Restless – Episode 86

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Restless – Episode 86

® 18+ SNVL
© Oyinloye Oluwatosin Emmanuel

FLASHBACK
30 Minutes ago.

“I’m at the back now,” Francis said into the phone as he got behind the building, his eyes searching around the space to see if she was anywhere.

There was a space in between the main building of the club house and a smaller building behind it. The front door of the small building was the entrance to the store for the club house provision and was usually locked at nights as the workers would have taken out everything they needed to use for the night since afternoon, only on few occasions when they needed extra supplies was the place opened. By the left side of the building was another entrance and it led to a restroom which was meant for only staffs of the place. The third entrance was at the back of the building and it led into the store room for the security officials of the place.

“I’ll call you in thirty seconds.” she replied from the other end.

He stopped walking and dipped his hand into his pocket while having the small carton under the armpit of the left.

“Good evening Francis,” a security guard greeted him.

“Good evening,” Francis turned and greeted him back. He realized the man had stepped out of wherever he was because of him. “I’m waiting for a call,” Francis explained to the man who nodded understandingly and returned to where he was sitting at the front of the store.

Francis phone rang and he answered.

“Turn towards the restroom, I’m waiting there for you,” the voice said.

“Okay.”

Francis proceeded in the direction he was called to. He turned and walked some few more steps before getting to the entrance of the toilet.

She was standing on the corridor, her two hands placed in front of her with her fingers locked.

“Florence,” he called to confirm she was the one.

“Yeah, Francis,” she called back his name and made her way to the ground.

The place was quite dark, the bulbs at the side walls were off and only a reflection from the light in the restroom through the window was seen outside.

“Kahn sent me to you,” Florence said, now standing in front of him.

He looked directly into her eyes like she stared at him. It was Kahn’s first time of sending a woman to him and she didn’t look like a weak one, instead there was something evil in her eyes.

“I know, he asked you to deliver something to me.” he replied.

She nodded. She dipped her right hand into the front pocket of her jacket and brought out something. It was wrapped in a transparent nylon and had a shape of a mathematical set.

She stretched it forth to him and he stretched out his hand to hold it, but she withdrew her hand.

He stared at her face.

“I was asked to get something from you before releasing it,” she said.

“What’s that?”

“You collaborated with other individuals in building the sensor, may I know who those other individuals are?”

“Why? That’s not a part of the deal, I’m the only one working with you directly and you have no business knowing those working with me.”

“We need to know them to be certain of the number of men who knows our secrets,” Florence replied.

“I don’t agree, we never said that from the beginning, just hand over my tool to me.”

She sighed and then stretched it to him again, she released it this time and as he grabbed the other edge of it, he felt something press down and then a red light beamed on the other side.

“What’s this?” he frowned at her, taking the object out of the nylon to see a remote control embedded at the centre.

“By holding that end of the processor, you have just activated an explosive.” she replied as she dipped her hands into her pockets at both sides. She took out her phone from the right and a small device which had the shape and size of a match box from the left.

She turned the large size of the device to him and it showed a timer counting down and five buttons under it, the timer was about a minute and two seconds. She unlocked her phone and turned the screen to show him a picture. He widened his eyes as he saw his car that was parked at the VIP garage, an explosive device had been attached under the boot.

“You have fifty more seconds, or you’d go back to meet the ashes of all the men waiting for you.”

He checked the timer in her hand again, it was forty eight seconds. He thought about his chances, there was no way he could run out quickly to warn the men. He couldn’t also take the device from her and deactivate it himself, he would need the password which only she knew.

“Just stop the timer first and I’ll tell you.” he pleaded in a shaky voice.

“You have forty seconds left,” she replied unwavering.

“Okay, ermm… I had Moses and Eston from SheiDev,” he answered in a frustrated tone.

“Where is SheiDev and what are the full names of the men?” she asked.

Thirty two seconds left.

“I don’t remember their full names,” he answered. “They work as developers and they are top staffs of the firm SheiDev which is located here in El Deols.”

“Where can I find them tonight?”

“I don’t know their houses, I only met them at the company.”

She kept quiet for some seconds. Twenty seconds was left and she didn’t seem to be in hurry.

“I feel that you are lying to me,” she said, raising her brows.

“No, I’m not, I swear with my life.”

Florence stared at his face for some more seconds until eight seconds was left. She turned the device in her hand and punched in the four digits password before deactivating at three seconds.

“Who the hell do you think you are to threaten me?” he asked in an angry tone after heaving a sigh of relief.

“I’m your death,” she chuckled sardonically, looking straight into his eyes after dropping the device back into her pocket.

