Tarasha - Season 5 - Episode 32

Episode 4 years ago

Tarasha - Season 5 - Episode 32

‘Our current strategy is failing,’ she began, not looking at anyone in particular. Cole reduced the volume of the television to hear her well. ‘Chief Nonso Abel has been captured by the Vice President and they’re threatening us to drop all allegations we have against him. We have to change our strategy; the new plan is to kill anyone at the slightest opportunity we have.’
‘No Tara, we can’t go that way,’ Henry protested as he got up from his seat. His tone and voice made the protest sound rather like a gentle plea. All eyes turned to him while he fixed his gaze on Tara’s face. ‘Please don’t let them influence us, we should not be turned to murderers because of what they do, please. Remember, we’re fighting to take the darkness away, we should not fight darkness with darkness.’
Tarasha eyes locked with his for a moment. She could make sense from his words and could see in the sincerity and passion in his eyes but she decided to be unmoved. She took her gaze off his face and glanced at the other guys, ‘We might need to spend some days out of this city, to plan, re-strategize properly and also train.’ She paused as her eyes met with Henry’s again. ‘I’m considering taking off the allegation for Chief Nonso’s safety but if we do, it would make the world believe more that we carried out the robbery operations.’ She paused again and looked at each one’s faces one after the other. ‘From this moment, no calls should be made or received in this building, no chats or messages should be replied to, until we move out. And start packing your bags right away, we should leave here first thing tomorrow morning. Henry would help the doctor with his bags and Cole, you see me in the computer room in the next seven minutes.’ She concluded and walked away from the living room, leaving everyone speechless and baffled.


She got into the computer room and quickly turned on the laptop she was using as the server in the base. She heard the door open while waiting for the computer features to load, she could smell Henry’s perfume as he walked closer to her.

‘Don’t try to change my mind, I won’t listen to you,’ she said in a strong tone.
Henry halted and stared at her thinly for a while. He shook his head and proceeded forward, still wanting to try his best to convince her. He pulled a chair close to her and sat.

‘Before I try to change your mind, I think I should tell you that the abduction of Chief Nonso is on the news already and the police have credited it again to Samantha Osman, they claimed she kidnapped Chief Nonso just like she did to the last two men who were killed.’ Henry said to her.

‘I’m not surprised about that, I was expecting them to.’
‘Listen to me Tara, there are better ways we can handle this issue that’ll be more productive than killing people.’
She heaved a sigh of tiredness and tilted her head backwards with her eyes closed.
‘I have an idea…’


She cut him short by raising her hand and facing her backpalm to him. ‘I’m not about to listen to you Henry, please don’t discuss this with me anymore.’

‘But we can…’
‘Shut the **** up Henry,’ she slammed and pulled out a gun. She pointed it to his chest.

He shifted back in fear and put his two hands in the air.

‘It’s either you listen to me and follow my instructions from this moment or you quit,’ she said to him in a strong tone. ‘Get the **** out of this place,’ she ordered, pointing the gun to the door. Henry got up slowly and proceeded out of the room. Two minutes later, Cole came into the room.

‘Cole, who did you tell about Chief Nonso?’ she asked as he walked towards her.
Cole stopped in shock, wondering why she was asking him such a question.
‘Boss, nobody heard anything about Chief Nonso from me. Besides, I barely know the man.’


‘Prior to this time, you’re the only one who knows about Chief Nonso’s association with us, Tomi might have only heard me mention Chief Gab a few times and even Henry knows nothing about Chief Nonso.’
‘Boss, do you think I told someone of his association with us?’ Cole asked in a calm tone with his eyebrows raised. He felt bad and disappointed that she could think he would sell them out.

Tarasha stared into his eyes for a few seconds, she could see the disappointment in it. She had doubted that it could be from him but still had to ask to give no room for errors. ‘We need to find how Chief Nonso was captured, how and when they found out he’s connected to us and if they also know about Chief Gabriel.’

‘How do we do that?’
‘First, you get all today’s NSCC records for the area where he was kidnapped from and let’s see the manner at which the kidnap was carried out.’

Cole hurried to another seat immediately and opened up a laptop to begin work.
After fifteen minutes of total silence, Tarasha received a call from Chief Gab.
‘Hello Chief,’ she answered the call with a calm tone.

‘Tarasha, I just heard you kidnapped Chief Nonso,’ Chief Gab stated from the other end, in a rather accusing manner.
‘No, I didn’t, Chief Elvis’ men did,’ she replied.

There was a sudden gasp from the other end and a silence of almost ten seconds. ‘Are you kidding me Tara, Chief Elvis took Chief Nonso?’

