4:32am
‘Chief Rikau, thank you for being here so early.’ the Vice President smiled in the darkness as Chief Rikau approached him.
Both had their cars parked opposite each other in front of the gate. They had come with three men each and used cars that couldn’t be associated to them. They also dressed in unusual fashions to disguise themselves.
‘I’m about twenty minutes earlier,’ Chief Rikau smiled as he received the Vice President’s handshake. ‘Good morning sir.’

‘Yeah, it is really a very Good morning.’ Chief Elvis replied, now turning towards the gate. ‘It’s the beginning of doom for my enemies,’ he chuckled. ‘Our enemies,’ he added with emphasis. ‘She should be awake now, right?’
‘I don’t know for sure but it’s more than nine hours she’s been unconscious.’
‘Let’s just go in, we’ll find out ourselves.’ Chief Elvis made a signal to his boys and one of them followed him while the rest two and Chief Rikau’s men remained outside.

5 minutes later
‘She woke up about an hour ago,’ one of the men that was left at the place with Tarasha explained to Chief Rikau and Chief Elvis.
‘Can we go in there now?’ Chief Rikau asked him.
‘I’ve sent someone to set up light there, the connection lines to the bulbs there are faulty.’ the man replied, his voice still sounded sleepy.

‘How long will it take them to set up the light?’
‘Let’s say two minutes,’ he said.
There was a very brief silence.
‘Did you see her when she woke up?’ Chief Elvis spoke for the first time to the man.
‘Yes sir, I heard some noises coming from the place and I went to check.’
‘And you saw her eyes opened?’
‘Yes, her eyes were opened. She closed them when I turned my phone’s flashlight to her face.’
‘It has been lightened,’ someone who just entered into the place interrupted their conversation. The Vice President and the Inspector General turned their gazes to him.
‘Okay,’ the other man replied his colleague. ‘Sirs, I think we can go there now.’ he said and began to lead the way towards the passage where the messenger had come through.

‘What’s this?’ Chief Rikau stopped at the entrance of the passage on seeing something on the floor.

‘Sir, the ropes previously used to tie her.’ the man leading them turned back to see what he was talking about.

The ropes Rex had used to tie her were in pieces on the floor at the left edge of the room.

‘I thought you used the same ropes to tie her back,’ Chief Rikau raised a eyebrow at the man.

‘No, we couldn’t lose this rope. We had to cut them off and that even took us time. We used another strong rope to tie her hands,’ the man explained. ‘It’s the same colour and breadth, that’s probably why you didn’t notice it was a different rope.’
Chief Rikau felt a bit awkward about the situation but just shrugged and joined Chief Elvis who was waiting in the passage.

______
4:55am
‘D--n it! Some people just got there before us,’ Cole cursed aloud, his eyes fixed to the tablet’s screen as he monitored the streaming from the NSCC cameras.
‘Who are they?’ Henry glanced at the device.

‘The place is dark, I just know that not less than seven men have arrived in two new cars.’
‘But it’s just four minutes to five o’clock, what are they doing there so early?’ Henry asked, checking his wristwatch.
‘I can’t really tell if the Vice President and Inspector General are with the men who just arrived but if it’s by what I think, they don’t want to take chances at all and they’ve sent more men. It’s a proof that Tarasha is alive or why would there be so much activities around the place is she isn’t.’

‘You’re right,’ Henry said. He glanced at his watch again, ‘We’ll get to the place in less than three minutes, are we still going ahead with the previous plan?’
Cole thought for a while before he spoke. ‘The plan would not change too much, we only need little changes because of these new men that have just arrived. Your role remains watching and waiting as a backup, and that’s mainly because you don’t know how to use a gun even though you know how to shoot. You should monitor me with the tracker always and never take off the earpiece from your ears, so that you can listen to everything that happens. Your instincts should tell you what to do based on the information you get from the tracking and the voice transmission.’
‘I don’t see any change in that, these are still the instructions you’ve given me before.’ Henry countered.
‘There’s no change on your part except that you have to be highly at alert and on guard. I’m the one who has more changes to make, I have seven more men to deal with.’ Cole said.
Henry heaved a sigh of frustration. ‘I just wish we don’t have to do this, can’t we just involve the police or any other security forces?’ he asked, thinking aloud.
‘That will be nailing Tarasha and don’t even forget that we’re against two important citizens of the nation, no security agency will remain for long on our side.’
‘I’m scared, you have over fifteen men to pass by before getting to Tara, can you really defeat all of them?’ Henry eyes, giving Cole a blank stare. He was loosing hope too.
Cole chuckled and sniffed in a tear. ‘It’s a suicide mission we’re on, let’s just hope the men are ordinary security officers and police men.’
______