'BN 10354' Henry read aloud to himself as he

studied the makeup of a particular chip on his

laptop. He took a deep breath he cleared his

throat. This code number was a strange one.

' Encrypt XL

< —="" t.a.r–="" n.e.f="" —="">>

Run script = enter '

His laptop screen displayed the above in a pop

up window. He quickly wrote them in a jotter.

What the codes meant was a mystery to him

but he was sure that the key words, 'TAR' and

'NEF' referred to something very important that

would be of use in his research.

He took a sip of wine from his gla.s.s cup and

relaxed back into his seat to think deeply. This

method of encrypting used by the manufacturer

of the blog was more tedious to read than the

computer machine language. He wondered

where a criminal could have gotten such level

of technological knowledge from. He was sure

that the person was highly educated and not

just a petty app developer, he was also certain

that the person did not get his or her education

in Nigeria. What baffled him was the fact that

someone with so much intelligence and

knowledge had decided to use it negatively.

Such great knowledge could have been used to

improve the country and the information

technology world at large, instead of it being

used to carry out a.s.sa.s.sinations.

He got up and stretched himself, he walked to

the window and opened the curtains, it was

evening and the sun was gradually setting. He

had worked all day without even remembering

to take his lunch. It was time to take a little

break, he decided to take a stroll round the

street but then remembered that he also

needed to get something from the office.

He hurriedly put on his football jersey and

pocketed his car key, setting out to kill two

birds with a stone.

...…..

'D--n it!' Don cursed scattering the books on

his table angrily. He took another look at the

newspaper lying on the floor again, his picture

was printed boldly on it with the word

"WANTED" written boldly below it. A

compensation of three million naira was also

promised to anyone who had information about

him.

He was not really angry or scared about t the

police's search for him. His domain was enough

for him to hide for several years without them

getting any clue of his location. His anger was

based on the fact that their search for him

would dissuade his clients from a.s.sociating and

bringing jobs to him.

He picked up the newspaper again. "Wanted:

Daniel Ogbighe. Criminal: suspected to be in

Samantha Osman and Aisha Bello's gang" he

slammed it on the floor. He paced about

angrily.

When he released the information on Aisha's

location to the police, he didn't think that it

could backfire like this. He had forgotten of his

escapades with Aisha right from the polytechnic

and when they had both dropped out. He never

imagined that she could ever be traced to him.

He was also confused about how the police

connected Aisha Bello's case to Franca who he

had recently murdered. Franca had been one of

his secret informant and s.e.x partner for years

after they met with each other in a night club.

Things had gone bad between them when

Sandra began to demand for more money from

him. The rest is history.

'Stone' he spoke into his phone. 'I'm coming

over to Cameroon tomorrow'

'You sound tensed. What's wrong Don?' A faint

voice asked from the other end.

'I'll explain to you later' Don replied. 'I have to

leave this country for a while.

'You can't get me to start arranging for you

without giving me a valid reason' the voice

replied more confidently.

'What the h.e.l.l is wrong with you Stone?' Don

replied in an angry tone.

'Tell me what the matter is' Stone replied,

unperturbed.

'Okay, I'm wanted in this country now. My

pictures and names are all over the media. Do

you get it?' Don said in a firm voice.

Stone laughed. 'Is that's what's sending you out

of the country?' He said in a mocking manner.

'What do you mean?'

'See, if you don't have anything to say other

than this joke, allow me go and do something

better'

'D--n! I'm serious man'

'You can't be serious man, you mean you're

running away from your domain just because

the police declared you wanted? Haven't your

influence grown at all?'

'You don't get it' Don scratched his head. 'I

want to see you for some other things too, I

need you to help me against an enemy '

'Okay' Stone voice sounded more considerate.

'Who is this enemy that's getting you on your

toes?'

'Tarasha' Don let out a deep breath as he

mentioned the name. 'She's really a pain in my

b.u.t.t'

'Tarasha?? A she? I never heard that name

before' Stone said half laughing. 'Is she one of

these new amateur a.s.sa.s.sins?'

'No, she's different…' Don gave a quick reply

but was cut short by Stone.

'Or one of your numerous side chicks that has

learnt your dirty secret?' Stone added.

'No not that' Don refuted quickly. 'Have you

heard about Samantha Osman?'

'Samantha Osman?' Stone raised his voice.

'That name is all over the world news'

'Yeah, it is'

'Isn't it the same Samantha Osman a.s.sociated

with top profile a.s.sa.s.sinations?' Stone asked

again to be sure.

'Yes, her real name is Tarasha' Don answered.

'Wow! How did you get involved with her?'

