Tarasha 2 Chapter 18 Part 7 – Oyin Oluwatosin Emmanuel
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© Oyinloye Oluwatosin Emmanuel
‘How the f*** did they get in?’ Cole cursed aloud as he and Basit hurriedly stepped into a large room together.
Some of their men were already in the room, some taking weapons from the store and others putting bullets into guns.
‘Guys, we have new instructions from the boss.’ Cole said in a loud voice to get the attention of all the men. They all turned to him, suspending everything else they were doing with their weapons.
‘These guys attacking us do not know we are aware of their presence and they would want to use the element of surprise against us,’ Cole continued. He was sure he now had the attention of every other man. ‘But the boss is sure they also have a counter plan in case we discover them. So we are going to watch quietly and let them get into our traps. We have lasers and explosives set up to work against them once they try to break in. I will direct each and everyone of you to the points to stay. All you need to do is keep your eyes open and your earpieces on, I’ll give you instructions on when to fire at them and their specific positions at your different locations.’
‘Okay, boss.’ Basit let out a breath as he stepped forward, he appeared to be relaxed by the fact that Samantha Osman had already made plans for a possible attack. ‘I’ve got to get my weapon too,’ Basit said to Cole as he stepped forward and proceeded towards the shelf where the weapons were arranged.
‘You may not need to get a new gun,’ Cole said aloud as Basit proceeded. Basit stopped and turned back to look at him. ‘I have a different assignment for you.’
‘What’s that?’ Basit raised a brow.
‘These guys gotta go to their points first,’ Cole said and turned his gaze to the five other men standing and waiting for his instructions. ‘We have four entrances to this building,’ he continued. ‘The first four of you will pick each four entrances,’ he paused and faced Nicholas, the fifth man. ‘You’ll take the fire exit.’
‘Okay,’ some of the men muffled under their breaths and began to proceeded towards the entrance where Cole was standing.
‘Boss, how do these men know the traps set for the attackers?’ Basit asked.
Cole stopped to think for a moment. The men also stopped to listen. ‘I think you should lead this team Basit, you should go to the fire exit while Nicholas follows me.’ Cole said, making the quick decision as he remembered that Nicholas was the only one who knew all the hostages they had in that building. Basit only knew that the Inspector General was kidnapped but didn’t know where he was kept. Nicholas the fifth man who was supposed to go to the fire exit was now going to take Basit’ role in the defence operation. ‘If everyone follows my instructions, none would be caught by any of our defense systems. Just listen and follow me.’
With that, the men hurried out of the lounge with their guns. Basit also quickly selected a long gun and hurried to his own point. Cole and Nicholas had gone out before them and they went straight to the control room.
‘I need you to get the hostages to the room labeled 12, you keep them close there until I give a further instructions.’ Cole said to Nicholas on their way and Nicholas turned immediately towards the room where the hostages were. Cole continued into the computer room.
The room labeled 12 was a room close to the underground escape route of the building.
He tapped the space bar on the keyboard of the control system and it came on. The security camera application was on and the screen was displaying videos from six different locations in small rectangular frames arranged next to each other and three on a row. Cole bent down and picked a chord and a small device, he connected the chord to the device and also connected the other point to the back of the system. A thin bright beam of light evolved from the device. Cole picked the device and faced the beam of light towards the wall painted white in front. The reflection of the light formed on the wall was blur at first but soon became clearer and appeared to be the projection of what was exactly on the laptop screen, four times bigger but still very clear with sharp pictures. He could now see boldly what was happening at the different points. He touched the mouse and minimized the footage options returning to the interface of the security camera application. He moved the cursor to the left side and highlighted two options amongst a list displayed. In two seconds, the footage options came up again but had increased to eight this time around. He clicked on one of the newly added footage and it displayed large on the screen with the other footages displayed at the rear button in smaller rectangular frames and in a linear arrangement.
Cole began to move the camera capturing that footage by clicking on the screen and moving the cursor at the same time. On the screen was captured the inner view of the compound which was well lighted, with the aid of the lights Cole could see some of the attackers clearly. He spotted about four of them standing and pressing their backs against the walls. They all had on all black clothes. He looked confused, he couldn’t explain what was happening.
