Cole quivered as he got up from the bed, blood
pumped in his heart abnormal at a speed faster
than that of Usain Bolt. The first time he ever
had a nightmare was in his University days,
when a dreaded cult group was after his life
because of a girl that was in love with him.
This time around, he dreamt that he was being
given a hot chase by the Rivers State
Governor's body guards. He outsmarted them
and hid in an uncompleted building where he
slept off for hours, only for him to open his eyes
and find several guns pointed at him by a group
of policemen.
He glanced at Benny who was sleeping
peacefully on the left side of the bed despite
the hot condition of the room. He took off his
wet shirt and proceeded out of the room bare
chested, using the shirt to fan himself. He first
headed into the kitchen to quench his thirst
after which he proceeded out of the house with
an extra cup of water to seek fresh air in the
compound.
He got a little surprised when he met the door
unlocked but he shook off his fears, his mind
suggesting to him that Tarasha must be the one
outside
He was right! There in the middle of the
compound was a female figure lying flat on the
long bench that used to be at the verandah, she
seemed to be busy with something and didn't
notice his presence. He tiptoed carefully
towards her, trying his possible best not to
announce his presence.
He stopped halfway when he saw her insert a
magazine into the revolver she was playing with,
she seemed to also halt with his movement. He
was contemplating whether to turn back or not
when his name was called.
'Cole' he quivered at the sound of his name, still
on the same spot, he watched her unload the
gun before he proceeded further.
She rose from her sleeping position and sat up,
smiling at Cole who stared at her funnily.
'Why were you scared?' She asked mockingly.
'You loaded your gun like you wanted to aim at
something, I was scared that you didn't know I
was the one coming' he answered, feeling
slightly embarrassed.
'I knew it was you and I wasn't planning to
shoot' she collected the cup of water from him
and drank slowly.
Cole watched her taking in the water, like a kid
who was already dying of thirst. He had the
opportunity to notice her very young face, she
looked like an innocent girl in her early twenties.
Her face was the youngest he had ever seen
involved in the assassination business, several
of her mates he has seen involving themselves
in crime only participated in petty robbery and
as informants.
'Cole' she startled him, his eyes was still
hovering round her body in awe.
'Boss' he called back, scratching his head as he
looked away.
'Why are you staring at me like that?' She
asked.
'No, nothing. I was just wondering what you
were doing outside here'
'What else should I be doing? I was sleeping'
she answered.
'Sleeping? How? I saw you awake when I came
out of the house'
'You woke me up, I was asleep before you came
out' she insisted.
'Asleep? How?' He looked bewildered. 'No one
can sleep here with all the mosquitoes around,'
'Forget about me Cole, you should tell me why
you are awake' she looked sternly at his face.
'I couldn't sleep, my mind has been occupied
with all we did yesterday' Cole explained his
woe. 'I can't seem to figure out how we'll be
able to accomplish our task here'
'That's for me to worry about. I give the plan,
all you need to do is to follow'
He looked at her face in an awkward manner as
if to ask why she way arrogant, or why she
thought she knew everything.
'Young girl like you, who made you a devil? I
could kill you now if I want to' He said in his
mind.
'The greatest mistake you'll ever make is
dealing with me like the ordinary person my
face projects' she cautioned immediately add if
she heard his thoughts. 'You may lose your life
the next time you think that way'
'Hu..uh' he stammered and got up shakily from
the bench.
'Come on, go inside now' she said in a
command tone. Flinging the cup away, she
returned to her former position on the bench.
Cole hurriedly returned into the house, scared to
look back until he entered and closed the door.
He paused to think for a while leaning his back
on the door, the sound of his heartbeat echoed
in his ears.
Maybe she was more than who he thought she
was. She is probably an adult hiding under a
younger body or a young girl endowed with
diabolical powers.
He tried to calm himself and waved off his
thoughts as ridiculous, she wasn't a super
human, she was only good at playing smart with
their emotions. He decided to put up a bold
response if there was a next time, why should
he be scared of her anyway? He had worked
with several make assassins and none made his
heart filled with fear like this.
'Go and sleep Cole, we have a lot to do
tomorrow' her voice jerked him into action
again, he proceeded to his room with no further
delay
**
Tarasha was already thinking of different
possible plans for their new task. Earlier that
day when she and Cole worked to gather
information about the Governor on the internet,
they also visited his twitter profile and studied
several tweets mentioning his handle and those
including his name in the text. Out of the
several hundreds of tweets that had his handle
mentioned, three got Tarasha's attention.
One was from the Rivers State Commissioner of
works and transport, reporting the progress of a
bridge project. The other was from a popular
artiste who displayed his invitation to a dinner
night with the governor.
