TARASHA Episode 14 Pt 3 – Oyin Oluwatosin Emmanuel
12pm
‘Boss’ Cole called softly, taking a glance at Tarasha who was seated on the first black leather sofa. The whole team was in the living room, Cole and Aisha was seated on the tiled floor close to the plasma TV , busy with their pads playing the “Full Time Murder”, a bloody game created by Cole. Cole was seated on the three seater sofa working on his laptop and Tarasha was also doing the same where she was seated.
Tarasha stood up and dragged herself and her laptop to the three seater sofa. ‘They’ve responded to our e-mail’ Cole looked up as she approached him.
‘What’s in their reply?’ Tarasha asked and dropped her laptop on the left side as she sat close to him, her body resting on his. She rested her elbow on his lap as she bent forward to look into the laptop.
” Re: Donation of three hundred bags of rice to Atta’s foundation
With joy and gladness of heart did we receive your email, we’re glad that we have such passionate people like you who would extend an helping hand to promote a good course whose root isn’t even in their home country.
We’ll be glad to receive your representatives here at our head office in Katsina, Nigeria. And like you offered in your email, we would also be glad to work with you on other projects.
Thanks
Management
Atta’s Foundation “
Tarasha sat up and licked her lips softly. ‘One step accomplished. We’re going to need new fleet of cars and customized shirts for this new task. Benny would be in charge of that’ she said to Cole. She looked towards Aisha and Benny who were still engrossed with the game and turned back to Cole. ‘Three hundred bags of rice would cost about two million naira, Aisha would handle the buying of the rice. Please note this’ she said and glanced towards Aisha again.
Cole looked away from the laptop to Tarasha’s face and frowned. ‘Do we have enough money to run this operation?’
‘No, and I don’t think the Chief can provide up to thirty percent of the funds, we’re going to need almost a hundred million’
‘Yeah… That’s what I’m saying’
‘But it’s our strategy and we don’t have to get all the monies from the Chief. Waiting for him to raise the money would take a long time’ Tarasha spoke with a very careless tone that made Cole stare at her like he had seen someone fall from the Jupiter. Where were they supposed to get the monies from, if not from the client who gave them the job.
‘Then he has to wait then’ Cole asserted.
‘Yes, it should have been so but I can’t wait for finish the jobs’ Tarasha stated, mindful of the fact that she was in a hurry to complete the jobs and leave the country.
‘Then what do we do?’
‘Nasiru Attahiru would fund his death by himself’ she replied.
‘How?’ Cole widened his eyes in surprise.
‘That’s where you come in’ Tarasha placed her legs up the chair and positioned her self like an Hindu meditating, facing Cole directly. ‘Your job now is to search all his bank accounts and check how much we have there. I’m sure we can get a lot more than we need from his accounts’
Cole squeezed his face bitterly. ‘I can search his bank accounts but how do we take the money from there without being caught? The banking system is very secure…’
Tarasha interrupted him with a light slap on his cheeks. ‘How are we going to get caught?’
‘Erm…’ He stammered, touching his cheek with his hand. ‘They’ll be able to track our IP and even the bank account we’re transferring it to’
Tarasha frowned at him, disappointed with the way he was reasoning. ‘Did the Camera security system locate our IP?’
‘Oh!’ Cole pressed his palm against his forehead and exhaled. His brain had not told him that they could also hide their IP address like they did to the cameras system. He removed his palm from his forehead and stared at Tarasha. ‘But they’ll still be notified of the transaction and they may freeze the account we’re transferring the monies to’
Tarasha pouted her lips and stared at him for some seconds. ‘Then we ensure that they are unaware of the operation’
Cole stared at her, still confused, he had not done such a job before.
‘We’ll carry out the process on their own server; this will ensure that that don’t know that there’s an intruder. Then after hacking their server, we disable the notifications settings for his account and do our transfer, then we delete the records from their database immediately. We’ll repeat the same process for every bank account of his. That way, there’ll be no record of transaction, they’ll just discover later that money is missing in the account’ Tarasha explained but Cole still looked confused.
‘Okay, I’ll do it myself.’ Tarasha said after seeing that Cole wasn’t going to understand easily.
Cole gave a sigh of relief. ‘Thanks, I’ll learn it’
‘What you have to do now is to search all his bank accounts’ she said as she got up from her seat, she picked up her laptop and was about to leave to her former position. She remembered something and turned back.
‘Cole’ she called. He looked up from his laptop. ‘I noticed that most banks here in Nigeria uses the Wincorf Nixdorf to operate their automated system’
‘Wincall…’ Cole stared at her amusingly, he had never heard about whatever it was the bank was using.
Tarasha gave a gasp of astonishment. ‘You don’t know Wincorf Nixdorf?’ She exclaimed loudly in unbelief, placing her left hand on her waist. Aisha and Benny turned back to look at them. She rolled her eyes and exhaled before returning with her laptop in her right hand to sit on the sofa she was sitting before. She sat quietly and opened up the laptop, Aisha and Benny were still staring at her.
‘Boss’ Benny called softly, dropping his game pad on the floor. Tarasha looked away from her laptop to him. ‘You said you were going to explain to us the strategy and why we have to go to Katsina’
Tarasha’s shoulders dropped. ‘I would, when the right time comes. For now, some of the strategies are changing, if I find a better idea, we won’t have to travel to Katsina. But just keep in mind that Mrs Attahiru is the weakest link by which we can get to her son, the Senate President’ she explained and turned her face back to her laptop.
