Tarasha

first time. He placed his own palm against the door and

noticed it was slightly opened. He pushed it gently and

poked in his head first before stepping in.

Cole was still standing, not knowing if he should run or

still continue to plead or if there was no need for the

both anymore. Tarasha was standing also, she was mute,

the bullet she picked on the floor was still held loosely. It

was until she caught Henry"s eyes searching round her

body that she covered the bullet in her palm.

"I"m sorry for intruding" Henry broke the silence

apologetically on seeing Evelyn half unclad, "I"ll just wait

outside for you"

"You can wait inside" Tarasha said with a stern voice. "Sit

here" she pointed at the sofa by the wall side and turned

to walk into her room.

Henry and Cole stared at each other for some seconds.

Cole let out a breath and made a strange eye movement

at Cole before walking away, following the same direction

Tarasha took. Henry moved forward and took the seat,

staring around the house.

Tarasha inserted back the bullet into the gun and tapped

her nose with it. She was undecided yet as to what to do

with Henry, it was either she killed him that moment or

fall for the strange feeling that she was having again. The

feeling that returned that moment he entered and she

saw his eyes again. There was this calmness that drove

out from her heart it"s previous occupier, anger.

She finally dropped the gun on the bed and turned to the

wardrobe. She took out a jacket from the hanger and

remove two short knives from it.

**Few minutes later**

The silence between the duo was really awkward as

Henry drove them in his car to the church. They drove

into the church garage and parked. The Pastor"s message

was already on and could be heard from the speakers

placed outside for the security and Marshalls. Henry got

out of the car first and turned to the other side to open

the door for Evelyn. She didn"t come out immediately

but was staring at the whole place. She stopped and

stared at Henry"s face, he gave her a rea.s.suring look and

she stepped out slowly, in her shredded blue Jean

trousers and black top.

++++

"Henry Ekene George" the IG shook his head thoughtfully.

"The chap is an intelligent one really, but I don"t think he

can do this"

"I believe he can" Dakolo insisted. "He"s determined to nab

this a.s.sa.s.sin group, it shows in the way he"s been

dedicated to stopping their manipulation of the camera

system"

"Well, I think we should have a concrete detail of the

a.s.sa.s.sin gang first before we can continue with the

undercover plan" the IG said, waving his hand to signal

that the undercover case was closed for the time being.

He placed his arms on the table and rested his chin on his

palms. "We would have a meeting with the President this

coming Friday and we have to be ready to give him

detailed plans. So we just have two days to fix the game

plan, so we"ll be meeting again tomorrow. Let"s go back

now and work, think and make researches and personal

investigations, tomorrow we would return to pour out

our ideas and fix the plan" he said in conclusion.

****

Jefa stretched and turned to his left side on the bed,

forgetting the injury he had sustained on his belly that

side. He winced in pain and scowled, he sat up in the bed

After yawning several times, his eyes was opened enough

to see. The pounding headache brought to his

remembrance the fight that occurred the last night. It

was so violent that n.o.body in his shop including himself

escaped unhurt.

