Dakolo posed in front of the mirror to check his dressingand make sure that nothing was out of place. His well
fitted black suit made him look smart as usual, he was
wearing a white shirt under and a dark blue tie. He took a
small comb from his box which he had already arranged
and combed his medium height hair forward. He
returned the comb and straightened up his jacket, he
looked into the mirror once more before picking up his
box and phone. His phone rang just in time.
"Agent Dakolo, are you at the Rivers" airport already?"
Officer Ken"s voice came through.
"No officer" Dakolo smiled, "I"m already in Abuja, I"ll be in
the headquarters in few minutes time"
"In Abuja already?" Officer Ken exclaimed in a surprise
tone. "Are you at the Abuja airport then?"
"No, I"m not. Don"t bother about me" Dakolo smiled. "I
know my way around, I"ll meet you in the office. Is the IG
there already?"
"No, he isn"t but he"ll be with us in few minutes also"
Officer Ken answered.
"Okay, until we see then" Dakolo ended the call and
opened the dial pad for a new call. He dialed the cabman,
Clement"s number.
"Where are you now?" He asked.
"I just drove in" Clement answered.
~~Twenty five minutes later ~~
Dakolo and the cab man drove into the large compound
of the police headquarters after thorough searching at
the gate. Dakolo was seated in front with him and they
chatted all through the journey like friends until they got
to their destination.
The cab man who was surprised when Dakolo asked him
to turn into the police headquarters was more surprised
on seeing several high ranked police officials stop to
greet Dakolo as they drove into the gate. It was his first
time of entering the place but his surprise robbed him of
the chance to notice the other beautiful sites in the
compound. He began to stare at Dakolo"s face
suspiciously.
Dakolo smiled on seeing his confused look. "Sorry, I
didn"t tell you I"m a member of the police force"
The cab man glanced at him, the look on his face
expressed his demand for more explanation.
"My younger brother is the contractor really, it was his
business card I gave you" Dakolo explained further. "My
promise to get jobs for you when you go back to your
carpentry work is still on. I"ll ensure that my brother
works with you"
The cab man stared at him more awkwardly without
saying any word. He drove as he was being directed by a
police officer into the garage. After about two minutes,
they finally parked the car.
"Thanks" Dakolo said, bringing out his wallet from his
jacket"s inner pocket. He began to count. "Since you
know everywhere around, I"ll be calling you often, hope
you"ll be available"
"I"ll try" Clement answered less enthusiastically. His focus
was more on the cash Dakolo was counting. Dakolo
finally counted triple of the fare and handed it over to
him.
"Oh! Thanks" Clement received the money joyfully. "Just
call me anytime, I"ll be available to take you anywhere" he
said.
Dakolo smiled and got out of the car. A crowd of highly
ranked officers had come to welcome him, the IG was
also there. A junior officer took out his box from the
back seat.
"Agent Dakolo" the IG saluted on seeing him. Dakolo
saluted back and received the man"s handshake with his
two hands to show curtsy. "Welcome"
"Thank you sir" Dakolo replied with a smile, also
responding to the greetings from other officers.
The Inspector General, Rikau Waziri was dressed in dark
suit too, he also had a white shirt under but was without
a tie. Aged 51, Rikau was of average height and a very
dark complexion. He had a bald head, his face had scars
on it, a result of several fights he had engaged in when he
was younger. The rest of the officers were dressed in
their uniforms.
"Why didn"t you tell us the exact time you were coming?
We were making arrangements to come for you at the
airport"
"I had to come earlier to do something sir" Dakolo said
briefly. He took a back glance at the cab man who was
just driving off and smiled.
"It"s okay" the IG said and they began to proceed into the
main building. "Hope your journey wasn"t stressful"
"Not at all sir, it was stress free"
"Good" the IG smiled as they climbed up the short stairs
into the building. Dakolo looked around, surprised at the
number of officers who were present at the office on a
Sunday morning. Officer Ken noticed his surprise.
"They all have to be here because of the security issues
we"re having right now" Ken explained with a smile.
Dakolo nodded and smiled. The crowd of officers began
to decrease gradually as they walked past the several
offices and sections. They finally got to a room with the
tag "H 4". Ken brought out an access card and opened
the door. It was a room where top officials held their
meetings. The remaining three officers and the IG
entered the room with Dakolo.
The room which was painted white all through was not
too large but conducive enough for a meeting. There was
a rectangular table in the middle and ten chairs were
round the table. Light refreshments had been served on
the table already. The IG took the seat at the front corner
which was the short side of the table while the four
others took two seats each at the left and the right.
Inspector Ken and Agent Dakolo took the seats closer to
the IG. The meeting began.
"So what"s the way forward now?" The IG asked after a
short recap of the situation.
"I"m thinking we need the help of some agents" Dakolo
said. Everyone stared at him for more explanation. "I
mean a secret agent" Dakolo stated further.
"Does that mean you think you can"t handle it?" The IG
asked. "Cos that"s the reason we brought you here"
"I"m not saying I can"t handle it, in fact I would have
loved to but we need someone who wouldn"t need much
struggle to disguise as an a.s.sa.s.sin " Dakolo explained
more but his listeners still did not understand except for
Ken who was shaking his head thoughtfully.
"I think I get his point" Ken put in, redirecting all stares to
himself. "Agent Dakolo"s face is already known in the
country for nabbing top criminals and a.s.sa.s.sins, it would
require extra work and would need a lot of disguise
techniques for him to act as a secret agent, his face is
known already"
The IG shook his head slowly and thoughtfully in
agreement. "So what do you think we should do now? I
really wish Dakolo is still a young man we could send as
an undercover like we used to do" he said smiling at
Dakolo. Dakolo smiled back. "Well, we have some of our
officers we could still send"
Dakolo gave a slight hiss which expressed his
disagreement, "our boys have not been trained enough to
handle this kind of cases. They"ll definitely cause more
troubles for us. Even myself wouldn"t have been able to
carry out this kind of job if it had come when I was still a
secret agent. I have more experience now, both on the
field and technically"
"So what do you suggest now?" The IG asked. "Can Ken?"
