Tarasha

and make sure that nothing was out of place. His well

fitted black suit made him look smart as usual, he was

wearing a white shirt under and a dark blue tie. He took a

small comb from his box which he had already arranged

and combed his medium height hair forward. He

returned the comb and straightened up his jacket, he

looked into the mirror once more before picking up his

box and phone. His phone rang just in time.

"Agent Dakolo, are you at the Rivers" airport already?"

Officer Ken"s voice came through.

"No officer" Dakolo smiled, "I"m already in Abuja, I"ll be in

the headquarters in few minutes time"

"In Abuja already?" Officer Ken exclaimed in a surprise

tone. "Are you at the Abuja airport then?"

"No, I"m not. Don"t bother about me" Dakolo smiled. "I

know my way around, I"ll meet you in the office. Is the IG

there already?"

"No, he isn"t but he"ll be with us in few minutes also"

Officer Ken answered.

"Okay, until we see then" Dakolo ended the call and

opened the dial pad for a new call. He dialed the cabman,

Clement"s number.

"Where are you now?" He asked.

"I just drove in" Clement answered.

~~Twenty five minutes later ~~

Dakolo and the cab man drove into the large compound

of the police headquarters after thorough searching at

the gate. Dakolo was seated in front with him and they

chatted all through the journey like friends until they got

to their destination.

The cab man who was surprised when Dakolo asked him

to turn into the police headquarters was more surprised

on seeing several high ranked police officials stop to

greet Dakolo as they drove into the gate. It was his first

time of entering the place but his surprise robbed him of

the chance to notice the other beautiful sites in the

compound. He began to stare at Dakolo"s face

suspiciously.

Dakolo smiled on seeing his confused look. "Sorry, I

didn"t tell you I"m a member of the police force"

The cab man glanced at him, the look on his face

expressed his demand for more explanation.

"My younger brother is the contractor really, it was his

business card I gave you" Dakolo explained further. "My

promise to get jobs for you when you go back to your

carpentry work is still on. I"ll ensure that my brother

works with you"

The cab man stared at him more awkwardly without

saying any word. He drove as he was being directed by a

police officer into the garage. After about two minutes,

they finally parked the car.

"Thanks" Dakolo said, bringing out his wallet from his

jacket"s inner pocket. He began to count. "Since you

know everywhere around, I"ll be calling you often, hope

you"ll be available"

"I"ll try" Clement answered less enthusiastically. His focus

was more on the cash Dakolo was counting. Dakolo

finally counted triple of the fare and handed it over to

him.

"Oh! Thanks" Clement received the money joyfully. "Just

call me anytime, I"ll be available to take you anywhere" he

said.

Dakolo smiled and got out of the car. A crowd of highly

ranked officers had come to welcome him, the IG was

also there. A junior officer took out his box from the

back seat.

"Agent Dakolo" the IG saluted on seeing him. Dakolo

saluted back and received the man"s handshake with his

two hands to show curtsy. "Welcome"

"Thank you sir" Dakolo replied with a smile, also

responding to the greetings from other officers.

The Inspector General, Rikau Waziri was dressed in dark

suit too, he also had a white shirt under but was without

a tie. Aged 51, Rikau was of average height and a very

dark complexion. He had a bald head, his face had scars

on it, a result of several fights he had engaged in when he

was younger. The rest of the officers were dressed in

their uniforms.

"Why didn"t you tell us the exact time you were coming?

We were making arrangements to come for you at the

airport"

"I had to come earlier to do something sir" Dakolo said

briefly. He took a back glance at the cab man who was

just driving off and smiled.

"It"s okay" the IG said and they began to proceed into the

main building. "Hope your journey wasn"t stressful"

"Not at all sir, it was stress free"

"Good" the IG smiled as they climbed up the short stairs

into the building. Dakolo looked around, surprised at the

number of officers who were present at the office on a

Sunday morning. Officer Ken noticed his surprise.

"They all have to be here because of the security issues

we"re having right now" Ken explained with a smile.

Dakolo nodded and smiled. The crowd of officers began

to decrease gradually as they walked past the several

offices and sections. They finally got to a room with the

tag "H 4". Ken brought out an access card and opened

the door. It was a room where top officials held their

meetings. The remaining three officers and the IG

entered the room with Dakolo.

The room which was painted white all through was not

too large but conducive enough for a meeting. There was

a rectangular table in the middle and ten chairs were

round the table. Light refreshments had been served on

the table already. The IG took the seat at the front corner

which was the short side of the table while the four

others took two seats each at the left and the right.

Inspector Ken and Agent Dakolo took the seats closer to

the IG. The meeting began.

"So what"s the way forward now?" The IG asked after a

short recap of the situation.

"I"m thinking we need the help of some agents" Dakolo

said. Everyone stared at him for more explanation. "I

mean a secret agent" Dakolo stated further.

"Does that mean you think you can"t handle it?" The IG

asked. "Cos that"s the reason we brought you here"

"I"m not saying I can"t handle it, in fact I would have

loved to but we need someone who wouldn"t need much

struggle to disguise as an a.s.sa.s.sin " Dakolo explained

more but his listeners still did not understand except for

Ken who was shaking his head thoughtfully.

"I think I get his point" Ken put in, redirecting all stares to

himself. "Agent Dakolo"s face is already known in the

country for nabbing top criminals and a.s.sa.s.sins, it would

require extra work and would need a lot of disguise

techniques for him to act as a secret agent, his face is

known already"

The IG shook his head slowly and thoughtfully in

agreement. "So what do you think we should do now? I

really wish Dakolo is still a young man we could send as

an undercover like we used to do" he said smiling at

Dakolo. Dakolo smiled back. "Well, we have some of our

officers we could still send"

Dakolo gave a slight hiss which expressed his

disagreement, "our boys have not been trained enough to

handle this kind of cases. They"ll definitely cause more

troubles for us. Even myself wouldn"t have been able to

carry out this kind of job if it had come when I was still a

secret agent. I have more experience now, both on the

field and technically"

"So what do you suggest now?" The IG asked. "Can Ken?"

