**Friday Morning**

1am

'No Omotara, No' Jefa was shouting as his eyes popped

open. He was sweating and breathing heavily. He used his

palm to wipe off the sweat on his face and stretched on

the chair. He realized that he had slept off while reading

the diary. His dream was consistent with his situation but

it somehow made him scared. He had seen seven year

old Omotara playing with some kids in his dream, in the

large compound of their house in Lagos as at then. She

was playing happily with the rest of the kids until he

walked in through the gate. She stood up from their

midst where she was and stared at him, looking terrified.

He wasn't planning to flog or scold her, so he couldn't

understand why she was terrified. She began to step back

slowly without turning back, towards the building of the

house. Her friends gradually disappeared into thin air.

'Come Omotara, come. I'm not flogging you' he said in

the dream. She refused and continued to step back,

looking more terrified with the steps she took.

'Why are you running away? Come and play with your

friends' he repeated but she was adamant. A tall man

appeared from behind her, looking deadly with a blood

stained dagger in his hands.

'Omotara stop' he cautioned, himself terrified also but

she didn't listen. It was already late when she turned

back, the strange man was only one step behind her. He

was shouting her name as he woke up.

Jefa made a quick but deep prayer for Omotara's safety

and ended it with the cross sign. The chair creaked as he

relaxed back, the diary was still open on his lap, on the

same page he read before dozing off. He flipped to the

next page.

"Today, we transferred Adunni to the General Hospital

where we work. I carried the baby to see Adunni, Adunni

fed her baby with her b----t milk for the first time. She

was glad to do it. But we couldn't live her baby with her,

she'll be sleeping most of the times and won't be able to

look after the baby."

He scrolled to the next day, it was longer than usual.

"Adunni is gradually getting better and would be

discharged from the hospital tomorrow. She spoke with

us today, revealing to us the circ.u.mstances surrounding

her pregnancy and childbirth. Adunni who is just

eighteen year old was brought up by her single sickly

mother. She finished her secondary school education last

year. Being a bright and promising young girl, her village

decided to send her as their first female child who would

get a university education. She was sent to see a son of

the land who is a lecturer in the State university and

discuss about her admission process with him. She went

to his home in the village and met him. He promised to

help her secure the admission, asking her to come see

him in his office at the state's capital where the university

was. She travelled to the capital the third day after. He

welcomed her warmly into his office and closed the

doors to have a quiet talk and career advice session with

her. All was going well until the man got up from his seat

and turned round the table to seat in front of her. His

first move was to encourage her to unb.u.t.ton the upper

part of her s.h.i.+rt since the place was hot and the power

holding corporation had seized electricity flow. To cut

short the matter, she was r*ped and forced to leave the

office immediately. He threatened her not to tell anyone,

else that would be the end of her dreams of the

university education. She made up her mind to keep the

ordeal to herself and take it as a sacrifice for her

greatness. But he didn't keep to his own part of the

agreement. She was surprised when she got back to the

village that day and he had already called and lied to the

village King and Chiefs that she tried to seduce him.

They believed his story against hers and decided that it

was useless to help an immoral person. The whole village

turned against her and her mother for trying to spoil the

image of the most successful son of the land. Few weeks

after, Adunni discovered that she was with child. All these

resulted to her mother's depression state and she died

two months after. Adunni was left alone with no one to

help her. She became sick at the ninth month of her

pregnancy and began to treat herself with local herbs.

She was gathering firewood in the bush when her time

for delivery came "

Jefa placed a finger on the page where he stopped and

closed the book. He let out a deep breath and got up, he

took the picture under the table and placed it between

the pages of the diary where he stopped reading.

~~~

8am

'Good morning Mr Sylvester' Henry greeted as he walked

into the control room.

'Good morning Mr Henry' Sylvester replied, raising his

eyes to look at Henry from behind the computer where

he was seated. He was looking smart in his black suit and

blue inner s.h.i.+rt, Henry was also dressed in the same way.

'Are you ready for the meeting?'

'Of course, I am' Henry answered, taking his seat behind

a computer on the row before Sylvester's.

'We got another application last night' Sylvester

announced.

'Application for what?'

'Application for the job'

'Well…' Henry seemed interested. 'Does it qualify for an

interview?'

'Yes, this CV is particularly interesting. Come take a look

at it' Sylvester invited.

'No need for that' Henry declined, putting his focus on

what he was doing. 'Just keep it, we may review it later'

'It's okay' Sylvester answered and got up from his seat.

'We'll be leaving by 9am'

~~

'Agent James Elvis!!' hailed the deputy commissioner of

police, Kwara State. 'Welcome once again to the state of

harmony'

'Thank your sir' agent James replied, smiling back to the

DCP. They were both seated in the extension of DCP's

office, which had comfortable sofas to relax in.

'I believe you'll have no problems in this state especially

as it is your state of origin' the DCP continued. 'How's his

Excellency, your father?'

'He's fine, I believe'

'What was his response when he heard that you've been

transferred to this state?'

'I don't know, he didn't say anything. You know he has

never been in support of my work in the force' James

answered, taking a sip from the cup of juice on the table.

'That's strange, considering his effort in tightening the

security of the nation. One would think he would even

compel his children to join the force'

'He thinks it's too dangerous and that I'm not strong

enough' James answered.

'Well, that aside. Back to your job here.' The DCP sat up.

'We want to strengthen our anti a.s.sa.s.sination and

terrorism squads and we believe that you can make it

work. That's why you were sent here, your job would

begin fully on Monday. Now you'll be taken to the house

and allowed to rest. You'll find every information you

require for your job in your office when you resume on

Monday'

~~~

Officer Dakolo was in his office, gathering the files he

would be taking along for the meeting. He was dressed in

his special agent's uniform for the occasion.

