Tarasha

"But could it mean that he still lied about the location to us?" Stainless asked as he drove them in the car, away from Gwagalada.

"I don"t think he lied, the effects of the drug could be seen all over him that day." Don replied him.

"But how come we found nothing in that house?" Stainless pressed on.

"Because they left the place already, they could be in the other location." Don said.

"You talk to much," Rex said sharply with a warning tone to the both of them. "Think more instead."

There was quietness for the next fifteen minutes of driving until Rex spoke again. "We"ll visit the location in s-O-ko," Rex said, trying try p.r.o.nounce Asokoro. "If we can"t find them there, we won"t leave without getting a trace or link."

_____

"How was your outing?" Jefa asked Henry who he had not spoken with since he returned with Omotara.

"Not bad," Henry replied. "But Omotara is as stubborn as usual."

"Stubborn?"

"Yes, but don"t worry." Henry said with a smile. "With time, she"ll be broken."

"Are you sure of that?" Jefa asked, his tone revealed his doubts. "The way she acts and talks is as if she is afraid of love, and afraid of you."

Henry smiled again, he got up from the bed and took off his shirt. "Don"t worry sir, I think you should just take a rest."

"How can I take a rest? I"m scared to see her like that," Jefa said.

"Okay," Henry said sharply and turned to him. "There are two things likely to happen, it"s either she becomes worse than she is now or get better. And I believe she"ll get better."

"You believe so?"

"I"m sure," Henry said and turned back to change his shirt. He returned to the bed and sat in it, resting his back against the headboard. Jefa was still standing, there were questions written all over his face as he placed his hands on his waist.

"There"s something else I want to ask," Jefa said in a tone which caught Henry"s interest.

"What"s that sir?"

"It"s about you," Jefa had a frustrated look on. "You, what the police and the media says about you recently and why you"ve been walking around like a fugitive everytime. You always wear sweaters that keeps your face hidden." Jefa paused to look at Henry"s face.

There was guilt written all over Henry"s face, this was something he had been avoiding, he didn"t want to talk about it with Jefa.

"No, don"t get me wrong," Jefa said with an apologetic expression as he saw the look on Henry"s face. "I believe that you are innocent of all the charges but I"m wondering why you are not making any move to clear your name."

There was a deafening silence for almost two minutes, Jefa had his eyes placed on Henry"s face while Henry was looking away, guiltily.

Henry finally heaved a deep sigh and began to talk softly. "I"m sorry I hid it from you, I was scared that of I told you about it, you"ll hate me just like Tara. I don"t want that; You"re my only connection with her and I don"t want it broken."

"What are you talking about?" Jefa cut in, placing a suspicious narrow look on Henry"s face. "Is that part of the reason Tara seems afraid to love you?"

"No, she isn"t afraid of me because of that but it"s true," Henry said in low voice.

"It"s true… What do…you mean?" Jefa stuttered, deeply afraid. "What is true?"

"All what you"ve heard about me is true," Henry said.

"No, it can"t be." Jefa tried to look into Henry"s eyes for confirmation but Henry looked away, the tears in his eyes confirmed him pleading guilty. "You mean you work with the a.s.sa.s.sins truly?"

Henry rose up from the bed and stared at Jefa"s face with a pleading look, "I don"t work with the a.s.sa.s.sins but I know about them."

"Then why don"t you tell everything you know about them to the police?" Jefa said in a scolding manner.

"No, I can"t." Henry said with tears in his eyes, motioning his head to signify disagreement. "I can"t tell the police anything."

"Why? Are you scared of the a.s.sa.s.sins?"

"No, I"m not. But I don"t want them to get caught."

"What do you mean?" Jefa asked sharply.

"I"m sorry, I can"t say more than I"ve said already." Henry said and began to walk out of the room.

"Henry, Henry," Jefa called in a commanding tone but Henry refused to stop. They walked past the dining room and then the living room.

Henry walked out of the house and out of the compound without listening to Jefa"s call. Jefa had to walk back into the house, disappointed and frustrated.

"I guess you and your friend must have had a terrible argument," Tara said in a taunting tone. She was now seated in the living room, with the legs on a footstool and the television remote control in her right hand.

Jefa refused to reply her and walked straight into his room.

