Tarasha

It was past twelve noon and the Senate President"s house was still busy, the gates were wide open and the security officials could be seen working up and down.

The anti-bomb squad had just finished uninstalling the bomb on Fatima"s body successfully and they were coming out of the house with the bomb they had just removed.

"h.e.l.lo," Dakolo beckoned to the leader.

"Yes sir," the man responded and changed his direction towards Dakolo.

"Is the girl okay and would she be able to talk to us now?"

"Yes, I think so. I don"t think there was anything wrong with her before, she was awake."

"Okay, so apart from the bomb, they didn"t do anything else to her?"

"I wouldn"t know that sir, the medicals are attending to her already."

"Okay then, thanks." Dakolo waved and watched them leave. He turned to Ken. "Lead the guys to the car and check everywhere carefully. I want to see if I can talk to the girl." He said.

"Okay sir," Ken accepted and continued his walk with the rest while Agent Dakolo turned back to the direction of the house.

The guard continued to lead Ken and the officers until they got to the car which was brought by the visitors.

"Have you guys searched it at all?" Ken asked the guard.

"No," the guard replied.

"Okay," Ken took out his phone and turned on his torchlight as there was only a little reflection of light at the other side of the car. He walked in a circle around it, trying to observe the body, the juniors also joined him. After searching the outer body, Ken tried to open the door. He applied force but was unsuccessful. He stepped back and took out his gun, he was about to shoot when a junior raised an alarm.

"Stop Inspector!" the officer shouted. He was by the back right hand side of the car. "There is a note here warning us not to open the car."

Ken turned around to the officer"s side and looked through the gla.s.s. "Don"t try to open the door, the whole place would go up in flames." Ken read out what he saw on the piece of paper. "What"s the meaning of this?" He asked aloud, although to no one in particular. He brought his eyes close to the gla.s.s and tried to see if anything else was in the car. He could see something on the ground close to the backseat. He brought his phone closer and pointed the torchlight to it.

"Shi*t!" He cursed as he rose up and turned to the other men who were expecting him to announce what he saw. "There"s an explosive in the car, someone should get the anti-bomb squad before they leave."

~~~

Dakolo was already close to the door when a call entered his phone. Without halting, he dipped his hand into his pocket to bring out the phone. He checked the screen, it was from the Vice President. Dakolo let out a sigh before answering.

"Good morning your Excellency," Dakolo greeted politely.

"Agent, nothing is good about the morning." Elvis barked from the other end. "What on earth is happening? The media is already reporting an unconfirmed rumor that the Senate President has been kidnapped, I hope it"s not true."

"Sadly sir, it"s true." Dakolo replied without apologies in his voice, he wondered what the man was doing up at that time reading unconfirmed stories on the internet instead of resting himself. "I"m at the Senate President"s house now and we"re keeping the situation under control."

"Control my foot," Elvis slammed, "this has gone out of control already."

"We"re making our investigations now and we hope to bring the man back alive soon, hale and hearty." Dakolo said, hoping to put an end to the phone call with that.

"Better do," the man said and ended the call.

Dakolo returned the phone into his pocket and continued his walk into the house.

"Where"s Fatima?" He asked one of the officers he first met in the living room.

"She"s upstairs," the officer replied.

"Lead me there," Dakolo said as he placed a hand on the man"s shoulder and followed the lead.

"I don"t really know the place, I"ve not gone there."

In five minutes time, he got to the room with another officer who knew the place better. He walked closer to the bed, slowly, two of the medical officials were still with Fatima.

"She was tranquilized before the bomb was attached," one of the medical officers said as he saw Dakolo come closer.

"I see… But is she strong enough to talk to me now?"

"Yes," Fatima replied by herself. "I can talk."

"Good morning Fatima," Dakolo walked closer to the left side of the bed where she laid. He squatted before her, supporting himself by placing a hand on the bed. "Sorry I have to trouble you. It"s just that we need to get every information as soon as possible so that we can start work and bring back your father soon."

"I know, what questions do you have for me." Fatima sniffed in, trying to fight back tears as she used her palm to clean off the drops from her face.

Dakolo waited for her to finish cleaning her face before he began. "Did you see the visitors?"

"Yes, I met them when I came in. My Dad introduce me to them."

"Is there anything familiar about them?" Dakolo asked. Fatima looked confused about the question so he had to rephrase. "I mean have you seen any of them around you or your family anywhere before?"

"No, it was my first time of ever seeing them."

"But did you notice any strange thing?"

"Ermm… I did but it was already late." She said and took a short pause. "When I came into this room with one of the ladies who wanted to use the toilet, I noticed on a closer look at face that the makeup was a quite special one, it looked so much like another skin was laid upon her face."

"Then what did you do?"

"I didn"t do anything, I wanted to ask questions about what brand of kits she uses but I needed to wait for her to finish using the toilet as she was acting uncomfortable then."

"But what made the makeup look suspicious to you?"

"When she came out of the toilet. I think water had touched her palms and part of the cream she used in lightening her hands had washed away. But I ignored because she caught me staring at her hands and didn"t look bothered."

"So what is your conclusion based on that?"

"I think they came in disguised, we may have not really seen their real colours and faces."

"But how possible is it to disguise so well with makeups?"

"Very possible sir, but this lady"s own was quite different. I was just admiring her style of makeups and the neatness, I didn"t think it was a disguise not until the cream washed off her hands."

"But why didn"t you raise an alarm immediately?"

"Alarm?" She asked in a surprise tone. "Well, all that just began to make sense to me after she attached the bomb to my body."