Stone sounded somehow excited. 'That chick

would be a h.e.l.l of a machine to work with'

'Stop that' Don slammed, getting angry by

Stone's excited tone. 'She's my enemy, she's

after me'

'I see' Stone sighed. 'We'll talk more when you

come over, I'll prepare for your arrival'

..........

** 6pm **

Cole mimed along with the songs playing from

his IPod as he waited patiently in the car. He

glanced at his wrist.w.a.tch again, he had waited

for exactly one hour thirty minutes. His eyes

finally caught a glimpse of Tarasha through the

side mirror walking briskly towards the car. She

was still dressed in the blue suit which she

went out in with Dare.

She entered the backseat twenty seconds later.

Her eyes met with Cole's through the front

mirror. He quietly pa.s.sed a brief case from the

front seat to her at the back.

'How was today Boss?' Cole finally broke tge

silence.

'Pleasant' Tarasha replied in a tiny feminine

voice that surprised Cole, he had never heard

her talk like that. He remained silent , amazed

at her acting skills as he watched her open the

case check its content.

The person he knew was a Bossy Tarasha who

gave orders, now she was acting as Evelyn, a

young carefree and normal chick.

'How did it go with Dare?' He asked.

'Fine, he's cooperating' she gave a short reply

as she continued searching the brief case.

'Alright boss'

'Dare is still coming to pick me for dinner

tonight, so we're rolling fine' she said. 'You

guys should get set to work'

'Hmm' Cole was speechless.

'Thanks for this' Tarasha said after closing the

briefcase. 'It's accurate'

Cole smiled.

'We'll talk on phone' Tarasha spoke and got out

of the car. She walked straight back in the

direction she came from. Cole also zoomed off

in the opposite direction.

Tarasha had just walked for about six minutes

when she noticed a car pulling up beside her.

The driver pushed the horn, she looked back.

'Someone needs a ride?' Henry called to her

with a mischievous smile.

She continued walking, he drove slowly behind

her. 'I've forgiven you for all your wrongs, let's

be friends '

Tarasha kept on walking without looking at him

again. He increased his speed and parked in

front of her, she stopped behind the car and

waited defensively for him as he proceeded out

of the car.

'Hey! Trying to run away?' he twisted his face

as he taunted her, walking slowly towards her.

She remain silent. 'It's my day, what do you

think? Are you scared? He added.

She stared at him and bit her lips. She took a

deep breath and tried to walk away, he blocked

her. She paused again and stared into his face,

she tried to feign a frustration remark on her

face.

'I work on this street and I've got lotsnof friends

and supporters here, I could take revenge on

you now for all you've done to mw' he

continued. She remained quiet and looked

around to see who was watching. She waited

for seconds before attempting to walk away

again. The brief case hit Henry's leg.

'Ouch! That hurts' he rubbed his knee. 'What do

we have in there?' He pointed at the case, still

standing in her way.

'Will you let me go please?' Tarasha said in a

pleading voice and hid the case behind her.

'I won't let you go until I get soldiers to trash

you like you did to me' he threatened.

She made no reply. Henry picked his phone and

feigned a phone call.

'I repent. No revenge but you must grant me a

date' he finally said.

'I'm not, just let me go' she replied stubbornly.

'Then, let's settle the case with the police' he

threatened, pointing to a nearby station.

'Yes, that's better' she replied confidently.

'Let's see what case you have to present'

'Oh! I see you're bold' he exclaimed, surprised

by her confidence. He picked up his phone and

dialed a number. 'Mr. Sylvester, I just found the

lady that made me go through torment in the

hands of the soldiers and we're on our way to

the Division to report ourselves'

He pushed the phone back into his trousers'

pocket. 'Let's see how you'll escape' Henry

said boldly. He narrowed his gaze to the brief

case as she hid it behind her again. 'I know you

have some exhibits there'

'Henry!' She called his name to his surprise. 'Do

you know it would cost me nothing to get you

into trouble again?'

Henry stood dumbfounded at the sound of his

name. Where in the world did she learn his

name from? Had they really met somewhere

before? He recalled that he had that feeling

when he collided into her at the gadgets store.

'How do you know my name?' Henry asked,

squinting at her.

'Huh?' Tarasha seemed surprised too. She had

made a mistake of thinking he remembered her

from their encounter at the Lagos Ibadan

expressway.

'How did you know my name?' He repeated

'Huh? I saw it there' she pointed at a book

placed by the window at the backside of the

car. He turned back.

'You saw my name on that book from here?' He

questioned in disbelief.

'Yes, isn't it bold enough?' She asked. Luckily

enough for her, Henry's name was written

behind the jersey he wore, so she changed her

strategy. 'It's all over you, how do you expect

me not to know?'

'You are lying'

'D--n! Of course I am lying. Can't you think?'

