TARASHA Episode 12 Pt 5 – Oyin Oluwatosin Emmanuel

TARASHA Episode 12 Pt 5 – Oyin Oluwatosin Emmanuel

The email containing the details of the remaining targets came in few minutes after Tarasha’s conversation with Chief Gab. She began her research immediately and was already gathering vital information about the targets. But Chief Chief Gab also sent her a summary of their profiles.

Nasiru Attahiru, the next on the list, according to Chief Gab’s plan was formerly one of Chief Gab’s close associates before the take over of a new government after the elections in the year 2016. Then, he was just a politician, in the same party as Chief Gab until 2015, a year before the election year when he switched to the strongest opposition party after it seemed to be growing stronger than the ruling party. He also vied for the position of a senator in the Kaduna state house of assembly in the same year. He was successful and remained in the office for eight years. In the year 2024, he attempted to run for the governor’s seat but failed woefully in his party’s primaries because most of his party members were still finding it hard to trust him, majorly for his undefined reason for switching parties. But that didn’t deter him from contesting for other positions. As a business tycoon, he had enough money to keep buying the forms and to carry out massive campaigns. He only needed to put on better strategies.

He used the next three years before another election to move closer to and buy the trust of the party heads and most of its members. When 2028 came, he didn’t contest for the governorship position again but waited until both the presidential and governorship elections were over. He was actually interested in the seat of the Senate President. He won the seat without stress and had since then been the number three citizen of the nation.

Elvis Richards, the last on the list, was the current vice President of the nation. He had been serving in the government for more than sixteen years. During the time of his association with Chief Gab and the rest six, he was the Deputy governor of Lagos state. He was a part of the major heads that came together to form the strong opposition party before the year 2016 and ousted the seating government. During his tenure as the Deputy governor, he and his head looted the state treasury but did it in such a way that the masses believed they were actually working for them.

Before his service as the Deputy governor, he was the commissioner of police for the state. Ruthless and cruel he was to criminals, the crime rate of the state reduced to the lowest minimum while he was there. But he was also vicious himself, while he punished other criminals ruthlessly, he was always an hardened criminal, sponsoring several criminal acts secretly. Elvis Richards during his eight years tenure as the deputy governor was the mastermind and pioneer of the coalition between the seven friends including himself, Chief Gabriel, Chief Onwuli, Chief Jubril, Chief Nnamdi, Chief Nasiru and Chief Rufai. Four out of the seven were dead already; two were killed recently by an unknown assassin for  reasons unknown. Elvis Richards spearheaded the group activities and introduced them to the major illegal business deals. He also supervised the gruesome murders of Chief Onwuli and Chief Rufai.

After the new government came resumed in 2016, Chief Elvis was called to service again. He was to take charge of the Nation’s security. He did his job faithfully and worked tirelessly to curb all crimes and ensure safety, finally putting a stop to his own criminal activities, mainly because he thought of his children’s future and didn’t want them to be in trouble because of him. It was during these eight years that better security measures like the use of security cameras and other forensic innovations were put to place. After, he took a four years break from 2024 to 2027. In 2027, he was appointed by his party to contest alongside the seating President. That’s how Elvis Richards rose to be the number two citizen of the nation.

The next two jobs would be tougher than the last three put together, Tarasha could envisage. But it would be done, she was sure, she only needed to get close to the targets and plan very well.

Tarasha rose up from her sofa and stretched her body. She shifted the centre table away and began to do some acrobatics to exercise herself. She stopped after some minutes and picked up a face towel hung on the backrest of the sofa to wipe the sweat on her body. She then proceeded outside to the balcony where the others were playing the ludo game. 

There was a pause when she opened the curtains and stood by the door. The three gamers turned to look at her, they turned back to their game when she didn’t say anything. She stepped away from the balcony and walked into the compound. She got to the side where about fifty six inches building blocks were neatly arranged. She picked one and carried it back to the balcony. She erected it beside Benny to sit.

‘Come sit here boss’ Cole offered, trying to show some respect.

‘No, thanks’ she calmly refused.

Cole turned back to his game but couldn’t concentrate anymore, he was stealing glances at the boss’s face. Aisha was not fully concentrating too. It seemed they all had the same thing in mind. It was strange for the boss to sit with them and watch them play. The expression showing on her face even revealed that she was enjoying watching them play and that surprised them further. Benny and Aisha were happy about it, they thought it would be nice if she could only be as friendly as she was now at all times but Cole was still indifferent.

