Must Read: The Cartel (18+)

Episode 7 years ago

Must Read: The Cartel (18+)

JADE

It was a couple of days after she and her knights, led by Bonnie had kidnapped and harassed Vibangs boys into submission. They were made to understand they had the option of working for The Cartel or leaving the city. There was no middle ground as death was certain. His cousin, peter who he introduced to her (along with two female school of nursing student) was very instrumental to the success of that attack.


This was all due to her quest to dominate the city’s drug network, put Vibangs out of business while also getting her into trouble in the process.



And because of these expansionist ideas, Jade had in the past month began to delegate more duties to Bonnie. Bonnie was like her eyes, and had been the only one who contacted her directly.



Drugs for distribution were picked up by him and cash remittance came back through him. Keys to their safe house and their weapons were in his possession.


Bonnie was the natural choice as her second in command because, besides him being the most educated of her knights, he also had experience working with Vibangs and her Greenhorns.



Hence, had been her informant/confidant all the while. Again having been released from jail without any one noticing, he had managed to keep away from the public’s eye and had remained underground just exactly the way she prefered.


Although she was still playing safe with him, she had no issue trusting his counsel which so far had been working well. Thus, her meeting with him was always done in the dead of the night and with her trade mark disguise on. So prior to the commencement of her exam and for the over a month it lasted, she had let him run the show.
But this particular evening, she decided to meet up with him at his apartment to pick up the cash remittance and also to drop the new package that had just been sent to her from the HQ in Lagos.


This was the first time she would be ordering such large quantities of assorted drugs and pills (with a street value of about N6m).
When Ima queried, why she ordered such quantities, she didn’t mention the fact that she was trying to overthrow the Greenhorns. She only claimed the sales had been good and that students were embarking on holidays soon and would want to buy quantities to last them during the long vacation. But Ima opted to allow only about 60% of what she demanded sent to her.


Long hair wig, a head warmer, glasses (all as disguise), white t-shirt, jean jacket, leather bracelets, short jean skirt, black leggings underneath, an All stars sneakers, with a shuttle back containing the drugs and her personal pistol, she was dressed like a fan of rock music. Or better still, a drug dealer that she was.


Despite the rain which had started earlier in the evening, she in her trademark goddaughter way of acting, took a cab around 8:45pm first to the highway. She alighted and then took another cab to Marian road, before taking the last one to Calabar south. This was her way of being certain she wasn’t being trailed.



Bonnie picked her up from where she alighted and drove over immediately to his apartment. In the car with him was one of the school of nursing student who she understood was his girlfriend. After the initial greetings, they all remained silent for the rest of the short trip to his apartment.
She could tell the girl was nervous with her around. Even the first day they met had been like this. Unlike her other colleague who looked street smart, calm, bold and collected, this one had an aura of timidity all over her. Though both of them were doing very well with sales in their school of nursing. All thanks to Bonnie, this was a market she had never thought off.



Immediately they got to his place (which wasn’t her first time), they got down to business with him handing over the cash remittance to her. The time was already 9:30pm. The other agenda for the evening, was for her and Bonnie to plan how the new shipment would be shared amongst the other knights and the quantities that would be given to Vibangs boys who now worked for her.



While they got busy, the girl excused herself and went into the room where she remained for the rest of the evening.


Somehow she wasn’t a bit scared at the prospects of these two teaming up against her.
She was certain Bonnie is wiser than that.

************

By 11:pm they had finished balancing their accounts and shared the drugs into smaller packages for onward distribution to the knights who would further break it down. The rain wouldn’t stop falling but she decided it was time to leave. The money safely in her bag, she stood up to ease herself having been pressed due to the weather.


As she entered the room, she saw the girl on the bed watching a movie from a laptop with ear plugs. On sighting her, the girl quickly removed the earplugs and asked her if she needing anything
“Nah.. Just want to ease myself. You can go ahead with your movie” She responded as she opened the bathroom door.


At this point the light started shaking just as the power generating set started making the noise associated with empty fuel tank of. And as soon she set eyes on the WC, it felt like she couldn’t hold her bladder again and quickly rushed in just in time to hear the girl saying “Oh. Oooo”.
With the door closed, p@anties and leggings pulled down together, she began to empty her bladder when the power generating set finally went off throwing the bathroom (and the whole apartment) into darkness.
“I thought you put enough fuel Na. You know my laptop is like a television” She heard the girl complaining in anger just as she flushed and pulled her garments up.



Opening the bathroom door, she confirmed that indeed the girl’s laptop had gone off just as she heard the girl’s voice in the living room “Go and check it naww!”.

That was the last she heard as what followed was a gunshot, high pitched screaming from the nursing girl, the sound of a body falling inside the house, and the footsteps of people rushing into the house. Then she heard the unmistaken voice of Vibangs saying “One more sound and i put one i, your head b!tch. Now lie faced down on the floor and be a good girl”. Silence then filled the dark room.
“Bone ni” Vibangs called out his name in a way that could roughly be translated in Yoruba language to mean “It’s a bone”.
“So you didn’t want mama to see you and know you’re out? Now that’s bad. Very bad?” She said before giving instruction to one saying “You, check the room” was what she heard next. Immediately she realized her pistol was in her back on the floor in the living room and she became really terrified