Tarasha

came in few minutes after Tarasha"s conversation with

Chief Gab. She began her research immediately and was

already gathering vital information about the targets. But

Chief Chief Gab also sent her a summary of their profiles.

Nasiru Attahiru, the next on the list, according to Chief

Gab"s plan was formerly one of Chief Gab"s close

a.s.sociates before the take over of a new government

after the elections in the year 2016. Then, he was just a

politician, in the same party as Chief Gab until 2015, a

year before the election year when he switched to the

strongest opposition party after it seemed to be growing

stronger than the ruling party. He also vied for the

position of a senator in the Kaduna state house of

a.s.sembly in the same year. He was successful and

remained in the office for eight years. In the year 2024,

he attempted to run for the governor"s seat but failed

woefully in his party"s primaries because most of his

party members were still finding it hard to trust him,

majorly for his undefined reason for switching parties.

But that didn"t deter him from contesting for other

positions. As a business tyc.o.o.n, he had enough money to

keep buying the forms and to carry out ma.s.sive

campaigns. He only needed to put on better strategies.

He used the next three years before another election to

move closer to and buy the trust of the party heads and

most of its members. When 2028 came, he didn"t

contest for the governorship position again but waited

until both the presidential and governorship elections

were over. He was actually interested in the seat of the

Senate President. He won the seat without stress and had

since then been the number three citizen of the nation.

Elvis Richards, the last on the list, was the current vice

President of the nation. He had been serving in the

government for more than sixteen years. During the time

of his a.s.sociation with Chief Gab and the rest six, he was

the vice Governor of Lagos state. He was a part of the

major heads that came together to form the strong

opposition party before the year 2016 and ousted the

seating government. During his tenure as the vice

governor, he and his head looted the state treasury but

did it in such a way that the ma.s.ses believed they were

actually working for them.

Before his service as the vice governor, he was the

commissioner of police for the state. Ruthless and cruel

he was to criminals, the crime rate of the state reduced

to the lowest minimum while he was there. But he was

also vicious himself, while he punished other criminals

ruthlessly, he was always an hardened criminal,

sponsoring several criminal acts secretly. Elvis Richards

during his eight years tenure as the vice governor was the

mastermind and pioneer of the coalition between the

seven friends including himself, Chief Gabriel, Chief

Onwuli, Chief Jubril, Chief Nnamdi, Chief Nasiru and

Chief Rufai. Four out of the seven were dead already; two

were killed recently by an unknown a.s.sa.s.sin for reasons

unknown. Elvis Richards spearheaded the group activities

and introduced them to the major illegal business deals.

He also supervised the gruesome murders of Chief

Onwuli and Chief Rufai.

After the new government came resumed in 2016, Chief

Elvis was called to service again. He was to take charge of

the Nation"s security. He did his job faithfully and worked

tirelessly to curb all crimes and ensure safety, finally

putting a stop to his own criminal activities, mainly

because he thought of his children"s future and didn"t

want them to be in trouble because of him. It was during

these eight years that better security measures like the

use of security cameras and other forensic innovations

were put to place. After, he took a four years break from

2024 to 2027. In 2027, he was appointed by his party to

contest alongside the seating President. That"s how Elvis

Richards rose to be the number two citizen of the nation.

The next two jobs would be tougher than the last three

put together, Tarasha could envisage. But it would be

done, she was sure, she only needed to get close to the

targets and plan very well.

Tarasha rose up from her sofa and stretched her body.

She shifted the centre table away and began to do some

acrobatics to exercise herself. She stopped after some

minutes and picked up a face towel hung on the backrest

of the sofa to wipe the sweat on her body. She then

proceeded outside to the balcony where the others were

playing the ludo game.

There was a pause when she opened the curtains and

stood by the door. The three gamers turned to look at

her, they turned back to their game when she didn"t say

anything. She stepped away from the balcony and walked

into the compound. She got to the side where about fifty

six inches building blocks were neatly arranged. She

picked one and carried it back to the balcony. She

erected it beside Benny to sit.

"Come sit here boss" Cole offered, trying to show some

respect.

"No, thanks" she calmly refused.

