The Cartel 7--Illuminati--Roundtable of Bosses

by Ashley

  The woman who taught the course rattled off facts and statistics up front but Mo was retaining none of it. He had come for one reason and one reason only: to make an example out of Roach. Oddly, he wasn’t rattled. He didn’t feel an ounce of nervousness as he sat, with his eyes fixed on his enemy, as he felt the fork rub against his arm. It was covered by the sleeve of his shirt and Mo waited patiently to put it to use.

  Don’t back out on me, Mo thought as he waited for Joey to play his part. He had to stop himself from laughing when Joey fell dramatically from his chair and began convulsing on the floor.

  That nigga is an actor, Mo thought as he created a scene that was straight out of a movie. If Mo didn’t know better he would have thought the kid was having a seizure.

  “Oh, my God! I need help. I need help in here!” Mo had timed it perfectly. There was a small window of opportunity where the guards switched shifts and the classroom went uncovered. The teacher looked around in dismay. It was against protocol to send a juvenile out of the classroom without an escort and Mo could see from the look on her face that she didn’t know what to do. The other boys had started to circle around Joey, who was still on the ground going for broke. He had even rolled his eyes into the back of his head for good measure.

  “I’ll be back. I’m going to get help,” the teacher said as she rushed out of the room. When she was gone, Mo stood and turned the lock on the door and then walked up behind Roach, who was standing with the crowd. He slid the fork out of his sleeve and before Roach could react Mo stabbed him with it, repeatedly jamming it into his side fast and forcefully.

  “Agh!” Roach yelled as he fell to his knees.

  Mo stood and to his surprise Joey did too as they mashed him out and the other boys instigated the attack.

  “Who you gon’ starve? Huh?” Mo said as he stomped Roach’s head and face relentlessly. The two boys beat Roach ruthlessly until the guards burst into the room, popping the lock off the door to enter. Mo didn’t stop and Joey didn’t either. Roach had the beatdown coming. None of the other boys intervened because at one point or another, Roach had made them victims too. This was revenge for them all and by the time the guards pulled Mo and Joey off Roach he was a bloody mess.

  “Every time I see you, I’m mashing you! It’s on sight! Talking about shit done and nothing changed! It’s Cartel forever! Don’t play with me,” Mo shouted. He had never been so angry. He saw red and he lunged for Roach repeatedly, making the guards work for their paychecks as they could hardly contain him. Mo was in rare form. He didn’t know he would explode like that, but as soon as he pressed go it was hard to stop himself. He was so full of anger that he took it out on Roach. Some of it hadn’t been meant for him, but Roach caught the brunt of it anyway. The guards pinned him facedown on one of the desks and pried the fork from his hands. He had dug it into Roach’s body so deep that it had bent. He hadn’t killed the kid, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. Joey was pinned on the desk across from him and they were cuffed before they were thrown in solitary.

  “How long you think we gon’ be in here?” Joey asked, talking through the closed door of the torturous cell.

  “I don’t know, but it was worth it,” Mo replied. “Yo your big ass was wiggling like a mug on that floor!” Mo yelled out with laughter. “Then when you got up and mobbed dude with me? That was real. For real, until the day I get out of here, I got your back man. I know you scared of dude so that showed a lot of loyalty. Watch what I tell you. Now that you showed that you not a punk, ain’t nobody gon’ try you no more.”

  Joey was quiet for a while as an awkward silence filled the air. “Thanks, Mo,” Joey finally said.

  Mo didn’t respond. He simply turned in the cell and took in his new quarters. It was so small that Mo almost couldn’t breathe. The air was thick and hot. The concrete slab that he was expected to sleep on was covered in a wet puddle from the leaky ceiling above it. He extended his arms out and touched the walls on both sides of him, that’s how tight the space was. He sighed but still he had no regrets.

