Tarasha

from the house where he was killed the next

day. It took seeing Greg"s dead body for James

to remember that they were on a mission to a

particular address before the wanted lady

attacked them.

James led a group back to the location on Gravl

estate that day and they entered into the

compound, finding Robin"s body laying lifeless

on the floor behind the ambulance. They

searched round the compound and even broke

into the house but found nothing else

implicating, except for some bullets and the

blood stained doctor"s coat found in the

ambulance.

The bullets and coat were sent to the forensics

team immediately for scrutinization while

Robin"s body was driven back to the

headquarters.

Still that morning, James and Sandra visited Dr

Hammed who had met in 2030 with Samantha

Osman in Derl Pharmacy to ask for a

confirmation if Aisha Bello was the same as

Samantha Osman.

"They are not the same person" Dr Hammed

replied their question in an angry manner. He

was tired of replying questions already, he had

had enough from the EFCC and his lawyer. His

plan was to rest and prepare for his court

hearing the next week.

"Just take a proper look at it first" James

insisted.

"Am I a baby who doesn"t know his left from the

right? I said they are not the same" the man

replied back stubbornly.

"Sir" James tried to calm the situation. "I don"t

mean to infuriate you. Well, maybe I should

show you one of her recent pictures, that one is

old and dated back to 2023"

James moved closer to the man with his tablet

and displayed some pictures for the man to

see. "These are her recent pictures on

Instagram and Facebook" he said as he swiped

through different photos.

"There"s no iota of resemblance between this

girl and Samantha Osman" Dr Hammed stood on

his point. "Samantha looks more like a black

American and has a kind of mixed accent, she"s

certainly not the same as this"

++++++

Aisha"s eyes opened to see Benny pointing a

gun at her, her body which was previously stiff

immediately began to vibrate in fright.

"Benny, what are you doing?" she struggled to

mutter under her breath. She looked over his

shoulder and saw Tarasha and Cole standing at

the back, close to the entrance of the lab. Cole

hid his face immediately, after her eyes met

his.

Benny c.o.c.ked the gun.

06/01/2031

**Maitaima, Abuja**

"Nice to have you here, Mr Henry" Sylvester

shook hands with Henry as he welcomed him to

their head office in Abuja.

"Thank you sir" Henry smiled, receiving the

handshake. "I"m happy to be here to work with

you sir"

"Come in please" the stout man adjusted his suit

trousers belt as he ushered Henry into an

office.

Mr Sylvester, the official in charge of the

security cameras system of whole nation had

been recently embattled with series of breaks

and attacks on their operations which always

resulted in a.s.sa.s.sinations.

The first time it happened was in November

2030. The security cameras all stopped

transmitting at the same time and for the same

duration of a minister"s a.s.sa.s.sination. Others

had happened after that, the latest was just one

week ago and it involved the death of United

States special officer, Robin Kahn and his team.

After fruitless struggles by all the software

engineers and officers to fix the loophole, Mr

Sylvester was forced to invite Henry George, a

young Internet technician, software and

computer engineer and transmission expert to

come to their aid.

Henry George, aged 26, was a renowned ethical

hacker who had saved the nation on a previous

attack by enemies on their security official

websites. Henry saved his country four years

ago when he was serving as a youth corper in

Maiduguri. His breaking of the limit brought him

fame and money as he was well sought for by

several organizations after his service. He

decided to settle in Lagos with his parents,

occupying a good position in a well respected

computer security firm.

"Please have your seat, sir" Sylvester motioned

him to the visitor"s seat.

"Thank you sir" Henry replied as he sat

comfortably into the seat.

"I believe you"ve heard about the recent security

breaches we"ve had in our systems" Sylvester

began before sitting down.

