Tarasha

__8am__

Dakolo kept pondering on so many things as they rode down the untarred road. He already did his best by putting in place reasonable measures to make sure that Henry gets to the town safely and returns back safely to the hiding place. Their appointment with the NSCC was by 9am but with the time he was seeing on his wrist.w.a.tch, they would get there thirty minutes earlier.

Several pictures kept flashing through Henry"s mind; especially that of Mrs George, now he began to see an elderly man with her; most times both of them were sitting before him and giving him certain instructions, he couldn"t hear whatever they were saying but he knew from their expression that they were giving instructions or advice.

"What are you thinking about?" Dr Tobi who was seated with him at the backseat asked in soft tones.

"Nothing," Henry replied and sniffed in. His eyes met with Dakolo"s in the rearview mirror and another picture flashed through his mind; he saw himself talking with Dakolo in the compound of Elymax hotel, and then he saw a strange man walking towards them; the picture faded away again. Another picture popped up in his mind immediately; he saw himself walk into the Elymax hotel building, then to the restaurant; after some minutes, a lady joined him. He could see her belly, she was about taking her seat, he almost saw her face.

"We"re almost there," Dakolo announced disrupting Henry"s thoughts; the pictures faded away.

++++

"h.e.l.lo sir," Tarasha said as she answered the phone call.

"Miss Kim, Henry E.G has just arrived with the police, join us in the control room now." Mr Sylvester said.

"Okay sir," Tarasha replied and dropped the call. She rolled her swivel back a little and opened the drawer. She took out a device that looked like a flash drive, she took off the cover and detached a tiny piece from the cover. She put the tiny piece into the inner pocket of her suit jacket before standing up. After straightening up her black trousers which she wore to match the black jacket, she walked out of her office.

**At the control room**

Tarasha, Frank and Mr Sylvester were patiently waiting for Henry and the police officers, the third app developer had been sent to lead the visitors to the place.

They stood before a large box with several b.u.t.tons on it which made it look like recording mixer. It had a 110 flat screen behind it which served as the monitor for outputting the commands given on the box.

They all turned to face the door as it opened, officer Dakolo was the first to come in, followed by the computer operator who was sent to bring them, then Inspector Clem; they all stepped in and gave way for the people behind to enter except for the computer operator who proceeded towards his colleagues. Then Henry came in, followed behind by Inspector Ken, the

and two uniformed police officers. He began to march forward as he was directed but stopped suddenly as his eyes met with the people he was heading forward to.

He began to vibrate with fright as his eyes moved from Mr Sylvester"s face to Frank and to Kimberly. He couldn"t tell what was wrong but a certain fear dominated heart especially when his eyes met with the lady"s eyes.

"You guys have you to give him a smile, he does not need all these bony faces." The doctor reprimanded the NSCC officials standing before the screen. Tarasha, Mr Sylvester and Frank tried to put on a smile. Henry continued to walk towards them with the encouragement of the Doctor, he moved slowly but his eyes never left Tarasha"s face.

"Here," Mr Sylvester said to the other NSCC officials and they made way for Henry to come before the box. For a minute Henry took off his eyes from Tarasha and stared at Mr Sylvester"s face intently, the man"s voice had rung a bell to him.

"Good afternoon Henry," Mr Sylvester said to him as they got closer to each other. Henry did not reply but another similar voice to Mr Sylvester"s began to ring in his head. "I don"t want to lose my job… My job… My job," Henry kept hearing as he stared at Sylvester"s face.

"Youhave to put your thumb here," Mr Sylvester said to him, Henry obeyed and put his thumb on a transparent part of the box. He had been already briefed about what he was going to do, he was also told that he was going to meet with some of his colleagues at his former place of work.

His finger print appeared on the screen but it was blur. Tarasha moved closer to the screen and swiped down a vertical bar, the notification on the screen showed red, meaning that the print wasn"t correct. "I think we should get him a chair," Tarasha said.