~~~

"h.e.l.lo Chief," Tarasha spoke into the phone.

"Tarasha," the Chief replied. Tarasha could hear him yawning from the other end. "Why did you decide to call by this time of the day?"

"Because I need to speak with you now, so listen up." Tarasha said in an impatient voice.

"Okay," the Chief replied, in a more serious tone.

"Very soon, you"ll hear of the death of the next target, Nasiru Attahiru. But before he dies, I want to give you an opportunity to reveal some secrets which you may have hidden from me, so that I can help conceal them from being exposed to the public."

"Ermm… Tarasha. We can"t really discuss that on phone, we have to see."

"When do we see?"

"Maybe you should take a flight to Lagos tomorrow."

"Huh? Come to Lagos? You"re kidding right?"

"No, so that we can…"

"We would talk through video chat Chief, it"s a waste of time traveling." Tarasha interrupted him.

"But there"ll be a limit to…"

"You have to find a way to break the limits," she cut in again.

"Okay," the man finally gave in.

"One more thing."

"Yes."

"This target Chief Nasiru and the next, Chief Elvis is already expecting us and I believe you should know they would be. They already sent one of your boys to monitor me, so you should also watch your back."

"One of my boys? Who?"

"That"s all for now Chief," with that Tarasha ended the call.

~~~

Dakolo was through questioning Fatima, he was proceeding back outside the house. His phone rang.

"Officer, what location have you found?" Dakolo asked the caller.

"None sir, it is directing us to Mars." The caller replied in a thick Yoruba accent.

"Maths? What"s that?" Dakolo asked.

"Planet Mars," the caller corrected.

"How on earth is that possible?"

"It"s impossible sir, the location has been secured by a strange kind of technology."

"Strange indeed," Dakolo said, licking his lips with a frowned face as if he had just tasted something extremely bitter. "Please keep trying and keep us posted."

"Okay sir," the caller said and the call ended.

Dakolo paused for a while, his thoughts drifted to Henry and there pitiable health condition. Maybe investigating Henry was a huge mistake after all. Henry"s loss was also a big loss to the nation as he was the one whom they called during times like this. He could now imagine how Henry would look when he becomes strong enough to talk. A useless dummy he would be, not remembering anything about himself or even having the ability to use his brain for anything new.

Samantha Osman was really a curse to the nation, he thought. Maybe a punishment for the nation"s sins. She must be brought down at all cost. And Henry was a blessing to the nation, he must not be given up on, they must do everything to help him out of the situation they had put him.

Dakolo shrugged and continued walking on, an idea came into his mind. He remembered that the NSCC had just employed more experts, he could call Sylvester and request for the NSCC"s help on tracking the location where the call came from. He took out his phone immediately and executed his thought.

~~~

***Ten minutes later***

"Good morning Evelyn," the caller greeted.

"Good morning sir," Tarasha recognized the voice as Mr Sylvester"s.

"I"m sorry Evelyn for disturbing your sleep at this time of the night, the police just called me and requested for an urgent tracking to be done."

"What do they want to track?"

