The loud roars of laughter announced the presence of visitors in the house to James. He hoped that they were not discussing an issue that’ll be of concern to him because he didn’t want to stay there for long. He began to hear voices as he got closer to the living room and the speed of his walking reduced, he didn’t wish to meet the person whose voice he heard last. He finally got to the living room and met the Inspector General seated with the Vice President , The Lagos State commissioner of Police, Agent Tim and the Chairman of the NIS and they were discussing about the new generation of Police and security officers. The men stopped and all turned to him as he approached.
‘Talk about the police officer himself,’ the Vice President hailed James.
‘Good morning your excellency, good morning sirs,’ James bowed in respect to the older men.
‘Good morning Agent James, please have your seat.’ Chief Rikau replied, pointing him to an empty sofa adjacent to his. ‘What drink would you like to take?’ the man offered
‘Ermm… Any soft drink would be okay,’ James replied. He would have loved to refuse but he thought it might be disrespectful for him to since all the other men in the room had drinks in front of them.
It was the Inspector General’s house and he had just been discharged from the hospital after twenty nine days. His colleagues and friends were coming to pay him complimentary visits and James had also come, not knowing that he would meet the set of people there at that time. He knew the Inspector General must have announced his coming because he had called earlier and must have also instructed the guards to allow him in because they wouldn’t allow just anyone in when the Vice President was present.



James had no choice than to join in the conversation and stay longer than he expected, his eyes occasionally meeting with that of Agent Tim who he had been avoiding. He had suspected that Agent Tim had been sidelining him ever since the Inspector General was shot, he knew that the purpose was to hide the truth, so he also decided to continue his own investigation without the Agent knowing about his activities.
The jovial discussion continued for several more minutes and the Inspector General was active involved in it. One thing James was able to get out of the whole thing, even though not expressly stated was that the Inspector General’s woes was self inflicted.

______
‘Yes, come in.’ Cole replied in response to the knock at the door of his room. The door opened and Tomi came in.
‘Cole, the boss asked me to remind you about the supply from the EasyShoppers we’re supposed to receive tomorrow.’ she said as she walked in.
Cole’s eyes scanned her body from her head to toe without giving an immediate reply. Tomi was on a short skirt and a singlet. He was sure she wasn’t dressed like that when she got the instruction to come and meet him from the boss because anytime she wanted to come into his room, she made sure she was dressed in a way she could arouse his interest in her. Cole couldn’t count how many times he had slept with her during the thirty days break but she never got tired and was always coming back even when he pushed her away. Cole was however happy about the house in which they now lived, it had enough rooms for everyone and he didn’t have to share one with her.
‘Do those guys deliver on Sundays?’ Cole asked, looking back to his laptop.
‘Yes, they make deliveries everyday.’
‘Okay, I’ll get it from them.’ Cole said without looking at her. There was no reply from her but Cole could see her coming closer to him. ‘I’m doing an assignment from the boss,’ Cole said to stop her from coming closer.


‘Huh…’ she grunted. ‘For the past one week, you’ve been having assignments from the boss and doing it in your room. I thought you were supposed to do them in the computer room.’
’No, she asked me to do this here. Please Tomi, don’t distract me, we can always see later.’ Cole said.

He didn’t look at her but could hear her hiss and mumble some words. Soon he heard the loud bang of the door. He heaved a sigh and relaxed back into his seat. He placed a look at the door and shook his head. Tomi had become a prostitute without knowing, he thought. She wanted s*x everyday and was never tired. Maybe she was used to it as it was her normal routine when she worked with Don and so she must be feeling very uncomfortable having gone one week without it. However, she never did it with anyone without protection, she always had hers on even if the man does not, maybe that was a proof of her difference as a nurse.
Cole’s mind drifted to the EasyShoppers delivery he was to receive the next day and Patricia’s picture flashed through his mind again. He still had the sheet of paper where she wrote her phone number hidden somewhere and he had fought every temptation to call her during the last thirty days, not for the fear of anything but for not wanting to have anything serious with any girl until after they had completed their mission with Tarasha.
Part of him wished that she would be the one to deliver the goods this time again and the other part of him that didn’t want distractions wished she wouldn’t. He was sure that he wouldn’t be able to resist asking her out if and when they ever met again. Memories of her had been tormenting to him during the last twenty nine days and he felt like he was about to lose someone so special and that he really needed to act quick. But anytime he tried to reach for her number he remembered what could happen to him if he ever got distracted or how her life could be in danger by her association with him. He was confused about the whole issue but one thing he was sure of was that he could never resist the effect she had on him.
………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………
‘And are you sure of all these things you’re saying?’ Dakolo questioned.
‘Yes, I am. I’ve been following this for sometime now and I’ve been trailing the police officers in charge themselves. So I get to know what’s happening and don’t depend on what the officers say like other journalists do.’ Dave replied.
‘But that is dangerous, hope you know?’
‘Yes, I do know it is dangerous but I tread carefully. I followed you for months while you were in charge of the case and you never discovered me,’ Dave said with a smile.
Dakolo narrowed his look at Dave’s face, shaking his head slowly. ‘How do I believe that you did follow me? I couldn’t have been so careless not to noticed anything.’
‘Well, I’ve been following you and I can tell you some of your activities. I even know about the meeting you had with the Vice President and some other top security officers on Samantha Osman.’
‘Oh! Do you also know what we discussed there?’


