Tarasha

pumped in his heart abnormal at a speed faster

than that of Usain Bolt. The first time he ever

had a nightmare was in his University days,

when a dreaded cult group was after his life

because of a girl that was in love with him.

This time around, he dreamt that he was being

given a hot chase by the Rivers State

Governor"s body guards. He outsmarted them

and hid in an uncompleted building where he

slept off for hours, only for him to open his eyes

and find several guns pointed at him by a group

of policemen.

He glanced at Benny who was sleeping

peacefully on the left side of the bed despite

the hot condition of the room. He took off his

wet shirt and proceeded out of the room bare

chested, using the shirt to fan himself. He first

headed into the kitchen to quench his thirst

after which he proceeded out of the house with

an extra cup of water to seek fresh air in the

compound.

He got a little surprised when he met the door

unlocked but he shook off his fears, his mind

suggesting to him that Tarasha must be the one

outside

He was right! There in the middle of the

compound was a female figure lying flat on the

long bench that used to be at the verandah, she

seemed to be busy with something and didn"t

notice his presence. He tiptoed carefully

towards her, trying his possible best not to

announce his presence.

He stopped halfway when he saw her insert a

magazine into the revolver she was playing with,

she seemed to also halt with his movement. He

was contemplating whether to turn back or not

when his name was called.

"Cole" he quivered at the sound of his name, still

on the same spot, he watched her unload the

gun before he proceeded further.

She rose from her sleeping position and sat up,

smiling at Cole who stared at her funnily.

"Why were you scared?" She asked mockingly.

"You loaded your gun like you wanted to aim at

something, I was scared that you didn"t know I

was the one coming" he answered, feeling

slightly embarra.s.sed.

"I knew it was you and I wasn"t planning to

shoot" she collected the cup of water from him

and drank slowly.

Cole watched her taking in the water, like a kid

who was already dying of thirst. He had the

opportunity to notice her very young face, she

looked like an innocent girl in her early twenties.

Her face was the youngest he had ever seen

involved in the a.s.sa.s.sination business, several

of her mates he has seen involving themselves

in crime only partic.i.p.ated in petty robbery and

as informants.

"Cole" she startled him, his eyes was still

hovering round her body in awe.

"Boss" he called back, scratching his head as he

looked away.

"Why are you staring at me like that?" She

asked.

"No, nothing. I was just wondering what you

were doing outside here"

"What else should I be doing? I was sleeping"

she answered.

"Sleeping? How? I saw you awake when I came

out of the house"

"You woke me up, I was asleep before you came

out" she insisted.

"Asleep? How?" He looked bewildered. "No one

can sleep here with all the mosquitoes around,"

"Forget about me Cole, you should tell me why

you are awake" she looked sternly at his face.

"I couldn"t sleep, my mind has been occupied

with all we did yesterday" Cole explained his

woe. "I can"t seem to figure out how we"ll be

able to accomplish our task here"

"That"s for me to worry about. I give the plan,

all you need to do is to follow"

He looked at her face in an awkward manner as

if to ask why she way arrogant, or why she

thought she knew everything.

"Young girl like you, who made you a devil? I

could kill you now if I want to" He said in his

mind.

"The greatest mistake you"ll ever make is

dealing with me like the ordinary person my

face projects" she cautioned immediately add if

she heard his thoughts. "You may lose your life

the next time you think that way"

"Hu..uh" he stammered and got up shakily from

the bench.

"Come on, go inside now" she said in a

command tone. Flinging the cup away, she

returned to her former position on the bench.

Cole hurriedly returned into the house, scared to

look back until he entered and closed the door.

He paused to think for a while leaning his back

on the door, the sound of his heartbeat echoed

in his ears.

Maybe she was more than who he thought she

was. She is probably an adult hiding under a

younger body or a young girl endowed with

diabolical powers.

He tried to calm himself and waved off his

thoughts as ridiculous, she wasn"t a super

human, she was only good at playing smart with

their emotions. He decided to put up a bold

response if there was a next time, why should

he be scared of her anyway? He had worked

with several make a.s.sa.s.sins and none made his

heart filled with fear like this.

"Go and sleep Cole, we have a lot to do

tomorrow" her voice jerked him into action

again, he proceeded to his room with no further

delay

**

Tarasha was already thinking of different

possible plans for their new task. Earlier that

day when she and Cole worked to gather

information about the Governor on the internet,

they also visited his twitter profile and studied

several tweets mentioning his handle and those

including his name in the text. Out of the

several hundreds of tweets that had his handle

mentioned, three got Tarasha"s attention.

One was from the Rivers State Commissioner of

works and transport, reporting the progress of a

bridge project. The other was from a popular

artiste who displayed his invitation to a dinner

night with the governor.

