**45 minutes later**

Esther sat at the passenger’s side in the car alone. She had her legs crossed and her eyes fixed on the tablet device on her laps. She kept checking her wristwatch from time to time and would look out through the open window occasionally to see if Fabian was coming forth. After a long time of waiting, she noticed a man dressed in the security men’s uniform walking towards the car. She placed her eyes on him as he approached further and discovered from his manner of walking that it was Fabian coming.

He got there in no time and took off the cap from his head. ‘Move to the driver’s side,’ Fabian said to her in soft tones.
She did as he said and Fabian entered and settled in.

‘How did it go?’ she asked, staring at his face as he began to take off the buttons of the security uniform.
‘It went well,’ he replied, now unbuttoning the sleeves. ‘They didn’t have much useful information about Kimberly Alexander, I only got the phone number she uses to call them. Now, I’m monitoring her phone number and theirs, we will intercept once there’s a connection between both.’

‘And what’s the next step after that?’ Esther asked.

Fabian did not answer immediately, he took off the uniform top and flung it to the backseat of the car, leaving only his white underwear vest on. ‘Let’s take it one after the other,’ he said and strapped on his seatbelt. ‘Now, you need to get us out of here before someone discovers the unconscious security guard at the toilet and the data resource manager under his table.’
‘I see…’ she said, giving him a searching look as she strapped on her own seatbelt. ‘I hope they won’t stay so long in their unconscious state,’ she said as she started the car engine.

_____
Daniel’s eyes wandered around as he entered into his bookstore. He had received a call few minutes ago from one of his employees that someone asked to see him for a large supply of books which could only be authorized by him. The bookstore was a large and there were so many people in it buying and checking books on the shelf. He saw someone that looked familiar siting on a leather bench close to the sales desk and wondered if that could be the person who wanted to see him. His face met with the man’s but he looked away to other points in the store to see if there was anybody else waiting around.
‘Good morning sir,’ one of the employees called unto him.

‘Yea, good morning.’ he said, looking at the middle-aged woman’s face.
‘That’s the man who wanted to see you,’ she said, looking towards the man on the bench who Daniel had considered to be the one.

‘Okay, thank you.’ he said and the woman walked away. He began to walk towards the man on the bench.
The man rose to greet him as he got closer. ‘You must be Mr Daniel,’ the man said with a smile.
‘Yes, I am. Good morning sir,’ Daniel said, bowing slightly to show respect as he offered a handshake, the man was older than he was.
‘Good morning Mr Daniel,’ the man answered with a smile and took Daniel’s hand in his.

‘Please, you may have your seat sir.’ Daniel said and he turned to the chair behind the desk. He allowed the man to settle before he continued, ‘I heard you wanted a special supply of books…’ he began but suddenly paused. He narrowed his eyes and placed a firm stare on the man’s face. ‘I think I’ve met you somewhere before, ‘ he said. ‘You look so familiar.’
‘No, I don’t remember us meeting anywhere,’ the man stated and smiled even though Daniel was still staring at him like he was sure of his assertion. ‘Can we really discuss here?’ the man asked, his eyebrows gathering together.
‘Yes, are we not talking about books and the supplies you want?’
‘No, we’re talking about something different.’ the man said and cleared his throat. ‘I’m Inspector Dakolo from the Abuja Police Headquarters,’ he added, taking out his identity card.
Daniel already knew he was Inspector Dakolo but just had to say he looked familiar for the man not to know he was recognized. The only thing he was bothered about was the reason for the man’s visit.
‘What can I do for you Inspector?’ he asked and stared at the man’s face in silence, hoping it wasn’t that he was being investigated. He controlled two bookstores in town, both in his name though he wasn’t the real owner. The bookstores were just a tool given to him by the agency to hide his real job from the world.
‘I’m here to get some information about a certain man who I’m investigating, he listed your name as one of his guarantors in his recent job.’ Dakolo paused and waited to see if Daniel would know who he was talking about but Daniel continued to stare at him silently, a look of confusion forming on his face. ‘I’m talking about David James who recently began to work at the NSCC office,’ Dakolo stated.
‘Oh!’ Daniel blinked. ‘What about him?’
‘He’s been missing at work for some days now and they’ve been so worried at his place of work,’ Dakolo answered.
‘Oh! And did they declare him missing at the NSCC?’ Daniel joked with a broad smile on his lips. His smile quickly faded away when he realized that the Inspector saw no joke in what he said. ‘I don’t really know his whereabouts for now, but the last time I heard of him, they said he had an accident and was badly injured but I’ve not seen him for a long time now.’
Dakolo took a minute to consider the man’s explanation and concluded that it may be true since he saw Dave with bandages on the head and wrist that morning. ‘So, how do I reach him?’
‘Let me check for his phone number,’ Daniel said and hurriedly searched his pocket for his phone. He took it out and dialed Dave’s number. ‘It’s switched off,’ he said looking at the man’s face but dialed the number again and put the call on loud speakers for the Inspector to hear the response.
‘How about his house? Do you have his address with you?’
‘Ermm…’ he closed his eyes and moved his head from side to side trying to remember something. ‘Allow me for another minute, I think I saved the text somewhere on my phone.’ he began to press his phone again. ‘David James is a regular customer of this store, he reads and buys books a lot.’
It took him about two minutes to get the address he was searching for. He passed the phone to the Inspector to have a look.
‘This is the same address he left at the NSCC,’ Dakolo said after looking at the address severally within forty seconds. He returned the phone to the owner. ‘So you don’t have any other information we can use to find him?’