He closed his eyes and groaned as he stood up, he walked

to the cotton and rolled it up thereby allowing the

entrance is sunlight into the room. He scratched his bare

back and returned to sit in the bed. His spoilt phone was

on the stool in front of him. He picked it from the stool

and tried to power it on but his attempt was fruitless. He

dropped it back; his promise to call Henry that morning

had failed. The business card given to him was also lost in

the struggle, which meant that the only way he could see

Henry now was to go to his house.

~~~~

10.45am

Henry started the car engine and began to drove out of

the church premises. He glanced at Evelyn"s face but she

didn"t glance back, she had been mute all through the

service,even when they were being attended to as first

timers by the church officials. Henry had answered

almost every question for her, making her look like a

deaf and dumb person. She didn"t even stretch her hand

to take the Bible gift they handed to her, Henry collected

it for her.

Henry was not too surprised by her reaction to the

activities in church, knowing that she wasn"t someone

who believed in G.o.d nor wanted to hear the name

mentioned.

"Did you learn anything new today?" Henry finally broke

the silence after driving out of the church"s gate.

"I"ve never heard such hogwash in my life" she replied

bluntly.

Henry felt bad at her reply but he smiled. "Thats no

hogwash but reality" he said.

Evelyn remained quiet. "Those things you heard were

real, though they may sound impossible to the natural

ears" Henry added.

Tarasha glanced at him. "So you believed a G.o.d died for

you?" She asked, smacking her lips together.

"Yes, I believe"

"Do we still have st*pid people who could die for

someone else?" She asked mockingly

"Come on, don"t talk like that" he scolded her.

"Hehe" she made a brief laugh. "It"s pathetic that

intelligent people could believe such tales by moonlight.

When we were kids, we were forced to believe those

stories but now everyone should be less stupid. I used to

think people get wiser as they progress in age"

"Evelyn!" Henry called, she kept quiet. "Jesus Christ"s death

on the cross is not a tale, it happened for real, on this

earth were you live"

"Yes, haha" she scoffed. "The stubborn Jewish Messiah was

killed by his people for disturbing their peace, that"s what

we should do to those men we see on those platforms

now who wants their followers to live by what somebody

else wrote thousands of years ago"

Henry shook his head, struggling in his mind to figure out

what to say. "For the preaching of the cross is to them

that perish fooli…" He tried to quote a scripture but she

interrupted.

"Foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power

of G.o.d. First Corinthians one verse eighteen" she

completed the verse for him.

Henry was dazed, he stared at her with his mouth agape.

"Where did you learn that from?" He asked in amazement.

"I"m sure you didn"t learn it when you were still a kid."

She gave no answer. "That means you must have left

Christianity not too long ago, for you to quote a "not so

popular" verse" Henry added.

She still gave no response. If only he knew the amount of

Bible, Qur"an and other religious books scriptures she

had in her head, he would keep quiet and stop talking

about G.o.d to her. She thought. Studying religion and

religious patterns were also part of what she learnt

during her training in the Nefary Clan.

"Why did you leave G.o.d? Did you feel frustrated about a

particular situation and you thought he could not help

you out?"

Tarasha chuckled. Henry was sounding more like a joker

to her now. "G.o.d loves you and fee always wants the best

for you" he continued.

"Oh! Shut up" she burst out angrily. "I guess that"s why he

also kills those who do not serve him. And he even sends

his servants to murder the ones who still serve him

faithfully anytime he"s really blood thirsty"

"G.o.d is not a murderer"

"But I"ve seen him murder a lot of people and he"s still

good at killing today."

"No Evelyn, G.o.d does not kill. You didn"t see him murder

anyone; he didn"t kill your parents"

"Oh Yes, he didn"t murder them himself. He sent his

faithful followers to do it"

"Those people lied, G.o.d did not send them. He loves us so

much and wants the best for us" Henry was talking with

so much pa.s.sion that he almost ran down a pedestrian

crossing the narrow untarred road. He quickly recovered

and they continued the journey in silence. Now few

metres away from Tarasha"s Lodge.

"Why did you come to look for me?" Tarasha asked and

stared into Henry"s face. The look on her eyes was cruel,

immediately the atmosphere changed.

"Can we stop to talk somewhere or do you think we can

talk in your house?" Henry replied calmly.

"That"s not the answer to my question" Tarasha slammed.

"Yes, I"ll tell you. Let"s just go somewhere and talk"

"We don"t have anything to discuss about"

