Restless – Episode 250

Restless Episode 250

® 18+ SNVL

© Oluwatosin Emmanuel Oyinloye

UNEDITED

The lights in the room and all the computers went off all of a sudden. Two seconds after, they came back on but all the surveillance cameras had been disconnected.

“What the heck is happening?” Maxwell turned to the leader of the department who rushed to the control area. After trying for a minute to reconnect, he turned to Maxwell with a horrific expression. “Looks like the network around the area has been jammed.”

“We expected that,” Maxwell remarked and walked straight to his bag to take out some devices. He began to set up the devices on an empty table. “It’ll take me two to four minutes to find where the jammer is.”

He dragged a chair to the front of the table and sat to begin his work.

_____

“Our men are in, the task has begun,” one of the experts in the room announced.

Two other experts were in the room, sitting in front of their computers. Chanda was also there, sitting next to Hutton in the centre of the room.

Hutton got up from his seat and walked toward the man. “Is the network jammed?” He folded his arms behind the man and stared at the computer screen.

“Yes, it is. But we can’t bank on that,” the man replied. “They could fix that in less than four minutes.”

“Four minutes is enough to get it done,” Hutton replied confidently

“I just located the lady, Samantha. She’s at the Bethanna Foreign Affairs Commission,” another expert announced.

Hutton stared in the direction of the man for a minute before proceeding toward him. He stopped behind him and folded his arms across his chest again.

“Here, she was spotted walking into the place three hours ago,” the man explained after playing the corresponding part of the footage.

“Has anyone else been seen with her?” Hutton asked.

“No, she walked in alone. We’ve not seen any of the other Carl’s men.”

“Okay, keep looking,” Hutton replied and remained behind the man for a few more seconds. He turned to see Elvis Kahn wheeling himself into the room.

“We have the exact locations of four of Carl Winston’s men already, don’t you think we should hit them right there?” Chanda suggested to Hutton as he approached his previous seating position.

“No, we can’t hit them now. There are fewer chances of succeeding if we make the move. And it’s also going to make them more careful and even harder to get them when we try again,” Hutton replied. He cast a glance on Kahn who had stopped beside Chanda before sitting down.

“Have you gotten any update from El Deols?” Kahn asked.

“Nothing else at the moment,” Hutton replied. “Florence Brown has captured the man who was used to distract them and she’s currently trying to track a particular Waylen that could lead them to Rex.”

“No information from our other men too?” Kahn raised a brow.

“Samuel,” Hutton called and they all turned toward the third IT expert in the room.

He turned his swivel 180 degrees to face them. He had heard Kahn’s question and he knew Hutton was calling him to explain.

“We’ve been getting signals from Adrian Christopher’s mobile phone, Rex has been making calls with it. But all the calls have been less than forty seconds, not enough for me to pick the location. And he turns off the phone immediately after the calls. All I can say is that he’s in somewhere remote, somewhere not well represented on the map,” the man explained and waited a few seconds for more questions but got none.

Kahn turned to Hutton again. “We expected this already, Rex won’t be stupid enough to let out his location so easily. And this means we might have just let him go for nothing. I believe we should have kept Rex with us and cooked up a story to make Carl Winston come for him. That might have helped us trap Carl easily.”

Hutton’s eyebrows gathered together and he stared thinly into the air. After a brief moment, he turned his face slowly toward Kahn. “Your suggestion sounds good and could work if we had taken time to carefully plan it, but I still think we did the best thing.”

“The best thing?” Kahn scoffed and rolled his eyes in disbelief. “What are you talking about, Hutton?”

“You should not worry yourself about anything, Kahn. You need enough rest to recover well,” Hutton said in reply.

Kahn frowned and shook his head slowly. “Is there a plan you’re not telling me? You sound so confident even though everything points to our failure.”

“Sir, they’ve found our jammer and turned it off,” the first IT expert spoke again, looking directly at Hutton.

Hutton nodded in reply and then dialled a number on his phone immediately. The call was answered ten seconds after. “Is it done?”

