Tarasha

Chief Gab stood up from his office seat to take

off his suit, he hung it behind the seat and

loose his tie as he sat back into the swivel. He

heaved a sigh of relief as he rested his back

and hands on the support, the rotating chair,

turning him from side to side. He had gotten so

much good news that day. At first it was

Tarasha who called him very early in the

morning to inform him that the job would be

finally executed that day, then just some

minutes after Chief Nonso also called to tell

him that one of their illegal business deals had

yielded millions of naira.

His phone rang for the third time that day,

disrupting his thoughts, the caller was his friend

Nonso. Gab wondered what the reason was for

the call, they had just discussed some few

minutes ago and he didn"t expect Chief Nonso

to call him again so soon.

"h.e.l.lo" came Chief Nonso"s impatiently, with a

hoa.r.s.e voice

"h.e.l.lo Chief" Gab replied.

"Where are you now?" Chief Nonso asked a silly

question.

"We spoke some minutes ago" Gab reminded

him, "I"m in my office"

"Switch on your TV now" Nonso said with a note

of urgency. "There"s something you need to see

on AIT"

"Ehen" Gab got up from the seat immediately.

He headed for the section of his office where

he received visitors, still placing the phone on

his ear. "What"s there?" He asked Nonso.

"Have you switched on the TV?"

"Yes" Gab sat on the sofa, dropping the remote

control beside him.

"See for yourself, I"ll call you later" Nonso said

and the line went off.

"… the ident.i.ty of the imposter is unknown yet

but the police are after her and would surely

get her soon" A reporter was saying. An

airplane was shown and some bodies were

being carried out from it into special

ambulances. A young pilot was also shown

being escorted away by some police officers.

"The Governor and the suspect is yet to be

found, it is greatly feared that this is a case of

kidnap but the police and other security officials

are working hard and they promise to find the

Governor and bring him back safely before the

end of the day. I"m Nw.a.n.ko Vivian reporting

from Rivers State, AIT news" the reporter

concluded. A newscaster heaved a sigh and

continued with the other news headlines.

Chief Gab gave an evil simile as he picked up

his phone and swiped in the pattern. He opened

his notification bar and saw several messages

from different news apps. They all carried the

same breaking news of the governor"s kidnap.

He opened the Punch newspaper app and read

the article in details.

++++++

* Aviation School, Port Harcourt. 12.30pm *

Inspector Dakolo sat on a stool facing the

distressed Jude who was made to sit on a more

comfortable chair with a back and armrest.

They were in the schools security room with

two other officers and some of the school"s

security men clad in their yellow and black

uniform. Jude was still in his pilot"s uniform but

he was unrecognizable in it, he looked like

someone who was the only survivor in a

nationwide war.

Dakolo was already looking stressed out

himself, his neatly tucked in shirt had flown out

and the waistcoat was unb.u.t.toned too. Apart

from the disfigured ID card he had found in the

plane, he found no other useful lead.

"You have to tell us everything you know about

this" Dakolo warned, "you could be in serious

trouble and charged to court for being an

accomplice in the crime"

"Where"s my sister?" Jude asked, ignoring

Dakolo"s threat.

"I told you before" Dakolo slammed, "your sister

is fine, she"s safe with the police"

"Where"s she?" Jude pushed further,

unintimidated by Dakolo. He said amidst tears,

"If she"s dead, then I"ve lost everything already"

Dakolo got up from the stool, making a phone

call, he realized that Jude wasn"t going to say

anything until he was sure his sister was safe.

"h.e.l.lo officer, where"s she?" Dakolo spoke into

the phone. He took a look at Jude after some

seconds of silence "please give her the phone,

her brother wants to speak with her"

Jude collected the phone hurriedly, his hand

shaking as he placed it on his ears. Tears

flowed down his eyes as he heard his sister"s

voice, "are you okay?" He asked and waited for

a reply and heard a soft voice reply "yes" before

he continued. "I promise I"m never going to

allow anything bad happen to you again"

Jude spoke with his sister for few more

seconds before he handed back the phone.

"Would you speak now?" Dakolo said, taking

back his position on the stool.

"I never knew her until few days ago" Jude

began, "we meet very early in the morning

during the exercise hours and she introduced

herself as a fresher"

Dakolo listened with rapt attention as Jude

relayed to him how he met with Gloria. "Did you

ever try to confirm if she really was one of the

hundred Level students?"

"No, I had no reason to doubt her. She was

always putting on an ID card" Jude answered.

