Tarasha

the sofa. She took out her own laptop and turned it on.

She looked into Cole"s laptop again as she waited for hers

to complete the booting process. She smiled lightly.

Whoever had helped tightened the cameras security

system had done a good job but still had more work to

do. Her laptop was on, she clicked on the start b.u.t.ton

and selected the "run" process. The "run window" came

up. She typed in a code. "Nef-Tar-diag-falc." After some

seconds of loading, the whole computer system display

changed and another window popped up, requesting for

a pa.s.sword. She typed in the pa.s.sword and the window

closed. In just few minutes, she had swapped from the

windows operating system to a personal operating

system created by herself.

"Go get the rest of the team, get the bags into the car"

Tarasha said to Cole who was staring into the screen in

awe. Cole closed his laptop and got up immediately. "You

guys should also get your guns ready, we"ll take out

anyone that tries to stop or monitor us, even if it"s

someone we only suspect" she added before Cole began

to move.

"That includes Henry" she added again. Cole paused and

turned to look at her. "Kill him if he ever comes your way

again" she stared into his eyes and reiterated. Cole turned

and proceeded to the rooms.

Tarasha continued with her work on the laptop. In two

minutes time, Aisha and Benny came out with their

luggages. Cole also followed behind, he picked the Boss"

box and carried it with him outside the building.

~~~

Henry walked in hurriedly into the NSCC head office, he

headed straight for Mr Sylvester"s office without waiting

to greet or respond to anybody"s greeting. He entered the

office without knocking. Sylvester was looking into the a

computer with another technician. Henry sat on the

visitors seat and turned the second computer which was

on Mr Sylvester"s table to himself. He clicked open the

software to check the status.

"Let"s go to the control room" he said and got up from

the seat. Sylvester and the other technician followed him.

They proceeded out of the office and headed for the

control room.

"When exactly was the attempt made?" Henry asked as he

opened the door to the control room. The control room

was brightened up with yellow bulbs, there were twelve

desktops neatly arranged on three rows. An operator sat

on the third row behind the main control system, he got

up on sighting Henry and Sylvester coming towards him.

"The first attempt was by 12.46pm, three other attempts

have been made after that" Sylvester replied. Henry gave

Sylvester an eye signal to send out the two our

technicians.

"You can wait outside" Sylvester said to the technicians

and they left reluctantly.

Henry sat behind the main system and began to type on

the keyboard hurriedly. "So what locations were spotted?"

Henry asked. Sylvester stood by his side with a hand

placed on the table as he looked into the screen.

"No location was spotted" Sylvester replied. "It didn"t not

show any point, direction or even distance"

Henry looked into his face, surprised. "What do you

mean?" He questioned with a frown and turned back to

the screen slowly. Sylvester gave no reply since Henry

was almost finding out himself.

"No, this can"t be" Henry shook his head in disbelief and

frustration. He was disappointed with the result displayed

by the software. "This can"t be"

"What?" Sylvester asked softly.

"Who else apart from the both of us is aware of this new

software?"

"None, except for Agent Dakolo"

Henry hurriedly brought out his phone. Dakolo"s call was

coming in at the right time. "h.e.l.lo sir"

"h.e.l.lo Henry, have you been able to determine the

location and source?" Dakolo questioned.

"No" Henry said flatly. "There was an attempt but they did

not break in." Dakolo gave no response, his intake of

breath from the other side was heard by Henry.

"Sir, did you tell anyone about the new software I made

yesterday?" Henry added another question.

"No, why?"

"They didn"t fall into the trap. It"s like the person behind

the security attack somehow knew that his location

would be revealed and did not complete the last step"

"But you guys got the alarm?"

"Yes. Sir"

"So what do you think it is?"

"I…" The warning alarm tone began to ring out again from

all the computer systems in the room. "S--t! I"ll call you

back sir"

"I"m coming over" Dakolo said before Henry ended the

call.

A new attempt had been made again. Sylvester turned to

silence the alarms on the other computers while Henry

got himself busy with the tracking. Sylvester returned

three minutes later to meet Henry staring into the

computer in an agitated manner.

"What"s wrong?" Sylvester asked. "Did we get their

location"

Henry looked up into his face and shook his head in a

pitiful manner. "This time, not only the transmission to

the branch and regional offices was stopped, the

transmission to this head office and the country"s main

control point has been redirected.

Sylvester became dumb instantly, his legs began to shake,

he dragged a seat from the front of another computer

and sat on it before his legs failed him. His lips began to

tremble. Henry could perceive from his lips movement

that the man was complaining about his job. Henry

hissed and got up from his seat. He closed his eyes and

let out a deep breath through his mouth, he stared up to

the ceiling.

His mind began to wander around as he sympathised

with himself for his failure, the first major failure he

would encounter in his job as a software technician and

hacker. He wondered who could be brainbox in the

a.s.sa.s.sin team, pictures of his friends and top colleagues

in the same job began to roll into his mind, every of

them was now a suspect.

"What do we do now? I don"t want to lose my job"

Sylvester manager m lamented, looking up at Henry.

Henry hissed and returned back to the seat behind the

computer, Sylvester"s eyes following him around. "Do

you think of anything else other than your job?" Henry

slammed. "I mean, someone is in danger of being killed

now and you"re complaining about your job"

Sylvester took his gaze away shamefully. He got up slowly

and began to pace around. Henry picked his phone from

the table and dialed Dakolo.