Frank made the move to get the chair while Tarasha moved closer to Henry. Henry"s eyes was on her face but she didn"t mind; she believed that even if he was fine physically, the effect that the poison had already had on him would not make him remember anything; oblivious of the work that Dr Tobi had done.

A chair was gotten for Henry and he sat on it, then Tarasha helped him place his thumb on it properly; the correct print needed appeared on the screen. Then it disappeared and the word "Authorizing" displayed, and then unlocking, it began to read from 1℅ upwards.

"It"s done," Tarasha announced to everybody, she helped Henry adjust his collar as she returned to her previous position. Henry"s eyes kept following her around.

"Finally!" Mr Sylvester exclaimed, making Henry turn his gaze to him.

"Henry, let"s go now." the doctor said with a pleasant smile.

"I don"t remember anything yet," Henry objected loudly.

Tarasha felt something strange strike her heart as she heard Henry talk like a child, she didn"t know what it was; she had been trying to avoid staring at his face but his voice was something she couldn"t ignore. A feeling of guilt also began to rise in her heart, as she saw him looking at the doctor for help. She quickly discarded all her thoughts with a hiss, then she cleared her throat and pouted her lips with the determination to remain focused and not allow her emotions take over.

"Don"t worry, you"ll remember," Dr Tobi said with an encouraging smile which made Henry stand up. "Let"s go to some other places now."

"Thank you Agent," Mr Sylvester said to Dakolo as they began to make their way out of the place.

"It"s okay Mr Sylvester," Agent Dakolo replied. "I hope you guys can now return sanity to your system."

"Yes sir," Tarasha answered him from behind, Agent Dakolo turned to her and smiled. "That"s all we need, we can now also track the faces of those killers." she added.

"Thank you Miss Kim, thank you Mr Sylvester; for making this as brief as promised."

++++

An alarm began to sound on Cole"s phone, he picked it up to check. It was the message he was expecting; his boss had placed the tracker on Henry"s body. He walked back to the bed where Aisha was sleeping and sat beside her. He gently tapped Aisha"s shoulder before he picked up his laptop and placed it on his laps.

"Yes?" Aisha answered his tap hesitatingly.

"The tracker has been placed, remember the boss asked you to call her immediately we get the signal."

"Yes," Aisha hissed and sat up. "She asked me to come pick the drive."

______

Sat.u.r.day 8th February, 2031

___5.30pm__

Two days after Henry had been taken to the NSCC office, normality had returned to their system and Henry had also returned to the hiding place safely but not after he met with his mother in his apartment. Dr Tobi and the police officers had hoped that with his exposure to the NSCC office and it"s staffs again and to his mother and his own apartment, he would have regained his memory but that didn"t happen; the only thing Henry continued to say was that he saw faint pictures of the people and kept hearing their voices. Even when he met physically with his mum; after an hour of talking with him, all he could say was that the voice was sounding familiar but he never remembered her being his mother or even if he had a father. Another person he kept mentioning was the girl who held his finger for the thumb print , Frank and Mr Sylvester but he never mentioned anything specific.

Dr Tobi began to lose hope on the case and fear began to envelope his heart. His solution had not made the desired effect of returning Henry"s memory and with the way Henry was responding, Dr Tobi was scared that it could later turn into a mental illness that would make him start to hear voices in his head at all times and also hallucinate uncontrollably.

+++++

"I think this is a comfortable distance for us to stop," Aisha said to Cole.

Cole slowed down his speed of driving and took a look at the tablet device on Aisha"s lap, he confirmed that they were really at a reasonable distance to stop. He pulled over close to the bush and took the tablet device from her, he took note of the distance in metres from their targeted place to where they were; it was a distance that the bomb launcher could cover and even go beyond. Luckily for them, they were also close to a forest of several tall trees where he could climb, locate the house from and launch the bomb. If he could get a very good tall tree that would allow him straight access to the target house, there would be no need to wait in the area overnight to strategize again.

