Tarasha sat quietly in the backseat of the Carera CabrioletPorsche streaming the video from the monitor cameras
in the house. She was well disguised with makeups as a
dark girl and a black wig on her head, she still looked
quite beautiful though.
Soon, the door to the front seat was opened and
someone stepped into the pa.s.senger"s side, Tarasha
didn"t bother to look up but only glanced at her
wrist.w.a.tch and continued to look into the device.
Five minutes later, the door to the driver"s side and the
other side of the back seat opened. Cole and Aisha
stepped into the car quietly. Tarasha minimized the
collection of footages she was watching and opened
another collection with four options. She selected the
options one after the other and each showed the area
where the four different cars were.
"We"re good to go, " she finally announced and looked
up. Cole started the engine at once and drove off.
They were allowed to enter into the compound of the
Senate President"s mansion without going through any
security protocols. No search was conducted on their
vehicle neither was any individual searched.
The compound was a very large one with several gardens
in it. The atmosphere there was different as the
ornamental shrubs and trees helped to purify the tensed
air. The wide parking s.p.a.ce also had several exotic cars
whose colours added to the beauty of the whole place.
Their arrival was announced to the Senate President
immediately they entered and he was out in front of the
house to welcome them even before they parked their
car.
"Good evening sir," the team led by Mr Alfred greeted
simultaneously. The men had only their handsets in their
hands while the two ladies had small handbags with
them.
"Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen," Nasiru greeted
back with a smile. He extended his hand for a handshake
to Mr Alfred first and then the rest of the team. "You were
in Lagos when I met with your colleagues," Nasiru stated
with a smile when he got to the new lady.
"Yes sir."
"What"s your name?"
"I"m Evelyn sir," Tarasha replied.
"Oh! Nice to meet you Miss Evelyn, how was your
research job and trip from Lagos?"
"The research was fine sir and the journey was also
splendid."
"Nice," Nasiru gave a broad smile.
"Thanks," Tarasha bent her knees slightly in curtsy as he
shook her hands again.
"You"re welcome," Nasiru said and turned to the whole
team. "I welcome you all to my home. I hope you"ll have
a nice time with me." He said as he ushered them into the
house. "Do you have any bag inside your car that you"ll
like to get?"
"Not for now sir," Mr Alfred replied.
Several guards were standing in different positions in the
house but only one was following Nasiru from a distance,
he was Nasiru"s personal bodyguard, huge and muscular.
The guards and security officers were all dressed in the
same uniforms except for the personal bodyguard who
was dressed in casuals. The a.s.sa.s.sins continued to take
note of their environment.
"Meet my darling wife," Nasiru introduced them to his
wife as they got into the main living room. The guard
disappeared into the inner rooms when the guests were
about to begin to exchange pleasantries with the wife, he
would be called if he was needed.
"Welcome ladies, welcome gentlemen." Mrs Nasiru got up
from the leather sofa to greet the guests.
The living room was neatly furnished with comfortable
sofas with colours and shapes of water bodies. Each chair
and stool had its distinct shape which made the visitors
wonder at the creativity of the designers.
"Good evening ma," the visitors replied to her greeting in
unison.
"You"re welcome," she said once again with a broad smile.
"We"re glad to host you to a special dinner tonight, my
husband has told me a lot about you and your good
works. I must commend you guys for the excellent job
done in Katsina state with the Ata"s foundation and your
innovative proposal also…"
"Dearest," Nasiru cut in. "Why don"t you let them have
their seats first?"
"Oh! Pardon my manners," the woman apologized.
"Please take your seats," she pointed them to the seats.
Benny and Cole sat in the long sofa while Tarasha and
Aisha took two different one seaters. "So we prepared
both Nigerian and foreign dishes, I believe you guys
would prefer the Nigerian?" She asked with a smile.
"Anyone you offer us ma, we"ll be pleased to take it." Mr
Alfred replied.
"Alright, let me prepare the table in five minutes, I"ll be
back." Mrs Nasiru said and got up from the seat.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Nasiru began after his wife
walked away. "I"ll like to show you some other things
after the meal, I want to show you to my study…"
A young lady about Aisha"s age joined them in the living
room as he was talking, she walked up to Nasiru and gave
him a peck on his cheeks.
"Dad, good evening sir." She curtsied.
"Good evening Fatima," Nasiru greeted, looking playful
into her face. He then turned to the visitors, "here"s my
first daughter, she schools in the UK and would be
graduating in two months time. She only came for a
short break." He introduced proudly.
"Good evening," Fatima sang in a playful tone.
"Good evening Fatima," they replied back, the ladies
singing back in the same tone.
"These are representatives of our partners from Canada
who work with the Ata"s foundation, they"ve come to join
us for dinner tonight and would be spending the night
with us." Nasiru said to Fatima.
"That"s nice," she replied with another kind smile at the
visitors.
"You have to go change now and join us for dinner,"
Nasiru said to his daughter.
