"Get your skinny ass off that bed and get dressed now, Kaz screamed as he pulled open the blinds," letting in the morning sun.
I struggled to open my eyes and when I did, my sight was foggy, coupled with a sickening headache.
"I'm never taking alcohol ever again," I whispered.
"Lesson number one. Avoid all things that dull your mind and slows you down. Your life might depend on how sharp you are and how fast you can react to situations," Kazeem shouted.
"So that's why I never see Kaz drink, I thought to myself.
"Now get out of that bed, little brother! We have business to attend to."
Chuks was already up and I wasn't surprised. He barely slept even then. I got up, rinsed my face, and got dressed hastily.
"What business are we attending to today?" I asked.
"First of all, we must make sure that Bammy gets home safely. I don't have to remind you that we are at war, and we might be hit at any time. You don't want to be the one that partied with the boss's son when he gets shot.
Lesson number two. Avoid being the one at fault, or you're going to end up dead quickly.""But isn't he safe with all the security around?' I asked.
"Lesson number three, bro. You are never safe. The moment you feel safe is when the enemy strikes."
"Why are you sounding like a sage all of a sudden, Kaz?" I started laughing, but it was cut short by the pain I felt. The hangover mixed with my face hurting from all the blows from the jump in.
Because I'm a sage in these streets, little bro. I am a fucking philosopher," Kaz whispered and smiled slightly.
We made our way down to the reception area and Bammy was already there with the rest of the guys. He was chatting with Shadae and laughing loudly. When he saw us he stopped.
"You guys had fun last night, yeah?" he grabbed me by my shoulder.
"Yes, sir," I replied.
"Good. Because, I have a job for later," he referred to Kaz.
Kaz responded by nodding his head and proceeded to the door, he stopped and gestured to us to come over. Chuks and I joined him and we made our way to the car.
"You don't really like that Bammy guy, do you," I asked.
"He's an asshole. He's the boss's kid but he's an asshole. He's the real reason for this whole war in the first place."
"What do you mean," I whispered.
"Forget I said anything," he replied as he suddenly fixed his attention on something somewhere on the other side of the street. He screamed, "Get down," and we both did.
He flung the car door open and started running towards Bammy who had just stepped out of the hotel. The loud sound of assault rifles rose to the air and bullets started whistling. We were being attacked. Kaz was quick enough to push Bammy to the ground and that saved his life. The two people that stood beside him got hit. When our guys started shooting back, the attackers fled. When the air cleared we found out that Adam had been hit, he died on the spot of several shots to the chest. The second person that got shot was Sanusi. I and Chuks stepped out of the car in time to see them carry him to the car, he held on to his neck as blood gushed out. His clothes turned red, soaked with his blood. Growing up around gang members, in a crime-infested neighborhood, I was no stranger to gunshots and hearing about people getting shot, but that was the first time I saw it up close, and it was a mess.
"Get him to the hospital, right now!" Bammy screamed as he got off the ground and dusted off dirt off his clothes.
"Those are Jason Bade's boys. They're 666 mob, and I know where they'll be," Kaz mumbled.
"What the hell are we waiting for? Let's go kill those bastards!" Bammy fumed.
"No, Bammy, I got this, Kaz placed a hand on his shoulder."
"You got it? Who the hell do you think you are?" he slapped Kaz's hand off his shoulder angrily.
"Look here, Bammy. You almost got shot just some minutes ago. What do you think your father is going to do to me and all these men if you get killed? Just go home and let me handle this shit."
He got calmer and started walking to his car, and his men followed him. When he got into the car, he reached his head out and said "You better kill all those motherfuckers, Kaz." The engine started and zoomed off.
"Now what?" I asked.
"Lesson number five, bro. Always clean up the mess. It gets you credibility and it's good when they know you're the guy that gets things done."
He made a phone call and some minutes later a truck parked in front of us. The door opened and Samson got out.
