Tarasha – Chapter 19 Part 10

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Tarasha was still furious about the news she had just gotten from Aisha, she was angry with Benny and was willing to skin him alive if she could see him at that moment. She continued to pace around angrily. She didn’t think Henry being alive would disturb her plans with the Senate President or the Inspector General but she didn’t just like the idea of keeping him alive. 

Her doorbell rang, she paused and stared at the door, then she walked back to her seat and checked the person behind the door. They were two, Mr Sylvester and somebody else, she didn’t see the man’s face very well. She tapped the door’s open button on her table and the door was unlocked. Mr Sylvester entered with the visitor. 

‘Good afternoon sirs,’ she got up to greet, staring at the visitor’s face, within few seconds, she was able to identify him. 

‘Good afternoon Kim, this is Agent Dakolo,’ Mr Sylvester introduced as they took their seats. 

‘You’re welcome Agent,’ Tarasha said with a smile. 

‘Thank you miss Kimberly,’ Dakolo smiled back. 

‘Agent Dakolo has something for us to work out,’ Mr Sylvester said after they were all seated. He collected an envelope from Agent Dakolo and began to take out the pictures inside, he handed one the Tarasha and said, ‘these are the abductors of the Senate President.’

‘Hmm,’ Tarasha hummed in a surprised tone as she collected the picture and stared at it. ‘These guys are all young people,” she said. 

‘Yes, young but killing people and throwing families into pain.’ Dakolo commented. 

Tarasha smiled lightly, trying her best to conceal it. Dakolo’s comment sounded more like a compliment to her, killing and causing pain for people was what she was trained to do, so she felt proud when the agent confirmed that she was doing a good job at it. She studied the pictures for some more seconds before looking up. 

‘Miss Kimberly, I heard that you’re very intelligent,’ Dakolo continued. ‘I hope you’re patriotic too?’ 

‘Yes sir,’ she stated firmly. 

‘I believe you,’ Dakolo continued. ‘But before I explain the details of this job to you, I have to warn you about telling anybody that you’re working on it. I know you’re very aware of how dangerous this assassin group is. So please, do not tell anybody; your friends, family members or even partner anything you discover while on this job.’ Dakolo stopped to get her response.

‘I won’t sir, ‘ Tarasha replied in wx promising tone.  

‘Good. Now, these pictures we are giving to you contains the members of the Samantha Osman group. Apart from this one, Aisha Bello,’ Dakolo pointed to Aisha on the picture in his hand, ‘we’ve not been able to get the real identities of the others. This is because these people are heavily disguised. Now, the reason we’ve brought these pictures here is for you to track them, Mr Sylvester has said that the data from the past seven days would be provided to you. We want you to trace all these faces and spot anywhere they’ve been to recently.’ Dakolo paused as he noticed a deep frown appearing on her face. 

‘Sir, I don’t understand; for which locations am I going to check?’ 

‘For all locations,’ Dakolo replied. 

Tarasha’s expression turned into a shocked one. ‘Sir, I alone cannot do the job for a single town in Abuja, I mean that means observing up to hundred videos of at least fifteen hours each.’

Dakolo paused and took in a  deep breath, he realized that he was just about giving her an impossible job. If only a town would have up to hundred videos, then the whole of Abuja would more than two thousand videos of fifteen hours each and that would mean they would need up to thirty thousand hours of watching and observing all those videos which was equal to 1,250 days of watching. 

‘Sir, monitoring successfully for the past seven days in Abuja wouldn’t be possible even if we had twenty people working on it and if we are to divert the attention of all regionals to it, then there would be more trouble because anything can happen while they take their eyes off the ongoing transmission.’

‘Hmm,’ Dakolo inhaled deeply and rested his back on the chair, his idea wasn’t good after all. 

‘But sir, we can work on monitoring the faces of these individuals for the coming days. We’ll have to build a system that would keep traces of their facial structures. Once any of them is located in any region, there would be an alarm in the regional office which would be sent here from the region.’ Tarasha offered. 

