THE SEARCH The next morning had promised to be a cloudy day. The Don sat in his dining sipping coffee from a mug, his phone in his right hand. He had been trying since his waking hour to get across to his nephew to know the latest. Unfortunately, every effort to reach Andrés met with a brick wall. His phone line was switched off. His official line automatically redirected him to his voicemail. His home intercom buzzed on end with no one to answer until the answering machine prompts him to leave a message, which he had done a couple of times. Still, he was yet to get a feedback. El-Zaki was starting to feel really frustrated. It got worse by the fact that none of his colleagues he'd spoken to knew his whereabouts. "He never told us where he was headed when he angrily left late yesterday afternoon," the police officer he contacted, Julio, who also happened to be one of the patrol officers on ground that night at Fenton Hotel said apologetically."Who did he go out with then?" "Alo
TOO CLOSE A CALL Adriana did her best for Mr Enrique and hoped it would work. He was still in a coma and breathing weakly. His wife had woken up after Caleb left and became hysterical such that Adriana had to inject her with a sedative to sleep back.Afterward, Adriana looked around the old farmhouse for anything that could pass for a meal. She was starving. She wandered into the kitchen and found a package of food that Camila had forgotten on top of the counter. It was meant to be their meal for the night: Carlos and herself when they got to the deserted farmhouse. However, after the plans changed and they had to leave in the Jeep with the others, it completely skipped her mind.Adriana tore open the parcel and dug into the loaf of sandwiches found inside. It tasted strangely delicious. She wasn't expecting to find something remotely nutritious let alone tasty. After she finished eating, she decided to take some of it with her as she went out to look for Caleb.She found the key to
THE ENEMY CALLS Two days after the accident, Caleb decided to turn on his newly acquired phone line to communicate with his grandfather. The old man was worried sick having not heard from him for nearly five days. The moment he did, he heard a sigh of relief escape from his lips. "Goodness, my boy! Where have you been? Why is your name mentioned everywhere in the news? And why does El-Zaki suddenly want to talk with you?" That last question piqued his curiosity. He raised his eyebrow. "The Don wants to speak to me about what?!" he asked, both as a question and a sarcastic remark. "I don't know exactly. But he sounded really desperate," he replied. Then added, "In all the years I've known him, since the cruel death of your parents, he has never spoken to me directly. Not even when we used to attend the AGM together."There was a pregnant pause. Then a thought crossed Lord Dezani's mind. "Does it have anything to do with you staying at the same hotel where some police officers are
LET'S CALL A TRUCEBarrister Alfred Crusoe was sitting in his small office in the less busy area of Brava going through some documents when his private phone buzzed. He picked it up and looked at the number on the screen.Don El-Zaki!A look of pleasant surprise spread across his face."The Don? He remembers me today after all these years?" he chuckled. "He must be in some serious trouble. Just like I am in dire need of some serious cash," the shrewd lawyer muttered out loud looking around his dingy office. He had been looking for money to relocate from Brava to a highbrow area where he would stand a better chance of meeting business clients, contractors, and most especially those moneybags criminal politicians who needed the services of an equally badass lawyer to defend their corrupt asses. He was a lanky, tall man in his late fifties. A barrister no doubt but not by any means a 'legal' practitioner. His reputation as a shrewd, conman in suit preceded him. But he was a very smart
MAKING GOOD HIS THREAT "You do not want to make an enemy of us all, Don." The barrister said coolly as he headed for the door. Then suddenly he turned around as though forgetting something. "Think carefully about what I just said." El-Zaki clenched his fist as the barrister shut the door behind him. "Why is everyone daring to stand up to me?" he growled. And the answer came a few seconds later. A notification had just buzzed on his computer which was on the table. He turned it to face him, clicked it open and it read: "The police to reopen investigations into the murder case of a billionaire businessman and his family." Without waiting to read the full details, El-Zaki knew it was the Dezani case. He felt his limbs go limp on the spot. "Did that boy make good his threat already?" Then the words of the barrister flashed rapidly in his subconscious: "You do not want to make an enemy of us all." "Was the barrister aware of something he didn't yet know?" he wondered out loud. His
THE ENEMY WITHIN Caleb was with the comptroller when El-Zaki called. The man saw the call and ignored it. Caleb became curious. "Is that one of the cartel members calling?" "It's the Don's official number," he said. "Maybe you should hear him out," he said with a distracted shrug. The comptroller looked at him askance. "I think if you don't, he'd suspect you are the brain behind it." "I will return his call at my own time." But Caleb didn't like the idea. He wanted to be present when the comptroller spoke with the Don. If he offered to pay him more money than they were offering, the comptroller might be tempted to change his mind. *** Barrister Alfred Crusoe got back to his office more furious at himself than he cared to explain to Linda. "If there are other appointments for today, they should be cancelled. I'm leaving the office for home," he announced as soon as he stepped into the reception. "Any problem, sir?" the petite lady asked, a slow frown creasing her forehead.
PERFECTING THE PLANAn anxious El-Zaki sat beside the land phone willing it to ring. He had tried several times to reach Nathan but he didn't pick up. "There better be a good explanation for this," he roared, slamming down the receiver. The next thing was an email notification beeping on the computer. He checked and it was a bank withdrawal alert. The sum of five million dollars was being taken out of his account. "Holy shit!" he muttered under his breath stubbing the end of his Treasurer Aluminum Gold cigarette in the ashtray beside him. It was the only thing that could calm his nerves whenever he was anxious. "What is that boy up to?" For a man like El-Zaki, five million was a paltry sum of money. What actually bothered him was the inexplicable behaviour of his personal assistant. He had already lost a dozen of his loyal men and couldn't stomach another betrayal. He immediately picked up his phone to call his account officer to stop the payment but the man said the transaction
THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMYCaleb was with the comptroller when all this conversation was going on. But before then, something very strange happened. He was on his way home after giving the money to the comptroller when he got an email from an unknown email address. In the email was written detailed information about his parents and DeZ Cosmetics. The sender wrote, "If you need any piece of information regarding what happened to your parents; their deaths and the original documents of the company, you can reach me via this same email." Then the mail went on to explain how the deal between El-Zaki and Barrister Crusoe was struck, and every other detail which the comptroller read out to the barrister during the phone call. It sounded like the job of an insider. Maybe someone was trying to set up the Don. He had stepped on too many toes, apparently. Caleb then immediately dialled the comptroller's line who told him to come over to a secluded hotel somewhere in town. He got into his new Cad