TARASHA Episode 11 Pt 10 – Oyin Oluwatosin Emmanuel
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Henry hurriedly gulped down another cup of wine in frustration. He was already getting worked up and was wishing that he never came to the party.
The person who brought him to the party had left him to seat alone for almost two hours without returning. His plan to go check on her was obstructed by someone that he wasn’t expecting who just emerged from nowhere, the client who had given him the job of tracking the Canadian number. He never thought that the client could also be an invitee at this party, he had called him earlier to give an excuse that he was sick and needed to rest, so he wouldn’t be able to finish the job till the next day. So how would he explain that his sickness could allow him to party but not to complete a job he had already received money from.
Henry bit his lips and shook his head in regret as he heard a roaring laughter from the man discussing with his client at the table behind him. The discussants rose up from their seats. They kept on talking as that moved closer to Henry’s seat. Henry turned his face to the opposite direction and covered it with his hand.
‘For you, it’s easy na’ Henry heard the second man say to his client. ‘You’re Chief Jubril’s PA’
‘It’s not that easy, people just…’ His client was saying as the moved out of earshot.
Henry’s eyes widened in surprise as he digested the information he overheard. His client was Jubril’s PA?
Justis mind flashed back to the day the job was brought. He remembered clearly the man saying that they had received a call from a business partner with the Canadian number but they were doubting if it was real or not.
Evelyn was striking a business deal with Jubril tonight and she is from Canada. Could she be the same person whose number was being investigated? He thought.
His mind made another flashback. The look on Evelyn’s face when he was typing in the number from his notepad. He had ignored that look as nothing before, since there was no reason for suspicion but now everything began to make sense to him.
After she saw the number was when she changed and started talking to him about going with her to the party. He remembered how she had also began to rub her hands against his chest at that moment she was trying to convince him. Could Evelyn be a criminal? Could she be a fraudster?
Henry poured in some wine into the cup and gulped it down immediately. He pushed away the plate of which he had been served.
His mind returned to how he met Evelyn, how she had gotten him into trouble the first day. He also remembered the day he met her and she was hiding a briefcase. He remembered the lie she told him about the place she stayed, he had only gotten to know that she was in a hotel after he tracked down the phone number she had given him.
The kidnap. How she untied the ropes. How they eventually escaped. The story Tarasha had said about the passers-by was now sounding ridiculous to him. How she changed the story during the police interrogation was even more ridiculous. Henry was now positive that he was allowed to escape because he had contacted Sylvester and the culprits were well aware that the police were coming.
He buried his face his palms. Dare must have planned all these with her. He was sure of Dare’s ability to connive with an outsider to dupe his Dad.
He looked towards the table where Dare and his Dad were previously seated. Only the Dad and two ladies remained on the seat. Dare and Evelyn must have gone to have a meeting. They must be planning to even end his life now that had been further rubbed in by being the one investigating the Canadian number.
He scrubbed his face with his palms and clenched his fists. He had being fooled, used by a criminal.
He stood up staggering, trying to search for Mr Jubril’s PA who just left the area. His phone made several beeps. He brought it out to check. The camera detector app on his phone was detecting some bugs.
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Benny returned to the restroom again, this time making sure that no one was following him. He locked himself in a toilet compartment and sat on the WC, taking out the paper to read.
The substance given to him contained a dangerous mixture of gases which includes Chlorobenzalmalononitrile and other lachrymatory gases that would turn weak everyone that inhaled it within seconds through a peppery sensation in their bodies and eyes. The nose mask was for him to protect himself while the gas was having its effect on the other people.
After killing the Chief, he was to go out through the backdrop which led to the stairs of the security department where Tarasha was and handover the extra cloth to her after which they’ll find a way to leave the venue together.
Five minutes more for the thirty minutes deadline. He got up and walked out to pick the nylon bag which contained the cloth. Two other men walked into the restroom as he walked out to carry out the most crucial part of the assignment.
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The door made a creaking sound as she entered into the room. The room was dark except for the reflection from the screens of the desktops. Tarasha could sight no one in, so she went straight to the computer which she assumed to be the master computer and sat behind it. It was passworded, so she brought out a flash from her pocket and inserted it into the USB port.
The software on the flash drive opened up immediately and she began to punch in commands with the use of the keyboard. Soon, she was able to access the files in the computer.