"They said a phone call that they got about two hours ago."

"Two hours ago? Why are they just tracking it now?"

"They"ve been trying but all their efforts to track it have been futile."

"How did that do it? They would have to request for data from the base of the network operators to do that."

"Yes, they"ve done so and still couldn"t track."

"Okay, let them forward the data to us."

"Thanks dear," Mr Sylvester said in a happy tone. "Sorry I didn"t ask about your mother, how is she now?"

"She"s feeling quite better. "

"Thank G.o.d. I"ll get them to forward the data to you as soon as possible and I"ll expect an excellent job as usual."

~~~

***2am***

Vice President Elvis kept pacing around his living room uneasily, his mind could not be at rest. All his guards and maids had already gone to sleep as he has earlier retired to his bedroom before getting the news of the kidnap. He didn"t believe that Nasiru whom he had just spoken with few hours ago had been already caught by the Samantha Osman group, when he thought that the Police and his man Don was already keeping her on the run. In fact, that was how Don had made it look to him when they spoke for the second time the last night. Don had told him that he had met with Samantha that day and almost caught her if not for the police who came in and disrupted all his plans. Don also promised that very soon, he would deliver to him the head of Samantha Osman.

Elvis took out his phone and dialed Don"s number. After ringing thrice, Don finally picked his call.

"h.e.l.lo VP," Don spoke in a sleepy tone.

"Blockhead, you"re there sleeping while Samantha Osman has just captured someone else." Elvis slammed.

"Huh?" Don seemed surprised. "That can"t be, she was on the run yesterday and couldn"t have carried out any operation."

"Dummy!" Elvis cursed him again. "As I speak to you now, she has the Senate President in her custody. And all these happened after you told me that you gave her a hot chase last night."

"Yes, I met her yesterday and I would have trapped her if not that the Police came with their unfortunate heads."

Elvis shook his head in self pity, to him Don was sounding like a confused fellow. Samantha Osman would surely not be stopped if he was depending on Don to do it, she had clearly shown that she was above him in every way.

"You are helpless Don, I don"t think you can carry out this a.s.signment."

"I can," Don tried to argue.

"Shut up! See me first thing by daybreak," Elvis said and ended the call with that. He dropped his phone on the table. He continued his pacing around, thinking of what he could do to save himself.

For a moment, his thoughts drifted to the person who could be the person sponsoring Samantha Osman. One person that came to his mind was Gabriel. But how on earth could Gabriel be the one? Gabriel who had been stricken with poverty was also sick with stroke and was hiding in a remote village in a poor African country, the only thing that was being awaited was the news of his death. It couldn"t be Gabriel, Elvis thought. Then who could it be?

That was a question he had no answer for, but he knew he had to do something drastically to save his life. He began to think of which other person could handle Samantha Osman but he could find no other trained and expert a.s.sa.s.sin as Don. He sank into a sofa, frustratingly. Was he going to end his life just like that? No. How could he who had been a terror to the hearts of many now be terrorized by a young girl?

An idea suddenly struck his heart and a broad smile appeared on his lips. He got up and picked his phone from the table. He unlocked it and began to search through the contacts. He didn"t find what he was looking for. He chuckled and hissed at his stupidity, how was he even expecting to find a phone number which he had not called for over fifteen years now on a recent phone?

He began to walk away from the living room, on his way to his study. He was very sure he would find Matvei"s contacts. If he couldn"t find a valid phone number, he was sure he would get a location address or an email address with which he would be able to get in touch with the man. What he needed now was another competent a.s.sa.s.sin, one who was specially trained, preferably more trained than Samantha.

**6am**

Stainless could perceive the thick odor of weed emanating from somewhere inside the house. He began to wonder if Don was already up as early as that and the only thing he could think of was to smoke. Stainless gulped down the bottle of water and flung the empty bottle into the waste bin. He closed the door to the refrigerator and turned off the light in the kitchen before exiting the place. He began to trace the smell to where it was coming from.

True to his thoughts, he was led to nowhere else than the room where Don had pa.s.sed the night. He pushed widely open the door which was left ajar. Don took a glance back at him and turned again to face the mirror in front of which he was sitting.

"Don, this thing you"re smoking, don"t you think it still attract unnecessary attention to us here?" Stainless asked, charging towards Don.

Don didn"t not reply immediately but took in another drag and let out a huge mold of thick dark smoke.

"When did it become illegal to smoke in one"s residence?" Don asked, giving Stainless a nonchalant att.i.tude.

"But I only come to this place to hide, I never announce my presence to the neighborhood."Stainless argued.

"And who"s announcing your presence?"

"You, don"t you know they"ll be perceiving the smoke all around and would surely know that it"s from here."

"Okay, you win." Don finally agreed to stop, knowing that Stainless wasn"t going to take no for an answer.

There was a long silence between them. The duo stared at their reflections shown in the mirror facing them. Stainless was putting on a white turned brown single and a blue boxers while Don was in his black trouser jean with nothing to cover his chest.

"Don"t you think you need to cut your hair again? You"re looking like the wanted man again." Stainless broke the silence, trying to mock Don but Don didn"t feel mocked, he also had been thinking of cutting his hair too and shaping his beards, which was contrary to his style before he was declared wanted.

"I don"t think she"ll come anymore," Don said, ignoring the last remark made by Stainless.

"Who?"

"Who else? Samantha."

"Okay but why do you think so? Weren"t you the one that suggested she"ll be coming very soon for us and we are already making plans to trap her?"

"She won"t be coming soon anymore, I think she has a lot to do already."

"What do you mean?" Stainless sounded confused.

"She kidnapped the Senate President yesterday."

Stainless was dumbfounded. He closed his eyes for a while to a.s.similate the news. "You mean she wasn"t hiding from the police like we were yesterday?"