‘Okay, thanks’ Benny said and turned back to the TV slowly. He picked up the game pad and remained motionless for a while. He turned and glanced briefly at Tarasha again, wondering what kind of person she was. At times she could be so sweet and talk to them like a mother, explaining things calmly and she could become a tough boss in the next moment.
Tarasha looked up from her laptop after some minutes and began to look at everyone else in the living room. She took a minute to look at Cole who was busy with his laptop and another minute for Benny and Aisha who had returned to their game. She stared more at Aisha.
‘We need a clipper’ she said with a chuckle before she closed her laptop and got up from the seat.
~~~
3pm
‘Her lips are not that big’ the man corrected the artist who was making a sketch of his description. ‘Yes, perfect now’
The interrogation room was brightly lit up now, an artist had a standing drawing board erected before him while Ken was seated on a chair close to the interrogation desk and staring from there. They had gone to the man’s office to search for the credentials of the new employee but they couldn’t find it. They had to resort to making a sketch of her face from the man’s description.
‘Is this how she looks?’ Ken walked closer to the man and the artist.
‘Yes’ the man replied.
They all turned back as the door to the interrogation room opened, Dakolo walked in and closed the door, he had left briefly to pick up a file in his office.
‘Do we have the drawing now?’ Dakolo asked as he approached them.
‘Yes’ Ken answered.
Dakolo stopped when he got close to the artist and stared into the sketch.
‘Is this her?’ He asked the man under interrogation.
‘Yes, she looks like this’
Dakolo shook his head doubtfully, he opened the file that was with him and took out a picture containing Aisha Bello’s image. He tried to compare the drawing with the picture but there was no real resemblance except for some slight ones he was careful enough to notice.
‘Some of their facial features look alike’ he said as he handed the picture to Ken.
‘Aisha Bello’ Ken muttered as he stared at the picture and did his own comparison. ‘They don’t look alike in any way to me’
Dakolo collected the photo back and turned to the man. ‘I’m not satisfied with this yet’ he said, giving the man a stern look. ‘You couldn’t find the credentials in your office?’ He asked for the third time since the Man and Ken had returned.
‘Yes’ the man replied in a tired voice.
‘We searched everywhere in his office, her credentials were missing in the files’ Ken supported the man.
‘That further proves that she must be part of the assassin gang and your company would be in trouble if we don’t find her’ Dakolo asserted, making the man tremble in fear. Dakolo moved closer to the drawing board, the artist had finished packing his drawing materials into the bag and was about to leave. He removed the pins holding the drawing sheet to the board and handed over the sheet to Dakolo.
‘What’s her name again?’ Dakolo asked the man, staring at the drawing.
‘Khadijat is her first name, I don’t remember the last name’
‘Khadijat’ Dakolo muttered. He handed over the drawing sheet to Ken. ‘Let’s trace the name on the citizen’s directory and see whose picture matches it’
~~
**Three Days Later (Thursday)**
Now, all is set for the trip to Katsina on Saturday. Tarasha and the team would book two cars from the transport firm. As usual, Benny and Aisha would go in one while Cole and the boss in the other.
Tarasha came down from the car as she got to the gate of the house. She was about to walk in when someone greeted.
‘Hi’ a man who came out from the next compound greeted.
‘Hello’ Tarasha turned back to answer.
‘Yeah’ the guy smiled sheepishly. He had a somewhat fat body and a round head, his chubby cheeks and light skin colour made him look like a cartoon character. He wore a red tie on a white shirt which was properly tucked into his black trousers. He had the NSCC ID card hanging on his neck. ‘I noticed that you guys just moved in and I thought I should say hello and welcome you to the estate’
‘Oh, thanks. That’s nice of you’ Tarasha smiled back at him.
‘You’re welcome. My name is Henry Paul’ he said, extending his hand to her for a handshake.
Henry’s picture flashed back into Tarasha’s mind as she took his hand in hers. This Henry Paul was a complete opposite of Henry; fat, chubby and light skinned and worst still, an ugly face round face. ‘I’ll call you Paul, you can call me Evelyn’ she replied.
‘Oh! Nice to meet you Evelyn. I hope to invite you over to my house for a meal one day’
‘Well, let’s see how it goes’ she smiled.
‘Okay, we’ll see later then’ he said to Tarasha and waved goodbye. She waved back before proceeding to enter the house and open the gate from behind.
She drove into the compound and parked the car beside the van. The space in the compound wasn’t a large one but it could take two to three cars. There was a short tree at the left side which provides a shade for them to sit outside during sunny hours.
Benny had come out on hearing the sound of her car driving in. He helped her to close the gate.
‘Thank you’ Tarasha said to Benny as she stepped out of the car with a box of clipper in her hands. She looked over the fence to the compound by the left from which the chubby guy had come out from. It was a larger than theirs. In it was a one storey building of four flats.
‘Take this to Aisha’ she gave the clipper box to Benny.
Benny smiled as he took it from her and began to walk inside the house. He couldn’t stop smiling as he imagined how Aisha would look like on skin cut. That was part of the team’s conclusion on the best way to disguise her since her face and name was still on the police wanted list. She needed a different method of disguise apart from the makeup method she used for the last job.