He returned to the living room thirty minutes later. He met Omotara already sleeping on the three seater sofa, he tapped her gently.

Omotara opened her eyes slowly and sat up, looking into her brother"s eyes and wondering why he woke her up.

"I served your food already," she said to him.

"I"m not eating, I want to talk to you." Jefa said and took his seat beside her.

"What is it brother?" she asked in a lively tone.

"I want to return to my house tomorrow," he said.

Omotara felt heartbroken at the sound of his words, she stared at him for a moment without reply. Blood began to pump through her body at a faster rate, tears formed in her eyes almost immediately.

"I want to go back to my normal life, I believe that my presence here has not done any good to you" Jefa continued. "I want you and Henry to reunite but I"m scared because I don"t think that would ever happen with my presence. I want you to be happy. My few days with you have been the happiest days of my life. All these while I"ve been living alone, I"ve been living in pains that bad memories bring to me, you"re the only one that brings back memories of good times to me."

"Then why do you want to leave if you"re happy with me?" Omotara said in a pleading tone, she herself couldn"t even believe that the words were coming out of her mouth.

"I"m scared," Jefa said and stood up. "My bad dreams seems to be manifesting already. I"m on my way trying to reunite you and Henry together but I"ve dreamt severally that it"ll cause a disaster, especially if I"m with you." he paused and turned to look at her face. "I don"t want to be the cause of your sorrow."

"Brother, dreams are meaningless, they are products of our imagination and activities during the day, they shouldn"t form your actions. You dream that we being together will bring disaster but still you say that the happiest moments of your life has been when we are together. Why don"t you let us work it out, so that you can be happier. Why do you want to return to the pains that the bad memories cause you? Why not stay in this happiness?"

"I don"t think this happiness would continue," Jefa said briefly.

"It will continue, we can it continue. We can leave this country if you want, I believe it will help erase the bad memories and dreams from you." she said and got up, desperately trying to stop him from leaving. There was a brief silence, she closed her eyes and sniffed back in the tears.

Jefa sat back on the chair, thinking about the option of traveling out of the country, it sounded like a good idea to him. Maybe they could avert the disaster coming if they were in another country, besides, in all the dreams he had, the locations were places in Nigeria.

Tara sat back on the chair with him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Would you stay with me?" she asked.

"Would you be happy without Henry?" Jefa asked another question which got her confused.

"I don"t know," she said, looking narrowly away.

"I want you to be happy…"

"I will be happy," she cut in, deciding to not consider herself, all she wanted was his own happiness. "I will be happy when I"m with you."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"I don"t think so," Jefa retorted.

"I will be happy brother. You"re getting it all wrong, I"ve never been in any relationship with Henry and I"m not planning to start one."

Jefa looked into her eyes for some seconds. "But you love him?"

"I don"t know."she replied and looked away again.

"How can you not know?" Jefa said, turning her face back to him. "Stop denying, it"s obvious that you love him."

"I don"t know if I do, that"s the truth."

"Henry has a challenge, I think we should try and help him fix it instead of leaving him."

"I don"t know about his challenge and we don"t need him. I"m okay with you, let"s travel to another country and forget about him." she said.

"No," Jefa said in an adamant tone and got up to his feet. "I won"t let you trade your happiness for mine, if I can"t see you happy, then I"ll return to my former self." he said and stormed back to his room.

++++

**At Inspector General Rikau"s place **

Rikau was in a seat facing Rex with two non uniformed officers standing behind him while Don and Stainless standing behind Rex. Chief Rikau was relaying Chief Elvis" message to them.

"The Vice President wants her dead but he also wants you to find and kill the sponsor, anyone you find first would be okay." Chief Rikau concluded with a summary after a long message of about ten minutes.

"We are close to getting her Chief, it won"t be long before we bring her and her sponsors down."

_________________________

**Next Morning**

__7.30am__

Tarasha was dressed in a black suit and trouser with her hand bag hung in readiness to go out.

"Good morning Tara," Jefa greeted her as she approached the exit door.

She quickly turned back and flipped her hair backwards. "Good morning brother," she greeted with a smile. "I served your breakfast already," she said and continued towards the door.

"I"m leaving today," Jefa said, making her stop abruptly.

She turned back slowly with a frown, "you"re leaving where?"

