Tarasha - Season 1 - Episode 11

Episode 5 years ago

Tarasha - Season 1 - Episode 11

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***Twenty minutes later, with the receptionist, in
the junior Pharmacist’s office***
‘Do you recall any student that visited Dr.
Hammed last week?’ James began the
questioning section.

‘Student? Dr. Hammed rarely has visitors’ the
receptionist replied, narrowing her eyes, she
struggled to remember those who visited the
past week
‘But a student visitor was with him in his office
last week’ James pressed on. ‘Precisely on
Monday’
‘Yeah! That’s true!’ She exclaimed, remembering
a certain pharmacy student who visited. ‘There
was a Unilag girl who was here to see him last
week’
‘Who’s she? Was that the first time you saw her
here? Do you know what she came for?’
‘No, I saw her for the first time on Thursday the
previous week, she came asking about Dr.
Daniel Umaru and I told her that he doesn’t have
her time’
‘So?’
‘She was making trouble with me when Dr.
Hammed saw us, he then asked her to come
back on Friday to see him’
‘What did she want to see want to see Dr.
Umaru for?’
‘About the conference and I told her to check
our website for more information but she
insisted on seeing the Doctor’
‘Hmmm, the conference’ James glanced at
Segun who nodded; it seemed they were making
progress already. ‘Did you suspect anything
unusual about her?’

‘No, she was just a stubborn University student’
‘Nothing unusual happened when she was here?’

‘No except on Friday when Dr. Hammed slept
off during work hours, that was very unusual of
him’
‘He slept off after meeting with her?’
‘Yes, he slept off after she left his office and…’
she paused, she narrowed her gaze. ‘We had to
remind him about a lot of things when he woke
up’
‘How did you know that he forgot a lot of things’
‘I know’ she sounded confident. ‘For example,
he came to ask if some of our clients which he
was expecting to visit him came that day,
whereas they met him when he came, he even
followed them out to the reception when they
were leaving’
‘You saw him come down with them?’
‘Yes, he came down with them and went back to
his office with Tarasha’ she affirmed. ‘I was
surprised when he came down several hours
time to ask if I had seen any of the clients or if
they had call to inform us that they were not
coming anymore’
‘Interesting’ James nodded slowly, thinking
deeply about all he heard and trying to draw a
conclusion from it.

‘You said she is a student of Unilag, what’s her
name and what course does she study?’
‘She didn’t tell me’ the receptionist lied, not
remembering if the Unilag girl mentioned her
name. ‘But she’s a student of pharmacy’
‘Okay, thank you very much. We’ll get back to
you if we need more information and please,
don’t hesitate to provide us with any you
remember’ James concluded.


