DOPE Season 2 Episode 3 by Erasmus Ugochukwu Okafor
**Mourning the dead as new enemy arises**
For about six months, Hugo kept getting strange calls from Lucas but surprised that the young man never mentioned anything about Larissa. It was just obvious that he murdered her just as a tit for tat for losing his dad in his hands.
Hugo had his new apartment; a bunker built close to Mina de Visitacao Octavio Fontana, Santa Catarina. He named his house ‘the invisible’ because the location wasn’t easy for one to locate it. He acquired the bunkered house from Octavio Jesús, a very rich man and a Mexican poet who used to be in drug business but had no child of his own. The man left permanently to Netherland and never to return to Brazil. He was very wealthy, with lots of fortunes which he left in an unknown location, with the intention to give them to the orphanage when he finally dies. Only his dog, Maxx knew the location of the hidden cocaine but that was a secret he never wanted to disclose to anyone, including Hugo who was his close friend and the occupant of his house.
One morning, Hugo was determined to start making contacts with his arch rival; therefore he got Lucas’s secret number from Belle who found it hard to disclose because she was still afraid of her cover being blown.
From his secluded location in the bunker, he made an encrypted call to Lucas. After the third buzz, he heard a deep voice from the other side of the telephone saying: “a human or a god?”
His statement was meant to be a code but Hugo already understood his terms.
“Where is my fiancée?” Hugo asked angrily; having waited for a couple of months without getting any call from the drug baron.
“Finally, Hugo Fuentes contacted me,” he said with an impish and annoying grin, “I now know that you really hate your fiancée so much for having made no contacts for long,”
“Where…is…my…girl?” Hugo voiced again, pronouncing the syllables clearly, “I know you kept her somewhere waiting for me to show up someday. Now, I deemed it fit to swallow my pride and ask you about the woman that almost made my life beautiful before you showed up with your mischief and treachery just like your father,”
Mentioning his father got Lucas so infuriated, making him start laughing. Whenever he laughs aloud, he’d been greatly angered. That’s his nature.
“Do you think that if your girlfriend is still alive I wouldn’t have contacted to make my demands known?” He blurted, “For the records, I fucked her many times until I got tired of her before handing her over to the merciless hands of painless death. Don’t ever contact this phone again,” He added and tried to hang up.
“Hang on, loser,” Hugo said and smiled even though he was so angry hearing what Lucas said to him, “I hope you’re just jesting because if you’re serious, I’ll use my bare hands to strangle you just as I strangled your dad who died shedding tears in my arms. I’ll not only strangle you to death but barbeque your sorry skin,” his voice was really sonorous as he issued those threats.
Mentioning his dad got him so deep into his marrow, making him grit his teeth in fury and rage.
“If you’re not cowed by my supremacy, why aren’t you coming out from your shell to face me? I know you have no brains just like your father, that’s why you find it hard to figure out how I captured the Copacabana plantation and currently making millions daily from it,”
“I hate people that talk too much,” Hugo said and hung up.
Even though Hugo tried being a man about it, he just couldn’t bear the loss. He fell on the floor and began to cry mournfully as he reminisced on the last time he spent with Larissa. He blamed himself for not telling her the truth about the strange call when it first came because if he did, he wouldn’t have left her alone in the room to the hallways which made it easier for the enemies to steal her like a hawk preying on the chameleon. It was almost impossible for him to think of how life could be without Larissa.
Life was almost nothing and meaningless for Hugo but he had to move on. Larissa’s death made him more hardened and determined to bring down Mortos Rio cartel. He felt as if his own sweat and that of his father were being enjoyed by a group of people who never merited or laboured called it.
As he was still thinking about the entire incidence that led to the capture of Larissa, a call came to his phone. He took the call and said: “Hi, who is this?”
“Sir, it’s me, Andre Italo. I heard that you’re back to the business,” His personal bodyguard said as he waited for his boss to reply.
Hugo was so happy hearing the voice of his personal bodyguard which quickly drove away the melancholic moment, creating a chance for hilarity and excitement.
“Where have you been?” Hugo asked, sounding so happy.
“Sir, I’m not really happy with you for not contacting all these while. Do you think you can do this alone?”
“Not at all,” he answered apologetically, “but being that I’ve already given you a share of the money to start a new life, I considered it unnecessary to bring you back into what we agreed not to bother our lives with anymore,”
“If we agreed on that, why are you going back to it?” Andre asked.
