Tarasha

security men as he drove in through the gate, it was

twenty minutes past nine am. He had overslept and

ignored the alarm when it rang, waking up later by eight

o"clock, the exact time he was supposed to resume work.

He decided not to rush as he was late already by the time

he woke. It would be his first time of getting late to the

office, and it wasn"t that he was going to be chastised by

anyone.

His eyes met something in the rearview mirror as he

killed the engine. It took sometime for the picture to

finish processing in his brain. He opened the door and

turned to look at it, there was a blue Camry parked at the

parking s.p.a.ce at the opposite side. The car park was

constructed to have s.p.a.ces for cars at the left and right

side and a s.p.a.ce in the middle through which vehicles

drive in and out.

The blue car could have been for anybody else but the

plate number was what looked familiar. He got out of his

car and banged the door unconsciously. Locking it again

with the control in his hand. He almost ran into another

vehicle that was trying to occupy the s.p.a.ce beside his

car. He apologized to the driver and crossed to the other

side, to inspect the car that got his attention. It was the

same car he thought he hallucinated about the day

before.

He turned to the front of the car to check for the mark

on the bonnet. He couldn"t find it but there were signs of

repainting at the exact spot the mark was supposed to

be. He scratched his head and heaved a sigh. His heart

began to beat fast as he circled the car. Was Omotara

really in the same compound with him? He asked

himself.

He began to walk slowly away, rolling his car keys in his

hand. He decided to take a last look when he got behind

the car. "AA689-GGQ" he read the plate number to

himself again. He moved closer and squatted behind the

car, touching the letters and numbers on the plate, just

to a.s.sure himself that the number he was seeing was real

and not a part of his hallucinations.

He got up and walked slowly to the front of the car again,

taking a peep inside. He could see football magazines and

newspapers at the backseats. That got him a little bit

confused. He was a hundred percent sure that Omotara

wasn"t a lover of football, so maybe she wasn"t in the

compound as he thought or maybe the car was brought

in by one of her male accomplices.

He paused and let out a deep breath, thinking of what he

could possibly do to find out who brought in the car. He

took a glance at the security post, he thought of going

there to ask but that would look strange and may raise

unnecessary security scare. A better idea came to his

mind, he turned back and walked to his car.

++++

**Katsina, Katsina State**

Benny and Aisha waited patiently for Cole in the car as

they were set to embark on their first visit to the Ata"s

Foundation. Benny had grown miraculously old

overnight, he had his hair cut lowly, his slightly greyed

hair made him look like a man in his late fifties or early

sixties. His beards were also grey and st.u.r.dy. He had a

dark pair of eyegla.s.ses on his face. Aisha who was looking

different already only added some makeups to make her

face lighter than it was. There were both dressed in black

suits.

Soon, Cole appeared and opened the door to the driver"s

side. He was also dressed in a black suit and had grown a

miraculous moustache too. He was made to look older

than his age but not as old as Benny was, he looked like a

man in his late thirties.

His phone began to ring as soon as he settled in the car.

"h.e.l.lo boss" he answered the call.

"Are you set?" Tarasha"s voice sounded at the other side.

"Yes, we are about to drive off"

"Disguised?"

"Yes, but not from the house like we planned"

"Good, make it go smoothly and keep me connected

always. I want to listen live to all of the discussion."

"Got you boss" Cole replied and the call ended. He

dropped the phone and took out a tiny recording device

which he clipped behind his tie.

"Let"s go" he said and took a glance at Benny by side and

Aisha at the back before starting the car engine.

+++

Dakolo stared at the man dressed in a blue suit in the

picture, lines of disappointment began to show on his

face as he recognized the person in it. Henry E.G. Dakolo

could still recognize him even though his head was

bowed in the picture. He was seated alone, pouring wine

into the cup.A female bag and another bottle and cup of

wine was at the other side of the table.

"He looks like someone I know" Debo said, contorting his

face like someone who just swallowed a bitter pill. Ken

got up from his seat to join them.