**5pm**
Benny grouched within himself as they drove
past the developed areas of Orugbum, he
glanced at the compass application on
Tarasha’s device; they were still on track, now
very close to their new lodge. He wondered
what kind of job they came to do, which
required a desolate place like this to work from.
At five pm, they finally got to the place which
the compass was indicating; it was a large
bushy compound, with a hold rickety house in
the middle. A water well with several green
plants grown on it was at the left side of the
house. They drove in through the widely opened
rusted black gate.
Cole and Aisha also drove into the compound in
a Benz after Benny brought the truck to a halt
at a far distance from the house. The vehicles
couldn’t go close any further because of the
thick bushes that had grown in front of the
house.
Tarasha was the first to jump down from the
truck, she placed her both hands on her waist,
turning round as she surveyed the place with
her eyes. She walked to Cole and Aisha,
demanding that the boot of their car be opened.
Her request was granted immediately, Cole
came out of the car to join her, Benny was also
trudging towards them.
Tarasha brought out three tools bags from
booth, dropping them on the floor. She opened
one which contained machetes and some other
clearing equipments.
‘I believe you know the reason we need this
now’ she said smiling, motioning Cole and Benny
to grab their tools. ‘Make a clear path to the
entrance of the house
Benny and Cole obeyed the order while Tarasha
opened another bag, a bigger one. She brought
out some satellite devices and scattered them
on the floor, carefully selecting the ones she
needed . Aisha came to join her.
‘We’ve got no foodstuffs here, start making a
list of everything we need. Someone would go
to the town with you to get them’ Tarasha said
to Aisha. She picked up another machete and
put some of the devices in an empty bag, then
she proceeded to the various sections of the
compound she had already selected to install
the GPS and network devices, clearing the way
with the machete as she walked.
They all converge where there vehicles were
parked after completing their tasks. All looked
dirty except for Aisha, who as a result lost
confidence to talk them about eating seeing
their condition.
‘We need water ‘ Tarasha stated an obvious
fact.
‘I have only little water here’ Aisha said, she
opened the car and brought out a 100cl bottle
of water
‘We need more’ Cole said sharply after taking a
glance at the bottle.
‘There’s a well over there’ Benny joined, pointing
to the left side where the well was.
‘What do we use to fetch from it?’ Cole
questioned.
‘Let’s check the house’ Benny replied him, ‘we
may be lucky to find something to use’
With that, the group proceeded into the house
except for Cole who went to first inspect the
well.
The entrance door gave way easily to a soft kick
from Tarasha. The sitting room had been taken
over by cobwebs, dusts and several other
impure particles. The black turned grey old
fashioned sofas had already become a habitat
for little flying insects. Red headed lizards,
cockroaches, ants and rats of various sizes
were also seen sprinting in different directions
for safety as the group walked in.
A look of disgust appeared on Benny and
Aisha’s faces while Tarasha remained
indifferent. The chaotic condition of the house
was little compared to several other situations
she had experienced during her training, so it
didn’t mean much to her.
‘The water in the well is so dirty, I don’t think…
‘ Cole was saying as he walked in through the
entrance, he stopped abruptly on noticing the
condition in which the house was. He gave a
prolonged whistle and stood dumbfounded,
forgetting temporarily about the need for water.
‘Huh? What tha hell is wrong?’ Tarasha slammed
glancing at their faces one after the other, she
turned to Aisha. ‘Where’s the list I asked you to
make?’
‘Here is it’ Aisha handed a piece of paper to
her.
After scanning through the list, she spoke out,
‘by now you guys should understand why I
asked us to bring a lot of things you thought
are going to be useless. I’m going to town it
some of the things we need, you guys should
clean up this place for us to sleep tonight’
‘I thought you said I’ll go with someone’ Aisha
cried as Tarasha folded the paper and tucked it
in her pocket.
‘Yea, I changed my mind. I’m going now, you
stay with Cole and Benny and help them clean
this place’ Tarasha smirked, she stretched out
her palm to Cole, demanding for something.
Cole understood and handed her the car keys
before she could voice out her demand, ‘are you
going like this, you look dirty?’
‘I can clean up with the water Aisha has’ she
answered. ‘I’ll get more water for everyone’s
use tonight’
‘Tonight?’ Benny stressed, ‘you’re talking about
tonight only, does that mean we’re leaving here
tomorrow? Won’t we use water for the rest of
our stay here?’
‘We’ll have to dig out a new source of water
tomorrow or better still clean up that old well’
She replied calmly, smiling as she looked at
their faces.
…

