TARASHA Episode 17 Pt 10 – Oyin Oluwatosin Emmanuel

TARASHA Episode 17 Pt 10 – Oyin Oluwatosin Emmanuel

The roads were clear on this perfect sunny afternoon. The traffic jam and rush on the street was at the lowest minimum. Henry was driving while Omotara was seated with him at the front seat. They seemed to be involved in a deep heart talk with each other as both of them smiled occasionally. After driving for some few minutes, they halted the car in front of a drinks store and Henry pushed the horn twice. In one minute time, Jefa came out of the store and proceeded towards the car. He entered into the backseat and the couple greeted him warmly. Then they continued the ride.

‘I’ve got something for you two,’ Jefa spoke from the back seat and handed a small white polythene bag to Omotara.

‘Oh, ice cream!’ Omotara flashed her teeth as she opened the polythene bag to see the contents. Henry also peeped and smiled.

‘Thank you, Uncle Jefa.’ Henry said in appreciation.

‘It’s nothing,’ Jefa replied.

Omotara took her own ice cream cup and took off the seal. She took a spoonful and widened her eyes in excitement as she fell in love with the taste. She turned to look at Jefa who was smiling at the back. ‘I never knew you had such a good taste too,’ she joked.

‘Come on, I’ve got a better taste than you two.’

‘You think so?’

‘I know so.’

‘Hehe, no problem if it makes you feel better anyway.’ She said and added a short laugh. Jefa gave her a playful punch on the shoulder.

‘Better leave Uncle Jeffery,’ Henry joined playfully. ‘He’s a gentleman and gentlemen always make a good choice of things like this.’

‘You can say that again if it will make both of you sleep better tonight,’ Omotara said with another round of laughter. ‘I feel like taking beef roll too.’ She added, to Henry.

‘Beef roll and ice cream?’ Henry questioned.

‘Well, it’s none of your business what I combine.’Omotara answered playfully.

‘Okay Boss,’ Henry saluted in the same playful manner, ‘just mention when you see any store where it is sold, so we can stop by and you’ll drop to get it yourself.’

‘Huh?’ Omotara queried, pouting her lips and staring straight into his eyes.

Henry sighed, trying his best to focus on the road.  ‘So I should be the one to get it for you?’ He asked with a raise eyebrow.

‘Yes, or you want me to lecture you on what it means to be a gentleman again?’ She spread out her hands to emphasize her point.

‘Gentlemanliness is not defined that way,’ Jefa cut in from the back, ‘he’s been a gentleman enough to agree that we stop by a store to get one for you when you’re only a few metres to the house.’

‘Hahaha, Uncle Jeffery is an ancient Gentleman. Well, enough of the talks.’ Omotara raised up her two hands girlishly to halt the conversation. ‘Stop, there’s a store over there.’ She said, pointing to a small neat kiosk at the other side of the road.

Henry took his time to pull over and then glanced at the direction she was pointing at, he took a glance back at her.

‘You know my favorite,’ she winked at him.

He sighed and pulled off his seatbelt. He opened the door and stepped out.

‘You just want to trouble this guy,’ Jefa said to her as they watched him look out for vehicles before crossing the road.

‘No, I’m just helping his destiny come quicker.’ Omotara replied in a stern voice. She turned back to look at Jefa, her happy face had changed into something different, she now had a smirk on.

‘What do you mean by that?’ Jefa questioned with a raised eyebrow.

‘Just watch and see,’ Omotara answered and then looked towards Henry’s direction. He had already gotten the beef roll and was waiting to cross the road with a nylon bag. He was seen dipping his hand into his pocket, his phone was taken out, he answered a call and placed it on his ear. Just then, he stepped into the road and started walking back. Suddenly, a sand carrying tipper truck appeared from nowhere and was rushing towards him.

Jefa finally jerked off from his dream, sweating profusely in the cold air conditioned room. He rolled out of the blanket and turned on the blue light. He wiped off the sweat from his forehead after sitting up.

