The roads were clear on this perfect sunny afternoon.The traffic jam and rush on the street was at the lowest
minimum. Henry was driving while Omotara was seated
with him at the front seat. They seemed to be involved in
a deep heart talk with each other as both of them smiled
occasionally. After driving for some few minutes, they
halted the car in front of a drinks store and Henry
pushed the horn twice. In one minute time, Jefa came
out of the store and proceeded towards the car. He
entered into the backseat and the couple greeted him
warmly. Then they continued the ride.
"I"ve got something for you two," Jefa spoke from the
back seat and handed a small white polythene bag to
Omotara.
"Oh, ice cream!" Omotara flashed her teeth as she opened
the polythene bag to see the contents. Henry also peeped
and smiled.
"Thank you, Uncle Jefa." Henry said in appreciation.
"It"s nothing," Jefa replied.
Omotara took her own ice cream cup and took off the
seal. She took a spoonful and widened her eyes in
excitement as she fell in love with the taste. She turned to
look at Jefa who was smiling at the back. "I never knew
you had such a good taste too," she joked.
"Come on, I"ve got a better taste than you two."
"You think so?"
"I know so."
"Hehe, no problem if it makes you feel better anyway."
She said and added a short laugh. Jefa gave her a playful
punch on the shoulder.
"Better leave Uncle Jeffery," Henry joined playfully. "He"s a
gentleman and gentlemen always make a good choice of
things like this."
"You can say that again if it will make both of you sleep
better tonight," Omotara said with another round of
laughter. "I feel like taking beef roll too." She added, to
Henry.
"Beef roll and ice cream?" Henry questioned.
"Well, it"s none of your business what I
combine."Omotara answered playfully.
"Okay Boss," Henry saluted in the same playful manner,
"just mention when you see any store where it is sold, so
we can stop by and you"ll drop to get it yourself."
"Huh?" Omotara queried, pouting her lips and staring
straight into his eyes.
Henry sighed, trying his best to focus on the road. "So I
should be the one to get it for you?" He asked with a raise
eyebrow.
"Yes, or you want me to lecture you on what it means to
be a gentleman again?" She spread out her hands to
emphasize her point.
"Gentlemanliness is not defined that way," Jefa cut in
from the back, "he"s been a gentleman enough to agree
that we stop by a store to get one for you when you"re
only a few metres to the house."
"Hahaha, Uncle Jeffery is an ancient Gentleman. Well,
enough of the talks." Omotara raised up her two hands
girlishly to halt the conversation. "Stop, there"s a store
over there." She said, pointing to a small neat kiosk at the
other side of the road.
Henry took his time to pull over and then glanced at the
direction she was pointing at, he took a glance back at
her.
"You know my favorite," she winked at him.
He sighed and pulled off his seatbelt. He opened the door
and stepped out.
"You just want to trouble this guy," Jefa said to her as they
watched him look out for vehicles before crossing the
road.
"No, I"m just helping his destiny come quicker." Omotara
replied in a stern voice. She turned back to look at Jefa,
her happy face had changed into something different,
she now had a smirk on.
"What do you mean by that?" Jefa questioned with a
raised eyebrow.
"Just watch and see," Omotara answered and then looked
towards Henry"s direction. He had already gotten the
beef roll and was waiting to cross the road with a nylon
bag. He was seen dipping his hand into his pocket, his
phone was taken out, he answered a call and placed it on
his ear. Just then, he stepped into the road and started
walking back. Suddenly, a sand carrying tipper truck
appeared from nowhere and was rushing towards him.
Jefa finally jerked off from his dream, sweating profusely
in the cold air conditioned room. He rolled out of the
blanket and turned on the blue light. He wiped off the
sweat from his forehead after sitting up.
What manner of dream was this? He asked himself. This
was the third nightmare he had had within a very brief
period of days and there seemed to be a connection
between the three. In the first dream, Omotara was the
one who was attacked. In the second dream, he, Jefa was
pointed a gun and in this third dream, a vehicle was
rushing towards Henry. In the first and the third dream,
it wasn"t clear if Omotara or Henry was killed but it was
obvious that their lives were in great danger but in the
second dream, the bullet of the gun clearly pierced into
Jefa"s head.
