Tarasha - Season 1 - Episode 17

Episode 5 years ago

Tarasha - Season 1 - Episode 17

☆☆

Benny was jerked off with a knock on the door to
his hotel room. He quickly rushed to the mirror
to check if his disguise was still in order, the
knock sounded again.
‘Come.. in.. ‘ he answered, forming a weak voice.
The door was opened before he could finish
talking; three police officers barged into the
room.
‘Good afternoon sir’ one of the police officers
greeted politely on seeing the old man.
‘Good morning’ the old man corrected.
‘Sir, didn’t you hear the alarm that was sounded
some time ago?’ The officer went straight to his
point. ‘Everyone was asked to come out of their
rooms, there’s a criminal lurking around’
‘I heard it, but what could I do?’ The man replied
in a pitiful voice, he took a glance at the other
officer who was searching the room. ‘I came out
and tried to use the elevator but it was locked, I
had to come back into my room. I can’t use the
stairs because of my bad leg…’
‘There’s nothing here ‘ the officer searching
around interrupted.


It’s okay sir, you’ll be allowed to go downstairs
soon but in the meantime, don’t hesitate to raise
alarm if you find anything strange’ the officer
concluded and they walked out of the room in a
hurry.


Officer Dakolo and the rest of his team in the
control room fixed their gazes on the screen as
the surveillance tapes were played. The first
tape played showed the back view of the young
man walking to the elevator and then another
one was played that showed the front view, the
video was zoomed and a screen shot of the
man’s face was taken. Another one was played
and it displayed the criminal in the elevator, the
viewers were watching intently, then the criminal
faced the camera and pointed a gun straight at
it. The bullet was released and the streaming
stopped immediately..


‘D--n!’ Dakolo cursed under his breath, he
turned to the manager. ‘He was headed for floor
3 right?’
‘Yes he was’ the manager replied.
‘Let’s see more of the tapes’ Dakolo demanded.

Several other clips were played but there was
none that showed the same young man leaving
the elevator or entering any room.

‘Where have you been Lovina? Everybody has
been waiting for you’ Aisha said as she
approached Lovina who gave her a confused
look.

‘I had some problems’ Lovina replied hesitatingly,
trying to answer the stranger politely.
‘Its best you go change immediately, it’s only
five minutes to the flight’ Aisha advised, glancing
at her wristwatch.
‘Oh! That’s true’ Lovina confirmed from her
wristwatch.
‘Your uniform is there’ Aisha pointed to a
different changing room, in an attempt to
mislead her but Lovina surged forward, half
running and walking towards three girls who were
her coursemates. Cole and Aisha hid behind a
wall to listen to them.
‘Where have you been?’ One of the girls scolded
her as she ran towards them, the police officers
followed slowly, one of them looked back for
signs of Cole and Aisha. The girl turned to the
other two girls who were looking shocked, their
arms were folded. ‘I told you that girl wasn’t
Lovina’
‘But who was she? ‘ another girl with a roughly
bleached skin spoke, looking stunned. ‘Their
backview and hair are the same’
‘I don’t know’ the black third girl joined. ‘I only
suspected that something was amiss when she
didn’t turn back to greet us when we called her
name’
‘Even Jude was not looking well, he couldn’t
respond to us’ the first girl added again.
‘Has the plane taken off?’ Lovina asked, she
sounded frustrated.


‘No, but they were about to when we left there’
‘I have to go and stop them now, that imposter
would be in serious trouble’ Lovina said and she
raced towards the pilots’ lounge where Jude and
Gloria went into the runway from.
‘Stay back’ Lovina shouted at the police officers
who stood at the entrance, some other students
and lecturers who had seen Lovina also came
closer.
Lovina pushed opened the slightly opened door
and entered the room where Jude and Gloria had
their last discussion. The door was jammed by
the last of the three friends who came in.
‘D--n!’ Lovina cursed on seeing the plane
through the transparent glass wall. It was
already moving . She proceeded towards the
other exit that led to the runway and struggled to
open the door but her struggle was fruitless, it
seemed the door had been locked from outside,
one of her friends joined her in the struggle while
the two others tried to open the door they came
in through. It couldn’t open also, they had been
trapped.