The IG turned to look at Ken. "Or any of these two?"

Ken shook his head slightly in disagreement. "Do you

think it would work like that?"

"Why not?" Dakolo and the IG asked in unison.

"We"ve been actively involved in this a.s.sa.s.sination case. I

mean the three of us" he said looking at the other two

seated. "We"ve been involved in the chasing and

interrogations, do you think it can still work with us?" Ken

said in a bold voice, dismissing every perception that he

was afraid to take the task.

"You"ve spoken the truth" Dakolo said after thoughtfully

considering his reply. "This a.s.sa.s.sin group members are

intelligent and dangerous. I"m sure they"ll just play along

even if they recognize anyone sent as the undercover and

it would turn out as a disaster for us"

"So we don"t have enough strong and trained men in the

force that can handle this?" The IG joined, getting

irritated that they were making the matter sound so big.

"Sir, it"s not about being strong here" Dakolo said calmly.

"Of course, strength is important but what we really need

is an intelligent personnel. Very intelligent one who

would match the intelligence of this a.s.sa.s.sin group. You

know I can"t really talk about the manpower of the group

but I know they are intelligent. Most of their strategies

have been technical; they disrupt all our technical

security facilities, keep us in darkness and then carry our

their a.s.sa.s.sination, that"s what they"ve been doing"

There was silence for a while. "So you think that the

a.s.sa.s.sin group is not really tough in physical strength?"

The IG broke the silence.

"Yes but I may be wrong. But one thing I"m sure of is that

their technical and developing abilities and intelligence is

where they"re stronger"

"No" Ken disagreed gently. "Except the a.s.sa.s.sin group that

killed Chief Jubril USA different from the one who that

carried out the other two but if we are saying they might

be the same, which is really likely, it would be wrong to

say they are weak physically"

Dakolo turned and stared at Ken, so did everyone else.

"Yes sir, he"s right" one of the two other officers finally

broke his silence. "The group that carried out Chief

Jubril"s a.s.sa.s.sination was definitely not weak physically.

Their knowledge of the usage and control of guns is mind

blowing, this is evident in the number of security officials

and police officers found dead in the events centre"

"Thank you" Ken supported. "None of their bullets were

wasted" Ken added, looking at the two officers faces for

support. "Their bullets got into their targets at delicate

parts of the body and most of the victims did not receive

more than one bullet. This shows that the group is a

specially trained one and they"ve mastered the art of the

use of guns. I believe only intelligence wouldn"t fight

them, they"re complete, we need to be complete more

than that to defeat them"

There was another awkward silence. Dakolo now

remembered James telling him about his gun battle with

the suspected lady who had blocked them on the road

while they were on their way to save Robin Kahn.

"You"re right" Dakolo began again in low tones. "How

could I have even thought that they had no physical

strength, considering how they finished off Robin Kahn

and his men?" Dakolo paused and swallowed. "I also

visited the warehouse where Robin and his men were

misled to when I was in Lagos. You need to see the way

their apparatuses were set up professionally"

"You see, those guys are experts" Ken put in briefly.

"James also told me of how a single lady of the group also

engaged he and the rest of the rescue team on their way

to help Robin. She took out almost all the men and even

escaped with their own vehicle"

"So that means we need a stronger and complete team to

match them else we would just be going round in circles

and keep losing our men" Ken added.

"No matter what it is, we have no option than to stop the

group" the IG said in a determined voice. "And it would be

nice if we capture their boss alive"

"Yesss" Dakolo stressed the word, as it he had just

remembered something. "Talking about the boss. It is

widely believed that the group is headed by a lady named

Aisha Bello who disguises as Samantha Osman but with

the latest a.s.sa.s.sination, the report says a man carried out

the job" Dakolo paused to look at their faces

Inspector Ken coughed and joined. "As far as I"m

concerned, this a.s.sa.s.sin group we are dealing with is a

large one, I believe they should have up to twenty or

thirty in the group. It"s surely a large cooperation. So we

can"t be sure that Samantha Osman is the boss, she

might just be one of their major hitmen. The real boss

could be in their headquarters and just be giving the

orders from there"

Everyone paused to reason with Ken. Dakolo took in a

breath and shook his head. "I agree that Samantha

Osman might not be the real boss but I don"t think the

group is a large one. We should have able to get one or

two of them if the group was so large"

"Now, we need concrete details" the IG said in a tone

which expressed his dissatisfaction with the way the

meeting was going. "All what we"ve been talking about

since are our opinions about them, no one has concrete

details"

"And Agent Dakolo" The IG faced Dakolo squarely. "You

said we need secret agents and undercovers, does that

mean that you have suspects in mind already"

"N…no…" Dakolo stammered as he tried to answer.

"There"s no group or real person we suspect yet"

"Then why do we need an undercover if there"s no

suspect?" The IG slammed.

"We might locate a suspect group very soon"

"Then we should be focused first on locating the

suspected group, then we can come back to finding a

secret agent to do the work"

"We are working on that already. There"s a NSCC agent

who"s tracking them already. I"m also thinking that we

could recruit him as a secret agent"

The IG gave a chuckle. "How do even you think that

would work?"

"The agent is extra intelligent and we"re also going to

provide strong backups for him"

"Who"s this person?"

"Same guru we all know. Henry Ekene George