‘Excellent! Then begin to work on it immediately,” Dakolo sat up and said excitedly. 

‘Alright sir, we’ll start work as soon as possible,’ Tarasha replied with a smile. She had a plan, there was something like that she had seen installed in the system. 

‘But…’ Sylvester cut in, he looked like he was trying to recall something. ‘I think Henry E.G was working on something like that already.’ 

”Ermm… Yes, ‘ Tarasha joined, ‘I think I saw something like that too, but I’ll confirm later.’

‘Then when can it be ready for use?’ Dakolo asked. 

‘Once I check and find it already installed, we can turn on the process immediately.’ Tarasha replied. ‘If it has not been installed yet, it’ll take us about twenty hours to install but if it has not been developed at all, then we’ll need a week to develop and fix a new one.’ 

‘Okay, how long will it take you to confirm if it has been installed or not?’ Dakolo asked.

‘Just an hour,’ Tarasha stated. 

‘Oops! I can’t wait for that, but I’ll call you to get the report,’ Dakolo said and began to stand up from his seat. 

‘I’ll get back to you as soon as possible,’ Tarasha assured. She got up to receive a warm handshake from Dakolo, then the Agent and Sylvester walked out of the office. 

Tarasha sat back and returned to work immediately, she had found the opportunity to call for Henry’s presence. 

++++

‘Ah!’ Benny groaned as Don continued to dish out blows to his face. His face was bleeding and mouth swollen, his two hands were tied with strong ropes to two separate poles at the two sides, his legs were also tied in the same manner. That was how he met himself when he woke up, the last thing he remembered doing was fighting with Don. He was ready for death; he was sure death was coming soon as his body was drastically losing strength and his hosts were not ready to show mercy on him except he gives them the answer they were seeking from him.

‘He’s not spoken yet?’ Stainless asked Don, walking into the darkly lit room with a bottle of alcoholic wine in his hands. 

‘No,’ Don replied in a frustrated tone. He stepped back and took a stick of cigar from the concrete table, he lit it and took a quick drag. 

‘I think the guy loves to die,’ Stainless said mockingly, standing in front of Benny with his wine. He poured a quantity of the liquid on Benny’s face and it washed down some of the blood. ‘Homie, you wanna die because you want to proof loyal to a b**ch?’

‘I’m dead already,’ Benny spoke softly, like a drunken man. ‘It’s better you ki*ll me here because I don’t want her to ki*ll me for being a betrayal, that would be worse.’

‘Oh boy,’ Stainless said and laughed sardonically. ‘She doesn’t have to see you as a betrayal man, you can just tell us her operation base and we’ll send you back to her as if nothing happened, and we won’t attack her, even if we do, it would be on your conditions.’

‘You can’t get to her operation base or even attack her, she’ll ki*ll you before you make the move.’ Benny said. 

Stainless laughed again, ‘You think all men are sissies like you?’ 

‘Don’t mind the f*ol, that b**ch must have poisoned him with something that made him lose his mind.’ Don said, moving closer. 

There was quietness for a while, Don kept smoking while Stainless was drinking. ‘Benny,’ Don called softly, blowing smoke at his face. ‘Do you know who sent us? It’s the Vice President,’ Don stated temptingly. ‘And he is offering us huge sums of money, you too can be a partaker if you’ll only cooperate with us.’

‘There’s no need for me to join a team I know has already failed from the start,’ Benny remained adamant. ‘You can’t beat Tarasha, she’s not your match.’

Don stared at him in silence for a couple of seconds and took in some few drags before he continued to dish out blows to Benny’s face. 

++++

**Two Hours later**

‘This has not been properly developed sir,’ Tarasha said, explaining some things to the three men by her side. Mr Sylvester was sitting beside her in the second visitor’s seat in his office while Frank and the other guy was standing and staring into the laptop. 

‘But I thought Henry installed it already,’ Frank put in, looking confused. 

