+++Tarasha watched from afar as they lifted the accident
victim, she got out of the van to have a closer view. some
of the people who had stopped to help were already
rolling the remnant of the bike away. Tarasha confirmed
the victim"s face just before he was dropped into the car,
he was still alive but unconscious. She was sure it was
that same man she had an encounter with in the Catholic
Church premises and during the police investigation.
Tarasha"s eyes had met with Jefa"s as the road got clear.
That was the reason for the accident. Jefa could not
concentrate on the bike he was riding again and had
crashed into Don"s car.
She wanted to move closer but stopped as she saw Ken
discussing with someone else. She turned and began to
walk back to the vehicle. She saw a phone, scattered into
parts just beside the tyre at the driver"s side, it was most
likely for the accident victim. She stylishly picked up the
pieces and entered into the car.
Ken handed over a car key to the man he was discussing
with and turned to join the car. The man Ken was
discussing with turned also and Tarasha saw his face, she
recognized him to be Inspector Dakolo, she had seen his
face once on TV after the execution of the Rivers State
Governor.
She watched as he entered into his car and started the
engine, he then engaged himself in a phone conversation.
After using a minute altogether, he zoomed off. Tarasha
felt like following after him to his destination and
probably take him out also. She turned on her car but
turned it off again at another glance towards the accident
scene. It was more important for now to follow the man
who Henry said claimed to be her brother.
The car carrying the victim finally started and drove off
in the opposite direction. Tarasha followed after.
~~~
9am
Dakolo and Ken sat quietly, their moods were not quite
far from sober as they watched Henry lay lifeless on the
hospital bed. His eyes was still wide opened but he wasn"t
seeing anything nor was he making any movement. The
doctor said he was still unconscious and wasn"t sure of it
he"ll bounce back to consciousness or pa.s.s on from
there. It"s been two days now and there seemed to be no
improvement in the situation.
It was obvious from investigation that Henry was not a
drug addict but it was still under question if Henry had
placed himself on the drip, nothing around reflected that
he was forced to. He was the only one in the house at
that time and there were no broken doors or windows to
prove that someone broke in. The best conclusion was
that Henry had decided to take his life slowly, maybe to
avoid further embarra.s.sment from the police.
One confusing thing that still bothered Agent Dakolo"s
mind and stopped him from making a conclusion was
their inability to locate where Henry had gotten the
poisonous drip from. They had visited everywhere that
the trailer saw him stop and none of them could be the
place the drip was sold at. Another a.s.sumption could be
that Henry had it in his car before that day. But that"ll
mean Henry was already preparing to kill himself, Dakolo
didn"t think that was possible.
"Agent," Mr Sylvester called as he walked into the room
with a Doctor, the one in charge of treating the two
patients that was brought in by the police.
"Mr Sylvester," Dakolo replied, he couldn"t stand the look
in Sylvester"s eyes as it made him feel guilty of Henry"s
plight.
"So your investigation has finally landed Mr Henry here,"
Sylvester accused.
"Excuse me sir," Ken tried to come in but Dakolo stopped
him by raising up a hand.
"Mr Sylvester, our job has to be done, regardless of who
it involves. Let"s just hope and pray that Henry recovers
quickly" Dakolo said.
"And I pray he recovers," Ken quickly chipped in
stubbornly. "He"ll have a lot of explanation to make about
his relationship with the a.s.sa.s.sins."
"Gentlemen please," the sixty year old Doctor pleaded.
"Here"s not the place for that, he needs no disturbance."
The Doctor said and turned to examine Henry, he turned
back after some few minutes and announced, "he"ll
regain consciousness very soon, I believe."
"Wow! That"s good news!" Dakolo exclaimed.
"Yeah, but there might be some complications." The
Doctor said in a sad tone, adjusting his thick lenses as he
spoke.
"What complications?" Dakolo and Sylvester asked in
unison.
