The Desert Lion's True Colours

by Ikechi Hayden

  Leon moved the phone away from his ear and focused on Na’talia who had stopped peering outside and was now standing directly in front of him. Shaking her head she said ‘I can’t see anything.’

  Leon nodded before cupping the phone in his hand and whispering ‘They have cameras in the room.’ Na’talia’s eyebrows reached skyward before she started looking around like a paranoid person. But she was not paranoid. It was obvious to Leon whoever was on the end of the phone had to keep Superior Upson on a short leash. Which meant 24 hour surveillance - ‘that suck’s’ Leon thought. - With all that money and power not even the Superior was free.

  Placing the phone back to his ears Leon said ‘I have one more question?’

  The man started to laugh again and this time Leon was sure he could hear other people’s voices in the background.

  ‘Ok. Sure, you can ask. But just so you never say I warned you, you now have only five minutes.’

  ‘What about Karim?’ Leon asked.

  ‘Ha, Ha, Ha…’ The man on the other end sounded as if he was going to end up having a fit. ‘. . . Young cub! Oh My… !’ he said between chuckles. ‘Whatever is it do you think you know?’

  ‘I know Aaron was looking to take your Billions, kill Karim and somehow blackmail you into giving him amnesty.’ Leon replied.

  ‘Not bad,’ the man replied ‘but no dice. Aaron did not want to kill Karim. His intention was to enlighten him.’

  ‘What? What does that mean?’ Leon demanded.

  No reply was given.

  ‘Hello! You can’t get quiet now. Talk to me… !’

  ‘That is all the information you will be getting today,’ the voice finally replied. ‘You know what your choices are.’

  With that said the guy on the other end of the line closed the call.

  ‘Who was that?’ Na’talia asked as soon as she realised he was off the phone.

  ‘Not now Nat.’ Leon replied. ‘Let’s just get out of here.’

  Not having to say another word, Na’talia quickly went around the room and picked up the fallen weapons and phones and dumped them all into the Gucci sports bag along with the bank bonds.

  ‘Wait.’ Leon called with his arms stretched out.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ she asked hurriedly.

  Leon could not answer as quickly as his sister wanted. He was trying to go over every conceivable scenario that could transpire. Should they take the paper contents of the bag the immediate and future comeback did not look good. With that said those bonds along with the codes were the only leverage they had and if anyone had the answers to his questions it would be the guy who was on the other end of the phone.

  ‘Well, what are we doing?’ Na’talia insisted.

  ‘With a quick smirk Leon said were getting out of here.’

  At that Na’talia helped Leon around Black and the Superior’s body before leaving him to hop his way to the front door while she stayed ahead of him with the Gucci bag over her shoulder and her pump action shot gun at the ready. By the time they got to the front of the house they could see two black H2 Hummers, followed by three black Ford Excursions. They had already passed Na’talia’s Yukon parked on the side of the road and were about 50feet from the main entrance of the drive way that led up to the house.

  ‘Shit!’ Natalia said bluntly.

  ‘Shh, it’s gonna be cool. Leon replied with a smile.

  ‘I don’t see how this is cool Nate.’ She replied exasperated. ‘In less than two minutes were going to be surrounded by soldiers whose sole mission is to kill us.’

  Steadying himself on his good foot Leon swiftly let his open palm fly and gently, but firmly tagged his sister on the cheek. ‘Sorry…’ He said immediately after. ‘. . . I needed to do that. Get yourself together girl. Where is that kick ass chick I saw earlier - who was only too happy to tell me and Jay how she took down three guys to save us.’

  Leon paused, tilted his head slightly to the side and smiled. ‘Is she still here?’ He said.

  Still a little stunned Leon had actually slapped her; Na’talia looked down the long driveway at the five large vehicles covering the last part of their journey and said ‘She never left.’

  At that Leon dragged her by the arm and hopped towards the black Mercedes Benz still parked in front of the house. Seeing the two of them trying to escape the first Hummer increased its speed.

  ‘They’re nearly on us!’ Na’talia called out passing Leon on the way to the car.

  ‘Just get that guy out the front seat.’ He replied following awkwardly behind.