The men in black right from the moment he noticed them at first had been working and walking so confident and slow, like they came to do something else other than attacking them. He had seen them standing by the wall ever before he went to arrange the other guys. If the men had come to attack them, why were they resting against the wall without doing anything? He couldn’t tell but he was sure they were up to something.
He returned to the interface again, he needed to check other parts of the building.
_____
PRESIDENTIAL QUARTERS, LAGOS.
The Vice President was gradually drifting into the realms of sleep when his phone began to ring. He heaved a sigh of frustration, he had dropped the phone on a table some distance away instead of beside the pillow as usual. Luckily for him he still saw one of his assistants in the room as he opened his eyes.
‘Please, get me the phone,’ he said in a sleepy voice as he managed to sit up and rest his back against the headboard.
‘Okay sir,’ the assistant replied and quickly got the phone.
It stopped ringing before the phone got to him but the Vice President dialed back the number immediately.
‘Hello Doc,’ he said in a thick voice.
‘Good evening sir,’ the doctor replied.
‘Evening doctor, how are you?’
‘I’m fine sir, how is your health now sir?’
‘I’m doing better,’ the Vice President replied. ‘I’m surprised to see your call at this time of the night,’ the Vice President said before checking the time, he realized it wasn’t late yet.
‘I’m sorry to disturb sir,’ the doctor apologized nevertheless. ‘I only wanted to inform you that the DNA test results are out already,’ he quickly added.
The Vice President was quiet for a while as tension suddenly gripped his heart. He had been expecting the results but now that it was out, he was suddenly afraid to know what the result was.
‘How come it’s out today? Isn’t it earlier than what you told me?’ he asked in a panicking voice.
‘It is, I had time to work on it early,’ the doctor replied. His voice showed that he was surprised that the Vice President was complaining about earliness of the result.
‘So can you tell me?’
‘Tell you sir?’ the doctor’s voice was shaky.
‘Tell me, are those children mine?’
‘Ermm… I’m not comfortable saying that over the phone sir, I’ve complied all the necessary information in the result and I’ve sent to your mail online.’
The Vice President’s fear was increased by the doctor’s words and before he could put words together to reply, the line went off. He dropped the phone shakily beside him and stared blankly at the wall.
The assistant who was done clearing the room stopped as he got to the door and turned back, ‘Is there anything else I could do for you before leaving?’
The Vice President glanced at him for a moment without saying anything until he turned the knob of the door and was about to open.
‘Put on my laptop and connect it to the internet,’ he said as he stepped out of the bed.
‘Please give me a minute sir,’ the man said and stepped out to drop the things in his hands before returning.
_____
‘Why are you pushing me like a dog and where the f*** are you moving me to?’ Rex cursed.
Nicholas had two chairs with rollers under at both sides and was moving them into the room where Cole asked him to move them to. Rex was tied to the chair at his right and Stainless to the chair at the left, both could not move other parts of their bodies except for their wrists and their necks because the ropes held every other parts to the chair firmly. Rex had been talking from the moment Nicholas had carried his chair and fixed it on the roller. He had seen Nicholas come to move the Inspector General who was in the same room with him first and then come back for him after a minute. He started asking questions from the moment Nicholas fixed the legs of the chair into the spaces in the roller but began to curse when Nicholas rolled the chair out of the room and he saw Stainless in the corridor tied just like him with his chair placed on a roller.
At first Rex had thought they were trying to change the rooms they put him and the Vice President but when he saw Stainless also been rolled alongside with him, he realized that they were up to something else.
Nicholas finally got to the destination room and rolled them in. The Inspector General and two other people tied in the same manner were already in the room. Rex noticed the rollers under their chairs and realized that they were also moved the same way he and Stainless’ chairs were moved. He took a moment to look around the large room. He noticed that it had two other doors apart from the one Nicholas rolled them in through and it had two windows at the left side.