  Mo didn’t care how long they left him in there because when he came out he would have his respect. He had watched every man in his life carry themselves like a boss. There were no workers in the Diamond family. Every one of the men in his life held a position of power and he wouldn’t allow Roach or anybody else to ever chump him. His pride wouldn’t let him and his bloodline didn’t call for it.

  * * *

  Mo and Joey sat in confinement for six weeks before they were released back into the general population of the juvenile center. Mo didn’t forget his threat, however. He didn’t make empty promises, so on his first day out he spotted Roach and it was war on sight. He mashed him again, with Joey never leaving him hanging. Joey never started a fight, but he wouldn’t let Mo finish it alone and together they were carted right back to the hole. They made it through, however, with conversations through closed doors. Sometimes they talked about everything, with Mo reminiscing about what his father and uncles were like. Other days they talked about nothing at all, playing dumb games and making bets on which bugs on the dirty floor would crawl the fastest. They survived and a strong friendship was forged amid the fire. It was one they wouldn’t soon abandon.

  CHAPTER 8

  Carter grew frustrated as he got the voice mail for the fifteenth time. “Breeze, call me back,” he whispered harshly into the phone, knowing that the feds most likely had her lines tapped. He never left messages for fear of her being targeted as an accomplice and/or abetting a fugitive. He had grown so worried and frustrated he had to leave a message, feeling like he had no choice. He hadn’t been able to reach Breeze, who he thought was caring for his son. This was making him uneasy. He had been calling her phone for the past three days and hadn’t heard anything back. This isn’t like her, he thought as he looked at his phone in disbelief. All types of negative thoughts began to run through his mind. He knew the feds had made an impromptu visit to her home, but he had assumed they were on a fishing expedition. They shouldn’t have been able to pin anything on Breeze. They had kept her cleanest of them all. Did they dig up enough evidence to arrest her? Did one of my old enemies come back for revenge?

  He sat on the bench on the emperor’s property and watched as the birds swooped down and fed off the birdseed scattered on the pavement. He looked just across the property and saw Brick, Millie, and Ghost playing a game of golf while smoking cigars and conversing. They offered for him to participate, but his frequent chest pains or worries of his family wouldn’t allow him to join in on the festivities. He had other things on his mind, like Ghost’s assurance that he could pull strings to make his problems go away. He couldn’t wait to hit the streets again and create favor with Ghost and his partners. The promise that Ghost had made about helping with Miamor was enough reason for him to sneak back into the U.S. and begin to make things shake on his old stomping grounds.

  “Feel like having a little company?” Anari asked as she stood behind the bench. Carter quickly twisted around and looked at her. He didn’t even notice her creep up behind him.

  “Sure, why not,” Carter said as he scooted over to one side of the bench, giving her room to sit and join him. She quickly sat next to him and looked on at the others continuing their golf game. Carter reached into the bird food dispenser that was to the right of him and then tossed the seeds onto the ground.

  “There’s something about this guy I just don’t trust,” Anari said as she squinted her eyes and focused on Ghost.

  “What do you mean?” Carter asked calmly, trying to understand Anari’s angle.

  “It just seems kind of odd for something this powerful and it’s only niggas in the room. That doesn’t seem strange to you?” she asked.

  “I was thinking the same shit to be honest,” Carter confessed as he looked around. He knew that where there was money, a white guy in a suit wasn’t far away. It was the way of America to be quite honest.

  Anari repositioned her body so she was facing hi
m directly and looked around before she began to talk. She spoke in an exasperated whisper, “We have to be honest about the entire situation. Call a spade a spade. There is something that he isn’t telling us and I want to find out what it is.” Anari’s tone was full of incredulity as she continued her theories. “Is there more money being made that we don’t know about? Is this nigga the feds trying to suck us back in, only to give us all life sentences? So many fucking thoughts. I haven’t slept comfortably since they snatched us.”

  “I don’t think he’s the feds. The nigga moves too smooth to be honest. He’s not a cop. I’m almost sure of it. I can smell them from a mile away and he’s not that. Yet, I do feel the same way. We don’t know everything. But sometimes that’s not necessarily a bad thing, ya know?”