"Did you ever see her with any other student?"

"Yes" Jude replied, stressing the word as he

tried to remember. "I saw her with a girl on the

day we met and when we discussed in the

cla.s.s"

"Do you know this girl you"re talking about? Do

you know her name?"

"No, but I can recognize her if we see. Gloria

never mentioned her name "

"Okay" Dakolo paused for a while and then

continued, "did you ever suspect anything when

you were around her?"

"Just on two occasions" Jude said after thinking

for a minute. "On the first day we met in her

cla.s.s, she was supposed to be on the practical

ground with other year one students"

"And which day was the second?" Dakolo asked

impatiently.

"Two days ago" he said thoughtfully. "She asked

me to explain a particular topic to her"

"What happened?"

"I really don"t know" Jude looked puzzled, "I

don"t know how I got to my hostel that day, I

woke up feeling an headache the next morning"

"What else did you notice that was strange?"

"The other thing I noticed was my …" His

volume reduced, his eyes widened. "My ID card"

"What happened to your ID card?" Dakolo pushed

on with great interest.

"I hung it on my neck that day but later found it

in my bag" Jude said.

"Maybe you kept it there yourself, you said you

don"t remember how you got home that day"

"I could have kept it in my bag without knowing,

but…" He gave another long pause. "It was in a

position I never keep things; that means

someone took it off my neck and kept it in the

bag for me"

"Why…" Officer Dakolo"s phone rang, interrupting

their conversation. "Yes… What?"

Dakolo ended the call after receiving what

seemed to be a urgent message, he looked at

Jude to ask a final question. He brought out a

broken card from his pocket and showed it to

Jude, " who owns this ID card" he asked.

"Samatha Osman" Jude muttered under his

breath, he squinted as he tried to read the

other details. "I don"t know, I never came

across anyone with that name"

"Okay" Dakolo turned in a hurry, he signaled to

an officer to take care of Jude and for another

to follow him out.

+++++++

*Lagos Nigeria, 1pm*

Officers James and Segun stood behind a

computer operator, looking into something the

man was showing them on the screen. James

had one of his hands placed on the table as he

bent to have a clear view of the screen. The

screen displayed several thin lines of different

colours which all met at the same point.

"The person who installed the bug is a

professional, it keeps directing me to a proxy

and port in Russia" the computer operator said.

"Can you find out who operates from the port?"

James questioned

The operator gave a short smile. "The position

here has been located already" he said, referring

to the point where all the lines met.

"Yes, where exactly in Russia is it?" James

interest rose

"Grand kremlin Palace, Moscow" the operator

said bluntly.

"Huh?" James eyes widened in shock, he stood

up straight and glanced at Segun who also

looked surprised. "Are you sure of what you"re

saying?"

"Is that not where the Russian president stays?"

Segun interjected.

"Yes, that"s the official house for the president"

the operator replied, he turned back to stare at

his superiors" faces. "I was surprised when I

saw it first, but then I realized that someone is

just fooling with us"

James looked defeated as he stepped back and

sank into a plastic chair. He heaved a sigh of

frustration, "Is there no hope of finding the real

location?"

"I don"t know yet, the criminal must have used a

powerful software to adjust the server location"

"So what do we do now?" Segun joined in.

"Good afternoon officers" Sandra interrupted

their discourse, walking into the room with a

serious look. "Have you listened to the news

this afternoon?"

Her question got a reply of awkward stares

from the trio. "The Rivers State Governor has

been kidnapped" she announced after looking at

each of their faces one after the other.

"What?"

"Yes, he was kidnapped this morning by an

unidentified girl" she continued, feeling fulfilled

as she was the first to break the news to them.

"A girl?"

"But he was supposed to launch an airplane

today" Segun countered.

"He was kidnapped in the plane" she added

quickly, "the kidnapper disguised as one of the

pilots"

Interesting, I never thought such a thing could

happen in Rivers State with the level of security

that it has now attained with new IG and

Inspector Dakolo" James commented, "well, we

have also a serious task before us, lets pray for

the governor and hope he"s safe"

++++++++++

1.45pm

**Onne, Rivers State**

Cole drove through the pathway surrounded by

bushes, following the direction given to them by

the map. He had stopped several times to ask

for directions from people but had been

misdirected twice due to his wrong

p.r.o.nunciation of the address. A community

came into view as he got to a junction, he

could see several houses and people walking

by. He saw a group of people rushing towards a

specific direction, most of them were in haste

as if they got a glimpse of something very

spectacular.

