Tarasha 2 Chapter 7 Part 2 – Oyin Oluwatosin Emmanuel
Mr Sylvester was deeply engaged with something on his computer when he heard a knock on his door. ‘Who is it?’ he barked, angry that he was being disturbed and wondering why his secretary did not inform him about the visitor. He believed it was a visitor because the doorbell wasn’t used. He minimized the opened window on his system to check who the visitor was through the monitoring cameras but the door opened before he could see anything.
His hand dropped from the mouse and he sighed as he saw Steve walk in again. He checked the time, Steve had left his office for over thirty minutes ago, he expected that he should have gone far already.
‘I’m sorry sir, I believe I forgot something in your office. I’ve checked the control room and it isn’t there,’ Steve said before the man could ask what he wanted.
‘What did you forget?’ Mr Sylvester asked coldly.
‘A disk, I couldn’t find it in my bag.’ Steve replied as he approached the table. He searched the table with his eyes for a moment, he could feel Mr Sylvester eyes suspiciously following him as he searched. He then pulled back the visitor’s chair he had sat on earlier and stared at the ground. ‘Oh! I found it already,’ he exclaimed and bent to pick it. ‘Here is it sir,’ he said with a smile, displaying the disk cover to the man.
Mr Sylvester narrowed his look to the cover, not because he was interested in the disk but to be sure that it wasn’t something of his that Steve had taken. His gaze left the disk cover and was fixed on Steve’s face.
Steve’s smile faded away slowly, he felt blood suddenly rush through his veins as the man stared at him. He had intended to catch the man’s attention with the software disk cover and was hoping that the man would be interested in knowing more about it and acquiring it. But it was not so, the disgusted look on Mr Sylvester’s face said it all, he didn’t care at all about what the disk was, all he wanted was for Steve to get out of the office and probably out of the world forever.
‘Now that you’ve found what you lost, why are you still here?’ Mr Sylvester barked.
‘Em..’ Steve smiled sheepishly. ‘I will put it in my bag and leave your office,’ he said foolishly, mentioning his words slowly. He still held the software in his hand.
‘Get out of my office,’ Mr Sylvester barked angrily, looking irritated as he leaned towards the table and picked his office phone.
‘I’ll get out sir,’ Steve replied almost breathlessly. He hurriedly put the software disk into the system.
‘Security, there’s a man in my office now. He’s about leaving, I want you people to ensure you see him leave this environment immediately, don’t let him stick anywhere inside this facility.’ Mr Sylvester said into the phone angrily, he looked up and Steve was already closing the door after getting out.
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Cole closed the gate carefully after his partner entered behind him. He looked around the compound briefly and turned to his partner, ‘We’re going to meet Henry E.G inside, so we are not going in as enemies. We’ll walk in casually and I’ll introduce you as my friend, he shouldn’t suspect anything. Do you understand?’
The man nodded silently in reply.
‘Also, when he asks me questions and I start telling him stories, just pretend as if you know all about what I’m saying and as if they are true.’
He nodded again like a dumb person.
Cole eyes wandered around the main building again and the spaces around, he observed the parking space and took note of the vehicles there. He also looked towards the points where cameras were placed in the compound. He heaved a sigh of frustration as he proceeded forward, his partner following behind.
This task would have been simpler for him if Rex didn’t pay too much attention to details. He had planned not to destroy Tarasha’s connections and network lines like he was asked to but to temporarily disable in a way she can easily re-enable it when she returns, then to drop a note which will apologize and explain his actions and the mess he was in to Tarasha. But with the strict instructions Rex had given him, he would have no other choice than to paralyze the network lines completely. Rex strict order was that he took a screenshot of every major step of the operation and the final result, the pictures would be a proof that he really did the job. Rex had also instructed that he destroyed the cables, dish and any physical apparatus that could enable her create another network in two weeks and his partner was asked to take pictures of him as he did this.
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Tarasha squinted as her eyes met with Cole’s face on the screen, she stepped back and watched as Cole looked around the house and said somethings in whispers to his partner before they started proceeding forward. Her mind began to work at once and she was certain that Cole must have been given an assignment by the enemies, she wondered what it was. She took a glance at the timer on her wrist and heaved a sigh. Her decision would have been to hide somewhere and wait to watch what was Cole’s mission but it was a hard one to make because of her inability to predict the amount of time Henry had to stay in the NSCC office. She touched the mouse to move the camera focus with Cole and his partner’s movement and watched as they approached the main door. Cole put his access card into reader and the door gave way.
Tarasha closed the stream and switched to the cameras inside the building. Cole and his partner had entered but Cole was waiting to lock the door back with his access card. She took two steps back from the computer to think. After about forty seconds, she finally decided to wait and see Cole’s plan. Henry would have to wait longer in the NSCC building, she believed he could waste more time on the system and lie to the officials that he wasn’t done yet.
She walked away from the table to a locker not to far away and took out a flash drive. She returned to the main control system and inserted the drive. After copying a file from the system into the drive, she shut down the system and walked out with the drive, a tablet device and her bag.
