Tarasha 99 The Failed Attemp

'All these cameras have been optimized to recognize the suspected faces and also send alarm signals to the main point,' Tarasha was explaining to the Vice President and the three security men who were following him, they came out from one of the rooms in the house into the extension at the left side of the house. 'The cameras here are responsive and they adjust themselves based on the light available and the image being captured.' Tarasha continued explaining. She led them closer to the transparent gla.s.s wall, she asked the Vice President and his security officials to move back for her to explain something else. They obeyed and paid rapt attention.

The Vice President's phone began to ring, he took it out from his pocket, silenced it and signaled for Kimberly to continued. Just ten seconds after she continued, the phone rang again. Chief Elvis picked it out and checked the caller again, it was still the same unknown caller. He silenced it again and held it in his hands. He apologized and asked her to continue.

'The light that comes into here varies with time of the day, weather and even season of the year, that's why the cameras here had to be optimized specially.' Tarasha explained, facing the Vice President and his crew. Then she saw what she was looking for on his body, the blur thin red light, it was still moving to and fro, she knew it was Cole trying to focus on his target. The Vice President's phone rang again, he looked at the screen and silenced again, then he gave the phone to his security officer to attend to the caller. Tarasha continued with her explanation while keeping an eye on the light.

'Sir,' his personal security official called him softly after taking some seconds with the phone.

'Yes, you'll relay the message to me later.' the Vice President replied him reluctantly, not willing to take his mind off Kimberly's explanation.

'Sir, let's watch it from here and see if you'll notice anything' Tarasha said and began moving towards the man now, she stopped and stood some centimetres by his left side near the second security officer, the red light on the man's chest had now been balanced. She began to push some b.u.t.tons with her fingers on the device in her pocket while waiting for Chief Elvis to make his observation. '1…,'

Chief Elvis stared at the camera, trying to make the observation, that was the same process he had gone through for every section of the house they had been to.

'Sir, there's a dangerous security threat.' the man's security officer said aloud.

'What is it?' Chief Elvis took a quick glance and shouted at the security officer for disturbing him.

'2…'

'Sir, we have to move you out of…' the security officer persisted and moved close to the man's front, trying to persuade him to listen.

'3…' Tarasha pushed the third b.u.t.ton.

As Chief Elvis moved back, annoyed by the security officer's persistence, the red blur light on chest moved down and two bullets pieced in through the gla.s.s wall and entered into his right lap.

+++++

's.h.i.+*t!' Cole cursed loudly as he missed the target. The man had suddenly moved back at the Boss' count of three. He quickly refocused the sniper and tried to aim at the man again but he saw one of the body guards squatting before the fallen man, he quickly placed his focus on the bodyguard's head and fired two shots in it. Before he could get another clear aim, two more bodyguards had entered into the place and immediately come to the transparent gla.s.s wall. He saw one of them looking at the holes made by the bullets on the wall and trying to trace where it came from, he quickly sent another bullet into the guards chest. Before he knew it, more of the guards had entered. There was no way he was going to have a clear shot at the Vice President again, the game was over.

_____

Henry kept trying Chief Elvis' phone number even though his call was being rejected. He continued to walk fast towards the gate of the man's mansion, hoping to get there before the a.s.sa.s.sins release the bomb or whatever they had to release.

He began to think of better ways to reach the Vice President, maybe the man wasn't even at home, he could be at a meeting and his phone could be with one of his a.s.sistants, he then decided to send a message to the number. He stopped some few metres at the opposite mansion to the Vice President's own. After the message was marked delivered, he decided that that was the best he could do, he turned back to return to his car. That was when he noticed that he hadn't covered his head with the hood since he removed it.

Suddenly as he took two steps, there came the sound of two gunshots, he needed no prophet to tell him where the shots came from. He increased his speed and began to run towards his car, then more gunshots were heard from the same direction.

__________

As expected, Kimberly the NSCC official ran for cover when she heard the first two gunshots. More bodyguards entered into the place and rus.h.i.+ngly carried the Vice President outside, they also led her to safety.

She ensured that her eyes were full of tears as she watched them calling for an ambulance and rush the Vice President for first aid.

'Hope you were not hurt?' one of the guards asked with deep concern in his voice.

'No, thanks.' she replied in a teary voice. He tapped her shoulder and went back to his work.

Tarasha quietly walked away from the living room, cursing under her breath. The plan had failed, the man was going to survive the two bullets in his laps.

