Tarasha – Chapter 13 part 2

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Dakolo posed in front of the mirror to check his dressing and make sure that nothing was out of place. His well fitted black suit made him look smart as usual, he was wearing a white shirt under and a dark blue tie. He took a small comb from his box which he had already arranged and combed his medium height hair forward. He returned the comb and straightened up his jacket, he looked into the mirror once more before picking up his box and phone. His phone rang just in time.

‘Agent Dakolo, are you at the Rivers’ airport already?’ Officer Ken’s voice came through.

‘No officer’ Dakolo smiled, ‘I’m already in Abuja, I’ll be in the headquarters in few minutes time’

‘In Abuja already?’ Officer Ken exclaimed in a surprise tone. ‘Are you at the Abuja airport then?’

‘No, I’m not. Don’t bother about me’ Dakolo smiled. ‘I know my way around, I’ll meet you in the office. Is the IG there already?’

‘No, he isn’t but he’ll be with us in few minutes also’ Officer Ken answered.

‘Okay, until we see then’ Dakolo ended the call and opened the dial pad for a new call. He dialed the cabman, Clement’s number.

‘Where are you now?’ He asked.

‘I just drove in’ Clement answered.

~~Twenty five minutes later ~~

Dakolo and the cab man drove into the large compound of the police headquarters after thorough searching at the gate. Dakolo was seated in front with him and they chatted all through the journey like friends until they got to their destination.

The cab man who was surprised when Dakolo asked him to turn into the police headquarters was more surprised on seeing several high ranked police officials stop to greet Dakolo as they drove into the gate. It was his first time of entering the place but his surprise robbed him of the chance to notice the other beautiful sites in the compound. He began to stare at Dakolo’s face suspiciously.

Dakolo smiled on seeing his confused look. ‘Sorry, I didn’t tell you I’m a member of the police force’

The cab man glanced at him, the look on his face expressed his demand for more explanation.

‘My younger brother is the contractor really, it was his business card I gave you’ Dakolo explained further. ‘My promise to get jobs for you when you go back to your carpentry work is still on. I’ll ensure that my brother works with you’

The cab man stared at him more awkwardly without saying any word. He drove as he was being directed by a police officer into the garage. After about two minutes, they finally parked the car.

‘Thanks’ Dakolo said, bringing out his wallet from his jacket’s inner pocket. He began to count. ‘Since you know everywhere around, I’ll be calling you often, hope you’ll be available’

‘I’ll try’ Clement answered less enthusiastically. His focus was more on the cash Dakolo was counting. Dakolo finally counted triple of the fare and handed it over to him.

‘Oh! Thanks’ Clement received the money joyfully. ‘Just call me anytime, I’ll be available to take you anywhere’ he said.

Dakolo smiled and got out of the car. A crowd of highly ranked officers had come to welcome him, the IG was also there. A junior officer took out his box from the back seat.

‘Agent Dakolo’ the IG saluted on seeing him. Dakolo saluted back and received the man’s handshake with his two hands to show curtsy. ‘Welcome’

‘Thank you sir’ Dakolo replied with a smile, also responding to the greetings from other officers.

The Inspector General, Rikau Waziri was dressed in dark suit too, he also had a white shirt under but was without a tie. Aged 51, Rikau was of average height and a very dark complexion. He had a bald head, his face had scars on it, a result of several fights he had engaged in when he was younger. The rest of the officers were dressed in their uniforms.

‘Why didn’t you tell us the exact time you were coming? We were making arrangements to come for you at the airport’

‘I had to come earlier to do something sir’ Dakolo said briefly. He took a back glance at the cab man who was just driving off and smiled.

‘It’s okay’ the IG said and they began to proceed into the main building. ‘Hope your journey wasn’t stressful’

‘Not at all sir, it was stress free’

‘Good’ the IG smiled as they climbed up the short stairs into the building. Dakolo looked around, surprised at the number of officers who were present at the office on a Sunday morning. Officer Ken noticed his surprise.

‘They all have to be here because of the security issues we’re having right now’ Ken explained with a smile.

Dakolo nodded and smiled. The crowd of officers began to decrease gradually as they walked past the several offices and sections. They finally got to a room with the tag “H 4”. Ken brought out an access card and opened the door. It was a room where top officials held their meetings. The remaining three officers and the IG entered the room with Dakolo.

The room which was painted white all through was not too large but conducive enough for a meeting. There was a rectangular table in the middle and ten chairs were round the table. Light refreshments had been served on the table already. The IG took the seat at the front corner which was the short side of the table while the four others took two seats each at the left and the right. Inspector Ken and Agent Dakolo took the seats closer to the IG. The meeting began.

‘So what’s the way forward now?’ The IG asked after a short recap of the situation.

‘I’m thinking we need the help of some agents’ Dakolo said. Everyone stared at him for more explanation. ‘I mean a secret agent’ Dakolo stated further.

‘Does that mean you think you can’t handle it?’ The IG asked. ‘Cos that’s the reason we brought you here’

‘I’m not saying I can’t handle it, in fact I would have loved to but we need someone who wouldn’t need much struggle to disguise as an assassin ‘ Dakolo explained more but his listeners still did not understand except for Ken who was shaking his head thoughtfully.