Nicholas rolled them to the middle and left them there. He walked back to a seat placed beside the door and sat on it. He picked the gun on the floor and placed it on his lap.
‘What the f*** have you brought us here to do?’ Rex asked with a scorn.
Angrily, Nicholas rose to his feet and proceeded towards Rex. He landed a blow on his face and followed it up by hitting the butt on his gun on the nose.
Rex groaned in pain. He could feel blood dripping from his nose but couldn’t clean or touch it with his hand. He saw a drop of blood on his shirt as Nicholas walked back to the seat.
‘I’ll double the punishment for any other person that makes a sound,’ Nicholas said in warning to the rest of the people. He relaxed in his seat and placed the gun back on his lap.
Rex felt his blood boiling in anger but he was helpless with the ropes holding him firmly to the chair. He tried to move his body and he noticed that the chair moved with the aid of the roller under. He remained calm and sniffed out with the blood still falling in little drops on his chest.
He placed a stern look on Nicholas, wondering what was happening. He was sure something unpleasant was going on and his best guess was that the police had come to visit the building which they were in. That was the best explanation he could give for the movement of all of them into that room with someone sitting and watching them.
He noticed the man watching them busy with a phone and he quickly used the opportunity to look around the room well. He noticed a piece of broken glass at the left corner of the room. He imagined getting an opportunity to pick the glass, he could try cut the ropes used to tie him with it. But it was an almost impossible task. There was no way the man seated in front of them would watch while he cuts the ropes. The guy didn’t look like he was going to leave them alone in the room soon and even if he left them alone it wouldn’t be easy to get to the corner the glass was. Though the chair had a roller underneath, he still had to struggled to roll it with his stiffed body. He would make a lot of noise in the process and get noticed even before he got to half of the way. Another challenge was how to pick up the glass when he got to the corner but that wasn’t a tough challenge, he could make himself to the fall to the ground in that direction. The only disadvantage was the noise that would be made and the risk of not falling on the right side.
He glanced briefly at the man’s face and glanced at the glass again, trying to examine if it would cut through those strong ropes easily. He shook his head and heaved a sigh at the impossibility of his thoughts but then he realized that it could be his only chance to get out alive, Samantha Osman would have likely gotten back Chief Nonso and would ki*ll him as soon as she returned. And he wasn’t sure he would get another chance to escape apart from this.
He clenched his fists to feel the strength left in his body. He didn’t feel as strong as he used to be but he still had some energy in him. He expected that they would inject him in the arm by the next morning as their usual routine was and that would keep him very weak for three days again. Now was the best opportunity because it was the strongest moment they allowed for him. He kept stealing glances at Nicholas’s face but applied extreme care to ensure Nicholas does not observe that he was up to something.
_
‘Oh s***!’ Cole cursed as the camera landed on the power room. It was now clear to him why the men were resting on the walls and doing nothing. It was because the one of them had located the power room and was trying to do something there.
‘Boss, I just saw one of them in the power room.’ Cole said as he got up from his seat and picked a gun from under the chair.
_
‘What are they doing in the power room?’ Tarasha said into her earpiece, feeling alarmed. She glanced at the time again, they still had at least thirty minutes to get back to the base.
‘I can’t say boss,’ Cole’s reply sounded through her earpiece.
Fear struck Tarasha’s heart as she imagined that the men could be from the Villary Clan like Rex and that they were planning to put off the lights and put her men to darkness to their own advantage. The lasers and other security measures put in place in the house would also not work with the power disconnected from the source and that would render her team helpless.
‘Do all you can to stop the guy from tampering with anything in the power house,’ Tarasha said. ‘Attend to it personally.’
For about ten seconds, there was no reply from Cole and then his voice sounded slowly in a sad tone. ‘Boss, the lights have gone off.’
Tarasha took in a deep breath. She covered the mouthpiece with her hand to block her voice from sounding to Cole. ‘Drive straight to Base A,’ she said to Henry.
__
Cole quickly searched through his pocket. Luckily, he found a phone and turned on the flashlight to provide light in the dark corridor where he stood, the same place he was standing when the lights went off. He walked out of the corridor and looked around, there were no signs of light anywhere in the building or even in the compound. He took out the second mouthpiece in his chest pocket and attached it to the collar.
