TARASHA Episode 19 Pt 1 – Oyin Oluwatosin Emmanuel
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Cole was walking up and down the front of the hospital premises, looking now and then towards the gate for sign of the boss, she was supposed to be there already, to make matters worst, her line was not going through. Maybe she had other plans, he thought for a minute. In another minute, doubts began to rise in his heart again. What if something had gone wrong somewhere? What if she wasn’t going to come? Does that mean they wouldn’t escape? No, Benny actually, not the three of them. He and Aisha could leave without waiting waiting for the boss, she didn’t ask them to wait. Benny was the one that needed a new car to escape and that was the only part the boss had to play in the task, bring a new car in which Benny could escape, as he would not be able to do so in the same car he came with. Cole started to think of an alternative to help Benny in case the boys did not show up. He took out his phone.
‘Go ahead with the execution even if you don’t get a signal from the Boss,’ he typed into a text message box. ‘I’ll be waiting for you to take you out once you’ve changed your disguise.’
Cole sent the message and hoped that Benny would be able to receive it immediately. He continued to look around for signs of the boss. A minute later, he saw a some police cars coming through the gate. He began to walk towards the gate and the cars coming to check the leaders of the entourage. He turned back immediately he saw Agent Dakolo and other officers seated in the first car. He quickly returned to his co journalists to announce the agent’s arrival. In a spilt second, the crowd of journalists had began to gravitate towards the park where the police cars were driving to.
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Dr Tobi followed after the nurse hurriedly and in some minutes, they both got to the senior doctor’s office. The door was locked and there was no sign of the doctor’s presence, Dr Tobi placed his hands on his waist, waiting for an explanation from the nurse. Just before Dr Tobi opened his mouth to complain, she took out an access card and opened the doctor’s office, that kept his mouth shut. She must really be a trusted nurse for the senior Doctor to give her his access card, he thought. She ushered him in first before she entered behind.
The doctor entered and stared around the office, placing his hand on his waist again. He turned back to see the nurse locking the door.
‘Where is the senior Doctor?’ He asked her.
‘The senior Doctor asked me to call you here,’ she replied.
‘That’s not the answer to my question,’ Dr Tobi barked angrily, ‘where is he?’
‘I don’t know,’ she answered nonchalantly and walked towards the office table. She leaned against the table and posed in a seductive manner.
‘What’s the meaning of all these? Where is the Doctor?’ Dr Tobi continued angrily, too angry to even notice her pose, he turned away towards the door. ‘Didn’t you tell him I was in the theatre? Why did he still have to call urgently for me?’
Dr Tobi turned back few seconds after he heard no response, his face was filled with anger as his eyes met with the nurse’s. Then his anger increased and was mixed with disgust as he now noticed her pose.
‘By the way, who are you and when did you start working here? I’ve never seen you in this hospital before.’ Dr Tobi said, his disgust expressly heard in his voice.
‘Wrong question at the wrong time,’ Aisha said with a chuckle and catwalked towards him. She stopped at his front and bent her face to kiss his neck. He pushed her away and stepped back.
She gave an evil laughter and brushed the hair covering her eyes backwards with her hand. ‘You’re looking good Doc, I just thought it won’t be a bad idea if we had a quick one here.’
”Are you crazy? Please open this door and let me return to my work.’ He barked.
‘You’re not going anywhere doc,’ Aisha said and took out a gun, she took off the wig on her head and then she pointed the gun at him, walking slowly towards him. She made him raise up his hands and she searched his pockets to see if he had any communication device or phone to use but found none She then asked him to move back to the direction of the table, motioning him to sit on the visitor’s chair. Then she cut the wires of the landline on the office table and walked back to the door, still pointing her gun at him. She unlocked the door and put back on her wig. Then she hid the gun back under her nurse uniform before stepping out of the office.
Dr Tobi got up from the visitor’s seat immediately and turned round to the other side, he quickly pulled out the drawer to see if he could get a phone but unluckily for him, there was none.
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Officer Clem got back to the ward with one of the younger boys that had gone to control the journalists with him. To his surprise, the patient’s bed was empty when he entered.
‘Where’s he?’ He shouted at the officer that was left alone to watch over Henry in the ward.