"I explained to you yesterday already," Jefa replied.

"But I said we"ll leave this country soon."

"Not without your happiness."

She took in a deep breath and stared thoughtfully, "Okay, I"ll talk to Henry today and see if we can help him." she said and paused to see his reaction.

"Okay," Jefa nodded. "But I still need to go to that house today, I need to pick somethings."

"Promise me that you"re not trying to escape," she said.

"I won"t leave you if you promise that you"ll make yourself happy."

_____

**8.45am**

Henry was jerked off from sleep as his phone vibrated in his pocket. He opened his eyes to find himself in the boot of the caravan, then he remembered what happened the last night.. He quickly peeped out through the window to see if the owners of the vehicle were around. After seeing no one, he walked out of the vehicle and jumped over the fence of the warehouse.

The sun rays reflected into his eyes as he begun to walk down the road. That was when he realized that he was without cover that morning, he had left Tarasha"s house without any suitable cloth to disguise himself.

He moved to a corner and took out his phone. "I think I love you. Let"s meet today by 5pm." that was the first pop-up message his eyes saw as he unlocked the screen. It was from Omotara.

++++

7.45am

"h.e.l.lo madam," Stainless greeted a man coming out from a black gate.

"h.e.l.lo, may I help you?" Henry Paul replied politely.

"Yes, please," Stainless said, then he motioned Henry Paul to step forward. "I"m from the police headquarters," he said, displaying an ID card.

"Okay sir," Henry Paul adjusted his NSCC ID card hung around his neck.

"Who stays in this building?" Stainless asked, pointing to the Tarasha"s gate.

"Hmm… A young lady and three friends." Henry Paul answered.

"Do you know her and her friends?"

"Yes, I know a little about her but I don"t know about her friends, I"ve not even been seeing them recently. I only see her occasionally with another young man whose face I never see properly."

"Okay, do you know if she"s in the house now?"

"No," Henry Paul said, shaking his head to emphasize. "She should have gone to work already, I recently found out that she also works at the NSCC where I"m a regional staff."

"Hmm… So she works at the NSCC?"

"Yes, she does. Hope there"s no problem."

"No, there"s none." Stainless said with an a.s.suring look. "Do you know her name?"

"I know her to be Evelyn but I found out at the office that her full name is Kimberly E. Alexander." Henry Paul answered. "Are you sure there"s no problem?"

"Yes, there"s none. I think she"s not the person I"m looking for," Stainless said with an harmless smile.

"Okay then, I have to be on my way now. I"m running late already." Henry Paul said and waved the presumed officer goodbye.

Stainless quietly returned to where their car was parked, several distance away from their main target location. He entered into the front seat of the car, Don was sitting at the driver"s side while Rex was at the back.

"Boss, more than just one person stays in the house. But I think the owner herself is a lady, her name is Kimberly E. Alexander, she works at the NSCC." Stainless said, looking at his boss" face through the rearview mirror.

"I think we"ve got the correct location, there are cameras all around the house. We only need to confirm by bringing your hostage here."

"So, how do we strike boss?" Don asked impatiently. He clenched his teeth and fists, excited about the fact that he was a part of the team that was thing to bring down Tarasha.

"We"ll strike gently, remember she"s a machine too."

"Good morning sir," Kimberly greeted as she walked into Mr Sylvester"s office.

"Good morning miss, how are you doing today?" Mr Sylvester replied.

"Fine, how about you, your wife and kids?"

"I"m fine and my family is fine too," he replied with a broad smile.

"Okay sir, here"s the flash drive containing the embedded files." Tarasha said, handing him the drive.

"Thanks Kim," Mr Sylvester collected it and quickly inserted it into his laptop. Kimberly curtsied and turned to leave.

"Ermm… Please Kim, could you help me check Frank and monitor what he"s done so far," he said.

"What did you ask him to do sir?" Kimberly said, turning back to him.

"Okay, sorry I didn"t tell you; I just didn"t want to disturb your weekend. Agent Dakolo called on Sat.u.r.day and asked that we should optimize the system to identify Henry E.G." Mr Sylvester said.

"What?" Kimberly exclaimed, "but why?"

