Tarasha

"Good morning Tarasha" a harsh voice

responded.

"Chief, have you gotten the stuff you asked me

to get? I dropped it in the car parked in front of

your office according to our plan"

"Yes, I"ve seen it" the voice answered

"You"ve seen it? But why haven"t you called me

then? You didn"t keep your part of the deal"

"What deal?"

"What do you mean Chief? Didn"t you say that I

would get the bank alert for my balance two

hours after you get the carton?"

"Yes I said that, but you broke the agreement

first"

"What? How?"

"You said you would do the job without killing

anybody"

"Yes, I didn"t drop anyone"

"But it was all over the news yesterday, all the

labourers at the warehouse were found dead

yesterday"

"That wasn"t me, that happened in the

afternoon. I carried out the job around 3am"

"How am I supposed to believe that you really

did the job by 3am?"

"What the h.e.l.l are you talking about Chief?"

Tarasha flared up. "I see you don"t want to keep

to your part of the deal?"

"I will send you the balance once I"m sure that it

wasn"t you that carried out the killings" the call

ended.

Tarasha was fuming with anger as she dropped

the phone, it wasn"t as if the balance meant so

much to her but she was angry at the obvious

fact that the Chief only wanted to cheat her

and she wouldn"t take that from anyone. She

checked her wall clock and pondered for a while

before shr picked up a pistol and a mask from

her bedside and stormed out of the house.

She tapped a b.u.t.ton on the remote control and

the door to the driver"s seat of her Zently 2027

model opened. She slid into the car and the

door closed back automatically, she inserted two

bullets into the revolver and hid it safely under

the car seat after which she started the car

engine and drove towards the gate which

opened automatically and closed after she was

out of the compound.

She drove as fast as possible, hissing every

time she had to stop because of traffic signals

and other road users. After almost an hour

drive, she got to Gravl Avenue, she parked at a

very far distance to the Chief"s house.

She gave a wicked smile as she glanced at her

wrist.w.a.tch. In few minutes, the driver and the

bodyguard that accompanied the Chief youngest

daughter to school would be returning. She took

the revolver from where she hid it and kept it in

her purse, reason that she wasn"t properly

dressed; the clothes she wore would show signs

of the gun if pocketed.

She got out of the car , carefully making sure

no pa.s.serby was watching or noticing her and

she walked a distance closer to the Chief"s

house.

With her dark goggles on, she stayed by the

side of the road and placed one hand on her

waist, acting like one who was waiting for a

cab. After two minutes, she sighted the driver

and bodyguard from afar, returning in the car.

As they came closer, she started to walk

through the road pretending not to see the

coming car. She got the driver confused as he

struggled to bring the car to a halt but not after

he had gotten so close, almost hitting her.

"What"s wrong with you ma"am? Didn"t you see a

car was coming?" The driver shouted angrily at

her.

"I"m sorry" she pleaded, holding her chest like

someone who was deeply horrified. She turned

to the driver"s side to apologize.

"You should be careful next time" the driver

continued, more calmly now.

"I"m sorry" she said, gasping for breath and

coughing as sweat drop from her face in the hot

sun. "I think I"ve lost my way, I was going to

Eden hair salon at Gravl Avenue"

"You"re at Gravl avenue already, just walk a little

bit further and you"ll find it by your left side"

"Please can you give me a lift there?" She

pleaded.

"Okay yes" the driver replied, looking at the

bodyguard by his side who shrugged in

confirmation. "Enter the back seat"

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

+++++

Inspector James sat on a chair facing a man on

the hospital bed, the only survivor of the

warehouse attack. The man was conscious and

was talking already, narrating all he knew about

the attack.

"So you don"t know any of those who attacked

you people?" James interrogated

"Yes, I"ve never seen any of them before" the

injured man replied, he had a bandage tied

round his forehead and one round his belly.

"And they were not thieves?"

"Yes, they were not thieves. I believe they were

looking for something, they said a carton was

missing among the goods they collected last

night"

"Last night? Which goods?"

"I overheard them saying something about 3am"

"3am? Do you people work overnight?"

"Sometimes, we fill up some cartons and

arrange them overnight but I"m not aware that

something like that was supposed to happen

last night"

"Who was supposed to be on duty last night"

"Ermm… No one, except the security men"

"But the security men have been killed already,

who else was on duty?"

"No the two security men that was killed

yesterday were not the ones on shift that night"

"Oh! I see, do you know how we can reach

them?"

"No, I have no relationship with them, we only

greet when resuming and vacating the office"

"I think its enough already" the Doctor

interrupted as he walked in. "He needs rest"

"It"s okay" James replied the Doctor and stood

up, he turned back to the injured man.

"We"re really sorry for what has happened and

we promise to get to the root of this as soon as

possible. Thank you for your cooperation, we"ll

contact you as soon as we need your help

again, I wish you a quick recovery" he said and

walked out of the ward with the other officer.

"But what do you think that hoodlums would

want in a beverage warehouse?" James asked

his colleague as they proceeded out of the

hospital to their car.

"I don"t know, I think the best people to give us

the answer would be the security men on duty

that night" he answered.