______

** One hour later**

'Send the names of the guest who took room 654 to the office right now,' Inspector Clem said to one of his a.s.sistants. He was standing in the security room of G.o.dax hotels with three other police officers, three security officials of the hotel and the receptionist who was on duty.

'Is this him?' one of the security officials asked the receptionist as he paused and zoomed a video clip on the computer.

'Yes,' the receptionist answered, looking into the screen. She saw herself attending to the guest, he had only a small brief case with him.

'Did he not pa.s.s through the security screening or how was he able to take in a sniper into the room?' Inspector Clem asked.

'I personally checked this man, there were only two clothes and a laptop in the brief case.' one of the security officials answered Clem.

'Then does that mean the weapon was already in the room?' Clem asked.

'Sir, we don't have such weapons with us, I only suspected him.' the receptionist said thoughtfully. 'He insisted on using room 654 even when I told him that there were better rooms available that wouldn't need him to go that far.'

'Do you not have regulations guarding how you a.s.sign rooms?'

'We have sir, but he said he was a geographer and that he had something to do with his laptop on the tenth floor at that particular side of the building.' the receptionist replied.

'And how did he know room 654 was the perfect room for his geographical work?'

'He said he had used the place before,' she replied.

'Okay,' Clem said and then turned to the security official controlling the computer. 'Haven't you seen how he left there?'

'No,' he was replied. 'But there's something here you need to see. Here's a lady at the door of room 654,' he said pointing to the screen where a cleaner was standing with a big bag and knocking on the room's door. The door was opened and the cleaner entered, she walked out two minutes later without the bag.

'Interesting!' Clem exclaimed. 'Then it means one of your cleaners took the weapon to him.'

'No,' the computer operator replied, he rewound the tape. He paused when the focus of the camera was on the cleaner's face, then he zoomed. 'She doesn't look like any of our cleaners,' he said before minimizing the window. Then he opened a folder which contained the pa.s.sports of all the cleaners. 'She's not one of us,' he said after comparing the faces of all those in the pa.s.sports to the face zoomed in the video.

'On low cut again!' Clem exclaimed. Everybody's eyes in the room turned to him. He stared more at the face in the video, 'that's Aisha Bello, a member of the Samantha Osman a.s.sa.s.sin group disguised in another form.'

____

**2 hours later**

'I don't think Henry could be seen there, maybe it was someone else,' Dakolo said to Clem as they made their way to the computer room.

'It's him sir, the NSCC cameras captured his face and even the car he drove in.' Clem replied.

'When was the file received from the NSCC?' Dakolo asked.

'Fifteen minutes after it was requested for,' Clem answered.

'Okay,' they entered into the computer room and went straight to the screen displaying the videos. The computer operator rewound the footage and stopped when it got to Henry's place, he began to play the footage backwards. Agent Dakolo watched in awe, shocked to see Henry whom he thought was lost somewhere or hidden by the a.s.sa.s.sins.

Henry was seen trying to make a phone call directly opposite the gate of the Vice President's mansion, then it was taken back to the car he came out from. He was seen entering the car to pick the binocular, then he climbed the top of the car and looked through the binocular. The computer operator paused the video, he studied the binocular and observed the angle it made with the ground. Then he minimized the footage and traced the angle from the point Henry stood. Another footage popped up and the Vice President's mansion was showed, then it was traced again to G.o.dax hotels.

'Interesting! He was even watching the Vice President's house and G.o.dax hotels. That means he knew what was about to happen,' Clem commented.

'He was also at the front of the Vice President's house when the gun was shot twice.' the computer operator added.

Dakolo was speechless, he was frustrated and his eyes were teary. He couldn't get himself to believe that Henry was working with the a.s.sa.s.sins. Henry who had not fully recovered, who was even attacked at the hospital and Rugbe village by the a.s.sa.s.sins.

'Sir, I knew it.' Clem began in a strong tone. 'Henry E.G was playing a game all along.'

Dakolo gave him a sharp look, 'how do you mean?'

'Sir, looking at it from the hospital when the South African Dr David's imposter came, if he actually came to hurt Henry, they wouldn't have injected the cure instead of the poison. I think the plan was to take Henry out that day but because of the police's presence, they couldn't. Also, I believe Henry E.G was pretending all along, he knew his mother, he knew everyone, he had his memory and he even had contacts with the other a.s.sa.s.sins; that was why they could plan together and bomb the hideout in Rugbe village. Think about it sir; why was he the only one that wasn't killed by the bomb? Even Inspector Ken that wasn't killed still got killed by one of the a.s.sa.s.sin's gun. Then they escaped with Henry.' Clem let out his thoughts.