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‘Hello, anybody in here?’ Cole shouted in as he walked on slowly into the living room. He looked around and noticed that all the windows were locked and the curtains drawn. He signaled for his partner to wait in the living room while he proceeded further, calling for anyone who could be in the house. He returned two minutes later and motioned for his partner to join him as he led him to the control room.
He switched on the bulb in the control room when he entered and he proceeded straight to the master system. He opened up the screen and pressed the boot button, he motioned his partner to a seat beside him while he also sat in front of the system. He took sometime to look around as the computer booted, he observed carefully how the cables connected to the network dish outside the house were arranged, they were all hidden inside the casings. There was a receiver hung on the wall close to the ceiling at the edge of the left side wall which had a green light on, signaling the presence of signals. He was to destroy everything – the connection settings on the master system which will make the light on the receiver turn red and then the physical cables and appliances which ensured the connection and receiving of signals. His partner’s job was to support his operation, especially if there was any unforseen situation which arose and also to take the pictures as Cole destroyed the physical wires and connection tools.
A thought struck Cole’s mind as the system made a sound to signal the complete booting. The idea was to start with a note to explain to Tarasha the situation and also give out hints to her on Elvis- whom he now knew to be Rex- and how she would be able to locate them. He began to think of a way to get his partner busy while he composed the note.
‘Hey, can you turn on the system. I want you to help with a job there,’ Cole said, pointing towards the system at the end of the long table.
His partner shrugged. ‘Of course, if it’s something I can do.’ he rose up and journeyed towards the system he was pointed to. Cole opened the Microsoft notepad application and began to type as fast as possible.
‘What am I supposed to do for you?’ Cole’s partner asked after he got to the place and pressed the boot button.
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Tarasha watched Cole’s actions through the device in silence. She couldn’t read the expression on his face because of the light from the screen he was focused on. She deeply wondered what his mission could be. She enlarged the view point and watched to see what he was doing on the laptop. She could see him typing words into the notepad application. What could he be typing? She asked herself. If not for the speed at which he was typing, she could have concluded that he was trying to draft out codes for a program but with his fast speed, she knew he wasn’t writing codes but English words.
Something vibrated on the drawer by her bedside. She rose from the bed which she was sitting in and picked up her phone. There was a text message and it was from Henry. She swiped down the notification bar and dragged in the text message
‘I got into trouble with the NSCC boss and he has ordered the security men to throw me out. They are behind me now, following to see that I go out immediately.’
‘sh*t!’ she cursed and hit her fist on the drawer. She hurriedly returned to the bed and put the tablet device she was using to monitor Cole into her backpack. She strapped it to her back and hurried out of her room, taking one of her guns out of the pocket on her trouser.
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‘Hey men! You got to take this easy,’ Steve said to the security men who had been told to ensure he gets out of his building and its surroundings.
‘Just go out, you can use your phone outside.’ the middle aged security man replied him as they pushed him gently from behind with a club.
‘I’m not playing with it, I’m sending a text message, can’t you see?’
‘That’s not my concern,’ the man barked as he pushed Steve forward with his club. The other security man opened the smaller entrance of the gate and Steve was pushed outside.
Henry heaved a sigh of frustration as the gate was slammed behind him. He straightened his cloth and looked around carefully to see if there was anything or anyone watching around. The environment looked it’s usual way. He straightened his cloth again, not knowing what next to do as his heart began to thump faster. He took two steps forward and turned back to look at the gate again, adjusting the bag on his back tighter. He felt a short vibration in his pocket. He took out his phone, the screen was turned on already. He waited two seconds for the screen light to adjust to the new surrounding light before he dragged down the notification bar. It was a text message from Omotara replying his.
‘Stay still when you get outside, don’t look around.’ the message read.
‘Oh!’ Henry heaved a sigh. He had already gone against the instruction which came in late but he decided to carry it out anyway. He took two steps closer to the road but fixed his eyes on his phone. Another text message entered.
‘Walk in the opposite direction to your car, DO NOT look towards where your car was parked.’
Like a robot, he turned to the opposite direction and began to walk slowly, still holding the phone in his hand and waiting for more instruction.
‘Try as much as possible not to look afraid, you’re disguised and they can’t recognize you. Just walk as fast as possible, make sure you follow the three instructions accordingly.’ a third message entered.
Henry began to walk fast. He had followed the last two instructions properly but the first one unfortunately came after he did the opposite.
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‘Try as much as possible not to look afraid, you’re disguised and they can’t recognize you. Just walk as fast as possible, make sure you follow the three instructions accordingly.’ Tarasha said into her phone using the voice typing option. She clicked on send and then returned the phone into her pocket. Then she proceeded straight to the control room.
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‘Who’s this?’ Rex muttered under his breath, asking no one in particular but himself. The man who had been pushed out from inside the NSCC facility was looking around. He placed two fingers on the device’s screen and zoomed the video to the face of the man. He zoomed out almost immediately as he didn’t know who the man was. He watched for some more seconds until the man began to go his way. The man looked quite suspicious but a lady was who Rex was expecting and he had viewed the man’s head and chest well and was sure he wasn’t a lady disguised as a man.