"Yea, sure Dad." She said and scurried away.
"You have a nice daughter," Evelyn was the first to
comment after the girl was out of sight.
"Thank you," the man replied with his face beaming with
smiles.
"What course is she studying in school?" Evelyn
continued.
"She"s reading cinematography," Nasiru stated.
"Cinematography?" Evelyn asked, widening her eyes in
surprise.
"Yes."
"That"s what I studied too," Evelyn said.
"You studied cinematography?" It was Nasiru"s turn to be
surprised.
"Yes, I did that in Canada." She stated.
"Oh! Then why are you not in the movie industry?"
"Well…" She shrugged. "Let"s say I got attracted to the
pattern and pa.s.sion of the charity organization."
"I see," Nasiru nodded his head slowly. He was beginning
to like her, she sounded more jovial and easy to relate
with than the others. "So you plan to work with the
foundation all your life?"
"Ermm… Yes but not as a full time staff though. At some
point, I"ll have to leave them and work as a partner with
them…"
"Food is served," Mrs Nasiru finally returned singing and
cleaning her hands with a hand towel.
"Well, gentlemen and ladies. I guess we can continue our
discussion after the meal." He took a look at each one of
the visitor"s face before standing up.
**Fast Forward ~~ After the meal**
"Thank you so much for the sumptuous meal," Mr Alfred
said as they proceeded out of the dining room.
"Come on, you"ve said that enough already." Mrs Nasiru
replied.
"I want to show you to my study now," Nasiru said and
began to lead the guests through the house while the wife
went there opposite direction. They continued to walk
until they got to the door. He took out his keys and
opened the room, then he ushered them in first before
entering after and closing the door. He hurried up to
their front and began to lead them round the place.
The study was a medium sized one, it had neatly
arranged books in shelves and a large table with a long
stool and a short chair in the middle. The shelves were
broken into three sections, one opposite the door wall,
one on each of the sides while the door wall had no
shelves.
Most of the books arranged on the shelves in the first
section were books which contained business tips and
ideas, also there were business magazines and leaflets.
"At first," vice President Nasiru stopped walking and
turned to them. "At first, I thought you guys were
fraudsters when my mum first told me about you. Then I
sent someone to make a research and I found out that
your company was real, but I still had to find out if they
sent you people. That I confirmed before allowing my
mother deal with you."
Apart from Tarasha and Cole who joined Tarasha to do
all the planning processes, how they got confirmed by
he organization in Canada was something confusing to
the other two. Only trust in the boss" plan had made
them go for the operation and carry out all her
instructions without questions.
Tarasha had a link in the foundation at Canada who on
Tarasha"s orders had diverted all calls from Africa to the
company"s lines to another line that Tarasha would
answer herself in Nigeria. It was a pity that Nasiru
Attahiru could not know that the same person who he
had been discussing with on telephone was in the same
room with him.
"I want to tell you the story of the Ata"s foundation and
how it began," Nasiru began to move to the next section.
"I always keep the keys to the study myself because of
this section, I don"t like anyone using the books in my
absence. It contains some personal information, even my
wife doesn"t know some of the deep secrets stored in
these books, especially those ones." He pointed to three
leather cover books stacked on each other.
"Onwuli," Tarasha read something to herself from the
cover of the book on top as she stretched her neck to
look. She knew she had heard something like that from
somewhere else.
"But we don"t have any business with those books, this is
the one I want you to see…" Nasiru continued but
Tarasha"s mind was far from what he was saying. She had
her mind on the three books he pointed at on which she
saw the familiar word. Then she remembered where she
heard something p.r.o.nounced like that, it was from Chief
Gab when he was trying to explain to her the reason he
wanted to kill Chief Jubril and the rest of his targets.
She stylishly moved closer to the books to have a closer
view, then she saw some other names which she
recognized, Jubril, Gabriel, Elvis, Nasiru were on the back
cover too. Then the name of the minister of health who
was her first a.s.sa.s.sination target was also there and two
other names she had not heard about. She developed
interest in the book and began to look for a way to take it
with her. She knew that Chief Gab was the one whose
name was Gabriel and that the book would reveal more
about Chief Gab"s deal with his targets which may also
help her in taking out the last target.
"Evelyn," Nasiru called her name suddenly, he had seen
that her mind was far away from his discourse with the
others. "What are you thinking about?" He asked, focusing
all interest on her.
"Nothing sir," she lied and tried to cover up with a smile.
"What"s nothing?" Nasiru did not accept her reply as it
was very obvious that she was listening to him.
"Emm…I was just thinking as a cinematographer," she
said with a forced smile. "I was thinking of what it would
be like making films centered on the lives of people like
you, it"ll really be inspiring to a lot of young people."
"Hmm," Nasiru swallowed the lie. "There might really be
some horror part, you know." He said with a shrug, "some
of us have gone through and done some funny things
too. Well, I was saying…"