Dakolo hated to admit but he knew Clem had made sense and wasn't far from the truth. The a.s.sa.s.sins must have also played a game with Henry's poisoning, that was why the sample for the cure had to be left in Henry's house. If they really planned to kill him, they wouldn't have dropped the cure. Henry was surely one of the a.s.sa.s.sins, Dakolo was dead sure about it.

________

**5pm**

Omotara walked into the house quietly and went straight into her room without greeting Henry and Jefa who were seated in the living room. Jefa got up and followed her immediately, he was worried about her but before she entered into her room and locked the door before he could get there.

Jefa sighed and returned to the living room, 'I thank G.o.d she is safe.' Jefa said to Henry who was looking less bothered.

'Yes, thank G.o.d she's safe. Thank G.o.d the Vice President is not dead too.' Henry said. The silence continued. Henry busied himself with the phone.

'May I come into your room? I have something to say about your attack on the Vice President.' he typed into his message box and sent to Omotara's number which Jefa had given to him.

*

Omotara ignored her brother's knock and began to take off her clothes slowly. She felt stupid and useless, this was the second mission she had failed. The first was failing to kill Henry and the second was failing to kill the Vice President. All started when she began to develop feelings for Henry. She hated to think about it, it made her head ache.

She thought she was made to kill, that was how she lived her life for the past fifteen years and she had never failed in any of her tasks until the past few weeks. If she was really a killing machine and was created to kill, then why was she failing to perform her tasks? Why were feelings taking over her body if she was a machine that was created not to have feelings? Or was Henry right when he said that she had been lied to? As she pondered on these questions, her phone beeped and she picked it up to check the notification. She had already taken off her top and was left in her bra and black trousers.

'May I come into your room? I have something to say about your attack on the Vice President.' she read the message from an unknown number. The only person who came into her mind was Henry, but she decided to reply the number first. 'Henry?' she typed and sent. In less than twenty seconds, the reply entered. 'Yes.'

'Come,' she sent back and went to unlock the door.

The knock sounded on the door after a minute. 'Come in,' she said.

Henry walked in slowly and closed the door. He stood still in front of the door and stared at her.

'What do you have to say?' she asked in a cold voice. 'And how did you know about the attack on the Vice President?'

'I told you I've been watching you through the NSCC cameras, you've been keeping the operation running effectively.' Henry replied.

'D--n! Don't you have any other thing to do that to stalk me?'

'Yes, I don't have any other thing to do for now.' he replied calmly.

'What do you have to say?" She asked after a silence of ten seconds.

'I tried to stop you from trying to kill him but I failed,' Henry said, unaware that it was his text message that eventually saved the man.

'You can't stop me, no one can stop me ; we only had a little miscalculation.' she said and turned away from him, she began to take off her bra.

'G.o.d stopped you,' Henry said.

Tarasha turned her face and gave him a sharp look, then she turned back again.

'It wasn't the man's time to die yet, so G.o.d prevented it.'

'You can say whatever you want to say, but he's still going to die soon, even before he fully recovers from the bullets in his lap.'

Henry was moved by her words and the fact that she admitted she was still going after the VP, he moved closer to her and stood beside her. He avoided looking at her half naked body and focused his eyes on her face. 'Omotara, what has he done to you?'

'Nothing,' she replied blankly and stared back into his eyes.

'Then why are you after him?'

'I don't breach contracts, he's the last person on the list of my contract in Nigeria, I have to take him out.'

'You don't have to,' Henry said in a pleading tone. 'Whoever gave this contract to you is misusing you, this is not what you're meant to do, you are meant to do something better in life.'

She sighed and stared at him for some seconds, 'Well, Henry. I'm not convinced yet about all these stories, I'm not convinced about G.o.d or love, I've never felt G.o.d or love in my life, how do I know they're real and not just deceptive feelings you're trying to get into my head?'

Henry heaved a sigh of frustration, he didn't know how to answer her question but he just had to talk. 'Look here Tara, you don't have to feel it before you believe it, that's what is called faith. You believe and it works for you.'

'Haha,' she suddenly laughed loudly. 'What you're saying is hogwash man, yesterday you talked about the feelings of Love for strong people, now you're saying I don't need feelings to believe in your G.o.d or Love again? I know you have been brainwashed already but you can't brainwash me like they've done to you.'

