Tarasha

**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 a.s.sistants that he we going to join them soon.

Mr Sylvester poured in the remaining content of the bottle into the gla.s.s 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?"

, 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 a.s.sa.s.sin 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."

**Wednesday Morning**

Immediately Tarasha got to the office the next day, she began to find a way to trace the movement of the police with Henry from the hospital. She needed access to the raw files from the regional blocks but as a new staff and person whose job isn"t related to it, she couldn"t ask Mr Sylvester directly. After getting the area where the hospital was located, she began to look for the section of the NSCC that was monitoring the area. Before 10am that morning, she already found it. But she still needed to break into the regional office and steal the raw file. She decided to strike by break time when most of the staffs wouldn"t be on seat.

++++

"Good morning sir," Ken greeted as he walked into the large room were Dakolo was.

"Good morning Inspector Ken," Dakolo replied without taking his gaze off the pictures he was staring at on the board. "How is Henry doing this morning?" Dakolo finally turned and asked Ken after a minute.

"Henry is fine, he"s still the same. He doesn"t know anybody or himself, doesn"t want to see or even talk to me. The only people he sees and likes to talk to are the maids and the doctor," Ken replied. "He even shouted at an electrician today when the man tried to fix some wires in his room."

"But what did the doctor say is the reason for his hostility?" Dakolo asked.

"Fear, he said he"s afraid of people. The reason he"s more comfortable with the doctor and maids is because he"s been hearing their voices ever before his eyes opened and they"ve also been the one taking care of him."

"Then how would we take him out of there if he"s hostile to us? The doctor and maids won"t be with him for a long time."

"The doctor said I should try act more friendly and smile whenever I come near to him, that way he"ll start becoming comfortable with me and learn to trust me too."

"Well, you have to enroll for smiling lessons then," Dakolo joked. "I just hope everything works fine."

Ken waited for some seconds before he started to speak again. "Sir, what do you think we do about Henry"s mum? Should we allow them meet like the doctor said?"

"Yes, I believe it"ll be cool if we could allow them to." Dakolo replied, "but on the other hand, I still think it"ll would be stupid of us to do so."

"Why did you say that sir?"

"Ken, the whole nation is aware of her presence in town, the media reported everything she did at the hospital and the office here yesterday. It means that the a.s.sa.s.sins are also aware of her presence, they could be keeping tabs on her and that means taking her to Henry or bringing him to her would expose Henry to danger."

"That"s true sir," Ken commented thoughtfully.

"It"s a complicated situation Ken," Dakolo heaved a sigh. "Had it been she had come in quietly, it would have been easier."

There was silence for the next two minutes, Ken"s eyes were fixed on the pictures pinned to the board while Dakolo was lost in thoughts.

"Sir," Ken called Dakolo. "These pictures, there is only that looks so close."

"Yeah, only the girl on low cut" Dakolo agreed with him and touched disguised Aisha out of the four persons in the picture. "The baffling thing is that her facial features is always different, the makeup she uses must have very thick layers."

"Yes sir, that"s what I"m thinking too. But what about these other people? Any close person found?"

"I"ve asked for a search on matching photographs to be done on them." Dakolo answered, he picked his phone from a table nearby. "I"m sure the search should be completed already," he said and turned back. "Let"s go get the result."

Both of them walked out of the room and headed for the computer room, to meet the same officers who had been charge of contacting the Government City Hospital in Capetown.

"Are you done?" Dakolo asked as soon as his eyes came in contact with the lady.

"Yes sir," she replied, she minimized the application she was using on the computer and opened another. The separately cropped pictures of the four disguised a.s.sa.s.sins showed immediately, then other pictures began to show underneath each one.

"For this lady who was called their leader," the lady computer operator began her explanation. She clicked on the picture of Tarasha which was captured in her disguised form, two other pictures displayed underneath.

"Oh!" Dakolo exclaimed as he saw the pictures, he had seen them before. "Isn"t this the fake desert Reporters journalist who interviewed John Obiano?" he asked.

"Yes, it happens to be the same person, Samantha Osman. The facial structures are the same, only the colour and hair are different," the lady affirmed. "But the problem now is that her pictures do not match with any in the citizens" directory, it doesn"t match with the immigrants" or even visitors" directory."

"Her pictures has never matched with any, she"s always heavily disguised," Dakolo said. "It"s not her face."

"But how come the security officials never knew that she was Samantha Osman?" Ken asked thoughtfully.

"Even both of us wouldn"t have known if we were in their shoes," Dakolo answered him. "She wasn"t looking like the same, here she is fairer as the desert Reporters journalist than the way she was when she visited the Senate President"s House, no one could have connected it." Dakolo explained, pointing at the pictures. "The reason we"re able to connect it now is because we"ve conducted a search."

"Hmm… This is strange," Ken heaved a sigh of frustration, placing his fingers on his nose and mouth. "And I"m sure the facial structures aren"t even original."