Jefa buried in face in his palms in frustration, his wounds
suddenly began to ache him again. He had never been a
clairvoyant person but with the way the nightmares are
coming, he believed that G.o.d was giving him
premonitions of something about to happen very soon.
Jefa rolled out of the bed and turned on the white bulb.
He took a glance at the wall clock, it was already close to
eleven pm. Then he stared around the room to see where
his clothes were kept for him by Omotara, he had to start
packing immediately. He would leave by the next day
since it was obvious that the reuniting with each other
would cause tragedy, the nightmares alone already spells
doom for them, he didn"t want to wait until the physical
manifestations begin.
He proceeded to the wardrobe when he couldn"t see any
of his clothes or bags around, he tried to open it but it
didn"t open. He looked around to see if there was any
keyhole hidden somewhere but he found none, it
seemed that the wardrobe lock was electrical.
He struggled to bent down and search under the bed but
there was no pin under the bed, under the bed looked
recently swept and mopped. He gave up searching for his
clothes and returned to sleep in the bed. He would make
sure he leaves the house the next day after Omotara
returns in the morning. He will try his best to explain his
decision to her before parting finally.
~~~
Don and Stainless were now in one of the underground
rooms of Stainless" caban. The room which was a long
abandoned old a.r.s.enal looked like a mud house that was
about to collapse, sands dropped on their heads
occasionally. The arms and ammunitions were all cover
in sand and dust. A fully charged lamp by the top left
corner of the room served as the source of light in the
room. Stainless had inherited the whole place from their
former Master and Boss, Scot whom Don murdered after
a disagreement.
Don kept staring at Stainless from time to time, partially
in anger and then in thankfulness. He was angry that
Stainless could theaten him so much with a gun which
had no bullets in it when he himself had a gun which was
fully loaded in his pocket. And he was thankful because
he wasn"t dead, until now he never believed that he could
be so scared of death.
"Here," Stainless pa.s.sed an old hard cover book to him
from his bag.
"What"s this?" Don asked, taking a close look at the book.
"Some of my old deals with Elvis Richards are in there,"
Stainless answered.
"I don"t think we should be searching about Elvis" old
deals now, I think we should be more focused on who
sent Tara… Samantha."
"Tara…?" Stainless raised an eyebrow with a questioning
look. "You"ve been mentioning that since, are you still
hiding something from me?"
"I told you I was going to tell you more after the meal,"
Don answered.
"And now we"ve finished the meal and we"ve even left the
house."
"Yes, I"ll tell you. Let"s take it one after the other."
"I still think we need to find out Chief Elvis"s connection
with Samantha Osman also, it may help us in getting her."
Stainless suggested.
"I don"t really think there"s a connection between them
until now, Elvis Richards is scared that she"ll be coming
for his life soon, that"s why he"s hunting her. She doesn"t
even know that he"s after her. And who knows, he may
not be part of her targets."
"But what"s the purpose for his fear?"
"He mentioned to me once that all the people that Tara…
Samantha has brought down were once involved in a
deal with him, except for the Rivers State Governor."
Stainless closed the bag he was searching in and got up,
he folded his arms and stared at Don. "Now you"ve got to
tell me the connection between Tara and Samantha
Osman, you"ve made the mistake of calling Tara almost
more than half of the times you wanted to refer to
Samantha."
"Tarasha is her real name," Don finally said, "she was
exported down to Nigeria, I don"t know which country
she was exported from but report says that she looks like
an African."
"Tarasha," Stainless mumbled under his breath,
wondering what African country and language the name
could be from. "Have you met with her before?"
"No, except for today when we both met her for the first
time."Don answered reluctantly, wondering if Stainless
was deaf and didn"t hear the answer when he had told
him earlier that day.
"How do you know so much about her?"
"She works for Chief Gab," Don stated.
"Chief Gab!" Stainless exclaimed, "where the h.e.l.l is that
man?"
"He"s kicking, he"s in Nigeria."
"Wow! I never knew he"s done with his jail term."
"He was released some years ago."
"Okay, I think I remember when the media reported it
but since then we"ve not heard anything else about him."
Stainless said before bending down to bring out a long
gun. It was covered with dust.
"He"s not been making public comments, so the media
may be quiet about him."
"Interesting! But where"s he getting the money he"s using
to send Samantha…I mean Tarasha these errands?"
"That"s best known to him," Don remarked with less
concern.