"We have a lot to talk about" Henry retorted. He parked

beside the gate of the house. "We have to talk about you"

Tarasha who had been feeling irritated by his discussion

of G.o.d during the ride was getting more impatient. She

began to prepare in her heart slowly to use the knives

tied round her legs under the shredded Jean. Her heart

began to beat faster, something that had not happened in

years even when she had to kill tougher people. But she

had to end it all that day, else Henry would be her

downfall, what she wanted now was to get some

information from him.

"How did you get to know that my name is also Tara?" She

enquired, expecting a simple answer. She was thinking

that he had seen it somewhere around her when they

stayed in the NSCC house together.

"I"ll come to that" Henry answered.

She crossed her legs and rubbed her palm on the left

foot, her fingers touched the two knives hidden in an

inner pocket under the shredded Jean. "Let"s drive into

the compound please" she said to Henry. He agreed and

started the engine. Her plan was to lure him inside and

force out truths from him since she was antic.i.p.ating that

he may be stubborn.

"There"s no gateman here and the gate does not open

automatically" Tarasha said to Henry when be began to

push the horn for someone to open the gate.

Henry got out of car and went to open the gate. Tarasha

felt like bringing out her knives, in readiness to inflict

pains on him but her mood changed again as he

returned to the car and stared at her face for some

seconds, there was this fire in his eyes that always

seemed to calm her down.

He drove the car into the compound and stopped it

beside the van.

"Why did you come to see me?" Tarasha asked again.

"Calm down Evelyn, I"ve been searching for you since we

parted last week"

"I know" Tarasha cut in impatiently. "So go straight to the

point, why have you been searching for me?"

Henry took off the seat belt with a frown on his face, he

didn"t like the way the conversation was going. "I was

worried about you. I did not know if you were in safe

hands"

"Alright, I guess you can now see that I"m in safe hands"

she said and opened the door. Henry held her arm.

"I love you Evelyn" he said, looking straight into her eyes.

She took her eyes off immediately, trying to avoid

sparking off more emotions. Her heartbeat was

increasing. That moment was the best to strike him dead

according to the training she had got but she couldn"t

just get herself to do it.

"Thanks for loving me" she said and tried to step out

again. Henry gripped her more firmly.

"Evelyn, we need to talk about you, us, your future and

mine"

"You don"t know me Henry, you want to plan my future

for me?"

"I know you"

"You don"t, if you do you"ll leave here right now before I

change my mind and do something bad to you"

"I know what you can do. I saw that bullet in your hand,

so I was expecting that you may come out with a gun"

Henry said without fear in his voice.

She paused and stared at the floor, thinking of what to

do. "Get out of here immediately" she stepped out of the

car forcefully and began to walk towards the building.

Henry opened the door by his side and placed a leg

outside, he stood from his seat and rested his arm on the

top of the car. "I know you well Tara, I know who you are

and what you do"

She paused at the balcony and turned to stare at him.

"Who is Tara?" She asked, trying to pretend.

"You are" he insisted.

It was getting out of hand now and she was getting more

infuriated. It seemed he wasn"t going to leave. She bent

and took out the knives from her trouser. She turned and

began to proceed towards him, she was going to drain

out every drop of liquid in his body.

"Omotara Danjuma" he called softly making her freeze in

shock, the knife in her left hand cut through the skin on

her palm.

Her eyes widened, she was convinced now that he was

sure of his claims.

"I met your elder brother, Jeffrey" he added.

~~~

Jefa walked back into his two room apartment after

visiting the phone repairer"s shop. He took off his sandals

and dusted his feet on the foot mat at the door before

proceeding to sit down. His living room was not too large

and beautifully decorated but it was arranged in a neat

manner despite the old furniture used. The TV was also a

very old one, it was neat too and free from dust even

though Jefa rarely used it. His eyes met with something as

it wandered around, the diary and the photo on the

centre table. He got up and went to pick it up.

He stared at the photo for a while, a brief smile formed

on his face. He wiped off the small particles of dust on

the photo and dropped it back on the table. He took the

diary and returned to his seat. He closed his eyes and

inhaled deeply, he was about doing something that he

had never done. Their mum had told them during her

lifetime that the diary contains secrets that they were not

matured enough to handle. He flipped it open.