone into the building. He believed he had made the right choice by choosing to come get Chief Nonso himself, he was foolish to have tried to work with Samantha Osman, an hardened criminal would always be one and reason like one even if you tried to show them mercy.
His attention was distracted as his phone began to ring. He knew the caller was he NIS chairman because he had a special customized ring tone for the man. He took out the phone hesitatingly and answered the call.
‘Dave James, call your men back now!’ the chairman’s voice sounded rough and serious.
‘Sir… We can’t do that right now.’
‘Dave, call your men back right now. I’m not ready to listen to any excuses,’ the man replied in a strong tone and ended the call immediately.
He took out his communication device to speak with the lead SSS officer. ‘Sir, Agent DJ over here, is there any progress yet?’ he said into the mouthpiece and waited for an answer. He spoke again after fifteen seconds without getting any response, ‘I repeat, Agent DJ on the line, what position are you now?’
The reply came five seconds later, ‘We have four of our men dead already and I’ve not seen signs of anybody inside…Oh f***!’
‘What’s that?’ Dave asked on hearing the man curse.
‘I’ve just found the fifth man dead,’ the reply sounded.
Dave sighed and shook his head in confusion, wondering how five of the men had already being killed. He had thought they would catch Chief Nonso’s abductors’ unawares or even meet Samantha Osman there since she said in her message that she was going to be at the place. He was surprised to hear that they already had five of their men down.
‘I think we should retreat now,’ Dave said resignedly. ‘The Chairman just called and asked that we go back to the headquarters.’
‘Retreat? No, we can’t retreat now. There’s someone or a group of people in this building killing our men, I think we need to call the office for reinforcement and I also need more men with me.’ The Agent said in hush tones.
‘We have to retreat Agent, the Chairman has asked that we do so.’ Dave replied the man in an angry tone.
‘No, not until I get to the root of this.’ The other agent replied stubbornly and the connection went off.
‘Hey, Agent,’ Dave shouted into the device no response.
He quickly kept the communication device and his phone back into his pocket and left the back of the car.
‘Get back into your vehicles everybody, we have to retreat immediately,’ he shouted to the other officer hiding at strategic places.
Some of the men looked hesitatingly at him from where they were and made no movement in respect to his instruction.
‘We lost the men that went in already and the chairman just called that we return to the head office immediately.’ Dave said to strengthen his instructions.
The men began to leave their positions one after the other and got back into their cars.
_______
‘Chief Elvis, Chief Elvis.’
He opened his eyes to find her standing in front of him and holding an old brown paper file in her hands. He felt a striking headache as he tried to sit up, his whole body felt hot and his mouth tasted bitter.
‘Arrggh,’ he winced in pain as he checked the time to see how long he had been sleeping. ‘Henrietta, it took you two hours to get the document?’ he asked staring into her eyes. She gave no verbal response. He wiped his forehead with his palm and took in a deep breath, he had slept for over one hour.
‘I actually kept the documents in the bank several years ago, but I took them back two years ago, in readiness to give it to Stephanie when the time comes.’ Madam Henrietta said to him.
‘You want to give them to Stephanie?’ he widened his eyes at her.
‘Yes, I was instructed to give it to her when she’s of age.’
He gasped and shook his head before taking the file from her. He quickly opened it and took out the papers inside it. He scanned through them for some minutes.
‘Henrietta, this is George’s will and property documents.’ He said with a tone of disappointment.
‘Yes,’ she replied, her eyebrows gathering together.
‘Goddamn it! I didn’t ask you to get his will for me, what in the world do I need his properties for?’
Confusion was written all over Madam Henrietta’s face. She tried to talk but words couldn’t come out from her mouth.
‘I need the goddamn documents the lawyer gave to you,’ the man shouted at her.
‘What else do you need? This is what the lawyer gave to me.’
‘No Henrietta, he gave you some other documents, it is written in his records that you have them.’
Madam Henrietta was more confused. She closed her eyes and searched her memory thoroughly to see if any other documents were given to her.
‘I don’t have any other documents with me.’
‘Come on, Henrietta, I need those files of the court case George had against the government.’ Chief Elvis finally said explicitly. He had been trying to hide the fact that those document were the ones he was really after.
Madam Henrietta’s mouth went open in surprise and she covered it with her palm.
‘Where are they?’
‘Uhmn… the lawyer said the documents were no longer important anymore since Mr. George was dead and that I could dispose them if I wanted to.’
‘So, did you throw them away?’ Chief Elvis asked, staring at her face anxiously.
She remained quiet for a moment, wondering whether to reply with the truth or not. The same documents the man was requesting for were the same ones she kept in the house at Abuja which Stephanie asked for. She knew mentioning Stephanie’s name to the Chief might get her into trouble.
‘Did you throw them away?’ he shouted at her again.
‘Yes,’ she let out an answer with force. ‘I burnt them years ago.’
‘Are you sure?’ he asked with a careful voice, narrowing his gaze at her threateningly.
‘Yes, I did.’ She answered, nodding her head.
‘Hmmm…’ he stared directly into her eyes to make her see his seriousness and know that it was dangerous for her to lie to him. ‘I really do hope you’re saying the truth, it’ll be dangerous if those documents are found with you or anywhere else.’
‘You won’t find them anywhere, I burnt them.’ She assured him, already deciding in her heart to go for the documents later and burn them up truly.
He let out a breath and then closed his eyes. He put a palm on his forehead and squeezed his face.
‘Is there anything wrong?’ she asked in concern.
‘No, thanks. It’s just a little fever,’ he replied, waving at her.
‘Do you need anything?’
‘No, I’ll just be on my way immediately.’
_______
11:30PM
Tarasha stood down the balcony of the lodge, enjoying the cool air while her mind worked on getting a new direction for the team. She had only few hours to do something before Chief Nonso was executed by Rex. The only option left for her was to take the Vice President at the event the next day.
She looked back as she heard footsteps walking down the balcony. Henry and Dr Ekwueme were walking down hand in hand with smiles on the Doctor’s face. Henry had been with the man since they listened to the news for the night and it seemed they were having a nice time together.
‘I see you both are closer than the rest of us,’ Tarasha said in a cheerful tone, trying to ease the tension in her mind.
‘Yes, I’m glad to have someone who listens to me.’ Dr Ekwueme said with a smile as he stopped beside Tara with Henry by his side.
Tarasha smiled back and glanced at Henry.
‘This place brings back old good memories,’ the doctor continued and got the full attention of the two others. ‘I used to stay somewhere close to this place some years ago and I would always drive around this particular area to enjoy the night with my wife.’
Tara and Henry continued to look at the man’s face. He seemed very happy with his tale.
‘This night reminds me of a particular night I was visited by my friend Danjuma and his wife. They came with their little adopted daughter and we drove around town together in their Sienna car.’
Something struck Tara’s mind as she heard the man’s last sentence, a strange feeling overwhelmed her immedaitely.
‘You said their adopted daughter?’ she asked the man.
‘Yes, Omotara. The Danjumas only had boys, the girl they called their daughter wasn’t theirs.’ The man replied, staring happily at the stars in the sky as he continued his story without knowing he had caused something else.
END OF CHAPTER FIFTEEN
