**Monday morning** 5am Tarasha was laying on the giant sized bed, the pillow under her arm as she stared into her tablet device, studying the information she had gathered the last night. She had gotten so much already about the targets, their jobs, investments and family, all that remained now was to plot the best way to carry out their murder. This time she planned for it to be neater than the previous jobs. She turned off the device and turned to face the ceiling, putting the pillow under her head. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. Nasiru Attahiru, the Senate president who was also a business tyc.o.o.n had three major companies in Nigeria and several other branches in other African countries. He had a cement factory, a large cocoa plantation; the largest in the country and an Agro products factory. He had three children, Fatima, Aisha and Kamal who were all schooling in the United States. His wife was also a business woman who travels out of the country on regular intervals. He had several houses; one in Abuja, three in his hometown, Katsina , one in Lagos and many others in different parts of the country and in Africa. He had a mother who he held in very high esteem. She recently celebrated her seventy fifth birthday and it was reported that he spent money lavishly in honouring his mother and entertaining all the guests that were in attendance. He had only one sibling, a younger brother who was also a businessman though not as successful as he was but was doing well enough to fend for himself and his family and also live comfortably. Elvis Richards, the vice President was a greatly feared and at the same time loved in the nation. As a result of his great contribution towards curbing the crime rate in the nation and bringing the country"s security to a dependable level, he earned respect from several countries and world leaders. He was also known for his intelligence and wisdom; he was never outsmarted in anyway. He had three children also, James, Nathaniel and Vivian. His first son James had gone into the police force like him and was gradually growing in rank while Nathaniel his second son was the director in an oil company. The only girl and last born Vivian, was a hip-hop artiste who had several hits across the nation and regions beyond. His wife was late, she died two years ago after suffering several years from b----t cancer. Elvis was brought up by a single mother in a poor home. His father who used to be a politician was thrown in prison before he was born, after several of his political enemies had come together and plotted against him for his unshaken honesty and incorruptibility. The man was subjected to serious hardship and labour in prison, he was later found dead after few weeks. His wife who was a foreigner and had forsaken her country and family to marry him was left to bring up the boy alone after all the father"s properties had been seized by the court. He finished his primary education easily through scholarship that was provided by the government of his state but had to stop schooling for some years after primary six. But he was desperate to survive especially when he heard about how his father died and those who caused the death. He was also desperate to continue schooling and become successful. He left his mother"s home at a very tender age to live under the bridge, there he learnt the very harsh lifestyle. He started with hawking sachet water by the road and later graduated to selling beef roll and plastic bottled soft drinks. He also involved himself in petty thefts at times and was arrested by the police on several occasions; they always had to release him because of his age and because no one was coming for him. From the little money he made, he was able to enroll himself for evening cla.s.ses which he did for three years after which he wrote the university entrance exam and pa.s.sed after the second attempt. Elvis"s strong will and determination to survive continued to push him forward. After he graduated from school, he joined the police force in determination to pursue and ensure that the perpetrators of the crime against his father. But he discovered that it wasn"t possible because of the rot in the system. He lost his desire and will to fight back. He was now influenced and corrupted by the system, since he couldn"t fight them, he began to live by their rules. Tarasha got up from the bed and began to take off her night gown, it was time for morning exercise. ~~~ Henry stopped and turned to face the opposite side in front of the old gate before turning off the engine. He took off his seat belt and opened the door. He took out his phone and dialed Jefa"s phone number. "h.e.l.lo sir" he spoke as Jefa answered his call. "Are you there now?" Jefa"s asked anxiously. "Yes but I"ve not gotten into the house. I"ll call you when I"m with her. Just pray that everything goes well" Henry answered. He spoke for another few seconds before the call ended. Then he stepped out of the car and began to walk towards the gate. He stopped in front of the gate, it was properly closed unlike the way it was the day before. He stared around for a while, it looked like something had changed. He didn"t know what it was. He pushed the gate open and walked in, the compound seemed different, he couldn"t tell what was amiss. He shrugged and continued walking further, undisturbed. Nothing was going to stop his excitement, the excitement of breaking the news of a new job to Omotara. He hoped that she would appreciate it and that he would be able to totally convince her to totally leave her job as a fraudster. He also had plans for all her accomplices, with his reputation he could get a job for everyone of them no matter what qualification they held. He was positive that Omotara would accept his idea especially when she hears about the handsome pay attached to it. He stepped on the balcony, that was when he realized what had changed in the compound. He turned back, the two vehicles he had met there the day before were no longer there, his heart skipped a beat. Does that mean that Omotara had left the house? He proceeded to the day immediately with curiosity. He began to knock. After knocking several times without getting an answer, he started to call out her name, he got no reply also. He touched the door k.n.o.b and it opened, revealing that it wasn"t locked before. He walked into the living room, it was devoid of any living thing. "Omotara" he called repeatedly as he walked towards the room section. He entered into the first room, it was empty apart from the furniture in it. Same as the second and third rooms, they only had the beds and wardrobes in them, it was obvious that Omotara had left the place with her team. He ran his fingers into his hair, frustrated. He had lost her again.
