++++Henry still sat on his seat, lost in his own
thoughts. He wondered why Tarasha had
brought him to the party to abandon him and
follow another guy, deceiving him that they
went on exhibition. But… The kiss earlier that
day. Was it fake? No, he felt it was real. He had
never felt more real in his life.
He inhaled deeply as he poured some wine
into the cup. He gulped it down immediately
and began to stare into the empty cup, making
faces as if someone was speaking to him from
the cup.
He shook his head vigorously. Was the
alcoholic wine already having effect on him.
No, it couldn"t be. He had not taken too much
yet. He rested his hand on the table and
rested his chin on his palm, thinking of what to
do.
After some seconds of hesitation, he finally
got up and stretched his cloth, about to head
for the exhibition to see if Evelyn was really
there.
His eyes met someone walking towards his
direction and discussing with another man as
he turned back and left his chair. He quickly
ran back to his chair and sat. He tried to cover
a part of his face with one palm. The man
came closer and sat at the table just behind
Henry with his discussant. Henry could not
stand up for the fear of being recognised.
++++++
Benny folded his arms and glued his gaze to
the stage. He was the only one standing
without a partner or a group of friends at the
back. The security man following him had left
and was nowhere to be found. Benny did not
try to find out who he was, he remained calm
but alert, ready to handle any situation that
may require urgency.
A familiar scent drew closer to him, he
couldn"t place where he knew the scent from.
He looked around to see but found no one and
nothing familiar. He returned his gaze to the
party stage.
Benny could feel someone standing by his side
but he didn"t care to look, he already saw the
tray the person was holding and he was sure
that it was one of the drinks servers.
"h.e.l.lo sir, you care for champagne?" A familiar
voice asked.
"No, thanks" Benny took a quick glance at her
before rejecting her offer. He paused. He
dropped his folded arms and her question
played back in his mind. The voice. He turned
back to her.
Benny opened his mouth wide in shock on
seeing. She was frowning at him. "Aisha! "He
exclaimed. "I think that there"s now need for a
law banning makeups in the country. I didn"t
almost recognize you anymore"
"Shhh…" Aisha hushed him. "You shouldn"t still
recognize me. I just came to serve you drinks"
Benny nodded in understanding. He took a
gla.s.s cup and took the champagne bottle to
pour some of the contents. "So what are you
doing here?"
"Wrong question" Aisha replied him, watching
as Benny took a sip. "You should ask me why
I"ve come to you" she said as she brought out a
paper. She pushed in the paper into Benny"s
hand after making sure that no one was
watching them.
"Boss says you should kill the man if she
doesn"t give any other instruction in thirty
minutes "
"D--n!" He almost spilled the drink on his
body. "How does she want me to do ? How
would I get to the front where he"s seated, kill
him and get away with all those bodyguards
around there?" He dropped back the cup on
the tray.
"Here" Aisha dipped her hand into her pocket
and handed out a nylon to Benny.
Benny eyes shone as he opened the nylon
slightly. There was also a nose mask in it. "A
grenade? We gonna bomb the whole place?"
"No, check well. It"s not a bomb"
"Where did you get it from?" Benny asked,
after confirming that it was different.
"Boss prepared it yesterday by herself and
gave it to me when we met. All instructions on
how to use it are in the paper I gave you"
Benny took out the paper and opened to read.
"You shouldn"t do that here" Aisha cautioned
him. He quickly returned it into his pocket.
"There"s a bag in the male toilet , labeled B, it
has a gun inside and a extra cloth for the boss.
Make sure you get the cloth to her
immediately after everything is done"
Aisha walked away immediately without
looking back. Benny took a deep breath. He
checked round to see if anyone was watching.
++++
Dare led Evelyn silently up the stairs. They got
to a section with a corridor of about forty
metres long. Tarasha could sight four doors
each on both sides as she got to the landing.
Two uniformed security men stood in the
corridor, each carrying long guns and having a
short gun each by the left side. The first stood
in between the first and second rooms while
the second stood in between the third and
fourth. Before the entrance of the corridor
was a tag on the lintel.
"Out of bounds to non security cameras
officials"
The men turned to face Tarasha and Dare as
they approached. On seeing Dare, they
remained calm.