Except for Cole who had a clue, none of them had really come to understand their boss; none knew that she controlled the expressions on her face. She could keep a happy smile on even if she was greatly infuriated. She was trained not to have emotions, so how could she express what she didn’t have. The only emotions she was permitted to express sometimes were anger and hate. But she was trained specially to use her facial expressions to manipulate people and use them for her purposes.

‘I’ll be playing the next game with you, let’s make it a four man game’ Tarasha surprised them further, surprising Cole more 

‘So you can play boss?’ Cole teased happily. It seemed to him now that she was expressing real emotions.

‘I’ve learnt it’ Tarasha replied.

‘Just now?’ Cole asked again.

‘Yes, how long does it take to learn it?’ She asked.

‘It depends on individuals’ Cole replied. ‘But I’m sure this is not the first time you watched someone play it’

‘I’ve seen something like this called Mandavoshka, and I also saw you play this yesterday’

‘Just yesterday?’ Cole asked.  She nodded in affirmation.

‘Hehe’ Cole replied with a chuckle. ‘It’s time to teach the boss some lessons’ he said in his mind.

The time came for the four man game. Tarasha began well with the basics, she knew the number needed to leave the players home and could count very well. But out of inexperience, she took out all the tokens at a time and Aisha who was the gamer before her took the advantage and began to send all her tokens back in.

Tarasha came last in all four rounds they played, but except for Cole who mocked a little with chuckles and smiles, the two others couldn’t make fun of her openly like they would of themselves.

‘We may not be leaving Abuja for now’ Tarasha announced as Cole shook the dice cup to make his roll.

He paused and looked up. Benny and Aisha also fixed their eyes on her. ‘We have two new targets and they live in Abuja’ she explained further.

‘We need to start work as soon as possible, these two jobs are going to require a lot from us; we have to make a lot of research and take a lot of risks’ she paused and smiled on seeing the expression on their faces. ‘Don’t worry, you’ll be paid handsomely’

‘Play’ she said to Cole who was still shaking the dice cup. Three of them still fixed their eyes on her, they were expecting one last thing.

‘The Senate President and Vice President are our next targets’ she announced. They were dumbstruck. The eagerness to continue with the game left them at once.

+++++
5pm

‘Mallam Jefa!’ Someone hailed as he walked into the shop. Jefa replied him by raising his two hands in the air. His customers had already filled the shop like every normal evening and he was very busy. About fifteen guys and two ladies were in the shop.

‘Oga Jefa, where you go since all these days na?’ The customer asked of his whereabouts in pidgin English.

‘I’ve been busy with some personal issues’ Jefa answered, less enthusiastically.

‘Hope you’re back now?’

‘I hope so. I might get busy again soon’

‘Please, don’t get busy o’ the guy pleaded with a serious tone. ‘These last two days that you didn’t open, I went to sleep without having dinner ‘

Jefa smiled. ‘Iko, what do you want?’

‘Get me some… ‘ he was saying when they heard a disturbing sound.

‘Are you crazy? Who the hell do you think you are?’ Two of Jefa’s customers had begun a fight. From the look of things especially the fighters’ demeanours, it was obvious that they had both had some portion of weed before coming to eat.

Before Jefa could make any move, one of the fighters had bent down to break a bottle but the second guy smashed a stool on his head before he tried to look up. Things were getting out of control already. The other customers, instead of separating the fighters began to take sides with the one they know. Soon, chairs, bottles and plates were flying everywhere.

~~
**9.30pm**

Henry let out a deep breath as he killed the engine. He turned off the headlights but remained in the car. His Saturday had been unusually hectic, unlike other weekends when he had the whole day to himself.

He made a quick flashback of all he had done that day. From his visit to Elymax and the incidental meeting with Dakolo, his meeting with Jefa also. Jefa didn’t let him go that until he confirmed that Henry had given him his real phone number and address. Then his work in the office; Dakolo’s appearance had caused so many things to be revealed, so many flaws in the NSCC system and need to improve.

