Henry still sat on his seat, lost in his own

thoughts. He wondered why Tarasha had

brought him to the party to abandon him and

follow another guy, deceiving him that they

went on exhibition. But… The kiss earlier that

day. Was it fake? No, he felt it was real. He had

never felt more real in his life.

He inhaled deeply as he poured some wine

into the cup. He gulped it down immediately

and began to stare into the empty cup, making

faces as if someone was speaking to him from

the cup.

He shook his head vigorously. Was the

alcoholic wine already having effect on him.

No, it couldn't be. He had not taken too much

yet. He rested his hand on the table and

rested his chin on his palm, thinking of what to

do.

After some seconds of hesitation, he finally

got up and stretched his cloth, about to head

for the exhibition to see if Evelyn was really

there.

His eyes met someone walking towards his

direction and discussing with another man as

he turned back and left his chair. He quickly

ran back to his chair and sat. He tried to cover

a part of his face with one palm. The man

came closer and sat at the table just behind

Henry with his discussant. Henry could not

stand up for the fear of being recognised.

++++++

Benny folded his arms and glued his gaze to

the stage. He was the only one standing

without a partner or a group of friends at the

back. The security man following him had left

and was nowhere to be found. Benny did not

try to find out who he was, he remained calm

but alert, ready to handle any situation that

may require urgency.

A familiar scent drew closer to him, he

couldn't place where he knew the scent from.

He looked around to see but found no one and

nothing familiar. He returned his gaze to the

party stage.

Benny could feel someone standing by his side

but he didn't care to look, he already saw the

tray the person was holding and he was sure

that it was one of the drinks servers.

'h.e.l.lo sir, you care for champagne?' A familiar

voice asked.

'No, thanks' Benny took a quick glance at her

before rejecting her offer. He paused. He

dropped his folded arms and her question

played back in his mind. The voice. He turned

back to her.

Benny opened his mouth wide in shock on

seeing. She was frowning at him. 'Aisha! 'He

exclaimed. 'I think that there's now need for a

law banning makeups in the country. I didn't

almost recognize you anymore'

'Shhh…' Aisha hushed him. 'You shouldn't still

recognize me. I just came to serve you drinks'

Benny nodded in understanding. He took a

gla.s.s cup and took the champagne bottle to

pour some of the contents. 'So what are you

doing here?'

'Wrong question' Aisha replied him, watching

as Benny took a sip. 'You should ask me why

I've come to you' she said as she brought out a

paper. She pushed in the paper into Benny's

hand after making sure that no one was

watching them.

'Boss says you should kill the man if she

doesn't give any other instruction in thirty

minutes '

'D--n!' He almost spilled the drink on his

body. 'How does she want me to do ? How

would I get to the front where he's seated, kill

him and get away with all those bodyguards

around there?' He dropped back the cup on

the tray.

'Here' Aisha dipped her hand into her pocket

and handed out a nylon to Benny.

Benny eyes shone as he opened the nylon

slightly. There was also a nose mask in it. 'A

grenade? We gonna bomb the whole place?'

'No, check well. It's not a bomb'

'Where did you get it from?' Benny asked,

after confirming that it was different.

'Boss prepared it yesterday by herself and

gave it to me when we met. All instructions on

how to use it are in the paper I gave you'

Benny took out the paper and opened to read.

'You shouldn't do that here' Aisha cautioned

him. He quickly returned it into his pocket.

'There's a bag in the male toilet , labeled B, it

has a gun inside and a extra cloth for the boss.

Make sure you get the cloth to her

immediately after everything is done'

Aisha walked away immediately without

looking back. Benny took a deep breath. He

checked round to see if anyone was watching.

++++

Dare led Evelyn silently up the stairs. They got

to a section with a corridor of about forty

metres long. Tarasha could sight four doors

each on both sides as she got to the landing.

Two uniformed security men stood in the

corridor, each carrying long guns and having a

short gun each by the left side. The first stood

in between the first and second rooms while

the second stood in between the third and

fourth. Before the entrance of the corridor

was a tag on the lintel.

"Out of bounds to non security cameras

officials"

The men turned to face Tarasha and Dare as

they approached. On seeing Dare, they

remained calm.