  “True … true,” Anari added.

  “Maybe some of us have no choice but to take this offer. The stakes are different for everyone,” Carter said, indirectly letting Anari know that he had no more options. While others’ motivation might have been money or an escape from the drug game, his was much more. He was fighting to get his family back and this was the only option on the chessboard. Anari nodded as she was reading his mind. She saw the pain in his eyes and knew that he was going forward with the proposition no matter what. On the other hand, she wanted to know more. It was the boss in her that demanded a clear understanding before she dove in headfirst. Only time would tell.

  * * *

  Carter was sleeping in his suite and it was just past 2:00 A.M. It was the last night of their stay in India and the eve of their massive takeover. The following months would be them setting up shops in various cities in the U.S. and releasing the Rebe drug onto the streets.

  Carter’s issued cell phone began to buzz, which woke him up out of his light slumber. He slowly rolled over and watched as the phone buzzed and the screen lit up. He sat up, wiped his eyes, and reached to grab the phone. When his eyes could finally focus, he saw that it was a message from Ghost. It read:

  Urgent: COME OVER. I HAVE SOMETHING VERY IMPORTANT TO DISCUSS WITH YOU. IT CAN’T WAIT UNTIL THE MORNING.

  Carter frowned in confusion, wondering what it could be that was so important that it demanded his presence in the wee hours of the night. Carter’s heart began to race and he wondered whether Ghost had anything new on Miamor and her case, or if it was something wrong with his family, who he hadn’t been able to get a hold of? So many things were going through his mind at that very moment. He didn’t know what to think, but he did know that he had to go and find out. He quickly slipped on some clothes and headed out across the field where Ghost was. He saw the small villa from afar and noticed that the inside light was on, which made it look like a lighthouse on land. Carter approached the villa and knocked on the door, but to his surprise, the door pushed open when he made contact.

  “Hello, Ghost?” Carter said as he pushed the door completely open. He slowly stepped in, looking for Ghost. He grew more suspicious by the second as he crept in and looked around.

  “Ghost?” he repeated as he stepped a few feet inside of the house. He noticed someone move across the room and looked closer and saw that it was Anari. She held a bloody knife and was standing over a bloody body that laid sprawled on the floor.

  “What the…” Carter whispered as he inched closer, only to realize that it was Ghost lying there dead in a pool of blood. The maroon-colored puddle began to make a small river that traveled slowly across the hardwood. The smell of blood invaded Carter’s nostrils. Carter looked at the corpse in disbelief and then he looked up at Anari, who was breathing heavily with Ghost’s cell phone in her left hand and a bloody knife in the other. Anari had an emotionless expression on her face as she stepped over the body and looked at Carter square in the eyes.

  “We need to talk,” Anari said as she walked past him and into the kitchen area. She set down the phone and began to wash her hands over the sink, rinsing the blood off her hands and knife as it flowed into the drain. She took deep and slow breaths as she closed her eyes for extended amounts of time, trying to remain calm.

  “What the fuck did you do?” Carter asked as the harsh reality began to sink in. She had just killed the only chance he had at getting Miamor back. He stormed over to her and grabbed her by both of her shoulders, twisting her around to face him. He aggressively jerked her after she didn’t respond. “You don’t know how you just fucked my life up!” he said as he clenched his jaw tightly and the veins in his forehead and temples began to protrude. His eyes were becoming bloodshot red and water began to form as well.

  “First, get your motherfucking hands off me before I put you to sleep next,” Anari said calmly with the small but sharp kitchen knife still in her hand. Carter looked down and saw the sharp object just inches away from his gut. He then shook his head in disbelief and unleashed her. He placed both of his hands on his head and began to pace the room, knowing that Anari had just ruined any chance of normalcy that he possibly had.