“I was dragged back to it, even though I tried so hard to repress that urge,”
“Who did?”
“Stone Antonio’s son,” Hugo answered sadly.
“Lucas? I thought he was against his dad’s drug business,” he asked, making Hugo surprised.
“Wait, you know this guy?” Hugo asked with utmost surprise.
“Yes, I do but never saw him as a threat,” he answered.
“He’s meaner than his dad and has taken over the plantation that we agreed to destroy,”
“Tell me you lied, sir,” he said doubtfully, “But Bret McGowen promised to put an end to its existence through his friend working with the US D.E.A,”
“The man in question is Mark Brendan who’s supposed to be the commander of the D.E.A unit in Florida but he was a spy and not just a security agent. He’s an accomplice to Lucas and even the person that perfected the takeover plans,”
“This is crazy and malicious,” he reacted with a shrug, “what role am I to play in this? Your orders inform my actions,” Andre was infuriated because he didn’t believe that his boss was passing through a lot even without his knowledge.
“Where are you staying currently? I’ve been managing a bakery in Minas Gerais state. I used the money you gave me to start up something and live a normal life,”
“I’m so happy for your line of business, but I have sad news,”
“Please, don’t tell me more,” Andre said pre-emptively.
“Larissa is dead,” Hugo groaned. Immediately he said that tears began to roll down on his cheek.
“Oh, Jeez. You’re kidding, right?” he asked with great shock.
“Lucas murdered her. I’m alone in this world but I’ve vowed to put an end to him just as I ended his dad’s life,”
“Where are you right now? I’m closing down this fucking business to join you tout de suite,”
“No…No, you don’t have to do that,” Hugo said being considerate, “focus on a better life and give the drug drama a chance,”
“Once you’re in this mess, we’re in it together,” he said and waited for an order or command from his erstwhile boss. “I love battle, I love war, and I can’t wait to crush some skulls, especially that of the small boy who has no spines,”
“I think you should take back your words because it seems he is no more the spineless jelly as you used to think but with lots of guts and balls,” Hugo called to his mind.
“How do I help?” Andre asked, “I’m back and we will do this together. Trust me. The allegiance I paid to your dad is same to you. I will die before you do,” he added solemnly.
“I am staying in a secluded apartment close to Mina de Visitacao Octavio Fontana, Santa Catarina. Once you get close, let me know because my apartment is down below,”
“As you wish, sir,” Andre responded and hung the call.
As Hugo was still thinking about Larissa, a message came to his phone showing the picture of Larissa as she was butchered, with her lying helplessly in the pool of her own blood. She was maimed and murdered in cold blood. Hugo couldn’t take a second look at the picture but deleted it forthwith. It was obvious to him that the encrypted call had been decrypted by his enemy making it easy for him to get a text message from him, so he destroyed the phone and changed it to a new one with higher version of sophisticated encryption. It then dawned on the young man that his father was right, and he should have allowed Larissa be, because if he did, she wouldn’t have been dragged into this mess of paying with her dear life.
Andre didn’t waste time to show up. He was immediately assigned the duty to oversee the actions of the soldiers as well as retraining the Hitmen at Gladiator’s Mess. He also recommended for Hugo a very powerful lady, well known for her silence but as deadly as a nuclear weapon.
On the day required to be the day for examining the new girl, Hugo drove to Gucci Banana Hotel downtown where the girl was already waiting.
When he entered the hotel, he didn’t see the lady which got him thinking that the recommended girl wasn’t serious.
As Hugo waited, he became restive and impatient until he got a call from an encrypted number. He wasn’t ready to start a battle of words with Lucas because he already made up his mind to launch a deadly attack. He didn’t take the call until the fifth buzz which forced him to take the call.
“Hey, Lucas, it is high time you…”
“Hey, Hugo Fuentes,” a lady’s seductive voice retorted courteously, “I’m already waiting for you in your car. Work on your security, please and make the car more impervious to the enemies,”
Hugo was so stormed that his exotic Bentley Continental coupe could be unlocked without his consent or even the trigger of an alarm. He quickly came out and met his car steaming, with the sexy slim blonde relaxed and smiling as she waited. He quickly opened the car, checked every personal effect and money he left there and they were all intact.
“Who are you and how did you get into this car?” he angrily asked.
“Next time, try to use Trojan barricade to avoid having your car unlocked by hoodlums,” she said and smiled sheepishly, “I am Las Flakes, the woman that you’re lucky to have her attention. Where do we begin?”
