Tarasha – Chapter 13 part 6

By Young C.c
Other Chapters and Parts of Tarasha
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~~~~~~~~~
Tarasha removed the bag on her back and returned to 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 button 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 password. She typed in the password 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. ‘ki*ll 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. ‘Hello sir’
‘Hello 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. ‘sh*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 assassin 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 assassins must be on their way to carry out their job’
‘Damn!’ 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’
‘sh*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 glass 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 assurance that the assassin 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 passenger’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 assassin 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 space 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 passenger’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.
…to be continued