RESTLESS
Restless-Episode 36( Henson is caught)
Story By
Oyin Oluwatosin Emmanuel
“So what am I supposed to do with this man?” Samantha asked, looking into the tablet device on her lap. Henson’s photograph was displayed on fullscreen.
“Follow him, get him, get the necessary informa…” Henry was saying when his eyes caught something by the left. “Damn!” He said as he reduced the speed of his driving drastically. “Evelyn is here also, there must be something serious happening in this area.”
“So what do we do?” Sam asked.
“I’ll pull over once we get past the flyover,” Henry replied her. “You’d go further on foot, taking directions from Cole and I’ll join you when the road is clear of the FOX agents.”
____________________
“Agent Evelyn, target is out of the building in his car, you need to take the next u-turn,” the instruction sounded in Evelyn’s earpiece as she climbed up the flyover in her car.
“Gotten Agent, will follow through at once.” Evelyn replied sharply. She picked up her phone and unlocked it, she dialled a number and then took out the earpiece in her left ear. She placed the phone to her ear when the call began to connect.
“Hi Agent Steve, got your eyes on any yet?” She asked.
“Yeah, following one down the Industry Lane, will catch up in some minutes. What about you?”
“Not yet following any, but I’ve got directions from live feed and I’ll soon be on to one.”
“Let’s do it quick, we’d talk later.”
With that, the call ended and Evelyn increased her driving speed and sped past two other vehicles on the flyover. She put back the second earpiece on after she heard her name being called.
“Speak on Agent,” Evelyn replied.
“You gotta go faster, he’s at the u-turn already.” The voice replied her.
“Right away!”
_______________________
Samantha looked left, right and left again before she crossed to the other side of the road. She looked briefly around before proceeding to the gate of Dran Agro Allied Firm. She was very close to the place when she heard a voice sound in her earpiece.
She stopped and stepped closer to the wall to listen.
“Speak up Cole,” she said into her mouthpiece.
“Don’t go further, Henson is in a vehicle on his way out of Dran.” Cole told her.
“Okay,” she replied and pulled a button on the mouthpiece to switch the connection to Henry. “Henry, pick me at the Dran gate.”
Henry delayed his response for some seconds. “Sorry Sam, you have to go after Henson alone, I’m following one of the FOX agents too.”
Henry was still speaking when Samantha noticed the Dran gate opening. She stepped back to the roadside immediately and her eyes searched quickly for approaching cabs.
She waved down a cab and quickly glanced towards the gate again. She saw a black Toyota Camry driving out. She switched the button on her mouthpiece back to Cole.
An empty cab stopped in front of her, she opened and stepped in immediately without saying anything to the driver. The driver pulled back into the road in the same direction before asking questions.
“Where are you going to?” He asked with a glance at her face.
“Cole, is Henson the one in the black Camry?” Samantha asked Cole and ignored the driver’s question.
Cole answered affirmatively.
“Clear the CCTV records of how I got here,” Samantha said again to Cole. It was part of his job to make the rest of the team untraceable in their operations.
The driver stared at her again, this time with a look of confusion, wondering why she was talking to herself.
“Just drive straight, follow that black Camry closely.” Samantha finally answered.
“Which Cam…” He was about to ask when a large vehicle obstructing his view took a U-turn and he got a clear view of the Camry. He increased the gear and overtook the car in front of him.
“I didn’t say you should level up with the Camry, I said follow closely. He shouldn’t know we are following him,” Samantha said to him.
He flashed a quick suspicious look at her, wondering why she would give him such instruction but he got totally awed when she pressed the tip of a pistol to his belly.
“Pull over and step out of the car,” she said to him.
He nodded shakily and turned on the indicator with trembling hands. He switched to the other lane as soon as he got the chance and pulled over.
“Don’t try anything stupid with the car,” Samantha warned him as she suspected his hand going to the dashboard. “You’ll get your car back at the right time.”
He opened the door and stepped out and she quickly switched to the driver’s side. She zoomed off immediately and left the driver shouting for help on the road.
_
Twenty five minutes of following Henson closely. Samantha watched Henson drive into the Eastern Shopping Complex, located at the center of Epa in Bexford. She switched her connection to Cole as she drove in after her target.
“You following us Cole?” She said into her mouthpiece.
“Yeah,” Cole replied. “You might need to change your car soon, Henry is coming your way already, keep tracking Henson.”
“Okay,” she replied as she turned off the car engine in the car park. Her eyes located the point Henson’s car was parked as she took off the seatbelt. Her eyes followed Henson all the way from his vehicle into the mall.
She got out of the car and went in the same direction as Henson.
“Going into the shopping mall with him now,” she said into her mouthpiece as she walked in through the door. She looked left and right and located him going in the right direction. She walked left for two seconds and turned into the aisle between the displayed goods in the stationery section.