What manner of dream was this? He asked himself. This was the third nightmare he had had within a very brief period of days and there seemed to be a connection between the three. In the first dream, Omotara was the one who was attacked. In the second dream, he, Jefa was pointed a gun and in this third dream, a vehicle was rushing towards Henry. In the first and the third dream, it wasn’t clear if Omotara or Henry was killed but it was obvious that their lives were in great danger but in the second dream, the bullet of the gun clearly pierced into Jefa’s head.

Jefa buried in face in his palms in frustration, his wounds suddenly began to ache him again. He had never been a clairvoyant person but with the way the nightmares are coming, he believed that God was giving him premonitions of something about to happen very soon.

Jefa rolled out of the bed and turned on the white bulb. He took a glance at the wall clock, it was already close to eleven pm. Then he stared around the room to see where his clothes were kept for him by Omotara, he had to start packing immediately. He would leave by the next day since it was obvious that the reuniting with each other would cause tragedy, the nightmares alone already spells doom for them, he didn’t want to wait until the physical manifestations begin.

He proceeded to the wardrobe when he couldn’t see any of his clothes or bags around, he tried to open it but it didn’t open. He looked around to see if there was any keyhole hidden somewhere but he found none, it seemed that the wardrobe lock was electrical.

He struggled to bent down and search under the bed but there was no pin under the bed, under the bed looked recently swept and mopped. He gave up searching for his clothes and returned to sleep in the bed. He would make sure he leaves the house the next day after Omotara returns in the morning. He will try his best to explain his decision to her before parting finally.

~~~

Don and Stainless were now in one of the underground rooms of Stainless’ caban. The room which was a long abandoned old arsenal looked like a mud house that was about to collapse, sands dropped on their heads occasionally. The arms and ammunitions were all cover in sand and dust. A fully charged lamp by the top left corner of the room served as the source of light in the room. Stainless had inherited the whole place from their former Master and Boss, Scot whom Don murdered after a disagreement.

Don kept staring at Stainless from time to time, partially in anger and then in thankfulness. He was angry that Stainless could theaten him so much with a gun which had no bullets in it when he himself had a gun which was fully loaded in his pocket. And he was thankful because he wasn’t dead, until now he never believed that he could be so scared of death.

‘Here,’ Stainless passed an old hard cover book to him from his bag.

‘What’s this?’ Don asked, taking a close look at the book.

‘Some of my old deals with Elvis Richards are in there,’ Stainless answered.

‘I don’t think we should be searching about Elvis’ old deals now, I think we should be more focused on who sent Tara… Samantha.’

‘Tara…?’ Stainless raised an eyebrow with a questioning look. ‘You’ve been mentioning that since, are you still hiding something from me?’

‘I told you I was going to tell you more after the meal,’ Don answered.

‘And now we’ve finished the meal and we’ve even left the house.’

‘Yes, I’ll tell you. Let’s take it one after the other.’

‘I still think we need to find out Chief Elvis’s connection with Samantha Osman also, it may help us in getting her.’ Stainless suggested.

‘I don’t really think there’s a connection between them until now, Elvis Richards is scared that she’ll be coming for his life soon, that’s why he’s hunting her. She doesn’t even know that he’s after her. And who knows, he may not be part of her targets.’

‘But what’s the purpose for his fear?’

‘He mentioned to me once that all the people that Tara… Samantha has brought down were once involved in a deal with him, except for the Rivers State Governor.’

Stainless closed the bag he was searching in and got up, he folded his arms and stared at Don. ‘Now you’ve got to tell me the connection between Tara and Samantha Osman, you’ve made the mistake of calling Tara almost more than half of the times you wanted to refer to Samantha.’

‘Tarasha is her real name,’ Don finally said, ‘she was exported down to Nigeria, I don’t know which country she was exported from but report says that she looks like an African.’

‘Tarasha,’ Stainless mumbled under his breath, wondering what African country and language the name could be from. ‘Have you met with her before?’