Cole the pressed navigation b.u.t.ton and gradually began
to pull over to the small s.p.a.ce left beside the buses
parked in front of the motor park. He halted beside a
white bus and killed the engine. He took off the seat belt
and took a glance at Tarasha to get the next instruction.
"Go into the park and make enquiries on what it takes to
hire a good car to Katsina" she said to him as she also
took off her seat belt. He opened the door and stepped
out at once. He paused and took a look at the big sign
board again, Rasmag Transport.
He returned eight minutes later with a paper in his hands,
he handed it over to Tarasha.
"It"s fifty thousand naira to hire a fully air conditioned
car" he explained to her. "And we have to book at least
five hours before the movement time so that the car can
be prepared for us"
"It"s okay"she replied as she folded the paper and tucked
it into her front jacket pocket.
"Boss" Cole called as he put back on the seat belt. "Why
don"t we book a flight instead? It"ll be less stressful and
faster" he suggested.
"It"s not an emergency journey, so we don"t need to get
there fast" Tarasha answered him. "It"ll give us more
stress trying to smuggle in weapons into the plane"
Cole nodded thoughtfully in agreement, he wasn"t
thinking that the traveler would need weapons. He
started the car engine and turned on the radio before
reversing the car out of its parking s.p.a.ce.
"…interested programmers and developers should send
in their CVs to [email protected] " a female presenter"s
voice came up as they drove off. "I repeat once again, the
NSCC has urgent vacancies to be occupied this week,
interested programmers and developers should send in
their CVs to , as soon as possible"
"You know Funke" a male"s voice joined in. "The
vacancies are really urgent, considering the way the
nation"s activities were brought to a stand still yesterday
because the security cameras stopped working"
"Yeah, but it wasn"t really because the security cameras
failed, it was because of the fright that the notorious
a.s.sa.s.sin group of Samantha Osman was believed to have
initiated the failure" the lady added.
"Yes, that"s true. But no case of a.s.sa.s.sination by the group
have been reported yet, it was just something like a false
alarm. Maybe something happened wrong with the NSCC
machines and procedure and they thought that it was
being tampered with again by Samantha Osman"
"Yeah… That just b.u.t.tresses the fact that the NSCC needs
more capable hands, they …" On and on the presenters
continued their talk.
~~~~
"Mr Henry" Sylvester called as Henry walked past the
reception, heading for his office. Henry waited and
turned to answer him. "How far with the person you went
for?" Sylvester asked, extending his hand to Henry for an
handshake.
"I didn"t meet her" Henry replied and they began to walk
together towards his office.
"Don"t you have her phone number?" Sylvester
questioned.
"I don"t have her contact" Henry said as they walked into
the corridor leading to his office.
Sylvester remained quiet for a while, wondering why
Henry was looking so distraught and answering him
lifelessly. "Who is this lady?" Sylvester asked as Henry
opened the door.
"She"s a programmer" Henry answered. He opened the
door and allowed Sylvester in first after which he
followed behind and shut the door. He turned on the air
conditioner and light before going to sit down.
"I mean who is the lady to you?" Sylvester asked again
after he was settled.
"She"s a friend" Henry replied in a very low voice. .
"Then why don"t you have her phone number?"
"You won"t understand" Henry replied as he took out two
laptops under his table.