"Did I hear you say Jason Bade's boys took a shot at Bammy?" he reached into the truck, brought out an A.k. 47, and cocks it.
"We're going to King's Lane, boys," Kaz said as he got into the truck. We got to King's Lane around some minutes to noon.
Two police patrol trucks stopped right behind Samson's truck. I missed a breath thinking we were getting in trouble. Being caught with a gun in Harmony city was a serious offense, and these guys didn't have just one gun, they had a whole armory in that truck.
"Hello, Kaz. We heard there was trouble earlier," one of the policemen said.
He appeared to be the one in charge. The crooked motherfucker was just an officer back then. He grew to be an important associate over the years. He got out of the car and stood in front of Kaz, starting at Samson.
"Samson, I see you're here too. I know who to come arrest later if you don't do the normal, Kaz."
"When have you ever known me to disappoint you, officer?"
"Good, then you boys are free to conduct your businesses in this district, happy hunting."
"Shit, Kaz. You're friends with that cop?" I screamed.
"Lesson number six. The police are not your friend."
Kaz knew exactly where Bade's and his crew would be and at first, it was a very good thing. It made what was done in King's Lane that day easier, but we didn't realize it would eventually get Kaz into trouble with the boss.
"Stay in the car with Chuks and keep the engine running. We're in enemy territory and we're going to need to leave in a hurry. Grab a weapon, and look sharp."
They all opened the doors and got out. They ran towards the apartment building and almost immediately the gunshots were heard. Chuks was so calm he lit a cigarette and started smoking.
People in poor neighborhoods back then knew to mind their business. They don't even try to call the cops. The cops would give excuses like lack of transportation for not coming. All they did was close their doors and windows and wait till the air clear.
The streets looked deserted as the gunfight rages on. It lasted for almost an hour and no single police came.
Suddenly, a window burst open from one of the apartments, and someone got thrown out of it. He landed on the ground, splattering blood everywhere. I watched as he took his final breath. It was One eyed Sunday.
A kid ran out of the building holding a pistol, he couldn't have been older than I was. He pointed the gun at me and I froze, I had a gun in my hand too but I froze. When I heard the gunshot I thought I was dead, but the kid fell to his knees clutching his stomach as he began to bleed. He appeared to be clearing, yes tears stream down his cheeks. He suddenly made a final attempt to move, and just like that, I became a murderer. It was like I was taken over, I guess it was the fear of death that made me do it. It was going to be one of us, and I wasn't going to let him make the choice. I shot at him and the bullet caught him right in the forehead. He fell to his back and stopped moving.
Chuks ran back into the car and I followed him, trembling. The others came down and we zoomed off.
Kaz must have figured out what happened. He just placed a hand on my shoulder but didn't say anything.
"Shit! Bade wasn't there," Samson shouted.
"We got the whole of his, crew. He won't stay hidden for long. This is a win," Kaz replied.
They all thought it was indeed a win, but just like I've learned over the years, when you're in the business of crime, things aren't always as they seem.