"Yes. As a matter of fact, I"ve been trying to

work on it already" Henry leaned forward,

placing his hands on the table. "But you know

there"s a limit to what I can do without having

permission from you to use your data"

"Yes" Sylvester smiled. "We"ll give you everything

you need to work with. We need to fix the

problem as soon as possible to avoid more

blames from the police"

"I"ll work with the best of my abilities as long as

you provide every necessary data for me" Henry

licked his lips as he replied, he felt uneasy.

He wasn"t being honest. In fact, he wasn"t so

sure if there was any more data to get from

them as he had already hacked into their

systems to derive information for his personal

investigation.

When the news of the security failure first hit

the news the last year, Henry had launched his

personal investigation immediately, being

curious to know the expert that was good and

bold enough to hold the nation"s security in

captive for hours.

Unfortunately for him, he couldn"t make much

progress like he thought he would. Every link to

trace the person behind the work was

completely blocked. He even tried to locate the

server from where the Health Minister"s

compromise video was uploaded from but the

result he got was an incorrect proxy and IP

address. Since then, he had concluded that his

failure to locate the source was due to lack of

complete data. But the data he needed was

sure not from this organization he had been

invited to work for, he accepted the invitation

with the hope that their influence would get him

the data from other organizations. He was

ready to break record.

"Here sir" Sylvester courteously handed a file to

Henry. "In it is all our codes and data that you

need, please we"ll like you to start work on it as

soon as possible"

Henry stood to take the file from the man,

smiling as he marveled at the man"s great show

of respect for him. The man was a married man

who was far older than him in age and

authority, so Henry felt greatly honored by his

att.i.tude.

"I"ll begin my work immediately" Henry said as

they exchange a parting handshake.

++++++

11/01/2031

Their Bus got to Kubwa, Abuja at exactly five

minutes past nine in the evening and they drove

into their lodge by fifteen minutes past nine.

Their arrival attracted a lot of attention from

people around the house. The house had been

abandoned for over two years.

"Hey! Wetin I dey find for hia?" A Mallam walked

in after them as they drove in through the old

rusted gate.

Tarasha was the first to come out of the Bus

and walk back to the gate to attend to the man,

but she was helpless as she couldn"t

understand the man"s pidgin language until

Benny came around

"Wetin I dey find for hia?" The man asked again.

"We came on a short business trip" Benny

answered him. "This property has been sold to

us"

"Who sell am for me?"

"Where are the house and land doc.u.ments?"

Benny turned to Tarasha to ask.

"Is that all he"s saying?" Tarasha commented as

she walked back to the car to get the

doc.u.ments.

She returned a minute later and handed it over

to Benny who displayed it to the man and

spoke in low tones to the man. The man

walked away silently after nodding his head in

agreement several times to Benny.

"He"s one of the security guards in the town"

Benny informed Tarasha as they walked back to

the bus to join the others offload the loads in

the bus.

+++++

13/01/2031

"This bug is not a common one" Henry said to

Sylvester as he examined a small black device

held up in his hands. "It is customized, I believe

the user manufactured it by him or herself"

"So can nothing be done with this?" Sylvester

asked in a pessimistic manner.

"Of course, something can be done with it"

Henry answered with a mischievous smile.

"What do you mean?" Sylvester asked, confused

by the look on Henry"s face.

"Is it not this device the police headquarters

sent from Lagos this morning?" Henry dropped

the device on the table and sat in front of a

computer set.

"Yes"

"It might take us a little time before we come

up with anything useful to us about this bug. I

don"t want us to rush" Henry said, typing in the

label on the bug into the Google search engine.

"Ha! I don"t want us to spend too much time on

this issue, we"ve gone about six days already

without making a headway"

Henry paused and turned to Sylvester, he stared

into his face for a moment before speaking out.

"Mr Sylvester" he called. "Do you know the

history surrounding this bug?" He raised a brow

as he asked.

"Ermm… I know. You know, it"s just that the

government is putting a lot of pressure on us"

Sylvester stammered as he tried to convince

Henry.

