Tarasha

door and back at Cole. She turned and walked to the

door, holding the gun in alertness. She peeped through

the door hole and saw the person knocking, she clenched

her left fist and gave an evil chuckle as she tightened her

grip against the door. Part of her felt like opening the

door and gunning him down immediately, the other part

felt like opening the door to embrace him. She stood

back and paused for a while.

"Answer the door, you should know how to handle him.

Return his phone to him. If he asks" she said to Cole as

she hurried back into her room. "Come with me" she

motioned Benny to follow pack the rest of the devices

and follow her, leaving only Henry"s phone.

Cole heaved a heavy sigh of relief. He made a sign of the

cross as he walked slowly to the door, whoever was at

the door was his saviour. He peeped through the door

hole but didn"t recognise the person at first. He opened

halfway and tucked out his head.

"h.e.l.lo" Henry said with a smile, trying to peep into the

house.

"Yes, what can I do for you?" Cole answered. He searched

the guy from head to toe with his eyes, then Henry"s face

came into his remembrance. He stepped out.

Henry scrutinized Cole"s face for a while and

remembered him clearly as the driver who drove them

to the birthday party.

Henry cleared his throat and began. "Good morning, I"ve

come to see Evelyn"

"Evelyn?" Cole pretended as if he didn"t hear properly. He

would have loved to say, "please come in, she really

needs you, that day she felt like dying after you left her."

But he couldn"t try it, majorly because of the tensed

atmosphere that the device he had taken in carelessly

just caused and he was also sure that the Boss wouldn"t

want to see Henry.

"Yes, where is Evelyn? The lady I accompanied to that

party"

"What party?" Cole feigned ignorance.

"Come on, you drove us in a Rover to late Chief Jubril"s

party and disappeared when the party ended in a

disaster" Henry defended himself in a strong tone.

"That was business, she was my client and only hired me

for that evening" Cole answered back.

"She"s only your client?" Henry asked.

Cole shook his head in affirmation.

"I need to see her" Henry added immediately, unshaken.

"I don"t know where she lives or where she is now. It was

her first time of hiring me, so I don"t have much details

about her"

Henry paused for a while and stared straight into Cole"s

eyes. "You"re not saying the truth" he slammed. "Just tell

me where she is, I need to see her for something

important"

Henry paused as someone opened the door and poked

out her head. She looked to Cole and then to Henry"s face

and back to Cole, her eyes expression asking for who

Henry was.

"I want to see Evelyn" Henry quickly said. Aisha feigned

ignorance and gave him a strange look. "Or you may

know her as Tara" Henry quickly added.

There was an expression of shock on both Aisha and

Cole"s faces. They mistook the Tara he called to be a short

form for Tarasha. But Cole could recognize that Henry"s

intonation was different and the way he called it made it

sound like a Yoruba name.

"Tara or Evelyn, she doesn"t know her" Cole replied,

arguing for Aisha.

Henry shook his head in disbelief. He had caught the

shocked expression on the faces and was more

convinced now that they were lying. "Why are you guys

hiding her? I need to see her for something important",

he repeated.

"Mister, we don"t know her. I told you already that she

only hired me for the party and that"s all" Cole slammed.

Aisha sighed and entered back into the house.

Henry shook his head and licked his lips, thinking of what

else to say. "Okay, I"ve been on the road trying to locate

this place for some hours now, can I at least come in to

have a drink? Maybe a cup of water" Henry pleaded.

"I don"t allow strangers into my house" Cole replied.

Henry gave a smile. "I"m not a stranger" he retorted. "You

know, I could be your client too and a very regular one at

that"

"Sorry sire, I"ve really got some other things to do" Cole

attempted to turn back.

"Okay, can I have my property?" Henry said, perceiving

that Cole was going to remain adamant.

"What property?"

"My phone, the one I forgot in your car" Henry a.s.serted.

Cole kept mute. "Don"t try to feign ignorance with that"

Henry warned. "It led me here and I know that it"s in this

house"

Cole stared at him awkwardly for a while. He turned back

and walked into the house locking the door immediately.

Henry quickly took out a bug from his pocket and

attached to the top edge of one of the pillars in the

balcony.

Cole returned a minute later with the phone, not noticing

anything, he handed it over to Henry immediately.

"Thanks" Henry stared at his phone with a smile. "You

work with her right?" He asked another question that kept

Cole dumbfounded for some seconds.

"I think its time to leave sire, you"re taking too much time

here" Cole said with a serious tone.

"It"s okay, I"ll leave" Henry said, tossing his phone from

one palm to another. "Tell her, I only came to pick her up

for service today. I"ll be back some other time, we still

have loads of stuffs to discuss" Henry said and turned to

take his leave.

"Don"t return here else I"ll do something terrible to you"

Henry could hear Cole threaten as he approached the old

weak gate. He paused and stared at the compound. The

place was neat but it looked very old, like a deserted

place that was being renovated. There was a blue car in

the compound and a mini van. There were also very old

building bricks arranged in one corner. Henry wondered

what a modern looking guy like Cole was doing in such

an environment. Henry cleared his throat and walked on.