"Okay" Dakolo said and swiped to the next picture as he

saw Ken approaching. Three other pictures which

contained Henry"s image showed up as Ken joined the

view but luckily, Henry"s face was not shown at all in the

new pictures. It was obvious that the photographer was

more interested in the cloth he was putting on than his

face.

"Well…" Debo began after pausing to recollect some

information from his memory. "I remember seeing this

man closely that day. I saw him when I went to discuss

something with someone sitting close to his table. He was

sitting alone then too."

"So, you saw him very well?" Ken asked.

"No, not very well. I was seated at his back"

Dakolo felt a need to hide Henry"s ident.i.ty for the time

being. He didn"t want to believe what his detective mind

was suggesting to him, that Henry could be one of the

a.s.sa.s.sins. After scrolling through all the pictures, Dakolo

and Ken returned to their seat with the device.

"I visited the NSCC"s office like we planned the last time"

Dakolo began after a brief moment of quietness. "I spoke

with Henry and he told me that the number was really

Canadian"

Debo shrugged. "I don"t really need that information

anymore. I don"t know how Mrs Jubril intend to run the

organization"

"Do you still have the number?" Dakolo asked.

"Yes, but in the office"

"We"ll need to get it as soon s possible, please" Dakolo

said and paused to type in something into his device.

After asking some more questions, they left Debo"s

residence and headed back to the office. In the car,

Dakolo was unusually quiet. He kept thinking of the

possibility of Henry being a member of the Samantha

Osman"s group. Maybe he was even the one in charge of

disrupting the cameras system for the gang operations. It

had to be. That was why no solution to the problem had

been found with all the efforts of the other people in the

NSCC. Or how could you explain how Henry was the man

who accompanied the suspected Alexander Evelyn to the

party? The same Evelyn who was suspected to be

Samantha Osman. But he had thought Henry was a

patriotic citizen, committed to nation building and

development. It was hard to believe that Henry is actually

a part of the a.s.sa.s.sin group.

A thought came to his mind on remembering Henry"s

past a.s.sociation with Dare. He also recalled that the

reason for all the recent killings were still unknown.

Could it be possible that it was no political killing? That

the a.s.sa.s.sins were embarking on a personal vendetta? It

could be. And it could also be possible that Henry may

have found out that Evelyn Alexander was an a.s.sa.s.sin

and only decided to help her because Chief Jubril and

Dare were his enemies.

There were two options in Dakolo"s heart now. It was

either Henry was part of the Samantha Osman"s gang or

he helped the gang in carrying out Chief Jubril and Dare"s

a.s.sa.s.sinations.

Somehow, Dakolo still felt the need the need to dig

further personally. A third and strong option was

developing in his mind. He had a soft spot for Henry

which grew ever since the time the grave injustice was

done to Henry"s family. He decided to hide the picture

which showed Henry"s face for sometime.

He took the tablet device from the backseat. He swiped it

open and clicked the gallery option. He pretended like he

was just taking another look at the pictures while be

transferred it to his own personal device. He deleted the

picture from the device afterwards and spent some more

time with it before returning it back.

+++

"You"ve not still told me the program you used to

elongate the monitoring time of the system yesterday"

Sylvester said to his new volunteer staff. She was sitting

behind his table with the laptop he had given her to use.

"Sir, I didn"t use any special program, I only changed the

settings of the same program you were running with"

shereplied him.

"But how come I never saw that option in the settings

area?" he got up from his seat and began to make a turn.

Tarasha answered with a shrug. He stood still when he

got beside her and bent to look into the laptop. "Can you

show me where it is?"

"Sure." She clicked open the software and waited some

minutes for it to load.

A knock sounded on the door. "Come in" Sylvester picked

up the door control and turned to the door to click

unlock. Someone pushed open the door and walked in.

"Good morning Mr Sylvester" Dayo walked in briskly.