Don stared at his face without responding. The kind of look in Don"s eyes already expressed his reply. Stainless could read it as, "do I look like someone who doesn"t know what he"s talking about?"

"But how come? How could she do it that same yesterday? Are you sure she was the one we met at that house?"

Don still didn"t reply immediately, he just remained calm staring at Stainless" face, he folded his arms.

"If she"s not the one? Then who could it be?" Don asked, getting up from the seat.

"So what do we do now?"

"We have to go look for her," Don replied.

"But the plan was that she"ll come to meet us."

"Plan has changed Stainless, " Don said. "She would not come to look for us now, I don"t even think she"s thinking of us yet."

"Then what do we do?"

"We"ll go in search of her."

"But that would be dangerous," Stainless opposed. "We don"t have any idea of where she operates from right now and she could lead us into a trap, we don"t know her next plan yet."

"We know her plan," Don retorted, Stainless gave him a quick surprised look. "Yes, we know her next target."

"Who?"

"The Vice President, that"s why the man is impatient about the matter. I think Tarasha is doing more than just political a.s.sa.s.sinations for Chief Gab, it"s a vengeance mission and Chief Elvis has been able to trace it, so he knows he"s the next in line."

++++

**6am**

Jefa wondered who was knocking on his door early as that. He rarely had visitors, so he thought it was one of his neighbours who had come to relay the landlord"s message to him. Jefa rolled around the bed, using his hand to search around for his torchlight. Then he noticed that the mattress was larger than usual and raised above the ground level. He sat up and that was when he realized that he wasn"t in the room of his rented apartment. The events of the recent past days flashed back into his mind, he then remembered that he was in his younger sister"s house.

The knock came again and he heard Omotara"s voice. "Come in, I didn"t lock the door." He said on top of his voice.

Omotara gently opened the door and stepped in, she turned on the light and paused to look at her brother who was squinting to accommodate the new brightness the light had introduced.

"Good morning… Ermm…sir" she stammered as she wondered what the right words were to address him with. She had long forgotten what it meant to have an elder brother or even how to greet one. "Good morning brother," she greeted again as she proceeded towards the bed and sat by the side.

"Good morning Omotara," Jefa replied with a smile. He rolled out of the blanket and placed his legs on the floor.

"How are you feeling this morning?"

"I"m feeling better, the treatment has worked quite better than what I received in the hospital." Jefa replied happily. Omotara smiled back at him mischievously, if only the man knew that some hard drugs which she mixed with the medicine were part of the reason why he felt so strong, he wouldn"t be so glad about his new feeling.

"How was work?" Jefa asked.

"Fine," she smiled, taking a look around the room. She noticed that it had been disorganized. "What happened here?" She asked with a slight frown.

"Nothing," Jefa"s smiling face gave way for a deep frown as he remembered his dream and the plan he had to leave Omotara house and life forever. "I was trying to search for the clothes you brought for me."

"But why? I thought I showed you another collection of new clothes."

"I want to return home this morning Tara, I want to go back to my house."

"Why brother? You"ve not even finished receiving treatment, the nurse is still here."

"I"m strong already," Jefa got up and jogged on the spot to emphasize his point.

"No, you can"t go home now. This is your new home."

"No, I don"t want to stay with you. I don"t want to bring my bad luck upon you."

"What do you mean brother? What are you talking about?"

"I"ve been having a lot of bad dreams recently. It started since I saw you and began to look for you. All those dreams have been pointing to something; they"ve been warning me not to reunite with you, it could cause a disaster."

"Come on, don"t worry. Dreams most times are just a reflection of the contents of our minds and nothing really serious; that means you"ve been scared of meeting with me." Omotara said with a smile, moving closer to him on the bed. She had an unusual feeling of warmness when she talked with him, something she had not felt for a long while.

"No, these dreams are real and the signs have began to show already."

"No, they are not real." Omotara argued, placing a palm on his knee. "Just clear your mind off the wrong pictures."

"They are," Jefa remained adamant. "I was listening to the radio late last night after another bad dream and I heard that your boyfriend has been seriously sick in the hospital for some days now, since the same day I had the accident."

"My boyfriend?" Omotara muttered, looking lost.

"I don"t want to disturb the peace between lovers, I also don"t want to bother you with my problems now that your boyfriend is also seriously ill and needs your attention." Jefa continued without paying attention to her face. He held her palms tightly in his.

"My boyfriend? Who is that?" She asked in a low voice, hoping he wasn"t referring to Henry.

"Isn"t he your boyfriend? Or are you people married already?"

"Married? I"m not married to anyone."

"I"m talking about Henry, Henry Ekene. His love for you is always seen in his eyes anytime he speaks about you." Jefa revealed.

Omotara slowly released his hands and stood up from the bed, she folded her arms and turned her back against him to hide her facial expression which had turned evil at the sound of Henry"s name. She hated thinking about him now, she hated all the emotions which he had brought back into her life and regretted allowing the feelings to control her to the point of forgetting the ampoule in his house.

Jefa got up and stood behind her, he placed a hand on her shoulder. "He loves you, I know he truly loves you." Tarasha"s heart melted at Jefa"s words and her shoulders dropped, her heart began to beat fast as Henry"s helpless picture flashed back into her mind. She could remember the disappointed look on his face when he saw her in his house and that look he kept when she was done setting up the drip.

"I was going to his house that day, he called me to warn you if I see you anywhere, not to come into town for now. He sounded concerned about you, like you were in trouble of some sort." Jefa paused, he noticed her countenance, it looked like she was sobbing. He held her elbow from behind and turned her to face him. Her eyes looked teary, he thought she could burst out loud in tears any moment from then. She buried her face in his chest and he embraced and patted her back, consoling her for what he was unaware of.