‘What are we going to do now?’ Cole looked
frustrated, looking to Aisha for answers. ‘The
plan B has failed’
‘I don’t know, I think we should just get out of
here immediately’ Aisha replied, she looked
around and saw several eyes staring at them
already. ‘Let’s leave here before we get into
trouble too’
Aisha began walking furiously out of the school’s
airdrome and Cole joined her hesitatingly. ‘We
can’t leave the boss here, she might need us to
escape’
‘Can’t you see that people around are suspecting
us already?’ She asked, increasing her pace. ‘We
might not be able to escape ourselves if we stay
here any longer’
‘The car is here’ Cole pointed to a black car
parked alongside with other cars outside the
airdrome.


Tarasha wristwatch beeped as she piloted the
plane alongside Jude, she knew at once that
someone had entered the room but she was
indifferent about the situation, everything was in
control already, Lovina’s uniform had even been
infected with dangerous substances by Tarasha
and would cause severe itching to anyone who
wore it.
She didn’t infect only Lovina’s uniform but
several others that she found hung in the
dressing room. This was done to stop anyone
who tried to substitute Lovina and even Lovina
herself in case Benny failed.

‘That Tarasha is just too full of herself’ Aishat
commented bitterly as they drove out of the
aviation school. ‘Why didn’t she let us do the
planning together?’
‘She’s a professional Aisha’ Cole said
thoughtfully, ‘I believe she has other plans’
‘Professional my foot’ she stamped her fingers, ‘a
professional that’ll soon be caught as an
imposter’
‘She won’t be caught’ Cole spoke confidently as
he drove, he paused and waited for the right time
before turning into the road. ‘I believe in her’
Aisha bent to look into his eyes as if to ask if he
is mentally stable, ‘just don’t drive to Orogbum,
we need to stay somewhere else and plan on
leaving this state immediately’
‘Oh!’ Cole exclaimed as he remembered
something, he turned to look at the back seat.
‘Please bring that phone for me’ he said to
Aisha.
‘What?’ She gave an inquisitive look as she
handed the phone to him.
He ignored her question and placed the phone on
his lap, using his left hand to swipe through. He
opened a GPS application and waited for it to
load. After successfully loading, it displayed a
map and a revolving sphere appeared, under it
was written “searching for target 0%”.
‘What are you doing?’ Aisha asked again.
‘Wait!’ He hushed her.
‘Just don’t drive to Orogbum, I can’t picture
myself sleeping in the police cell’ she folded her
arms in a stubborn manner.
Cole smiled as he glanced at the phone’s screen
again, ‘it displayed “searching completed, one
target found” and a red blinking dot appeared on
the map.
‘What?’ Aisha was getting angry as she couldn’t
figure out the reason he was smiling happily.
‘The plane is moving already’ he answered
happily, ‘we’ll pick her up at Onne’
‘Huh?’ She asked with a doubtful tone
‘You heard me right’ he increased his speed
rapidly and zoomed past slow driving cars before
him.

Jude watched in awe as Gloria controlled
everything perfectly. Right from the takeoff time,
he had been expecting her to look confused and
watch him fly the plane but the reverse was the
case, she flew the plane while he watched. He
wanted to ask her questions but his mouth only
opened and closed, no words could come out of
it.
He was full of regrets for being so careless and
unsuspecting of Gloria. He remembered the day
they chatted in the lecture room, he had found
several of the year one students having practical
on the runway after he left her to meet with
John Obiano. He wondered why she wasn’t
involved in the practical but he dismissed the
thought of her being an unserious student, he
concluded that the lecturer must have divided
the students into batches for the practical and
that it wasn’t her batch’s turn.
‘Who are you?’ He asked in low tones, finally
finding his voice.
‘Take control Jude, I’m going to ease myself’ she
ignored his question, getting ready to stand up.
Jude glanced at the time, they had spent only
ten minutes on air. He looked back at her to ask
another question, but the look on her face had
changed, her entire look had changed. The
Gloria whose face once radiated the spirit of
friendship and peace now radiated evil. The
colour of her skin was also changing, it was then
Jude fully realized that he didn’t know who he
was dealing with.
‘Ok’ he said fidgeting all over, scared to look
back at her face.
She walked slowly out of the cockpit, a blow
knocked out the first air attendant who came
forward from the cabin. The noise attracted the
other attendant and she appeared to find her
colleague lying on the floor. She looked up at the
pilot that was supposed to be Lovina but No, the
Lady in the pilot’s uniform looked like the devil’s
incarnate. The disguise makeup on Gloria’s face
was already fading, that made her face and
hands show two different colours; one of the
real Tarasha and the other Gloria.
The air second hostess was silenced too but
after letting out a slight scream. Tarasha saw
the hostesses’ kits bag and checked to confirm if
her parachute was there.
…