He threw a blow to her face but she dodged easily by shifting her face. She grabbed him with her hands by his arm close to the shoulder region and sent a kick to his belly with her knee.

Out of frustration, he turned with another blow to her but she grabbed his fists and turned him swiftly, she slammed his back to the fence wall behind and pinned him to the wall with her fist around his neck and her knee to his groin.

Francis struggled to free himself but he felt so much pain that weakened his whole body. He had thought he would get her easily and even though she didn’t hold him with too much strength, she had him at the right place. He knee was crushing his genitals and her fist was tightened on his neck, cutting short the supply of oxygen in his body.

She placed a knife with the other hand close to his neck.

“Your only daughter attends Howard School and your wife works as a school teacher there,” she said in warning note to him. “Tell me the whole truth or I ki*ll them first thing tomorrow morning.”

“Spare me please, I’ve told you everything.” he managed to say with his choked voice.

He widened his eyes in horror as she drove the blade of the knife into his belly for the first time, she took it out and released her grip from his neck. He thought that was all until she suddenly stabbed him again two more times before leaving him to fall on the ground.

She cleaned the blood stained blade of the knife on his trousers before inserting it back into the cover. She put it into her pocket and turned back. She saw the carton which had he dropped in his hands and picked it up, she took out the device in it and checked it for a moment before throwing it on his dead body. She searched his trouser’s pocket and took out two phones, she silence them and hid them inside her jacket before she walked out of the place.

Life oozed slowly out of Francis as the blood rushed out. His vision was blur as he watched Florence walk away. He had regrets for his life and his decisions at that point of death. Even after knowing Kahn led a dangerous and evil organization, he had decided to work for Kahn because of the money but he never thought the same evil would end his life so abruptly.

He breathed his last, his eyes left wide open.

___

PRESENT

“Bring him here,” Hutton said to the men and they proceeded quickly to loose Wilson the same way they did to Samantha. Wilson dropped to the floor weakly but they picked him and dragged him closer to where Samantha was.

Wilson was put in a sitting position beside Samantha and he remembered everything that happened previously. He looked around and wondered why they weren’t in a police cell instead. Samantha was groaning in pains beside him, in a partially crawling position. Her groan was what woke him from his deep slumber.

“Look here young man,” Hutton called his attention in a soft voice.

Wilson looked up on hearing Hutton’s voice. He saw the face and saw the mode of dressing, it didn’t look like that of a police officer. He squinted his eyes at Hutton.

“You look like someone that would cooperate with us better and I hope you really do,” Hutton said with an evil smile.

Wilson glanced at Samantha who was by his side and he felt she was trying to communicate something to her by the way she looked at him but all he saw in her face was the pains she was going through.

“What do I need to do?” he asked.

Samantha gave him a warning stare but he wasn’t looking at her.

“We know you work for Carl Winston and we’ve seen him together with you before,” Hutton continued. “We would let you go freely if you’re ready to give us information about him.”

“Carl Winston?” Wilson frowned. He had heard the name before but he wasn’t sure of where he heard it from. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he replied, looking at Hutton’s face.

“I think you do not understand what I just said, you’ve been spotted on more than one occasion with Carl and we are sure you work with him.” Hutton said to him.

“Who is Carl?”

Hutton stared at him thinly for a while, being infuriated that he was trying to feign ignorance. He moved closer to him and suddenly sent a heavy kick into his belly which sent him groaning aloud and tumbling.

“You’ve been going around with Carl for days and you were with him in Kebba, we watched all of that and you’re still trying to play pranks on us.” Hutton fired angrily.

Wilson could hear Hutton’s words even as he groaned in deep pains and he realized that the person they were talking about was Henry whom he only knew as Louis but he wondered why Hutton was calling him Carl Winston.

“Boss, you have a call.” one of the men said after taking out Hutton’s phone.

Hutton turned to him and collected the phone, he checked the screen and took another look at Samantha and Wilson before walking out of the room. The other two men followed him.
___
___
El Deols, Anthanna

Sheila walked back into the house after dropping Adrian off at his place. She dropped the car keys on the drawer below the television and turned back to walk into her room when something caught her attention on the center table. She walked there and picked it up, it was a small card and in it were written affectionate words. She smiled as she read it to herself, believing it was from Adrian.

She got confused towards the end when it talked about the days she had been kept lonely. It made her doubt for a moment if it was meant for her but she shrugged and took it along with her into her room.