“What’s your password?” Hugo asked, to be sure she was really the one recommended by Andre.
“Andre Italo,” she answered, chewing a gum nastily.
“Don’t invade my privacy next time,” Hugo warned and dragged her out from the driver’s seat. “Take your position, clever lady. I like your style, though”
“I thought you wouldn’t compliment,” she said smilingly.
Las Flakes was a skinny Mexican girl but very sexy and shapely. She was also known as ‘Shadow’ because she keeps a low profile, operates in the covert but achieves results in unimaginable ways. She’d put many cartels down singlehandedly without blowing her cover or exposing her true identity.
Hugo zoomed off into the streets to meet Belle Ramon.
On their way to the cabin where Belle lay low in hiding, they were attacked by a group of bandits without knowing where they came from.
Bullets rained down on them on a wild chase but being that the armoured vehicle was impervious to bullets, they escaped unhurt.
Las Flakes already knew the group trying to lay an ambush on them and smiled.
“Find a safe location, but keep driving and making a turn towards the north of every junction you meet,” she advised, “This attack is coming from ‘The spiders’. Seems you’re already in trouble,”
“Oh my God,” Hugo exclaimed as he navigated through the streets using Flake’s directives, “who are the Spiders. I hope they’re not after you,”
“They don’t even know me, but I know them and have worked for them incognito. That was on a contract though,” she replied and kept chewing her gum. “Forget Belle’s location. If not you’d put her life in danger too,”
“Do you know who Belle is?” Hugo asked stepping harder on the accelerator.
“Of course, I do,” she answered, “I know a lot of people even though most of them don’t know me. I have my ways but that’s my little secret, and I guess you have a big one,”
“Who are the Spiders?” he iterated.
“They are one of the strongest Cartels in Brazil. Right now, your concern should be the Spiders, not even Mortos Rio,” she voiced vehemently, “They kill in hundreds. Whenever they have an eye on you, they’re coming to take over because they believe you have what is theirs. Ramon Fuentes avoided them but may not accept that he was chased down to the hole by the strong rival cartel. This could be the reason why he didn’t inform you about their existence,”
“But he should have warned me against them,” Hugo said.
“He didn’t know he’d die as fast as he did,” she replied.
“Seems you know so much,” Hugo said suspiciously, demanding to know more.
“I’ve spilled much blood but you may not know. I don’t kill the innocent, but I kill the guilty in the drug business. A girl fighting amid the male counterparts shouldn’t just be one step ahead but many steps ahead,”
“Who are you?” Hugo finally asked.
“All I can tell you is that I was introduced to this business when I was eight years and I was trained to be a killer. You can call me a Raw Weapon,”
“Right now, I’ve just made you the leader of the Super Falcons,” he said and patted her back.
Silence predominated at the moment until they got to the plantation and parked.
Flakes came down, smiled and said: “Belle already tried her best leading the girls forged into killing machines but I’ll turn them into nuclear weapons,”
Hugo was surprised that Flakes knew about his plans and the activities of the Mistério cartel even before she was invited to join. He smiled and said, “You’re a perfect match. How do we tackle the Spiders?”
“Contact your computer programmers and hackers to mount an invisible street CCTV around the entire area where you operate. This will give you the coverage you need, to monitor the activities of the cartel and ensure that you spot out moles, intruders, rivals and the security agents,” She said as she observed her new place of work.
Hugo took his phone and dialled Jose’s number to give him the update but was surprised that Jose already had secret cameras everywhere including some parts of the US. Hugo was so happy because Jose was really a very smart man, working round the clock to make sure that his foster son is safe in the business.
Even though the Mexican girl was there to help and she’d earned his trust because she was introduced by Andre, the only one he can trust with his life, Hugo was still gravely concerned about Spiders because they were described by Shadows as a group he should dread just as his father did in his time. A group that could make him give a break to the group that murdered his wife is worth giving an attention to. He wasn’t just hardened this time but prepared to face his worst nightmares.
Flakes didn’t have to take much time but took her time to see that even though the Super Falcons were trained, none of them was a match to her, so she had to retrain them, not just to attain the physical strengths but to acquire the technical sophistications and wisdom needed to outwit any man, no matter his cleverness and strength. She forged them into nuclear weapons as she promised. Their first target was the Spiders, and that is termed Mission Impossible, so she assigned the job to Killer Bitch, one of the Falcons, a very intelligent and smart nuclear weapon just like others.
To be continued…