“Yes, it is,” a voice replied from the other end.

“Play along and wait until it’s safe to get out of there,” Rex added before ending the call.

“Boss, I think I’ve got something else that may help Florence Brown,” Samuel turned to inform Hutton.

_______

El Deols, Anthanna

10:39 AM

Sheila dialled the number again and it didn’t connect. She heaved a sigh of frustration. It was thirty minutes of waiting without hearing anything from him. She couldn’t put her mind to rest as she wasn’t sure what was happening with Rex and Adrian.

Was it possible that he already hurt Adrian, or did the police find them? She asked herself. But several answers were coming to her mind and none was satisfactory. She was getting so anxious.

Two minutes after, her phone rang and she quickly looked at the screen. Her eyebrows gathered together as she noticed it wasn’t the same number Rex had been calling her with. She answered the call, hoping it was Rex calling her with another phone.

“Hey, Sheila. I landed at El Deols a few minutes ago. I didn’t think you would answer,” she heard Henry’s voice instead.

“Henry!” She exclaimed and heaved a sigh of relief. “I haven’t met Rex yet. I got to the location he sent me and told him, but he switched off the phone since then.”

“Check around you, Sheila. Is it safe?”

Sheila took a few seconds to look around. “Everything looks okay to me.”

“Check well,” Henry insisted. “Look at every corner to see if anyone is watching you, but don’t step out of your car.”

Sheila looked around again, this time more carefully. “I can’t see anything, Henry.”

“Okay, I won’t have to track you anymore. Send me your location,” Henry requested.

“I’m at Cita region, outskirts of El Deols. At a gas station,” she replied. “It’s gonna take you forty to sixty minutes to get here from there if there’s no traffic jam.”

“Don’t leave your car until I get there, but if you notice any strange thing, drive off to the nearest police office.”

“Okay.”

—–

“You know Cita?” Henry asked the driver of the car after ending the call. He was sitting in the backseat with the backpack on his lap.

The driver nodded in response.

“Can you get there in thirty minutes?” Henry asked.

“I’ll get there in twenty-five,” the driver replied after turning on the engine. “I’m not just a fast driver, I also know the short routes and how to avoid traffic in El Deols. That’s why Mr Edwards got me for you.”

“Let’s go.”

____

“I’m not sure we can find Waylen,” the tattooed guy complained for the umpteenth time. He was sitting in the backseat of the vehicle with Florence who had a gun pointed to his belly.

“Will you shut the f**k now or you’re going to let me blow off your brains?” Florence angrily moved the gun to his neck.

“I’m…I’m…just saying the truth,” the guy stammered. “I think he has a tracker on the car and he knows I’m no longer on the move.”

“Okay, if you can’t lead us to Waylen, then we’ve got no use for you,” Florence said as she forced the pistol into his mouth.

The guy raised both hands and pleaded not to be shot, his body trembling as he saw Florence’s finger moving closer to the trigger. She took out the gun from his mouth and cleaned off the spit on his cloth.

“You’re going to keep shut until I ask you questions,” she warned.

He nodded frantically.

Florence adjusted her seating position to take out the ringing phone in her pocket. It was a call from Bethanna.

“Yes?” she answered the call.

“There’s a new update on Rex Morris’ location.”

“Tell me.”

“Rex drove into a trash site at around 8:40 AM. That must have been when he changed his vehicle and left the tracker. We couldn’t get complete footage that gave us clear pictures of which particular car he took because he parked in a dark spot. But we know that the tracker left the site at 8:55 AM. A vehicle left the same spot five minutes earlier and another one left the place a minute after the tracker left. We tracked the first one, it’s direction was towards Cita. The second went to Deols. We think one of these two other cars might be Rex.”

“Hold on a minute,” Florence replied and muted the call to talk to their hostage. “Where did Waylen give you the tracker?”

“I told you already, at a trash site. I can lead you there, but Waylen is not going to be there. He left…”

“Shut up! When did Waylen leave there?”