Mr Sylvester paused and narrowed his look at her, surprised at her outburst. "Why? Because he"s missing and the police are in search of him. The last time he was caught on camera was the day there was an a.s.sa.s.sination attack on the Vice President and since then, he has not been captured again. Agent Dakolo had since asked us to keep tabs on him since that day."

"But…" she looked baffled. "Why wasn"t I told?"

"You weren"t in the office that day and even throughout the week, remember that you were being questioned all day by the police officers as an eyewitness at the scene of the attack." Mr Sylvester replied, still surprised at her reaction towards the news. "I just thought that I shouldn"t bother you about it, since you have other tasks at hand and you already taught us how to integrate new images and facial structures into the process."

Tarasha heaved a sigh of frustration, "so what"s Frank doing on it now?" she asked.

"Henry E.G was caught on cameras yesterday night…"

"Huh?" Kimberly"s interrupted.

"He was caught on camera," Mr Sylvester repeated and then paused. He gave her a suspicious look, "why are you acting strange?"

"Nothing, nothing," she answered sharply and tried to compose herself. "So where was he seen?"

"He was captured in front of a warehouse, we couldn"t find where he was coming from or where he entered because of the darkness. It was the security lights at the gate of the warehouse that revealed his face. But this morning, he was captured flying over the fence of the warehouse and he"s been monitored already. His location and the live streaming link has been sent to the police headquarters by Frank. The only thing I want you to do is to see his progress in monitoring Henry"s activities and transferring to the police headquarters." Mr Sylvester said.

"Okay sir," she replied, still acting calm. "I"ll get to him." she said and turned to walk out.

"Thank you," Mr Sylvester replied, still surprised about her earlier reaction.

Instead of going to check Frank as she was asked to do, Tarasha walked straight to her office. She entered and slammed the door, then she fell back on the door and ran her fingers through her hair. She didn"t know why she was bothered so much about Henry but she just knew she was scared that he shouldn"t be caught, not because he would implicate her but for his own safety.

She quickly walked to her table and picked up her phone, dialing his number immediately.

____

"Has he been seen moving?" Dakolo asked, staring into the laptop on the computer operator"s lap. Both of them were seated at the back seat of the car while Clem was driving and another officer was with him at the front, a police van was following behind them.

"No, he has not come out from the restaurant."

"Good, just one more minute drive and we"re there."

____

Henry was seating alone at the table meant for three in the local restaurant. He had long finished the food he ordered for, that he was still seated there without questions from the sales women was because it wasn"t their sales rush hour which were always very early in the mornin and during break hours of workers.

He had his bowed, his forehead touching the table; his phone was in his hand and he was staring at the text message which Tara sent him earlier. He knew it could only be because of Jefa she had sent it, Jefa may have told her to make she he returns to the house and that would have forced her to send the text message. He wondered if it was advisable to return back to Tara"s house even if they wanted him back, he was sure that with his presence there, Jefa would soon come to find out that her sister is the dreaded a.s.sa.s.sin. He didn"t want to be the one through whom Jefa would receive the heartbreaking information and through whom Tara and her brother"s relationship would be destroyed.

A tear dropped off his eyes as he wondered if she could ever change and live the life she was supposed to live, she had said to him that she wouldn"t until she was shown what love or G.o.d meant, he didn"t know how to do that and he didn"t know if he would ever be able to do it.

His phone suddenly began to ring, it was Tara calling. His heart skipped a beat, he silenced the phone, more tears dropped from his eyes, he didn"t know what she wanted to say and wasn"t ready to speak with her yet, maybe he would have summoned courage before the evening time when she asked them to meet.

The call ended and the phone began to ring again immediately, he silenced it again. He thought of his mum, how he had neglected them and instead go for Tara first, he had only sent a text message to her saying he was fine and was going to see her when everything was settled, whether she had gotten the text message or not, he didn"t know. He decided in his heart that it was time he paid a short visit home and put his parent"s mind at rest, at least, they"ll be rest a.s.sured that he was alive.

The phone began to ring the third time, he mistakenly answered as he wanted to silence it. He hesitated for some seconds before raising up his head to place the phone on his ears.