'I'm not trying to…'

'Shh…' she cut him short. 'Do not tell me about G.o.d or Love again until you can show them to me.' she said, staring straight into his eyes. 'Now leave this room,' she shouted.

Henry was confused on what to say, he wasn't knowledgeable about the things of G.o.d, so he didn't know what else to say to her but he remembered once hearing a preacher say that you don't need to know much about the Bible before becoming a soul winner. He decided to go back and pray about the issue.

'Get out!' she shouted at him again when he was sluggish **February 23, 2031**

The days rolled by in silence. Activities in the country and it's capital went on as usual. The Vice President had been flown to the US for treatment and safety and only little news about him was disclosed by the press because they got little information themselves, the government made sure that everything about the Vice President's treatment and safety was done secretively.

Omotara and Henry avoided themselves like plagues even though they stayed in the same house. Both of them went out early in the morning but a different times and also returned at different times in the evening. Henry avoided staying in the living room, so he did Tara; she always remained in her room everytime she was in the house while Henry stayed in Jefa's room.

After several days of not greeting or talking to each other, Henry finally knocked on her door this Sunday morning.

Omotara did not waste time in opening the door as she thought it was her brother knocking, she was shocked when she met Henry smiling at the door. She tried to close it back but he stopped it with his leg and pushed the door open.

'What do you want?' She said as she proceeded straight to the bed.

He closed the door and stood with his two legs slightly apart, 'Good morning Omotara.'

She turned to face him and stood straight, she folded her arms and gave him a contorted look without replying his greeting.

'I see you've been trying to avoid me for the past few days,' Henry added, not bothered about her not replying.

'Hear who's talking,' she said with a mischievous smile.

'But I'm saying the truth,' Henry insisted.

'Well, if that's the only thing you're here to talk about, I believe that this conversation is not necessary.' she said with a dismissing note.

'I'm not here to talk about that, I'm here to invite you to lunch with me," he replied.

'Lunch?' she rolled her eyes in surprise. 'And what makes you think that I'll accept your invitation.'

'You will,' he said briefly and paused to see her reaction. 'I can already see it in your eyes that you need something like that.' Henry added and moved closer to her.

'Come on, stop this trash. You see nothing in my eyes.' She said and moved back.

'Don't let us argue, you'll go with me this afternoon.' Henry said, raising up his hands as a sign of surrendering. 'Why don't you dress up now and let's go to church together?'

'Never would I go to waste time with you in such a place again.'

'You call it wasting time?' Henry moved closer to her again.

'Please, I don't have time for this religious bulls.h.i.+*t this morning,' she said and turned to make her bed.

He drew nearer to her and placed his hands on her shoulder, she turned back sharply and gave him a warning look. He was a bit scared but he refused to be moved. They looked into each other's eyes for close to two minutes before the frown on Tarasha's eyes began to vanish. She tried to move away but he placed his hands on her shoulder again and stopped her from moving, she felt intimidated by his boldness.

'Henry, what do you want?' she asked softly.

'I told you what I want already,' he replied.

'And I said I'm not interested in going anywhere with you, what else do you want?'

He looked into her eyes for some seconds before replying, she tried to move away again but he pulled her back. 'I want you,' he finally replied.

She gave him a questioning look, he smiled and rubbed his palm on her cheek. He touched her lips, it was soft and inviting. His head moved closer and hers, until their lips met.

___

** Mayo Clinic, Rochester, New York **

'D--n Matvei, he's not as efficient as you said he is,' Chief Elvis cursed loudly into his phone. His right leg was bandaged from the top to the knee and hung on a suspender. The bullets had been removed but reports from the doctors suggested that he may never be able to use the leg anymore. The first bullet had entered into upper region of his thigh while the second one into his knee.

'Elvis, he only arrived in Nigeria few days before you were shot, so there was no way he was going to know about that attack.' Matvei replied in his thick Russian accent.

'He came into Nigeria on the same day I returned from my medical leave, so that is already enough time to study the environment.' Chief Elvis said. 'I even gave him two people to work with.'

'Is it up to two weeks already?'

'Yes, it is.'

'Okay, what instructions did you give to Rex?' Matvei asked.

'What kind of question is that? I asked him to go after Samantha Osman.' Chief Elvis replied.

'That's all you did?'

'Yes, isn't that's why I requested for him to come to Nigeria?'