She paused and turned to look around, having a feeling that she wasn’t alone in the room. She didn’t see anyone so she turned back to the computer to hurry up her work. Her target time to use in the cameras security room was five minutes and she had used three minutes already. She had to hurry up and hide before other security officials start find the dead bodies on the corridor.
She felt another movement around and got up while a certain command was loading. She looked around again as she walked towards the window. She rolled up the blinds and the opened the glass. She could hear the soft music playing from the hall. She closed back the window and took off her Bluetooth earphone. She punched in some commands on it and made a speed dial before returning it to her ear.
‘Cole… Nixus Fortrem, 8453. Stop the whole system from working and then redirect to you. Make sure you handle the street cameras too’ she said briefly and ended the call. She had given Cole the code to direct the footages from the cameras captured from that moment to his device.
She then returned to the computer set. All the data recorded in the last two hours had been successfully extracted into her flash drive and deleted from the main computer.
She ejected the drive and closed all applications on the system. She returned it back to the start page and the turned to leave.
Audu came out from behind a shelf and stood by the door with a mean face, clapping his palms together continuously with a pistol in his hands. He took a sharp turn back and jammed the door.
‘Who are you?’ Audu asked softly but with so much sternness as he started walking forward in slow motion.
‘Let me go and your life would be preserved’ Tarasha warned with a smile, after some seconds of silence.
‘You can’t go anywhere, other security officials would be here in the next five minutes. They heard the gunshots and they’re alert already’
Tarasha chuckled. ‘The last time I checked, the walls here are soundproofed’
Audu raised a brow. ‘Oh! Intelligent’ he exclaimed. ‘That’s what gave you the confidence right? Well, for your information, we aren’t the real guys in charge of security here. Dare only got them out of here by a false alarm and they are on their …’
‘I don’t have time for silly talks’ Tarasha slammed and began walking closer to him without fear.
Audu raised up his gun and pointed it at her. She paused.
‘One last chance, don’t try to stop me and your life would be preserved’
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The beeps continued on Henry’s phone. He rested his palm on the chair handle shakily and opened the app. All the cameras in the hall had been stopped from working. That was strange. Such things don’t happen until after events. He returned his phone into his pocket and turned to leave.
It beeped again, continuously. He brought it out from his pocket with a loud hiss. The cameras were up again. An error in transmission, he thought.
Suddenly, loud screams and shouts erupted from the back of the hall. A very small ball was rolling from the back to the front and emitting a strange coloured smoke.
The screams became louder. Shouts of ‘Bomb!!!’ filled the air. People began to scamper around but they couldn’t go far as they dropped few seconds after inhaling the smoke. Only a few people who were close to the exit made it out before inhaling enough quantity that could take them out.
Henry struggled to remain standing but his strength failed him. He fell on one knee shaking the table violently in the process. The bag which Tarasha left on the chair fell to Henry’s side on the ground, it was partly opened. Henry dipped his hand into it to pick out the nose mask he saw.
Before he could cover his nose with the mask, the gas had already taken so much effect on him but he was still able to move his head though his vision was blur.
He turned his face to the other side, every other person in the hall was down too. Some had fainted while some were bleeding from the nose but a bulk of them just had their eyes shining brightly without even seeing anything as they laid helpless on the floor.
Someone was marching forward. Henry saw the shoe, he raised up his head, the man was also putting on thick dark gloves and a black bag was strapped to his back. He tried to look at the person’s face but the mask worn made it difficult for him to see the face. But that black suit. Henry had seen it before, on that same day.
The masked man walked straight to where Jubril and his wife was laying down helplessly. Even the bodyguards that were supposed to protect them had fallen to the ground and were just staring helplessly.
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Benny got to Jubril in no time and dragged him up by the collar. There was no time to waste, he was sure that the security officials were already coming to the hall with a solution.
He took out a short knife from his pocket and slid it deeply into the man’s throat. Blood gushed out speedily. Benny did this making sure that the fluid did not spill on any other part of his body except his hand which was protected by the glove. He made sure that the windpipe was separated into two before dropping the body.
He rushed through the backdrop exit as instructed by Tarasha in the message and pulled off his suit jacket and beards to remove the disguise. He continued to follow the directions given to him for escape.
He got to the floor landing of the stairs where Tarasha was supposed to wait for him but she wasn’t there yet. His body began to itch. He could hear noises from the hall of policemen who had gone in with their own masks. He hid below the stairs as he took off his Bluetooth earphone and tried to connect to Tarasha. She wasn’t answering. He tried Cole.