~~~

"Henry, I"m on my way to your office" Dakolo said into

the phone as he hurried out of the police office building.

"Sir, we couldn"t get the location or source and we lost

transmission too. The a.s.sa.s.sins must be on their way to

carry out their job"

"D--n!" Dakolo exclaimed, stamping his feet on the

ground. He turned back and climbed back the stairs into

the building. "You mean, even your head office has no

signal from the street cameras?"

"No" Henry replied in a very low tone.

"Thanks" Dakolo was about to cut the call.

"Sir, I didn"t tell you before… " Henry"s voice came up

suddenly again.

"What?" Dakolo said, heading for the computer room in

the building.

"We don"t know if the attempt was made from Abuja,

there"s ninety five percent possibility that it could be in

another state"

"S--t!" Dakolo cursed as he opened the door to a large

open office, he stopped at the entrance. "And what do we

do now?"

"Sir, I"ll get back to you when I get a solution"

Dakolo ended the call and walked in, closing the

transparent gla.s.s door behind. The open office which

serves over ten police officials had only two people in it

now, Ken and a computer operator. Majority did not

come to the office on Sunday and the few ones that

came had gone out to man the major entries and exits of

the town. Ken"s eyes followed Dakolo from the doorway

until he got close to them.

"You"re not going again?" Ken asked.

Dakolo shook his head in negative. He got to the table

and picked up a phone which he dropped before leaving.

"Officer, call more officers from their homes to join you,

even the ones on leave and make sure that every team is

led by a senior officer. Let no sergeants or recruits head a

team" Dakolo said into the phone.

"We still have no signal from the NSCC" Ken said to

Dakolo after the call was ended.

"Forget that" Dakolo dismissed it with a wave of the hand.

"Even their head offices have no signal not clue of what is

happening on the streets"/

Dakolo dialed the IG"s number. "Sir… Yes sir, we are on it"

he replied to a question.

"Sir, we need to give directives for officials to be deployed

in other states like we"ve done here, there"s no a.s.surance

that the a.s.sa.s.sin group is attacking someone in Abuja"

Dakolo said, he kept quiet for some seconds to listen to

the reply before he continued. "There"s also need for

announcement to be made on all media platforms. We

should warn the public, so that they can report anything

suspicious immediately. Thank you sir"

Dakolo detached the gun from his belt side where it was.

"We have to join the team now" he said to Ken who

nodded in agreement.

"Make a warning post on Twitter and Facebook" Dakolo

said to the computer operator before walking away with

Ken.

+++++

"Boss, where are we heading for?" Cole asked for the fifth

time after receiving no answers to his previous attempts.

He was driving with Tarasha in the blue Toyota Camry

while Benny and Aisha were in the other vehicle, the mini

van.

"Pull over" Tarasha said calmly in somewhat like a

baritone voice. He obeyed and halted the car after

driving away from the tarred portion to the untarred

area which was close to the bush. Benny and Aisha joined

and halted the van few centimetres behind them.