Matvei gave a short laugh, ' I'm very sure he's doing his job well. Rex is one of the best a.s.sasins in the world now.'

'What do you mean by that? If he really good as you say and he is going after her, then she couldn't have still tried to kill me.'

Matvei laughed again, 'You fool, you asked him to go after her and he's doing that. He does only what he's asked to do, I'm sure he'll get and kill her soon. Nothing concerns him with you.'

'Nothing concerns him with me?' Chief Elvis asked in surprise.

'Stop being a dummy man,' Matvei said mockingly. 'You didn't ask him to protect you, so he has no business whether you're dead or alive, all he's going to be doing is going after that Samantha.'

'What? So you mean I have to ask him to protect me specially.'

'That's another job entirely, he can do that if you ask him to. But remember, Rex is an a.s.sasin, a killing machine and not a bodyguard.'

Chief Elvis heaved a sigh of frustration, he was tired of the pain and torment. He had returned to Nigeria after his medical leave when boldness and confidence because of Rex's arrival into the country on that same day. And his boldness had increased after he also spoke to Rex and gave him the vision, he had been inspired by Rex's firmness and fearful look.

_____

'I hope Chief Elvis is safe,' Stainless commented as they drove in the Hyundai sonata. He was driving and was seated at the front with Don while Rex who had been working as their boss for more than a week was seated at the back.

Rex was a man of very few words, that was if he could even be qualified as a man; he talked like a robot with calculated words and made them brief always.

However, he had a very handsome and innocent face when he smiled but it becomes scary whenever he was giving an instruction or communicating something serious. He had a fairly dark skin like that of a black American, coiling hair and neatly carved moustache, only his Russian-like accent would make one know he wasn't an American or he didn't live in America, one couldn't really tell where he was from. He was way younger than both Don and Stainless but he seemed not to consider that as he ordered both of them around like small boys.

For him, Don and Stainless had been almost useless for his mission since the Chief introduced them to him. He was supposed to be given a month to learn about his new environment and strategize, but with them, he told the Chief two weeks would be enough. But contrary to his expectations which had been raised by Chief Elvis when they were being introduced to him as leaders of two of the top most a.s.sa.s.sins gang in the nation, he found them ineffective. Most of the technical things he needed to know about the environment were discovered by himself, the only things they were able to provide him with were the names of the places and the routes to take in and out of them which he considered useless as the electronic maps on his devices could provide him the same information. The only thing that made them useful to him was their hostage, Benny. Rex was the one who mixed the solution they injected into Benny's body before he revealed Tarasha's locations to them.

'Boss, have you gotten any other information from the Chief since he left?' Don asked, turning to Rex at the back seat.

'No,' Rex replied briefly. To him, the welfare of the Chief didn't matter, all he wanted to do was finish off the lady a.s.sa.s.sin whose real name he had been said to be Tarasha but was popularly known as Samantha Osman.

'We are few metres close to the place,' Stainless announced and pulled over to a s.p.a.ce at the left hand side which was supposed to be for vehicles returning.

'So, here is Gwagalada?' Rex asked in his thick ba.s.s voice.

'Yes,' Stainless replied. 'That's the gate,' he added, pointing to a gate some distance away at the other side.

'Keep driving,' Rex ordered. He picked out a device and held the both sides in his two hands.

Stainless returned to the other lane and kept driving towards the gate, they drove past few metres away without any instruction from Rex.

After they drove close to a bush was when Rex instructed for them to drive back. Stainless reversed the car.

'There are no cameras watching outside that house,' Rex said. 'But we need to find out how the place looks behind the gate. We'll wait around till night time.'

______

2pm

Tara and Henry ate silently, stealing glances at each other's faces. For Tara, it was the first time she was on a date with someone she wasn't planning to extract any information from or kill, it was the first date she agreed to without having any plan. This was different from the first time she had lunch with Henry at Elymax hotel, then she did it to extract information about the NSCC from him. This time, she didn't know why she did it exactly, she just knew she couldn't reject.

The kiss she had shared with him earlier that day was the worst she ever had, it was short and unexciting but it still kept her longing for more. Henry was a bad kisser, she concluded. The first time she kissed him, she was trying to cover up her act in her attempt to extract an information from his laptop and get him to follow her Chief Jubril's party, this time, she couldn't tell the reason for it, all she knew was that Henry was bad in the act.