Cole turned back to his game but couldn"t concentrate

anymore, he was stealing glances at the boss"s face. Aisha

was not fully concentrating too. It seemed they all had

the same thing in mind. It was strange for the boss to sit

with them and watch them play. The expression showing

on her face even revealed that she was enjoying watching

them play and that surprised them further. Benny and

Aisha were happy about it, they thought it would be nice

if she could only be as friendly as she was now at all

times but Cole was still indifferent.

Except for Cole who had a clue, none of them had really

come to understand their boss; none knew that she

controlled the expressions on her face. She could keep a

happy smile on even if she was greatly infuriated. She

was trained not to have emotions, so how could she

express what she didn"t have. The only emotions she was

permitted to express sometimes were anger and hate.

But she was trained specially to use her facial expressions

to manipulate people and use them for her purposes.

"I"ll be playing the next game with you, let"s make it a four

man game" Tarasha surprised them further, surprising

Cole more

"So you can play boss?" Cole teased happily. It seemed to

him now that she was expressing real emotions.

"I"ve learnt it" Tarasha replied.

"Just now?" Cole asked again.

"Yes, how long does it take to learn it?" She asked.

"It depends on individuals" Cole replied. "But I"m sure this

is not the first time you watched someone play it"

"I"ve seen something like this called Mandavoshka, and I

also saw you play this yesterday"

"Just yesterday?" Cole asked. She nodded in affirmation.

"Hehe" Cole replied with a chuckle. "It"s time to teach the

boss some lessons" he said in his mind.

The time came for the four man game. Tarasha began

well with the basics, she knew the number needed to

leave the players home and could count very well. But

out of inexperience, she took out all the tokens at a time

and Aisha who was the gamer before her took the

advantage and began to send all her tokens back in.

Tarasha came last in all four rounds they played, but

except for Cole who mocked a little with chuckles and

smiles, the two others couldn"t make fun of her openly

like they would of themselves.

"We may not be leaving Abuja for now" Tarasha

announced as Cole shook the dice cup to make his roll.

He paused and looked up. Benny and Aisha also fixed

their eyes on her. "We have two new targets and they live

in Abuja" she explained further.

"We need to start work as soon as possible, these two

jobs are going to require a lot from us; we have to make

a lot of research and take a lot of risks" she paused and

smiled on seeing the expression on their faces. "Don"t

worry, you"ll be paid handsomely"

"Play" she said to Cole who was still shaking the dice cup.

Three of them still fixed their eyes on her, they were

expecting one last thing.

"The Senate President and Vice President are our next

targets" she announced. They were dumbstruck. The

eagerness to continue with the game left them at once.

+++++

5pm

"Mallam Jefa!" Someone hailed as he walked into the

shop. Jefa replied him by raising his two hands in the air.

His customers had already filled the shop like every

normal evening and he was very busy. About fifteen guys

and two ladies were in the shop.

"Oga Jefa, where you go since all these days na?" The

customer asked of his whereabouts in pidgin English.

"I"ve been busy with some personal issues" Jefa answered,

less enthusiastically.

"Hope you"re back now?"

"I hope so. I might get busy again soon"

"Please, don"t get busy o" the guy pleaded with a serious

tone. "These last two days that you didn"t open, I went to

sleep without having dinner "

Jefa smiled. "Iko, what do you want?"

"Get me some… " he was saying when they heard a

disturbing sound.

"Are you crazy? Who the h.e.l.l do you think you are?" Two

of Jefa"s customers had begun a fight. From the look of

things especially the fighters" demeanours, it was obvious

that they had both had some portion of weed before

coming to eat.

Before Jefa could make any move, one of the fighters had

bent down to break a bottle but the second guy smashed

a stool on his head before he tried to look up. Things

were getting out of control already. The other customers,

instead of separating the fighters began to take sides with

the one they know. Soon, chairs, bottles and plates were

flying everywhere.

~~

**9.30pm**

Henry let out a deep breath as he killed the engine. He

turned off the headlights but remained in the car. His

Sat.u.r.day had been unusually hectic, unlike other

weekends when he had the whole day to himself.

He made a quick flashback of all he had done that day.

From his visit to Elymax and the incidental meeting with

Dakolo, his meeting with Jefa also. Jefa didn"t let him go

that until he confirmed that Henry had given him his real

phone number and address. Then his work in the office;

Dakolo"s appearance had caused so many things to be

revealed, so many flaws in the NSCC system and need to

improve.

