'Good morning Chief' Tarasha greeted on phone.
'Good morning Tarasha' a harsh voice
responded.
'Chief, have you gotten the stuff you asked me
to get? I dropped it in the car parked in front of
your office according to our plan'
'Yes, I've seen it' the voice answered
'You've seen it? But why haven't you called me
then? You didn't keep your part of the deal'
'What deal?'
'What do you mean Chief? Didn't you say that I
would get the bank alert for my balance two
hours after you get the carton?'
'Yes I said that, but you broke the agreement
first'
'What? How?'
'You said you would do the job without killing
anybody'
'Yes, I didn't drop anyone'
'But it was all over the news yesterday, all the
labourers at the warehouse were found dead
yesterday'
'That wasn't me, that happened in the
afternoon. I carried out the job around 3am'
'How am I supposed to believe that you really
did the job by 3am?'
'What the hell are you talking about Chief?'
Tarasha flared up. 'I see you don't want to keep
to your part of the deal?'
'I will send you the balance once I'm sure that it
wasn't you that carried out the killings' the call
ended.
Tarasha was fuming with anger as she dropped
the phone, it wasn't as if the balance meant so
much to her but she was angry at the obvious
fact that the Chief only wanted to cheat her
and she wouldn't take that from anyone. She
checked her wall clock and pondered for a while
before shr picked up a pistol and a mask from
her bedside and stormed out of the house.
She tapped a button on the remote control and
the door to the driver's seat of her Zently 2027
model opened. She slid into the car and the
door closed back automatically, she inserted two
bullets into the revolver and hid it safely under
the car seat after which she started the car
engine and drove towards the gate which
opened automatically and closed after she was
out of the compound.
She drove as fast as possible, hissing every
time she had to stop because of traffic signals
and other road users. After almost an hour
drive, she got to Gravl Avenue, she parked at a
very far distance to the Chief's house.
She gave a wicked smile as she glanced at her
wristwatch. In few minutes, the driver and the
bodyguard that accompanied the Chief youngest
daughter to school would be returning. She took
the revolver from where she hid it and kept it in
her purse, reason that she wasn't properly
dressed; the clothes she wore would show signs
of the gun if pocketed.
She got out of the car , carefully making sure
no passerby was watching or noticing her and
she walked a distance closer to the Chief's
house.
With her dark goggles on, she stayed by the
side of the road and placed one hand on her
waist, acting like one who was waiting for a
cab. After two minutes, she sighted the driver
and bodyguard from afar, returning in the car.
As they came closer, she started to walk
through the road pretending not to see the
coming car. She got the driver confused as he
struggled to bring the car to a halt but not after
he had gotten so close, almost hitting her.
'What's wrong with you ma'am? Didn't you see a
car was coming?' The driver shouted angrily at
her.
'I'm sorry' she pleaded, holding her chest like
someone who was deeply horrified. She turned
to the driver's side to apologize.
'You should be careful next time' the driver
continued, more calmly now.
'I'm sorry' she said, gasping for breath and
coughing as sweat drop from her face in the hot
sun. 'I think I've lost my way, I was going to
Eden hair salon at Gravl Avenue'
'You're at Gravl avenue already, just walk a little
bit further and you'll find it by your left side'
'Please can you give me a lift there?' She
pleaded.
'Okay yes' the driver replied, looking at the
bodyguard by his side who shrugged in
confirmation. 'Enter the back seat'
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++
Inspector James sat on a chair facing a man on
the hospital bed, the only survivor of the
warehouse attack. The man was conscious and
was talking already, narrating all he knew about
the attack.
'So you don't know any of those who attacked
you people?' James interrogated
'Yes, I've never seen any of them before' the
injured man replied, he had a bandage tied
round his forehead and one round his belly.
'And they were not thieves?'
'Yes, they were not thieves. I believe they were
looking for something, they said a carton was
missing among the goods they collected last
night'
'Last night? Which goods?'
'I overheard them saying something about 3am'
'3am? Do you people work overnight?'
'Sometimes, we fill up some cartons and
arrange them overnight but I'm not aware that
something like that was supposed to happen
last night'
'Who was supposed to be on duty last night'
'Ermm… No one, except the security men'
'But the security men have been killed already,
who else was on duty?'
'No the two security men that was killed
yesterday were not the ones on shift that night'
'Oh! I see, do you know how we can reach
them?'
'No, I have no relationship with them, we only
greet when resuming and vacating the office'
'I think its enough already' the Doctor
interrupted as he walked in. 'He needs rest'
'It's okay' James replied the Doctor and stood
up, he turned back to the injured man.
'We're really sorry for what has happened and
we promise to get to the root of this as soon as
possible. Thank you for your cooperation, we'll
contact you as soon as we need your help
again, I wish you a quick recovery' he said and
walked out of the ward with the other officer.
'But what do you think that hoodlums would
want in a beverage warehouse?' James asked
his colleague as they proceeded out of the
hospital to their car.
'I don't know, I think the best people to give us
the answer would be the security men on duty
that night' he answered.