"So it"s Chief Gab who is behind all these killings?"
Don gave no reply but kept gathering the bullets he was
picking. There was silence for a while before Don spoke
again. "If we can get Chief Gab"s list of targets, we can
know all her moves."
"That"s true but how do we do that?"
"We have to travel to Lagos, I can easily break into Chief
Gab"s apartments."
"Then let"s travel tomorrow, or can you send your people
from your Nanl Gang to do it?"
"We can"t travel tomorrow when we already know her
immediate next move. Let"s tackle that first."
"Huh? How do you know her next move?" Stainless turned
to stare at him in surprise.
Don shook his head as he saw Stainless" surprise. He had
thought by Stainless" action that day, Stainless had
become wiser but he was just proved wrong. "Don"t you
know her next move?" He stared back at Stainless in
surprise.
"Ermm…I don"t know." Stainless scratched his head.
Don gave a chuckle, he felt like taking out a gun to blow
off Stainless" dumb brain immediately but he restrained
himself, he still needed to keep Stainless to finish off
Tarasha"s execution. Don was sure that Stainless was also
keeping him alive because he was interested in
conquering Samantha Osman. After that goal was
achieved, he knew that only one of them would be left
alive as the fastest between the both of them would kill
the other immediately.
"Her next move would be to look for us," Don stated and
returned to what he was doing.
"Look for us? Why?" Stainless Asked another set of
questions.
Don was obviously irritated by the question. He was now
sure that Stainless" dumbness was the reason Elvis
Richards did not entrust the job to him.
"She saw both of us in Henry"s house, I"m sure she came
there to get something. She"ll want to find out what we
were doing there and who are, especially I that called her
by her name."
"Hmmm… True," Stainless could not but nod in
agreement. He wondered why he had not thought about
it that way, the only people he was expecting to be after
him was the police. Now, he could understand the
reason why Don excelled better than him at the job.
"Then we"ve got to prepare in case she comes here for us
but I don"t think she"ll be coming soon now that they
police are keeping an eye on the place."
"Don"t talk like that, she"s super intelligent, she always has
her way of getting past the police." Don cautioned.
"Does that mean that she"ll come immediately?"
"Most likely, I believe she was looking for something in
Henry E.G"s house. Maybe something she forgot the last
time. If she doesn"t find it there, she may think that we
have whatever it is. That gives her more reasons to look
for us."
"Great! Then we don"t need to struggle since we are
expecting her. We"ll just wait for her here. I would call
back some of my men." Stainless said, with a note of
confidence in his voice.
"We"ll get many boys to join us but what we need more
importantly is the brain to match hers. If we act stupidly,
we"ll end up putting ourselves in trouble." Don cautioned
again. "Remember Robin Kahn," he quickly added to
emphasize his point.
"That"s true, so what do you suggest we do?"
"We"ll use a method I learnt from her," Don paused and
turned to Stainless with a crooked smile. "The same
method she used for Robin Kahn. She knew that Robin
was coming, so she set him up to come to a place which
she knew better than him, then she set traps there for
him. We have a better situation." Don paused to clear his
throat. "We know she"s coming here and we also know
she"ll be coming during the night time cos she can"t enter
during the day when she"ll not be able to hide herself
from the police monitoring. We"ll set enough traps for
her and I"m sure she"ll walk into it."
Tarasha made her way out of the room again carefully,
this time she went in direction of the study. After walking
for one minute, she was able to locate the study, it was
locked and there was need for an access card to unlock
it. She quickly rolled up the tight skirts and took out two
screwdriver- like metals, she began to unscrew the access
panel.
~~
Three minutes had pa.s.sed and Benny had not gotten any
message from Tarasha. His heart began to fear at the
thought of leaving Cole in the explosion that was about to
rock the house. He began to think of anyway possible to
reach Cole and help him out. He took out his connection
device and punched in Cole"s code. He fixed the earpiece
in his left ear, just as it was about connecting, the Senate
President returned to the living room.
"Your friends have not still returned?" Mr Nasiru asked
with a worried look on his face.
"Sir, I"m not very happy with what is happening." Mr
Alfred replied in a sad tone.
"I"m really sorry sir," Nasiru tried to calm him, "but do
you know of any substance that the both of them may
have an allergy for?"
