Tarasha - Chapter 98

‘He’s going to recover soon,’ Dr Tobi said to the elderly

Doctor who was handling Henry’s case before it was

transferred to him. They were in the new ward where

Henry had been placed and were running check up on

him. An x-ray on his body had just been done and the

doctors had found nothing dangerous in his system.

‘Thank God he’s okay, I can’t imagine the kind of troubles

we would have faced from the police and the questions

we would have had to answer them.’ the elderly doctor

replied.

‘Thank God,’ Dr Tobi murmured under his breath and

stepped back a little, staring at the patient in silence.

‘I just wonder why that lab scientist should attack our

nurses and flee,’ the elderly doctor put in.

‘I wonder too, no one knows the content of the ampoule

he left behind.’

‘That’ll only be for a short while, Dr Albert is working on

it and I trust him, we’ll get the results soon.’

The door flung open immediately the elderly doctor

finished talking. Both doctors turned to see the agent and

two other officers approaching them.

‘I was told he was administered the cure and he’s safe,’

Agent Dakolo said to the doctors, fixing his eyes on Henry

who was laying peacefully on the bed.

‘Yes sir, he’s alright.’ Dr Tobi replied him.

‘That’s good news,’ Dakolo gave a brief smile and glanced

at the doctor’s face after feeling Henry’s skin with the

back of his palm.

Dakolo took some steps back, still fixing his eyes on

Henry. He placed his hands behind his waist and stood at

ease and then took his gaze to Dr Tobi. ‘We’ve searched

all around and have not been able to find that lab

scientist or even discover how he left this vicinity.’

Dakolo said to Dr Tobi who replied him with silence.

‘In the absence of Dr David the lab scientist, we’ll have to

take you in for questioning.’ Dakolo continued speaking,

staring straight at Dr Tobi’s face to see his response. ‘You

worked closely with him, so you may be able to tell us

some things about him.’

‘I don’t know anything about him more than you do,’ Dr

Tobi replied in a defensive manner. ‘Our relationship was

strictly professional.’

‘So he didn’t mention anything about himself to you?’

‘Nothing,’ Dr Tobi answered.

‘Okay, but we still need to question you. He may have

revealed some things to you without you being able to

decipher them.’

‘All the questions would be done here,’ Dr Tobi asserted,

‘it’ll be done in this hospital.’

‘No, in the police office, that’s the excellent place for that

kind of session.’ Dakolo retorted. ‘Because of the respect

we have for you, we’ll let you come for the session

tomorrow morning.’

‘I won’t have that kind of session with you,’ Dr Tobi

protested.

‘You don’t have a choice doctor, you worked with him,

don’t make us do it the hard way.’

‘I won’t,’ Dr Tobi insisted strongly.

‘Then, we’ll have no choice than to go hard on you,’

Dakolo said and turned to Inspector Clem to make a

signal. Inspector Clem began to detach the handcuff

attached to one of his belt holes.

‘Agent,’ Dr Tobi called in a strict and determined tone.

‘We worked with him. You permitted it after confirming

that he was from South Africa, so if I’m going to leave

here handcuffed, you’ll have to be handcuffed too and

we’ll have to be questioned together.’

Dakolo paused and took in a deep breath, staring at Dr

Tobi narrowly, impressed by the Doctor’s intelligence. He

signaled for inspector Clem to return the handcuff,

remembering that he truly permitted Dr Tobi to continue

work with the lab scientist. He felt a bit embarrassed and

defeated. ‘We do not mean to harass you doc,’ he said in

an apologetic manner. ‘We only need you to answer our

few questions. We’ll carry out the questioning here as

you said.’

‘You do not want to harass me but you just tried to take

me out of here handcuffed?’ Dr Tobi said angrily, shaking

his head at the Agent in disbelief.

Dakolo was quiet for a while, he felt he had goofed big

time, he should have used a different approach.

‘Excuse me sirs, it’s past closing hours already and I need

to tidy up my office before leaving.’ Dr Tobi said and

began to walk towards the exit. The officers allowed him

pass and watched in silence, the older doctor followed

suit.

‘We’re moving him out of here tonight,’ Dakolo

announced to the doctors before the exit door was

opened. ‘I already requested for that officially and I’m

sure that directives on what you need to do would be on

your table already.’ he said particularly to Dr Tobi.

Dr Tobi stopped at Dakolo’s announcement, he waited

for Dakolo to finish talking before he turned back slowly.

‘You can’t take him away now, it will disrupt all that we’ve

started.’

‘We will, we have to. It’s dangerous for him to continue

staying here. We’re already making arrangements on

how to fly him out of the country as soon as possible;

most likely in two days time.’

‘Fly him out?’ Dr Tobi eyes widened in surprise, he took

some steps back closer to the officers. ‘That would mean

paralyzing him totally; it would totally eliminate all his

chances of recovery. It’s not safe for him to fly yet.’