The IG turned to look at Ken. "Or any of these two?"
Ken shook his head slightly in disagreement. "Do you
think it would work like that?"
"Why not?" Dakolo and the IG asked in unison.
"We"ve been actively involved in this a.s.sa.s.sination case. I
mean the three of us" he said looking at the other two
seated. "We"ve been involved in the chasing and
interrogations, do you think it can still work with us?" Ken
said in a bold voice, dismissing every perception that he
was afraid to take the task.
"You"ve spoken the truth" Dakolo said after thoughtfully
considering his reply. "This a.s.sa.s.sin group members are
intelligent and dangerous. I"m sure they"ll just play along
even if they recognize anyone sent as the undercover and
it would turn out as a disaster for us"
"So we don"t have enough strong and trained men in the
force that can handle this?" The IG joined, getting
irritated that they were making the matter sound so big.
"Sir, it"s not about being strong here" Dakolo said calmly.
"Of course, strength is important but what we really need
is an intelligent personnel. Very intelligent one who
would match the intelligence of this a.s.sa.s.sin group. You
know I can"t really talk about the manpower of the group
but I know they are intelligent. Most of their strategies
have been technical; they disrupt all our technical
security facilities, keep us in darkness and then carry our
their a.s.sa.s.sination, that"s what they"ve been doing"
There was silence for a while. "So you think that the
a.s.sa.s.sin group is not really tough in physical strength?"
The IG broke the silence.
"Yes but I may be wrong. But one thing I"m sure of is that
their technical and developing abilities and intelligence is
where they"re stronger"
"No" Ken disagreed gently. "Except the a.s.sa.s.sin group that
killed Chief Jubril USA different from the one who that
carried out the other two but if we are saying they might
be the same, which is really likely, it would be wrong to
say they are weak physically"
Dakolo turned and stared at Ken, so did everyone else.
"Yes sir, he"s right" one of the two other officers finally
broke his silence. "The group that carried out Chief
Jubril"s a.s.sa.s.sination was definitely not weak physically.
Their knowledge of the usage and control of guns is mind
blowing, this is evident in the number of security officials
and police officers found dead in the events centre"
"Thank you" Ken supported. "None of their bullets were
wasted" Ken added, looking at the two officers faces for
support. "Their bullets got into their targets at delicate
parts of the body and most of the victims did not receive
more than one bullet. This shows that the group is a
specially trained one and they"ve mastered the art of the
use of guns. I believe only intelligence wouldn"t fight
them, they"re complete, we need to be complete more
than that to defeat them"
There was another awkward silence. Dakolo now
remembered James telling him about his gun battle with
the suspected lady who had blocked them on the road
while they were on their way to save Robin Kahn.
"You"re right" Dakolo began again in low tones. "How
could I have even thought that they had no physical
strength, considering how they finished off Robin Kahn
and his men?" Dakolo paused and swallowed. "I also
visited the warehouse where Robin and his men were
misled to when I was in Lagos. You need to see the way
their apparatuses were set up professionally"
"You see, those guys are experts" Ken put in briefly.
"James also told me of how a single lady of the group also
engaged he and the rest of the rescue team on their way
to help Robin. She took out almost all the men and even
escaped with their own vehicle"
"So that means we need a stronger and complete team to
match them else we would just be going round in circles
and keep losing our men" Ken added.
"No matter what it is, we have no option than to stop the
group" the IG said in a determined voice. "And it would be
nice if we capture their boss alive"
"Yesss" Dakolo stressed the word, as it he had just
remembered something. "Talking about the boss. It is
widely believed that the group is headed by a lady named
Aisha Bello who disguises as Samantha Osman but with
the latest a.s.sa.s.sination, the report says a man carried out
the job" Dakolo paused to look at their faces
Inspector Ken coughed and joined. "As far as I"m
concerned, this a.s.sa.s.sin group we are dealing with is a
large one, I believe they should have up to twenty or
thirty in the group. It"s surely a large cooperation. So we
can"t be sure that Samantha Osman is the boss, she
might just be one of their major hitmen. The real boss
could be in their headquarters and just be giving the
orders from there"
Everyone paused to reason with Ken. Dakolo took in a
breath and shook his head. "I agree that Samantha
Osman might not be the real boss but I don"t think the
group is a large one. We should have able to get one or
two of them if the group was so large"
"Now, we need concrete details" the IG said in a tone
which expressed his dissatisfaction with the way the
meeting was going. "All what we"ve been talking about
since are our opinions about them, no one has concrete
details"
"And Agent Dakolo" The IG faced Dakolo squarely. "You
said we need secret agents and undercovers, does that
mean that you have suspects in mind already"
"N…no…" Dakolo stammered as he tried to answer.
"There"s no group or real person we suspect yet"
"Then why do we need an undercover if there"s no
suspect?" The IG slammed.
"We might locate a suspect group very soon"
"Then we should be focused first on locating the
suspected group, then we can come back to finding a
secret agent to do the work"
"We are working on that already. There"s a NSCC agent
who"s tracking them already. I"m also thinking that we
could recruit him as a secret agent"
The IG gave a chuckle. "How do even you think that
would work?"
"The agent is extra intelligent and we"re also going to
provide strong backups for him"
"Who"s this person?"
"Same guru we all know. Henry Ekene George