Sylvester shrugged. "Well, we"ve gotten some CVs
submitted already. The total CVs we have numbers up to
nine already"
"Have you checked them?"
"Not all, but I forwarded them to your mail"
"Okay." Henry busied himself with his laptop for few
minutes while Sylvester also took the second laptop and
began to work on it.
"I"m downloading the first five attachments, you work on
the remaining ones" Henry said.
After fifteen minutes of proper scrutinization, three out
of the nine were picked, two from Sylvester and one
from Henry.
"Send letters to these people immediately, invite them for
an interview by three pm tomorrow" Henry said, closing
his laptop.
"Why three pm?" Sylvester questioned.
"I think one or two of them would be traveling, so we
should give them enough time to travel"
"It"s okay"
~~~
Dakolo sat quietly in his new office, studying the
doc.u.ments on his table. He had been able to confirm the
claim of his colleagues about the good use of arms by the
a.s.sa.s.sin gang through the doctors reports on the bodies
of those that were killed in the event centre. He could
also tell from the reports that an insider was involved in
helping the gang.
He looked up as a knock sounded on his door. "Come in"
he said into the megaphone.
Inspector Ken walked in briskly and took the visitor"s seat
in front of the table. He dropped a doc.u.ment on the
table. "Here"s the report from the ball test" he said.
"Which ball?" Dakolo raised his eyebrows.
"The one that was launched in to release the gas that
made the people faint"
"It was a ball?" Dakolo questioned, taking the doc.u.ments
from Ken.
"Yes, it was"
"Do we have the pictures?"
"Yes, it"s in there" Ken took the doc.u.ment from him and
opened to the page where the picture was.
"This?" Dakolo asked in surprise, staring at the picture.
"Yes"
"This is a grenade ball" Dakolo stated boldly.
"It looks like but it isn"t. The ball contains something else
entirely, a strange gas" Ken corrected. "Just read the
report and see for yourself"
Dakolo let out a deep breath and began to read silently.
Often times he would look up and stare into Ken"s face,
whenever he read a surprising truth. He looked up finally
after ten minutes.
"Here"s a strong proof that Chief Jubril"s a.s.sa.s.sination was
carried out by Samantha Osman"s group" he said. "This
unknown compound is always used by the gang, the ball
also contains it. But the major const.i.tuents are tear gas
elements"
"Which unknown compound are you talking about?"
"It"s an unknown compound which was discovered to be
used in the previous two a.s.sa.s.sination. In the first one, it
was used to put three police officers to sleep after which
their car was hijacked, their uniforms were also stolen
and the car was driven into the minister"s compound to
carry out the killing. In the second a.s.sa.s.sination, it was
also used to put to sleep some of the other people in the
plane"
"Now, it is here also?"
"Yes, this a.n.a.lysis of the substance is the same we got
from the forensic teams in Port Harcourt and Lagos"
"Wow! Or is it the same with the substance found in the
US investigation today?" Ken asked with inquisitiveness in
his eyes. "It"s sounds like they are the same"
"Was there any substance found?" Dakolo asked, bringing
out his phone. Ken took out his phone too. "I saw the
news of the a.s.sa.s.sination on the headlines today" Dakolo
continued, "but I"ve not been able to read it."
"Yes, there was" Ken said and handed his phone to Dakolo
to read the news. Dakolo dropped his own phone and
took Ken"s.
"The symptoms are the same" Dakolo said after one
minute of scanning through. "We need to contact the US
authorities to see if we can link these cases "
"But what"s the name of the gas?"
"It"s unnamed yet but it was said to have no natural
occurrence and has not been found to be legally
produced anywhere" Dakolo spoke, mentioning his
words carefully, one after the other. "The only place signs
and effects of these gases have been found are in these
a.s.sa.s.sination cases"
"Hmm…" Ken cleared his throat. He looked into Dakolo"s
face and Dakolo was also looking into his. "Agent sir, are
you thinking the same thing I"m thinking?"
"I think so" Dakolo smiled, his teeth showed slightly. "I
don"t think it"s a coincidence that these a.s.sa.s.sinations are
occurring at the same time in several countries. Although
the intensity here in Nigeria is high because it involves
top citizens"
"Yes, the pattern here is different. The similarity is that
there"s so much neatness in the way the job is being
carried out" Ken out in.