"I don"t know for now, we"ve extracted samples of the
poison from his body and we"re still performing some
tests on them, we hope to come out with some useful
results soon." The Doctor replied without too much of
hope in his voice.
~~~
"h.e.l.lo, who"s here?" Tarasha shouted around the store. A
woman who was dressed as a cleaner came out from the
shop behind.
"Good afternoon," the Lady greeted, giving Tarasha a
searching look. "How may I help you?"
"I"m Miss Kimberly, an officer of the Nigerian Health
organization." Tarasha displayed an ID card for proof, she
returned it into her pocket when she was sure that the
woman had seen it well. "I"m here to check this man"s
outlet, we are aware that he sells food and drinks here."
"Ermm… Madam," the cleaner scratched her hair. "Mallam
Jefa has not opened the store for some days now."
"Mallam Jefa, is that his name? And he"s not opening
today also?" Tarasha enquired.
"Yes, they always call him Jefa. I don"t really know if he"s
opening today, I seriously doubt it."
"Okay, does anyone know where he lives?"
"Yes, there"s someone here that chats well with him." She
pointed to a big hairdressing salon nearby, "let me get
him for you."
"Thanks," Tarasha said with a grin.
Her phone rang as she quietly waited for the Lady to
return. Cole. She bit her lips slightly before answering.
"h.e.l.lo Boss, we"re about to go in" Cole"s voice came
anxiously from the other end.
"Relax your nerves Cole," Tarasha replied calmly. "Tell the
others too. Relax, discuss your suggestions and plans
with conviction and confidence. Make him see that
you"re capable of organizing the program. Also make him
see reasons why you need to have more meetings, why
you need a more suitable environment to discuss and let
him agree to your own terms."
"Okay, thank you boss." Cole said and the call ended.
~~
"Come in Gentlemen," Nasiru Attahiru, the Senate
President welcome his guests warmly.
"Thank you sir," Mr Alfred said as he took the hands of the
man in his his.
"You"re welcome," Nasiru smiled cheerfully as he took the
hands of the younger man and then the lady. "Have your
seats please," he said before settling into his own chair.
"Thank you sir, it"s nice to meet with you sir." Mr Alfred
began with a smile. "We"ve actually been looking forward
to this moment."
"It"s my pleasure. My mother have spoken a lot about you
and told me how pa.s.sionate you are to help the less
privileged in this country but…" Nasiru paused and
stared. "I thought it was supposed to be four of you?"
"Yes, we are four but the fourth person has gone on a
special errand to the business capital of the country,
Lagos. She was sent to visit the slums and ghettos and get
some pictures and interviews which she can send to the
headquarters in Canada. She didn"t go with us to Katsina
also."
"Oh! I see," Nasiru"s face brightened up.
"Yes, she"ll be joining us once she"s through."
"That"s okay, so let"s get to the main points of the
meeting."
"Yes, thank you sir." Mr Alfred adjusted himself and
cleared his throat. "Our first purpose of coming here has
already been achieved, I"m sure you saw the pictures of
the program and report of what we did." He paused to
see Nasiru"s response, Nasiru nodded in affirmation.
Mr Alfred touched his lips with his handkerchief before
he continued. "That was our main purpose for coming
but on further study of the country, we noticed that we
have people with enough capabilities to keep these
programs running extensively and we thought of a way
to foster better partic.i.p.ation of these people. Now, we"ve
discovered that when calls like these are made, what
most of them do is to send donations without making
their presence well felt." He paused again to see if he was
making the desired impact on the man, he was. "We"ve
decided to make this happen by organizing conferences
which we"ll disguise to the public as a meeting for the
elites, we"ll use this meeting to inspire the attendees and
give them reasons why they should be pa.s.sionately
involved."
"Hmm… Iget your point but our people here are
stubborn. I"m still thinking of someone who can really
get them to listen quite attentively in a conference. And it
might not also be easy to a.s.semble them together."
"Sir, what if we invite someone like Mcklin Daves and Ray
Gates?" Mr Alfred asked.
