ELVIS (ACTION) EPISODE 15&16

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The whole Friday was used to bask in the relish of their near death escape. After dumping Ben at the hospital much to his chagrin, they all went to have a good night rest. Elvis dropped each of them at their respective residence before driving home. He slept soundly waking up around 10AM much to his dismay, the nightmare have stopped coming since the last time. He roused himself and prepared for work, tomorrow is the TBS bombing.

Work is already bustling, as each team are putting finishing touches to their preparations, last minutes updates are quickly passed across and each group member’s duty is been assigned. Elvis’ group has no plan at the moment, Ben’s still in the hospital and others are still exasperated from the events of the previous night.

He saw Timi pounding furiously at his keyboard, his glasses sitting grimly on his nose with his eyes glued to the monitor.

“Good morning Tim’ how was your night” he greeted on getting to Timi’s desk

“Good morning sir, my night’s great” Timi replied standing up in courtesy, something to which Elvis waved for him to sit down, he did.

“Good job yesternight, you did great” Elvis complimented.

Timi blushed in return.

Do guys blush?

“What are you doing?” He asked sitting on the desk, beside the computer set

“I’m trying to go through the data we downloaded yesterday” Timi replied, his fingers at work.

“Anything yet?”

“Nothing of interest yet, just shipping documents, speeches and some other files” Timi replied.

“Keep it up” Elvis said “Report back to me directly” he quickly added, not trusting anyone yet.

“Okay sir” Timi replied.

“Has Dauda arrived?”

“Not yet sir”

“Still hanging over yesterday……what time did you get to work?”

“8am sir”

Elvis turned around shaking his head; it seems it’s easier to sit behind a computer; less stressful. He went to his office humming softly. His heart skipped a bit when he saw Ellie at her desk. She looked distant; her round smiling face did well to hide it, but not away from him. She seems unhappy too, like she’s fighting something deep in her.

Maybe she felt for him too, she might have affections for him too, but she’s engaged, engaged to someone else. What makes him so sure she’s thinking of him?, moreover he never approached her, he never let her know how he felt, he never even know how he felt till the day he saw her crying, crying over that picture. All these thoughts are what is moving haphazardly in his mind, just like Brownian motion; causing a commotion in him.

“Good morning sir” That familiar sweet voice rang out, but he heard a tinge of sadness in it.

“Good morning” he replied coldly

He headed for his office immediately and sank into his chair. He heard the door screak; he looked up and saw Ellie entering his office holding a file. She looked adorable as always, her gown floating around her smooth legs, her hips swaying provocatively with each step, her flat tommy, her firm proud b----t shooting out from her chest above her flat stomach, her round cute face, her soft cheeks; even soft to the eyes, her blue eyeballs lightening up his earth, somewhere inside that eyeballs, he sense sadness.

She placed the file on the table gently, surprisingly, gently.

“I brought the file about honorable Titus, the IG said I should give it to you on your arrival” she said softly

“Thank you” he replied nonchalantly

“Sir, I’ll like us to talk about why I was crying the other day”

“You know what Ellie?, it’s okay”

“Sir….”

“It’s seriously okay, we are cool”

“But…..”

“It’s okay, Ellie, I understand your position, I seriously know how you feel, I know what you are passing true” Elvis said reassuringly but Ellie wasn’t convinced.

They both walk out of the office, one feeling better, and the other feeling more withdrawn.

Elvis walked out of his office towards Timi’s cubicle for any interesting finding. He saw Dauda in his own cubicle and greeted him, asking on his time of arrival and commending his efforts for the previous night. Timi is still seated glaring at the monitor with fingers dancing on the keyboard.

“Anything interesting yet” Elvis said

“Yes sir, I’m just about to call for you” Timi replied excitedly.

“I saw some documents proving the transfer of a large amount of money, 20 billion naira to be exact to a secret account number”

“That must be the party money…”

”Yea, it is, it was transferred from the party account under the false pretense of campaign into a strange account”

“A strange account?”

“Yes, an account that has the name ‘Odesina Ajani’”

“That’s a weird name for an account, but that doesn’t make it strange” Elvis replied looking at Timi intently.

“What’s strange about it is that Odesina Ajani is a hunter, from a remote part of Okuku in Osun state”

Elvis’ jaw dropped, “Now that’s weird, he managed to say”

“Sir, you are needed in the boardroom” someone said referring to Elvis. Elvis turned, recognizing the fellow to be from another team, he knows he’s needed in the boardroom for the final debriefing about tomorrow

“Keep working, find out what you can, I’ll be back” Elvis said turning to Timi before rushing towards the boardroom.