Henry ate in silence but his heart was filled with thoughts and questions. He wasn't of the school of thought which proposed love as blind but he began to consider the thought to be accurate now. This was he in love with an a.s.sa.s.sin, he who believed in the sanct.i.ty of human lives was madly in love with one who killed without thinking.

His kiss with her in the morning had been the worst kiss he ever had, even the first one at the NSCC's house was better, he considered her a very bad kisser. He didn't mean for the kiss to happen but it did anyway, he wasn't even planning to touch her or have any romantic activity with her. All he wanted was to see her change and see her express real happiness which he hoped he could help her find.

He had gone to church with Jefa after Tarasha had refused to come with them but he ensured she didn't refuse to go out for lunch with him.

They finished the meal eventually and there was no excuse for the silence anymore, Henry had to take the bull by the horns.

'Omotara,' he called softly, looking into her eyes. She stared back at him expressionlessly. 'What are you thinking about?' he asked.

'Nothing,' she replied briefly.

'Nothing? You mean there's nothing on your mind right now?'

'Yes, what is supposed to be on my mind?'

'I am,' Henry said.

'You?'

'We should be on your mind, I mean.'

'We? You and who?'

'Both of us,' Henry said.

'There is no 'us', huh?'

'There is.'

'Hehe,' she chuckled, 'look here. I could…' she paused to look around and then placed her hands on the table and poked her head forward. She lowered her voice so that only Henry could hear. 'I can kill you at anytime,' she said in a tone which suggested she was serious about it.

Henry was disappointed at her answer, he wondered why she had to bring killing into every of their discussion.

'Why don't we forget about who's killing who right now and focus on us,' he said.

'There's no us, but there's always going to be death.' She replied stubbornly. She knew what he was going with the conversation and was trying to avoid it.

'Okay,' Henry said with a smile, understanding her plot to avoid the discussion. 'Let's talk about us before you kill me.'

'What do you mean?'

'I love you Tara,' he said and paused to see her reaction, she didn't make any facially. 'I want to know if you feel the same way about me. I need to know that before you kill me as you say.'

'I don't know what is love, so I don't love you.' she replied coldly.

'So I mean nothing to you?' he asked. 'And what happened in the morning, you don't see it as anything?'

'What happened?' she asked and paused to see his reaction. She knew what he was talking about and the truth was that it meant something to her and she was longing for more but she couldn't bring herself to admit it.

'IIf you're talking about the kiss, it was horrible and it meant nothing. I've kissed several other men and I ended up killing them, most of them claimed that they love me just like you are doing now.'

…to be continued moving. He began to proceed slowly to the door.

'And don't try to stop me again, I won't spare you.' she added before he got to the door.

**February 23, 2031**

The days rolled by in silence. Activities in the country and it's capital went on as usual. The Vice President had been flown to the US for treatment and safety and only little news about him was disclosed by the press because they got little information themselves, the government made sure that everything about the Vice President's treatment and safety was done secretively.

Omotara and Henry avoided themselves like plagues even though they stayed in the same house. Both of them went out early in the morning but a different times and also returned at different times in the evening. Henry avoided staying in the living room, so he did Tara; she always remained in her room everytime she was in the house while Henry stayed in Jefa's room.

After several days of not greeting or talking to each other, Henry finally knocked on her door this Sunday morning.

Omotara did not waste time in opening the door as she thought it was her brother knocking, she was shocked when she met Henry smiling at the door. She tried to close it back but he stopped it with his leg and pushed the door open.

'What do you want?' She said as she proceeded straight to the bed.

He closed the door and stood with his two legs slightly apart, 'Good morning Omotara.'

She turned to face him and stood straight, she folded her arms and gave him a contorted look without replying his greeting.

'I see you've been trying to avoid me for the past few days,' Henry added, not bothered about her not replying.

'Hear who's talking,' she said with a mischievous smile.

'But I'm saying the truth,' Henry insisted.

'Well, if that's the only thing you're here to talk about, I believe that this conversation is not necessary.' she said with a dismissing note.

'I'm not here to talk about that, I'm here to invite you to lunch with me," he replied.

'Lunch?' she rolled her eyes in surprise. 'And what makes you think that I'll accept your invitation.'

'You will,' he said briefly and paused to see her reaction. 'I can already see it in your eyes that you need something like that.' Henry added and moved closer to her.

'Come on, stop this trash. You see nothing in my eyes.' She said and moved back.

'Don't let us argue, you'll go with me this afternoon.' Henry said, raising up his hands as a sign of surrendering. 'Why don't you dress up now and let's go to church together?'