  “You shouldn’t have done this. Why? Why?” he asked as he continued to pace the floor.

  “He did this to himself. I came over to talk to him about the truth and he denied it at first,” Anari said as she put down the knife, realizing that Carter wasn’t her enemy. She then made her way back toward the body. She knelt and picked up a small laptop that was a few feet from the dead body. The computer had been tossed to the floor after she showed him what was on it. There was a little bit of blood splatter on it from the incident, so Anari wiped it off and then walked back toward Carter. She flipped open the computer and typed in a few things before she gave it to Carter. She had an e-mail open and clicked an inbox message.

  “This is what I showed him and he completely flipped out and tried to go for his gun once I told him what I knew. I told him I would tell the rest of you and that’s when he tried to kill me. But I had a knife tucked that I swiped from the kitchen. I poked him a few times and I guess I hit an artery because he was gone within a minute. He bled out like a pig,” she described. She then handed him the envelope.

  Carter frowned as he tried to make sense of it all, but he was lost. “This isn’t making too much sense right now. What is this and what were you threatening to tell us? What am I looking at?” he asked as he held up the laptop and watched as a video started to play on the screen. Two white lab rats were running around what seemed to be a complicated maze. A camera was set in each corner and switched views every time the rodents got close to them.

  “Look closely,” she said as she nodded her head once, urging him to discover what she already knew. Carter placed the laptop on the countertop and looked closely. Anari watched along and began to peel back the layers of the truth.

  “I knew something was up. I knew it! So, while we were in the warehouse being briefed, I snuck in and swiped one of the flowers. Before anyone noticed it, I slipped it into my pocket. I then sent it home to a scientist I know and asked him to test it for me. I explained the entire process. I told him specifically how it was broken down and created. He copied the process, breaking it down to its rawest form. He then gave it to lab rats and observed them closely for a week. What he found was mind-blowing. This drug did everything that Ghost had promised. First, it gave the rats an extreme rush so they were excited, running around the maze and interacting with each other. The second phase was the aphrodisiac stage and the lab rats began to become very sexually active and frisky,” Anari said as she pointed to the rats on the screen. She paused the video that was showing the rats climbing on top of one another, gyrating rapidly. They were obviously in a state of heightened sexual arousal. She looked at Carter, who still was frowning, trying to understand.

  “I know. He told us this is what the drug did already. We learned everything that you are telling me already. I’m not understanding how this is relevant to what we have—no, excuse me, what he had going on. You fucked up big-time,” Carter added again as he looked over at Ghost’s body and then again at Anari. He clenched his jaw tightly and shook his h
ead in cynicism.

  “But peep this. This is two hours later,” she said as she sped up the video and jumped ahead a little. Carter looked closely at the video and noticed the rats beginning to act strangely. They began to have sporadic twitches and run into the walls of the mazes, displaying their lack of memory. Carter watched closely as the rats frantically ran through the maze, stopping and smelling and nibbling at every corner. They continued to do it and it became clearer as to what was going on. The rats were looking for something.

  “As you can see, they are searching for something. Remind you of anything?” Anari said. At that moment, Carter began to understand that they were feigning for the product. It reminded him of the effect of crack. The rats were in dire need of the very drug that was eating them alive.

  “Are they tweaking?” he asked, as he stared closely and watched as the rats kept sniffing each corner, even the same places twice.

  “Bingo,” she said in a low tone as she watched right along with him. “Sounds familiar, right? They are acting like—”

  “Crack heads,” he said as the picture started to become clear to him.

  “That’s right. This is exactly what they did to us in the eighties. They created a drug and put it in our communities so it could break down our families and put our men in jail. The cornerstones of our communities were all being locked in the box. A blow that we still haven’t recovered from. Then the thirteenth amendment was implemented, making it legal to make us slaves again using mass incarceration. This shit is deep,” Anari said as chills began to go up her arm and behind her neck. Carter felt the same chills at the very same time as the harsh secrets began to show themselves.