~~~

7am

All through the night, Chief Elvis kept turning around the bed, unable to have a good night rest as he met with a nightmare anytime he closed his eyes. A girl with a masked face was always pursuing after him, telling him to confess his sins to the nation and whole world else she would kill him sooner than he expected.

A message entered into his phone and it beeped. He quickly got out of the bed and picked the phone on the drawer. His mind began to beat fast as he saw the notification, his email message had been replied to already. He opened the message and quickly read through. The Villary Gang had gotten his message and confirmed his previous relationship with them. They also attached in the message two phone numbers which he could use to contact his old a.s.sociate, Matvei.

Chief Elvis quickly copied the number and pasted it on his dialpad. He clicked the dial command and placed it on his ears.

"h.e.l.lo," a gruff voice came through.

"h.e.l.lo Matvei," Chief Elvis smiled as he could recall the voice of his old time Russian a.s.sociate.

"Who is this and how can I help you?" The voice continued in a thick Russian accent.

"It"s your friend Matvei, it"s Elvis Richards from Nigeria."

"Elvis Richards," the receiver seemed to think for a while, maybe trying to recall the name. "Elvis Richards?" The voice repeated.

"Yes, Elvis Richards, I and my a.s.sociates used to supply you fresh raw materials from Nigeria." Elvis explained more.