Dare and the first security man greeted each
other with a nod while Tarasha smiled at the
man. As they walked past the man, his phone
rang.
Tarasha began to reduce her walking speed
gradually, forcing Dare to also reduce his. He
paused and stared at her for an explanation.
"Where are we going to?" Tarasha asked him.
"Come on" he tried to fake a smile. "We"ll use
one of the rooms here"
"But these rooms are not bedrooms" she
argued. At this time, they were standing in
between the doors of the second rooms. She
glanced at the room by the right. It was
jammed with a padlock, and with the other
doors that had pa.s.sed.
"We are going to the third one" Dare said,
pointing to the third door by the right. Tarasha
stared at the door. "Control Unit." She turned
her gaze to the third left door.
"Come on, move" Dare spoke harshly before
she tried arguing with him again. His face was
filled with wrath. "You think I"m a fool?"
He stretched forth his hands to grab her by the
shoulder but she held his hand and twisted it.
Dare screamed in pain, his arms had been left
useless. The security man had finished with his
call and was walking towards Tarasha and Dare.
Tarasha added a blow to forehead sending him
sprawling on the floor. The security man
pointed his gun at her.
"I"ll blow off your head if you move" he
warned
She raised up her two hands as if to surrender
and was stepping back slowly as the man
moved closer.
"Stop" he commanded and she did. She could
hear the footsteps of the security man her
back approaching.
"Put your hands behind you" the second
security man said detaching a handcuff from
his belt.
He got closer and held her hand to fix the
handcuff. Tarasha sent a heavy back-kick to his
g---n and dipped her left hand into his side to
remove the pistol. She sent a bullet into the
first security man"s chest before he could c--k
his gun and concluded with the second with the
b.u.t.t of the gun on his head.
"Bravo! Bravo!" Afo and Blade clapped their
hands, approaching from the main entrance of
the corridor where she and Dare pa.s.sed
through.
"Who are you young lady?" Afo asked
mockingly.
"I"m your nightmare" she answered. She stood
opened her purse which she had attached
through the handle to her hand and took out
something like a scissors.
"Ha ha ha" Afo laughed in reply. He stopped
and began to sound serious again. "We"ve been
watching you all through and we know what
you"ve got in that purse. Who are you and what
do you really want?"
"I don"t have time to chat" Tarasha answered. "I
don"t have any business with both of you. I"ve
forgiven you for kidnapping me" she smiled. "I
only want to do something in your security
cameras room"
"Oh dear! You only want to do something in our
security cameras room" Afo mimicked, he and
Blade walking slowly towards her. Both of
them paused to look at Dare who was still
wincing in pain on the floor. They ignored him
and continued. "Why do you think its called
security? You think anyone can just enter and
do something?"
"I don"t want to do it with force" she said.
Afo smiled. "But we can"t help you with that.
We don"t have access to the place also"
"You do" Tarasha pointed at Blade.
"He was in the security cameras office few
minutes ago"
"Me?" Blade stared at her mockingly. He
stopped walking and Afo stopped after him
and took out his gun. They were standing both
few centimeters to her.
"I placed a tracker on you when you came with
Dare to the restroom" she smiled back
mockingly.
Blade began to check his clothes for the
tracker, Afo too was distracted and began to
search Blade"s body with his eyes.
In a split second, Tarasha cut down her gown
from the chest with the scissors she had taken
out. She removed it from her body and threw
it at them covering their faces. She sprayed
the duo with bullets from the gun she
collected from security man. Blade went down
immediately while the mighty Afo still
struggled to stand. He took the cloth off his
face and tried to raise his gun up. Tarasha
finished him off with a bullet into his
forehead.
"That easy" Tarasha smiled and murmured to
herself as she turned back. She had striped
herself to an inner singlet, and a b.u.m short.
She emptied some of the contents of her
purse into the pockets of the shorts.
She turned back again on hearing a sound.
Dare was still on the floor. She hissed and sent
a bullet to his head.
She headed for the third room which had the
"Control Unit" tag. Ready for the last phase, all
she needed was to erase from the database all
the cameras had captured that day and also
deactivate for some hours to allow them
complete the task without recording.
She touched the door k.n.o.b, it was opened. She
didn"t know someone was in, waiting and
prepared for her.