"I"m not aware of anything," Mr Alfred said angrily, he
took a glance at his wrist.w.a.tch, four minutes was gone
already. "They"ve been eating well since we got to Nigeria
and they"ve not been selective of anything."
"Ermm… Maybe I need to check out on them." Nasiru said
and was turning back.
"No sir," Mr Alfred stopped him. "I think I have to call the
office first."
"No please, don"t do that." Nasiru pleaded, "it"s just a little
thing that we can sort out."
"No, I"m not calling to report you, I"m calling the medical
unit to find out if they had any previous case or records
like this."
"But are you sure that"s the right thing to do?" Nasiru
asked in fear, not wanting for his relationship with their
foundation to be destroyed.
"Yes, don"t worry. They"ll be no problems." Mr Alfred said
and got up. "I need to get to the car and take my second
phone. Please can you show me the way?"
~~~~
The guard flung Cole out of the toilet to the floor outside
mercilessly, he stepped out of the toilet and closed the
door.
Cole felt his body weaken more as he landed on the floor,
his head almost hitting the wall. For some seconds he left
his eyes closed and opened it again when he didn"t hear
sounds of the man"s movement. He saw the guard
standing in front of the toilet"s door, staring at him. Cole
took his gaze away and turned his neck to another side
and there he saw the tranquilizing pin he had wanted to
use earlier. It was not out of his hand reach but he felt
too weak at the moment to stretch forth his hand and he
wouldn"t even want to do it while the man was staring at
him.
The guard started taking slow steps closer to him, Cole
tried to turn but couldn"t, he felt the metals in his
pockets again. Then he saw something, something which
he could use. He remembered his boss" saying that
anything could be a weapon. Some hope returned to him
and he managed to dipped his hand into his inner
pocket, acting as if he was grabbing his stomach in pains
so that the man wouldn"t suspect anything. He gave a
very faint smile on seeing the man"s shoe lace carelessly
loose and dragging on the floor.
The guard kept marching to him with slow steps. He
stopped right in front of Cole face, close to the wall and
squatted, staring straight at Cole"s face. "Who sent you?"
He barked.
Cole turned his face away but the man turned it back to
himself and added a slap. "I said who sent you?" He
barked again.
Cole"s fingers by this time already touched the metals he
needed, a tiny rope clip and a short knife. He stretched
his free hand and placed it on the guard"s left shoe. The
guard glanced at the movement but took it for granted as
he believed that Cole was too weak to do anything
dangerous to him.
"You won"t talk?" He shouted once again.
"She sent us," Cole finally answered, still doing his work
on the man"s shoe. He had gotten a hold of the lace and
held it softly. Then he noticed something else on the
man"s left shoulder, there was kind of swelling which
wasn"t on the other side. To Cole, it looked like the man
had a dressed wound there.
"Who is she?" The man asked in low tones, mentioning the
words one after the other.
Cole stared at his face and gave a smile, bringing
confusion to the man. "Even if you kill me, you can"t
cause our mission to be aborted. She never fails and
won"t fail this either," Cole said, with the hope of buying
more time.
"Who the h.e.l.l is she?" The man slammed and stood to his
feet to take out something from his pocket. With that
Cole removed his hand from the inner pocket and
clipped the man"s shoe with the metal clip, he mustered
enough strength to get up and drag the clip, making the
man fall to the ground with a thud.
Immediately, Cole followed up by driving the knife into
the man"s shoulder where he noticed the swelling. The
man responded with a loud groan that echoed round the
room. Then Cole turned to search for the pin where it
was, he located it and carefully picked it up. He drove it
into the man"s neck at once.
~~
Tarasha had just picked the book and was about
proceeding out of the place when she heard some voices
approaching. With what they were discussing, they had
seen the door left ajar.
"The study is not locked?" A coa.r.s.e voice expressed the
owner"s surprise.
"How come? The man never leaves it open." The
accompanying voice said. Tarasha quickly hid herself
beside the door.
Someone pushed the door open a little and closed it
back. "What may have happened to the access panel?"
"Maybe the man is trying to change it," the accompanying
voice replied.
"Whatever," the hand drew the door close again but it still
went ajar. Tarasha waited until she heard their voices and
footsteps no more. She quickly opened the door and
peeped, there was no one else in the corridor. She
stepped out and looked left and right, it was time to set
up the other bomb and leave the place. She started
following the route where she had come from. Her
connection device beeped.