"Yes Ken, her real facial structures must have been covered by the thick layers of makeup." Dakolo added.

The lady computer operator closed the picture and opened another, Cole"s disguised form to the Senate President"s mansion. "This one does not even have any matching picture," she said before closing it. She opened Benny"s picture as Mr Alfred, "this does not have any match too." she closed it again and opened Aisha"s own. "This one doesn"t really match too but we can identify her to be Aisha Bello if we compare the pictures and sketches. Her features here looks similar to the real Aisha Bello"s pictures, there are still big differences anyway. The matching factor is that her nose in the sketch looks like her nose in this picture but her cheeks are different while her nose in the real Aisha"s Bello pictures looks far different from the two but her real cheeks are like the one in the sketch."

"Well, it must be Aisha Bello. Although, a sketch isn"t really that reliable but with all these connections, it must be her." Dakolo joined. "And this also confirms that Aisha Bello is different from Samantha Osman, Samantha Osman is the real leader of the gang."

"But sir, " the computer operator gave a confused look. " We only found little similarities, there are lots of discrepancies between the Aisha Bello"s pictures too. The jaws, the foreheads…" she was saying but paused and opened her mouth like she was shocked about something.

"Sir, see," she urged Dakolo to look at the computer screen. "The ears are the same."

"Wow!" Dakolo stared in surprise too. "Why didn"t we ever notice that?" he said, smiling at Ken who had joined in the surprise too.

"It"s Aisha Bello, no doubts" Ken stated with certainty in his voice.

Dakolo"s smile soon turned into a frown, "well all these discoveries would not lead us any closer to getting her," he said in a discouraged tone. Everyone"s smiles also disappeared. "Or is it possible to post her ears to the public and declare it wanted? Who"s going to be searching for people"s ears?"

There was a deafening silence for the next three minutes, the slow and calm breaths of each officers could be heard.

"But," Dakolo suddenly began again, with excitement. "We can do something about this," he said and began to take out his phone.

The others stared at him in awe, wondering what the reason was for his excitement.

"h.e.l.lo Mr Sylvester, are you at the office?" he said into the phone. "Okay, I"ll be there very soon."

"Do something about the ears sir?" Ken asked as soon as Dakolo was done with the call.

Dakolo paused and stared at him awkwardly, "no, do something about the pictures."

"How?"

"Don"tworry, I"ll explain to you later." Dakolo said and patted Ken on the shoulder. He turned to the computer operator, "please make five photocopies of the pictures for me, I"ll be back to get it in ten minutes time."

"Okay sir," the computer operator replied.

"Ken, let"s go plan about Henry"s mother," Dakolo before he and Ken walked out of the room.

++++

Aisha had been monitoring Mrs George since the day before. Mrs George was staying in her friend"s house and brought with her no car which Aisha could place a tracker on and monitor with. Aisha had no choice than to resume her monitoring by 5am in the morning.

It was until12pm, Mrs George came out of the house with a young man in his late teens. Aisha who was already dressed in a pullover whose hoodie covered her hair, and a dark eyegla.s.s to cover her face began to follow them closely. Soon, Mrs George and the young man stopped by the road side to wait for a cab. An idea came to Aisha, she took out her phone and uncovered her head.

"Good morning ma," she said approaching the woman where she was standing.

"Good morning," Mrs George replied calmly, but her body language showed that she wasn"t comfortable with the stranger approaching her.

"I"m Seun, a journalist from YTV." Aisha made an introduction, she pressed the recording b.u.t.ton on her phone and brought it closer to the woman to show that she was ready for an interview.

The woman sighed on hearing the introduction and looked away but Aisha pressed on.

"Ma, I have some few questions for you," she said, turning to stand at the woman"s front.

"Young lady, I"m not in the mood for questions. As you can see, I"m on my way to somewhere very important." the woman said in a warning tone.

"Where are you going to ma?" Aisha asked, disregarding her warning.

"It"s none of your business, please leave me alone." the woman replied and tried to walk away but Aisha followed.

"Would you leave her alone please," the young man shouted at Aisha, standing at her front in readiness to give a fight.

"Oh!" Aisha slowly backed out acting defeated but she had accomplished what she wanted to do already, a tracker and a voice recorder had been fixed on the woman"s clothes.

Aisha walked back to where her car was parked and waited inside until Mrs George and the young man got a cab. She clicked open the screen of her phone and opened the tracking application, she could see the position of the woman on the road. She took her makeup kits bag from the back seat and began to apply a quick solution to disguise her face briefly, she had to do that because it was possible she ran into someone who knew her face. She took off the pullover, leaving on only a small blue blouse. Then she put on her wig before driving off, in the direction her tracking application was pointing her to.

After driving for a total of thirty minutes, she stopped when she noticed that the woman"s movement had stopped first. But the stop was brief, there was another movement but a very short one, she could tell that the woman only moved a short walking distance. Aisha took out her headset and plugged it into the phone to listen to the recording, what she could hear at first were brief greetings and questions in low voices, she could easily tell that the woman was in an organization.