A final debriefing is done, each team are given their task except Elvis’ group that are playing a bit part role, the results of the investigations are recapped for adequate assimilation. The team members are given specific tasks about organizing and bearing the responsibilities of their team members.

All teams are to meet at the TBS tomorrow dressed in mufti to blend into the crowd, and they are to exhibit an informal approach tomorrow to avoid suspicion.

The next person to them might be the bomber so they have to be alert. Each team member should be adequately prepared in terms of gadgets and ammunitions, pistols and communicating gadgets should be checked and girded. After a few hours, the meeting ended and they broke up.

Elvis strutted hurriedly out of the boardroom and rushed towards Timi’s cubicle. He met Timi sitting leisurely at his desk, his legs running across each other on his desk, his back leaning on the chair so much the chair is standing on its two hind legs, his two hands’ fingers entwined behind his head. He sat right immediately he saw Elvis, his eyes bulging out of excitement.

“What’s the news?” Elvis asked hoping things won’t get worse

“You won’t believe this sir” Timi said excitedly
Elvis sigh in anticipation.

“I checked up the name ‘Odesina Ajayi’, don’t ask me how, and I discovered that there’s nobody with that name living or hailed from Okuku in Osun state” Timi said

“If there’s nobody with that name, then how is there an account with that name?” Elvis asked bewildered, getting confused every second.

“Now that’s where the fun is, I hacked into the database of the banks database and went to the list of customers that registered for BVN”

“What if the owner haven’t done the BVN registration”

“As luck could have it, the customer has” Timi said enjoying the anxiety he’s causing for his team leader.

“Who is the customer; there must be a picture, wasn’t it?” Elvis asked eagerly, anxious.

“The picture there was of a man, with a cap, the cap covered two third of his face making recognition impossible”

“So how you now cognize the identity of the customer” Elvis asked now reaching his wit

“There was nobody with Odesina Ajayi in the BVN database of the bank, but there was someone with the name Ikemefuna Abdul Odesina Ajayi in the database”

Elvis jaw dropped unknowingly as the style of name rang a bell in his brain.

“Ring a bell? The ‘for all’ principle” Timi said grinning “To further prove my hypothesis, with our access to the database of the National ID card, I learnt that IAOA (Ikemefuna Abdul Odesina Ajayi
) was registered few months ago with no single piece of information other than his name” Timi continued.

Now Elvis is really lost.

“I pulled some strings; don’t ask me how I did that too; I learnt that the name IAOA and four other names have the same bearer; Musa Seyi Nwanchukwu” now Elvis couldn’t stand again, he had to sit on the desk in resignation “I developed the BVN picture too and did a face match with his picture, I got a 60% match” Timi completed.

“We are facing MSN” Elvis gasped

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Elvis sat down deeply lost in thought, he had hoped to solve the case of the greedy pot-bellied politician with ease or if it’s going to be difficult, he had hoped it won’t lead to something bigger. He had hoped for a straight forward case, something easy but now it’s linked to the most dreaded criminal in Nigeria, one who killed his competitors to monopolize the crime world of Nigeria. A young man feared by all.

He asked Timi to draw up all the information the department has on MSN and compile everything; he’ll go through them tomorrow. He remembered he won’t be able to go through them tomorrow because of the TBS bombing the department is looking to prevent tomorrow. That’ll have to be next week.

He dispersed Timi and Dauda for the day, they sure need some rest for tomorrow; he hadn’t even briefed them on their task tomorrow, that’ll have to wait till tomorrow morning, right now he needed a long rest and they sure need it too. Timi and Dauda nodded in agreement.

“What’s going on here” Ben hollered walking towards them. His face still a bit contorted; signs of a good thumping but he looks fine.

“Ben, you’ve been discharged so soon?” Timi asked excited

“You haven’t spent a day”

“Told you I hate hospitals, I’ll do just fine without them, the doctor had to let me go when I kept on disturbing the whole ward” Ben said laughing

“Welcome back bro” Elvis said hugging him

“You still look like a gnome” Dauda said hugging him in turn.

Timi patted his face with Ben winching a bit in pain,
“I see, you do just fine” Timi said before hugging him.

Elvis was very happy to see Ben healthy again. People say trouble strengthen bonds, Ben’s mauling strengthened his. A touch of happiness that eased the tension of a tiring day. He told them to meet early tomorrow morning at a particular location close to the TBS, Timi will get the van and the equipment; he’ll give them a quick debrief then.

