*8pm*
Cole could not hide his astonishment at the
excellency of Tarasha's edifice . Things in the
house were either controlled by Tarasha's voice
or just a simple touch from her. From the gate
of the house to the car park and the doors,
they all responded to a simple whistle or a
word.
Her medical lab was also well equipped with
equipments, someone who did not know her
would mistake her for a real medical doctor but
a closer look at the equipments and drugs
nearly arranged on the shelves suggested that
the lab was only meant for treating injuries,
both simple and deadly ones.
'Help me get that cylinder' Tarasha's voice
jolted him. He turned back to see her pointing
to a cylinder on the retort stand. 'There's a
napkin there for you to hold it'
Cole picked up the hot cylinder with the napkin
on his hand and proceeded towards Tarasha to
hand it over. Aisha laid on the bed unclad
except for her pant and bra as Tarasha cleaned
the bullets wounds and applied antibiotics to
prevent possible infections. An intravenous fluid
bag was hung at the other side and the fluid
passed through the IV lines slowly into her
veins.
'Is she going to make it?' Benny said as he
came closer to them. His wound had been
treated and his arm was already bandaged.
'We can make her live again but not without
complications' Tarasha replied in a tone that
sounded like a professional Doctor's. 'The bullet
touched some organs in the body and some
liquids have been spilled'
Cole heaved a sigh.He felt a pang of guilt.
Aisha was not supposed to be involved in the
operation, she had only come to assist him and
Benny after he pleaded with her. Now she had a
bullet stuck in her stomach which would result
into complications that won't allow her enjoy
life anymore.
'Has the bullets been removed?' Benny asked
another question.
'No, removing the bullet might cause more harm
for now' she replied. She took time to dress the
wound on Aisha's body after which she covered
her with a piece of white cloth.
She led them out of the medical lab to a large
room afterwards. The place looked empty until
Tarasha brought out a remote control device
and tapped in some commands. The opposite
wall to them split open and furnitures making
up a living room slid out of it towards them with
a plane rug underneath.
Benny and Cole could not hide their surprise, it
was well written on their face as they stood
and watched it like a miracle, they had only
seen such happen in Hollywood films. They
stood fixed to a point and didn't notice when
Tarasha went to the wall behind them and
touched a switch on it which brought out a flat
screen TV and other sitting room ornaments
from the wall.
'Are you going to remain standing?' She startled
the two guys.
They sank into the seats in a weary manner and
Tarasha took a seat opposite them. There was
an awkward silence for about five minutes.
'Are you hungry?' She said to the both of them.
'No, not yet' Cole spoke up after looking at
Benny's face for a go ahead. 'The snacks we
took earlier is enough for now'
'Okay, I got some food when I went out. Just
tell me when you are ready to eat' she said and
relaxed back into her seat.
'Thanks' Benny and Cole said in unison.
Tarasha gave a brief smile, she brushed her hair
with her hand and stared at the two for a while.
Both of them hid their eyes from hers,
wondering why she fixed her gaze on them.
A lot of things were on Benny's mind. One was
the hope within his heart that there was no
more task Tarasha had for them, this first one
almost took their lives. It had never been this
tough when he worked with Don. Well, they
never had taken operations as hard as the ones
they did now.
A confrontation with someone like Robin Kahn
would have been termed as impossible when he
worked with Don. Not that Don's group – the
Nanl gang – was not good enough. In fact, they
were arguably the best assassin group in the
nation before Tarasha came in, but what had
incapacitated them was the belief that the
Nigerian security system was much stronger
than the old times and some crimes could not
be perpetuated without being caught.
Maybe it wasn't just a belief of theirs, it was
reality. Although the level of technology in the
gang was high, no one had the knowledge of
how to deactivate the security cameras or how
to hack into the Nigerian security backup files,
they all had come to accept that the security
was unbreakable.
'We only took one of our targets' Tarasha's
voice came up again. Benny and Cole fixed their
eyes on her at once, they had been expecting
her to talk about it. 'The Nigerian inspector is
still well and sound'
'No, he couldn't have escaped' Cole argued. 'We
attached a bomb to the car that was supposed
to take him back to their station'
'He survived, someone told him about the bomb'
'Huh?' Benny's eyes widened, 'No one could
have noticed with the way we did it'
'Who planted it ?' Tarasha questioned.