____

Lion’s Club

Daniel did not leave the club hall immediately like the manager advised him, he sat waiting and watching to see if he would get anything useful before leaving. He was sitting quietly, his fingers wrapped around a bottle of beer which he had barely taken a sip from when he noticed that armed men were walking through the hall hurriedly, looking like they were looking for someone in the hall. He wondered what was happening and got up to find out. He did not get full details of the answer, he was only told someone was stabbed to death by one of the customers who was leaving the place after everywhere went silent and the security men began to raid the place.

He later got to find out from one of the security men who he had earlier introduced himself to that a lady stabbed one of the VIP members of the club. He got to the back of the building to see the dead body and how it was stabbed. By the time the police arrived, the club was almost empty except for the workers in the place who had to be around. Dan stepped aside for the police to carry out their investigations as he knew nothing about the whole murder. He left the place after some minutes of the police arrival, planning to return the next day for his own investigations.

­­____

“Francis is dead,” she said into her mouthpiece as she drove towards the bridge in the dark night.

“Did you confirm his death before leaving?” Aaron asked from the other end.

“There was no way he could have survived, the knife I stabbed him with was poisoned.” she replied.

“And did you get the necessary information from him?”

“I got the names of two men and a firm, I’ll be working on them immediately.”

“Good, I’ll update the chairman of your progress.”

“Okay, I think someone else was after Francis, I don’t know who it is.” she said.

“Why do you say so?”

“Someone gave him a package from the club house few minutes before I killed him, inside it was a tracker hidden secretly.”

“And do you have an idea who it is?”

“No, I picked up the carton containing the package to check if I could recognize the labels on it but I didn’t, I threw the carton away already.”

“I believe you don’t need me to warn you to be careful,” Aaron replied. “It could b the FOX or an enemy of our organization, thread carefully and report when you notice any anomaly.”

___

Hex Hotel, Anthanna.

“Damn damn damn,” Henry cursed silently under his breath after taking his time to hack into the Bethanna security cameras server but still could not find footages of what happened to Samantha and Wilson on the road, the only thing he saw was the car left by the road side the same way Dave saw it.

He picked up his phone and dialed Dave’s number.

“Hey Dave, where are you now?” he asked.

“On our way to Bexford,” Dave replied.

“Are you sure no one is following you?”

“Yeah boss, I made sure no one followed us.”

“Okay, you and Jenny should focus on keeping the Doctor and Sophia safe for now. You might need to leave them and meet me tomorrow, I’ll give you details later.” He said and ended the call.

He was about to dial Cole when the call came in from Cole.

“Hey Cole, do you have it done already?”

“No boss, where are you please?” Cole asked.

“Sorry I didn’t tell you I won’t be coming any longer, I’m in your hotel room, do you need my help?” Henry replied.

“Yes please, I need to track a ca. I need it to be done urgently because I’m following already and can’t track it myself while I’m driving.”

Henry frowned. “I thought you were going to track him with the package, don’t you have the tracking app on your phone configured to follow the device?”

“I have all that boss and I got the package delivered to him but something else happened and now there’s a twist,” Cole answered. “Someone killed him after he received my package and that’s who I’m after now.”

“Wow!” Henry exclaimed. He seemed baffled for a while and didn’t speak for close to a minute.

“You there boss?”

“Yeah,” Henry replied in a weak voice. “Retreat right away.”

“Huh?” Cole seemed surprised to hear his instruction.

“Yeah, retreat immediately and return to the hotel.”

“Boss, I’m following the murderer, she may posses what we need.” Cole said in a somewhat aggressive tone.

“Withdraw immediately,” Henry insisted. “It could just be a trap for us.”

“But boss…”

“It’s an order and I’m not negotiating it,” Henry fired at him. “Retreat immediately!”

___

Cole marched the brakes angrily and hissed in frustration, the car was stopped at the centre of the road but he did not bother to move aside because no car was coming behind. It was midnight already and hardly did he come across any other motorist as he drove for the past few minutes.

He hissed again and stamped his palms on the steering wheel angrily. He still felt the urge to follow Florence and find out who she was and why she killed Francis but he had to obey Henry’s orders.

After some few seconds of breathing silently in anger, he reversed and turned back.

___

Unknown Hotel, El Deols.

Florence was back in the hotel room with only her bra and pant on. This time, she was sitting behind the table with her laptop in front and Francis’ two phones by the side.

She had watched the man who handed the carton over to Francis but did not know where he brought the carton from. She needed to know who it was who was tracking Francis also to avoid an unprepared clash, but having no information about it, she could not do anything.