‘Guys, the power source is off. We’ve got to go against them, step out now and fire every one down.’ Cole shouted in his instruction into the mouthpiece. The mouthpiece was connected to every member of the team and they all heard his instruction at once.
__
Nicholas was confused as the lights went off, he quickly got up and opened the door to see if the light was still on outside the room but everywhere was dark. He stepped back into the room and began to pace about with his phone still in his hand. Soon he heard Cole’s voice sound in his earpiece, he stopped to listen. The instruction didn’t help his confusion as he couldn’t tell if he was also supposed to step out according to Cole’s instruction. He searched his pocket for his mouthpiece and took it out. He fumbled to clip it to his collar for some seconds but lost grip of it and it fell from his hands. He quickly bent and began to search for it on the floor. Unluckily for him, the darkness denied him the opportunity of finding it. He tried to use his phone’s backlight to find it but it wasn’t bright enough. He stood up straight and positioned the phone in his hand properly, he swiped down the notification bar to search for the flashlight icon and clicked on it. The flashlight turned on and he pointed it to the ground to search for the mouthpiece.
A small rat was running towards his feet at that moment and he tried to step on it with his foot but missed, the rat hurried towards the door and ran out.
Nicholas heard a crushing sound as he took a step back unconsciously. He froze in fear, hoping what it sounded like was not what happened. He lifted up his right foot which had stepped on the object and bent to look at it. It was the mouthpiece he was looking for, already destroyed by the sole of his shoe. He stood up with a sigh, he had lost the only chance he had to speak back to Cole. He walked back to the door and picked his gun on the seat and proceeded straight out, guiding his way with the phone’s flashlight.
The opportunity Rex was looking for had finally come. He had previously located all the points every object was located when the lights were on, so it was easy for him to move himself to Stainless’ front.
‘Hey Dude!’ he called in low tones as he rolled his chair to Stainless’ front.
‘Boss,’ Stainless replied in a weak voice.
‘Can you move your wrists and use your fingers?’ Rex asked.
‘Yes,’ Stainless answered, clenching his fist and wriggling his hand to confirm. He could tell what direction Rex was speaking from and could also tell that Rex was close to him but the darkness was still so thick that he could see his face.
Rex took some time to move himself to Stainless’ front before he spoke again.
‘You grab my chair at both sides and push me forward,’ Rex said.
‘Huh?’
‘Do exactly what I said, push me forward with all your strength.’
Stainless tried to hold the chair and stretched his fingers but it still did not get there. ‘I need you to move back a little more,’ he said to Rex.
__
Cole began to hear gunshots as he proceeded quickly through the passage of the building which led to the power house. He stopped as he got to the door to check if the man who was supposed to be manning the place was still there but he couldn’t find him. He took out his gun and walked slowly to the door.
‘Cole, ki*ll the hostages if you can but make sure you get out of that place as soon as you can.’ Tarasha’s voice came in.
Cole froze for a second, trying to understand rightly what Tarasha meant. ‘You mean I should escape?’
‘Yes,’ Tarasha replied plainly.
‘What about the other men?’
‘Tell them to get out of the building if they can also, those men have a good plan and they already have the darkness advantage.’
‘Okay boss,’ Cole said.
He turned on the other mouthpiece. ‘Nicholas, ki*ll everyone of those hostages right now.’
He waited for some seconds to get a reply from Nicholas but didn’t. He hoped Nicholas had heard him but he wasn’t ready to go back to ki*ll the hostages himself. Tarasha’s warning to him about escaping had put more fear in him.
‘I’m watching Base A right now,’ Tarasha’s voice sounded through the speakers again. ‘It still looks safe but we can’t tell if they were able to force the location out of Tomi’s mouth. You need to go to the base now to keep the people there safe but the major thing I require from you is to guard the power room and keep them from disconnecting till I get there.’
‘Okay boss,’ Cole replied and turned back immediately. He proceeded in the direction of the underground escape.