'I … and Aisha' Benny answered.
'You spoke to her about it on phone?' She
asked another question
'Yes, we were not together all through. I had to
communicate with her and Cole through phone
calls'
'I think the call was intercepted or maybe
recorded' Tarasha stated, she paused for a
while and bit her lips. 'Someone else has
access to Aisha's phone files and location,
that's how the police got to know where you
were'
Benny and Cole exchanged glances, they
couldn't really figure out what Tarasha was
trying to explain.
'I had to come in and stop the police, they were
on their way to meet you where you took Robin'
Tarasha continued. 'Someone was tracking
Aisha through the phone and providing them
with information'
'How could that be?' Benny muttered. It was
clear to him now that Tarasha was the one
they saw in a gun duel with the police after
driving out of the gate.
'We still need to handle that Nigerian Inspector,
he seems a little bit competent' Tarasha stood
up from her seat and slowly walked to the
nearest window. 'He could give you problems
later' she said, placing a stress on the "you"
Benny grumbled under his breath, afraid that
Tarasha would ask them to complete the task
with their injuries. Still backing them and
looking out through the window, Tarasha sensed
the fright mood of the two.
'Don't worry, you don't need to go back to him
now. You can kill him anytime you want to' she
said as she turned to face them. 'He's not that
hard, he couldn't pick a good place to fire at
me, his two bullets hit my back'
'Huh?' Cole did not know when he stood up in
surprise . 'Two bullets hit you?'
Tarasha smiled, 'the bullets got stuck in the
kevlar'
'Oh!' Cole exclaimed softly and sat back.
Tarasha's smiling face turned serious as she
begun an impromptu lecture. 'As a good
gunman, two of your bullets should not get
wasted. Even if the first one does not
penetrate, you should know where to fix in the
second. He should have noticed that the first
bullet did not get into my body, he shouldn't
have shot the same place twice. He should
have left an impact even if he didn't kill me' she
paused and glanced at her wristwatch like
someone rushing somewhere.
'He didn't try to shoot my head, although that
wouldn't have killed me because I had a Kevlar
wig on too but it would have been a better shot'
she paused again to see get impact on them.
'You should be able to use your eyes like a
machine, it should scan through the body of
your target like the eyes of a robot' she said
before walking back to her seat. She moved her
gaze in a slow manner from Benny to Cole and
back to Benny.
'You two would handle the surviving Inspector
when we return, we are traveling next week for
our new operation'
++++++++
James saw several officers gathered outside as
he drove into the station. He spotted Sandra
talking to a group of officers on the left field
beside the main building.
After parking the car, he relaxed back into the
seat to rest , contrary to his plan of entering
the office to take his bag and return straight
home, he spent sometime to mediate in the
car.
Though the day had been a fruitless one, he still
had good reasons to thank God for saving his
life. Two of the foreigners were dead already
and their main Boss, Robin, who was supposed
to be the superhero was nowhere to be found.
He wondered how the news headlines would be
next day. "Robin Kahn fails to lead his men and
the Nigerian force to victory" or "Robin Kahn
leads men into Samantha's Osman's trap". It
may even be " Special Agent Robin is kidnapped
– after leading several policemen in an operation
that wasted their lives". It would surely shock
the outside world.
How Samantha Osman or whoever the Lady on
the mask was escaped still baffled him. He was
sure that two bullets hit her at the back, he
wondered how she managed to drive away so
fast that Sandra couldn't catch up with her and
even himself couldn't find her in the places he
searched. Or was she wearing a proof? No, it
didn't look like she was.
'Sir' Someone called, knocking on the car
window. It was the computer operator, Sandra
was standing at his back. They had seen his
car when he drove in.
James hesitated before winding down the
window. He had been through so much and
didn't want to continue until the next day. He
even defiled medical advice still went after
Samantha, now his body was really aching him
and all he needed was rest.
'Yinka' he managed to call the computer
operator's name.
'Sir, did you find anything useful?' Sandra
quickly put in.
'No, you?' James directed the question back to
her.
'No' Sandra answered in a low tone.
'I think we should just leave everything till
tomorrow' James said as he came out of the
car.