He got into his car which was parked by the road beside

the house and settled in the driver"s seat, leaving the

door opened. He took his tablet device from the back

seat and unlocked it. He opened up an application to

monitor the bug he just planted. After some loading, the

streaming began, he could see Cole just turning back into

the house. He dropped the tablet on the right seat and

closed the door. He wasn"t sure Evelyn was in the house

but he was sure that the driver and his wife or girlfriend

knew her. But the bug he just placed there would help

him confirm that.

He took in a deep breath and remained in silence for a

while. He could hear some singing from around the

corner, a church was having the Sunday service.

His previous plan was to pick Evelyn and convince her to

follow him to his own church"s service but since he

didn"t get to see her, he decided to attend a church

nearby while he monitored the bug. He closed the door

and started the engine.

~~

After waiting for sometime after Henry walked out of the

gate, Cole opened the door slowly and entered back into

the house. Tarasha was seated on the arm rest of the

three seater sofa, her short gun was still in her hands, she

stared straight at him. There was an awkward silence of

over five minutes. Cole couldn"t move and Tarasha kept

an undecided look on him.

"Why did you take the phone?" Tarasha finally asked.

Cole felt stupid. He knew he shouldn"t have taken the

phone at all or he should have told her about it when she

didn"t ask. But the reason he was so interested in it was

the special technical qualities the phone seemed to have.

Little did he know that the owner of the device was also a

technical guru who was capable of delivering them to the

police by just that simple mistake. Cole could not answer

the question, words refused to come out of his mouth.

Tarasha narrowed his gaze at him sternly. But Cole still

felt little bit relieved. At least, she wasn"t looking like she

was still going to still kill him.

Tarasha stared back to the gun in her hand. She felt like

punishing Cole for what he had done. A bullet into his

right arm wouldn"t have been too cruel for his

punishment but she considered the new tasks ahead and

the fact that she might still be the one to treat the bullet

wound. She offloaded the gun and dropped it on the

chair, one of the two bullets rolled to the ground.

"So it was Henry right?"

"Yes" Cole answered. Tarasha let out a breath and her

shoulders fell. Henry could interpret the look on her face

as a wish that she could see him. He felt the temptation

to smile, but rebuked himself and stayed calm.

"Can you check if he"s still anywhere around?" She said to

Cole as she got up and walked to the front window. Cole

opened the door and walked into the compound. He

stared around the compound for a little while before

proceeding to the gate, he opened the unlockable gate

and peeped outside. Except for some building workers

walking around, he could only see tyre marks on the

sand. He closed the gate and returned into the house.

"He"s gone" he said to Tarasha who had already come out

to the balcony. She was searching everywhere with her

eyes. "Where did he stand?" She asked.

"Here" Cole answered, standing on the same spot Henry

stood.

"That guy is a crazy technician and developer, his

knowledge of this place could mean danger for us. We

need to leave here soon"

Tarasha kept looking around. She saw something at the

top edge of balcony pillar, it was hidden behind the

cobwebs. She felt stupid as she stared straight into the

bug before discovering what it was. She detached it from

the wall and dropped it on the floor, crushing it with her

foot.

"S--t! He has seen my face" she cursed. "Didn"t you see

this?" She barked angrily at Cole.

Cole stepped back in fear and gave way for her to walk

back inside through the door. He followed after her. "We

need to leave here immediately" she said, walking

hurriedly. "I don"t know how much time we have left" she

picked the gun and the bullet on the sofa. Cole was

standing still, he didn"t understand why they had to leave

but he couldn"t summon courage to ask like he would

have done normally. As far as he was concerned, Henry

was there only for her. They had covered all tracks on

their last operation, so there was no way it could be

traced to them. Henry had come to discuss his love issue

with her and that was all.

"Why are you standing there?" Tarasha returned back and

stared at him. She had taken off her top and had only her

bra and pant on.

"That guy" Cole began, moving closer to her slowly,

carefully choosing his words in his brain first so as not to

infuriate her again. "He said he came to pick you for

church service"

Tarasha stared at him awkwardly. Her anger was

beginning to arise again.

"He knows your name" Cole quickly added.

"What do you mean?" She narrowed her gaze at him.

"He called you Tara"

"What??" She exclaimed, more like a whisper, looking

shocked. "Where the h.e.l.l did he get that from?"

Cole stared at her in surprise, surprised that she was

surprised. He thought she was the one who told him the

name since he a.s.sumed they had begun a love affair.

"Whatever, we need to leave here now" Tarasha said and

moved closer to the sofa, she picked the bullet on the

floor.

"I think you"re in love with him" Cole mustered enough

courage to say as she turned back. He held his breath

antic.i.p.ating what could befall him.

"What??" Tarasha turned back angrily, it was as if Cole just

stirred the devil in her. Cole could see her anger in her

eyes and he began to tremble immediately. He began to

step back slowly as she proceeded towards him. There

was no gun in her hands and the door was still opened

for Cole to run outside but he knew his attempt would be

fruitless. So he knelt down in an attempt to plead.

A knock sounded on the door.

"Evelyn, come on, I know you are in there" Henry"s voice

rang in.