‘Yes, that’s where the major problem lies now,’ Tarasha continued to explain. ‘He installed it while still developing and optimized it with the systems, I know he wasn’t anticipating anything evil, that’s why he installed it and even made the only way to unlock the API his finger print.’

‘That means we can’t continue to work on it without getting his fingerprint?’ Mr Sylvester asked. 

‘Yes, that’s our password to continue developing.’ she replied. 

‘Wow!’ all the men in the office exclaimed in unison, letting out sighs after. 

‘What about creating a new one? Just stop his process and i run another?’ Mr Sylvester asked. 

Tarasha turned to face Frank and the other guy, ‘I thought you guys worked with him on it,’ she said in a questioning manner. 

‘Yes,’ Frank was the one who replied. ‘But he never carried us along, he only said he would tell us later when it was the right time.’

‘Oops!’ Tarasha sighed and turned back to Mr Sylvester to answer his question. ‘We can’t initialize another process, not when this has been optimized with the system already. We need to first take out the keys which Mr Henry has locked with his finger print.’

‘Hmm,’ Sylvester took in a deep breath and got up. ‘So that means that we won’t be able to help the police with their investigation.’

‘Yes sir, we won’t.’

‘Hmm… I just hope they’ll understand us, it may seem to them like we are only handicapped and inefficient because of Henry’s absence.’

‘But sir, that’s the least  we should be worried about now,’ Tarasha said and turned back to the computer. 

‘What do you mean?’ Mr Sylvester asked. 

‘We are facing more danger than not being able to help the police, we’re facing more problems of the camera system being closed down for a year or more.’

‘What?? What are you saying?’ Mr Sylvester sat back on his chair and began to stare intently at Tarasha’s face.

‘Mr Henry has optimized the process with the whole cameras system of the nation and has configured it to start working next week, I believed he thought he would have finished working on the process by now. But now the process hasn’t being fully developed and he’s not here to rush the development process up. It would mean all security cameras in whole nation would start malfunctioning from next week.’

‘What? How can he start up such a process?’ Mr Sylvester slammed angrily. He got and began to pace around as he envisioned his job as the chairman of the NSCC at risk, which was his greatest fear.

‘He was doing it for the good of everyone,’ Frank said in a soft voice, trying to allay Mr Sylvester. ‘It would have been a great invention if he was here to complete it.’ 

‘But now that he isn’t here, what do we do?’ Mr Sylvester had frustration written all over his face. ‘Now that he’s not here, nobody else can continue the process because he secured it with his finger print, why on earth didn’t he used a simple password that Kimberly would have been able to decrypt even in his absence? Now, can we make duplicates of his fingerprints? No.’

‘Sir, he did it for security purposes. He had to do it with his fingerprints so that the assassins or anyone else wouldn’t have been able to decrypt the key.’ Frank explained. 

‘I think what we should do is find a solution now instead of going back and forth on why Mr Henry did the things he did.’ the other guy suggested. 

‘We have only one way out now, ‘ Tarasha said, drawing the attention of everyone else. ‘Get Henry to unlock it for us with his fingerprint.’

‘But that’s almost impossible right now, we don’t know if Henry is alive or not. The Agent refused to tell me anything concerning him.’ Mr Sylvester said. 

‘Alive or not sir,’ Tarasha continued slowly; trying her best not to sound insensitive, ‘we need his fingers to unlock the process.’

‘So we can still use his fingers even if he’s no more?’

‘Yes,’ Tarasha stated. 

‘Hmm…’ Mr Sylvester sighed, sitting back on the chair. He really hoped that Henry was still alive. ‘The problem now is that the police are not ready to reveal if he’s dead or not.’

‘I think you should try more to convince the Agent; if you tell him all these dangers we could avoid, he may consider us. Remember sir, we have less than six days until the whole of NSCC crashes.’ Tarasha said in a warning tone. 

Mr Sylvester doorbell distracted them, he clicked on the open button on his table in anger and one of the junior staffs entered. 