Tarasha came out of the car after the engine was turned

off. The bright sunlight made her squint as she looked

around the area, she placed her palm above her eyes to

reduce the sun rays getting into it. After a brief eye

survey of the place, she bent to look inside the car.

"Where are we?" She asked Cole.

"Ermm… Let me check" he replied and took out his

phone, he released the seat belt and opened the door.

Tarasha continued her eye survey of the place. The heavy

breeze made her unzipped black hip-hop jacket and air

fly backwards. The sun intensity reduced as a brief cloud

covered it. Tarasha turned back to car and climbed the

bonnet to look over the thick bushes, she could see a

village hidden behind it. She came down and took out

her phone from her skinny black jeans. She dialed Chief

Gab"s number.

"Good afternoon Chief" she greeted.

"Good afternoon" Chief Gab answered, his voice sounded

like he had just woken up from sleep.

"Chief, we need new accommodation urgently" she broke

the news straight away.

"Okay" he said with a loud yawn. "I"ll call you back

tomorrow morning"

"No Chief…" She was saying when the call was cut. She

called back. "Chief, it"s urgent. We need the new

accommodation arranged in a matter of minutes" she

said, half-shouting into the phone.

"But why are you just telling me now?"

"It"s urgent, we need the new accommodation urgently"

"Where are you now?" The Chief asked, sounding readier

to help.

"Where are we?" She took the phone off her ear and

whispered to Cole who was outside the car now and

leaning on the bonnet.

"We are close to Baske village" Cole replied.

"Baske village" Tarasha said into the phone.

"Humm… Give me sometime, let me check what I can do"

Chief Gab replied. His tone reflected very little hope.

"What next boss?" Benny asked approaching them from

the back. Tarasha looked at him but replied with silence.

"We can"t go any further, I"m sure we"ll soon come by a

police post if we continue" she finally said after some

minutes of silence. Cole and Benny were already standing

in front of her where she sat on the boot.

Vehicles and fuel tankers drove by the road occasionally

as they waited in silence. Tarasha was still seated on the

boot, Aisha remained in the pa.s.senger"s seat of the van

while Cole and Benny walked around the place,

sightseeing and discussing among themselves. Tarasha"s

phone rang after seven minutes.

"Did you drop anyone today?" Chief Gab"s voice rang in

impatiently.

"No, why?" Tarasha was taken aback by the question.

"The police are on the lookout for an a.s.sa.s.sin gang that"s

disrupted the cameras security system" he replied.

"I know, that"s why we need a new accommodation

urgently"

"I"ll call you back" the call ended again.

Tarasha came down from the boot. Cole and Benny had

come closer to hear the result of the conversation. "We

can"t sit idly like this, we"re going to be suspected soon"

she said to them

"Yes, we were about to also tell you that. Travellers have

been staring at us and we don"t think that it is safe

especially as you said that we"re being monitored"

"Why don"t you bring out some tools and act like we are

repairing the car" Tarasha suggested, tapping the boot.

Benny and Cole nodded in agreement. Cole walked to the

driver"s side of the car to take the Boot"s key.

He returned with a slight frown on his face. "This method

ain"t gonna work for long, it would be suspicious if

people still see us here after several minutes" he said

before opening the boot.

Tarasha nodded in agreement with him. "Just take out the

tools and start working" she said. Her phone rang again.

"Chief Gab"

"Tarasha, the only place close to you where I have

another house is Asokoro" Chief Gab said.

"We"ll encounter the police if we are to drive back there"

she complained. Chief Gab was silent.

"Okay" Tarasha finally gave up. "Send the address and how

you want us to get into the house" she ended the call.

She walked to Cole and Benny who were about to take

out a tyre. "Guys, we"re going to Asokoro" she called, they

looked up. "You"ll remove the tyre and fix it back

immediately. That would give me enough time to prepare

"I and Aisha would leave here in this car while two of you

would take the van. Before you follow us, you"ll get to the

village at the back of this bush and fill the s.p.a.ce in the

van"s boot with firewood, that will hide our bags. There"ll

be a tracker on the car that"ll lead you to us" she gave the

order and left them to continue working. She went to the

boot of the van and pulled out a bag, she took out some

makeup kits from the bag and entered into the driver"s

seat of the van.

Aisha was seated by the pa.s.senger"s side, sweating as a

result of the heat. "Dry your face and neck, you need to

disguise now" she said to Aisha who was staring at her

anxiously.