'No we won't leave anything till tomorrow'
someone objected loudly, approaching them
from behind. 'We'll do everything we can do
today'
James looked back to see the superintendent,
he felt like someone hit a hammer on his head.
The who seemed less concerned before had
just received orders from his superior,
threatening him to look into the case urgently
or loose his job.
'Do you know the magnitude of what happened
today?' The man continued, staring into James'
face. 'Three special agents from the US have
been brought down in one day'
'Two' James corrected boldly, leaving Sandra
and Yinka to wonder where he got such
confidence to correct his superior in that
manner. Of course, it was from his fatigue the
desperation to have a good rest. 'Two, Agent
Robin may still be alive'
The man bit his lips in anger but refrained from
taking it out on James because he wasn't sure
he had a better officer to handle the case if he
argued with James.
'Two' the man stuttered. 'But agent Robin is
nowhere to be found. That wouldn't be good
news if it hit the headlines tomorrow. We have
to do something to prove that we're working
and not in cooperation with the criminals'
'That's true' James said calmly, finally
reasoning with the man. There was silence for a
moment.
'I think we have a better picture of who
Samantha Osman is now' James spoke to the
waiting ears of the officers. 'Aisha Bello might
just be the real criminal'
'Yes!' Yinka exclaimed excitedly. 'I was about to
say that too. I believe Aisha Temitope Bello is
real name of the assassin who is the leader of
the group and not Samantha Osman'
There was silence for some seconds again
before Sandra spoke. 'So does it means if we
find that Aisha, we may have nabbed the whole
group?'
'Yes' James agreed, nodding his head slowly.
'We just have to be careful this time, not to run
into another trap' James concluded.
+++++
03/01/2031
Aisha Bello was declared wanted by the
superintendent himself on national TV very early
in the morning. Before seven thirty a.m ,
postals and handbills carrying her picture and
details had been spread around the nation, a
price tag for anyone with useful information
was also placed on the bills.
News of Robin's defeat and abduction had also
been dispersed within and outside the nation.
Everyone was on the look for Aisha Bello, who
was possibly the same person as Samantha
Osman.
The US authority did not believe when rumours
of Robin's defeat first got to them the day
before. Various news medium in the US had
carried it but there was no reliable source yet.
They immediately made contact the Nigerian
force but the news was denied until that
morning when the superintendent confirmed it
in an interview with the press.
'I don't think the Boss has heard this' Cole said
to Benny as they listened to the morning news,
sipping the warm tea slowly.
'You never can tell, she's unpredictable' Benny
replied calmly.
'I feel sorry for Aisha' Cole said sadly.
'She'll survive' Benny says nonchalantly.
'Yes, she will but she wouldn't have gotten
injured at all if I didn't ask her to come. It was
our task.' Cole continued, 'she was still in pains
when I spoke with her this morning, Boss has
gone to get more medicines for her'
'Well, that's true. She's in pain because she
helped us' Benny replied thoughtfully as he got
up from the sofa. 'I need to see her too'
'She's asleep now' Cole returned him with a
wave of the hand.
Benny returned to his seat and they watched
the rest of the thirty minutes news in silence.
Cole began again after the news ended. 'You
know I've been trying to figure out how the
police could have gotten access to Aisha's
phone. Do you think Aisha could have been
careless enough not to know when she ran into
an undercover?'
'That baffles me also, I tell you' Benny replied.
'She was sold out by her boyfriend' Tarasha's
voice came up. She had walked into the house
without them taking note. 'The same boyfriend
who followed her to the former office'
'Don?' Benny and Cole exclaimed in shock.
'I don't know what his name is' Tarasha replied,
dropping a white nylon bag which contained the
medicine she went to buy on the glass centre
table. 'Is she awake?'
'No, I checked her few minutes ago' Cole
replied.
'I heard she's wanted now by the police'
Tarasha said with a wicked smile, taking out a
pistol from her jeans jacket.
'Yes, her pictures are everywhere' Benny replied
sadly.
Tarasha fixed in a bullet into the gun, making
them wonder what she wanted to do. She
walked up to Benny and handed the gun to him
.
'Aisha would cause problems for us if she lives,
plant that bullet into her skull' she ordered
Benny. 'Right now!'
… to be continued