'Never would I go to waste time with you in such a place again.'

'You call it wasting time?' Henry moved closer to her again.

'Please, I don't have time for this religious bulls.h.i.+*t this morning,' she said and turned to make her bed.

He drew nearer to her and placed his hands on her shoulder, she turned back sharply and gave him a warning look. He was a bit scared but he refused to be moved. They looked into each other's eyes for close to two minutes before the frown on Tarasha's eyes began to vanish. She tried to move away but he placed his hands on her shoulder again and stopped her from moving, she felt intimidated by his boldness.

'Henry, what do you want?' she asked softly.

'I told you what I want already,' he replied.

'And I said I'm not interested in going anywhere with you, what else do you want?'

He looked into her eyes for some seconds before replying, she tried to move away again but he pulled her back. 'I want you,' he finally replied.

She gave him a questioning look, he smiled and rubbed his palm on her cheek. He touched her lips, it was soft and inviting. His head moved closer and hers, until their lips met.

___

** Mayo Clinic, Rochester, New York **

'D--n Matvei, he's not as efficient as you said he is,' Chief Elvis cursed loudly into his phone. His right leg was bandaged from the top to the knee and hung on a suspender. The bullets had been removed but reports from the doctors suggested that he may never be able to use the leg anymore. The first bullet had entered into upper region of his thigh while the second one into his knee.

'Elvis, he only arrived in Nigeria few days before you were shot, so there was no way he was going to know about that attack.' Matvei replied in his thick Russian accent.

'He came into Nigeria on the same day I returned from my medical leave, so that is already enough time to study the environment.' Chief Elvis said. 'I even gave him two people to work with.'

'Is it up to two weeks already?'

'Yes, it is.'

'Okay, what instructions did you give to Rex?' Matvei asked.

'What kind of question is that? I asked him to go after Samantha Osman.' Chief Elvis replied.

'That's all you did?'

'Yes, isn't that's why I requested for him to come to Nigeria?'

Matvei gave a short laugh, ' I'm very sure he's doing his job well. Rex is one of the best a.s.sasins in the world now.'

'What do you mean by that? If he really good as you say and he is going after her, then she couldn't have still tried to kill me.'

Matvei laughed again, 'You fool, you asked him to go after her and he's doing that. He does only what he's asked to do, I'm sure he'll get and kill her soon. Nothing concerns him with you.'

'Nothing concerns him with me?' Chief Elvis asked in surprise.

'Stop being a dummy man,' Matvei said mockingly. 'You didn't ask him to protect you, so he has no business whether you're dead or alive, all he's going to be doing is going after that Samantha.'

'What? So you mean I have to ask him to protect me specially.'

'That's another job entirely, he can do that if you ask him to. But remember, Rex is an a.s.sasin, a killing machine and not a bodyguard.'

Chief Elvis heaved a sigh of frustration, he was tired of the pain and torment. He had returned to Nigeria after his medical leave when boldness and confidence because of Rex's arrival into the country on that same day. And his boldness had increased after he also spoke to Rex and gave him the vision, he had been inspired by Rex's firmness and fearful look.

_____

'I hope Chief Elvis is safe,' Stainless commented as they drove in the Hyundai sonata. He was driving and was seated at the front with Don while Rex who had been working as their boss for more than a week was seated at the back.

Rex was a man of very few words, that was if he could even be qualified as a man; he talked like a robot with calculated words and made them brief always.

However, he had a very handsome and innocent face when he smiled but it becomes scary whenever he was giving an instruction or communicating something serious. He had a fairly dark skin like that of a black American, coiling hair and neatly carved moustache, only his Russian-like accent would make one know he wasn't an American or he didn't live in America, one couldn't really tell where he was from. He was way younger than both Don and Stainless but he seemed not to consider that as he ordered both of them around like small boys.

For him, Don and Stainless had been almost useless for his mission since the Chief introduced them to him. He was supposed to be given a month to learn about his new environment and strategize, but with them, he told the Chief two weeks would be enough. But contrary to his expectations which had been raised by Chief Elvis when they were being introduced to him as leaders of two of the top most a.s.sa.s.sins gang in the nation, he found them ineffective. Most of the technical things he needed to know about the environment were discovered by himself, the only things they were able to provide him with were the names of the places and the routes to take in and out of them which he considered useless as the electronic maps on his devices could provide him the same information. The only thing that made them useful to him was their hostage, Benny. Rex was the one who mixed the solution they injected into Benny's body before he revealed Tarasha's locations to them.