"Good morning Mr Dayo" Sylvester turned back to receive

him. "How are you doing today?"

"Fine sir" Dayo said, taking special interest in the lady who

had Mr Sylvester bending over to look into her laptop

while she was comfortable seated. He thought it was one

of their junior staffs who had such effrontery.

"Alright, how may I help you?"

"Sir" Dayo turned his look back to Sylvester. "I noticed

that you made some changes to the system yesterday. It

shows that you can actually be receiving notifications

offline for over twelve hours now"

"Sixteen hours precisely" Sylvester corrected with a bold

smile. "And I"m not just receiving notifications, the signal

would still be strong for the sixteen hours offline

duration"

"Interesting" Dayo"s eyes lit up. "That"s what we"re talking

about, bright innovation" Dayo commended.

"Yeah" Sylvester flashed his teeth brightly, resting his b.u.m

on the table.

"I actually came to see if I could learn the new method

from you, I may need to combine something of such in

my new project" Dayo presented his real reason of

coming.

"Ermm… "Sylvester"s smile diminished, now he knew the

reason for Dayo"s commendation. He had wanted to take

the credit for Tarasha"s work, that"s was part of the

reason he wanted to learn how Tarasha did the job.

"I didn"t really do it myself" he finally confessed, after

realizing he had no choice.

"Oh!" Dayo gave him a naughty kind of look. Sylvester

could interpret the look as a silent way of saying "I

thought as much, I knew you weren"t so intelligent".

"Who did it?" Dayo asked when Sylvester remained

speechless.

"She did… We did it together" he replied, pointing to

himself and Kimberly.

"Wow!" Dayo exclaimed, trying to take a peep at the lady"s

face but she would not still look back.

"She"s my new personal staff, Kimberly" Sylvester

introduced. That was when Kimberly finally turned back,

she got up from her seat and smiled at Dayo. "This is

Dayo, he works with Henry E.G"

"Nice to meet you sir" Kimberly said cheerfully as they

shook hands.

"My pleasure" Dayo replied, still holding her hand in his.

He wondered silently why she wasn"t looking back until

Sylvester introduced her. "So how did you do it?"

"I was about to show him when you came in" Tarasha

replied and sat back on the seat.

"Okay" Dayo said and joined Sylvester as they both looked

into the laptop to learn grim Kimberly.

+++

2pm, same day.

"Afolabi David, Audu Noah, Sunny Nkem, Nwakolo

Ezekiel" Ken read aloud, looking into the computer

screen. "All found dead, in the same event centre"

"And these guys are also the suspected kidnappers of

Henry George?" Dakolo asked, taking a glance at Ken.

"Yes, Afolabi David is the head of their gang" Ken

answered.

"Where were their bodies found?"

"Their bodies were found in the security department, the

same place Dare"s body was found. The same type of

bullets were found in their bodies" Ken expatiated,

pausing from time to time to look at the screen..

"According to the report we got from the investigation,

these guys were part of the security officials provided by

the Jubrils for the event"

"Hmm… How do we connect this?" Dakolo muttered.

"Henry E.G stated that Dare was the only person he

suspected. I think Henry was contending for something

with Dare and he got threatened" Ken said.

"With this, it"s highly possible that Dare was behind the

kidnap"

"Well, sir. One case solved already" Ken said with a smile

on his face. "The kidnappers have been discovered. It"s a

pity that they are late already."

"Yes, but there"s still a lot more to this" Dakolo said

thoughtfully.

Henry"s face popped up in his mind again, he took a deep

breath. Now it has been discovered that not only was it

Henry"s long time enemies that were killed, even his

recent kidnappers were also killed. Henry was looking

more dangerous to him. Very soon, he"ll have no choice

than to spill it out to Ken. He already had a strategy in

mind to use once he fully verifies Henry"s personal

involvement in the a.s.sa.s.sinations. Although, Henry"s

involvement have been verified enough according to

police standards, he still needed to do more verifications

because of his long time emotional attachment to Henry.