RESTLESS
Restless-Episode 48
Story By
Oyin Oluwatosin Emmanuel
Henry closed his eyes and let out a deep breath after getting into driver’s side of the car. He wished he could have done it another way, but after the several previous occasions of pleading with Sheila not to get herself involved in his mission, or even doing anything that would connect them together, Sheila had continued to involve herself and it seemed that the only way he could get to her to back out was make her feel hurt.
He knew that her being hurt could destroy the friendship between them which he valued so much and it could even make her hate him totally, but he still thought it was better for her to hate him completely than to risk her life.
He inserted the key into the keyhole and turned it to put on the car, the engine roared to life. He then pulled on his seatbelt before driving into the roadway.
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Sheila got back into the hotel room feeling so bitter and mad with herself for squeezing out time for the fruitless journey to Bexford. Henry had not only been so ungrateful, he had also demonstrated that her presence in Bexford was displeasing to him
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Two hours later
“Hey Cole!” Henry hailed as he walked into the control room of the house. He had a small traveling box with him.
“Welcome boss,” Cole who was sitting alone in the room in front of the master system turned briefly to greet.
“Where’s Dave and Samantha?” Henry asked.
“Dave’s gone to take his bath and Samantha is in the lab, she should be here at anytime.”
“Has Dave gotten the Sonata sprayed already?” Henry asked. He dropped the box on a table at the centre of room and opened it.
“Yeah, he sprayed the vehicle at the backyard.” Cole answered.
“Great,” Henry responded as he proceeded towards Cole. “How far have you gone with hacking the network systems?”
“Almost done with the communication networks, yet to get to the road signal networks.”
Henry pulled out a chair from beside Dave and sat in front of another computer. “Share the road network software to this computer,” he said to Cole.
“In a minute boss,” Cole replied him.
Henry turned on the computer set and began to search out some things on his phone while he waited for it to boot completely.
“Shared boss,” Cole said even before the computer booted completely.
“Hey Boss!” Samantha greeted as she walked into the control room, carrying a thick leather box with her. “I’ve got all the mixtures ready,” she added immediately Henry turned back.
She was dressed already in a blue top and a smart black trouser. A shiny leather belt passed through the belt hole could be seen around her belly.
“How many filled tranquilizing pins do we have in there?” Henry turned to ask her.
“Two dozens already,” she replied. She stopped at the center of the room and dropped the box on the table there beside the traveling box placed there by Henry.
“That means you still have enough volumes of tranquilizers?”
“Yes, I mixed a total of two hundred cube centimetres.” She answered.
“There are some empty bullet cases in the outer pocket of the traveling box, take them out and fill them with tranquilizing liquids.” Henry said to her. He waited and watched her open the right place in the bag before he turned back to the system.
Soon, Samantha took out the bag of bullet cases from the box and walked back out of the control room.
Henry and Cole continued to work silently after Samantha walked out, it was twelve minutes after when Cole broke the silence.
“I’m done boss, the communication network loophole has been created, we only need to turn it on when we are ready.”
“Good one Cole,” Henry replied without looking at him. There was silence for another one minute before Henry spoke again, facing him this time. “Check if Tam is awake, gag him, blindfold him and leave him in a car at the roundabout if he is. He would find his way home from there.”
“Alright boss,” Cole said and quickly saved a file on the system before he got up. He proceeded out of the control room after picking a key which was on the table at the center of the room.
Twenty minutes after Cole left, Dave walked into the control room.
“Boss, the Sonata is ready, sprayed already and dry enough.” Dave said as he proceeded towards Henry.
“Okay,” Henry took a look at him and saw that Dave had not just gotten the Sonata dressed for the job, he himself was also ready and dressed for the job. “So, get enough guns ready for the five of us, we’d be needing more of revolvers and each of us would need accurate pistols for tranquilizing bullets.’
“Right away boss, I’ll be in the store room to arrange them.
Samantha was the first to return to the control room and she did after another twenty minutes, with packs of the already filled tranquilizing bullets. Five minutes after, Dave walked in and reported that he had the guns ready. Cole came in after another ten minutes with the car keys.
The other two sat behind the table at the centre of the control room while Cole proceeded forward to join Henry.
“You’re almost done with this boss,” Cole commented, staring at the screen.
“Yeah, in two minutes, the process will be over.” Henry replied without looking back.
“But if we turn on the two processes, we’d be shutting down activities of the whole area.” Cole said, in more of a questioning tone.
“Yeah, we’re shutting it down truly” Henry replied him. “I’ll explain the reasons when I’m done.”
Henry and Cole were still busy with together when Jenny joined them in the room. She was also dressed ready for the job.
Ten minutes after, Henry got up from the seat after copying his work and Cole’s from the master system into a flash drive. They walked back together to the center where the two others were waiting. Henry stopped at the opposite side of the men while Cole turned to join the rest at the other side.
“Hey guys, this is ten minutes to three o’clock. We have an hour before we leave this place.” Henry began to talk. He took a brief pause to look at each person’s face before he continued again, he opened the traveling box on the table and took out some neatly folded set of Bethanna Police Uniforms and caps. “We have a delicate task at hand today and everybody has to be extra ready.”
