3:46am
It seemed like she was serving a punishment in hell as she regained consciousness. That was what she expected, she hadn’t expected for her life to be spared by Rex.
Her head felt heavier than the rest of her body and she felt pains in almost every part of her body. She stared into the darkness for some minutes, unable to tell what was happening to her. She found herself on her knees, her hands suspended in the air by ropes at both sides. She was unclad, save for the pantie and bra that covered the vital parts.
Her knees were hurting intensely and the pain on her wrists where the ropes were tied more intense. She tried to get up but she couldn’t, her legs were too weak to carry her. Then she tried to ease the pain in her knees by sitting on the floor but wasn’t successful at it too. With a sharp pain at the bullet would on her back, painful memories of what occurred the day before began to flash through her mind. She made painful groans as she could see and feel Rex lifting her up again and slamming her back to the ground.
A door directly opposite her opened slowly, giving entrance to a little source of light which gave her an idea of the breath and width of the room. A male figure appeared at the middle of the opened door and Tarasha’s heart gave way for fear as she looked up and saw the shadow. At first, she thought it was Rex. Then she remembered Henry and Rex’s promise to kill him if she hadn’t gotten to meet him in one hour, she hoped Rex had not gone ahead to kill Henry after their encounter.
She stared as the male figure proceeded forward slowly, her mind was a bit relieved when she discovered from observing his figure that he wasn’t Rex. She was sure he didn’t keep her alive because he was being nice but most likely because he needed something important from her he couldn’t get if she was dead and trying to get that from her would involve rounds of torture and probably drugging which she wasn’t ready for.



She closed her eyes to protect it from a light which shone from the man’s hand to her face. Then she heard footsteps of someone else join him from behind. She tried to open her eyes to see the people in front of her but her retina couldn’t accommodate the light yet.

‘I told you I heard noises,’ a male voice spoke.

‘You were right,’ another male voice replied. ‘She’s awake, do we need to send a message now?’
‘No, we wait till it’s daybreak.’ the other voice replied.

‘Send a message to who?’ Tarasha wanted to ask the question but kept it to herself. Soon the light left her face and she opened her eyes to see the men’s back turned to her as they proceeded out through the door, making very little noise like they had done when they entered.
Tarasha tried to move again but she couldn’t make any significant movement, her wrist and knees hurt the more. She closed her eyes, bowed her head and took in a deep breath.

She was still very surprised to find herself alive. However, she was very sure that she had little time to live.

________
4:12am
‘I hope we can capture that guy and hand him over to the police today,’ Henry said as he stepped out of the out through the backdoor, carrying a luggage bag which had a shoulder strap.
Cole followed behind with a backpack and a white nylon bag in his hands. He stopped to close the door and then joined Henry who was waiting for him.

‘You better start hoping we don’t find Rex there, I don’t think we stand a chance against him.’
‘But all the other men we saw in the video looks heavier and trained than he is,’ Henry said.
‘In the killing business world, you don’t judge by looks. Who would think Tarasha is as deadly as she is judging just by her looks?’
‘Hmmm…’
They continued in silence until they got to the car at the parking space car at the front of the building. Henry opened the boot and dropped the luggage bag in. He opened the bag while still standing behind the car and took out a laptop and a tablet device. Cole joined him at the back and put his nylon bag into the boot too, then he proceeded to the front with his backpack.
Henry closed the boot and joined at the front. He opened the front doors and got into the driver’s side, Cole at the right side.
‘Rex still has my parents,’ Cole said to Henry as he entered into the car and strapped on the seatbelt. The tone of his voice depicted sadness and loss of hope.

‘Your parents?’ Henry gave him a quick glance, also strapping on he seatbelt. ‘How did he get them again? Tara rescued your parents and Aisha’s on the same day she got to Lagos,’ Henry said she pushed the button to start the car engine.
Cole stared at his face with a shocked and confused face for a while. Henry began to drive the car towards the gate, Cole pushed the button on the control for the gate to open.
‘She didn’t, Rex has them kept somewhere in Lagos.’ Cole replied back as they drove out of the gate. The gate closed back automatically.
‘That’s not true, Tara took your parent’s out of the kidnapper’s custody that night even though the press reported it in favour of the police.’
‘But I saw those pictures and video, Rex was with my parents and he threatened to chop their bodies into tiny pieces if I betrayed him to Tarasha.’ Cole argued.

‘Here,’ Henry stretched forth the tablet device on his lap to Cole. ‘Go ahead and confirm online, make a search on the abduction of Aisha Bello’s parent.’
Cole took the device silently and conducted a quick search using the http://w--------------- mengine. After five minutes of reading through, he finally looked up and spoke, ‘I now understand, she left them in care of the police and Rex works with the Inspector General, he definitely has access to them.’
Henry glanced at him briefly and then returned his focus to the road without saying anything.

‘I just hope Rex does not find out I’m involved in this rescue operation,’ Cole spoke aloud to himself.
Henry glanced at him again. ‘I believe we can get Tara to help us get them to safety if we’re successful with this.’
Cole chuckled hopelessly, ‘Tarasha would need to rest and recover first,’ he said. ‘That’s if she isn’t dead yet though,’ he added in his mind.
‘So what are we going to do then?’
‘I don’t know,’ Cole replied with a sigh. ‘But if we’re able to get back Tarasha, she could give us tips on how to go about it.’

There was total silence for the next ten minutes until Henry broke it. ‘I’ve got this question I need to ask,’ he said with a narrow look at Cole.
‘What’s that?’ Cole asked, his eyes fixed on the tablet’s screen as he scrolled up a page on http://w--------------- m.
‘I don’t understand the Vice President’s involvement in all this,’ he said in a confused tone. ‘I mean what was he doing there with Inspector General Rikau?’
‘The both of them are friends,’ Cole answered briefly.

‘Friends?’ Henry wasn’t satisfied with the answer.

‘Yes and you must have heard of Tarasha’s attempt on the Vice President’s life.’

‘Yes, I did hear about it.’ Henry nodded, remembering vividly the role he played in that operation.

‘They are working together to bring Tarasha down since she’s their common enemy.’
‘Oh!’ Henry sighed and shook his head.
_______