'Okay, what you would do now is to go back to
the warehouse and check their logs, we need to
get those men' James instructed. 'I believe they
know about the incident'
'Ok, I'll just go straightaway sir'
'Good, we also have to be on the lookout for the
manager Mr. Felix, there are still no signs of
him everywhere'
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++
**11am
'Tarasha! ' Chief Gab called out immediately the
call was answered.
'Hello Chief' she replied in a cheerful voice.
'Tarasha! How come you went that far on a little
issue?'
'Was that Chief?' She asked mockingly. 'Or have
you seen my gift?'
'Tarasha, you shouldn't have gone that far. I
was going to send the money to you'
'Alright' she answered more seriously now. 'I
should get the alert in the next fifteen minutes
else your daughter would be in danger too'
'No o, Tarasha. Don't try that at all, that would
be big trouble for you' the Chief tried to sound
brave.
'You're the one who shouldn't try me Chief,
send the money within fifteen minutes after this
call ends'
'Okay, I will see what I can do'
'Huh?'
'I said I'll see what I can do'
'Don't play pranks Chief, if you think you can
move your child out of the school and stop me
from reaching her, then you better think twice
because I can already see that your men are
outside the school gate and there's no way
they'll escape me'
'What!' The Chief was in shock. 'How did you
know that?'
'Let me get the alert quickly' She said and
ended the conversation.
The Chief was in panic as he dropped the
phone. He wondered how Tarasha knew that he
had already sent men to safeguard his
daughter. He wasted no time as he picked up
his tablet device and transferred the remaining
balance of ten million naira to Tarasha's
account and called her immediately to notify
her.
'I just sent the money'
'Good, I received the message alert already' she
replied him.
'So is my daughter free now?'
'Of course, I have nothing to use her for' she
said with a chuckle.
'Okay, we need to see. I have some other jobs
for you and I need to explain to you personally'
'We'll see on Skype'
'Huh? I need to meet with you, I need to see
who I'm working with'
'I don't think there's any need for that, we see
on Skype already, isn't it?'
'But you're always wearing a mask to hide your
face'
'No, that's my face you see; that's Tarasha's
face' she added.
'What do you mean?' Chief Gab questioned.
'The face behind that mask doesn't have any
business to do with you' she said with a strict
voice.
'I …'
'If you don't mind Chief, I've got some other
things to do' she interrupted him and ended the
call.
'D--n' he cursed as he put down the phone. He
held his jaw with his hand, remembering how he
had been told to deal with her carefully.
He was calm after reminding himself that he
couldn't get angry with Tarasha now, he still
needed her in the work he had to do; his
revenge mission.
He recalled his younger days as the minister of
marketing and sales before he was sentenced
to ten years imprisonment for drug trafficking
and management of the country's funds after
being probed and found guilty by the new
government at that period. He was angry and
determined to punish all the government
officials that aided his arrest and conviction
especially those who were also involved in
some of the illegal businesses he did.
With the little he had seen Tarasha exhibit and
the way Vladislav had spoken about her, he
concluded that Tarasha would be of great
importance to him in his revenge mission which
was even the sole reason he had paid Vladislav
several billions to send her down to Nigeria.
'Hey' he called out to one of his guards who
stood at the doorside in the sitting room. 'Tell
Edet to come here immediately'
The guard went out and returned with a very tall
dark man with a slender body. The man bowed
in courtesy to the Chief.
'You called for me sir'
'Yes, I did' Chief begun, 'two of our guys were
killed this morning and I was told you were the
one who saw it happening live from the
surveillance cameras'
'Yes sir, I alerted them downstairs immediately'
'Yes, but I was told that the person left before
they got to the gate'
'Yes, it was a Lady…'
'Shhhh… Don't worry' the Chief shut him up,
standing up from his seating position. 'Let's go,
I want to see the video footage myself'
'Okay sir' Edet replied as he led the Chief to the
security room.
Chief Gab spotted himself on a laptop screen as
he entered into the room, that laptop was the
one connected to the camera in the room. He
looked around the room to check if any change
had been made to the room since the last two
months he visited. The only change he noticed
was that the room was darker than before as no
bulb was turned on and would have been
completely dark if not for the reflections of light
from the several desktop screens in the room.
He sat down and rested properly into the chair
he was motioned to and faced the desktop as
Edet tried to open some files.
'Here's it sir' Edet explained as a video played.
'She wasn't wearing mask when she drove to
the gate, but she wore the mask before she
came out of the car; that was when I suspected
something'
'Take it back to where she was in the car' Chief
Gab said as he watched with great interest.
'Here' Edet rewinded a little, then zoomed the
video. 'Only her jaw is visible, the rest of her
face wasn't captured by the camera; from this
we know her skin colour'
'Okay, play on'
'She wore a mask and came out of the car, I
don't know how she knew where our camera
was placed' Edet explained as the video showed
Tarasha with her mask on, facing the camera.
She pointed to the part of the mask which
covered her forehead, showing them the name
'Tarasha' which was inscribed on it.
'So we can't get any useful information from
this?' The Chief asked angrily.
'We know her complexion' Edet answered.
'Are you crazy? Do you know how many people
in this city alone has the same complexion?'
The Chief slammed.
'I'm sorry sir'
'Sorry for yourself' Chief Gab hissed and left the
room.