++

**5.30pm**

"Doctor, can we take a stroll?" Henry cut through Dr Tobi"s thoughts as he joined him on the balcony.

"Yes sure," Dr Tobi replied eagerly, hiding his worries with a smile.

"Thank you," Henry said smiling. As usual, two officers were about to escort them but Ken stepped them when he came out of the house.

"You are going to take a stroll right, may I come with you?" Ken asked.

Dr Tobi turned to look at Henry"s face but Henry turned away without saying anything. "Yes, you may. I don"t think Henry would mind." Dr Tobi said to Ken.

"Thank you," Ken said and signaled for the officers to return.

They stepped down from the balcony to the road and took the left turn.

++++

**5.50pm**

Cole was up on a baobab tree, the house in target was on a high hill and not difficult to spot, it was the most beautiful in that village. Maybe it was their King"s palace, Cole thought to himself.

"Faster," Aisha whispered to him. She was down the tree, watching for pa.s.sers-by who may want to interrupt while she acted like she was just sight seeing.

Cole heard her but gave no reply, the leaves on the branches of the tree had him covered and he could not be easily seen by pa.s.sers-by who looked up except if they were staring intently. He took off the bag from his back settled well on the branch of the tree. Then he brought out the bomb launcher from his bag.

*

The day"s stroll was not a unique one in any way, nothing different or exciting was seen. The village and villagers seemed to be unusually calm that day. Henry was about complaining when Dr Tobi reminded him that it was Sat.u.r.day and that on most weekends, the villagers were in their huts resting or at playgrounds catching fun.

"Or do you want us to go to the game centres or the palm wine joints?" Dr Tobi asked Henry. They were just some few metres away from the balcony, they were still on the road, facing the house from where they were.

"What kind of games do they play at their game centres?" Henry asked the doctor, considering the suggestion.

"They play Ludo, Ayo, draft and a lot of others," Dr Tobi answered.

"Hmm… I"ve not played those games before," Henry said.

"You must have played one or two of them, you"ll remember when you see the game boards."

"They have boards?" Henry asked again.

"Yes, they have boards…" Ken tried to come in. Henry gave him a sharp frown as if to warn him from talking and tell him that he was only interested in the doctor"s explanation. The doctor made a signal to Ken to continue explaining. "They have boards and they have other items used in playing…" Ken continued but Henry did not wait to listen, he began to proceed towards the house.

"Wait Henry," the doctor ran after him and stopped him. "I think we should go to the game centres."

"The games do not sound interesting to me," Henry retorted.

"Ermm… Okay, let"s go to the palm wine joints then. You would get to taste the freshness of the wine gotten from palm trees, I"m sure you would like it."

"Hmm," Henry licked his lips, the offer sounded better.

"Okay, but I want to take my handkerchief inside first, I forgot to take it before." Henry said.

"Okay, just wait. Let me ask one of the officers to get it for you," the doctor said and began to walk towards the balcony while Ken and Henry waited at the two opposite sides of the road.

The doctor climbed the stairs up the balcony and began to approach one of the officers who also began to come closer on seeing him. As the doctor was about giving the instruction for the handkerchief, a missile hit the house and the whole place went up in flames.

The surroundings of the house were also affected, Inspector Ken and Henry were flung away into the bush by the vibration. Just few seconds after the first explosion, another missile hit the crumbled house again, more of the particles from the building were scattered abroad forcefully. Ken and Henry were lifted away from where they were previously flung to and moved to a farther distance by the second vibration.

After a minute of waiting without any more explosion, Inspector Ken rose out of the bush where he had been flung to with bruises all over his body and his forehead with a slight cut, he began to look for Henry. In few seconds, he was able to locate the place where the Henry was. He watched for few seconds more before crossing to the place Henry was. Henry had pa.s.sed out already, his head hit the stump of a tree; he was bleeding badly. Ken pulled him out of the bush carefully. He took another look at the exploded house; he was sure that even the doctor could not have survived the explosion.

