She began to return the tools she put in the sink. A knocksounded on the door.
"Evelyn," she heard Fatima call outside.
"I"m coming," she answered in a singing tone.
"Please, take your time. I just wanted to find out if you"re
okay."
"Thanks," Tarasha answered. She waited for sometime
until she noticed a stop in the sounds of moving
footsteps outside. She picked the two remaining metals
in the sink and hid them back under her gown.
She wanted to start proceeding out into the room when
she remembered that she still had an instruction to give
Cole.
She searched the back of her gown for the receiver and
speed dialed Cole. It took sometime for the connection
to be accepted.
~~~
"What are you trying to do?" The muscular guard asked in
a terrifying voice. He continued to squeeze Cole"s fist in
his big hands and pushing him backwards. Cole struggled
to resist and open his palms so he could get the pin out
else he"ll be the receiver of the contents. Tarasha had
emphasized that he stuck it into the man"s neck but that
doesn"t mean it would have any effect when it enters
through another part of the body. The only difference
was that the former would cause the tranquilization to
happen immediately.
Cole managed to hit the man"s the man"s arm with the
other fist but that made no effect on the man. The guy
pushed him backwards swiftly and dished him a heavy
blow on his face. Cole"s body spun thrice in a fast motion
before he fell to the ground. The pin had fallen already,
where it dropped was not known to the both of them.
Cole began to see stars as his left cheek hit the floor. The
device attached to his belt beeped twice. He managed to
turn and accept the connection. The attacker also heard
the beeping and bent to search Cole"s body.
~~
Tarasha could hear Cole heavily panting at the other side,
she knew at once that something had gone wrong.
"Cole," she called and got no reply, except for his
continued panting and then a gruff voice. She knew Cole
was listening , so she gave him another instruction. "Cole,
if you"re in trouble with the man, try to stay conscious
and keep him busy and with the lowest possible noise. I"ll
come for you if I can."
She sat back on the water closet and brought out her
phone hurriedly. She opened the tracking application
and Cole"s tracker. In less than ten seconds it displayed
his direction and point in the house. Tarasha stood up
and pushed the flush b.u.t.ton, it was time to get out of the
toilet and act fast. The only problem she would have now
navigating through the house especially as she was a total
stranger in the house, she"ll be easily stopped by any of
the guards or workers. She raised up her gown and
brought out a small flat purse of the same colour with
her gown, from the inner pocket, she had plenty of the
tranquilizing pins in the purse. She clipped it to her cloth
at the belly side and proceeded outside into the room.
Waiting for her outside was what and who she needed,
Fatima was still seated on a stool, engrossed with her
phone. Another young girl in a maid"s uniform had just
entered into the room.
Fatima gaze was placed on Evelyn as she stepped out
from the toilet. She slowly got up from the stool and
began to walk towards Evelyn. "h.e.l.lo, are you okay now?"
Fatima asked Evelyn.
"Ermm… A little better," Tarasha answered, squeezing her
face like someone in pains.
The maid got to where Fatima was previously seated and
paused. Tarasha gave her a searching look, more
interested in her uniform than anything else.
"Do you need anything? That"s why I called the maid,"
Fatima said, seeing Evelyn"s interest in the maid.
"Ermm… Maybe I need some water, but first…" Tarasha
continued talking and walked past Fatima who was
coming to her. In a tired manner she walked, like a
pregnant woman who was going in for labour.
She got close to the maid and paused. Then she turned
back and made a smile at Fatima which got Fatima
staring at her in confusion. Then she placed her hand on
the maids shoulder and then moved her hand to the
maid"s neck. The maid fell down.
Fatima eyes widened in shock as she saw the maid fall
but she couldn"t tell what really happened. Too shocked
to speak or make any sound, she stared at Evelyn in
horror.
Tarasha turned and placed her eyes on Fatima"s face
making funny looks at her to confuse her more. She
knew better than to walk close to her, Fatima could
scream and alert others in the house. She carefully
opened the purse attached to her belly side and took out
one of the pins. Then she tightened it in between the tip
of her thumb and his the nail of the index finger. She
raised it up and launched it straight to Fatima.
~~
Cole still felt a little bit relieved after Tarasha spoke to
him. There was still hope of Tarasha coming to help and
join hands with him to defeat the man even though she
emphasized during their preparation that one of the
reasons for the separate cars they had all came in was to
give room for everyone to escape if there was any
mistake by a party. She also stated strongly that anyone
who made an error in carrying out their tasks would be
made to face the consequences alone.
At the same time he was still not was sure how possible
or quick it would be for Tarasha to locate him by the
tracker because the house was not a familiar place to
them. It would take someone who was familiar with all
the rooms in the house to locate him fast and easily.
The guard had underrated Cole in someway, he was
searching Cole"s body without protecting himself from
attack. Cole could see the man"s chest and face
unprotected from attack. He mustered up strength and
stamped his feet on the man"s face. The man staggered
back and held on to his eyes with a soft groan. Cole
managed to get up and tried to follow up with a kick on
the side of the man"s belly but it had very little effect as
Cole"s kick weighed very little.
