Tarasha 2 Chapter 4 Part 9 – Oyin Oluwatosin Emmanuel
‘Ojo!’ Don kept barking the Yoruba name with his thick Igbo accent. As he proceeded past the first room into the large corridor, he noticed the doors of the rooms which the corridor led to opened carelessly and there were no signs of boys coming forth. He stopped halfway in the first corridor for a moment, he turned briefly around, feeling disgusted about how the whole place was, his anger against Ojo increased. All he thought was that Ojo had gone out to a party with his boys in the bus that was supposed to be parked outside. He took out his phone and dialed Ojo’s number, he proceeded towards the corridor exit, unbuckling his belt as he did. He needed to make quick use of the toilet as his bladder was full.
Ojo could hear the sound of a phone ringing as he walked past the rooms whose doors were carelessly opened but he didn’t bother to check as he felt his need to use the toilet more urgent. He stopped the call and proceeded faster to the toilet he shared only with Stainless and Stone in the factory. He met the shock of his life as he opened the door whose room enclosed the toilet.
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Tarasha located the City Gate hospital after driving for over fifteen minutes, she had stopped on the road after driving past the Police Headquarters in Ikeja to attend to Stephanie’s wound. Stephanie had fallen due to the weakness in her body when she left the toilet instead of obeying Tarasha’s instruction. Tarasha had used a cloth to cover the wound on her neck and placed her on Mr Bello’s lap to lay in a position which will reduce the bleeding. She also gave some instructions to the couples as they drove on.
She pushed the horn furiously after getting to the front of the gate. The guards and gatemen had gone to bed already. After a minute about a minute of constant horning, two men surfaced behind the gate. He unlocked it and pushed the first wing out while the second man pulled the second in. The first man who was dressed like the security man stopped the bus as it made it’s way in, another man was also seeing coming out from the main building of the hospital.
‘We have an emergency here,’ Tarasha said to the man who stood by the driver’s door, looking back towards Stephanie who was held by Mr Bello in the bus.
‘Na woman dey drive am,’ she could hear the man say as he walked slowly forward, checking inside the bus through the windows.
‘Why them con plenty like this inside the bus?’ a man at the left side asked.
‘It’s our grand daughter, she fell while using the toilet.’ Mr Bello spoke out shakily. His gaze meeting with Tarasha’s.
The first nodded and walked back to the driver’s side, he gave a pass ticket to Tarasha and signaled for them to drive in.
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Don pulled out his gun with great fear as he crossed over the first body. He cocked his gun in alertness and pulled out his phone. He dialed Rex’ phone number in error, thinking it was Stainless as he moved with slow steps towards the opened door of the toilet.
‘Stainless,’ Don shouted into the phone.
‘Don!’ Rex’ replied but Don was still too occupied with his thoughts of fear to notice the difference in the voice.
He could hear shouts from the boys outside and his heart shook in fear for the worst. They were certainly under attack, he thought.
‘Stain, we’re in trouble. I think we are under attack from Tarasha herself…’ he stopped talking as he entered the toilet till he stepped out after finding no one there. ‘Stain, how many boys do you have with you there?’ he asked as he made his way back through the door he entered from.
‘No matter who attacks you, don’t let the hostages leave your custody,’ the thick and angry bass voice came as a shock to Don. He took the phone off his ear for a second and stared at his screen, that was when he realized that the person he called was Rex, but the deed was done already.
‘Boss,’ he placed the phone back to his ear shakily. Rex stopped talking abruptly. Don noticed that he must have missed some instructions because Rex was still talking when he took the phone off his ears.
‘Did you see her?’ Rex asked.
‘No but some of the men I left here are down.’ Don answered, he was now back in the corridor where he heard the phone ringing when he placed a call to Ojo.
‘All of your guys?’ Rex asked
‘I’ve not checked them behind,’ Don replied, entering into the rooms carefully one after the other.
‘Confirm and get back to me as soon as possible,’ Rex snapped and the line went off before Don could reply.
‘Holy shi*t!’ Don exclaimed as he met with Ojo’s lifeless body in the room. His pants was pulled halfway and several bullet holes were in his body.
He closed back the door and turned out of the door, half running and half walking.