**05.12.2030**
‘I don’t remember her name’ Dr. Hammed stated
for the umpteenth time
He was sweating in the air conditioned room
though he was putting on very light clothes, the
endless sessions of interrogation which started
on Saturday had begun to wear him out.
At first, it was the EFCC who started questioning
him on Saturday, their lists of questions never
seemed to end. Several of the officials would
come asking questions, most which he didn’t
have answers to, they would leave after they had
threatened him and didn’t get results, only for a
superior to to show up in a space of two to three
hours with another set of questions when he
thought the session had ended.
He had already sworn to return all the monies he
had stolen and kept in both foreign and Nigerian
banks after the officials at the EFCC cracked
him, so that his judgment in the court would be
tendered with mercy. He now wondered why the
police were after him again, he returned to his
house from the EFCC’s headquarters only to be
welcomed by a letter from the police criminal
investigation department inviting him for another
session of interrogation.
‘We heard that you had an unusual experience on
Friday after the Unilag girl visited’ An Inspector
whose name he found out to be James asked,
another dark skinned inspector was standing
close to him.
‘I didn’t have any unusual experience’ the man
countered.
‘But you slept off during working hours’ James
focused his eyes on him and smiled mockingly.
‘Or is that how you sleep off lazily at work?’
James pushed a button with his statement and it
was visible on Dr. Hammed’s face, he wished he
could land a heavy punch on James’ face but his
situation would only worsen if he acted stupidly.
‘Sorry sir’ James apologized calmly, ‘but we only
want to help you, if you just tell us the truth , it
would make our investigations easier and we
would stop disturbing you’
‘I slept off truly’ Dr Hammed finally gave in. ‘I
think I took something poisonous that day’
‘Did you found out what it was you took?’
‘No, I didn’t have the time. I’ve been very busy’
‘But was sleep the only effect it had on you?’
‘No’ the doctor stuttered for a while. ‘It came
with loss of memory, I didn’t remember some of
the things I did before I slept off’
‘Like two hours before you slept?’
‘Yes’ the doctor glanced at his face suddenly.
‘How did you know the duration of time?’
‘Calm down sir’ James said and stood from the
table he was sitting on. ‘Some of our men had a
similar experience like that recently. For how
long did you sleep that day?’
‘I don’t really remember, but I slept until
someone woke me when it was almost closing
hours’ He paused, licked his lips and continued.
‘But my eyes were still very heavy when I got
home that day, I slept off without even taking
dinner till morning the next day’
‘Hmm, maybe you were poisoned with the same
substance as our men’ James stated, he
returned to his former position on the table.
‘They slept from evening till early the next
morning when they were found’
‘Incredible! Someone must have played far on
me’ the doctor exclaimed, covering his lips with
his two hands.
‘You said you slept off after she visited?’ James
pushed further immediately, taking advantage of
the man’s new mood.
‘I don’t know when she visited, but everyone said
I didn’t come out of the office for several hours
after I went in with her’
‘You see, you need to remember her name so
that we can trace her, she might just be a very
dangerous criminal’ James emphasized.
Dr Hammed remained silent for some minutes, he
cracked his brain furiously for answers. ‘I saw
her name on a notepad she left in my office on
Thursday, I don’t really remember but I know her
first name was not a Nigerian native name’
‘Try harder sir, you can remember’
‘ I’m trying, I don’t just know what happened to
me. Since then I’ve been forgetting things very
quickly’
‘Well, our only hope for now is her name’
The doctor scratched his head, looking at James’
face, a feeling of regret suddenly took over him.
He regretted the day he submitted his application
to Derl Pharmacy, the day he was promoted and
started to work closely with Dr Daniel Umaru and
the day he succumbed to doing dubious deals
with Dr Umaru.
Now, he was going to loose all he had gathered
all his life, both the ones gotten legally and
illegally. The case had prompted EFCC to
investigate deeper and they dug out several
other dubious deals that Dr Umaru had done,
including his name in the ones he didn’t even
know about. There was no way out for him, the
only thing he could get was a very short prison
sentence and that was why he decided to give
up all his assets.
‘Her name is Samantha Osman, she’s a 300Level
pharmacy student of the University of Lagos’ Dr.
Hammed recited suddenly, his face glowed as he
spoke.
‘Samantha Osman, 300Level pharmacy student of
Unilag’ James repeated, scribbling it into his
notepad.
‘Yes, that’s it’ Dr Hammed affirmed.
‘Good’ James smiled as he glanced at the details
written down once again. ‘Do you also remember
now if you saw her do anything suspicious when
she went into the conference room with you?’
‘No, I didn’t see her do anything there. She only
helped me move something from my office into
the room’
‘Alright, I think it’s okay for now’ James got up
from the table again. ‘Thank you for your
cooperation, we’ll get back to you if we need any
other help from you’