Dare and the first security man greeted each

other with a nod while Tarasha smiled at the

man. As they walked past the man, his phone

rang.

Tarasha began to reduce her walking speed

gradually, forcing Dare to also reduce his. He

paused and stared at her for an explanation.

'Where are we going to?' Tarasha asked him.

'Come on' he tried to fake a smile. 'We'll use

one of the rooms here'

'But these rooms are not bedrooms' she

argued. At this time, they were standing in

between the doors of the second rooms. She

glanced at the room by the right. It was

jammed with a padlock, and with the other

doors that had pa.s.sed.

'We are going to the third one' Dare said,

pointing to the third door by the right. Tarasha

stared at the door. "Control Unit." She turned

her gaze to the third left door.

'Come on, move' Dare spoke harshly before

she tried arguing with him again. His face was

filled with wrath. 'You think I'm a fool?'

He stretched forth his hands to grab her by the

shoulder but she held his hand and twisted it.

Dare screamed in pain, his arms had been left

useless. The security man had finished with his

call and was walking towards Tarasha and Dare.

Tarasha added a blow to forehead sending him

sprawling on the floor. The security man

pointed his gun at her.

'I'll blow off your head if you move' he

warned

She raised up her two hands as if to surrender

and was stepping back slowly as the man

moved closer.

'Stop' he commanded and she did. She could

hear the footsteps of the security man her

back approaching.

'Put your hands behind you' the second

security man said detaching a handcuff from

his belt.

He got closer and held her hand to fix the

handcuff. Tarasha sent a heavy back-kick to his

g---n and dipped her left hand into his side to

remove the pistol. She sent a bullet into the

first security man's chest before he could c--k

his gun and concluded with the second with the

b.u.t.t of the gun on his head.

'Bravo! Bravo!' Afo and Blade clapped their

hands, approaching from the main entrance of

the corridor where she and Dare pa.s.sed

through.

'Who are you young lady?' Afo asked

mockingly.

'I'm your nightmare' she answered. She stood

opened her purse which she had attached

through the handle to her hand and took out

something like a scissors.

'Ha ha ha' Afo laughed in reply. He stopped

and began to sound serious again. 'We've been

watching you all through and we know what

you've got in that purse. Who are you and what

do you really want?'

'I don't have time to chat' Tarasha answered. 'I

don't have any business with both of you. I've

forgiven you for kidnapping me' she smiled. 'I

only want to do something in your security

cameras room'

'Oh dear! You only want to do something in our

security cameras room' Afo mimicked, he and

Blade walking slowly towards her. Both of

them paused to look at Dare who was still

wincing in pain on the floor. They ignored him

and continued. 'Why do you think its called

security? You think anyone can just enter and

do something?'

'I don't want to do it with force' she said.

Afo smiled. 'But we can't help you with that.

We don't have access to the place also'

'You do' Tarasha pointed at Blade.

'He was in the security cameras office few

minutes ago'

'Me?' Blade stared at her mockingly. He

stopped walking and Afo stopped after him

and took out his gun. They were standing both

few centimeters to her.

'I placed a tracker on you when you came with

Dare to the restroom' she smiled back

mockingly.

Blade began to check his clothes for the

tracker, Afo too was distracted and began to

search Blade's body with his eyes.

In a split second, Tarasha cut down her gown

from the chest with the scissors she had taken

out. She removed it from her body and threw

it at them covering their faces. She sprayed

the duo with bullets from the gun she

collected from security man. Blade went down

immediately while the mighty Afo still

struggled to stand. He took the cloth off his

face and tried to raise his gun up. Tarasha

finished him off with a bullet into his

forehead.

'That easy' Tarasha smiled and murmured to

herself as she turned back. She had striped

herself to an inner singlet, and a b.u.m short.

She emptied some of the contents of her

purse into the pockets of the shorts.

She turned back again on hearing a sound.

Dare was still on the floor. She hissed and sent

a bullet to his head.

She headed for the third room which had the

"Control Unit" tag. Ready for the last phase, all

she needed was to erase from the database all

the cameras had captured that day and also

deactivate for some hours to allow them

complete the task without recording.

She touched the door k.n.o.b, it was opened. She

didn't know someone was in, waiting and

prepared for her.