He lifted Henry to his shoulder and began to carry him slowly, hoping to get somewhere that was safe enough for him to help with any kind of first aid.

++++

"How are we sure that Henry EG has been killed now?" Aisha asked Cole as they entered back into the car.

"There is no way anyone in that building would survive what we just did to them," Cole replied throwing the bag to the backseat.

"But how are we sure Henry is in that place? Wouldn"t he have taken off the clothes he wore yesterday?"

"He would have taken it off, but he couldn"t have left the house." Cole said as he kicked off the engine. "Let"s visit the place before we leave."

He began to drive in direction of the exploded house. He horned furiously at the villagers who were coming out of their houses carelessly to see the exploded house. The people gave way for him, wondering what kind of person was driving towards the place where everyone was running from.

***

"Drop me, drop me," Henry forced himself down the Inspector"s shoulder. The Inspector had not been able to go too far as Henry"s weight which was almost more than his own slowed his steps.

"Inspector Ken," Henry said after coming down from Ken"s shoulder.

"Henry, you recognize me?" Inspector Ken asked in surprise.

"Yes, I recognize you." Henry replied.

Officer Ken was glad but he knew it wasn"t the right time to be rejoice yet, he turned around to look at the villagers who were staring at them on the road. He quickly approached one of the old men to ask for help, Henry followed him behind slowly and started a conversation with another villager, the villager made him move about a metre away from Ken.

"Sir, please can we get somewhere to hide right now?" Ken asked the man but the man stared at him helplessly as he couldn"t understand English language.

"Papa, oni…" a young man tried to explain to the old man in their native language but their attention was drawn by a car that was approaching them. Ken turned to look at the car, the window by the driver"s side gently rolled down and a gun was pointed out to Henry who had his back turned to the car, he and the villager he was talking to didn"t notice the car.

With all the strength remaining in Ken"s body, he ran towards Henry screaming. "Noooooo!" But it was late before Henry turned back, the gun was already fired, twice.

Inspector Ken received the bullets into his belly

"D--n it!" Cole exclaimed in anger as Ken shielded Henry from the bullets and the people dispersed in fear, Henry was also seen running away. Cole hurriedly reversed the car and angrily released two more bullets into Ken"s body, then he opened the door and stepped out of the car with his gun.

"Drive the car and keep tracking me," he said to Aisha, putting a piece in his ears which worked as a communication device and also a tracker. "Tell me at once if the police or any threat comes into sight." He said before running after Henry in the same direction he saw Henry take.

_________

"You"re welcome sir," Agent Dakolo greeted all smiles as he received the handshake offered him by the Vice President.

"I heard about your success in bringing Henry to town and back to the hiding place," Chief Elvis said smiling, Dakolo nodded in affirmation. "Congrats, I hope you"ve made success in other areas too."

"We"re trying sir," Dakolo replied as he began to lead the man to the car they brought to take him from the airport.

The Vice president looked more refreshed, healthier and confident on his return. He kept on smiling as he watched the crowd of people and journalists who had come to have a view of him at the airport, the security officials were doing the bests in shielding the lookers from coming closer.

Dakolo watched as the chief"s personal security officer opened the door to the back seat of the car for him, he waited for the Vice President to settle inside the car first before he hurried on to the car he was going with.

"You"ve had several missed calls sir," Inspector Clem said to him as he entered into one of the cars which was going to be following behind the Vice President"s.

"Let me see," he replied, taking his phone from the Inspector.

"This is from the office," Dakolo said as he stared at the missed caller"s ID.

"Yes," Inspector Clem affirmed and started the car engine. They began to drive slowly after the Vice President"s car which had also moved, there were two other cars in front of the Vice President"s car.

"I would call later when we get out of the airport," Dakolo said as he dropped his phone and put on his seatbelt. Inspector Clem"s phone began to ring.

"They"re calling me from the office sir," Clem said to Dakolo, not wanting to take his hands off the wheels.

