stood at ease and narrowed his gaze at her, twitching his

lips. She could see the gun curves showing at the pocket

side of his trousers.

At first she was sure that he was a policeman until he

mentioned her name. Then she became uncertain, she

wasn't expecting the police to have made so much

progress in investigating her.

'Tarasha,' Don called and took a step forward. She took

two steps backward without responding to his call.

Don paused to reason for a moment. The door behind

her was opened, so it would be easy for her to get out

and he didn't want that to happen. 'Tarasha, can we talk?'

He called again.

Tarasha bit her lips now and stared straight into his eyes.

Now she knew he wasn't a policeman because no other

person knew her name except for her employees and

Chief Gab, and maybe some of Chief Gab's a.s.sociates

who he might have spoken to about her. Was he one of

Chief Gab's a.s.sociates? She asked herself. Or could he be

Don? Henry, Aisha and Cole's former Boss. That was the

other person who could know her name, due to his past

relations.h.i.+p with Aisha. She shook her almost invisibly,

unsure of what conclusion to make about him. She kept

a straight face.

Don too was unsure of what to conclude. Was this

Tarasha or someone else? The girl he was seeing looks so

young and harmless to him. Her face even looks innocent

and naive. Or maybe she was Alexandra Evelyn who he

found out from the police case report could be the

girlfriend of Henry. To make matters worse, she was not

even replying or making any facial response. If she was

Tarasha, there was a way he expected her face to

respond when he called her name but if she wasn't

Tarasha, then she was supposed to be expressing fear

which she wasn't. But she was a trained a.s.sa.s.sin like

himself, his brain didn't tell him that she could know all

the tricks too.

'Tarasha, let's talk.' Don tried his luck again.

'Who are you?' She finally spoke.

'I'm a friend,' he replied, still uncertain if she was Tarasha

or not. 'I won't hurt you, I promise.' He raised his two

hands up to emphasize.

'What do you want here?' She asked, unmoved.

'I've been looking for you,' Don stated.

For the first time, Tarasha made a facial response as a

thought struck her mind. Was it possible that some of

her employees have betrayed her and given her out to

the police? Or Chief Gab had released informations

which he wasn't supposed to have.

Don stood still, hoping she would take his offer to discuss

with her. He saw her made a frown when he said he's

been looking for her and he got some information from

that. He was about to make a conclusion when Tarasha's

voice sounded again, dismissing his information as false.

'You don't know me, why are you looking for me?' She

asked, intelligently confusing Don. Only criminals would

not ask a question when someone states that he was

looking for them, because they always expected the

police to be in search of them. But now that she feigned

surprise, he would think of her as someone innocent. But

that would only work if he was unsure of who she was,

and luckily for Tarasha, he really was.

'Are you Tarasha?' He foolishly asked.

'Don, the police are here' another guy appeared at Don's

back.

'Oops!' Don exclaimed, taking a quick glance at the back.

~~

'Sir, I don't think we should go in now till we have our

men here.' Ken suggested, taking out his phone.

'Just call and ask for reinforcement now,' Dakolo shouted

his order.

Ken quickly complied with the order while Dakolo waited

in front of the gate to get his response. He peeped

through the small s.p.a.ce by the wall to check if what the

junior officer said was true.

'They're coming sir,' Ken reported.

'Okay, get the bluetooth communication devices out of

the car for both of us.' Dakolo instructed.

Ken turned back into the car and brought out the devices

hurriedly. Dakolo had already come closer to the car. The

both of them fixed the devices to their belts and ears.