‘Sir, our system has been hacked again; some regional offices have complained of static footages in their transmission.’ the junior staff announced. 

‘What?’ they all exclaimed, including Tarasha who was aware that it was Cole at work. 

++++

‘Here, we go sir,’ Cole said to the Senate President who was sitting beside him in the front seat of the car. ‘I’ll open the door for you and you get out immediately we get to to your house, I’ll speed off immediately.’ 

The man nodded in reply, that was the only way he could respond; his tongue has been cut off and his hands paralyzed by the poison.

++++

8pm

‘I’m ready sir, I’m about to give him the solution now and we’ll connect to you,’ Dr Tobi said into the phone. The call ended and Dr Tobi handed the phone back to Inspector Ken. 

They both walked into Henry’s room, Dr Tobi holding a small bottle and a teaspoon with him. The small bottle contained Dr Tobi’s prepared solution which would aid Henry in recalling his memories. Ken was carrying a bag which contained a laptop and other gadgets. 

‘How are you Henry?” Dr Tobi said as he approached Henry who was sitting on a settee close to his bed. 

‘I’m fine,’ Henry replied with a smile to Dr Tobi but frowned on seeing Ken who was doing his best to look friendly and put on a smile. 

‘Have you had your dinner?’ Dr Tobi asked, placing the bottle on a table beside Henry’s seat.

‘Yes, I have.’

‘Good, it’s time to take this drug; it’ll help you become stronger.’ the doctor said, handing him the teaspoon. 

Henry collected the teaspoon from Dr Tobi, placing an awkward look on Ken. The doctor helped in opening the bottle and poured part of the content into the spoon. Henry ended up taking three teaspoonfuls of the solution. 

‘Doctor, you said you were going to allow me talk to someone tonight,’ Henry asked after two minutes of resting. The doctor was already seated beside Henry while Ken was still standing. ‘I hope he’s not the one?’ Henry asked, pointing at Ken and staring at him frightfully. 

‘He’s not the one you’re talking to tonight, but I think you should also be nice to him; he’s also your friend and won’t hurt you.’ Dr Tobi said. 

‘Hmm…’ Henry hummed and stared at Ken’s face for a while, as if trying to see if he wouldn’t hurt him like the doctor said. 

‘Let’s connect now,’ Dr Tobi said to Inspector Ken. 

‘Okay,’ Inspector Ken replied and took out the laptop from the bag. He carried it to where the flat screened television was and squatted, he placed the laptop on the floor and turned it on. Then he took out an audio video cable from his bag and connected it to the laptop and to the television.

After few minutes of working on the computer, he placed a call to Agent Dakolo. ‘We’re ready sir,’ he said. 

‘Where is the person?’ Henry asked out of curiousness, wondering what Ken was doing. 

‘Be patient, you’ll see her now.’ Dr Tobi answered. 

‘The person is a lady?’ Henry asked. He had never seen any other lady apart from the three maids in the house where he was. 

‘Yes, she is your mother.’ Dr Tobi stated.

‘My mother?’ Henry’s eyes widened in surprise. ‘I have a mother?’ he asked but got no reply except a kind smile from Dr Tobi.

The video chat was on already, Mrs George was shown on the screen, she was sitting and just staring, most likely still waiting for video signals at her end. 

‘Is this her?’ Henry got up suddenly and began to walk towards the television, Dr Tobi followed him immediately. 

‘Henry,’ the woman called as Henry got midway. He paused and stared thoughtfully, Dr Tobi and Ken were looking at his face, expectant. 

++++

‘I’ve been disconnected boss,’ Aisha said into the phone. 

‘How?’ Tarasha replied her from the other end. 

‘I think she took off the clothes I placed the recorder on,’ Aisha replied. 

‘But you know her location now?’ 

‘Yes.’

‘Good, you and Cole has to leave that lodge this night, I’ve given instructions to Cole already. Benny is a traitor, we don’t know what he would do next.’

…to be continued 

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