‘Any other information like?’
‘His family’s address, their home or maybe any of his siblings you know.’
‘I don’t know any of his family members or any of his other friends. He’s just a regular buyer here who became my friend because we share the same philosophies, I don’t know so much about him.’
‘You don’t know much about him but you signed to be his guarantor?’

‘Well, I just thought I should help him since he was badly in need of a job.’ Daniel answered with a stupid shrug.
Dakolo stared at his face for a while, feeling irritated at the stupidity of Daniel as displayed in his last statement. ‘You signed for someone who might just be a hardened criminal and he’s nowhere to be found now, you will have a lot of questions to answer if we don’t find him.’ Dakolo said and stamped his fists on the table, attracting the attention of some of the people in the store. ‘And don’t think of playing any stunts, we’ve got our eyes fully on you henceforth. The best thing you can do to yourself is to inform me immediately you have any information about him,’ he said and dropped a sheet of paper on the desk. ‘Call me when you do have something to say.’ With that, Dakolo turned and walked out of the store. Several people’s eyes followed him as he exited the place.
Daniel picked the paper containing the Inspector’s number and stared at it briefly. After that he picked his phone again and unlocked it. He scrolled down the menu and clicked on an unnamed application. It opened and displayed two icons on the dashboard, one for phone calls and the other for text messaging. He clicked on the text messaging option and began to search for the number he wanted to send it to. He selected the contact ‘David James’ but quickly unmarked it again. He scrolled up and marked the contact stored as ‘Agent DJ’. Then he began to type in his message into the box.
With the unnamed application he was using to send the message, the network providers would not have a record of the text message neither would their system have any idea of the transaction.

______
‘It’s been a while you took me out and paid for my meal like this,’ Esther commented as she munched the food substance in her mouth. ‘It’s only when you need help you behave like a good boy.’
‘Must I be the one to take you out and pay for the meals? Can’t you take me out and foot the bills?’ Fabian gave a reply sooner than she expected and it got her surprised. It seemed like he knew that the question was coming and had already prepared an answer for her.

‘I thought you were the man,’ she said, giving him a side look. She dropped back into the plate the fork she was about to take into her mouth.
‘Which law says it’s the man that must foot the bills?’ Fabian said and continued eating without looking at her face. ‘You’re so used to men buying the stuffs for you. Sometimes, I feel envious of you. You get to go to several places free of charge with the men you investigate and they buy a lot of things for you but I do the buying except if it’s a very rich sugar mummy and not a young girl. The crazy thing is that most times we are underfunded by the agency and we put in our own monies to get the job done.’
‘And I put in my own body to get the job done,’ she snapped. ‘Do you think I like touching those men, especially the obese ones?’

‘Oh!’ Fabian dropped his fork and stared at her face. ‘You think I enjoy sleeping with the women because I am a man?’ he asked with a narrow look. ‘And you don’t even sleep with the men except in very extreme cases which comes rarely. Men can easily get deceived and carried away by just giving them a simple massage, lap dance or…’ he ran out of words, wriggling his fingers. ‘You know the rest of the things you do to them. But the women do not get carried away by those things easily, you have to really go down on her first…’

‘And how many times have you had to do that?’ she cut in. ‘How often do you get to have those kind of jobs? I bet you can’t mention more than one right now,’ she said and looked straight into his eyes, waiting for him to prove her wrong.

He wriggled and scratched his head on the hot seat he put himself. He was still trying to come up with an answer for her when his phone beeped. He quickly took it out and unlocked it.

‘Holy shi*t!’ he exclaimed after taking close to a minute to check the notification.
‘What’s it?’ Esther asked.

‘I just got a message from Daniel, he said Agent Dakolo is on a search for me.’ Fabian replied, looking up at her face.
Esther raised her brows and shook her head slightly, wanting more explanation as to why the Agent was searching for him.

‘He saw me that day before yesterday with the bandage on my head and he also knows I work at the NSCC,’ he explained to her.
Esther’s shoulders dropped. ‘So what are you going to do now?’

‘I don’t really know,’ Fabian said and placed two fingers on his lips. He stared blankly for a short while. ‘I think I would have to leave you to help me monitor the EasyShoppers, just for a short while, I have to see the Agent. But do remember that you need to clean off the disguise and switch to your look as Lizzy, just keep the name Esther.’ he began to tidy up his things on the table.

‘I do remember all that but are you really sure of what to do right now?’
‘I think I am. I just have to do something before the Agent spreads the word too quick.’ he answered, getting up from his chair.
‘Alright, but do make sure you don’t get into more troubles.’
‘I won’t. Thanks for helping out.’ he said as he dipped his smaller phone into his pocket and dropped a bigger one on the table. ‘I’m leaving the car with you,’ he said, showing her the car key on the table. ‘Please send me a message if anything comes up and you need to act.’
‘Okay, I’ll do that. I just hope the office does not call me up for an assignment.’
____