"Oh!" The gruff voice exclaimed. "It"s been a long while, your voice sounds older now."

"Yes, yours sounds older too." Elvis replied with a brief laugh.

"Well, that"s the effects of aging." Matvei remarked. "So what"s the purpose of this call? You want to start business with us again? You want to supply us goods?"

"No, not that business now. I know whom to call if it"s to start supply again"

"Humm… I hope you"re not talking about Vlasdislav," Matvei said.

"Yes, of course Vlasdislav. Is there any problem?" Elvis asked, noticing the uneasiness in Matvei"s tone.

"Vlasdislav has betrayed us, he"s betrayed the Villary Gang, he doesn"t work for us anymore. He took some trainees with him to an enemy gang."

"Wow! That"s interesting. So he works for another Gang now?"

"Yes, he works in the Nefary Clan. I"m aware that they have one of their bests in your country now."

"Huh? One of their bests?"

"Yes, a girl who is one of their bests is in your country now. It was reported on the world news how she kidnapped your Senate President at night time in your place."

"Huh?" Elvis widened his eyes in shock at the quick spread of the news. "That"s exactly the same reason why I"m calling you."

"Huh? Did you think she came from us?"

"No, I don"t have an idea of where she was from. You see, the person she kidnapped last night was one of my colleagues who was part of the team that used to send you raw materials."

"Oh! So your Senate President was part of the team?"

"Yes, but he wasn"t the Senate President then, so was I not the Vice President then too."

"Oh! You"re the Vice President now?" Matvei said with a roar of laughter. "Your country keeps voting in corrupt leaders."

"Ermm… Don"t talk like that, I"m not corrupt anymore, that"s why I stopped doing business with you."

"Okay, I see Mr Changed man." Matvei said with a mockery tone. "Why then did you search for my contact again?"

"Yes… Ermm…" Elvis struggled to find words. "That girl, who you say is from your enemy Gang has killed all the rest of my business partners. Only two of us are left alive and the Senate President who happens to be the second person has also been kidnapped by her gang. I"ll be her next target. The police are helpless about the situation and that"s why I"m calling. I need another a.s.sa.s.sin who can help me kill her and whoever is her sponsor."

"Do you know who her sponsor or sponsors are?"

"No, I don"t."

"But that should not be difficult to know. It should be one of your a.s.sociates. As at the time of your deal with us, you were the only Nigerians we had business with, and Vlasdislav was the one communicating directly with you. I"m sure it would be someone who still has Vlasdislav contact."

"Ermm… I don"t care who it is right now. All I need is another competent a.s.sa.s.sin who can protect my life."

"But I thought you guys said you"ll never need use of a.s.sa.s.sins then when we offered to give you ones that would help your political careers."

"Yes, I know we said that but my life is in danger now and I seriously need protection. You can"t start judging me by what I said twenty years ago, things have changed. I need your best man right now."

"Okay, you need our best man?"

"Yes, your best man."

"That"ll cost you a lot of money."

"There"s no problem, I can pay anything."

"Cool then… Call me back tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?"

"Yes."

"Why not later today?"

"No, call me by three am your time tomorrow."

"But…"

"It takes time to select the best or isn"t that what you want?" Matvei scolded him.

"Okay," Elvis finally gave up.

"Now, I"ll send the billing information to your email in thirty minutes time."

"It"s okay," Elvis replied. After some few seconds of more unnecessary talks, the call was ended. Elvis returned to his bed and sank into it. He began to think of the next step to take, it might take sometime for Matvei to help him arrange the a.s.sa.s.sin and he wasn"t sure Samantha would wait that long before coming for him, he needed to do something quick.

He began to think of Gabriel who was possibly still alive, could it mean that Gabriel was the one sponsoring Samantha? But how could it be? Gabriel had nothing left and was terribly sick without care from anyone. There was something more to it. Maybe there was another unknown enemy elsewhere whom his group had greatly offended.

He also began to think of leaving the country for a while but his position and responsibility as the Vice President of the nation would not permit him to do that. He tightened his fists and banged his hands on the mattress in frustration.

His phone rang again, distracting him from his temporary madness. He climbed off the bed and picked the phone. The call was from Don.

"Sir, I"m in your living room now."

"Okay," Chief Elvis replied and took a long pause to think of what more Don could do for him. " Ill join you soon," he finally said, rubbing his beards.