They say you never really know until you do. Back in those days, we were born into the violence, and I was no stranger to people I knew ending up dead, but pulling the trigger? That was another thing entirely. Killing a man leaves a dent in your soul forever. I was never a religious person, never had the time for it. But yeah, I knew right then that if heaven and hell exist, it's gonna be hell for me. I also knew it was only the start, not the end, the kid in the street was the first, he wasn't going to be the last.Sanusi was pronounced dead at the hospital, and some weeks later we had to attend his funeral. He was a Muslim, and they had this whole ceremony that mostly involved Muslim clerics praying and getting paid for it. He was very popular, the most important person in his family actually.The service was full of praise-singing by the clerics. They would talk and sing of the good deeds done by Sanusi when he was alive, but they never really pointed out that the man
Violence is a behavior involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something, but poverty is the greatest violence that can be unleashed on a person or people. A hungry man is an angry man like the saying goes. Later in my life, I sat down to think if given better chances, maybe I would have made better choices. I mean I didn't dream of being a career criminal but at a point, I thought I decided there was nothing else out there for me. I and a lot of other kids like me. But the truth is somehow that choice had been made for us before we were born. We were born poor and struggling, just like our parents before us, and the same people who made us poor did everything in their power to keep us down. I, like others like me just had to do everything to break out of the chains, the chains that held us down was poverty, their very effective weapon of control. Of course, things could have gone differently. I could have gone to school, stay away from the gangs,
Still in my teen years and I already got blood on my hands. I tried not to think about it so much but every time I let my mind wander, the thoughts crept into my mind. I started seeing faces, at first, I recognized these faces. I recognized their last stares, how scared they were. They were the faces of men I had shot dead, I started having nightmares, once the nightmares started they never stopped, not even now. Then the faces got so much I stopped recognizing them. If salvation was a thing I knew I was well past it, so I stopped hoping for it and started doing everything and anything it takes for me to survive and keep my family safe...as safe as possible. In this life, in Harmony city, you are never really safe.The following weeks after Fani and his crew were found dead in the desert, the war got tenser. Fakunle went on a rampage, taking a shot at everything and everyone affiliated with the Sarumky family while looking for me and Chuks.Killing Fani earned us more
Zarratown is just a little town in the desert just outside of Harmony city. As the trucks drove us out of Harmony city, and I was leaving my home for the first time, I looked back and the view I saw almost made me cry, it was damn beautiful.The Alsaebun was an organization on a different level, the little town of Zarratown allowed them so much growth, the people there basically viewed them as royalty and saviors. They were involved in everything in the town, ranging from politics to religion. The town was ninety percent Muslims and this also helped the Alsaebun to gain more popularity and influence among the population. They were involved in any and every crime in the town, ranging from international coke deals to robberies, and nobody could stop them, nobody would.The trucks that took us from Harmony city suddenly halted after a three hours drive and we were greeted by some other men, they were also turbaned and carried assault rifles like the ones that took u
It was no secret that Shurrah and I were together. There was no point trying to hide anything in that place when the Alhaj's men were everywhere at all times. I really did not care anyway, I was in love for the first time and it was beautiful. Shurrah connected with me in ways I would later in my life miss so much. It was like she knew what I thought in my mind, and for someone with a noisy mind, it made me happy, happier than I had ever been since my mother passed away.For two months we lived in the Alhaj's mansion. Eating, and relishing like kings, but like the saying goes "good things don't last long."When Zaheer came to get me, it was exactly two months after the day we left Harmony City. He walked into the room smiling from ear to ear that early morning."You've been summoned, Mr. Badur. You and your brother," he said as he opened the large windows of the room."Summoned by whom, Zaheer?" I murmured. We never saw the Alhaj again after the fir
On the way back to the mansion the Alhaj explained how he had been trying to expand his cocaine business into Harmony City because of the seaport which would make his business easier and more profitable."The council continues to block my expansion even though I had toasted them for years. Your brother was going to open the gate for me but he cannot do that right now, and I am out of patience," he explained."An expansion now would put me and my brother in more trouble, Alhaj. The council would see it as another betrayal. I don't think I understand what you're asking me to do here.""I am asking you to wake up, kid. Your brother saw your bosses for what they really are, and he was ready to finally do something for himself. You have two choices in this life, kid. You can either be the grunt or be the fucking general!"You can continue to serve a man that does not give a fuck about you and maybe if you're lucky you'll make it to your early twenties