‘Yes, he did. I’m thinking they could have found out he was associated to us through the previous building where we were attacked.’

‘But Tara, you said you were going to do something about it.’
‘It appears they had the owner’s name before attacking us, I should have removed the name earlier before moving there if you hadn’t said the house was still needed.’
‘So what do we do now?’ Chief Gab asked in scared shaky voice.

‘I’ll get back to you Chief, everything would be over soon.’ She replied in a confident tone.

It took her five minutes more after the call to confirm that the removal of Chief Nonso’s name from the Ministry’s portal which she had done before was indeed successful. Then she was sure that Rex and his gang must have known the owner before coming to attack them. She knew things had gone complicated and it could get more difficult, especially if Chief Nonso was the lily-livered type. She remembered speaking with him on phone that night, she had implored him that even after she must have removed his name from the Ministry’s portal that night, he could still be questioned by the police or any other security group and therefore should deny having anything to do with the building or with her.


‘Are you making any progress yet?’ she asked Cole as she got up from her seat.
‘Yes, the footages should be ready in ten minutes time.’ Cole answered.
Tarasha walked out of the computer room and proceeded to Dr Ekwueme’s room. She knocked on the door and waited till the man asked her to come in.

‘Good evening Doctor,’ she greeted after closing the door, rubbing both palms together.
‘Good evening Samantha,’ the doctor replied. He was seating close to the headboard in the bed and staring at her in confusion, wondering what she was doing in the room. It was her first time of entering the place and their first time of seeing that day.
‘Hope you rested well today,’ she said and he nodded in response. ‘Okay, I’m going out tonight and I want you to come with me.’
‘I would, I don’t have a choice anyway.’ The man shrugged.


‘We might be working overnight; I do hope you still have enough strength for that.’
‘I can work all night, as far as you don’t give me heavy loads to carry.’ The doctor replied in a cheerful tone.
‘Good! We’d be leaving in the next forty five minutes, prepare’ she said and turned back to proceed out of the room.
_______

LAGOS
‘Do you have any idea how those guys got into the house?’ Dave asked Stephanie as they both stepped into the elevator.
Both of them were properly now washed, the makeup on their faces had been cleaned off and their hairstyles returned to normal. They’d just finished having dinner in the hotel hall and were returning back to their rooms.
‘No, I don’t know how they came in. All I saw was a gun pointed to my head.’ she replied.

Two other people joined them in the elevator, so they had to pause their discussion until they got off to their floor.
‘And what made him hit you on your face?’
‘I think I turned after he asked me not to look back,’ she replied.
Dave stared at the black spot on her face for a while and shook his head angrily. He wished he could see the guy at that moment and punch his face hard in return.

They were lodged in separate rooms but the doors just beside each other. The length of wall separating their door was less than half a metre.
Stephanie stopped in front of her door and Dave stopped in front of his. They turned and stared into each other’s eyes for a minute which seemed like forever.
Stephanie was the first to look away and she immediately began to search her bag for the key.


‘We need to talk tonight,’ Dave said to her.
‘Do we really need to?’ Stephanie asked with a frown. ‘I’m feeling quite and I need to rest.’

‘I know you’re tired and I’m sorry for making you pass through all you did today but we still have to talk before morning tomorrow. Would you prefer I wake you up by two a.m. ?’

‘Two o’clock?’ Stephanie widened her eyes in surprise.
‘Yes, it’s important we discuss before morning.’

‘I’ll call you when I’m done having my bath tonight,’ she said as she unlocked the door with the key.
Forty Minutes Later
In Stephanie’s room. She had changed into a short sleeping gown while Dave was just on a white singlet and black trousers. He sat on the long sofa in the room with a laptop on his right lap while she sat conveniently in the bed close to the edge with her back leaning against the headboard of the bed.
‘We have to leave this hotel as early as five o’clock tomorrow, ‘ Dave said to her, his gaze fixed on the laptop screen and his fingers working on the keyboard.
She folded her arms and stared at his face. His face looked dry and white just like hers. They had visited a nurse who treated the wound on his head and recommended some drugs to him.

‘Why should we leave so early? You have a wound on your headand you need to rest well,’ she said, making it sound more like a complain.

‘Steph, there’s no time to rest now.’ Dave replied back in a gruff voice, now staring at her. ‘We don’t even know if we’re safe yet.’

Stephanie frowned as she heard his last statement, she tried to imagine what he meant but couldn’t come up with anything. ‘What do you mean by that?’
‘We were in the middle of an interview today and our host was kidnapped, we don’t know who did it or why they did it. If the police gets to know of our involvement, they would come looking for us first.’ He said, wanting it to sound like a threat which would make her willing to listen to him.