“I don’t know, he told me he was going to leave there soon.”

Florence gasped. She suspected that Rex’s car was the one the men saw leaving five minutes earlier. But she needed to confirm, to avoid being led to another wrong location. “Was anyone with him when you met?”

“No.”

“Did Waylen mention the owner of the tracker?”

“He told me the man left four minutes earlier.”

“Sh*t!” Florence unmuted the call immediately. “Rex was the first to leave. Where did you say he was?”

“He went towards Cita,” the man at the other end replied. “But I don’t know if he’s still there, because that region is not covered by the CCTV.”

“I’m sure he must be around there,” Florence replied. “How long is it going to take us to get to Cita?” she asked the driver.

“It’s early now and the traffic won’t be much,” the driver replied. “We should get there in fifty to eighty minutes, depending on the traffic flow.”

“Let’s go there,” Florence ordered. She put the phone close to her ears again. “We might not get to Cita until eighty minutes. Ask that our men closer to the area are mobilized to search for Rex.”

_____

10:45 AM

After about 40 minutes of searching, Adrian was still nowhere to be found. The thick bushes around the area gave Adrian a lot of hiding spots, making it difficult for Rex to find him.

At first, Rex was able to trace Adrian with the footsteps left on the soil but that no longer worked when he got to an area where the ground was covered with fallen leaves from trees. He had to trust his intuition to continue the chase.

He continued until he got to a small open field which led to three different smaller routes. For a moment, he was no longer sure of where to follow or whether to continue chasing Adrian. He paused to guess which of the routes Adrian could have followed. It was either he got it correctly or wasted time going the wrong way and facing the risk of having Adrian call the police when he got to the nearest village.

Suddenly, he realized that he was hearing some faint sounds of drums. He paused his breath to listen carefully and confirmed it was indeed the sounds of drums. He was sure it was coming from the church in the nearest village. That was all he needed, to follow in the direction of the sound. He was sure that Adrian had also followed the sound. He identified the route which seemed to lead to the sound and moved in that direction, making up his mind to run faster than he had been doing.

_____

The Central Bank,

Bexford, Bethanna

11:00 AM

The assault at the bank lasted for just about fifty minutes. Fifteen of the Red Wolves men were dead, including the four that came with the waste company vehicle and eleven other men who had walked into the central bank unarmed and had only gotten weapons from their men who got in successfully. The soldiers were able to keep the unarmed bank visitors in a safe space until everything was done.

“Are we sure this is all of them?” Maria asked, walking into the garage where some of the soldiers were assembled with the bodies of the fifteen dead Red Wolves men. Maxwell and Jennifer were flanging her.

“Yes, we’re sure. This is all the armed men,” the leader of the soldiers replied. “We can’t say if they have anyone amongst the visitors in the hall. But if there are any of them there, they’re not armed and there’s no proof to link them.”

“I’m sure they sent someone to look around before they came in,” Maxwell said, looking at Maria’s face. “They couldn’t have just walked in here blindly, without reading the situation,” he paused and turned to the soldier. “Maybe we should have left at least one alive to ask questions from him.”

“These guys came in to fight till death,” the army leader replied Maxwell with a desperate tone. “None of them was willing to give up even after they were shot. It was either my men killed them or we get killed.”

“Apart from the first three that were killed, are any of your other men hurt?” Maria asked.

“Seven more soldiers are down.”

“Shi*t!” Maxwell cursed under his breath and combed his hair with his fingers quickly.

“I’m sorry about that,” Maria condoled with the Squad leader. “We have permission to close for today. I’m sure it’s going to remain closed for the week until initial investigations are concluded. We will make arrangements to evacuate all the visitors safely now. I hope none of the civilians were hurt.”

“One took a bullet in the lap. She was trying to withdraw something from the safety deposit box. But she’s stable. The medics are attending to her,” he replied.

“Good job,” Maria applauded.