She said in a provocative manner. 'Henry is

written boldly behind your s.h.i.+rt and even on the

collar and you're asking me where I got your

name from'

Henry took a deep breath. He felt foolish as he

recalled that his name was on his jersey but he

still had some doubts in his heart.

'Can I go now?' Tarasha made to leave.

'No, let me know your name at least' he

stopped. 'I'm Henry, I work here at the cameras

security operation' he said in a more pleasant

manner.

'Oh!' Tarasha sighed and smiled as he exposed

himself. She might need him to get some things

done in regards of camera security.

'You?' He demanded for her name.

'I'm Evelyn' she replied at last. 'I'm a business

woman'

'Sounds nice' he smiled for the first time. She

smiled back. 'So can I give you a lift to your

location?'

'No please, don't bother' she pleaded. 'My car is

parked just nearby'

'I could drive you where the car is parked' he

insisted.

'That wouldn't be necessary' she smiled. 'We

could meet some other time' she said and

brought out her phone.

He brought out his too, expecting that she was

going to call out her number. She didn't

disappoint this time. He stored the number with

the name Evelyn and walked her to where her

car was parked.

**7.30pm **

'When is your Dad coming to Nigeria?' Dare

asked Tarasha who sat opposite him, playing

with the spoon around the plate.

'He might come visiting when I have established

something big' Tarasha answered after

munching the food particles in her mouth.

'I see. Your family is a business minded one' he

said playfully.

'Just like yours' Tarasha remarked playfully.

'Not everyone loves business in my family' he

frowned. 'I personally don't like business'

'What do you mean?' She asked with a chuckle.

'I would have loved to be a lawyer' he replied

sadly. 'But I had to tow this path because my

father needed someone to take over his

companies'

Tarasha remained silent and listened to him

with keen interest.

'He gathered a lot when he was in government

and he invested so much' Dare continued with a

note of sadness. 'At a time he was in charge of

securing the whole nation. He says he got

fought by a lot of lawyers and wouldn't want

me to become one of his enemies'

'If you want to be a top profile lawyer, you

would have lots of enemies that'll want to bring

you down, so he says. He doesn't want any of

his children to fight like he did'

Tarasha extended her hand on the table and

held his hands in a compa.s.sionate manner. He

stared into her face, he could see she felt his

sadness. She gave a him a look of rea.s.surance,

like she had been his friend for ages.

He had been with so many girls but always, his

only aim was to sleep with them. This one was

different, he felt like he could pour his heart to

her.

'Tell me about your father?' Tarasha pushed

further, with the main aim of gathering more

information about her target. 'How did he gather

so much money to invest with?'

He stared at her face once again without saying

a word. She quickly added more soothing words

to rea.s.sure him. She squeezed his palm in hers.

'I mean he's a success, that means he had a

mind of an entrepreneur unlike so many other

retired public officers who are living off their

pensions and gains during service'

He smiled. 'My Father had some businesses he

was involved in before serving the country. He

used his gains at that time to invest more for

the future'

'Hmm…'Tarasha nodded silently and relaxed

back into her seat, unsatisfied by the response.

Dare smiled and continued.

'When would you love to meet my father?'

'I already left that for you to fix' she answered.

'Since you said you were going to help me talk

with him'

'Sure, I will' he rea.s.sured. 'You'll most likely

meet with him next week'

'Thanks' she smiled.

'So what about your boyfriend?' He changed the

topic.

'Boyfriend?' She seemed surprised.

'Yes'

'Well, I've got no time for a boyfriend right now.

I want to establish my business first'

'Huh?' His eyes widened as he laugh. 'You

seem to just love business more than

everything else'

She joined in the laughter. 'Not really. I love my

parents more, they mean the world to me'

'Huh ho! Nice' he smiled sheepishly.

He placed his hand on his stomach as he

suddenly began to feel uneasy. He covered his

mouth with the other palm as he gave a silent

belch.

'Can you excuse me for a minute' he said and

got up from the seat.

'Oh yea sure' she permitted with a smile.

She frowned and picked up her phone as he

left. Her instinct told her something was

happening as her network bar kept fluctuating,

but she wasn't sure of what it was.

++++++++++

**9.30pm**

'What? Data inaccessible?' Henry exclaimed at

the pop up message on the laptop screen. How

can that be? Does that mean that Evelyn was

using an unregistered sim?

No, but it wasn't possible to use a sim card

without registering it first. So why couldn't he

access Evelyn's registration details on the

network bearer's database? Or was it that the

network bearer has made their database

unhackable?

He dropped the laptop on the bed and stood up

to yawn and stretch himself. His eyes met the

wall clock, to his surprise it was twenty minutes

to five. He was planning to call Evelyn by nine

pm. but he didn't know when the time pa.s.sed

as he was carried away by the desire to find

her full name and details.