‘Don!’ one of the boys almost ran into him at the first room.
‘What the hell are you running about for?’ Don shouted at him angrily, there was a gun in the guy’s hand and he was panting heavily.
‘Don, the guys at the back…’ he paused to control his breath as his voice seemed to be covered with the loudness of his breath.
‘Talk to me buffoon!’ Don cursed angrily, tightening his grip on his gun.
‘The boys at the back are all down and the hostages are gone,’ he finally said amidst his heavy intake and release of air.
‘Oh! Damn it…’ Don went wild with anger. He almost shot at the guy who had reported to him but controlled himself at the last second and made the ceiling the recipient of the bullets on reminding himself that killing another of his men would put him at more loss and he was already down with so many.
‘Did you see anyone around?’ he barked aloud as he marched out to the balcony.
‘No boss, ‘ the guy replied and followed him closely.
‘Get me more loaded guns,’ Don ordered.
The other men in the compound were busy, moving about with their guns and scattering everywhere to see if the attackers of their territory were still around. Don observed Aisha on the floor as he passed through the parking space, heading for the building where both Aisha and Cole’s parents were kept.
‘Don!’ another guy called him from the back, carrying a male body on his shoulder. ‘Usman is still alive, he was only sedated.’ he said to Don who had stopped to listen to him.
‘Revive him and get him to talk,’ Don said and continued marching towards the back. Usman was placed beside Aisha where was laid and his shirt was taken off.
Aisha opened her eyes narrowly, she noticed that the two guys left at the parking space had their attention on the body placed beside her, she thought of how to trick them but there was still no way she’ll make a movement that won’t attract their attention.
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‘Young lady, where are you going to?’ the security man who had given her the pass ticket in stopped her as she drove the bus towards the entrance. ‘You drove in only two minutes ago.’
‘I need to get home and pick my father’s debit card,’ she replied boldly with her eyelids squeezed.
‘You mean five of you drove here without bringing your debit card for payment?’
‘My father and his friends are old people, you don’t blame them for not remembering things in such a time of panic.’ she replied him.
He stared at her face in confusion, wondering what kind of a family they are. Four old couples have just gotten into a bus without backseats and headed for the hospital with a young girl driving because another young girl was bleeding.
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Rex arranged the guns into the travelling bags neatly. He had put on his light jacket and black pants immediately after the call and was ready to begin the trip to Lagos immediately without waiting for day break. The only challenge was that he had never been to Lagos before and didn’t know the route to take or any other thing about the place, the only things he knew about Lagos were the things he read during his first week after arriving in Nigeria. He closed the zip of the bag and placed it on a wooden chair beside the wardrobe. He eyes wandered around the room for a minute, lost in thoughts while looking around to see if he was forgetting anything.
Although he was expecting surprises, he didn’t know it would come this quick, but that was also expected, not knowing the time it would come was a part of the surprise.
He lifted the bag and turned back to the bed where he dropped it. Then he opened the travelling bag and put his laptop bag and some other computer accessories and cables in it. Thoughts of how to get to and navigate through Lagos filled his mind again, he couldn’t just depend on the map. For him to be able to use the map efficiently, he must be used to the routes already else it’ll take him up to five hours to get to places he could get in five minutes.
An idea flashed through his mind as he weighed his options. He took out his cellphone from his pocket and dialed Chief Rikau’s number. It rang for the first thirty seconds without being answered. He tried again and the same thing was repeated until the fifth time.
‘Damn you Rex, won’t you…’ Chief Rikau’s voice sounded sleepily but Rex interrupted.
‘Shhh… Just listen Inspector, I need someone who can drive me to Lagos urgently.’
‘Okay, that’s no problem. Allow me sleep now, we’ll settle that tomo…’
‘Inspector!’ Rex interrupted again, ‘I need the driver and car right now, immediately!’
‘Come on, stop troubling me Rex. What do you need someone to drive you to Lagos now for and how do you want me to get someone by this time of the night?’
‘I need it urgently, I need to get to Lagos as soon as possible.’
‘Forget it Rex, whatever it is should wait till daybreak.’ Chief Rikau said in a dismissing tone.
‘My men are being attacked by Samantha Osman right now and I need to get there to help them,’ Rex insisted.
