TARASHA Episode 19 Pt 8 – Oyin Oluwatosin Emmanuel
**1pm**
The two staffs of the NSCC were sitting while waiting patiently for the Vice President to show up. They had arrived in his mansion over an hour ago and there were no signs of him yet, they were only told by his assistants that he we going to join them soon.
Mr Sylvester poured in the remaining content of the bottle into the glass cup and sipped it slowly, fixing his eyes on the TV. A particular advert was gaining his attention.
‘Do you watch Young C.c’s movies?’ he asked Tarasha who was seated at the other end of the three seater sofa.
‘Ermm… Yes, I do.’ she replied him. ‘I love his action thrillers.’
‘Yeah, I and my wife finished watching ‘A New Creation’ which he produced with Donkross. It’s thrilling as usual.’
‘I’ve not seen that yet but where can I get it if I want to buy?’
‘The full story is on the website; www.youngicee.com, you can get it from there.’ Mr Sylvester replied her.
‘Okay, thanks. I’ll do that,’ Tarasha said.
‘Have you heard about the new story coming up too?’
‘Nazaretha’s Hood?’ she was already getting tired of his questions about movies, she felt he was only trying to display his knowledge.
‘Yes, I’m looking forward to that one too.’
‘Good afternoon people,’ the Vice President greeted as he entered into the living room and began to proceed towards them.
‘Good afternoon sir,’ Mr Sylvester and Tarasha got up and greeted in unison.
‘Sylvester,’ Chief Elvis called fondly, offering him an handshake. ‘Kimberly,’ he calleda after shaking hands with Mr Sylvester, smiling at Tarasha. ‘I’ve heard so much about you, I’m pleased to meet you.’ he also offered her an handshake.
‘My pleasure sir,’ Tarasha replied, bending her knees slightly as she took his big hand in hers. She never forgot to curtsy like a proper Nigerian girl when greeting elders, all that she had learnt through reading about the different tribes and their cultures before she began her job in Nigeria.
‘You may be seated,’ Chief Elvis said, pointing his hand towards their seat while he took the sofa opposite them. ‘Sorry I kept you waiting, I was with the President for something very important and I’ll still be going back to him after this meeting. Now, straight to the matter. I called this meeting to get acquainted with you, Kimberly.’ he said and paused to look at her face.
‘You’ll be working in Henry’s position now and it means you’re holding a critical position at a critical moment in the country. I want to work closely with you to make your job more efficient and for you to make my job easier too. I’ve also started my own personal investigations on Samantha Osman’s case, so I would be needing to communicate to you directly.’ Chief Elvis paused again and turned to Mr Sylvester. ‘I hope you told her everything I want to do with her.’
‘Sir, you didn’t tell me anything else. You told me that you were going to tell her directly.’ Mr Sylvester replied.
‘I said that?’
‘Yes sir.’
‘Hmm… Okay,’ Chief Elvis heaved a sigh. ‘Then you have to leave us alone now.’ he said to Mr Sylvester.
‘Sir?’ Mr Sylvester questioned as if he didn’t hear, just to confirm if the Vice President really meant what he said.
‘I mean you have to excuse us,’ Chief Elvis repeated. ‘You can wait in the other living room.’
‘Okay sir,’ he said and got up. He made some eye gestures at Tarasha, as if he was advising her to behave well before walking out as instructed.
As soon as Mr Sylvester was out of sight, Chief Elvis joined Tarasha on the three seater sofa.
‘Kimberly, I’ve got a proposal for you,’ he began. ‘While you work for the NSCC, I want you to also work for me. I’ll like to always get direct information from you and not through Mr Sylvester or the police.’ he paused to see if she was following.
‘I don’t understand sir,’ she stated.
‘Okay, what I mean is this,’ Chief Elvis adjusted himself on the seat to enable him explain properly. ‘In your work, while you report to your Boss Sylvester and maybe the police if they give you a direct job, you’ll also report to me, directly.’
‘Does that include everything I do in the office?”
‘Ermm, No… Not all, only with matters particular to the assassin group of Samantha Osman. Like I said, I’ve started a personal investigation on the matter.’
‘Okay sir, I understand now. But are you the only one carrying out this one investigation or you have some agents carrying them out for you?’
‘Yes, I have some secrets agents that are not known to the police. I’m only telling you now because you’re going to work with me and I believe it would remain a secret between us.’ he said and paused to see her reaction.