He picked up the phone and dialed the number

as he sat on the bed. The call was answered

after it rang the third time.

'h.e.l.lo Evelyn' he said pleasantly.

'h.e.l.lo' a tiny voice replied.

'How are you doing?'

'Fine'

'You remember me?' He asked.

'No, I'm actually expecting an introduction'

Henry smiled. 'It's Henry, we met earlier today'

'I remember' she replied calmly, with less

enthusiasm.

'Yeah, so how's your night going?'

'Great, yours?' She managed to reply.

'Awesome'

'Alright'

'So when would we see again?'

'I don't have an answer to that question now'

she answered softly.

'Can we meet for lunch tomorrow?' He offered.

'I'm not sure I'll be free' she replied

nonchalantly.

'Not sure? Tomorrow's Sat.u.r.day' he said.

'Yes, I know. I also have things to do on

weekends'

'Would you be busy all through the day? Maybe

we can meet by evening time'

'You know what? I'll call you if I'm less busy'

she said and ended the call immediately.

Henry dropped the phone slowly. He wondered

why she was acting so hard. His mind suddenly

returned to the mystery surrounding her phone

number registration details. He quickly checked

the true caller application on his phone if it had

recognized the number but the app did not

show records of the call. That got him more

suspicious.

He bit his lips as he remembered that he could

have traced the call and gotten more

information, including her location. He thought

of calling back and tracing it but suspended it

for another day.

He cleared his throat as he got up from the bed

to pull his s.h.i.+rt. Why was he even getting

unnecessarily suspicious about an innocent

looking girl anyway, he thought. Maybe the sim

registration just had some errors from the

network bearer's database. He had earlier

decided and even included in his new year

resolutions to stop intruding into people's

personal life through his knowledge of hacking.

He didn't know how he found himself doing it

again when he was aware that it was a crime

and was wrong morally.

He was about to hang his s.h.i.+rt in the wardrobe

when his mind changed again. He saw the

jersey he wore earlier that evening. His name

on the collar was printed in very small

characters and that made another question

arise in his mind. How was Evelyn able to read

it from the distance she was standing? He also

did not remember turning his back to her, so

she couldn't have seen the name there.

She must have known him from somewhere

else, he thought, remembering the feeling he

had when he met her at the gadgeta store. She

also could have lied about her name. He must

find her real name. He was going to hack

illegally once more and get her real details and

location. Just once more!

...…..

18/01/2031

'Good morning Dad' Dare voice sounded lively

as Chief Jubril answered the call.

'Good morning son' the man replied. 'How is

everything?'

'Fine Dad' Dare replied and then went straight

to his reason for calling. 'I have one of my

friends who would like to do business with you'

'Your friend?' The man seemed surprised.

'Yes, my friend' Dare answered. He seemed

surprised too that he called her his friend. It

was not up to one week that they had met and

he already developed trust and friends.h.i.+p for

her. What endeared him to her more was the

listening ears that she gave to him. She was

not like the other girls that he met who were

only interested in developing a relations.h.i.+p with

him because of his money. He too had always

played along with them and used them only for

s.e.x and dump them after a while without

releasing so much money like they expect him

to. That has made several girls label him a

tightfisted person.

'Your friend? Are you sure?' The man asked

again.

'Come on dad' he urged. 'Why are you talking to

me like I'm a kid?'

'No Dare, don't get it wrong' the man pleaded.

'You hardly keep friends who are into business

or investments, so I'm just surprised'

'I just met this wonderful Lady Dad' he

continued with excitement. 'She seems

industrious and business minded'

'You just met her?' He replied with a note of

suspicion.

'Yes Dad' Dare answered. 'She's a Nigerian but

grew up in Canada with her parents. Her

parents own large companies in Ontario

Canada'

'Hmm… Dare' the father sighed. 'You can't just

trust someone you just met'

Dare was silent for a moment. His father's

words left an impact on him, the loudness of his

voice reduced. 'I think she's sincere'

'You think? You should not make conclusions

based on a.s.sumption, she might likely be a

fraudster' he fired.

Dare remained silent.

'What's her full name?' The Chief asked.

'Evelyn Alex' Dare answered.

'Her Dad's name?'

'Alexander Amaechi'

'Okay' the man jotted down the names. 'Tell her

to come see me on Monday'

'Okay Dad, have a pleasant day'

'You too' Chief Jubril replied and hung up. He

shook his head as he placed the phone on the

seat. His son just disappointed him, he didn't

expect that Dare would not be reasonable

enough to be careful with a recent

acquaintance.

He picked up the jotter where he wrote down

the names. He was sure going to deal with the

Lady if he finds out that she is a fraudster, he

swore.