"Henry, can you hear me…" he was hearing her speak when he saw two uniformed police officers enter through the door of the restaurant and began to spread tactically, then Dakolo entered after them with his eyes fixed straight to where Henry was seated. "You need to move to somewhere the street cameras can"t reach, I"ll help stop the streaming for an hour so that you can go far before the police officers gets to you." Omotara continued speaking but Henry wasn"t listening anymore.

Henry dropped the phone quietly, he rose up to face Dakolo who was already close to him.

"The game is over Henry, don"t make any stupid move, this place is surrounded already." Dakolo said.

_______

Tarasha felt cold surg through her body as she heard the agent"s voice over the phone, the game was over truly. She quickly dropped the phone and took out the micro sim. She picked another phone with which she dialled Jefa"s number.

"h.e.l.lo brother, where are you?" she said hurriedly.

"Where else? I"m at home," Jefa replied. "Preparing to go to my former apartment."

"Please, can you leave now? I mean immediately, this moment."

"Why?" Jefa asked in a surprised tone.

Tarasha sighed and immediately thought of a good excuse to give her brother. "From the footages we have at work now, it looks like there"s something like a bomb in that area. It would explode anytime from now, so I think you should leave now and stay at your place till I call."

"Hmm… Okay."

____________

*** One hour later***

Henry was alone in the dark room, his hands rested on the table and his head bowed. The room was an interrogation room but different from the one he was put in the first time the police arrested him. By the hardness and harshness of the metal table on his hands and chairs on his b.u.t.t, plus the stuffiness and hotness in the room; he could tell that this interrogation room was one prepared not for ordinary suspects but for hardened criminals.

Someone walked in fifteen minutes after he was put there. The person turned on a bulb which provided a faint light which focused more on the table and the chairs at each end, rather than the whole room. The officer turned on another light which brightened up the whole place.

A quick glance around the place sent shivers down Henry"s spine; he saw metals of different types, whips of different sizes, pressing iron of different kinds, electrocuting chairs and other items used in torturing criminals. His head began to ache at once. He didn"t know if he would be able survive the treatment that would be melted out to him by the police, neither did he think he was strong enough to keep in information about Omotara after the police uses all the torture instruments on him. He hoped that she would have left for somewhere far before the police would torture him into confessing.

He fixed his eyes on the person whom he later found out to be officer Clem, officer Clem had an evil smile on his lips, he seemed content with the terrified look on Henry"s face. He turned off the bright light again, the only reason he had turned it on at first was for Henry to be conscious of his environment and that he had achieved.

Two other officers walked in ,they were in uniforms. Officer Clem spoke in low tones to them and one of the younger officers walked out, Officer Clem and the other one proceeded towards Henry.

Officer Clem took his seat in front of the table, he folded his arms and rested his back, giving Henry a stern look.

"It"s time to tell us the truth," he finally began in low tones. "We"re the only ones who can help you, you"ve been a great help to the nation and we don"t want to lose you. I"ll personally ensure you"re set free if you open up and give us all details about the rest of your a.s.sa.s.sin group." He was still talking when the officer who had gone out returned, he walked towards Clem and whispered something to him.

"So the IG wants to do the interrogation by himself?" Clem had asked back in low tones and the younger officer nodded, that gave Henry an idea of their conversation.

Officer Clem rose up from the seat and began to pace the room slowly, making noise with his shoes. Soon the door opened and a voice ushered another person in.

"Here sir," Henry couldn"t see the face but he recognize the voice as Dakolo"s.

The two new entrants proceeded straight towards the table, their face became clearer to Henry as they got closer.

Inspector General Rikau had an evil grin on his face as he stood before the table, then he slowly unb.u.t.toned his suit jacket and sat on the chair Clem stood from.

"So you"re the evil genius who has been working with the a.s.sa.s.sins and pretending to be with the Nigerian government," Chief Rikau began. "Well, there"s no time to talk too much, all we want to know is where the rest of your gang is." the man said and paused to get a reply.

Henry stared blankly without moving his lips, about five people"s eyes were on him and he felt they were biting him. He wasn"t part of the a.s.sa.s.sin gang and didn"t know where they were, so he wasn"t going to reply the question. As far as he was concerned, he didn"t know Samantha Osman or her gang, who he knew was Omotara Danjuma, Jefa"s sister.

"I see that you don"t want to talk, do you think we"re not aware that your memory is back?" Chief Rikau barked at him. "It"ll be good for you if you start talking to us now. Where are the other members of your gang?"

