TARASHA : CHAPTER FIVE – PART FOUR (Conclusion)

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‘It’s time to leave guys’ James motioned his team members at exactly five pm. He got into the first car, a Bently Jeep with a stout officer who sat at the driver’s seat, while the other four officers , two males and two females got into the Camsol. 

The stout man started the car engine and mumbled some words to James before they led the way out of the station compound, the Camsol followed behind.

The minister’s plane was expected to arrive in Nigeria by six pm, but it was just few minutes after five pm when James commanded his team to leave for the airport. Though the distance of the airport to the station wasn’t much, it only took fifteen minutes to drive there, James like every professional insisted on arriving the airport and getting settled very early before the minister arrives.

They had just gone a few distance away from the station when James’ phone rang, he discovered that it was a call from one of his team members who was in the other car following them. He glanced back and couldn’t find the Camsol behind them anymore, several cars had come in between them now.

‘Where are you? Why are you guys driving slowly?’ James inquired.

‘I think one of the tyres is bad sir’ the officer replied. ‘I think something sharp pierced it on the road’

‘You guys should fix it and join us at the airport as soon as possible, is that clear?’ James ordered.

‘Yes sir’ the reply came in a faint voice, the call ended.

James and his partner continued to the airport without them, they arrived at the airport not more than ten minutes after.

Before they came out of the car, James called back to find out where the rest of his men were. He got a negative reply, no progress had be made, instead more fault had been discovered in the car.

Officer Segun’s call came in when they got to the arrival hall,at exactly thirty minutes past five pm.

‘Hello Sege’ James hailed, addressing officer Segun by his nick.

‘Good day sir’ Segun voice replied cheerfully. ‘We just dropped the minister home now and we’re about to leave’

‘Okay, are you sure he’s not going out to anywhere else today?’ James asked.

‘He’s going nowhere else’ Segun answered with confidence. ‘He returned home early to wait for Honorable Mensah, he was told the plane left Ghana already’

‘Okay, we’re in the airport already to wait for him’

‘Ok sir, I just thought I should tell you I’m leaving’

‘It’s alright, just remember the job continues tomorrow. You should be with him whenever he’s going out officially’

‘Alright sir’ The call ended.

James did not hear anything from the rest of his team members until five minutes past six pm, the same time when the minister arrived, the call came in before the minister came out of the plane.

‘Where are you?’ James demanded angrily.

‘On our way sir, we’ll get to the airport in the next three minutes’ a voice responded shakily.

‘You better do or you’ll be sorry for yourself’ James snapped and cut the call. He was too angry to notice the officer’s shaky voice.

‘Welcome sir, I’m officer James’ Officer James welcomed Mr Mensah, displaying his ID card.

‘Thank you’ the minister replied, flashing his teeth, the stout officer took the man’s small luggage from an airport attendant. ‘Please take me one to Honorable Nnamdi’s house immediately

‘Oh yea sir, this way’ James motioned the man forward, and followed behind, directing the man as they walked. The stout officer hurried to the park to drive the car forward to cut short their guest’s trekking.

As they drove out through the exit gate, James spotted the Camsol car at the entrance, trying to sort out their entrance with the security officials at the gate. The stout driver waved to the driver of the other car and motioned them to turn back and follow their car.

Officer Tunde, driver of the Camsol who was the same person who communicated with officer James through the phone, drove in through the entrance first before making a u-turn to hollow the exit.

In no time, the Camsol car was following closely at the back of the jeep. James got a glimpse of them through the side mirror, he felt like coming down to discipline the juniors but had to compose himself because of the Ghanaian minister.

They drove into Chief Nnamdi’s compound after twenty minutes, the compound wasn’t a large one, the distance from the gate to the main house wasn’t far.

Chief Nnamdi was spotted sitting under a shade in the compound waiting for their arrival, with one of his guards standing beside him. He smiled on sighting the Ghanaian minister’s car drive in, he stood up from his seat and began walking slowly towards the park.

The Bently Jeep followed the direction  to the car park given by the guards, but the Camsol car made a surprise movement.

The car drove violently straight to Chief Nnamdi’s direction, clearing the two guards who stood before the man, the first gunshot from a uniformed policewoman behind, hit Chief Nnamdi’s personal guard.

