10:24am
‘Why can’t we drive there?’ a lady asked as she came out from the passenger’s side of the vehicle.

‘Just follow and stop asking questions,’ the man who came out from the driver’s side replied her.

‘I’m following already but I can’t stop asking questions,’ she said as she ran after him with a big bag hung around her arm. ‘You’ve not told me who gave you my number yet,’ she said.

‘Do we need to go over that again?’ the guy asked without looking back at her. She hurried after him still.

‘Yes.’
‘You’re going to get paid for your services, isn’t that all that matters.’
‘You said they are two people right?’ she asked, trying to level up with him as his pace was too fast for her.

‘Yes, but they might become three soon. Somebody else may need treatment soon if you don’t stop talking.’

After about five minutes of walking, Henry led the nurse into the compound. He locked the gate properly and hurriedly led her to the back entrance. In a couple of minutes, they were both in the medical lab of the place.
Tarasha was seen laying peacefully on a bed with white sheets while Cole was laying face flat on another beside hers but with a different colour of sheet. He had taken off his tops and the belt of his trousers. Two small bottles and used syringes were in a tray beside the bed.

‘What took you so long?’ Cole asked as he heard their footsteps. ‘I thought I’ll be dead before you get here.’

‘It took me sometime to locate her, ‘ Henry replied. ‘After locating her, it took me more time to convince her to come with me.’
The nurse dropped her bag on a stool beside the bed and began to take out some instruments from the bag. She cleared the syringes on the tray to one side as as she placed two new syringes and ampoules. Cole turned his face to her side.

‘D--n it! You Cole?’ a nylon of medicine and anesthetics fell off her hands as she stared at Cole in shock, with her mouth agape.
‘Yes, Tomi. It’s Cole,’ Cole replied her.
‘I’m not supposed to treat you, Don declared you an enemy to the Nanl Gang,’ Nurse Tomi said, now feigning reluctance to continue.

‘Don is dead and so is the Nanl Gang, so get to business at once. You’re going to be paid handsomely.’

‘The Nanl Gang didn’t die with Don, Stainless is already gathering the rest of it’s members,’ she retorted.
‘Stainless isn’t gathering them to resurrect the Nanl Gang, he is gathering them for himself.’ Cole said

‘Whatever you say, but you betrayed us. You’re an enemy.’
‘I betrayed no one, Don sold me here for money, he wasn’t supposed to expect me to remain loyal to him.’ Cole replied. He turned his back to her again, making loud groans. ‘Please do you need to get this bullet out first or what should be the first thing?’


She put on her medicated gloves and placed her hands on his back, spreading the bullet wound surface with her fingers.
‘Did you lock the gate properly?’ Cole asked Henry who was already sitting beside Tarasha on the bed and gently rubbing her face.

‘Yes, I did.’ Henry answered without looking at him. There was silence for a minute and then Henry remembered something and stopped rubbing Tarasha’a face. ‘But I don’t still get how that will stop them from getting inside especially when they have the police’ backing them.’ he complained.
‘Stop being negative, how come you do believe they’re going to locate us?’ Cole shot back.

‘I’m just trying to be extra careful,’ Henry replied on soft tones, turning back to Tarasha. He placed his fingers on her hair and stared at her passionately. He heaved a sigh, ‘I don’t want anything to happen to us again,’ he said, really meaning he wanted nothing to happen to Omotara again.
‘Nothing’s going to happen for now, we still have the lasers and other security measures on.’ Cole reassured. ‘Did you park the car far away from here?’
‘Yes, I did.’ Henry replied briefly.
There was a brief silence.
‘Don’t you think she needs a bath?’ Henry asked, talking about Tarasha.
‘Let her wake up first,’ Cole snapped making soft sounds as the nurse worked on his back.
‘I think you’ll make this easier for me if you stop talking and moving your body this much,’ the nurse complained to Cole.
‘I’m sorry,’ Cole apologized briefly.
‘Talking about her,’ the nurse stared at Tarasha’s body briefly and sq££zed her face. ‘Why does she look so dirty? Hasn’t she taken her bath for weeks?’
Henry ignored the nurse’s question and looked away.

‘Please pardon me, I have to speak again.’ Cole apologized as he turned his face towards Henry again.

‘Now, be quick about it.’ Nurse Tomi snapped.

‘Henry, I think we have to delete the records of all we did today from the NSCC database.’ Cole said to Henry. ‘That would be the easiest way for them to trace us here. I just hope they haven’t saved it yet.’
‘So what you be included in what I’m deleting?’ Henry asked, jumping down from the bed immediately.
‘Our movement from that place down here, and how you went to pick this nurse. Just delete everything you think they could use to trace our movement to this place.’
‘Okay,’ Henry picked a key and hurried out of the place to the control room.
‘So how did you get this wound?’ the nurse spoke some seconds after Henry had left.

‘I thought you wanted it quiet, how come you’re the one asking questions now?’ Cole queried.