"What?" Nasiru"s eyes widened in surprise. "You can invite
such people?"
"Yes sir," Alfred said with a chuckle. "They are all partners
with our organization and they"ll be glad to inspire others
to join them in such a good course."
"Ermm…" Nasiru"s excitement reduced suddenly. He
frowned slightly.
"Any question sir?" Mr Alfred asked, noticing the frown.
"No but I"m just thinking of how possible it"ll be for us to
convince them that they are really coming. And how am I
supposed to be sure that you"re not just saying this to get
me involved?"
"Sir… We actually need your help to bring them down
here, we are not just saying this to get you involved. In
fact, you must be involved to make it work. We need the
government"s support to bring those men down here.
They have to be sure that there is a proper mobilization
of the citizens and only the government of a country can
a.s.sure them that, not the body that is in charge of
organizing the conference. Once you"ve approved for us
to go ahead with the planning, we"ll report to our Head
office and they"ll make contact with the proposed guests.
If they agree on coming, then a video showing their
agreement would be sent to us. And they"ll also be
involved in the video promos for the conference."
Nasiru remained quiet for a while, pondering on all he
heard. To him, the proposal sounded good and it"ll be
welcomed by the government of the country as far as
their organization making the proposal can keep to their
own terms.
After almost two minutes silence, Nasiru took in a deep
breath and began to talk. "Your proposal sounds good
and excellent, I"m not surprised though. My mum
already told me about your pa.s.sion for the less privileged
in Africa and I trust her judgement to be accurate
always." He took a brief pause. "But I still need to know
more about your organization. You know this proposal
does not involve only the Ata"s Foundation but the
Country as a whole."
"That"s no problem sir, we"ll give you any information
you need about us, as much as you enquire." Alfred said
with a smile.
"Thank you," Nasiru smiled back. He rested his back on
the swivel and rolled back a little. "So where are you
lodging in this town."
"Elymax Hotels sir."
"Elymax?"
"Yes"
"It"s nice but I"ll prefer you guys leave there and come
over to my mansion."
"Oh!" Mr Alfred and his colleagues expressed their
surprise at his offer.
"Yes, I"ll like you to come today."
"Thank you sir, we"ll…" Mr Alfred was saying when the
younger man cut in.
"Thank you sir, we are so honoured by your invitation to
your place but we won"t be able to do that on our own."
He said in a polite way. "It"s possible to come pay you
visits but if we want to stay there, we have to let the
office decide for us, since we are on their a.s.signment."
"Ok, I understand. No problem, I hope you relay my
message to them and I"ll be expecting you by tomorrow."
~~~
3pm
Dakolo and Ken hurried up the stairs, proceeding to the
Doctor"s office. They had been called to come urgently as
there was a new development.
Dakolo"s phone rang as the got to the first landing. He slid
it open and answered the call. "Mr Sylvester."
"Where are you sir? I"m at the hospital and we"re waiting
for you."
"We"re on our way to the Doctor"s office," Dakolo
answered.
"Please hurry up." The call ended and the journey up the
stairs continued.
In three minutes time, they got to the Doctor"s office.
Dakolo took the empty seat available beside Sylvester
while Ken had to remain standing.
"Welcome officers," the Doctor greeted, he cleared his
throat and adjusted his eyegla.s.ses. "The patient is
conscious now." He announced.
"Wow!" The faces of the three men brightened up at the
news. They all felt relieved, all for different reasons.
Dakolo for the fact that Henry who he had taken like a
brother was still alive, Sylvester because Henry was still
alive and the guilt he felt as a result of him being the one
who invited him to join the NSCC which resulted in his
troubles could now leave. Ken on his own was happy that
a major suspect and eyewitness in Samantha Osman"s
case was alive.
"But…" The Doctor said in a flattened tone that caught
their attention. "His brain no more functions properly
and he"s partially paralyzed."
The door suddenly flung open and a nurse barged in
looking troubled.
"Sir, the accident victim on ward 12B is nowhere to be
found."