‘Yes sir, I won’t tell anyone.’
‘Good, you’ll be paid well for your services and may even receive bonus from time to time if you work efficiently.’
‘I’ll do my work efficiently sir,’ she replied in a promising tone.
‘Good.’
‘Sir, ‘ Tarasha called, trying to make a suggestion. ‘The reason I asked if you had other people working with you was that I thought it may not be possible to reach you directly at all times because of your work as the Vice President, what if I send the messages directly to the other agents working with you?’
‘No, you can’t send them for now. You still have to get directly to me first, once you can’t reach me, you can always drop a message which I’ll get immediately I’m free.’
‘Okay sir, then I’ll have to get your contact now.’ she said staring at his body. She would have killed him right there but it would be impossible for her to escape, the number of security officials and thugs in the compound were five times of those in the Senate President’s house.
‘Yes,’ Chief Elvis agreed, searching his pocket for his phone. ‘My phone is not with me now, but I’ll send you directions on how to reach me. I’m traveling tomorrow to the United States for medical treatment and I don’t know how long I’ll be staying precisely, I only know that I’ll be there for at least seven days.’
+++++
‘We’re so close to bringing back your father already, we just need a few more details to enable us launch properly and bring him back safely,’ Dakolo was saying to Fatima when Ken walked in and whispered something into his ears, for almost one minute.
Fatima stared at the officers hopelessly, she had been listening to them repeat the same promise for several days now and nothing was seen coming out of it. But she had to keep answering them because she wished to see her father again.
‘Thank you Ken,’ Dakolo said, before turning back to Fatima. ‘We would need you to identify some pictures,’ he continued, making a signal to Ken.
Ken opened the bag with him and took out some photos, ‘I remember that day that you said a lady on low cut was one of the visitors.’ Dakolo said.
‘Yes, I did,’ she answered, staring intently at the bag from where Ken was taking out the pictures.
‘Can you recognize her? I mean the lady on low cut.’ Dakolo said. At that moment, the head security officer which doubled as the Senate President’s personal guard, the one who almost killed Cole on the night of the abduction walked in. He stood close to Ken and said some things in low tones to him.
‘No, I don’t think so. I can only recognize the face of their leader who tied the bomb around me. I can’t even tell if I’ll recognize her if she isn’t putting on the same kind of makeup she used that night.’ Fatima replied Dakolo.
‘Let’s try, if you’ll know her.’ Dakolo said and collected two pictures from Ken. He showed it to her and waited for her response.
‘These are drawings,’ Fatima said.
‘Yes, we couldn’t get the photo anywhere, so we had to get her description from people who saw her and put it down into drawing.’
‘I’ve never seen anyone like this,’ Fatima said and handed back the pictures to Dakolo.
‘What about you?’ Dakolo said to the head security official.
The man stepped forward with heavy steps and collected the pictures with his plastered fingers, which was one of the results of his fight with Cole. He stared into the pictures for some minutes. ‘The only resemblance between the girls in the picture here and the the visitor on low cut is the low cut, nothing else looks the same.’
‘So you’re saying the visitor on low cut isn’t any of those in the pictures?’ Dakolo asked.
‘I don’t know, you know it could be difficult to recognize from sketches. But we have real pictures of the visitors, our cameras captured them.’ the security officer answered.
‘What? Why didn’t you tell us that all these while?’
‘You never asked, I believe you should know that there are cameras in this house.’
‘Yes,’ Dakolo stated with a tone of regret. He had allowed Henry’s case take over his whole mind and had skipped doing the right thing. ‘Can we get it now?’ he asked.
+++++
‘But how can he disappear just like that?’ Tarasha said, looking baffled, folding her arms as she stood in the living room before front window of their lodge in Gwagalada. Aisha and Cole were seated on the sofas behind, looking baffled too. ‘Did something go wrong in his task?’ she asked no one in particular.
‘Has he been acting or talking strange before that day?’ she turned and asked Cole.
‘No, he was okay until he finished the task.’ Cole replied.
‘Something looks fishy about the whole situation, the press has not said anything about Henry’s death also, is the police planning to hide his body forever?’
‘Boss, I have an idea.’ Cole said with his face lit up.
‘What idea?’
‘We can confirm if Henry is dead or alive if you check the databases of the NSCC, it’ll be an easy job to do since you’re there now.’