“Welcome back bro” Elvis said patting Ben again, evidently happy with his radiating smile.

He took a last look around his team, affection and trust glaring back at him from the eyeballs glaring back at him; smiles of understanding and unionism reached back at him, Timi’s eyes glaring in excitement, Dauda’s face has that straight look; gained from years of experience; behind that face, total trust is all Elvis felt, Ben with his bumper body has that wry look on his face, worsened by the dilapidated state off his face. Now they are a team.
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Elvis got home, took off his clothes and walked towards the bathroom for a shower. He looked at the frame glaring back at him, he looks leaner and stressed out, the scar that ran across is chest now looks bolder, his six packs are becoming less seeable; thanks to his less visit to the gym; his face now looks paler, and the ‘pits’ at opposite end of his neck are now getting deeper; he hadn’t been eating much; all in the space of a week.

He made some sandwiches of bread and jam, took a jar of milk before heading towards his bedroom. It has been long he called his family, he’ll do that tomorrow after catching the bomber tomorrow-hopefully, he thought as his eyes obeyed nature and he drifted to wonderland.
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SATURDAY 08:00 AM

He had briefed his team about the situation at hand, emphasizing on the gravity and magnitude of the case; a lot of life is at stake. They must be at alert and pay utmost attention to any unusual observation. Elvis will stay on one of the floors, where he can oversee the whole square, Timi will stay in the van, giving backup and easy getaway if need be, Ben and Dauda are to mingle with the crowd observing the surroundings. The other teams have taken position in their pre-planned location too.

“Team, get to your position” the ringing voice of the IG blared through the walkie-talkie. Elvis nodded and they dispersed after wishing each other luck.

The TBS is an iconic square built in memory of the great Tafawa Balewa, the square is very large used for hosting large events, large scale evangelism, campaigns, and other programs. The square has a large podium at one end from which speakers stay to address the audience, the podium is very large, large enough to accommodate up to 100 people at once, the other end is littered with shops over which rents are collected for the upkeep of the grass overlaying the ground of the square. The square is large enough to accommodate 10,000 people at once.

The surrounding of the TBS is just getting filled up, the shops built around the square are just opening up, some displaying their wares outside their shops, detachable shops are also been constructed around the square with traders hurrying to display their wares to the passer-bys. Shouts of traders advertising their goods rent their air, shouts of conductors shouting different bus-stops in the route they are plying, hailing of touts and “street lords’ spiced the air as they acclaim praises and rendition to one another, shouts of angry passer-bys who had just been stepped on or one who just discovered his missing accessory added to the chaos, all coalescing to create a messy atmosphere.

Time flew by, seconds into minutes, minutes into hours, nothing unusual is noticed, the teams are getting weary, maybe it is a hoax after all, the information might be false. Sirens could be heard afar off announcing the passing of an influential person. The blaring of the siren gets closer and closer; suddenly the progress of the blaring stopped and blared from a specific distance, louder than the rowdy atmosphere, near the entrance of the square. Up ahead, an empty tanker just tumbled across the road, bringing the passage of automobiles to a halt.

The car with the siren is a black rangerover jeep, leading the procession of five cars, another similar jeep is at the end of the procession also with a siren. After some time the cars filed into the spacious end of the TBS, close to the podium, armed men chased away the few people hanging around the area, some of the armed men stood guard around the vehicles, while some of the armed men ran out to check what is delaying traffic.

“Who the heck is that?” The IG asked over the talkie

“That’s Honorable Titus sir” someone replied

“Honorable Titus? What is he doing here?” he asked again

“Seems he’s waiting for the traffic to ease up, before moving on, he’s having a meeting with the ex-governor” Timi replied

“How do you know he’s having a meeting?” the IG asked

“Did some findings sir” Timi replied uncomfortably. Seems the IG sensed it, he didn’t push it.

A group of plumbers dressed in yellow overalls walked towards the podium, they were accosted by the armed men but later let go. They walked towards podium and disappeared underneath it.

“Why can’t someone tell me that podium has an underground?” The IG screamed into his walkie-talkie.

No one replied, he heaved in exasperation, one can notice he’s furious at his end.

Elvis was not perturbed by what the IG is blazing over; his interest is in the group of plumbers that just disappeared under the podium, there’s something unusual about one of them, he sensed it, one of them had looked back and he had caught a glimpse of his face through the pair of binoculars with him. He knows that face, where did he know that face.

His eyes widened when he remembered the questioning pair of eyes that had looked at him when he was spying on Emeralds a few days ago.

The kiosk owner.