"No Nigeria"s cases are a lot more accurate" Dakolo
disagreed. "Do you remember that Robin Kahn was able
to stop an a.s.sa.s.sination attempt in his country before he
came here?"
"Yes, he did stop two a.s.sa.s.sination attempts. One in his
country, US and one in South Africa before he handed
the cases over to other people and traveled down to
Nigeria" Ken spoke. "But he wasn"t able to arrest the
a.s.sa.s.sins, they always escaped with claims of receiving
several wounds from Kahn and his men"
"The cases in the other countries were different because
the a.s.sa.s.sination attempts were not on heavily secured
people, you can"t compare the way Jubril Lawal himself
and the event centre were heavily secured and the
a.s.sa.s.sins still penetrated neatly. Come to talk of the one
that happened directly under my nose, the a.s.sa.s.sination
of the Rivers state Governor. It is unexplainable how they
got on board with the governor"
"So are saying the a.s.sa.s.sinations are not connected now?"
Ken queried.
"No" Dakolo stressed, wiggling his head. "As a matter of
fact, I think they are connected but we just have to
verify first. We can"t conclude that they are because our
cases are somehow different from other countries"
"It"s true" Ken inhaled deeply and took a brief pause. "No
government official or politician has been killed in other
countries but that"s what we have here"
"Yea, if Kahn couldn"t do anything here but instead got
himself killed. Then we don"t have any strong evidence to
connect them yet until we confirm first that the same
substance was used by the a.s.sa.s.sins"
"But… "Ken stammered, he paused and heaved a heavy
sigh. "How the killer escaped from the event"s centre after
killing Chief Jubril still baffles me."
"Yea, I was coming to that" Dakolo adjusted himself on
the seat. "Has everyone working there been thoroughly
investigated?"
"Yes all except one, who was very sick but now recovered.
He has being invited to our custody and I believe he
should be here very soon" Ken glanced at his wrist.w.a.tch.
"In fact, he should be here already." Ken took his phone
from the table and drew the pattern. He was about to
open the dial pad when he saw a SMS notification on top
of the screen. A junior officer had just sent him a
message of the expected man"s arrival.
"He"s here already" Ken stated.
"Yes, tell me. Who is this man? What is his job there?"
"He was in charge of serving food that day" Ken replied.
"Okay, can we go and question him now?" Dakolo said
getting him from his seat.
~~
An middle aged man was seated behind the interrogation
desk, he was staring at Dakolo who was seated at the
other end of the desk, Ken was standing close to Dakolo
with his arms folded.
"Was there anybody you saw that day among your staffs
who looked or was acting suspicious?" Dakolo asked the
fifth question.
"No, everything was going perfect until we heard saw
people who were at the entrance of the hall run outside.
Most of them fainted before they could move too far. We
didn"t quickly realize what was going on, everybody who
entered into the Hall to check also inhaled the gas and
experienced the effect. We thought that something had
gone wrong with our machines inside"
"How did you know what was happening?"
"I came to monitor those serving the drinks and snacks
then and I was returning when I saw people coming out
of the hall and falling to the floor"
"Yess…" Ken interrupted with a clap, he just remembered
something important. He made an eye signal to request
permission from Dakolo, Dakolo authorised him to go
ahead with a nod.
"You mentioned earlier that there were ten people who
served food and drinks" Ken began.
"Yes, ten" the man confirmed.
"Five guys and five ladies?"
"Yes"
Kenlifted his head up as he inhaled abruptly, he looked
back to the man. "We were only able to interrogate nine
of them, I was thinking that you were the tenth person"
"No, I"m the supervisor" the man frowned. "Do you have
the names of those interrogated?"
"Yes, we have their names written somewhere. The list is
in my office" Ken said.
"Go get it quickly" Dakolo said to him. Ken obeyed
immediately, he returned two minutes later with a file in
his hands. He took out a paper from it.
"Here, we have nine names. Five men and four ladies" Ken
placed the paper in front of Dakolo first. Dakolo
transferred it to the man.
"There"s a name missing here" he said, slowly. "She"s a
new girl, she just joined us two days before the event,
one of our workers had an accident"