"Okay, what you would do now is to go back to

the warehouse and check their logs, we need to

get those men" James instructed. "I believe they

know about the incident"

"Ok, I"ll just go straightaway sir"

"Good, we also have to be on the lookout for the

manager Mr. Felix, there are still no signs of

him everywhere"

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++

**11am

"Tarasha! " Chief Gab called out immediately the

call was answered.

"h.e.l.lo Chief" she replied in a cheerful voice.

"Tarasha! How come you went that far on a little

issue?"

"Was that Chief?" She asked mockingly. "Or have

you seen my gift?"

"Tarasha, you shouldn"t have gone that far. I

was going to send the money to you"

"Alright" she answered more seriously now. "I

should get the alert in the next fifteen minutes

else your daughter would be in danger too"

"No o, Tarasha. Don"t try that at all, that would

be big trouble for you" the Chief tried to sound

brave.

"You"re the one who shouldn"t try me Chief,

send the money within fifteen minutes after this

call ends"

"Okay, I will see what I can do"

"Huh?"

"I said I"ll see what I can do"

"Don"t play pranks Chief, if you think you can

move your child out of the school and stop me

from reaching her, then you better think twice

because I can already see that your men are

outside the school gate and there"s no way

they"ll escape me"

"What!" The Chief was in shock. "How did you

know that?"

"Let me get the alert quickly" She said and

ended the conversation.

The Chief was in panic as he dropped the

phone. He wondered how Tarasha knew that he

had already sent men to safeguard his

daughter. He wasted no time as he picked up

his tablet device and transferred the remaining

balance of ten million naira to Tarasha"s

account and called her immediately to notify

her.

"I just sent the money"

"Good, I received the message alert already" she

replied him.

"So is my daughter free now?"

"Of course, I have nothing to use her for" she

said with a chuckle.

"Okay, we need to see. I have some other jobs

for you and I need to explain to you personally"

"We"ll see on Skype"

"Huh? I need to meet with you, I need to see

who I"m working with"

"I don"t think there"s any need for that, we see

on Skype already, isn"t it?"

"But you"re always wearing a mask to hide your

face"

"No, that"s my face you see; that"s Tarasha"s

face" she added.

"What do you mean?" Chief Gab questioned.

"The face behind that mask doesn"t have any

business to do with you" she said with a strict

voice.

"I …"

"If you don"t mind Chief, I"ve got some other

things to do" she interrupted him and ended the

call.

"D--n" he cursed as he put down the phone. He

held his jaw with his hand, remembering how he

had been told to deal with her carefully.

He was calm after reminding himself that he

couldn"t get angry with Tarasha now, he still

needed her in the work he had to do; his

revenge mission.

He recalled his younger days as the minister of

marketing and sales before he was sentenced

to ten years imprisonment for drug trafficking

and management of the country"s funds after

being probed and found guilty by the new

government at that period. He was angry and

determined to punish all the government

officials that aided his arrest and conviction

especially those who were also involved in

some of the illegal businesses he did.

With the little he had seen Tarasha exhibit and

the way Vladislav had spoken about her, he

concluded that Tarasha would be of great

importance to him in his revenge mission which

was even the sole reason he had paid Vladislav

several billions to send her down to Nigeria.

"Hey" he called out to one of his guards who

stood at the doorside in the sitting room. "Tell

Edet to come here immediately"

The guard went out and returned with a very tall

dark man with a slender body. The man bowed

in courtesy to the Chief.

"You called for me sir"

"Yes, I did" Chief begun, "two of our guys were

killed this morning and I was told you were the

one who saw it happening live from the

surveillance cameras"

"Yes sir, I alerted them downstairs immediately"

"Yes, but I was told that the person left before

they got to the gate"

"Yes, it was a Lady…"

"Shhhh… Don"t worry" the Chief shut him up,

standing up from his seating position. "Let"s go,

I want to see the video footage myself"

"Okay sir" Edet replied as he led the Chief to the

security room.

Chief Gab spotted himself on a laptop screen as

he entered into the room, that laptop was the

one connected to the camera in the room. He

looked around the room to check if any change

had been made to the room since the last two

months he visited. The only change he noticed

was that the room was darker than before as no

bulb was turned on and would have been

completely dark if not for the reflections of light

from the several desktop screens in the room.

He sat down and rested properly into the chair

he was motioned to and faced the desktop as

Edet tried to open some files.

"Here"s it sir" Edet explained as a video played.

"She wasn"t wearing mask when she drove to

the gate, but she wore the mask before she

came out of the car; that was when I suspected

something"

"Take it back to where she was in the car" Chief

Gab said as he watched with great interest.

"Here" Edet rewinded a little, then zoomed the

video. "Only her jaw is visible, the rest of her

face wasn"t captured by the camera; from this

we know her skin colour"

"Okay, play on"

"She wore a mask and came out of the car, I

don"t know how she knew where our camera

was placed" Edet explained as the video showed

Tarasha with her mask on, facing the camera.

She pointed to the part of the mask which

covered her forehead, showing them the name

"Tarasha" which was inscribed on it.

"So we can"t get any useful information from

this?" The Chief asked angrily.

"We know her complexion" Edet answered.

"Are you crazy? Do you know how many people

in this city alone has the same complexion?"

The Chief slammed.

"I"m sorry sir"

"Sorry for yourself" Chief Gab hissed and left the

room.