"Oh! Maybe it"s quite urgent then, let me call them right away." Dakolo said and picked up his phone again, he waited for Clem"s phone to stop ringing before he dialed the office number on his.

"h.e.l.lo Agent, it"s officer Koko answering " a voice came through as the call was answered without delay.

"Officer, what"s up?"

"Sir, there was a bomb blast this evening," the voice announced.

Dakolo sighed, he hated to hear bad news like this especially at a time like this when he was planning to go home straight after they leave the Vice President. "What time was that?" he asked.

"Exactly 5.55pm," the officer replied.

Dakolo raise up his hand to take a glance at his wrist.w.a.tch, it was 6.42pm. "That"s sad, but have you contacted the anti bomb squad?" he said; it was his friendly way of telling the officer that he had no business with the matter.

"Yes, I"ve told them already." the officer replied.

"Good, they"ll take care of it."

"Sir, we"ve located the place and the police station in the area, we have sent some officers to the place."

"I"ve heard you," Dakolo said in a stressed tone, wondering why the officer was reporting details to him when he wasn"t the IG or agent in charge.

"The place is Rugbe village sir, Abuja North." the officer said.

"Ehn? What village did you call it?" Dakolo replied, half shouting.

"Rugbe Village sir, the AIG insisted that I get the information across to you," the officer said.

"Thank you," Dakolo said hurriedly and ended the call.

"Rugbe village sir?" Clem asked as they drove out of the airport but got no response from Dakolo.

Dakolo quickly dialed Ken"s number but his call wasn"t answered, he tried three more times before trying to reach the phone in the house which was used by the doctor but the line wasn"t connecting at all. He tried some other officers numbers and none was connecting.

"You have to pull over here," Dakolo said to Clem.

+++

Henry"s heart was beating fast as he watched Cole searching all around for him. He froze in the bush and dared not to make any movement, Cole was carefully listening and would hear the slightest noise he makes. There was a white bird behind him in the small empty s.p.a.ce picking somethings on the floor.

The whole village was dead quiet, everyone had run into their houses to hide themselves and their children. There was no other person in sight, not even the village security guards; Henry couldn"t blame them, he was sure that the weapons and expertise they had could not conquer Cole, he also knew that the village may have never experienced such vandalization of property they had seen the bombs do to the house.

He saw Cole"s face and recognized him at once, "Tara"s boy," he whispered silently to himself.

He shook in fear as Cole looked towards his direction as if his whisper was heard. Then Cole noticed the shaking in the bush and began to move closer in his direction.

Henry was scared to death as Cole continued to march towards his direction with his eyes fixed there, then luckily for him the bird behind him flew out of the bush.

Cole hissed and turned back, then walked away from the place.

+++++

Aisha stopped by the side of the bush where the map on her phone was indicating Cole"s location, in less than a minute, Cole came out of the bush. She gave way for him to enter into the driver"s side.

"Did you find him?" Aisha asked after Cole kicked off the engine and drove away.

"No," Cole replied bitterly.

"And we"re going back?" she asked in surprise.

"Yes, do we have any choice? The police would soon be here and it would be difficult to leave then."

"But what would the boss say?" Aisha asked in fear.

Cole gave her a sharp funny look, "she won"t say anything; we"ve done our best. We did the major thing she asked us to do, bomb the whole house."

"But we missed our target," Aisha said.

"We didn"t miss our target, we brought down the house." Cole insisted. "We even went farther than she instructed, we went closer to the house to check and even pursued after Henry E.G."

"But we still missed the target," Aisha argued stubbornly.

"Yes, maybe we missed the real target though," Cole said without showing much concern.

"The Boss would be mad at us," Aisha said with her widened eyes staring at Cole, wondering why he was so confident.

"No she won"t," Cole replied with confidence. "It"s wasn"t just the both of us that missed it, the boss missed it with us."

"What do you mean by that?"