‘I’m just being inquisitive,’ she replied. ‘You know I’ve really missed you,’ she added with a soft voice. She pulled down boxers a little at the back to give him an injection.

Cole didn’t give a reply to her last statement but twitched in pain as the needle entered his bum.

‘You were the sweetest amongst all the boys,’ she said in a complimenting way after the injection.
‘Oh!’ Cole chuckled. ‘You b***h! So you actually slept with all the boys?’

‘F*** you!’ she said and frowned her face as she applied something hard on his back.
‘Arrrgh…’ Cole screamed and cursed.
Nurse Tomi used to be a nurse and one of Don’s sex machines which Cole had tasted without Don’s knowledge. Several times after leaving Don’s bed will she end up on his and she spent more time with him than Don himself.
‘How long will it take you to do this? The pain is getting too much,’ Cole complained.
‘I injected you some anaesthetics, the pain shouldn’t be that much. I didn’t bring any sedative, I would have ensured you’re asleep all through.’ she replied.
‘D--n it! But are you sure we’ve got to take out the bullet now?’
‘We’re not in the hospital, and I don’t know if you have equipments to check that here. But I’m not really sure what I’m seeing here is even a bullet,’ she said with a confused look on her face.
‘It’s not a bullet…’
‘Shhh…’ she hushed him. ‘Reserve your strength and make this easier for me.’
She spoke again after three minutes. She took out something covered with blood from the wound and placed it on metal plate. She took it to the front for Cole to see.
‘What’s this?’ Cole asked, looking at her face, still lying on his belly.
‘I don’t know, that’s why I’m showing it to you.’ she said, turning the object around with the tool in her other hand. ‘It’s not a bullet and it’s not poisonous, that’s why you didn’t die before I arrived.’

Cole watched intently as she turned the object around on the plate. Then he looked at her face, ‘Can you rinse it a little?’ he asked, raising a brow.

She didn’t reply but just turned around and walked to where she kept her bag. She took out a bottle of methylated spirit and poured a little on the object. She took it back to Cole to see.

‘D--n it!’ Cole exclaimed. A flashback of the unknown helper ran through his mind. He remembered seeing the man with two guns behind the fence. Who was that man? He asked himself for the first time since. Maybe it was the same man who had put the object into his body.

‘It’s a tracker, someone is tracking us, we need to destroy it immediately,’ he said, trying to get up.

‘Don’t!’ the nurse warned, pushing him back down. ‘I have to dress the wound first,’ she added and dropped the chip on the floor, crushing it with her shoe.
Cole reluctantly la!d back on his belly.

______
‘Object lost,’ a message popped up on the screen of Dave’s Android device. He picked it up from the passenger’s side, one hand on the steering wheel as he drove on. He clicked OK on the pop up message and clicked on the refresh icon on the locating map. It refreshed for only five seconds and displayed another message, ‘No Object found.’
He refreshed again but got the same message the third and fourth time. He hissed and clicked on another icon to check the previously saved location. ‘No location discovered yet,’ the new window displayed.
‘Oh no!’ Dave hit his fist on the steering wheel in anger. He closed his eyes for two seconds, trying to remember the previous location he saw displayed. He could only remember the street name but couldn’t remember the exact location as described by the tracker.
He refreshed again two more times and got the same response of ‘No Object found’. He flung the phone to the backseat angrily. He wondered how the man he shot had been able to take out the tracker so quickly and destroy it. He hadn’t seen any other person around the place, so he had thought it would take more time for the man to snatch a car and get out of the place and it’ll take a longer time for the man and Samantha to reach somewhere safe enough that’s if they weren’t stopped by the Police on the way.
He slowed down the vehicle and eventually pulled up to a curb. He picked the device again and tapped on the back button, he tapped it five more times and luckily for him, the app returned to a previous display where it showed the location of the object including the full address. He quickly made a screenshot and continued driving.

________
Rex sat at the middle of the three seater sofa fuming about the situation and how that Tarasha had been allowed to escape. Even though he had ended his own part of the job perfectly, he was still angry that they made his efforts fruitless.

The phone placed beside him on the seat vibrated and he picked it up to check what message he had. It was from the Inspector General and it read;

‘Please help me find and kill her immediately, I’m ready to pay you any amount you ask for.’
He dropped the phone after reading the message and hissed. After some minutes, he picked the phone again and dialed a number.
‘Where are you Stainless?’ he said into the phone.

‘I just got out to find something to eat,’ Stainless replied.
‘Please, get back here immediately. We need to make some plans, we’ll visit Tarasha’s base tonight to kill her finally. If we don’t find her there, we will extract the necessary information we need to get her.’

_____
Tarasha shivered uncomfortably on the bed where she was. She was sweating profusely even though the place was cool enough. She could hear faint voices of Cole and a lady but then she could hear some louder voices elsewhere. She could hear Jefa’s voice, her father’s voice, Jerry’s voice, then her mother’s. Suddenly she could hear and see herself as a child and the other children she was kidnapped with sixteen years ago.
…