Five minutes later, the movement stopped totally, by this time, Aisha had been able to decipher that the woman was in the police headquarters.

"Good morning ma, I"m Inspector Ken." she could hear someone say to the woman.

*

"Good morning ma, I"m Inspector Ken." Ken introduced himself to Mrs George. They were inside his office, Mrs George and the young man were seated on the visitors" seats.

"Where is Dakolo?" the woman asked in a distressed tone, thick Igbo accent. "He should come and tell me where he has kept my son."

"Please calm down ma," Ken said politely. "I"m working with Inspector Dakolo on all issues that has to do with your son, Henry."

"So you people are in it together? Where have you kept my son?"

"Ermm…" Ken hesitated for a while, staring at the young man. "You have to excuse us for a moment," he said to the teenager.

"Tell me, did anything happen to my son?" Mrs George was impatient.

"I can"t say anything until he leaves ma," Ken maintained his position. The young man got up reluctantly and walked out of the office.

"Ma," Ken continued in a serious tone, after the young man was out of the office.

"Tell me what you people have done to my son," the woman said in a low but tensed tone.

"Ma, first of all, we have to agree now that everything I tell you here would be kept secret between us."

The woman stared at him without replying, she twitched her lips and squinted.

"You have to agree ma," Ken repeated. "It"s to make sure everything turns out well."

"Okay," she finally said.

"Good, your son is fine, hale and hearty." Ken announced and paused to see the reaction on the woman"s face. As expected, her face was lightened up and her lips covered with smiles.

"Where"s he? I want to see him," the woman said happily.

"That"s the first problem, you can"t see him now."

The woman"s smile changed into a frown, she instantly began to doubt Ken"s words. "Why can"t I see my son?" she asked.

"You can"t see him now because f he"s in danger," Ken replied, he took a brief pause before he continued, Mrs George"s face was already showing her eagerness for more explanation. "Ma, you know the circ.u.mstances that led to his condition. His life is being threatened by the dangerous Samantha Osman a.s.sa.s.sin group."

"But what have my son done to them?" the woman began to wail. "My son does not look for trouble."

"Calm down madam," Ken hushed. "Your son is fine and recovering very fast."

"But how would I know you"re not lying to me?"

"You"ll know Madam."

"How would I know?" the woman argued. "You"re saying my son is fine but the news says he was in a condition of mental instability; I tried to contact him but I couldn"t, I tried to contact you people but you wouldn"t respond. Now the news says he was already poisoned by Samantha Osman, how am I going to know if my son is not dead."

"You"ll see him ma," Ken replied.

"You"ll take me to where he is?" the woman"s face brightened up again.

"No, I won"t take you there neither would I bring him to you. It"s very dangerous for you to go to him now or for him to come to you, the a.s.sa.s.sins may be trailing either of you."

"Ah! a.s.sa.s.sins trailing me too?" the woman became alarmed.

"Don"t worry madam, we have everything under control, we"ll provide security for you."

"They should even come and take me," she said in a frustrated tone, raising up her two in surrender. "I"m old enough to die but let them leave my son alone."

"Madam, both of you won"t die if you do what we say." Ken tried to encourage.

"But wait," she put down her hands and stared at Ken with all seriousness. "Is it true that my son has now become a dummy?"

"No," Ken couldn"t do but smile at the manner which she asked. "It was true, but now your son has recovered, he has his senses back."

"How am I going to know you"re telling me the truth?"

"You"ll take to him via video chat," Ken replied.

"Video chat?"

"Yes."

"When?"

"This night, we"ll connect you to him. We"re also making arrangements for you to ensure your safety, you won"t leave here now. Some policemen would accompany you to get whatever you need from where you came from this morning." Ken explained. "But please, do make sure that n.o.body else hears this."

+++

It was past break already and Tarasha had gotten all the data needed. After watching the video files over and over again, she wasn"t satisfied with what she got. The officers had taken Henry to a very far distance, far from the cameras" reach. She was getting more impatient about Benny"s return now, she needed to know if the task of killing Henry was a successful one. She picked her phone and dialed Cole"s number.

"h.e.l.lo Cole, hope you"re getting prepared to send the Senate President back home?"

"Yes, all is set already." Cole replied.

"Okay, have you heard from Benny yet?"

"No."

"What about Aisha?"

"No news also."

"Okay, if you don"t hear from Benny or locate him before the day runs out, you guys have to move from the lodge."

"Okay,back to Asokoro?"

"Maybe, but to an hotel, not where I am."

"Okay boss," Cole said and the call ended.

Aisha"s call came in few seconds after. "h.e.l.lo girl," Tarasha answered.

"Boss, Henry is not dead." Aisha stated flatly. She waited for a response from the boss but got none as the boss was too dumbfounded to speak. "His mother would be speaking live to him through a video chat tonight," Aisha continued her message.