‘I think I get his point’ Ken put in, redirecting all stares to himself. ‘Agent Dakolo’s face is already known in the country for nabbing top criminals and assassins, it would require extra work and would need a lot of disguise techniques for him to act as a secret agent, his face is known already’

The IG shook his head slowly and thoughtfully in agreement. ‘So what do you think we should do now? I really wish Dakolo is still  a young man we could send as an undercover like  we used to do’ he said smiling at Dakolo. Dakolo smiled back. ‘Well, we have some of our officers we could still send’

Dakolo gave a slight hiss which expressed his disagreement, ‘our boys have not been trained enough to handle this kind of cases. They’ll definitely cause more troubles for us. Even myself wouldn’t have been able to carry out this kind of job if it had come when I was still a secret agent. I have more experience now, both on the field and technically’

‘So what do you suggest now?’ The IG asked. ‘Can Ken?’ The IG turned to look at Ken. ‘Or any of these two?’

Ken shook his head slightly in disagreement. ‘Do you think it would work like that?’

‘Why not?’ Dakolo and the IG asked in unison.

‘We’ve been actively involved in this assassination case. I mean the three of us’ he said looking at the other two seated. ‘We’ve been involved in the chasing and interrogations, do you think it can still work with us?’ Ken said in a bold voice, dismissing every perception that he was afraid to take the task.

‘You’ve spoken the truth’ Dakolo said after thoughtfully considering his reply. ‘This assassin group members are intelligent and dangerous. I’m sure they’ll just play along even if they recognize anyone sent as the undercover and it would turn out as a disaster for us’

‘So we don’t have enough strong and trained men in the force that can handle this?’ The IG joined, getting irritated that they were making the matter sound so big.

‘Sir, it’s not about being strong here’ Dakolo said calmly. ‘Of course, strength is important but what we really need is an intelligent personnel. Very intelligent one who would match the intelligence of this assassin group. You know I can’t really talk about the manpower of the group but I know they are intelligent. Most of their strategies have been technical; they disrupt all our technical security facilities, keep us in darkness and then carry our their assassination, that’s what they’ve been doing’

There was silence for a while. ‘So you think that the assassin group is not really tough in physical strength?’ The IG broke the silence.

‘Yes but I may be wrong. But one thing I’m sure of is that their technical and developing abilities and intelligence is where they’re stronger’

‘No’ Ken disagreed gently. ‘Except the assassin group that killed Chief Jubril USA different from the one who that carried out the other two but if we are saying they might be the same, which is really likely, it would be wrong to say they are weak physically’

Dakolo turned and stared at Ken, so did everyone else.

‘Yes sir, he’s right’ one of the two other officers finally broke his silence. ‘The group that carried out Chief Jubril’s assassination was definitely not weak physically. Their knowledge of the usage and control of guns is mind blowing, this is evident in the number of security officials and police officers found dead in the events centre’

‘Thank you’ Ken supported. ‘None of their bullets were wasted’ Ken added, looking at the two officers faces for support. ‘Their bullets got into their targets at delicate parts of the body and most of the victims did not receive more than one bullet. This shows that the group is a specially trained one and they’ve mastered the art of the use of guns. I believe only intelligence wouldn’t fight them, they’re complete, we need to be complete more than that to defeat them’

There was another awkward silence. Dakolo now remembered James telling him about his gun battle with the suspected lady who had blocked them on the road while they were on their way to save Robin Kahn.

‘You’re right’ Dakolo began again in low tones. ‘How could I have even thought that they had no physical strength, considering how they finished off Robin Kahn and his men?’ Dakolo paused and swallowed. ‘I also visited the warehouse where Robin and his men were misled to when I was in Lagos. You need to see the way their apparatuses were set up professionally’

‘You see, those guys are experts’ Ken put in briefly.

‘James also told me of how a single lady of the group also engaged he and the rest of the rescue team on their way to help Robin. She took out almost all the men and even escaped with their own vehicle’

‘So that means we need a stronger and complete team to match them else we would just be going round in circles and keep losing our men’ Ken added.

‘No matter what it is, we have no option than to stop the group’ the IG said in a determined voice. ‘And it would be nice if we capture their boss alive’

‘Yesss’ Dakolo stressed the word, as it he had just remembered something. ‘Talking about the boss. It is widely believed that the group is headed by a lady named Aisha Bello who disguises as  Samantha Osman but with the latest assassination, the report says a man carried out the job’ Dakolo paused to look at their faces

Inspector Ken coughed and joined. ‘As far as I’m concerned, this assassin group we are dealing with is a large one, I believe they should have up to twenty or thirty in the group. It’s surely a large cooperation. So we can’t be sure that Samantha Osman is the boss, she might just be one of their major hitmen. The real boss could be in their headquarters and just be giving the orders from there’

Everyone paused to reason with Ken. Dakolo took in a breath and shook his head. ‘I agree that Samantha Osman might not be the real boss but I don’t think the group is a large one. We should have able to get one or two of them if the group was so large’

‘Now, we need concrete details’ the IG said in a tone which expressed his dissatisfaction with the way the meeting was going. ‘All what we’ve been talking about since are our opinions about them, no one has concrete details’

‘And Agent Dakolo’ The IG faced Dakolo squarely. ‘You said we need secret agents and undercovers, does that mean that you have suspects in mind already’

‘N…no…’ Dakolo stammered as he tried to answer. ‘There’s no group or real person we suspect yet’

‘Then why do we need an undercover if there’s no suspect?’ The IG slammed.

‘We might locate a suspect group very soon’

‘Then we should be focused first on locating the suspected group, then we can come back to finding a secret agent to do the work’

‘We are working on that already. There’s a NSCC agent who’s tracking them already. I’m also thinking that we could recruit him as a secret agent’

The IG gave a chuckle. ‘How do even you think that would work?’

‘The agent is extra intelligent and we’re also going to provide strong backups for him’

‘Who’s this person?’

‘Same guru we all know. Henry Ekene George’

…to be continued