‘Sir, the doctors have taken him to the theatre.’ The officer answered.
‘Okay,’ officer Clem’s heart was calmed a little. ‘Where’s the theatre where they took him to?’
‘Ermm…’ The younger office stammered. ‘I don’t know.’
‘You don’t know?’
‘Yes sir, the Doctor said they won’t take long. He said that they won’t stay up to forty minutes before returning him here,’ the younger officer replied shakily.
‘How many minutes is it now?’
‘Twenty sir,’ he replied after taking a glance at his wristwatch.
‘Okay,’ officer Clem heaved a sigh. ‘But you should have asked, Agent Dakolo would want to know where they took him to and do you remember that we are supposed to arrest the lab scientist immediately they finish?’
‘Yes, Dr Tobi said he’ll make a call to us before the man decides to start leaving.’
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‘Where are you?’ Dakolo asked the receiver of his phone call.
‘I’m back at the ward now,’ the receiver replied.
‘And how is Henry?’
‘He has been taken to the theatre,’ the reply came a little bit hesitant.
‘To do what?’
‘To administer the new cure, the Doctor said it was time to wash off the poison in his blood cells.’
‘And which officer is manning the entrance of the theatre when you’re in the ward?’
‘Sir… Ermmm… None sir, I wasn’t here when they came to pick him up, so I don’t know which theatre they have taken him to.’
‘Are you…’ Dakolo gritted his teeth angrily, he looked out through the window and saw the source of the noise coming towards him. He quickly wind up the window glass before the journalists got nearer. ‘You better go and search for the theatre now and make sure that he’s safe, if anything happens to him; I’ll make sure you spend the rest of your life behind bars.’Dakolo threatened and put down the phone.
‘Clem has messed up?’ Ken anxiously asked.
‘Yes,’ Dakolo replied, taking deep heavy breaths, we need to go in there immediately.’ He said and took his pistol, he opened the door aggressively not minding the journalists who were standing by the car.
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Benny was getting impatient waiting for the signal from the Boss, he was supposed to have gotten it now that the Aisha have tricked the Doctor away . He didn’t know if he should continue without the signal or not. After some minutes of staring at and receiving back awkward stares from the nurses, he finally felt a vibration in his belt. He was about heaving a sigh of relief but stopped in the process, the vibration came twice, meaning that it wasn’t a signal to go ahead but to listen to a message. He stepped back a little from the nurses who were still staring at him. He took out a small wireless one side earphone from his pocket and placed it into his ear, listening to the voice play of the message sent from Cole. He returned it into his pocket after listening and walked back to his former position, making a loud, long hiss. He stared at the nurses’ face, they were looking at him quietly but their looks were accusing enough as he wasn’t supposed to bring in any gadget talk more of using it in the theatre.
He took off his nose mask and hissed again. ‘Please someone needs to get Dr Tobi, I’m running late already, my people are already getting impatient.’ He said in a complaining tone.
The nurses communicated quietly with eye signals and one of them proceeded to the door and walked out after taking off her nose mask. One more nurse left for Benny to get rid of. He gave her an evil eye as she stared at him.
‘Why are you looking at me like that?’ He accused.
The nurse took her face away immediately, ‘I wasn’t looking at you sir,’ she managed to say courteously.
‘Better,’ Benny replied, satisfied that he was able to make her take her eyes off him, at least temporarily. He walked closer to the patient and say stared at him for a while, then he looked at the nurse again, her eyes were on him once more, she quickly took them off as he caught her. Benny smiled, he knew that they must have being warned about him.
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Cole was satisfied with the way the journalists had surrounded officer’s Dakolo’s car. Just when he got his recorder and was about to join them was when his phone vibrated. He took it out to see what it was.
‘I’m not fit to join you for the task anymore, use your car to get Benny out.’ He read as he flipped down the notification bar. He clicked on the message to reassure himself that it was really the boss who sent it. Although, a message like that coming from the Boss was strange, he was glad that she at least communicated to them.
He quickly forwarded the message to Benny and started to proceed further but he stopped after taking only few steps. The manner with which Agent Dakolo was walking and ignoring all the journalists showed that the man wasn’t ready to give them his time at all.