Soon, his opponent had recovered and they were both
facing each other, the man had an evil smirk on his face
while Cole had a serious and disturbing face. The man
rolled his neck in the right and left direction, making a
cracking sound, then he raised his head up and his fists in
readiness to take out Cole.
Cole though was feeling pains in his body joints and
bones summoned courage and decided not to give up
without a good fight. He raised up his fists too and began
to bounce. The man"s evil smile deepen at his gesture but
that didn"t disturb Cole, even if the man was going to
break his bones, he wouldn"t make it an easy task for
him.
An idea crept into his mind, he remembered some of
Tarasha"s words to them during one of their preparation.
"No matter how big and tough an opponent looks, even if
his body seems too hard to be weakened, there would
always be a soft spot. It only takes the right value of the
right strike at the right place on his body to take him
down." She had said. Although she was speaking to Benny
that day, he knew could apply it in this situation. The only
problem now was to find that right place and the right
value of the right strike to apply, that was even if he had
enough strength in his arms and legs for the intensity of
the strike required.
~~~
Fatima collapsed within seconds and became
unconscious of her environment. Tarasha quickly took
out her phone again and switched on the screen, the
tracking application was still running. Cole was being
located to be at the left side of the house. Of course there
was no door at the left where she was, she had to start
looking for the way to the place.
She ran her hands into her hair in utter disgust about the
situation, it was the reason she hated working with half
baked a.s.sa.s.sins who made mistakes at simple tasks.
She quickly bent down and began to remove the clothes
from the body of the maid.
~~~
While Cole was still looking for the perfect place to attack
on the man"s body, a jab landed on his face. He yelled as
he staggered back and his head hit the door of the toilet.
The door opened and he fell down inside the toilet.
The guard stood still with his legs wide apart and fixed an
evil stare at Cole. He dipped his hand into his pocket and
took out a phone, he began to dial a number.
Cole"s eyes widened as he saw the man take the phone to
his ear, he couldn"t imagine what would be the result of
the man"s call if it was successful. If the other guards and
occupants of the whole house were alerted, that would
mean failure for the whole operation. He tried to get up
but his strength would not let him be as fast as he wanted
to. He held on to the door as a support and then quickly
removed his shoe.
"Jamiu…" The guard was talking into the phone when the
shoe hit his face. He squeezed his face and gritted his
teeth angrily adding a threatening look and growl at Cole.
Cole ignored his look and projected himself forward with
his head to the belly of the man, both of them crash to
the floor, Cole being the one more affected by the crash.
The phone fell off from the man"s hand and scattered on
the floor.
The man angrily with a feet on Cole"s chest pushed Cole
away. Cole found himself far inside the toilet again. The
guard got up immediately and charged towards Cole.
Cole turned his head up and jn a trancelike way could see
the man coming towards him, he could hear the heavy
thuds made by the man"s feet on the floor. Cole closed
his eyes in antic.i.p.ation of another kick or blow that
would take him out finally, he began to say his last
prayers silently.
The kick did not come but he felt a cold hand on his
neck. The man dragged him up and raised him up with
his neck, his legs sprawling far above the ground. Cole
managed to open his eyes and stared at the man"s face.
There was so much fury in the guard"s eyes.
Cole"s leg continued to dangle, he felt something hit his
stomach gently and heard a soft sound of a metal hitting
another. It was then he remembered that he still had
some small knives and tools in the inner pocket of his
jacket.
The man began to tighten his grip on Cole"s neck,
squeezing out life gradually. Cole tried to dip his hand
into his inner pocket but was too weak to move the hand.
He closed his eyes again in antic.i.p.ation of death.
~~
Tarasha was still walking around the house in the maid"s
uniform helplessly. The tight skirt of the uniform was not
helping matters, the curves of the pockets attached to
her thighs were clearly revealed underneath and she
could not walk very fast also.
She couldn"t find a good way to the location the tracker
was identifying and had been brought back to the same
place she left the two unconscious bodies. The only place
that she could have linked her to the location was the
sitting room where Nasiru and others were in. But even if
she decides to take the risk, she would be noticed before
she gets to the sitting room because she wouldn"t be able
to cover her face and walk quickly and she still needed to
walk past guards and maids before getting there.
She closed the door to the room and rested her back to
the wall, then she tried to connect with Cole again but the
connection wasn"t accepted this time. That could mean
Cole was engaged in a fight or had already been totally
overpowered.
She took out her phone and opened the chat box with
Benny. "Cole just messed up, if you don"t get any
instruction from me in the next five minutes, take an
excuse to go outside the house and into the car with
Aisha. There"s a bomb detonator where I sat, set it up to
detonate in ten minutes time while you and Aisha make
your way out of the compound following the direction of
your escape cars. There"s a farmyard before your own
car , so it"s better you both opt for Aisha"s." She typed in
and closed the app immediately the message was marked
delivered.
Failing the mission wasn"t an option to Tarasha, Nasiru
had to die that day. She even had an extra explosive she
could couple together in case Benny failed in his task or
had already been implicated by Cole already.
Cole had failed already, so he would have to bear the
consequences of his failure even if it was death. For her,
all she needed to get outside the house and get to the
extra car on her body.