**07.11.2030**
*5.30am*
Cole’s mouth was left agape as he watched
Tarasha silently from the window exercising her
body, he was counting the number of pushups
she was doing and she just got to two hundred
without struggling or showing any sign of
tiredness.
He couldn’t hold it anymore, he closed the
curtains and rushed outside to join her. She was
already dusting off herself when he got outside.
He was so disappointed as he hoping to see
more action from her when he got outside.
‘Good morning Cole’ she greeted first, ‘how are
you?’
‘Good morning Boss, I’m fine’ he replied, with a
note of disappointment still hidden in his voice.
‘Why did you stay there peeping for so long
instead of coming to join me?’ Cole was taken
aback by the questioned.
‘How did you know I was peeping?’ He asked.
‘I saw you’ she replied smiling, ‘even if I didn’t
see you, I feel it when a pair of eyes watches
me’
‘Wow! But you didn’t towards the window side at
all?’ He was confused.
‘I didn’t have to look there with my physical
eyes, every part of me including the physical and
non physical pays attention to the environment’
Cole shook his head, he tried to assimilate what
she said but ended up greatly mystified. He
wondered what it would be like if Tarasha comes
against him, he’ll definitely be hopeless and
helpless. Tarasha’s fear increased in his heart
rapidly.
‘I noticed you’re the one who wakes up very
early amongst the three of you’ she disrupted his
thoughts.
‘Yes, I wake up most times before Benny and
Aisha does’ he responded.
‘That’s good’ she said and began walking
towards the well, Cole walked with her. She
suddenly turned and faced him. ‘You have to
learn very well from this operation henceforth’
He stared at her face, the look on her face
sought more explanation to what she started.
‘I have an assignment for you’ she continued,
‘You have to complete the first operation we did’
‘The first operation? Didn’t we finish off the
minister already?’ He asked, puzzled.
‘Yes, we finished off the minister but did not
eliminate every trace’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Listen carefully’ she said sternly, ‘we left some
traces that would be used to find us in the
minister’s operation and it is possible that we
are discovered sooner or later’
‘What? Why? How?’ His heartbeat increased
‘Calm down Cole’ she said and took three steps
further before going on with the discussion. ‘If
anyone is going to trace that murder
successfully, it must be a very competent officer’
‘But…’
‘Shh…’ She hushed, a smile gradually appeared
on her face. ‘Don’t be scared Cole, it’s only a
game, my favorite game and I’m sure you’ll enjoy
it too’
‘How? I don’t understand’
‘Its a game between myself and the police’ she
said and then gave a wicked smile. ‘You, Cole
will be my avatar for this first round’
‘Boss, you’re only confusing further’ Cole was
beginning to get frustrated.
‘I want to weaken the security system in the
state’ She walked further to the well and picked
up the fetching bucket. ‘The trace is only going
to lead a competent officer and his team to our
trap and you will single handedly handle them
when they come. Ot would be done in a way that
would pount directly to you’
‘I’m still confused’ he said.
‘Don’t worry, you’ll understand later’ she said,
drawing out water from the well. ‘Go in and wake
the others, it’s time to reveal or mission here to
you guys’
Cole’s mind was greatly troubled as he walked
away slowly into the house, he tried to figure out
what she meant. She mentioned that he was her
avatar in the game, that might possibly mean
that she was playing games with him and his life
was in danger.
She also said that she didn’t eliminate all traces
in the last operation so that the police could
trace them and she’d set him up to face the
police. That was something he had never done
before, he never singlehandedly handled a police
team before, he was only good at escaping when
the police pursued a group of them and not when
he was the only one being pursued.
How on earth was he even going to escape if a
team of ten to twenty officers were sent to him?
He wasn’t even supposed to escape, the purpose
of the game was to weaken the police force,
that means he had to defeat the team.
The thought alone sent shivers down his spine
and he quickly uttered a prayer that moment.
‘Lord, if it is your will, let this cup pass over me’.
But he wasn’t Christ neither did he follow Christ,
so God would not answer his prayer. He resolved
in his mind to run away if she insisted on setting
him up with the police.
**
Tarasha walked in after ten minutes to meet
Cole, Benny and Aisha already waiting for her in
the sitting room.
‘Good morning Boss’ Benny and Aisha greeted.
‘Good morning’ she answered and took suitable
seat which faced three of them. ‘I hope you guys
are ready for today’s job’
‘Today’s job?’ Aisha spoke lazily, yawning. ‘I
thought we did everything already. We cleaned
the house, cleared the bushes and …’
‘Shut up’ Tarasha scowled angrily, making the
jovial girl shocked. ‘Are you crazy? Do you think
that’s all we came here to do?’
‘I’m sorry ma’ Aisha replied in low tones, greatly
terrified. She wondered what went wrong and
why Tarasha who was friendly with them the day
before had suddenly become cold.
Tarasha got up swiftly, her frown changed into a
smile surprising her audience more.
‘Are you scared?’ She asked laughin loudly,
mocking Aisha who was shaky already. ‘I’m not
angry, I was only teaching you something, learn
to switch your mood as it pleases you, don’t let
your feelings control you. So it’s time to switch
to the work mode’
Aisha heaved a sigh of relief, her rapidly
increased heartbeat speed returned to normal.
The two guys just watched in awe, wishing they
could switch modes like that too.
‘We’ll start real work today’ Tarasha interrupted
their thoughts. ‘We must drop our target, Kelechi
Edwin before the end of the month’
Realization hit them as she walked away,
Tarasha had brought them on a suicide mission.
Killing the governor of Rivers State in office, with
the quality of security surrounding him was an
impossible mission.