'You stay and wait for the boys while I go inside,' Dakolo

began, 'you should storm the the place with some others

if you hear no word from me in five minutes.'

~~~

Tarasha had no reason to wait anymore, she now knew

that these men went officers. She fled through the

opened door and was up on the fence in ten seconds.

Don and his man followed outside, they saw her roll over

to the other side.

'Are you sure it was the police?' Don turned back and

asked impatiently, forgetting temporarily about Tarasha.

He now needed no prophet to tell him that he was

discussing with Tarasha, a usual girl couldn't jump over

the fence as easily as she just did, even he wouldn't do it

as swift as that.

He felt stupid for being deceived by her looks. Was he

even expecting anyone else? But what if he wasn't

deceived, maybe he wouldn't have been able to do

anything. It is easier said or thought than executed. A

strange kind of fear flashed through his heart at the

thought of having being engaged in a fight or gun duel

with her.

He didn't come prepared to fight or kill her, he had only

come to gather information that would lead him to her.

He was hundred percent sure that she wasn't a poor

specimen and it wouldn't have been easy to take her out,

he remembered stories of his strong men whom she had

previously dealt with singlehandedly. But there was

another problem at hand now.

'Yes, it was the police. We heard some sounds at the

gate.'

'Did you see them?'

'I saw one, I left the living room immediately after you

left and I was at the extensions when I heard the gate

creak, I quickly opened the curtain and peeped out

through the window and I saw an officer sneaking back

outside.' Stainless explained

'D--n! We must get out of here.'

'Yes, but not through that gate. The officers are there.'

'We'll take the same place Tarasha took,' Don said, staring

at the spot corner of the fence.

'Tara…?' Stainless frowned his face.

'Sorry… Samantha Osman,' Don corrected.

'Samantha Osman?' Stainless widened his eyes in horror.

'C'mon, call the other guy and let's get out of this place

now.'

'What about my two other boys?'

'You'll call them later,' Don said and stepped down from

the house to the interlocked floor.

~~~

Dakolo finally got close to the entrance door which was

broken. He hid his back by the wall and peeped in, the

bulbs that turned off by the police the last time were now

on and that was another sign that someone or some

people were in the house presently. He entered into the

first extension but nothing was there. He proceeded into

the living room. He could hear running footsteps and

voices inside the house. He followed after the sound and

pa.s.sed through the corridor of the inner rooms to the

backyard, he saw a man trying to roll over to the other

side of the fence. He quickly pointed his gun and quickly

took a shot, it entered into the man's leg but he still

managed to roll over to the other side.

Dakolo quickly followed, he jumped on the fence and

peeped into the compound. He could see a man running

out through the gate, another one following behind while

the one he just shot was hopping after them in pains. He

dropped off the fence and tucked his pistol into his

pocket, he also ensured that all devices on his body were

perfectly fixed. He took some steps backwards and ran

towards the fence. He climbed and quickly rolled over.

He took out his bluetooth device immediately he landed

and connected with Ken.

'Are the guys there now?' He asked hurriedly.

'Yes, they just arrived. I'm coming into the house now.'

'No need to come into the house anymore,' Dakolo said,

bringing out his gun as he followed after the injured guy

trying to escape. 'Get some men with you and hurry to

the street behind. The men in the house are already

escaping through the paper company here.'

'Right away sir.'

'Make sure you remain connected.' Dakolo took some

more shots at the hopping man, but none met the target.

He took a brief pause on seeing the security men lying on

the floor. He squatted and removed the pin from the

neck of the first one, the man coughed immediately and

drifted back to consciousness.

'Don't go anywhere,' Dakolo commanded before getting

up to continue following after the criminal. The man was

already out of the gate before Dakolo got there but he

had not gone far enough, his bad leg couldn't carry him

fast.

'Halt or I shoot?' Dakolo shouted his threat to the man.

The man seemed not to listen but kept hopping around

and was trying to cross the road.

Dakolo stopped and carefully aimed at the same leg, he

knew that the man couldn't go too far but he didn't want

the stress that the man could put him through if he

mixes with people pa.s.sing by. If the man had a gun, it

was also possible that he could grab a pa.s.serby and hurt

the person or decide to use the victim as an hostage. He

took one shot and the man crashed to the ground.