'Boss, have you gotten any other information from the Chief since he left?' Don asked, turning to Rex at the back seat.

'No,' Rex replied briefly. To him, the welfare of the Chief didn't matter, all he wanted to do was finish off the lady a.s.sa.s.sin whose real name he had been said to be Tarasha but was popularly known as Samantha Osman.

'We are few metres close to the place,' Stainless announced and pulled over to a s.p.a.ce at the left hand side which was supposed to be for vehicles returning.

'So, here is Gwagalada?' Rex asked in his thick ba.s.s voice.

'Yes,' Stainless replied. 'That's the gate,' he added, pointing to a gate some distance away at the other side.

'Keep driving,' Rex ordered. He picked out a device and held the both sides in his two hands.

Stainless returned to the other lane and kept driving towards the gate, they drove past few metres away without any instruction from Rex.

After they drove close to a bush was when Rex instructed for them to drive back. Stainless reversed the car.

'There are no cameras watching outside that house,' Rex said. 'But we need to find out how the place looks behind the gate. We'll wait around till night time.'

______

2pm

Tara and Henry ate silently, stealing glances at each other's faces. For Tara, it was the first time she was on a date with someone she wasn't planning to extract any information from or kill, it was the first date she agreed to without having any plan. This was different from the first time she had lunch with Henry at Elymax hotel, then she did it to extract information about the NSCC from him. This time, she didn't know why she did it exactly, she just knew she couldn't reject.

The kiss she had shared with him earlier that day was the worst she ever had, it was short and unexciting but it still kept her longing for more. Henry was a bad kisser, she concluded. The first time she kissed him, she was trying to cover up her act in her attempt to extract an information from his laptop and get him to follow her Chief Jubril's party, this time, she couldn't tell the reason for it, all she knew was that Henry was bad in the act.

Henry ate in silence but his heart was filled with thoughts and questions. He wasn't of the school of thought which proposed love as blind but he began to consider the thought to be accurate now. This was he in love with an a.s.sa.s.sin, he who believed in the sanct.i.ty of human lives was madly in love with one who killed without thinking.

His kiss with her in the morning had been the worst kiss he ever had, even the first one at the NSCC's house was better, he considered her a very bad kisser. He didn't mean for the kiss to happen but it did anyway, he wasn't even planning to touch her or have any romantic activity with her. All he wanted was to see her change and see her express real happiness which he hoped he could help her find.

He had gone to church with Jefa after Tarasha had refused to come with them but he ensured she didn't refuse to go out for lunch with him.

They finished the meal eventually and there was no excuse for the silence anymore, Henry had to take the bull by the horns.

'Omotara,' he called softly, looking into her eyes. She stared back at him expressionlessly. 'What are you thinking about?' he asked.

'Nothing,' she replied briefly.

'Nothing? You mean there's nothing on your mind right now?'

'Yes, what is supposed to be on my mind?'

'I am,' Henry said.

'You?'

'We should be on your mind, I mean.'

'We? You and who?'

'Both of us,' Henry said.

'There is no 'us', huh?'

'There is.'

'Hehe,' she chuckled, 'look here. I could…' she paused to look around and then placed her hands on the table and poked her head forward. She lowered her voice so that only Henry could hear. 'I can kill you at anytime,' she said in a tone which suggested she was serious about it.

Henry was disappointed at her answer, he wondered why she had to bring killing into every of their discussion.

'Why don't we forget about who's killing who right now and focus on us,' he said.

'There's no us, but there's always going to be death.' She replied stubbornly. She knew what he was going with the conversation and was trying to avoid it.

'Okay,' Henry said with a smile, understanding her plot to avoid the discussion. 'Let's talk about us before you kill me.'

'What do you mean?'

'I love you Tara,' he said and paused to see her reaction, she didn't make any facially. 'I want to know if you feel the same way about me. I need to know that before you kill me as you say.'

'I don't know what is love, so I don't love you.' she replied coldly.

'So I mean nothing to you?' he asked. 'And what happened in the morning, you don't see it as anything?'

'What happened?' she asked and paused to see his reaction. She knew what he was talking about and the truth was that it meant something to her and she was longing for more but she couldn't bring herself to admit it.

'IIf you're talking about the kiss, it was horrible and it meant nothing. I've kissed several other men and I ended up killing them, most of them claimed that they love me just like you are doing now.'