"Cole," she called.
"Boss," Cole spoke in a low voice.
"Speak up Cole, have you gotten away from the man?"
"Yes, he"s down. Cole tried to raise his voice.
"Ermm…" Tarasha delayed the reply as she thought of the
best step to take now that Cole was free.
"Boss…" Cole called when he heard nothing again from
the other end.
"Cole, find another security guard whose clothes you can
use and take the clothes."
"Huh?" Cole sounded surprised, he wasn"t expecting such
an order now that he just had a hard time defeating one
guard.
"Cole," Tarasha chuckled, noticing his surprise. "If you
could defeat the the man"s personal security official, you
can take out anyone else." She added to encourage him.
"Sh*t! One is here already." Tarasha heard Cole mention
before the connection was cut.
She took out her phone and dialed Benny. "Where are
you now?"
~~~~
"I just finished timing the bomb and I"m about to leave
with Aisha. The Senate President is walking at the front of
his house. I"m waiting for Aisha so that we could both
take the escape route." Benny replied Tarasha, watching
the Senate President and his wife standing in front of the
house while Aisha was coming towards the car from the
house.
"How many minutes has it run for already?"
"Just one," Benny answered after glancing at where the
bomb was placed in the car.
"So that means it took you nine minutes to go out of the
house?" Tarasha questioned, in something more like a
scolding manner. Benny was quiet. "Set the time to thirty
minutes now and return into the house, I"ll send
something into your phone for you to show the man."
She ordered and the call ended.
Benny stepped back into the car and picked up the
detonator, he entered in the pa.s.sword and stopped the
reading, then he set it afresh for thirty minutes.
"What"s happening?" Aisha asked as she got near the car.
She had been in darkness all the while since it was only
Benny the boss was communicating with, the only thing
she knew was that Benny gave her the signal to follow
him when he was going out to the car.
"Nothing," Benny smiled and stepped out, then he closed
the door. "I"m just following the boss" instruction."
"But you"re not telling me anything."
"Don"t worry, I"ll tell you everything you need to know."
Benny said and grabbed her by the arm and they both
returned into the house.
~~
Cole rose up to face the new guard who just entered. The
slim guard was staring around the room with great awe
of the disarray in the place. He took a glance at the
Chief"s personal bodyguard laying lifeless, his face clearly
showed his shock on seeing the man down. He raised up
his head and stared at Cole with a frowned face.
Cole rushed to the guard as the man"s hand made way
into his pocket. He landed a kick on the man"s belly and
the man staggered backwards, his body closing back the
door.
~~
Nasiru and his wife began to walk back slowly into the
house with their guests, there was an unvoiced tension
and unusual silenced amongst them. Benny took out his
phone and unlocked it, he clicked on the chat application
and opened the conversation box with Tarasha. She was
already typing in a message.
"Show the pictures I send you to the man," the message
entered as they stepped into the living room.
"Okay Boss," Benny replied and proceeded with Aisha to
the three seater sofa to sit.
Another message came in shortly, "is his wife still with
you?"
"Yes."
"Make sure that she and her husband does not leave
there but show only the husband the message."
"Okay Boss," Benny answered and the messages paused
for a minute.
"I think I need to go check your colleagues now," The
Senate President said after he saw that the guests were
seated for a while. His wife was seated at the opposite
sofa to them.
"No need sir, I have a message for you." Mr Alfred said
and got up.
"What message is that?" Nasiru answered reluctantly and
walked back to Mr Alfred who was also walking towards
him.
"Here," Mr Alfred clicked on the loading picture. An blurry
image first appeared and it became clearer in few
seconds.
"What?" Nasiru screamed out loud on seeing the photo.
There was his daughter Fatima tied to the bed, with an
explosive device around her body. Aisha and Mrs Nasiru
got up immediately in shock as they heard the man"s
scream. Two of the guards also came into the living room
from different directions.
"Calm down mister," Mr Alfred said to the man in a low
voice, "we don"t want to harm her if you"ll cooperate with
us."
"Yes, I would cooperate." The man said nodded his head
in agreement, almost in tears already.
"Now tell your guards to return, a.s.sure them that there"s
no problem." Benny said to his ears.
"Go back everyone, everything is fine." Nasiru ordered
immediately.