‘Yes, I was thinking about that too. I should have done it but for the several meetings we’ve been having.’ Tarasha replied.
‘I also have an idea,’ Aisha cut in happily.
‘What’s that?’ Tarasha asked, hoping it’ll be an idea on how to find Benny.
‘I read the news few minutes ago and I learnt that Henry E.G’s mother is in town, she was at the hospital and police headquarters today, crying and demanding to see her son. It was reported that the police have not given her a clear response yet but they managed to convince her to return tomorrow.’ Aisha said.
‘Okay, what do you suggest we do now?’ Tarasha asked, although already determining what to do with the news in mind.
‘I suggest we track the woman and follow to see if they’ll allow her see her son. With that we can confirm if Henry is alive or dead.’ Aisha spoke succinctly, exactly the same thing Tarasha had in mind.
‘Good suggestion,’ Tarasha commended, she felt cool that they were beginning to think more now, not like when she just started working with them. Now she could entrust more tasks to them, even Aisha.
‘Thank you,’ Aisha said with smiles, proud that she had been able to make a useful contribution. But her joy disappeared few seconds after, when Tarasha spoke again.
‘You’ll handle that for us,’ Tarasha said to her. ‘Find out before the day runs out where the mother stays and place a tracker or a bug to monitor her movement.’
Aisha wanted to argue but the look Tarasha gave her warned her not to dare.
‘Cole, you complete the job of the Senate President.’ she said, turning to Cole. ‘The poison should have done a lot on his body already, cut off his tongue tonight and send him home tomorrow morning. Make sure that his hands have been paralyzed before sending him.’ she instructed and walked towards him. She dipped her hand into her jacket and took out an envelope, ‘send him home with this letter,’ she said and handed the envelope to Cole.
++++
‘I’ve been observing him for the past few days and he’s recovering fast, he’ll be strong enough to travel soon.’ Dr Tobi said to the officers.
‘I know he’s going to recover soon,’ Dakolo said, ‘I only wished he could become his old self once again.’
‘You mean regain his memory?’ Dr Tobi asked.
‘Yes.’
‘It’s possible for him to regain his memory, ‘ Dr Tobi said slowly. Dakolo and Ken suddenly got excited. ‘I’ve been administering to him some of my specially prepared formulas which would make his brain more relaxed and able to recall.’
‘Wow!’ Dakolo exclaimed in joy.
‘But…’ Dr Tobi said in a sad tone and heaved a sigh.
Dakolo paused to listen to what the doctor had to add.
‘He would never be able to recall those memories now that he’s going to be taken out of the country, he has to be close to the environment which he was previously used to.’
‘So are you suggesting that we live him here?’ Dakolo asked in an indifferent tone and returned to his seat.
‘Leaving him here won’t solve the matter. His case is a complicated one and it’s a pity that it’s not good to expose him to the public now because of safety reasons but if he stays here, chances of ever recalling would fade with the length of time he stays here.’
‘I don’t understand you Dr Tobi, you just told us that flying him out wouldn’t help me recover and now you said staying here would also make him loose chances of ever recalling.’
‘What I mean is that for him to be able to recall, he has to exposed to things and the environment he has been exposed to before, particularly his recent environment. That means he would have to be taken to places like his apartment, his place of work and other places he has been to recently before he was poisoned. It would also help him if he could see people who has been on his mind before the poisoning.’
‘But all these things are not possible now, taking him back to Asokoro would endanger his life. He has to stay here or overseas till everything is settled.’
‘How long would it take for everything to be settled?’ Dr Tobi asked the agent.
‘Ermm… A couple of months, five to six hopefully.’ Dakolo replied.
”Hmm… If he spends two months here or anywhere else without being exposed to his usual environment, he would have completely lost his memory.’ Dr Tobi said in a sad tone. ‘Well, I think his life is more precious than his memories right now.’
‘I have a suggestion sir,’ Ken said to Dakolo. ‘What about bringing his mum here? Wouldn’t that help?’
‘Hmm…’ Dakolo nodded, remembering that Ken had whispered about the mother’s presence to him in the Senate President’s house. He turned to the doctor to hear his say.
‘Well, that could help. But taking him to meet her in an environment he’s used to would be better. Even if he doesn’t regain his memory immediately, it’ll take him a step further.’