“Cole, can you access the surveillance cameras in this mall?” She asked as she began to go through the goods slowly.
“I’m not sure I can do so from here. I need to be there to hack into the wireless network they use in transmitting the video signals.” Cole replied.
On hearing his reply, Samantha hastened her steps and walked down the aisle to the end of the section where there was another aisle which went in the perpendicular direction.
She turned to the right and proceeded in the direction. She looked briefly through each aisle as she passed to check for Henson.
“Sam, I’m sending an application to your phone now, install immediately, you’d be able to get Henson’s direction from wherever you are,” Samantha heard Cole’s voice in her earpiece.
She reduced her steps and took out her phone quickly. “When did you install a tracker on him?” She asked as she unlocked her phone and clicked on the command to install the application.
“I’m tracking his sim, he’s got the location services of his phone turned on and that makes it easier.” Cole replied.
It took Sam nothing less than ninety seconds to finish installing and run the app. She stared at the items displayed on her screen for a few seconds, trying to understand what they meant.
“He’s heading out already,” she spoke out loud after she was able to understand the reading.
She turned and walked up the aisle to the front. She checked her phone again and saw that Henson was now outside the building.
“He has stepped outside the mall,” Cole voice sounded in her ears, confirming what she read.
“Where is Henry?” Samantha asked, heading for the exit.
“He’s almost there,” Cole answered.
“I may still have to use the same car if Henry does not come quickly,” she said.
“No, you can’t anymore. The police are trailing the car already, that may cause some problems for you on the road.”
“What do I do?”
“Look left,” Cole said and Samantha turned to the left at once. “There’s a man at the ATM stand, he’s next on the queue, you’ll have to pick his pocket.”
“What?” She asked, widening her eyes.
“Yes, the key to his power bike is carelessly placed in his left pocket. Pull out the key successfully and I’ll tell you where the bike is.”
Samantha drew in deep breath. The man was now using the ATM.
She remembered she had picked pockets in Nigeria several years ago as a child to survive. She had never thought she would still need to do so. She took another glance towards Henson and saw that he had already gotten to his car, she summoned courage and began to walk towards the ATM. Her target finished cashing out his money and dipped it into his trousers pocket. He began to walk towards her direction.
_______________________
Agent Evelyn sat in her car as she watched the Police drive out of the firm in their vehicle with the target she reported. She took out her phone and dialed a number.
“Hey Evelyn, I’m returning to the office already.” Agent Steve said immediately he answered the call.
“Has the arrest on your end been made?” Evelyn asked.
“Yes, it has. Get yours done quick and return to the office as soon as possible, I want the questioning to begin immediately.”
“I’ll be on my way right away Sir,” Evelyn replied and then kicked start the car engine.
“We have five men to question already, more arrests could be made before the day ends, I expect to see you soon at the office.”
“See you boss!”
______________________
Thirty minutes after carefully trailing Henson on her power bike. She watched as he drove his car into the enclosed public car garage of a recreation center.
“How close is Henry here?” Samantha asked as she approached the entrance of the garage.
“Five minutes to you once you stop motion,” Cole replied.
“Okay.”
She followed Henson in immediately and quickly spotted his car moving towards the far left end of the facility. She followed in the same direction.
The garage was occupied with mainly expensive cars and few power bikes. There were close to fifty cars parked in the facility there were still empty spaces enough to take fifty more vehicles.
Samantha reduced her speed again as she watched Henson turn his vehicle into the parking space. She wondered why he choose somewhere quite far from where the entrance was. She decided not to go as far as he went and turned into a space close to her. She parked the motorcycle and stepped down.
She took a quick look around the place. There were only one or two persons in the garage with them and she had only spotted one at the far opposite end while she drove in. Most car owners who parked their cars did very early in the morning and returned late evenings to get them. At that particular period of time day, there was usually very little activity in the garage.
She pulled out her gun as she began to walk in front of the car towards Henson’s direction. She noticed when the headlights of his car went off and also heard the sound of his door opening. She hastened her steps but ensured she made no noise that could announce to him that he had company. She was seven vehicles spaces away from him when she heard the sound of the door closing. Only two of the seven vehicle spaces were occupied, and they contained two similar vehicles at the sixth and seventh space just before the space Henson had his car parked.
Samantha bent when she got to the first of the two cars before his and tried to peep but couldn’t get a view of him. She moved closer to the second car and bent just by the side of the bonnet to check for Henson. She slowly rose to her feet when she saw no signs of him but she still could not see anything. She stepped forward very slowly and carefully. She looked around to see if he was already making his way out of the garage but could still not find him anywhere.
Just then she realized that he could have noticed her presence and was probably hiding and watching her from somewhere. She reduced her walking speed to an extreme slow speed as she got close to the space the black Camry was parked.