Still seated in his car and waiting patiently for Tarasha to come out of the NSCC gate. He had two earpieces with him, one in the left ear which he used to listen and communicate with Stainless while the other one was attached to the tip of his collar and transmitted Cole’s voice from where he was.
‘I’m sending two documents to that system, they both contain some codes, one of ten pages and the other twenty pages.’ Cole’s voice sounded loud through the earpiece in Rex’s collar.
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‘I’m sending two documents to that system, they both contain some codes, one of ten pages and the other twenty pages.’ Cole began answering his partner’s question of what he was supposed to help with after two minutes of focus on the note and ignoring the man. ‘I want you to merge the documents, but the way to merge is the real task.’ Cole paused to clear his throat. ‘From each page of the ten pages document, you copy the last line of codes and you search for the same line of code in the twenty pages document, you create a one-line space above when you find it. After creating the space, copy the whole full one page of the ten pages document and paste it in the created space. Do you understand?’
‘Yes, I do.’ the other man replied.
‘Ehen,’ Cole said like he just remembered something. ‘For each line of code you find in the twenty pages document, you will find more than one. You have to create spaces and paste above each line of codes you find.’
‘Okay,’ the man nodded, still staring towards Cole, his fingers on the mouse.
‘I’ll send it to you in two minutes,’ Cole eyes scanned through the words on the notepad app again before he minimized it.
‘Are all these connected to the network lines we are here to disable?’ Cole’s partner questioned.
‘My job is to paralyze the network lines, your job is to help me and also take pictures.’ Cole replied, sounding disgusted by the question. He moved the cursor on the system to the network and security option.
Just as he clicked on it, the door opened slowly and Tarasha entered.
Like a programmed device, Cole rose up to his feet instantly. He could recognize her perfectly even though she was wearing makeup to disguise.
Tarasha looked from left to right, at Cole who was staring down timidly and to Cole’s partner who was looking shocked.
She raised her gun and sent a bullet into Cole’s partner’s chest. He tumbled and landed on the floor with the chair.
‘You came to paralyze my network lines?’ She said as she turned towards Cole, squinting at him with a questioning look. She pointed her gun to his head.
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Rex could only hear Cole’s voice clearly in the conversation because his partner was far away. He could only hear the other man’s voice as very low whispers which he couldn’t make any meaning from. He heard Cole speaking angrily to the other guy because that one had questioned him. There were no voices for very few seconds, he could only hear softly Cole’s fingers on the keyboard and the sound made by the computer in refuting commands. Then every sound stopped and the next thing Rex heard was something which sounded like a gunshot, he was sure it was. Then he heard a lady’s voice, but couldn’t make out what she said.
‘Damn it!’ he cursed, landing his fists on the wheels as he realized what was happening. Tarasha was at the base and must have sent Henry to the NSCC office. Henry must have been the man he had seen come out of the place few minutes ago. He never imagined that Tarasha could send Henry to the NSCC Headquarters, since all he read about Henry never suggested he was an assassin nor that he ever underwent any form of physical training. He was sure Tarasha would be the one to come to the NSCC office because he expected her to have suspicions about the deactivation of the account. He expected her to expect some form of attack and that expectation would have allowed her come by herself and not send Henry who wasn’t trained to handle any form of attack.
His speculations were true. Tarasha would have done exactly as Rex had thought if not for the mistrust issues she had against Henry. She would have known automatically that the source of the hacking of her NSCC account was from the gang that had Cole in hostage. She would have visited the NSCC office herself, prepared, and expecting an attack. She probably would have survived or escape Rex at the NSCC but Rex would have won through Cole whom he sent to the base.
Rex pushed the start button in the car and the engine came to life. He turned on the screen of his tablet device as he reversed out of the curb. He could no more see the man who came out through the NSCC gate but he still knew the direction which he took. He would probably loose Cole to Tarasha but he wasn’t going to let Henry go. However, he still had suspicions about Henry being a secretly trained personnel or assasin but none of his research had confirmed that.
‘Hello boss… Boss,’ Stainless had been calling unto Rex but Rex had been too busy with his thoughts to reply.
‘Yes, Stainless,’ he answered, placing a finger gently on the earpiece.
‘I thought you were saying something to me,’ Stainless answered back.
‘No, I wasn’t.’ Rex said. Stainless must have heard him when he cursed loudly.
‘Okay boss.’
‘Stay connected man, Tarasha isn’t here. She sent Henry E.G and she’s got Cole at the base. I’m going after E.G now, and I want you to take my position here to watch if anyone else comes out of the place’ . Rex said.
‘Okay boss,’ Stainless replied. Rex could hear him accompanying it with a release of breath.
As Rex moved into the road, he could imagine what was happening on the other end of Cole and Tarasha with the little sounds he was now hearing. Cole might be gone but Henry had to be captured.
He drove on the fast lane on a high speed and didn’t drive for so long before he spotted the man who had come out through the NSCC gate at the pedestrian side of the other carriageway, he was walking fast and holding his phone.
