‘Hello, anybody in here?’ Cole shouted in as he walked on slowly into the living room. He looked around and noticed that all the windows were locked and the curtains drawn. He signaled for his partner to wait in the living room while he proceeded further, calling for anyone who could be in the house. He returned two minutes later and motioned for his partner to join him as he led him to the control room.

He switched on the bulb in the control room when he entered and he proceeded straight to the master system. He opened up the screen and pressed the boot button, he motioned his partner to a seat beside him while he also sat in front of the system. He took sometime to look around as the computer booted, he observed carefully how the cables connected to the network dish outside the house were arranged, they were all hidden inside the casings. There was a receiver hung on the wall close to the ceiling at the edge of the left side wall which had a green light on, signaling the presence of signals. He was to destroy everything – the connection settings on the master system which will make the light on the receiver turn red and then the physical cables and appliances which ensured the connection and receiving of signals. His partner’s job was to support his operation, especially if there was any unforseen situation which arose and also to take the pictures as Cole destroyed the physical wires and connection tools.


A thought struck Cole’s mind as the system made a sound to signal the complete booting. The idea was to start with a note to explain to Tarasha the situation and also give out hints to her on Elvis- whom he now knew to be Rex- and how she would be able to locate them. He began to think of a way to get his partner busy while he composed the note.

‘Hey, can you turn on the system. I want you to help with a job there,’ Cole said, pointing towards the system at the end of the long table.

His partner shrugged. ‘Of course, if it’s something I can do.’ he rose up and journeyed towards the system he was pointed to. Cole opened the Microsoft notepad application and began to type as fast as possible.


‘What am I supposed to do for you?’ Cole’s partner asked after he got to the place and pressed the boot button.
____

Tarasha watched Cole’s actions through the device in silence. She couldn’t read the expression on his face because of the light from the screen he was focused on. She deeply wondered what his mission could be. She enlarged the view point and watched to see what he was doing on the laptop. She could see him typing words into the notepad application. What could he be typing? She asked herself. If not for the speed at which he was typing, she could have concluded that he was trying to draft out codes for a program but with his fast speed, she knew he wasn’t writing codes but English words.

Something vibrated on the drawer by her bedside. She rose from the bed which she was sitting in and picked up her phone. There was a text message and it was from Henry. She swiped down the notification bar and dragged in the text message

‘I got into trouble with the NSCC boss and he has ordered the security men to throw me out. They are behind me now, following to see that I go out immediately.’

‘S--t!’ she cursed and hit her fist on the drawer. She hurriedly returned to the bed and put the tablet device she was using to monitor Cole into her backpack. She strapped it to her back and hurried out of her room, taking one of her guns out of the pocket on her trouser.

_________
‘Hey men! You got to take this easy,’ Steve said to the security men who had been told to ensure he gets out of his building and its surroundings.

‘Just go out, you can use your phone outside.’ the middle aged security man replied him as they pushed him gently from behind with a club.

‘I’m not playing with it, I’m sending a text message, can’t you see?’
‘That’s not my concern,’ the man barked as he pushed Steve forward with his club. The other security man opened the smaller entrance of the gate and Steve was pushed outside.

Henry heaved a sigh of frustration as the gate was slammed behind him. He straightened his cloth and looked around carefully to see if there was anything or anyone watching around. The environment looked it’s usual way. He straightened his cloth again, not knowing what next to do as his heart began to thump faster. He took two steps forward and turned back to look at the gate again, adjusting the bag on his back tighter. He felt a short vibration in his pocket. He took out his phone, the screen was turned on already. He waited two seconds for the screen light to adjust to the new surrounding light before he dragged down the notification bar. It was a text message from Omotara replying his.
‘Stay still when you get outside, don’t look around.’ the message read.

‘Oh!’ Henry heaved a sigh. He had already gone against the instruction which came in late but he decided to carry it out anyway. He took two steps closer to the road but fixed his eyes on his phone. Another text message entered.

‘Walk in the opposite direction to your car, DO NOT look towards where your car was parked.’

Like a robot, he turned to the opposite direction and began to walk slowly, still holding the phone in his hand and waiting for more instruction.

‘Try as much as possible not to look afraid, you’re disguised and they can’t recognize you. Just walk as fast as possible, make sure you follow the three instructions accordingly.’ a third message entered.

Henry began to walk fast. He had followed the last two instructions properly but the first one unfortunately came after he did the opposite.

_______
‘Try as much as possible not to look afraid, you’re disguised and they can’t recognize you. Just walk as fast as possible, make sure you follow the three instructions accordingly.’ Tarasha said into her phone using the voice typing option. She clicked on send and then returned the phone into her pocket. Then she proceeded straight to the control room.
_______

‘Who’s this?’ Rex muttered under his breath, asking no one in particular but himself. The man who had been pushed out from inside the NSCC facility was looking around. He placed two fingers on the device’s screen and zoomed the video to the face of the man. He zoomed out almost immediately as he didn’t know who the man was. He watched for some more seconds until the man began to go his way. The man looked quite suspicious but a lady was who Rex was expecting and he had viewed the man’s head and chest well and was sure he wasn’t a lady disguised as a man.

Still seated in his car and waiting patiently for Tarasha to come out of the NSCC gate. He had two earpieces with him, one in the left ear which he used to listen and communicate with Stainless while the other one was attached to the tip of his collar and transmitted Cole’s voice from where he was.

‘I’m sending two documents to that system, they both contain some codes, one of ten pages and the other twenty pages.’ Cole’s voice sounded loud through the earpiece in Rex’s collar.

_________
‘I’m sending two documents to that system, they both contain some codes, one of ten pages and the other twenty pages.’ Cole began answering his partner’s question of what he was supposed to help with after two minutes of focus on the note and ignoring the man. ‘I want you to merge the documents, but the way to merge is the real task.’ Cole paused to clear his throat. ‘From each page of the ten pages document, you copy the last line of codes and you search for the same line of code in the twenty pages document, you create a one-line space above when you find it. After creating the space, copy the whole full one page of the ten pages document and paste it in the created space. Do you understand?’

‘Yes, I do.’ the other man replied.
‘Ehen,’ Cole said like he just remembered something. ‘For each line of code you find in the twenty pages document, you will find more than one. You have to create spaces and paste above each line of codes you find.’
‘Okay,’ the man nodded, still staring towards Cole, his fingers on the mouse.
‘I’ll send it to you in two minutes,’ Cole eyes scanned through the words on the notepad app again before he minimized it.
‘Are all these connected to the network lines we are here to disable?’ Cole’s partner questioned.

‘My job is to paralyze the network lines, your job is to help me and also take pictures.’ Cole replied, sounding disgusted by the question. He moved the cursor on the system to the network and security option.
Just as he clicked on it, the door opened slowly and Tarasha entered.

Like a programmed device, Cole rose up to his feet instantly. He could recognize her perfectly even though she was wearing makeup to disguise.

Tarasha looked from left to right, at Cole who was staring down timidly and to Cole’s partner who was looking shocked.
She raised her gun and sent a bullet into Cole’s partner’s chest. He tumbled and landed on the floor with the chair.


‘You came to paralyze my network lines?’ She said as she turned towards Cole, squinting at him with a questioning look. She pointed her gun to his head.

________