‘No, I don’t know that. It was a closed door meeting,’ Dave lied even though he knew all the details of their discussion and that his involvement in the case began as a result of that meeting.
Dakolo frowned and stared blankly at the wall. ‘That day we discussed about Samantha Osman and how she could cause more harm to our security and even our economy as she would scare of investors. And we also contemplated on getting an undercover that day, I don’t know if there has been anyone yet, or do you know if there’s an undercover working on this case?’ the man stopped, expecting a reply to his question.

‘Undercover?’ Dave repeated, looking somehow startled. Dakolo nodded in response. ‘No, I don’t know. I mean if I know about the undercover, it means he or she is not doing his job well.’ Dave answered. He knew if there was anyone that was supposed to work as an undercover in the case, it was himself and that was one of the major instructions he was given when the case was delivered to his team and he was appointed to handle it. But then, it starts with first knowing the criminal organization before acting as an undercover and if things would work out as planned, Lizzy would be the one playing the role.

‘Well, that’s true.’ There was a long silence and then Dakolo got up. ‘I’m committed to seeing the end of Samantha Osman, I don’t just care whether the case has been taken from me or not.’
‘But it could earn you a query and could even lead to a dismissal from the force,’ Dave warned.

‘I really don’t care as far as I see Samantha Osman go down the drain first.’

________
Tarasha wiped off the table neatly and arranged the books back on them, putting the heavier ones down and the lighter ones on top. The late Nasiru Attahiru’s book was second in the arrangement and her mother’s diary was third. She had read the former several times and had even sourced for more information from different places to confirm what she read in the book. Now she knew all about the notorious group that was led by the Vice President and how they operated in their days. It had also brought to her knowledge more secrets of the Vice President and Inspector General which she could use to plan against them and bring them down but she didn’t have proofs to any allegations she could make against them. However, she had located several areas and places where the proofs could be present and she had taken opportunity of the last twenty nine days to map out how she would gain access to these places, look for the evidences and also keep them with her. She had done her planning and strategizing in very convenient ways that enabled her to relax well for her quick recovery and also made the job less tedious. For example, she had used the street and road maps data into making computer and mobile applications and games and whenever she played these games, she mastered the roads and buildings, getting used to fast escape routes and short cuts which will be needed when the main operation starts.

One thing she had not been able to look into was her mum’s diary. She didn’t really believe there would be so much information about the notorious group in the diary as the group operates secretly, even without their families knowing about them. Tarasha believed the diary would contain more of her mum’s happy moments – she had always known her mum to be a happy woman – and less than one percent of what she needed for her operations but she still intended to search for and read her mum’s account of their treatment by the notorious group.
Her phone beeped on the table and she picked it up to check the notification. She had gotten an email from an unnamed city in Russia. It was an email she was expecting because she had sent a message first.
More strategies and ideas had been coming to her each day on how she could kill her remaining targets without necessarily having to fight with Rex again. The recovery process of the past days had not been able to take off her mind the torture she experienced from Rex even though her body was stronger and the wound – her weak point – which Rex used in defeating her that day was also healing fast. The thought of facing Rex or another surprise like him again was the major reason she had decided for her body to be healed completely before going for any major operations that would involve a gun war or a combat. She was sure Rex knew a lot about her already while she knew none about him except that he was sent by the Vice President and the Inspector General. Her fight with him had been the toughest since she finished her training at the Nefary Clan and began to work for them. Not that she had not met or fought with men who were stronger than Rex before, but it wasn’t just about the strength, there are tactics involved for every fight and she always had it better than those strong men. Her specialty in the use of her hands and calculation of the body movement of her enemy was always her weapon used in defeating anyone she faced. But Rex was totally different, she was totally unable to calculate him except for a few attacks he made which she dodged. But that was a normal part of any fight, Rex also dodged some of her moves, except it was a fight against an inexperienced or weak person, it was always expected that each fighter dodges some casual moves.
There was something about Rex which she also had but thought he could be better at than her, it was his intelligence in calculating his enemy’s movement. He was even able to detect her weak point early that day and had wasted no time but focused on it and decapacitated her. She would have been long dead if not for the Vice President’s instructions that she be brought to him alive. And that was what she was desperate to do before getting her main operation started again, ensuring that there was no loophole or weak point that the enemy could use.
She clicked open the email and scrolled up to read her own message which started the conversation. It was sent to the email address 47tarasha@nefary. org. It read;
‘Good day Queen


I’m in a certain African country right now on a contract and I had an encounter with a strange man called Rex. His composure is exactly like that of one of us and he carries a sign on his mask. It’s a sign that I can’t really explain but that has been seen several times on Lord Nefary’s board. I hope you are in Russia, I need you to visit the clan and check for the names of other assassins in Africa right now.’

The reply was sent to 34tarasha@nefary. orgtwenty one days after the initial message. It read;
‘Hello Tarasha
I received your message and I acted as soon as I could. I visited the clan and after searching, only your ID was on record for assassins in Africa.
I believe a picture of description of the sign you saw would be helpful. As you know, different signs are added to Lord Nefary’s board from time to time.’
Tarasha placed her fingers on the keyboard and began to type her reply immediately.
‘I do need you to make another visit. The sign on the mask had a animal’s face embedded in it, that’s the only description I can give except I see it again.