‘You can’t get to Lagos to help anyone, she would have finished all of them before you get halfway. Please stop troubling me, I had a very hectic day.’ The Chief concluded and ended the call.
‘Damn it!’ Rex cursed under his breath as he tightened the phone in his fist so hard until he began to feel the phone’s case cracking. He released his tightened fist, allowing the phone fall into the bed, the screen and the back cover had been cracked already. The Inspector General had just told him the truth, there was no way he was going to get to Lagos to meet the attack. His anger had beclouded his sense of reasoning and he almost made another error.
Maybe Tarasha’s real plan was to deceive them. She had deceived them already by making them think she wasn’t interested in helping Aisha and Cole in Lagos, only for her to say she was sending Henry at the last minute. He wondered for a second if Henry E.G could be the one behind the attack in Lagos and not Tarasha herself, she might just want to use it as a distraction for her to make space and attack the Vice President or the Inspector General.
He heaved a sigh as he sank into the bed. He noticed his phone vibrating, he had put it on vibration unknowingly when he squeezed it in his palm. He picked it up and tried to answer the call but the phone’s screen calibration had been damaged.
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Don dialed Rex’s number for the third time consecutively, it rang for some seconds without being answered again. He kicked one of the wooden chairs using the sole of his shoe angrily. The chair tumbled and fell on the dead body beside it.
Don ran his rubbed his palm over his head in frustration. He had been deceived big time by Tarasha, he wondered how Tarasha could have intelligently played the game with them. Was it that she knew that Aisha was lying all along or was Aisha able to contact her beforehand. He thought of the probability of the latter being the case, it was zero. There was no way Aisha could have spoken with Tarasha before they left the warehouse, Aisha had no phone and was always kept under close watch, so there was no way she could have contacted the outside world without their knowledge.
Or was it Cole who was able to contact Tarasha, he thought. Maybe Stainless and Stone had been careless with Cole and allowed him gain access to a phone with which he used to inform Tarasha of their situation. But then he remembered that Cole was always firmly tied and blindfolded, so there was no way it could have been him who reached Tarasha. He had to accept that Tarasha must have known through another means, most likely just her intelligent way of reasoning.
‘Is he awake now?’ Don asked, turning towards the corridor as he squeezed his phone in his palm and grit his teeth. His confusion was gradually transforming into extreme anger.
‘Yes but he’s not talking, ‘ one of the boys replied him.
‘Bring him here,’ Don ordered them with a hand gesture. He moved the body lying in front of him from the wall to create space for them.
He took out his phone again and tried Rex’s number, this time it was switched off.
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6 minutes later
‘She was here… She was here,’ he stammered painfully after being poured water severally and slapped on the face. It was the same man who had released to Tarasha information about Cole’s whereabouts. The pin in his neck had been taken out but Don and his men were still trying to wake him up from the deep sleep that had been induced. The pin had been in his body for a longer time now which had made it’s effect stronger, so it was not easy for them to revive him like Tarasha had done when she wanted. It had taken them up to fifteen minutes to get him to talk the way he was now.
‘Who was here?’ Don slapped his face again. He had slept off again. ‘I say who was here?’ Don shouted, adding another slap.
The guy’s eyes popped open again, ‘Saman…tha, she ask…asked me to tell you she came here.’ he said before his eyes closed again.
Don rose up slowly to his feet from his squatting position, his fears had been confirmed. He didn’t know what step to take next, he bent down again to ask another question.
‘Where did she say she was going from here?’ he shouted but the man’s eyes were closed again. He was about to slap the face again when his phone vibrated on the seat he had put it on. He turned back and picked up the phone, the screen displayed the caller’s ID, it was Rex.
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**City Gate hospital*”
‘Nurse, I heard that the girl who brought those people have left already.’
‘Yes, they have.’ the nurse replied the young doctor. They both stood outside in front of the ward where Stephanie was carried into and was being attended to by another doctor.
‘Don’t you think something looks fishy about them?’
‘Yes, they look very dirty and unkempt.’ the nurse replied.
‘Okay, tell the security men to alert the Rapid Response Squad. I think I noticed some bullets in the clothes the patient was putting on.’
