‘There’s also a high possibility that she’s still in Lagos,’ Rex stated. ‘Besides, I have plans on how to do that without raising an alarm. It’s one of the reasons we’re going to Abuja.’ Rex stopped and there was silence for some seconds. He stared at Cole’s face for a brief moment, then at Stainless’ face.

Cole sighed again and closed his eyes briefly, he had no more points to argue with but had to wait to hear Rex’s plan first. He took in a deep breath with his eyes still closed. He was deeply scared. He was doing what he hated to do – betraying Tarasha – but he had no choice, his parent’s lives were at stake and preserving their lives was the only thing he could do to correct his wrong of being a bad child to them. His lifestyle and job was the same thing posing a threat to their lives.
‘Now that all Tarasha’s access account to the security cameras have been deactivated, she might have received an alarm or not but I’m very sure she’ll notice it soon if she didn’t get the alarm and she’ll seek to reactivate the account but the only way she can do that is by visiting the NSCC head office in Abuja. And that’s where we come in,’ Rex stopped to look at the two men’s faces and ensured they were listening to him before he continued. ‘We’ll wait for her at the NSCC head office or meet her there in case she gets there before us, that’s for me and Stainless.’ he paused again and then faced Cole. ‘She knows the NSCC office more than we do because she worked as a staff there before, so it’s possible she escapes us there but then you’ll make sure she does not escape us totally.’ he stopped again and smiled wickedly.

‘How do I do that?’ Cole asked, with his heart beating so fast.
‘After we’re sure she’s in the NSCC office, you’ll get into your headquarters; your Headquarters which is Tarasha’s main operation base. I know there’s still one person with her,’ he said and paused to confirm his assertion from Cole’s facial reaction. ‘Henry George E,’ he stated in a questioning manner. ‘Am I right?’ he added when Cole appeared too stunned to respond. Cole nodded slowly in affirmation. ‘You can take care of Henry E.G if you meet him at the operation base, kill him or do whatever you want with him. Then you lock up her network lines from her control room. I know you have access to the place, so don’t try to lie or come up with an excuse ‘ Rex stopped and rested back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest. He made a smirk before he continued, ‘With that she won’t be able to escape death, because if she escapes us from the NSCC Headquarters unharmed, she’ll definitely return to her operation base and it won’t be a safe haven for her anymore before you would have destroyed her safety by locking up her network lines. She wouldn’t be able to use any facility in the building, her electronic lock for her doors wouldn’t work either. That would allow us take her easily.’

Thick drops of sweat rolled down Cole’s face as he listened to Rex’s words. He wondered who Rex was to have everything planned out so intelligently. He knew that if everything worked according to Rex’s plan, there was no way of escape for Tarasha.

A thought popped up in his mind. There could be a way to stop Rex’s plan when he is finally allowed to go into Tarasha’s main operation base. Instead of locking up the network according to the plan, he could do something else and also drop a message to warn Tarasha.


‘Don’t think of playing smart, we will all work with time’ Rex said as if he could read Cole’s thoughts. ‘And also remember that your parent’s bodies will be sent to you in bags the next day.’

__________

‘I’m sending the footages there,’ Henry said to Tarasha after almost an hour of individual work in silence. ‘Or should I track the car for you?’

‘No, just send it to me.’ Tarasha replied, looking into the computer screen in front of Henry. ‘I’ll prefer you forward it to my NSCC account.’

‘Don’t you think it’ll be easier sending it through the network since it’s already on our server?’ Henry questioned, staring at Tara’s face and wondering why she would prefer a longer process.
‘Send it to my NSCC account,’ Tarasha repeated without looking at him.
‘But that’ll mean uploading it to the NSCC server again and then sending it to yours,’ Henry explained in a disturbed tone. ‘The transfer could be discovered by an expert NSCC official and tracked or stopped if the official is capable.’

‘Save the explanations and send it to the NSCC account. You now have access to the server in this building and you would be able to see whatever I do but you can’t if I do it on the NSCC account.’

‘Oh! So this is about hiding it from me? You prefer an NSCC expert seeing what you do instead of me?’
‘Yes, I do.’ she stated blankly.
‘But I’m working with you and willing to help you get Henry back, why should you hide your work from me?’
‘If you’re willing to help me, why don’t you just do the works I send you and stop questioning me?’ she replied coldly.
‘Okay,’ Henry swallowed and heaved a deep sigh. ‘What’s your username?’

‘EvelynAlex.’
‘EvelynAlex,’ Henry mumbled under his breath and typed in the username into a dialog box displayed. He only spoke again after five minutes of silence. ‘No account exists like that.’

She stopped what she was doing and faced him. ‘What do you mean?’ she asked as she turned to look at his computer screen. Henry gave no reply since she could already see the result on the screen. ‘I said EvelynAlex,’ she stared at his face.
‘That’s what I used.’ he stared back at her.

‘EvelynAlex, Evelyn spelt as E-v-e-l-y-n and Alex without space.’

‘I used that and other spelling versions of Evelyn I could think of,’ he said and closed the route error report page. He typed in the username as spelt by Tara again into the dialog box. They both waited for it to load.

NOT FOUND – USER DOES NOT EXIST
The software displayed.

‘How come?’ a confused look appeared on her face. She turned back to her system and hurriedly minimized the running software. She navigated to the desktop and clicked on the NSCC app icon. It loaded in thirty seconds and displayed a box asking for her username and password. She typed in EvelynAlex into the space meant for username and typed in the password. It processed for five seconds and displayed a text box under the log in column. The texts read ‘Account Deactivated’. She typed in the password and username again. It repeated the same result. She tried the third time and it brought the same response but with just few words added to it. ‘Account deactivated about an hour ago’ .

‘What’s happening?’ Henry asked, staring at her computer screen in surprise.
‘I should be asking you that question,’ she slammed and gave him a fierce look.

‘But why should you ask me…’
‘It was deactivated about the same time there was an alarm, that means this was the real cause for the alarm. You put off the alarm sounds to ensure I don’t know what was going on,’ she accused him, staring at him suspiciously.

‘Tara,’ he called her name aloud and stared at her looking shocked. ‘How can you suggest that?’ he asked, getting up from the seat.

‘You had unrestrained access to the server for some days now, you could have timed the deactivation.’

‘Tara!’ he called, moving his head slowly side to side with a sad look on his face.
‘The other person who could have done that is Cole but I should have gotten an alarm if he tries to deactivate from another server. You shut down the alarm systems except for the one in the room which you had no access to, it means you have a hand in it.’

‘Why would I have a hand in what wouldn’t benefit you?’

She paused for a moment. She rose from her seat, shifting the chair backwards as she did with her eyes still placed on him. ‘I know you’re doing all you can to stop the spilling of blood but I’ll give you thirty minutes to restore the account or you won’t like the result.’ she said and walked out of the place.