Bang! A noise divided the attention of the other guards in the compound, before they could take any step, another explosion hit the house through the gate, creating an opening for the assailants’ escape and killing the armed security men at the gate. Three more gunshots were heard and the Camsol made a turn and sped out unhampered through the destroyed gate.

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Cole tucked back the grenade launcher into the bag and threw it at  the back seat. He sighted police officials rushing in their vans to attacked Minister’s house, two of the police cars followed the directions of the escaped Camsol. He selected a rap music album on his car’s music player before he started the car engine and drove out of Alex street.

The plan had worked out perfectly well; Tarasha, Benny and Aisha had left the office to a restaurant beside the police station before three o’clock. From there they monitored the movement of Inspector James’ team via live transmission of the police activities to their tablet device.

Cole had hacked into the police control room server undetected, through a method Tarasha taught him, transmitting the video records in the station to Tarasha’s device.

And the Camsol didn’t just develop any fault, the back tyre was deflated by Tarasha while Benny and Aisha waited for the police officials to come to request for a tyre change at the mechanic workshop compound close to the station. The four officers except the driver were induced into deep sleep and locked inside the mechanic’s shop alongside with the mechanic and his several apprentices. The driver of the car was hypnotized temporarily with a pin pierced into his arm.

Tarasha, Benny and Aisha after repairing the car, disguised and changed into the uniforms of the officers. The officer driving the car was returned to his normal state after the hypnotized pin was removed and forced to continue driving to the airport. He was also forced to keep reporting false information to Inspector James.

Cole did the job of monitoring Inspector James’ movement on the road and reported live to Tarasha, then he returned to Alex street and waited at a reasonable distance to Minister’s house from where he launched the grenade to the gate.

‘Hey, over here’ Cole shouted, motioning his three colleagues who stood at the front of the restaurant beside the police station, after returning from their successful job.

Tarasha, Benny and Aisha hopped into the car, Benny sitting in the front with Cole.

‘Good job Boss’ Cole praised, laughing widely as he pointed to a beard hanging loosely on Benny’s jaw.

‘Damn!’ Benny removed the piece of hair and flung it away.

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Everything had happened too fast, it seemed like a dream to James as the police medical team tidied up a total of nine dead bodies in the compound.

It all happened in less than one minute, the Jeep that conveyed him and the Ghanaian minister was not even parked yet when he heard the explosion and gunshot sounds. They narrowly escaped the impact of the grenade, the affected area was just a few metres to the Jeep.

The Camsol car already sped out of the compound before he could rush down from the Jeep. The first thing he did was to ensure the safety of Mr Mensah by taking him far into the house.

Chief Nnamdi Okafor could by no chance survive the gunshots, his personal bodyguard was first taken down. Then two bullets was sent into the minister’s forehead and other one into his chest, he died instantly.

‘Officer James’ An elderly policeman called harshly. ‘You were here when it all happened?’

‘Yes sir’ James replied in low tones, feeling greatly agitated.

‘You were not just here, the assailants came with you’ the man added as he moved closer. ‘You brought them in, they were members of your team’

‘No… Sir’ James stuttered.

‘Nooooo?’ The officer stressed, looking suspiciously at James. ‘You brought the murderers here, you must have known about the plan all along’

Officer James was speechless, he battled within himself to stop tears from dropping off as he watched the Ghanaian minister been taken into another car which was driven out of compound immediately.

‘Are you not the one I’m talking to?’ The elderly officer snapped angrily.

‘Sir, we’ve got the signal back and the cameras are working perfectly well now’ a junior office distracted the elder, trotting towards them with a tablet device in his hand.

‘When did you say the signal went off again?’ the elder turned back to face the junior.

‘It went off by five pm and it returned few minutes ago’ he replied, the sound of his breathing was heard as he spoke.

‘That means it was switched off during the time of the operation?’

‘Yes sir, the cameras didn’t cover nor transmit anything all through. That’s why it took us time to report the incident to the headquarters’ he explained.

‘That means someone close to us must have been involved’ the man said sternly, turning back to James, he landed a slap on his face.

‘I didn’t… ‘ James wasn’t allowed to complete his response, he was handcuffed and carried away in the police van.