The last one was from a news reporting media,

Desert Reporters. They tweeted one of their

headlines which talked about an Engineering

student of the Port Harcourt University who had

just successfully manufactured a small airplane

singlehandedly. The tweet read "Governor of

Rivers State, Kelechi Edwin commends

engineering student John @Johnnonexistent

who manufactured an air plane, plans to visit

on…"

With the tweet as a lead, Tarasha visited the

student"s twitter profile and gathered more

information about the record breaking feat

achieved. She got to know what kind of airplane

it was and specifications of the size, she also

found out that the plane had been tested by

several professors of the University and experts

from outside the country already. The video of

the several test run was recorded and uploaded

on YouTube and had since attracted so many

views from in and outside the country.

Governor Kelechi Edwin and the country"s

minister of aviation were to visit and have a

special flight in the plane on the eighteenth day

of the month.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

+++++++++

**9.12.2030**

"Wait! Scroll up a little, I think I saw Samantha

now" James said to secretary who scrolled

down the list hurriedly. He had been standing

beside her for minutes, watching while she

logged in to the School Administrative portal to

get a list of all the pharmacy students in thee

school.

Officer Segun and Dr. Hammed also came to

the school with him. They had gone to see the

Vice chancellor of the school who then

redirected them to the pharmacy department

and instructed the department"s secretary to

show them a list of the pharmacy students in

their database.

"That"s 200 level not 300" she replied him

without bothering to obey his order

"Let"s see it" he insisted stubbornly

She scrolled up and halted where she saw the

name, "this is Samantha David, isn"t it Osman

you"re looking for?"

"Can we see her profile?" he requested

She clicked on the name and the student"s

profile appeared. Samantha David was in 200

level, eighteen years of age and had the matric

number 745666.

"Is this the girl?" James asked, turning to face

the doctor.

Doctor Hammed stood up from the sofa where

he and Segun was seated and walked to the

table to get a clearer view of the pa.s.sport

photograph displayed on the profile, "No, not this

one. Samantha Osman is not as dark as this"

"Please, let"s continue" James pleaded with the

secretary.

The other Samantha that was found after

scrolling the whole list was a 400 level student

which Dr. Hammed responded negative to.

James was forced to ask the secretary to

profile of all the 300 level female students but

none was identified as the doctor to be

Samantha Osman.

"We don"t have any Samantha Osman in our

department" the secretary stated for the second

time.

"But she was wearing the school ID card" James

talked back.

"Maybe she was a student of another

department" she replied. "You should check

medicine or nursing"

"No, she said she was a pharmacy student" Dr.

Hammed mentioned each word one after the

other.

"I think it"s clear now" James continued after

taking a deep breath, "that girl was on a mission

and that mission was to get some information

for the killers"

"She could be a student studying another

course" Segun who had been silent began, "I

believe that if we get a database of all the

students, we can fish out every Samantha

Osman we find or better still every girl named

Samantha in the school"

"No!" the secretary exclaimed. "Who"s gonna go

through that herculean task? Do you know how

many students the school has?"

"It doesn"t matter how herculean the task is"

James countered. "She was with the school"s ID

card and that confirms that the suspect is your

student"

"How are you sure it was our ID card?" she

queried. "Did any of you check it? How did you

know it wasn"t fake?"

Her question was answered with silence; the

officers stared at each other and at the doctor,

each expecting one to come up with a counter

opinion.

James gave in, "you"re right, it may be fake but

you still have to help us confirm it is"

"Or better still, let us have access to the

database, we"ll check it ourselves" Segun

suggested.

"Better!" The secretary got up from her seat ,

adjusting her skirt. "I can"t help you with that,

you have to return to the VC"

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"I got it Boss" Cole announced, looking into his

laptop. "I got access to the account"

"Good!" She exclaimed, approaching him with a

plate of potato chips. "Any useful

communication between them?"

"There is a conversation here, but I don"t think it

is useful for us" He gave more s.p.a.ce for her to

sit closely beside him. "They"ve got an interview

with him this Wednesday"

"Where"s the venue of the interview" she asked

expecting no reply as she saw the details in the

message for herself. "I think we can make use

of this"

"How? How do we go about it?"

"We"ll be the ones to interview him" she

answered, offering him chips which he refused

politely. "Now, you have to monitor the two

accounts closely. Send the student a message

from the desert reporters" account"

"What message?" he asked, frowning.

"Must you ask about everything? Come on use

your head" she slammed, getting up from his

side, she faced him. "Send him a message,

change the time and venue of the interview"

"I thought you said you were the Boss " he

mumbled like a kid. "You said the thinking and

planning was yours and we should only obey

instructions"

She laughed loudly, "come on, send him a

message now"

He gave her puzzled look, "but they"re gonna

know that their account was hacked when they

see the message"

She returned his look with an awkward one,

"delete the message once it is delivered, then

monitor until he replies"

"Then?"

"Delete his reply once it gets into their inbox so

that they won"t see it"

"Wow! I grab"

"You have to keep tabs on it, they must not get

any message, you should get them first and

delete"

"Okay Boss"

"Then you send a message from his account

which you"ll delete afterwards, inform them that

he won"t be able to make the interview

anymore. That way, we"ll keep the Desert

Reporters away while we carry out the interview

and get more information from the student"