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Omotara poured in the broken parts of the phone that fell from her hands into the dustbin and returned to the living room. She picked up the new phone which she had brought out and inserted her sim card. It was the same phone she used to call Cole. She then proceeded towards the room Jefa was, after switching off the TV.
The return of Rikau Saliu into her memory hadn’t come back alone, it had brought so many other things to her. It had brought back the ill feeling of being molested again, the angry feeling of watching her parents and one of her brother’s die and also that determination to ki*ll all those men who had attacked their house. All these feelings which had disappeared a long time ago during her trainings in the Nefary Clan had now come back stronger. Now she wanted to find out more from her brother.
She gently opened the door to the room and walked in, Jefa was lying on the bed with his face buried in the pillow. He turned upward on hearing her come in and slowly sat up, avoiding her gaze.
She walked towards the bed slowly and sat in it, directly opposite Jefa. She was quiet for a short while, thinking of the right way to begin her discussion until Jefa spoke first.
‘Aren’t you going to work anymore?’ He managed to look at her face.
‘No, I had to take today off. I called the office already.’ She replied. ‘Since you still insist that you’ll be going immediately after you get well, then I think I have to spend more time with you now that you’re still here.’
Jefa kept quiet and stared blankly, glancing occasionally at her face. ‘I recognize him now,’ Omotara said, making Jefa give her a quick look. ‘I remember him very well.’
‘I’m sorry ,’ Jefa said slowly in a sad tone, his face showing regret. ‘I’m sorry for bringing back those sad memories to you; that’s why I have to leave your life forever. You see, I’m a sorrowful man, always filled with grief and pain in my heart, I don’t want to infect your happy life with my sorrow. I’ve lived my life always praying, wishing and hoping that this evil man and others like him are brought down, but my sorrow and pain keeps increasing everyday as I see them keep rising and becoming greater everyday.’ Jefa went on lamenting
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The message vibration came again, Benny stepped back to listen like he did previously. The forwarded message from Cole was read into his ear. Another message came in immediately as he was about to take off the earpiece, he paused to listen.
‘You have to be fast now, Agent Dakolo has instructed the police to start looking for the theatre and he’s also coming upstairs.’ The second message read.
There was a sudden rush of adrenaline in Benny’s body as he took off the earpiece, he proceeded towards the nurse immediately and took her out with a heavy blow. Then he took out the ampoule from his inner pocket and picked the syringe which was earlier used to inject into Henry the sedative. He drew out some of the contents from the ampoule into the syringe and quickly moved to Henry.
He held one of Henry’s arm and injected the liquid into his veins.
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‘It’s okay brother, I understand your pain. I feel the same way too but there’s nothing we can do about it,’ Tarasha said in a sad tone and moved closer to him. ‘But one thing I know for sure is that they can’t escape from their punishment for life…’
‘I’m sorry Tara,’ Jefa who seemed not to be listening to her but lost in his own thoughts cut in. ‘I’m sorry for not being able to protect you as your elder brother, I’m sorry for failing to keep my promise.’
A light smile appeared on Omotara’s face as she tried to recall if he ever promised protection for her or the rest of his younger siblings. Then she remembered how he always claimed to be Superman and that we could rescue his younger ones when they were in trouble. Her smile broadened but was short-lived and transformed into a evil one as she remembered something else; she remembered his face that fateful day when their father was being killed, how helpless he looked when their mother was being molested and even when she herself was being mishandled by Rikau. Her eyes began to turn red in anger again but she quickly composed herself, remembering that she was in his presence and had to keep the innocent and helpless girl’s look on her face. The redness in her eyes formed into tears that stuck there, without dropping off.
After about three minutes of silence by the both of them, Tara cleaned her eyes and sniffed in. ‘I want to know what happened to you, where have you been all these while?’ She asked.
Her phone began to ring before Jefa could answer. She checked the screen, it was Cole. She excused herself and stepped out of the bed to answer the call.
‘Hello boss,’ Cole’s voice came through.
‘Hello,’ she replied.
‘Benny just completed the task successfully and he’s with me and Aisha now, we’re returning straight to the base now.’
‘Nice Cole, I’ll call you later.’
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