He paused again and proceeded forward to with the uniforms on his hands, it was a total of three. He checked the label on the collar of the first cloth and placed it on the table. He checked the second and walked up to Samantha to hand it over to her.
“This is for me,” he said as he walked back with the last one to his previous position opposite them. “That uniform is for either of you,” he added, pointing to the uniform he placed at the other side of the table and referring to Cole and Dave.
He picked up a remote control device from the table and turned partially to face the screen at the top back wall of the room. He tapped the power button on the remote control and waited for the screen to come on which happened after five seconds. He then clicked on the play button on the remote control.
A video showing an aerial view of a particular street displayed on the screen. It first appeared blurred but became clearer gradually after few seconds. Henry began to explain the video as it played.
“Agent Elkim stays in Nexis, close to the outskirts of Bexford, it’s a beautiful town as you can see.” he began. “It has two major routes, one leading into the inner parts of Bexford and the other leading into Kala.”
Henry paused again to allow them watch the video show the two major routes. He continued speaking ninety seconds after.
“It has other minor routes leading to other towns like Ostio, Nevi and even shortcuts into Bexford and Kala. But for this task, we would focus on the two major routes, the one leading into and out of the town.” Henry stopped and clicked on the forward button on the remote control. He paused it at the exact point he wanted and played again. “Now this is Agent Elkim’s house, it’s big as expected but not as large as half of Brad’s estate. However, it is tightly secure and would be more difficult to penetrate. As a top agent and an important member of the Board of the FOX, Agent Elkim has a huge number of junior FOX agents around him and a number securing his home.”
Henry paused the video again. “The aerial view does not show the position of his security systems, neither does any map or survey material available shows it. His facility has two entrances which also serves as exits, one is major while the other is for emergency.”
He rewound the video. “Let’s have another view of the routes again.”
After another ten minutes of watching and explaining the routes, Henry began to explain their strategy.
“Since we can’t get penetrate easily, it will be difficult and highly suspicious to get in as a group. However, one of us can get in. I know Agent Elkim to be a man who allows people express themselves always. With him, freedom of speech is allowed.” Henry paused briefly and chuckled. “But freedom after speech is not guaranteed.”
He stopped and turned to the other side of the table again. “One of you would help us get in as one man,” he said, looking at Cole and Dave’s faces while these uniforms and the newly sprayed Hyundai Sonata would allow us get in as a group.”
“How do I get in as one man?” Cole asked before Henry could proceed. Dave glanced quickly at his face.
Henry let out a brief smile and turned to pick the uniform from the table, he handed it over to Dave. “You put on this, Cole would help us in.” he said and turned to the other side. Cole’s question which expressed his wish had automatically helped Henry make the decision. “I’ll tell you the pattern to go but I’ll explain the job of the rest of the team first.”
He paused, closed the traveling box and zipped it up.
“We’d go in pairs, I and Jenny, Dave and Sam. Jenny would be without the uniforms and would help us turn off the Network communication and transportation lines when it’s time. Dave and Sam would go in the Sonata after dressing in uniforms,” he paused for a second and began to look at Dave and Sam’s face as he talked on. “You’d be along the route leading from Kala into Nexis but at a point close to the house, while I and Jenny would be at the major route leading from Bexford. The police would be called for from Agent Elkim’s house and they would most likely come from Bexford which is closer, I and Jenny would ambush and stop them. Then I’ll meet and join you in the Sonata before we proceed together as policemen into the man’s house. Jenny would turn off the communication and road signal networks after we get into the man’s house, the first will ensure connections through phone calls, the internet and other resources stops working while the other would ensure there is heavy traffic on the major routes, that way, no backups from the FOX would be able to reach Agent Elkim’s house until we finish our task.”
“This looks complicated,” Dave commented with a frown. “How would we communicate to each other if the lines are off?”
“Yeah, it is really complicated, but the complication should be to our advantage. There would be no communication between us and that’s why we need to understand the process here. The whole operation should last two hours only, no addition of minutes and no subtraction. The two hours would only start reading when we get into the place, Jenny would turn off the road signals and communication networks when we get in and turn them back off immediately after two hours.”
“How do we get out of the place if the roads are blocked?” Samantha asked.
“The major routes would be jammed, only some of the minor routes would be jammed too.” Henry answered and took a brief pause. He picked the remote control and forwarded the video to a particular point showing another route. “We would leave the place through this route, it leads through Nevi. It’s a very bad road and lacks the use of traffic signals. it’s untarred and full of potholes and would not be considered by most road users. That’s why I would be riding with Jenny in our strongest vehicle available, all of us would be leaving the place in that vehicle.”
“With Agent Elkim in the boot of the vehicle?” Cole questioned.
“No,” Henry replied, shaking his head with a sad smile. “Agent Elkim is a strong and resilient fighter, it would be a difficult job to abduct him, it would be less difficult to kill him instead. We don’t need him, we only need access to him, his secret room and some of his devices. From that, we’d get every of the information required to continue our main mission.”
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