He took out his phone from his pocket, he hadn’t touched it for a while. He had five unseen notifications; one from his device locator, two text messages and two from social networks. He clicked on the device locator notification.

After some processing, the app displayed the text “HGE device located” and read it out at the same time. Henry’s eyes widened in disbelief. He clicked on “more details” immediately.  It displayed a map, a green dot was specifying the exact location of the device found.

‘Gwagalada’ Henry muttered to himself. He zoomed the exact location on the map, read out the street and house address to himself.

~~~

**The next day**

6am

As usual, Tarasha was the first to get up from bed. She walked out to take a cup of water and returned into her room to change into her workout clothes. After about an hour of workout, she returned into the house. Aisha was also up already and was busy in the kitchen.

Tarasha picked up her tablet device and switched it on. She laid back on the bed and waited for it to boot. After three minutes, she picked it up again. She drew the security pattern. Her eyes met something and she looked suddenly alarmed, a warning alert popped up. She sat up quickly and placed it on her laps. She began to type in commands speedily using the keyboard. Her fears were confirmed, someone from the same building was sending out location signals. There was a traitor amongst them.

She got up hurriedly and dashed out of her room, shouting Cole and Benny’s names. Without waiting for them to respond, she proceeded to their room and kicked the door open. Cole and Benny had been woken by her voice already and was hurrying to put on their clothes.

‘Where are your phones?’ Tarasha barked at the guys who were still in their underwear. They seemed perplexed and gave no answer, staring at each other’s faces.

‘Bring out all your devices and join me in the living room now’ she said before slamming the door.

‘Aisha’ she called out too. Aisha quickly walked out of the kitchen. ‘Leave whatever you are doing, go and bring your phone and every other device you have with you.’ Aisha replied with a nod and hurried up to her room.

In less than two minutes, Benny, Cole and Aisha had assembled into the living room with all their phones and devices, waiting. They stood in front of the three seater sofa side by side on a straight line. Tarasha wasn’t there, only her tablet could be seen on one of the sofas.

She came out a minute later, loading bullets into a short gun while a long gun was hung around her arm.

‘Who is the traitor here?’ She said as she finished loading the gun. The whole building was silent, fear gripped their hearts as they watched their boss threaten, she looked like one who was really ready to ki*ll them.

‘Where are your devices?’ Tarasha asked, pointing for them to drop all the devices on the centre table. They complied. ‘Switch on everything’ Tarasha ordered. Cole and Aisha returned to the table to power on theirs and returned to the line. There was a total of seven devices on the table. Cole had four due to the nature of his job. Aisha had two while Benny owned the remaining one.

Tarasha moved closer to the table, staring at their faces carefully. She pocketed the small gun and picked up her tablet device from the sofa. She moved it over the devices for a period of one minute, scanning to know which device was connecting with the outsider. She had to find the device quickly to know the location of the outsider.

She stepped back and stared at their faces, shaking her head in pity for them. ‘These are not all the devices in this house’ she said as she tossed back her own device to the sofa. She took out gun pointed it at them.

Benny raised up his hand, ‘there’s one more’ he said with fear in his voice, but he kept a straight face trying to act like a strong man who wasn’t scared to die.

‘Where’s it?’

Benny pointed towards their room, Tarasha signaled for him to go get it. He left and returned a minute later with the phone that fell off from Cole’s pocket. ‘Let me have it’ Tarasha said and Benny handed it over. Her device began to beep loud as she brought them closer. That was what she was looking for.

‘Who owns this?’ She asked after scrutinizing it.

There was no answer.

‘Who owns it?’ Tarasha repeated again. They all kept quiet. Benny felt the urge to say that it was Cole’s but he remained quiet, not wanting to betray a brother.

Tarasha cocked the gun. Aisha began to tremble visibly while the men remained as they were physically, but already dead on the inside.

‘I brought it in’ Cole finally said.

Tarasha stared at him in disbelief for some seconds. ‘How much were you paid for this?’ She focused her gun to his forehead.

Her finger was about to touch the trigger when she began to hear footsteps approaching the doorpost. She turned her head back towards the door. The footsteps seized for a while.

‘I don’t own it, I took it from the car we …’ Cole wanted to explain.

She turned back in anger to sh00t but her hands dropped as a knock sounded on the door.

END OF EPISODE TWELVE.

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