"She was quite sure that he"ll be in the house, so she asked to take down the house believing that he would be in it."

"But I"m scared," Aisha said shaking her head thoughtfully.

++++

**2 hours later**

It was night already but the place was as bright as noon. The halogen lights placed there by the police officers helped them defeat the limitation of darkness in carrying out their investigations. Different police teams had flooded the scene of the bomb blast, the anti bomb and anti terrorism squad were scrutinizing the destroyed property and trying to locate where the bomb could have be placed while members of the medical team were carrying out the remains of the victims into the ambulances. Members of Dakolo"s team were asking questions from the eyewitnesses of the explosion and taking down notes. Several journalists were also there taking pictures, videos and asking questions.

Dakolo who was supposed to be with his team leading the questioning couldn"t do that but stayed with the medical team, looking at each body they carried out. He had seen Ken"s body already and that had almost brought tears out of his eyes but he decided to hold it in because he was sure he would do worse when he sees Henry"s body.

One after the other, the anti bomb squad brought out the bodies, this was the eighth body now and Henry"s body had not been brought out; maybe because his room was at the far end of the building, Dakolo thought to himself. He was still looking out for Henry"s body when Inspector Clem came to meet him.

"Sir, we found out that Inspector Ken wasn"t killed by the bomb," Clem said to Dakolo.

"Yes, I know; the officers I met here told me that."the Agent replied, not bothering to take a look at Clem who was speaking from behind.

"And we also found out that he wasn"t the real target of the shooter, Henry EG was."

"Of course Henry was the real target of the bombers," Dakolo said.

"I"m talking about the person who shot Ken sir; it was Henry who he wanted to shoot."

Dakolo paused first to process Clem"s words, then he turned to listen again, "wait, do you mean Henry was with Ken when he was shot?"

"Yes, the eyewitnesses said that the terrorists were two; a male and female. They came in a red car and after the second explosion, they drove towards the house and saw Ken with Henry," Clem tried to explain pointing towards the place where the car had met with Henry and Ken.

"I don"t understand," Dakolo said, stepping down from the hill with Clem, they began to walk towards the place.

"This is where Inspector Ken"s body was found," Clem said after they got to the place where the shooting happened. He was pointing to a blood stained place close to a tree in the bush. "Henry was standing here, talking with one of the villagers; I spoke to the villager myself."

"Okay," Dakolo signaled for him to continue.

"He confirmed that Henry was talking with him when the red car drove close to them, a gun was pointed out from the driver"s side and then pointed at Henry who had his back turned to the car. But Inspector Ken saw the gun first and shielded Henry, thereby receiving the bullets in his body."

Dakolo heaved a sigh, not of relief but of pity. He knew that Ken was too experienced to just die after escaping from a bomb blast; especially in a place where there were several bushes and trees were he could hide.

"But how are you sure that Henry was the one with Ken?" Dakolo asked.

"Inspector Ken wouldn"t have done that for a junior officer, the doctor and Henry EG are the only two people he could have done that for." Clem said.

"That"s true," Dakolo agreed, nodding thoughtfully.

"Besides, the villagers seem to recognize Henry EG; they described him as the sick person who used to take a walk with the doctor and two officers."

"But where"s Henry now? What happened to him?"

"Sir, he could have been taken." Clem replied in a sad tone.

"Taken by who?"

"The villagers said he ran this way," Clem said pointing to a narrow path along the bush and the shooter got out of the car to pursue him. That was the last they saw of Henry E.G and the bombers."

"Have you gone in that same direction?"

"Yes sir, we"ve searched everywhere."

++++

Omotara and her brother Jeffrey were both seated in the living room after dinner, watching the channels TV news. About three times already, a breaking news segment had been broadcasted but details of the news was just being told.