He took out his phone from his pocket, he hadn"t

touched it for a while. He had five unseen notifications;

one from his device locator, two text messages and two

from social networks. He clicked on the device locator

notification.

After some processing, the app displayed the text "HGE

device located" and read it out at the same time. Henry"s

eyes widened in disbelief. He clicked on "more details"

immediately. It displayed a map, a green dot was

specifying the exact location of the device found.

"Gwagalada" Henry muttered to himself. He zoomed the

exact location on the map, read out the street and house

address to himself.

~~~

**The next day**

6am

As usual, Tarasha was the first to get up from bed. She

walked out to take a cup of water and returned into her

room to change into her workout clothes. After about an

hour of workout, she returned into the house. Aisha was

also up already and was busy in the kitchen.

Tarasha picked up her tablet device and switched it on.

She laid back on the bed and waited for it to boot. After

three minutes, she picked it up again. She drew the

security pattern. Her eyes met something and she looked

suddenly alarmed, a warning alert popped up. She sat up

quickly and placed it on her laps. She began to type in

commands speedily using the keyboard. Her fears were

confirmed, someone from the same building was

sending out location signals. There was a traitor amongst

them.

She got up hurriedly and dashed out of her room,

shouting Cole and Benny"s names. Without waiting for

them to respond, she proceeded to their room and

kicked the door open. Cole and Benny had been woken

by her voice already and was hurrying to put on their

clothes.

"Where are your phones?" Tarasha barked at the guys

who were still in their underwear. They seemed

perplexed and gave no answer, staring at each other"s

faces.

"Bring out all your devices and join me in the living room

now" she said before slamming the door.

"Aisha" she called out too. Aisha quickly walked out of the

kitchen. "Leave whatever you are doing, go and bring

your phone and every other device you have with you."

Aisha replied with a nod and hurried up to her room.

In less than two minutes, Benny, Cole and Aisha had

a.s.sembled into the living room with all their phones and

devices, waiting. They stood in front of the three seater

sofa side by side on a straight line. Tarasha wasn"t there,

only her tablet could be seen on one of the sofas.

She came out a minute later, loading bullets into a short

gun while a long gun was hung around her arm.

"Who is the traitor here?" She said as she finished loading

the gun. The whole building was silent, fear gripped their

hearts as they watched their boss threaten, she looked

like one who was really ready to kill them.

"Where are your devices?" Tarasha asked, pointing for

them to drop all the devices on the centre table. They

complied. "Switch on everything" Tarasha ordered. Cole

and Aisha returned to the table to power on theirs and

returned to the line. There was a total of seven devices on

the table. Cole had four due to the nature of his job.

Aisha had two while Benny owned the remaining one.

Tarasha moved closer to the table, staring at their faces

carefully. She pocketed the small gun and picked up her

tablet device from the sofa. She moved it over the

devices for a period of one minute, scanning to know

which device was connecting with the outsider. She had

to find the device quickly to know the location of the

outsider.

She stepped back and stared at their faces, shaking her

head in pity for them. "These are not all the devices in this

house" she said as she tossed back her own device to the

sofa. She took out gun pointed it at them.

Benny raised up his hand, "there"s one more" he said with

fear in his voice, but he kept a straight face trying to act

like a strong man who wasn"t scared to die.

"Where"s it?"

Benny pointed towards their room, Tarasha signaled for

him to go get it. He left and returned a minute later with

the phone that fell off from Cole"s pocket. "Let me have it"

Tarasha said and Benny handed it over. Her device began

to beep loud as she brought them closer. That was what

she was looking for.

"Who owns this?" She asked after scrutinizing it.

There was no answer.

"Who owns it?" Tarasha repeated again. They all kept

quiet. Benny felt the urge to say that it was Cole"s but he

remained quiet, not wanting to betray a brother.

Tarasha c.o.c.ked the gun. Aisha began to tremble visibly

while the men remained as they were physically, but

already dead on the inside.

"I brought it in" Cole finally said.

Tarasha stared at him in disbelief for some seconds. "How

much were you paid for this?" She focused her gun to his

forehead.

Her finger was about to touch the trigger when she began

to hear footsteps approaching the doorpost. She turned

her head back towards the door. The footsteps seized for

a while.

"I don"t own it, I took it from the car we …" Cole wanted

to explain.

She turned back in anger to shoot but her hands

dropped as a knock sounded on the door.