Minutes later, Aisha face had changed into someone

else"s. Tarasha also added makeups, they took out female

handbags from the boot and they both looked like they

were coming from a party.

Tarasha and Aisha entered into the car after the men

were done fixing the tyre. They drove off and left the

men to carry their own cross.

~~~~~~~

5pm, same day

Dakolo, Henry and Sylvester stood in a large room,

staring into a screen on the wall in silence. Except for

their three chairs which they had abandoned behind to

stand closer to the screen, the white painted room was

empty of any other materials or furniture.

The large screen of 100cm by 150cm was inbuilt into the

wall, it was displaying a DVD selection menu of fifty

options, each showing the captured sections and parts of

the streets. From time to time, Sylvester would swipe up

the screen, revealing another different DVD selection

menu and they would look into it again. Occasionally,

they would see a violent or deadly scene as a part of the

options and select it, only for them to find out that the

police were already aware and in charge of such

situations.

They were beginning to get fed up but they remained

quiet in hope that they would find something useful.

After twenty five minutes of constant swiping and

changing, Henry was first to express his dissatisfaction.

He gave a slight hiss and returned to his seat, Sylvester

and Dakolo took a glance at him and turned back to face

the screen.

"Don"t you think it"s a waste of time?" Henry finally spoke,

making them turn their gazes at him. "There are still

hundreds of thousands options to see. How do you think

we won"t get weary watching all of them? Is it even

possible to watch all? It"s not! We can"t watch up to a

quarter of it."

Dakolo moved back and sat on the seat beside Henry, still

looking at the screen.

"They took off the signals for three hours and returned it

on their own will, it means that they must have finished

whatever they wanted to do" Henry continued, he took

out an handkerchief and cleaned the water formed in his

eyes as a result of tiredness and several yawnings.

The day had been a bad one for Henry, it was the first

time he would experience such failure and defeat. Well, it

wasn"t really a failure, the program be created did not

fail, it had done the job he built it for only that those he

wanted to trap with it used an higher method.

"I think you"re right" Sylvester joined in, turning back

against the screen. "It"s better we leave it for the regional,

city and streets offices to monitor"

Sylvester faced the screen again and turned it off, he

picked a white board from the floor and covered the

screen with it, concealing it in a way that someone else

wouldn"t know that there was a screen there. He turned

and joined Dakolo and Henry, he sat on the third seat.

After some minutes of silence, Dakolo"s phone rang. He

answered the call and spoke with the caller for about two

minutes.

"Another murder case has been reported, this time in

Benue state" Dakolo said as he returned the phone into

his pocket. "But none of these murders have involves a

top profile person. Samantha Osman"s group always goes

for top citizens"

Henry and Sylvester listened without giving any response.

Dakolo turned his chair to face the both of them and

looked to their faces one after the other. "Tell me" he

finally said, staring at Henry calmly. "What happened

today? I thought we had it in control already"

Henry wiped his face with his hand and licked his lips

heaving a sigh. He began to speak reluctantly, "we

thought we had it in control but they outsmarted us"

"How?" Dakolo asked, squeezing his face.

"The ware I developed was meant to locate them when

they intercept our transmission again and to be able to

retrieve the transmission" Henry began to explain. "But

they did not intercept our transmission this time, they

stopped at trying and did something else"

Dakolo narrowed his gaze. "What did they do?"

"They halted the whole system operations" Henry stated.

"Previously, they would only redirect the transmission of

the area under attack from our server but what they did

today was different. They crashed the whole process. All

the street security cameras in the nation did not work for

three hours"

Dakolo"s mouth was left agape as he let out a deep breath

and shook his head. "Unbelievable, an a.s.sa.s.sin group is

terrorizing a whole nation" he exclaimed.

"We underestimated the technical power of this a.s.sa.s.sin

group. They are very intelligent and always ready. I

believe they have several alternatives, so when we block a

way, another way is opened immediately" Henry

lamented.

"I didn"t underestimate them" Dakolo spoke slowly after

some brief seconds of silence. "I always knew they were

technical giants. I once a.s.serted in a meeting that their