The representative of the Cartel that attended the meeting was a guy named Osiel Blanco. He came to represent the matriarch of the Blanco family, who was his mother. The cartel was seeking new routes to Europe, and the corrupt nature of the country made it the perfect place to do business. This resulted in the expansion of two distinct trade routes, both of which went through West Africa. One route exported domestically produced cannabis from West Africa to South Africa, Europe, and Asia. The other trade route moved cocaine from Latin America and heroin from the Middle East and Southeast Asia to Europe and the United States. I sat with the Alhaj, Osiel and we were later joined by the Chinese. All this was moving way too fast for me to keep up. I never knew how Alhaj was able to convince these seasoned criminals to trust me, a kid... I was just a secondary school kid without any experience of the world I was being introduced into. These were world-level, very dangerous people. They c
Harmony City, my home. I could hear the noise half an hour before we entered the city. The sound of people screaming and singing, and laughing. The sound of vehicles honking, motorbikes speeding and people angrily cursing one another's forebears. The sounds of babies crying, mothers screaming at their children to be careful, and fathers scolding their stubborn children. Sirens of police cars and ambulances rose in the air, those never stop for a well-known reason, a city with its total violent crime rate at 479.7. The police and the ambulances work round the clock, with the latter so corrupt it does not make any real difference. The loud sounds of men arguing, women gossiping, all mixed up to create the chaotic atmosphere of this dirty metropolis.Unlike the smell of fresh air that I enjoyed during my stay in Zarratown, the smell in Harmony City was different too. I was greeted by the familiar smell of sweat mixed with maquillage and all sorts of body lotions and creams
Oh, how things can change in the blink of an eye. Big Shark had been living a quiet and uneventful life in prison, serving out his time for a murder he had committed twenty years ago. But now, as he sat in his cell, he was approached by a representative of an international criminal organization – a group so powerful that they could make things happen that others could only dream of.This organization had the means and the connections to get Shark out of prison, to give him a second chance at life on the outside. And they were offering him a deal – the kind of deal that he couldn't refuse.But Shark had been in the game long enough to know that nothing in life comes for free. There would be a price to pay for this newfound freedom, and he had a sinking feeling that it wouldn't be an easy one to bear.As he weighed his options, Shark couldn't help but wonder how he had ended up in this situation. It all went back to the night of the murder – a crime of passion that had changed the course
I appreciate you guys for reading this story, and as we come to the end of this chapter in the story, I am happy to inform you that we are going to make this into a series of books, with the second book already In the works. I'll inform you when I get it signed so that we can continue the stories of the Badur crime family, thank you once again. Please drop your comments and votes. Let me know what you like, and dislike, and let us work on it together. I would love to hear from you all, let's go! . 🙂
After taking the rest of the crime bosses off the board, I decided it was time to use the help of our newfound allies, I offered Dele, the new DSS district director another career-changing opportunity when he finally helped me to get the information I needed, the identity of the men who had been gunning for me and mine. He finally gave me the files after a long look and I was surprised when I opened them, this helped when I made my plans, the final stage was the sit down with the man who led the assault against my family. I had to look him in the eyes, I just had to. So, three weeks after taking out the other bosses, I called him, he was a captain in the army, named Captain Abubakar Lawan. I asked him to meet at a restaurant downtown named Dodo and he agreed. As I sat at the table in the dimly lit restaurant, I could feel the tension in the air. I knew that Captain Abubakar Lawan would not come alone, and I was proven right as he arrived with a group of armed members of his unit. T
I knew we would have to leave town for a while at least, but I wasn't going to leave without putting the house in order. I knew I was betrayed by some of the bosses, and I wasn't going to let the betrayal slide. It would have been a nail in my coffin. I had two problems, the first one was how to punish my betrayers and the second was how to make sure that others never even try to betray me again. What came next was a sort of cleansing, both spiritual and physical... the sort of shit I needed Chuks and Akeem for. Betrayal in this game comes with a heavy price - for those who cross the line, there's a one-way ticket to the Colosseum. Just ask any ancient Roman emperor how they dealt with disloyalty - heads roll and blood spills. Loyalty is rewarded, but betrayal? That's a one-way ticket to a brutal end. After the election, when the parties and the candidates argued and battled in courts about the results, and tried to prove all sorts of rigging and criminalities perpetrated during the