His doorbell rang. 'Come in' he said without paying much

attention'

'Good morning sir' officer Ken saluted after closing the

door.

'Good morning officer Ken' Dakolo replied, without

looking up. 'You may have your seat' he offered and

waited for Ken to sit before he continued. 'Are you

prepared for the meeting?'

'Yes sir, I am' Ken smiled. ' I actually came to ask if we'll

be moving together'

'Yes, of course. No need to go separately' Dakolo

answered, taking a glance at Ken's face. 'What's the time

now?'

'It's 8.15am' Ken replied after taking a brief look at his

wrist.w.a.tch.

'Okay. Hope you've got all files ready?'

'Yes sir and there's something new' Ken answered,

sounding serious.

'Something new?' Dakolo turned his eye focus to Ken.

'Yes sir and I think it's important we look into it'

'Now?' Dakolo frowned. Ken nodded in affirmation.

'What are you talking about?'

'It's the reply from the US headquarters. It just came in

this morning' Ken removed a paper from the file in his

hands and handed it to Dakolo.

Dakolo read for two minutes. 'Have you sent the

substance sample they sent to the forensics?'

'Not yet sir, I wanted to tell you before I do' Ken replied.

'You should send it immediately.' He said and stared at

the paper again. 'It would have been nice if we got this

earlier. With what it states, the a.s.sa.s.sin team in Nigeria

here is related to the one in the United States. They

function with the same instruments and similar

strategies. '

He handed back the paper to Ken, 'let's handle the

meeting with what we have gotten before, we'll come

back to this'

~~~

**Sat.u.r.day Morning**

The meeting with the President went well. All attendees

left there fired up and determined to stop the

a.s.sa.s.sination menace at every cost. The Vice President

had during the meeting warned the security officials to

be careful and always remain optimistic. 'The

a.s.sa.s.sinations have not yet began, they are still doing

their test run' he had said. 'I believe this group have a

more dangerous motive and what they've done so far is a

ploy to weaken the security by making the concerned

bodies give up their hopes of capturing them. Once this

is achieved, they would launch more attacks and aim for

more government officials.'

The vice president also promised to work closely with

them as an experienced officer that he once was and see

to it that every useful knowledge he has would be

provided to them.

Amidst several other things he said, the President, Emeka

Vincent finally ended the meeting encouraging the bodies

to put in more effort and ensure that their purpose was

achieved in two months.

Sylvester had arrived into his office not long ago and

settled down when he received a call from the reception

that someone was waiting to see him.

'But you know I don't see anyone on Monday early

mornings' he answered the caller.

'She insisted that you asked her to come' the secretary

replied in low tones.

'I did?' Sylvester asked, trying to remember if he really

fixed an appointment with someone.

'Yes, that's what she said'

'What's her name?'

'Kimberly Alexander'

'Huh?' Sylvester squinted, trying to remember where he

had seen or heard the name before. He remembered, in

the new CV. Could it be that he had mistakenly sent her

an invite?

'Let her come in' he finally said and ended the call. He

hurriedly logged on to the company's mail to confirm if

he sent her an invite.

His doorbell rang. He minimized the mail window and

opened the app to check the monitor cameras outside

his office. He saw the person at the door, a lady dressed

in black suit carrying a small black bag. 'Come in' he said,

unlocking the door with the remote control on his table.

She opened the door and walked in gently. 'Good

morning sir' she bent her knees slightly after closing the

door.

'Please come in' he repeated and she walked forward

briskly and stood beside the visitor's seat. 'Have your

seat'

'Thank you sir' she sat down and placed the bag on her

lap.

'What may I do for you?'

'Sir' Tarasha began. 'I'm Kimberly Alexander, I read about

the urgent vacancies and I decided to check here'

'I've gotten your mail already, why didn't you wait for a

reply?' Sylvester frowned.

'Sir, since it was announced as an urgent vacancy and I

didn't get a reply immediately. I decided to show in

person in case my mail wasn't delivered.'

'It was delivered, you should have been patient. In fact,

your mail came late' Sylvester intensified his crown. 'And

how come you were referred here directly? Someone

else was supposed to attend to you before sending you to

me' he said with slight anger in his voice. He picked the

landline and began to punch the keys.

'I asked directly for you' she said softly. 'I demanded to

see Mr Sylvester'

'What?' He stopped dialing. 'How did you know my

name?'

'I read about the corporation and I knew you would be

the one to attend to me'

'Well…' His doorbell chimed. Sylvester paused and

checked the computer again to see who was at the door,

Henry was the one. He unlocked the door.

Henry walked in slowly staring into a tab and reading

something. 'Oh! You have a guest' be exclaimed on seeing

the lady seated on the visitor's seat facing Sylvester.

'Yes'

'Okay, let me drop this with you and go' Henry said and

began to step forward slowly.

'You may need to see her, she's the lady who sent in the

last CV' Sylvester explained.