‘No, except for today when we both met her for the first time.’Don answered reluctantly, wondering if Stainless was deaf and didn’t hear the answer when he had told him earlier that day.

‘How do you know so much about her?’

‘She works for Chief Gab,’ Don stated.

‘Chief Gab!’ Stainless exclaimed, ‘where the hell is that man?’

‘He’s kicking, he’s in Nigeria.’

‘Wow! I never knew he’s done with his jail term.’

‘He was released some years ago.’

‘Okay, I think I remember when the media reported it but since then we’ve not heard anything else about him.’ Stainless said before bending down to bring out a long gun. It was covered with dust.

‘He’s not been making public comments, so the media may be quiet about him.’

‘Interesting! But where’s he getting the money he’s using to send Samantha…I mean Tarasha these errands?’

‘That’s best known to him,’ Don remarked with less concern.

‘So it’s Chief Gab who is behind all these killings?’

Don gave no reply but kept gathering the bullets he was picking. There was silence for a while before Don spoke again. ‘If we can get Chief Gab’s list of targets, we can know all her moves.’

‘That’s true but how do we do that?’

‘We have to travel to Lagos, I can easily break into Chief Gab’s apartments.’

‘Then let’s travel tomorrow, or can you send your people from your Nanl Gang to do it?’

‘We can’t travel tomorrow when we already know her immediate next move. Let’s tackle that first.’

‘Huh? How do you know her next move?’ Stainless turned to stare at him in surprise.

Don shook his head as he saw Stainless’ surprise. He had thought by Stainless’ action that day, Stainless had become wiser but he was just proved wrong. ‘Don’t you know her next move?’ He stared back at Stainless in surprise.

‘Ermm…I don’t know.’ Stainless scratched his head.

Don gave a chuckle, he felt like taking out a gun to blow off Stainless’ dumb brain immediately but he restrained himself, he still needed to keep Stainless to finish off Tarasha’s execution. Don was sure that Stainless was also keeping him alive because he was interested in conquering Samantha Osman. After that goal was achieved, he knew that only one of them would be left alive as the fastest between the both of them would ki*ll the other immediately.

‘Her next move would be to look for us,’ Don stated and returned to what he was doing.

‘Look for us? Why?’ Stainless Asked another set of questions.

Don was obviously irritated by the question. He was now sure that Stainless’ dumbness was the reason Elvis Richards did not entrust the job to him.

‘She saw both of us in Henry’s house, I’m sure she came there to get something. She’ll want to find out what we were doing there and who are, especially I that called her by her name.’

‘Hmmm… True,’ Stainless could not but nod in agreement. He wondered why he had not thought about it that way, the only people he was expecting to be after him was the police. Now, he could understand the reason why Don excelled better than him at the job. ‘Then we’ve got to prepare in case she comes here for us but I don’t think she’ll be coming soon now that they police are keeping an eye on the place.’

‘Don’t talk like that, she’s super intelligent, she always has her way of getting past the police.’ Don cautioned.

‘Does that mean that she’ll come immediately?’

‘Most likely, I believe she was looking for something in Henry E.G’s house. Maybe something she forgot the last time. If she doesn’t find it there, she may think that we have whatever it is. That gives her more reasons to look for us.’

‘Great! Then we don’t need to struggle since we are expecting her. We’ll just wait for her here. I would call back some of my men.’ Stainless said, with a note of confidence in his voice.

‘We’ll get many boys to join us but what we need more importantly is the brain to match hers. If we act stupidly, we’ll end up putting ourselves in trouble.’ Don cautioned again. ‘Remember Robin Kahn,’ he quickly added to emphasize his point.

‘That’s true, so what do you suggest we do?’

‘We’ll use a method I learnt from her,’ Don paused and turned to Stainless with a crooked smile. ‘The same method she used for Robin Kahn. She knew that Robin was coming, so she set him up to come to a place which she knew better than him, then she set traps there for him. We have a better situation.’ Don paused to clear his throat. ‘We know she’s coming here and we also know she’ll be coming during the night time cos she can’t enter during the day when she’ll not be able to hide herself from the police monitoring. We’ll set enough traps for her and I’m sure she’ll walk into it.’

…to be continued

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