They say politics is a dirty game, but I say it's just like being a gangster. You have to be cunning, fearless, and willing to do whatever it takes to come out on top. The only difference is that in politics, the weapons are usually words and the battlegrounds are mostly hidden from the public's eyes.... Well that is just until the guns are drawn and bullets fly, in these parts, the difference is not that much, elections are always full of murders and blood. As I sit in my dimly lit office, surrounded by smoke and the whispers of power, I can't help but draw parallels between the two worlds I had just started to inhabit. In both, you have to be able to manipulate, lie, cheat, and murder your way to the top. It's all about who has the most leverage, who can cut the best deals, and who can eliminate the competition with finesse.My father used to say, "In politics, you either eat at the table or you're on the menu." And let me tell you, I've never forgotten those words. They ring true
The attacks against us were not only physical, but most of our businesses had stopped, Basheeru, the leader of the bikers, my loyal friend was betrayed and killed, and the other bosses were already in hiding. Most of them were also betrayed by men close to them and they barely escaped assassination. Everything was crumbling around me, but that was not the worst of it. A blogger started publishing stories about us... He used different names of course, but the details were so accurate that all it needed was for anybody to pay attention and they would know who the publications were about. One of these publications goes... The scorching sun hung high in the sky, sending waves of intense heat across the vast lands of West Africa. The dunes stretched endlessly, mirroring the desolation that was cloaked beneath the surface. This harsh environment had become the playground of drug cartels, where illicit trade thrived under the watchful eyes of corrupt officials and desperate souls seeking fo
After hiding out in Hells' Gaze and perfecting my plans, I decided to share it with the family. "We are going to leave town for a while," I declared. They all stared at me as if I was going crazy. "Where would we go," Kaz asked. "The question is, where can't we go?" I said. "I have already gotten all of our passports ready." "But the business, everything you have built, we can't just run... This can't be it. " Akeem stood up from his chair and I could see the sadness in his eyes. "Oh, the business is going to be fine. We are going to leave the running to people we trust," I smiled. "But we are at war, and we're getting beaten, let me get the men together... We can still take this fight to them.""Oh, we are going to win this fight, but we're not going to go win it in the streets, we need to bring in the big guns, " I began to explain my well-thought-out plans. "We are going to meet with Ahmar Thubr and the DSS district officer tomorrow when they come here for their campaign, a
Sulaiman had become an enigmatic figure in the neighborhood, revered as a modern-day godfather, he commanded his men with an air of authority, as we ventured into the heart of Hell's Gaze, our infamous home. The warlords' gang, had become a tightly-knit brotherhood bound by loyalty, trailing behind him, a cacophony of voices raised in infectious chants and haunting melodies. As the people spilled onto the streets, their faces alive with fervor, it became apparent that this was more than a mere escape, it was indeed a homecoming.It was on the morrow of this triumphant return that I felt a yearning to inspect the underbelly of the neighborhood that had birthed and nurtured us and our empire. Eesha, my tempestuous flame, was by my side, her eyes aflame with a thirst for adventure. She was no stranger to the ghettos so, everything we saw didn't surprise her much. Together, we stepped onto the desolate streets, our footsteps swallowed by the decaying asphalt beneath us.Hell's Gaze, a nam
I did the things I did, and do not regret doing them. I am guilty of a lot of bad things, I am a very bad man, but I am what I am as a response to my environment. I did all the things I did to survive and push my family to a better life. Now imagine what I did when that family was threatened, I let all hell break loose, the monster free, and the chaos took over. The screeching sound of tires filled the air as the Jeep's engine roared to life, propelling us forward with an urgent intensity. Our hearts pounded with adrenaline-infused fury as we raced through the city streets, desperately trying to shake off the relentless pursuit of the DSS.The darkened alleyways and dimly lit streets became a blur as we weaved in and out of traffic, narrowly dodging oncoming cars and pedestrians. The eerie glow of the moon cast a haunting shadow over the chaos unfolding around us, adding a surreal touch to the frenzied atmosphere.Ahmad, my driver maneuvered the Jeep with a cool precision, his hands