"Our correspondent has been able gather information which proves that the house bombed was the place the police had hidden Henry EG to protect him from another a.s.sa.s.sination attack but as at this moment, it has been confirmed that a young man and woman carried out the bombing of the place. It has also been confirmed that n.o.body found in the house survived; this could mean that Henry EG had also died with other victims of the bomb blast. Thirteen people including Henry EG, Dr Tobi, three maids, Officer Ken and six other police officers were occupants of the place. Only six bodies have been recovered now; the bodies found includes Dr Tobi"s, four police officers and a maid. A brief question segment with the anti bomb squad of the police reveals to us that there are still bodies yet to be brought out of the place."

"Oh G.o.d, please preserve Henry"s life," Jefa cried with teary eyes. He covered his face with his hands and began to make some silent prayers. "Did you know he was in Rugbe village?" Jefa asked his sister after he was done praying.

She didn"t give a reply immediately but paused to think, she never wanted discuss Henry. She couldn"t understand what she felt anytime his name was mentioned. She sometimes wished for him to survive and at other times was anxious to hear the news of his death.

"No," she finally replied, trying not to show any feeling or empathy. She faced the television without taking a glance at her brother"s face.

Jefa stared silently at his sister"s face for a while before he spoke again. "Why do you act as if you don"t love him?"

Omotara"s breath seized for a moment, she turned and stared at her brother"s face. "Love?"

"Yes, you love him and you pretend not to."

She chuckled, "I don"t love anyone brother."

"No Tara, you love Henry. I can see it in your eyes."

"You see nothing in my eyes sir, you are misinterpreting. Right now, I"m tired and the only thing in my eyes is the crave for a restful sleep."

"But he loves you too, so why are you resisting?" Jefa asked her in a serious tone.

She wanted to respond but she felt a lump in her throat. She stared at him for a while and then shouted in a loud voice, "did he tell you he loved me or why are you pushing this so far?" she got up and began to walk to her room hurriedly.

Jefa just watched as she walked away, he was more convinced that she was in love with him. What he couldn"t decipher was why she was hiding it, maybe Henry had done something grievous to her, he thought.

*

"Where are you now?" Tarasha said into the phone after locking the door to her room.

"I don"t know the name of this place but our hotel is just thirty minutes drive from here," Cole replied.

"Okay, I"ve listened to the news she I confirmed your job, well-done" she said.

"Boss," Cole interrupted, not wanting her to commend him further. "Henry wasn"t killed," he stated.

"Huh?" Tarasha eyes widened in shock. She didn"t expect Henry to still be alive even after so many people have had to die for him.

____

"Who"s there?" Henry could hear someone shout from inside the compound. He knocked the gate again and the person shouted the same way but this time closer to the gate.

"Can"t you knock properly?" a man asked as he opened the gate to the village clinic. He looked more like a security man, though he wasn"t dressed in any uniform. He gave a suspicious look at Henry who was looking like a war survivor.

"I"ve been knocking for some couple of minutes now," Henry said and pushed his way into the compound. He began to walk straight into the clinic.

Soon, he was inside and was already being attended to by a nurse.

"Sir, you have to deposit five thousand naira for us to continue the treatment," the nurse said after applying first aid to the wounds especially the bleeding places.

"I don"t have any money here," Henry stated.

"You don"t have any money and you came in for treatment, do you think this is a free hospital?"the nurse shouted.

"I"ll pay you," Henry said confidently. The nurse stared at his face with questions in eyes like how he was going to pay without money. "Don"t you know me?" he asked.

She stared at his face for another one minute before she spoke. "Are you the Henry, the NSCC man?" she asked.

"I"ll pay you but not today" he said without responding to her question.

She didn"t give any reply either but continued with the treatment. She bandage his head where he had a cut, his stomach and his arm. After a total of thirty minutes, she was through with him.

"I"ll be back," she said, cleaning her hand with a towel. "You can lie on the bed if you want."

He got up immediately she walked out and went to the door, he opened it slightly and peeped outside.

In ten minutes time , the nurse returned to the ward with an elderly nurse and a doctor but Henry was nowhere to be found.