technical ability was far greater than their physical

abilities and artillery. But nevertheless, something has to

be done to stop this deadly group.

"We still need to do more work. And I mean more serious

work. The a.s.sa.s.sin group is far ahead of our team"

Dakolo narrowed his gaze at Henry. He didn"t believe that

there could be someone who was ahead of Henry in

respect to hacking and software engineering in Nigeria.

He smiled briefly. "So you mean someone can be ahead

of you in hacking?"

Henry stared at him for a while. "Yes, there are lots of

people that could be ahead of me, they"ve not just been

given a voice like I"ve been. They"ve not been discovered.

And by the way, I just started work in the NSCC few

weeks ago"

"It"s okay" Dakolo cleaned his face with an handkerchief.

"So what"s the way forward now? The NSCC plays a major

role in the nation"s security"

"What we need to do is to be ahead of the group. We

need to block all their possible ways"

"How do you intend to do that?"

"We need more hands" Henry stated.

"More hands?"

"Yes, we need more programmers to join us. More ideas

from experts are needed. I believe a combination of

several expert ethical hackers and programmers would

form a formidable team against the a.s.sa.s.sin group"

Henry expatiated.

"Huh?" Sylvester who had been listening in silence joined

in.

"Yes Mr Sylvester. The NSCC needs to hire more hands."

"But…"Sylvester stammered. "We hired you because of

this, we are expected to have produced results"

"We"ve produced results sir" Henry retorted, turning his

focus to Sylvester, it was Dakolo"s turn to be silent now.

"We"ve produced results, but the a.s.sa.s.sin group"s result

seems to be far greater than ours"

"D--n! There"s no way we can hire more people now, the

government is not releasing enough funds to us"

"Then you have to convince them to release more to you

because we need more hands to make this work" Henry

continued with confidence. "You can"t employ me as one

man and expect me to tackle a group, an expert a.s.sa.s.sin

group at that. And furthermore, we need to be on the

attacking side and not defence. We need to develop bugs

to attack their operations. If all we do is keep making

ways to defend their attacks, they"ll keep changing their

mode of attack."

Sylvester"s phone interrupted with its loud ring tone. He

took out his phone hurriedly to end the call but had to

calm down when he saw the caller"s ID.

"It"s Sir Rikau" he whispered to Henry and Dakolo, gasping

lightly. He stood up from his seat and walked closer to

the door to answer the call. He returned to the seat a

minute later. His countenance had changed.

"So who are those you want us to hire? Can you give us

names of experts? We need to contact them by

tomorrow" Sylvester cut into their discussion.

Henry and Dakolo were surprised at his sudden change

of heart. It looked like the phone call had done a miracle.

"You want to get in touch with them as soon as

tomorrow?" Henry asked again to be sure of what he

heard.

"Yes, is that not what you suggested?" Sylvester answered

with a rhetorical question. "See, the IG just called now

and he told me that I"ll be having a meeting with the

President and other security staffs this Friday. I need to

present tangible results, else I may lose my job"

Henry could not hold his laughter at Sylvester"s mention

of "job" again. "So it"s about losing your job again?"

"No o, we just have to find a solution to this problem"

Henry shook his head, unconvinced by Sylvester"s words.

He began to think of expert hackers who could be called

on immediately, those who were creative enough. His

mind suddenly drifted to Omotara again, he

remembered how she cloned the Canadian number; that

was something that he himself could not do perfectly,

that means she or the person who did it for her was a

sort of a good hacker, although unethical.

He hoped that it was Omotara who cloned the number

by herself, that would also give him the opportunity to

help her get her decent job and make her be of more use

to the nation.

~~~

8pm

There was nothing much to do in the new Lodge in

Asokoro. Although it was a flat with three rooms like the

previous one, it was moderner, finer, more comfortable

and neater. It hadn"t been deserted for long also, the

rooms were also larger and air conditioned. All they did

was to remove the cobwebs from the walls, sweep and

mop the tiled floors, Tarasha and Aisha took care of the

cleaning while Benny and Cole went to dispose off the

firewoods they had bought to escape.

After all was done, Tarasha sat in the living room on the

three seater black leather sofa, her both legs placed on

the chair while her back rested on the right armrest. Her

laptop was on her laps, she was gathering information

about their new targets.

* Am so sorry for the late update #

Continues tomorrow