"I"m not in any gang, so I don"t know what you"re talking about." Henry replied.

Chief Rikau began to laugh softly, then he increased the loudness. Before Henry knew it, a heavy blow that made him begin to see stars landed on his face. That was the beginning of his torture.

________

**Two hours later**

Tarasha had kept her eyes glued to the laptop for the past three hours, she was expecting the police already, she believed they"ll soon be able to force out the truth from Henry, that was even if he didn"t tell them willingly.

She began to regret again not being able to kill Henry, now it would destroy a lot of her plans while Henry would likely be sentenced to death or a long term imprisonment if he was able to prove that he didn"t work with her group. Killing him herself would have even been a better option, for him and for her as it would have prevented Henry"s suffering.

Her eyes drifted away from the laptop"s screen as her phone vibrated on the table. She picked it up and answered the call. "h.e.l.lo brother."

"Tara, it"s three hours now and you"ve not called me. There has been no news of bomb blast anywhere, do you want me to go back to your house or just remain in mine?" Jefa asked impatiently.

"I"m sorry for lying to you, there"s no bomb anywhere. But there"s a problem; Henry has just been arrested for his alleged connection with the a.s.sa.s.sin group…"

"What?" Jefa exclaimed loudly but in a soft tone.

"Yes, he was arrested this morning." Tarasha reiterated. "Now since he has been staying in that house with us, the police may come there soon, that"s why I asked you to leave the place, I don"t want them to hara.s.s you."

"Hmm… So what are we going to do about Henry now?" Jefa asked, sounding less concerned about himself.

"Don"t worry, just stay there. I"ll come and get you soon." she said to him.

"Okay."

She heard a soft tap on the door immediately the call ended, she checked who was at the door before unlocking it with the control. "You may come in," she said.

Mr Sylvester opened the door and walked in recklessly, he looked tired and frustrated. He stopped midway and stared at Kimberly.

"Please, I need you to work on something very fast for me," he said after heaving a sigh.

"And what could that be sir?" Kimberly asked, standing up from her seat.

"The police has been calling for two hours now, they"ve asked us to trace Henry"s movement by all means. They say he"s not cooperating with them and they need to know where his movement for the past few days."

"But how can we do that sir? We won"t be able to do it since the cameras didn"t capture his face," she replied.

"But you once mentioned optimizing the system to ident.i.ty targets with their clothes," he paused to see her reaction. She was without defence. " Henry has been on the road since last night, if the cameras couldn"t identify his face, it could identify the clothes he had on."

"The probability of identifying him with his clothes is very low, light changes the colour of clothes too." she replied, unwilling to take the task.

"Why are you talking like this? You don"t feel like working today?"

"I don"t understand what you mean sir," she feigned ignorance.

"Have you forgotten that you already stated that one could identify targets if we know their clothes colour even in darkness?"

"I said so?" she asked, heaving a sigh of frustration. Mr Sylvester stared at her and shook his head in disbelief.

"Ermm… I don"t know what the matter is with me today," she said, trying to come up with an excuse. She held her forehead and winced in pain, "I have a throbbing headache," she said, picking up her phone and closing the laptop. "Please, I have to take a break from work today. I"ll be back tomorrow," she said and picked up her bag.

Without waiting for the man to permit her, she walked out of her office, leaving him to stand there alone and dumbfounded.

*

Tarasha was still in the compound of the NSCC office and was just about entering into her car when her phone rang. The call was from an unknown caller, a landline number.

"Tara," a weak voice called as she answered.

"Henry," she shouted in surprise and closed back the door. "I tried…"

"Shh…" Henry hushed her quickly, not wanting her to let out an information that would implicate her. "I have very limited time to speak with you and this call is being recorded," he said with a weak giggle, she knew he was trying to warn her. "Please, I need you to come and meet me here, I"m at the maximum security prison,Kuje. I need you to arrange for my lawyer, please come quickly so I can tell you everything you need to know. Also tell my mother that I"m fine and I"ll be coming to see her soon. I love you dear niece."

Tarasha felt hot tears in her eyes as the call ended, Henry sounded desperate to protect her. He even had to go as far as pretending that she was his cousin