‘Ermm… Our minds are made up already,’ Dakolo said,

unconvinced about the Doctor’s claim. ‘It’ll be safer

there for him.’

‘Your minds are made up to kill him?’ Dr Tobi asked

rhetorically. ‘Maybe you need to bring one of your

Doctors from the office to read his case file, so that he’ll

explain to you the danger of what you’re about to do.’ Dr

Tobi said after which he turned back and walked out

immediately. The officers were left with the elderly

Doctor and unconscious Henry in the ward.

Dakolo pondered on what Dr Tobi said before leaving,

maybe bringing one of their doctors to read the case file

would tell if Dr Tobi was being truthful, he thought.

Another thought struck his mind again, ‘what if Dr Tobi

alters the reports in the file case to support his motion?’

He looked up at the staring face of the older doctor, he

decided that he could trust him more. ‘Doctor,’ Dakolo

called, proceeding towards the doctor where the doctor

was standing close to the exit. ‘Please tell me, is it true

that it’s not safe for him to fly now?’

‘That’s the truth you heard already, if you really want to

render him completely useless, then you can go ahead

with your plans.’ the doctor replied him in a stern voice.

‘Far from it Doc, his life is very important to us and that’s

why we want to take this step. We want to fly him to the

US where he’ll be safer.’

‘You think he’ll be safer there?’ the doctor questioned.

‘You’re aware that the US also has this same assassin

problem and you’re still talking about taking him there?

As far as reports and news have it, we here; I mean you

security officers are doing better than other counties’

officers.’

‘Ermm… I agree with you doc, but it’ll be harder for the

assassin following him here to reach him when we fly

him to the US.’

‘I thought your IG has said that the assassin group here in

Nigeria is in same organization with the ones that are

functioning in other countries too. Don’t you think you’ll

be exposing the patient to great danger instead of putting

him here where you can watch over him by yourself.’

Dakolo began to ponder on the Doctor’s words, he began

to question himself if it was possible for him to

personally safeguard Henry and still go about with the

investigations. It would be hard but it could be made

possible in a way.

‘Nevertheless, we’ll take him out of this place today.’

Dakolo spoke after coming to a conclusion in his mind.

‘We’ll move him to a secluded place, Dr Tobi would

continue to treat him; that means Dr Tobi would have to

be excused for some days, probably a month. Do you

think we can trust Dr Tobi.’

‘Of course yes, I can personally vouch for him. He’s one

of our bests here and he’s also honest. But taking him

away for one month? You have to sort that out with the

authorities of the hospital.’ The elderly doctor said.

‘That wouldn’t be a problem,’ Dakolo said and began to

walk towards the door.

++++

Benny stepped out of car immediately the engine was

killed. He began to walk towards the door of the house,

forgetting that he wasn’t with the key. He was forced to

stand at the entrance of the house.

Cole and Aisha were watching him mystified, wondering

what the reason was for his behavior. They walked

towards the entrance where he was slowly and Cole took

out the key to the door. Benny kept on avoiding their

gazes until the door was opened. He rushed in at once

and walked to the room he shared with Cole.

Cole and Aisha remained baffled, they stared at each

other with questions in their eyes, they knew that neither

of them had answers to the questions, so they bothered

not to ask each other.

‘I’ll go prepare our meal right away, I think Benny needs

some rest.’ Aisha said with a shrug to Cole before walking

away.

Cole shrugged too and walked to the same room Benny

entered, he opened the door slowly. He saw Benny where

their clothes and bags were placed, searching furiously in

the bags for something. Cole closed back the door and

began to make his way to the room were the Senate

President was kept.

++++

Tarasha kept thinking about her next line of action as she

sat at the back seat of the cab. Now she was supposed to

resume as soon as possible in the NSCC and she’ll be

working in a post close to that of Henry, performing

most of his responsibilities and duties now that he wasn’t

fit and won’t be available; in fact, what she was expecting

was the public announcement of his death. And the most

exciting part about her new job was that she was going to

be working closely with the Vice President and the

Inspector General.

For the the two of them, she was going to attack them

from a distance and also closely too, making use of the

opportunity of her work with them.

She took out her phone and opened her browser, she

typed in the address to a news website and waited for it

to load. In less than thirty seconds, it had finished loading

and she saw the news she was expecting to see.

‘Henry E.G attacked again in the hospital,’ she read the

headline to herself. She clicked on the link to read the

details of the news.

++++

‘What details have you been able to gather?’ Agent

Dakolo asked as he entered into the computer room. The

two officers sitting in front of the master computer got

up immediately in recognition of his presence.

‘Sir, we’ve not gotten anything yet ‘ the lady was the one

who replied.

‘What do you mean by that?’ Dakolo asked, walking

towards them with Ken behind. He stopped beside them

and looked into the system to see what they were doing.

‘Have you not been able to reach the hospital again?’

‘I’ve reached them already but they denied having any

previous conversation with us yesterday.’