He took a look at his tracking map again and

confirmed he was very close to Tarasha"s

location. The compa.s.s pointed him to the same

direction he saw people heading for, he turned

and drove slowly towards the place. Not too

long after, he got a clear view of where the

people were headed for, he parked the car at a

far distance to where people were gathered and

came out of the car with Aisha.

They followed the direction of the compa.s.s

until they got close to a river bank. A crowd of

villagers were seen gossiping around the river

with about five police vans surrounding the

place, the villagers kept a reasonable distance

from the officers.

Cole halted and warned Aisha not to move

further, they stood under a tree where some

other people were seen standing and discussing

about the matter but took care not to go close

to them to avoid raising suspicion. The villagers

were discussing in a native language so nothing

could be made out of their discussion.

After waiting for some minutes, Cole and

Aisha"s confidence grew as they saw several

other people dressed in a civilized manner like

them moving close to the scene. As they

proceeded further, not less than fifteen police

officers were seen questioning individuals or

discussing with each other and taking notes.

Cole took a look at the compa.s.s again and it

pointed to a direction where about five police

officers were gathered.

His heart skipped a beat as he realized that the

compa.s.s was leading them right in front of the

officers, the target was in an ambulance and

the officers were just at the front of the

vehicle. Aisha nudged him to give an

explanation on seeing panic all over him, she

held on to one of his arms and looked into his

face.

"I"m afraid something terrible has happened" He

said shakily. "We have to get out of here

immediately"

"What?" Aisha asked him as they took a

backward turn.

The compa.s.s is leading us into the ambulance"

Cole said, he drew her back as she was walking

too fast. "We have to walk back slowly like we

came so that we don"t attract anyone"s

attention" he scolded.

"Okay, you"ve not told me what it is" Aisha

decreased her pace hesitatingly.

"If the tracker is still on Tarasha, then she must

have been caught by the police" Cole

expatiated. "The tracker is leading us into the

ambulance, that means the person that it was

attached to is also in the ambulance"

The news frightened Aisha and she increased

her pace rapidly again only to be cautioned

seriously by Cole. "If someone notices us here,

you"ll have yourself to blame" Cole warned in a

low but strict voice as he pulled her back again.

A heavily built man in a native attire was seen

approaching with an entourage of guards

surrounding him, the crown on his head hinted

Cole and Aisha that the King of the town was

the one approaching. There were other men

who were dressed like him, in their native

attires too; they looked like the Chiefs. They all

seemed embattled as they hurried to the river

bank.

Cole and Aisha halted and stepped aside as the

other villagers did for their king and his

entourage to pa.s.s before going further. Cole

decided to talk to someone before they leave

the place, he looked around for someone who

looked a little civilized and would be able to

communicate well in English Language.

"h.e.l.lo sir" he greeted a teenager politely.

"Chai! h.e.l.lo" the shirtless young man replied ,

folding his arms.

"Have you been here since?" Cole asked.

"Yes oooo" he answered, looking very ready to

grant them an interview if they needed one.

"What really happened?"

The boy carefully directed Cole and Aisha to a

corner devoid of pa.s.sers and began to relay

what he had heard, his accent made him less

audible. "I wasn"t there o, but my friend said

they saw something coming from heaven with

an Umbrella. They said the strange thing

became a person before it dropped in the river"

"Ehen?" Aisha was getting impatient with his

long narration.

"All the ladies that was fetching water in the

river at that time became scared and ran away

before it dropped in the river, they said that it

changed into three or four people after it fell

into the river. Some of them even say they saw

six or seven" the boy continued enthusiastically.

"The only man that was at the river that time

went closer and he said he noticed movement

in the river. They later brought out two bodies

from the River; one was a woman"s body and

the other was a man"s body"

So what happened?" Cole urged him to continue.

"They brought out the two bodies; Professor

says the woman is a pilot while the man looks

like our governor. Oga police was the one who

called the other policemen and they came into

the village some minutes later with their big big

cars" the boy continued, describing "big big" with

his hands.

"Oh! Thank you very much" Cole said, patting

the boy on the shoulder as he ran to join his

peers.

His heart was heavy as he turned to Aisha, "we

have to get out of here immediately" she said

and began to hurry towards the car

Cole stood dumbfounded, he couldn"t accept

the fact that Tarasha had gone down so easily,

he brought out his phone again and the

compa.s.s was still referring to the same

direction. He felt a sharp pain in his heart as he

trudged after Aisha to the car.