The last one was from a news reporting media,
Desert Reporters. They tweeted one of their
headlines which talked about an Engineering
student of the Port Harcourt University who had
just successfully manufactured a small airplane
singlehandedly. The tweet read "Governor of
Rivers State, Kelechi Edwin commends
engineering student John @Johnnonexistent
who manufactured an air plane, plans to visit
on…"
With the tweet as a lead, Tarasha visited the
student's twitter profile and gathered more
information about the record breaking feat
achieved. She got to know what kind of airplane
it was and specifications of the size, she also
found out that the plane had been tested by
several professors of the University and experts
from outside the country already. The video of
the several test run was recorded and uploaded
on YouTube and had since attracted so many
views from in and outside the country.
Governor Kelechi Edwin and the country's
minister of aviation were to visit and have a
special flight in the plane on the eighteenth day
of the month.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++
**9.12.2030**
'Wait! Scroll up a little, I think I saw Samantha
now' James said to secretary who scrolled
down the list hurriedly. He had been standing
beside her for minutes, watching while she
logged in to the School Administrative portal to
get a list of all the pharmacy students in thee
school.
Officer Segun and Dr. Hammed also came to
the school with him. They had gone to see the
Vice chancellor of the school who then
redirected them to the pharmacy department
and instructed the department's secretary to
show them a list of the pharmacy students in
their database.
'That's 200 level not 300' she replied him
without bothering to obey his order
'Let's see it' he insisted stubbornly
She scrolled up and halted where she saw the
name, 'this is Samantha David, isn't it Osman
you're looking for?'
'Can we see her profile?' he requested
She clicked on the name and the student's
profile appeared. Samantha David was in 200
level, eighteen years of age and had the matric
number 745666.
'Is this the girl?' James asked, turning to face
the doctor.
Doctor Hammed stood up from the sofa where
he and Segun was seated and walked to the
table to get a clearer view of the passport
photograph displayed on the profile, 'No, not this
one. Samantha Osman is not as dark as this'
'Please, let's continue' James pleaded with the
secretary.
The other Samantha that was found after
scrolling the whole list was a 400 level student
which Dr. Hammed responded negative to.
James was forced to ask the secretary to
profile of all the 300 level female students but
none was identified as the doctor to be
Samantha Osman.
'We don't have any Samantha Osman in our
department' the secretary stated for the second
time.
'But she was wearing the school ID card' James
talked back.
'Maybe she was a student of another
department' she replied. 'You should check
medicine or nursing'
'No, she said she was a pharmacy student' Dr.
Hammed mentioned each word one after the
other.
'I think it's clear now' James continued after
taking a deep breath, 'that girl was on a mission
and that mission was to get some information
for the killers'
'She could be a student studying another
course' Segun who had been silent began, 'I
believe that if we get a database of all the
students, we can fish out every Samantha
Osman we find or better still every girl named
Samantha in the school'
'No!' the secretary exclaimed. 'Who's gonna go
through that herculean task? Do you know how
many students the school has?'
'It doesn't matter how herculean the task is'
James countered. 'She was with the school's ID
card and that confirms that the suspect is your
student'
'How are you sure it was our ID card?' she
queried. 'Did any of you check it? How did you
know it wasn't fake?'
Her question was answered with silence; the
officers stared at each other and at the doctor,
each expecting one to come up with a counter
opinion.
James gave in, 'you're right, it may be fake but
you still have to help us confirm it is'
'Or better still, let us have access to the
database, we'll check it ourselves' Segun
suggested.
'Better!' The secretary got up from her seat ,
adjusting her skirt. 'I can't help you with that,
you have to return to the VC'
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
'I got it Boss' Cole announced, looking into his
laptop. 'I got access to the account'
'Good!' She exclaimed, approaching him with a
plate of potato chips. 'Any useful
communication between them?'
'There is a conversation here, but I don't think it
is useful for us' He gave more space for her to
sit closely beside him. 'They've got an interview
with him this Wednesday'
'Where's the venue of the interview' she asked
expecting no reply as she saw the details in the
message for herself. 'I think we can make use
of this'
'How? How do we go about it?'
'We'll be the ones to interview him' she
answered, offering him chips which he refused
politely. 'Now, you have to monitor the two
accounts closely. Send the student a message
from the desert reporters' account'
'What message?' he asked, frowning.
'Must you ask about everything? Come on use
your head' she slammed, getting up from his
side, she faced him. 'Send him a message,
change the time and venue of the interview'
'I thought you said you were the Boss ' he
mumbled like a kid. 'You said the thinking and
planning was yours and we should only obey
instructions'
She laughed loudly, 'come on, send him a
message now'
He gave her puzzled look, 'but they're gonna
know that their account was hacked when they
see the message'
She returned his look with an awkward one,
'delete the message once it is delivered, then
monitor until he replies'
'Then?'
'Delete his reply once it gets into their inbox so
that they won't see it'
'Wow! I grab'
'You have to keep tabs on it, they must not get
any message, you should get them first and
delete'
'Okay Boss'
'Then you send a message from his account
which you'll delete afterwards, inform them that
he won't be able to make the interview
anymore. That way, we'll keep the Desert
Reporters away while we carry out the interview
and get more information from the student'