"Correct," Benny smiled. He checked his phone again,
there was another text message and more pictures. "Tell
the man to sit with you as if nothing happened and wait
till I come."
"What"s the matter?" Mrs Nasiru stood at her husband"s
front and asked.
"Nothing o, nothing." Mr Nasiru sang back like a terrified
child, his body trembling all over.
~~
Tarasha climbed down the bed after attaching the bomb
to Fatima"s body, then she started to pull off the maid"s
uniform. After a minute, she had stripped to her
underwear and was proceeding to pick her previous
clothes, her connection device beeped.
"Cole," she called as she answered.
"Boss, I"m in the security guards uniform now."
"Do you have a cap with you?"
"Ermm… I will take the cap now."
"Better, meet us in the living room. Connect me if any
one confronts you. And if you get there before me,
ensure that the target and his wife does not leave there."
"Okay boss," Benny said and the connection was closed.
Tarasha began to put on the clothes hurriedly, she turned
back to Fatima who was staring at her, tied to the bed
with the bomb attached to her body. She was too
terrified to scream or move as Tarasha had threatened
that the bomb would go off it unnecessary movements
were made or if there was any attempt made to detach it.
"Sorry baby," Tarasha said with a smirk, "sometimes, the
children partakes from the Father"s sins."
~~
"What do you want from me?" Nasiru asked from Mr
Alfred, now seated but still trembling.
"Calm down mister, you"ll find out soon."
"I said what is the matter?" Mrs Nasiru shouted at her
husband in an angry manner.
Benny gave the man a threatening look to warn his wife.
"Will you sit down woman," Nasiru shouted back at her.
"Something is clearly wrong, I"ll alert the security" She
said and began to hurry away. Aisha followed after
immediately to stop her.
"No madam, you can"t do that." A man dressed in the
security"s uniform walked in from the corridor of the
inner rooms and stopped at her front.
"Cole!" Aisha exclaimed as she saw the security man"s
face.
"Yea baby, I"m with you." Cole winked at Aisha and took
out something from his pocket.
"Who the h.e.l.l are you and what authority do you think
you have to stop me?" Mrs Nasiru tried to push Cole away
and proceed on but Cole pushed in a pin into the side of
her neck. She felt dizzy immediately and collapsed into
Cole"s hands, he carefully placed her on the floor.
"Please don"t hurt her," Mr Nasiru screamed and stood
up.
"Get seated man," Cole took out a gun and pointed at the
man, "she"s not dead, she"s only taking a nap."
Up to five security officials rushed into the scene at once,
two from the same place Cole came from and pointed
the guns at Cole.
Then Benny got up and held the man neck, he pointed his
gun to the man"s head. "Tell them to drop their arms or
you and your daughter would be killed."
All the men directed their gun focus to Benny now.
"Drop your guns," Nasiru said to the men. They slowly
began to comply.
"h.e.l.lo Senate President," Tarasha came in from behind
the guards. She walked to the man"s front and stood.
Then she took a quick glance at her men, Cole, Benny and
Aisha before returning her gaze to the man. "Come on
Benny, treat the Senate President with respect." She said
in a tone of mockery. Benny slowly took off the gun from
the man"s head.
Cole bent down and began to pack the guns of the
security men. Tarasha took out her phone from the bag
she had carried with her upstairs. She turned on the
screen to check the time. "We only have fifteen minutes
to get out of this house," she announced loudly. She took
out a timer from her bag and showed it to the man, it
was at thirty minutes and twenty three seconds, counting
down. "The bomb on your daughter"s body would be
going off when this time counts down to the end. The
place where the control point of the bomb will require
fifteen minutes drive from here." She said, staring at the
man"s face squarely. "Well, fifteen minutes if there"s no
traffic."
"Who are you?" The man managed to mutter, squeezing
his face bitterly.
"Hahaha, you"re asking questions?" Tarasha laughed out
loud. "I will do you the honour of replying." She cleared
her throat and folded her arms. "Your people call me
Samantha Osman."
The man"s face fell, a tear dropped from his eyes. "I"ve
been expecting you, but please spare my daughter and
my wife."
"Only you can do that now, just follow us quietly and tell
your security officials to remain calm until you return."
She ordered.
Cole, Benny and Aisha kept staring at their boss in
surprise. This was not their initial plan, what she was
doing was far from their plan but they had complete
trust in her.