"Well, if they really want a quick job" Henry

turned back to the desktop as he spoke, "let

them come and do the job themselves. I won"t

get myself killed stupidly"

"I"m not saying we should work stupidly, I just

think we should work a little more faster"

"I won"t work faster than this, I a.s.sure you"

Henry said boldly without turning to the man,

he was beginning to get p.i.s.sed with the man

but tried to remain calm. "I won"t work like

Robin Kahn who was impatient and ran into the

waiting hands of the a.s.sa.s.sins, I"m wiser"

Sylvester did not reply anymore as he began to

reason with Henry, he remained quiet and

allowed Henry to continue his searching.

Henry silently read each of the search results

before clicking on the best option. He read for

few minutes and jotted some codes into his

notepad before getting up.

"I have to get to a computer accessories shop

now" He said as he picked up his bag and hung

it on his shoulder.

"Ehen, Okay" Sylvester got up too and set out to

leave the computer room.

** Twenty minutes later **

"Seginet Computers" Henry read aloud to

himself as he parked his car in the parking lot

of the company. He took a deep breath before

proceeding to the main building.

The company"s main building had four doors,

two for entry and the other two for exit. Henry

smiled as his Android device beeped. He took it

out from his bag, a red light pointed out from

the screen, slanting in an upward direction. He

took care not to look in the direction of the

light as he understood the message. His

properly designed app was just locating the

positions of the neatly hidden surveillance

camera at the door.

The door opened, allowing him to enter after

been scanned by the security system. He

switched off the device to avoid attracting

attention to himself as it would in no time begin

to make numerous beeps on locating the

cameras inside the building.

Computer accessories and softwares of

different kinds and uses were neatly arranged in

shelves at the different sections. Henry quickly

located the camera section and proceeded

towards the stand.

"Henry" he heard someone call. He turned back

to see the caller but found out that he wasn"t

the Henry being called. He hissed and turned

again carelessly to collide into someone.

"Oh! Sorry" he apologized as he bent to pick the

fallen contents of the fallen nylon bag. The lady

watched him in disgust as he picked up the

gadgets and returned them into the nylon bag.

"I"m so sorry" he apologized again as he handed

over the bag back to the lady. She gave him a

searching look before collecting it from him.

There was something familiar about the lady,

Henry thought as they both stood for thirty

seconds without moving. It wasn"t her face that

looked familiar, rather it was an atmosphere

around her, the scent of her perfume. He had

felt that atmosphere sometime before but he

couldn"t tell where and when it was.

He was also held spellbound by her beauty, her

charm was irresistible. Her face was neat with

no acne or pimple, her eyes were attractive and

too radiant to look at for long without falling in

worship. He had only one description for her, a

perfect African G.o.ddess.

He felt his body shiver as he ran his eyes

through her clean s.e.xy legs. Her figure eight

was clearly displayed in the tight mini gown

which revealed her thigh down to her foot. His

heartbeat suddenly increased without him

knowing.

"Be careful next time" she said and walked away

from his presence, leaving him to stand

overwhelmed in the midst of other moving

people.

He stood transfixed for some more seconds, but

his brain was working perfectly well and quick

also. He had heard that voice somewhere

before but couldn"t remember where it was.

He turned back to see her just going out

through the exit and quickly followed after her,

abandoning his primary a.s.signment.

She was already entering into her car when he

got out, he quickly ran towards her but she

started the car engine and began to drive

towards the gate before he got to her. He tried

to call out to her but there was no response.

Without thinking twice, he jumped into his car

and drove out of the gate, pursuing after her.

After minutes of trying to get her attention

through the side mirror, she finally stopped near

an army checkpoint and came out of the car.

The soldiers approached her immediately as it

was wrong to park at that place.

He drove closer to them and was still arguing

with himself whether to park also or just drive

forward when he realized what was going on,

but it was late already.

The lady had just finished explaining something

to the soldiers and two were signaling for him

to park with whips in their hands.