Dakolo looked around him before he proceeded to meet

the fallen body. Pedestrians and motorists were already

fixing their attention on the scene.

'Did you see anybody else run this way?' Dakolo asked a

pa.s.sing pedestrian.

'Yes,' the man answered. 'I saw two guys, they were

running that way.' The man pointed to the direction

where they took, that was the way to the roundabout.

'Thank you,' Dakolo felt like going after them but he knew

it would be fruitless, he couldn't pursue two men at

once. It was better he focused on the one at hand.

He squatted beside the shot man and searched his body,

he took out the gun and knife from his pockets and kept

it on the ground. Then he connected to Ken again.

'D--n it! Where are you guys?' He shouted.

'At the roundabout sir, there's a little bit of traffic.'

'What the h.e.l.l are you talking about? Come on, clear the

road and get here in the next five seconds.' Dakolo

ordered before disconnecting. He never liked to disobey

traffic rules but when it ges to cases like this, he had to

take extreme measures. Clearing the road would require

them to order all other motorists to halt even if the

traffic sign or official was commanding them to go.

Dakolo returned his gun into his pocket and got up, he

glanced around. He could see people staring towards him

from every direction and the motorists also taking some

seconds to observe him and the lying body. He took a

glance at the body, the man was losing a lot of blood and

could die if he wasn't taken to the hospital soon.

Ken and five other officers arrived in a police van one

minute later.

'This man needs to be rushed to the hospital,' Dakolo said

after the officers had jumped out of the van. Two officers

rushed to the injured man and carried him into the van.

Dakolo commanded them to drive to the hospital

immediately while he was left alone with two other

officers and Ken.

'Two other guys got away,' Dakolo said to Ken, finally

keeping his gun back into the pocket. 'What instructions

did you give to the officers manning the gate?'

~~~

Tarasha could hear the sound of the gun shot twice from

where she was in a traffic jam. She also saw the police

van that pa.s.sed, commanding every other vehicle

including hers to halt while they pa.s.sed. All the while, she

was boiling with rage. She wished she could see Henry

and strangle life out of him that moment. He was the

cause for all these. He was the one that returned her

emotions into her life. Now because of that, she had

already began to make several mistakes that could cause

bigger problems.

The road was finally cleaed and she heaved a deep sigh of

relief as she drove off. She tried to get the recent

encounter off her mind. Who ever was the man who

called her by her name and the reason he wanted to

speak with her, she would solve that later.

She still had one more mission that night, her team had a

special dinner with the Senate President in his house that

night and she was going to attend, as the fourth person in

the team who had gone to Lagos for inspection but has

now returned. Cole had also hinted her that the man had

offered for them to stay over in his house that night. A

phone call disrupted her thoughts.

'Mr Sylvester,' she said after answering.

'h.e.l.lo Kimberly, I'm sorry I've not called you since

morning.' Sylvester's fatigued voice sounded. 'I've been

busy running around about Mr Henry's case.'

'It's okay sir, I understand.' Kimberly replied pleasantly.

'How is your mum now?'

'Ermm…' She stammered for a moment, temporarily

forgetting that her excuse for not being at work was her

mother's illness.

'Is she better now?' Sylvester added.

'Yes,' she finally remembered.

'Do extend my greetings to her and tell me if there's any

way I can be of help.' Sylvester offered.

'Thank you so much sir, I appreciate.'

'It's okay, you can take tomorrow off also.'

'Oh! Thanks sir.'

'Goodnight.'

'Goodnight sir.' The call ended.

She returned back to her thoughts. She was sure that the

Senate President's life would be easier to take, now that

there were lots of distractions and investigations for the

police to handle, they wouldn't expect the strike. Tarasha

and her team had close to twelve hours to carry out the

planning and execution. They were to get to his house for

the dinner by eight pm and would leave before or by

eight a.m the next morning.

What she only needed to do now was to find a nurse to

take care of her brother, Jeffery.