“So, do we know what they’re here for?” Maxwell asked. “I mean, they didn’t ki*ll any visitor. Only one was shot in the lap. Was it that your squad’s response was so fast to repel without any civilian casualty?”

“I think their target was the safe deposit vault. They went there directly even while we were still trying to get the visitors to safety. That’s how that woman got shot.”

“And they didn’t get there?”

“Yes, they didn’t. My men repelled them.”

“Well done, sir,” Maxwell forced on a smile. He glanced at Maria and Jennifer before turning to leave.

“See you again,” Maria acknowledge the soldier before following Jennifer and Maxwell.

“I’m not really so sure all is well,” Maxwell remarked as he dialed a number on his phone.

“Why do you say so?” Jennifer asked.

“I don’t know,” Maxwell shrugged. “I just feel everything went too smoothly.”

“Too smoothly?” Maria stopped suddenly. Maxwell and Jennifer also stopped and turned to look at her. She was squinting at his face and it was obvious she was surprised at his statement. “Ten f**king soldiers gave their lives for it and you think it went smoothly.”

“Yeah, I think I’m just overthinking,” Maxwell acknowledged his insensitivity. “Of course, it wasn’t smooth.”

Maria continued walking and they both followed her.

“I think the issue here is that we don’t get to know what exactly they came for in the safety deposit boxes,” Jennifer suggested.

Maxwell stopped to make his phone call. The ladies took a few more steps before stopping to wait for him. “Mr Paul, have you spoken with Henry? I need to talk to him.”

“He called me, I’ll let him know you want to reach him,” Paul Edwards replied from the other end.

Maxwell ended the call and continued on the way with the ladies. They had yet to get back to the surveillance room when Maxwell received the call from Anthanna.

“Yeah,” Henry sounded from the other end.

“The attack here was successfully repelled,” Maxwell reported.

“Yeah, Paul relayed the FOX Chairman’s report. We were just waiting for the details from your end. Has it been reported to the FOX office yet?”

“No, Maria is yet to reach the FOX office. I’m reaching you first.”

“Okay, go on.”

“The Red Wolves men targeted the safety box vault but they never got in. They didn’t hurt any civilians apart from the one they met along the way to their target. What do you think about that?”

Henry was quiet for a while. He let out a sigh before speaking again. “Maybe Hutton is coming for a document or something.”

“Yes, but we need to find out.”

“Find out, how?” Henry gasped. “There’s no way to find out, Maxwell. Many people keep documents there. How do we know whom to question?”

Maxwell sighed resignedly. “You’re right. We’ll just leave it as it is now.”

“Yeah.”

“Talk to you later, take care.”

_____

Cita, Outskirts of El Deols

Anthanna

11:07 AM

Sheila was already getting tired of sitting in one place but she didn’t want to disobey Henry’s orders. She had also tried to reach Rex again but could not. She closed her eyes briefly and rested her head backwards to relax.

Her eyes popped open suddenly as someone opened the car door and stepped in. She heaved a sigh on seeing that it was Henry.

“Thank God you’re here,” she gasped. “He hasn’t called back yet. He was supposed to give me a location to meet him after I got here.”

“Don’t bother about that. We’ll find him if he’s around here,” Henry remarked.

“Why were you not answering your calls?” She squinted at him. “You said you would get here five minutes ago.”

“I did, I got here five minutes ago,” Henry replied. “But I had to check around and be sure no one was watching you before I came here.”

______

Fast Forward >>>>>> 11:45 AM

Bexford, Bethanna

“Chairman Paul,” Sarah called, standing in front of the hallway. “Chairman Paul.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Paul stepped out of his room immediately.

“You need to see this, Chairman Paul,” Sarah said and walked back towards the living room.

Paul followed her. He got to meet breaking news airing on TV. The President had just announced he was stepping down because he was certain he could no longer lead the country.

“What the f***!” Paul cursed under his breath, his eyes widened in shock. What the hell was the President doing? His stepping down was exactly what the team was fighting to prevent. Now, the President had just given the Red Wolves their victory on a platter of gold.