On her laptop screen was the google search results for the SheiDev firm. She read the Wikipedia result for it and got details more details about the company and it’s headquarter location in El Deols. After that she began to search for profiles online for Moses and Eston who worked in SheiDev. It was easy for her as their business profiles were on LinkedIn, she saw their positions as top staffs of the organization. After getting their surnames , she proceeded to search for their profiles on facebook to pull out more information concerning them and their families. After a total of one hour work, she was ready with information enough to ki*ll her next two victims and she was going to get both done the next day, the first man in the morning and then other later in the day.

___

01:08AM

Hex Hotel

Cole walked straight to the bed and sank in after getting into the room. He spoke no word to Henry who was using his laptop at the table and Henry also did not look at him. The silence in the room remained until after ten minutes.

“I know the lady who killed him,” Cole broke his silence. “And I was going after her to find out why.”

Henry glanced at him. “You know her or you saw her killing him?”

“I didn’t see her killing him, but I’m a hundred percent sure that she killed him,” he said, clearing his throat after.

“And do you have an idea where she is from or who she works for?”

“She’s from Bethanna, we arrived El Deols on the same flight, her seat was next to mine.”

Henry turned with his eyes widened at Cole in shock. He got up from the seat immediately and walked to the door, he opened and peeped carefully to check the corridor.

“Are you sure no one followed you here?”

Cole stared at him with his brows gathered together, wondering what he was doing. “I came here alone.”

Henry did not return to the table, he opened the wardrobe and took out two pistols he kept there. Cole squinted at him.

“You said you were with her on the plane,” Henry turned back to him.

“Yes, we sat next to each other and we discussed briefly.”

“Damn!” Henry exclaimed. “The Wolves have gone farther than I thought, they probably know everything about us now.”

He said as he walked back to the table.

“What are you talking about?” Cole got up and turned to him.

Henry close up the laptop after hibernating it, he picked the bag and put it in.

“Are you sure no one followed you here tonight?” Henry asked again.

“Yes,” Cole said in a bold voice and then frowned at him. He was beginning to get confused.

“Samantha and Wilson were kidnapped on their way back to Vincil, the Wolves must have done it. It means they were silently following me all the while.”

“What? How could that have happened? And who is Wilson?”

“Wilson was the one who helped me find Rex, but as it is, Rex was used as a trap for me.” Henry turned the chair backward from the table and sat.

Cole was more confused.

“Rex is incapacitated,” Henry continued to explain. “He wasn’t lucky to escape death as whole as I was and he’s been treated by local doctors in Kebba. The Wolves knew all these while where he was but kept him alive to trap me, they knew I was going to look for him if I found out he was alive and so they were waiting for us at Kebba.”

Henry’s mind flashed back as he spoke and he recalled how they had driven into Kebba on the first day. He imagined Agents of the Wolves around and watching them that day. He remembered the cameras and knew the Wolves must have placed them there and they probably did not attack them at the hotel because they knew he had seen the cameras and would be ready for any surprise.

“The Wolves now know I’m alive and they are out to stop me,” Henry stared up at Cole. “It’s possible they know about the rest of you too, and may be meeting that woman in the plane was not an accident, it could have been part of their trap.”

Cole thought about it. There was no way anyone could have found out about his trip to Anthanna. The only two people he had told was Jenny and Henry, so it would have not been possible for anyone to know without they telling them but he was still confused. Florence killed Francis and that was a pointer that she could have something to do with the Wolves truly. Could it have been a trap like Henry said or was their meeting in the plane just a coincidence?

“Even if your flight with her was a coincidence, we should not fall into their traps again by meeting them without being well prepared,” Henry spoke out after a long silence, as if he knew what Cole was thinking.

“Have you been able to locate those who kidnapped Samantha?” Cole asked.

“We have no idea, they did a good job clearing the records.” Henry replied.

“So, there’s almost no way to get Samantha out?”

“There is a way to do so but first we have to take Rex out of Kebba and get him to safety.”

“You still want to go back to Kebba? I thought that’s where they got us.”

“Yes, but I can’t leave Rex there. He’s paralyzed and they would easily end his life if he isn’t taken to a place they can’t reach.”

Cole thought about it for a while, he could see a glimpse of fear in Henry’s eyes and could tell Henry cared deeply about his friend. That was a weakness Henry warned them about during their weeks of training before the mission started. He had said it was always difficult to overcome it but may be impossible sometimes to avoid as long as one has family and friends close.

“What do we do after taking him out? How do we get Samantha back?”

“The only way out after that…”Henry paused for a second and stared at Cole’s face. “Is surrendering myself to the wolves.”

Cole widened his eyes in shock, surprised that he was saying something that could not be possible. If the Wolves could get Henry, then the mission was already over.

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