Just as she stepped away from the front of the bonnet, her eyes caught a figure hiding by the front tyre side but before she could make any move, he rammed into her, pushing her down with his shoulder. He grabbed the hand in which she held the pistol and tried to take the pistol from her hands but she held on to it tightly.
He delivered a punch to her face and tried to hit her the second time but she grabbed his fists quickly. She tried to push him away with her foot but he struggled to hold on rigidly to her and only fell sidewards slightly and got back up immediately, still holding on the wrist of the hand she had the gun. He noticed her other hand was going to the back of her trouser and he quickly grabbed the hand again as he climbed over her again.
She pushed him away with her foot on his chest again and this time he fell to the back totally but her gun was tossed away. She got up as fast as she could but he was also up quickly. He charged towards her as she made to pick the gun and she had to dodge his kick instead, she launched a blow to the side of his belly and he staggered to the side but turned again immediately to throw a punch. She dodged the punch, grabbed him by the arm and tried to twist it but he made his arm rigid and dug a kick into her belly, making her stagger and fall on her butt.
He turned and made way for the gun but she was up quickly and got to him before he could bend to pick it. She kicked it away and it went through under the car far away where it couldn’t be seen.
He launched a quick blow at her but she swerved to the side and grabbed him by the wrist. She pulled him forward and dug a heavy punch into his belly with the same hand.
He fell on his side with deep pain running his ribs and belly. He tried as much as he could to get back up quickly but the pain made him unable to stand upright immediately. He struggled and charged towards her with a punch but she dodged easily to the other side. He struck another blow at she dodged again in the same manner.
She made a mocking smile as she stared at his face which had pain written all over. He felt angry and irritated seeing her mock him and he rushed to her with another blow but she diverted his blow with her arm and landed a straight punch on his mouth. He staggered back and she followed with another punch to his face. He tried to respond with his but she dodged to the other side and waited for him to turn immediately delivering two jabs to his face again.
He fell back to the ground with a broken nose and swollen lips. He raised his head to see her pointing a gun at him.
“Get up dude, damn you!”
He got up to his feet in pains and put his hands slowly in the air.
She took a step closer to him and stopped when she heard the sound of an approaching vehicle. She looked briefly in the direction of the sound with her side eye but still maintained her gaze on Henson. She was about to tell him to get into the car when the approaching car came into view and it appeared to be the Henry in the car.
She waited as he zoomed into the parking space beside them and stepped out of the car.
“What took you so long?” She asked as she moved closer to Henson. She made him turn his back to her and directed her towards the Henry.
Henry smiled on seeing Henson’s face. He knew he must have given Samantha some tough time but like he expected of her, she had treated it so easily.
“Get him into the car,” Samantha said and turned back immediately before Henry had the opportunity to commend.
She returned few seconds later with the gun she had kicked away during the fight with Henson.
Henson was already in the boot of the car after being sedated by Henry. Henry was in the driver’s side and he had the door to the passenger’s side opened for Samantha to sit.
“Why can’t I connect to Cole anymore?” Samantha asked as she pulled on her seatbelt.
“Cole has left the base, he and Dave should be at the shopping complex now,” Henry answered her.
______________________
FOX Corporation Building, EPA HILL.
In the normal interrogation room setting, Agent Evelyn was sitting at one end while the suspect was at the other end. The interrogation had been on for twenty minutes and the Agent had about two pages of her note already filled with answers.
She was about to ask him another question when her phone rang, Agent Steve was the caller.
“Hello boss,” she answered the call.
“Evelyn, we have seven people, all with the same story and mentioning one name – Henson. However, the officers have raided the whole Dran Agro, Henson was said to have left about the same time we got there earlier.” Agent Steve said from his own end.
“Do we have to follow personally?”
“Yes, we do have to follow immediately. I believe Henson is someone dangerous and tricky.”
“I’ll round up and meet you in five minutes.”
3 Hours Later
Agent Steve and Evelyn stood in the car park where Henson had parked his vehicle. After some minutes of properly scrutinizing the vehicle, they stood side by side trying to pull conclusions from their observations.
“It doesn’t look like there’s a struggle in the car,” Agent Evelyn noted to Agent Steve.
“But there could have been a struggle outside,” Agent Steve noted, staring at the floor around. “They say the CCTV has no records of how this power bike got into this place and there are no records of how the bike user or Henson left.”
“A lady was said to have taken the bike from the shopping complex,” Evelyn pointed out.
Steve chuckled and turned. He began to walk away from the place with Evelyn by his side.
“There are no CCTV records of how the lady got the bike also, looks like we’re dealing with a third party here.”
“Or could it be Henson who arranged an escape route for himself?” Evelyn suggested.
“We’ve got to go back to the mall now, and find out who that woman is.” Agent Steve said with some urgency in his tone. He took out his car keys and increased the speed of his steps.
To be continued
EPISODE 37
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