‘What?? Were you not the one who spoke with them

yesterday?’ Dakolo asked with seriousness in his voice.

‘He was the one,’ the lady replied, looking to the man.

‘Yes sir, I was the one who spoke with them. They

confirmed him to be one of their lab scientists and even

sent his profile to us, which I forwarded the summary to

you,’ the man defended himself.

‘Can I see the profile that was sent?’ Dakolo asked, folding

his arms.

The man sat back and minimized the application opened,

he clicked on a folder icon on the desktop and began to

search for the profile sent . ‘Here’s it,’ he announced as

he clicked on it.

A saved webpage opened on the Google chrome browser

and the profile of the lab scientist opened. Dakolo and

Ken looked into it, they saw the same passport and

details that had been seen on the lab scientist’s identity

card.

‘Then why are they denying having any conversation with

you?’

‘I don’t understand sir, in fact, we’ve sent this profile

back to the mail they used in sending and we’re

expecting their reply. They can’t deny this.’

‘Since when did you send it?’ Dakolo asked.

‘Thirty minutes ago sir,’ the lady replied. She also took

her seat and took the mouse from her partner. She

opened the email application to show the message sent.

‘Call back now and ask them to confirm receipt and also

send their reply,’ Dakolo ordered.

The lady took her phone which was on the table and

dialled the number immediately, she placed it on

loudspeaker.

‘Hello, officer Kemi from the Nigeria Police

Headquarters… I called an hour ago to ask about Dr

David who is a…’

‘We do not have any lab scientist named Dr David,’ the

receiver cut in. ‘I told you that before and you said you’ll

send a mail to us which I’ve been expecting since and I’ve

not seen.’

‘You’ve not seen it?’ the lady asked in a surprised tone.

‘No, it’s better you send it now. I’m about to close for the

day and you’ll have to start from the scratch in

explaining your request to another representative.’

‘But have you also been able to confirm the person who

spoke to us yesterday?’

‘No, I already told you that we don’t have any care

representative named Kelvin.’

‘Okay, please can you send your email address in a text

message to this number, so that I can be sure that we’re

sending to the correct email address.’

‘Okay,’ the call ended.

‘But the man that I spoke with yesterday introduced

himself as Kelvin.’ the male computer operator argued.

‘Call the Network provider now and report to them,

request for the recording of your call yesterday to serve

as proof to us,’ Dakolo said to the man who immediately

took the suggestion and brought out his phone.

‘Sir,’ the female computer operator called to Dakolo. ‘The

text message is here already,’ she said squinting into the

computer.

Dakolo bent down to also look. ‘These emails are

different,’ Dakolo said, comparing the email in the text

message to the one on the computer screen. ‘This one is

[email protected] while the fake one of

[email protected] . You guys have been deceived.’

Dakolo turned to the male operator, ‘are you sure it was

this same phone number you called yesterday?’

‘Yes,’ he answered in an aggrieved tone. ‘I was surprised

when it was denied today. I was in a serious argument

with the lady who answered until my colleague decided

to help me.’ he said, pointing to his female partner.

‘Then, call your Network provider immediately. Also tell

them to provide you the exact location where the call

came from.’ Dakolo said to the man and turned back to

the lady. ‘You send the profile to the new email address

for confirmation.’

The computer operators began work immediately.

Dakolo stepped back and glanced at his wrist watch, it

was some minutes past eight pm already, he was

supposed to have closed for the day, same for computer

operators and Ken but the urgency of the case wouldn’t

allow them to. He heaved a sigh as his eyes met with

Ken’s. He felt guilty for being careless and keeping all of

them till that time, he shouldn’t have allowed that Lab

Scientist at all, knowing that the assassins have high

technology measures and hacking skills which they used

in deceiving their victims.

‘Sir,’ Inspector Ken interrupted his thoughts. ‘I think it’s

time to go back to the hospital now, they asked us to be

there by eight thirty.’

++++

‘It’s the boss,’ Cole announced to Aisha who was seated

on one of the sofas in the living room. He was peeping

through the front window and he could see Tarasha

opening the gate to drive in her car.

Aisha got up from her seat and they both walked out to

meet the boss. Tarasha drove the car in while Aisha

helped her to close back the gate. She took sometime

before stepping out of the car. She looked quite simple

and relaxed under the bright moonlight that night, she

had stopped at the house in the city to change her

clothes and pick the car.

‘Where’s Benny?’ she asked Cole, taking in a deep breath

as the cool breeze blew her jacket and hair sideways.

“Ermm… Benny, I don’t really know. He said he wanted

to get something outside and hasn’t returned since then.’

Cole replied.

‘Boss, Benny has been acting strange since he finished the

task.’ Aisha added.

‘Why? But he was successful, it’s all over the news that

Henry was attacked.’

‘Yes, I don’t just seem to understand. He was looking very

disturbed.’ Cole said thoughtfully.