DOPE Season 2 (The Devil I never knew) by Erasmus Ugochukwu Okafor
**Anonymous enemy**
As confusion loomed in his head and while tension flared around him, Hugo quickly took his phone and dialled Jose Fuentes. As the dialling tone beeped, he tossed around the hallway of the hotel feeling so restive and waiting for him to take the call.
Immediately Jose took the call, Hugo said: “Larissa is gone and my location is compromised. I really don’t know what to do right now,”
“Hey, relax first, but the most important thing is to leave the hotel immediately,” Jose suggested, “I mean you should flee, now!” he yelled.
“How can I do that when I know that Larissa will still be in the building?” he queried panting heavily.
“It is only when you’re alive that you can find her. Try to keep yourself alive because there is nothing more important than that. That’s the first rule of the drug business,” Jose advised in Ramon’s voice.
As he listened to Jose, he went back quickly into the hotel room and picked his briefcase and dashed out through the hallways. He wasn’t sure where he was running.
He started hearing gunshots thundering even without knowing where to run to.
“I….I…think they’re already after me!” he muttered stutteringly as he took the staircase and avoided using the elevator.
“Give me the name of the hotel, forthwith,” Jose said and flipped his computer.
“It is Cool City Hotel at St George Street, FL.” He answered as he kept trying to avoid meeting anyone on his way, especially trying to avoid being captured with the briefcase that contains the location of the money his dad left for him and other important documents, including his international passport.
“I’m checking the coordinates now to hack the CCTV of the Hotel,” Jose said as he flexed his thumb quickly on his computer keyboard, “Correct! I got it. There are five men in the building with guns,” he informed, “One of them is the security officer but he’s been killed and his gun dropped on his lifeless body. Take your left and find your way to the basement of the building using the spiral staircase. Avoid the main staircase because three people are already waiting for you there,”
Hugo obeyed the instructions and continued that way until he found himself in the basement where a red Ferrari 458 Spider was parked. He quickly unlocked the car using his master key following instructions from Jose who disabled the code.
From the car park at the basement, he zoomed off into the streets with a loud screech and kept going at high speed until he got close to Jose’s house, near a beach. He didn’t have to drive the car to Jose’s house to avoid being traced to the location. He avoided dragging Jose and his family into the tussle.
He quickly took a cab to Jose’s house. When he got to Veneno Rosa, he alighted and quickly rushed into the Deli and went straight to the inner room where Jose was waiting for him.
“What could I have done without you?” Hugo said and embraced Jose, “where are my mom and my sister?”
“Relax, son. I already saw this coming, so I rented an apartment for them, to hide them away further from the fight,” he answered and smiled, “relax son, you’re safe now,”
“But Larissa isn’t,” he said angrily, gritting his teeth with anger.
“Larissa is in serious danger and that’s true,” Jose said admittedly, “but we need to fight to get her back, no matter what,”
“But how do we know who is behind all these,” Hugo asked tapping his foot repeatedly on the floor.
“Tell me what really happened,” Jose demanded as he tried calming him down.
“I got a call from a stranger claiming that he knows everything,” Hugo narrated, “he said that he’s my worst nightmare and will crush me in a wink of an eye. He asked me to call Bret McGowen on phone, which I did but Bret didn’t answer me but kept crying out aloud. I met a guy dressed in white shirt and black trousers who claimed to be a hotel attendant but later I noticed that he was one of them. I believe he was sent to distract me, which made it easier for them to abduct Larissa,”
“Let me have the phone number that called you,” Jose said and placed his hands on the computer keyboard, ready to begin a trace.
“It’s encrypted,” Hugo replied, “But that of Bret wasn’t,”
“Let me have Bret’s phone number,” Jose demanded looking at him with deep thoughts.
Hugo gave the number to him and waited for the next action.
“Can you trace the location of the call?” Hugo asked, looking so worried. “I’ll kill this man in the shadows before he knows it,”
“Ha-ha,” Jose grinned and shrugged away his smiles like a mirage, “You’ve been played, Hugo. The call didn’t come from Bret, but they used the call to create a diversion to steal away the girl. There is a secret passage through the bathroom of the entire hotel rooms which is strictly meant for emergencies but the enemies hacked the computer of the Hotel and obtained the information which they used to make their work easier,”
Hugo felt so bad for being used. He wasn’t a step ahead like he used to be because he was taken unawares by the enemies.
“This is intriguing. The computer programmers working for this anonymous caller must be good,” Hugo said with disbelief.
“Not just good, but very good,” Jose added, “He used a software known as ‘Spy’ which is a new software developed. This software for hackers can penetrate any server, except the one that is upgraded with ‘Nuclear Barricade’ software which is impervious to spy software,”
“I really can’t fathom how you knew all these but you’re really a good one and I now know why you said that Gustavo Paulo, the guru was your boy,”
“That sounds like a compliment,” Jose said and patted Hugo’s back, “I have just neutralised the cloning done to Bret’s phone. You can make the call to him now to get the real Bret,”
Hugo quickly took his phone and dialled Bret’s number. It was surprising that he got the real Bret and not the man crying in his voice.
“I need a favour from you, Bret,” Hugo said without a greeting.
“Hey, my good friend,” Bret said cheerfully, “what do I owe this call?”
“I want you to call off the destruction of the cocoa and marijuana plantation in Copacabana because the war isn’t over yet but just begun,” he said without mincing words.
Silence lingered between them at the moment because Bret couldn’t find it easy to do such, especially when he’d already made the call and the destruction may have been carried out.
“It won’t be easy because I already contacted the D.E.A through Mark Brendan, the leader and he assured me that the operation was successful,” Bret answered, “but why are you suddenly interested in going back to the illegal business you dropped?”
“My enemies are still alive. I thought Stone was the last among them but I was wrong. I now recant that belief,” Hugo answered.
“I really don’t know how to help you, but I’ll suggest that you go to Brazil and see for yourself. But before then, get this straight; if Mark Brendan says anything, he means it. The plantation is destroyed and I believe him,” Bret McGowen said and hung the call.
Hugo was so sad at this time thinking through how he was played while the abductors stole Larissa away. He was just confused and unhappy as he collapsed on the sofa finding it hard to think straight.
Jose simply got a bottle of water for him and handed it over to him saying: “Drink up; you need to save your strength. I think the real war just began but you should be smarter this time, especially while I’m by your side because we’ll work together and bring them down; no matter their numbers. I ran away from Brazil just to avoid this drug business that I didn’t want to inherit from my dad but Ramon embraced it and died defending it.
You also decided to run away from it just to have a peaceful home but you can see that drug business will always chase you around because you won’t only inherit the enemies you made but that of your fathers and forefathers as well. Since the vendetta and quagmire we were avoiding just visited us knocking, let’s drop our resolutions of leaving the business and open the door to welcome them with full embrace, offer them seat, and then crush them like flies.
My son, let’s think of contingency plan. But bear one thing in mind as a man; you may lose Larissa in this fight if you must stay alive or survive it; just know that she’s expendable. Like I said, drink up, and be prepared because an unknown enemy hiding in the shadows is born and it’s usually a tougher fight than fighting the enemy you know. Like i said, drink up and save some strengths,”
Hugo couldn’t even drink the water he had with him as he remained absently thinking about who the anonymous enemy could be.
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To be continued…
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