  By the time Na’talia had dragged the guy in his suit and coat out of the car and thrown the Gucci bag into the back seat the first Hummer was no less than 30 meters away. It pulled up to a screeching halt as Na’talia got into the Benz, closed the door beside her and started the engine waiting for Leon to enter through the front passenger door. As soon as he was close enough and she could reach him, Na’talia yanked Leon into the car and hit the gas pedal. The two back doors of the first Hummer flew open and out jumped three men in Navy blue army fatigues and balaclavas. All three were holding M16 automatic weapons. Upon hearing the order to fire, - which was given by the guy sitting in the front passenger seat, the three men simultaneously carried out their assignment keeping their aim focused onto the front portion of the car. With each weapon firing 15 rounds per second; it took less than four seconds to stop the siblings daring getaway dead in its tracks. Having been given the order to stop, the three men halted their fire and simply watched the feint white smoke begin to rise through the holes made to the exterior of the car’s hood. Almost as if it was rehearsed all the doors of all five vehicles opened at the same time letting out there occupants. Within seconds the driveway had one long line of twenty soldiers, all dressed in navy blue fatigues and black balaclavas. The man who had given the original order to fire had taken his position at the end of the line and with a simple forward motion of the hand the line of soldiers began to move in towards the Mercedes. All twenty soldiers kept their senses about them as they scrutinised not only the interior of the car but there surrounding area. Despite Na’talia’s efforts the three soldiers had brought the car to a stop a little more than 15 feet from its original location which made them no more than 20 feet away from the soldier’s current position. The soldier on the other end raised his arm and all nineteen soldiers stopped walking. Just stood still with their aim trained on the already bullet riddled car.

  ‘If you are alive. Exit the vehicle with your hands where we can see em!’ The soldier at the end of the line demanded.

  No reply was given.

  ‘I repeat the order.’ The soldier yelled. ‘If you are alive. Exit the vehicle with your hands up!’

  Still no answer was heard and so with a casual shrug of the shoulders the soldier in charge once again gave the order to move forward and just like before the line of men - with their weapons at the ready, slowly but unwaveringly headed toward the car. With about 10 feet to go the soldier at the end of the line began to count. ‘One, two…’

  But before he could make it to three a bullet made its way straight through the side of his balaclava, through the hard shell of his skull and out the other side through his right eye socket. As he started to fall the next two soldiers to the left of him began to collapse in the same way. By the time the fourth soldier in line could comprehend that they were actually under fire, Jay had clicked the fire ratio from single shot to full spray on the M-16 he was cradling and let fire from inside the second hummer through the cracked window. The remaining 17 soldiers forgot about the Mercedes holding Leon and Na’talia and started to run around the wide open lawn like headless chickens, trying to take cover behind one another. Within seconds seventeen turned into twelve, then eight and by time the remaining five began to fire back at the bullet proof Humvee, it was too late. Jay had reloade
d and picked off the remaining three one by one. They never had a chance. There first mistake was failing to notice Jay as they drove up the driveway and the second, was leaving their vehicles unmanned. - which made it easy for him to emerge from his somewhat discreet location, take up residence inside the second hummer, locate the weapon and purposefully position himself to pick off all twenty soldiers like a computer game. The whole process took a little under 10 seconds. As soon as the last body hit the ground Jay exited the Hummer and decisively made his way across the lawn towards the crippled Mercedes – firing random shots into the sprawled out bodies on the way.

  ‘Nathan. Nathan. You aight?’ He called looking at the holes in the cars once pristine body work.

  ‘Na’talia! Nathan!’

  ‘We’re here dawg.’ Leon replied, coming into view from the other side of the car. Before the Mercedes had come to a complete stop, Leon and Na’talia both exited the front passenger side door and individually positioned themselves behind the front and rear tire - Giving them enough metal reinforcement to withstand the 5.66 mm rounds from the M16’s.

  Coughing but with a smile on his face Jay fell to his knees.

  ‘Cool.’ He said. ‘Do you think we can get outta here now? I could do with some personal attention.’

  Handling the M16 had reinvigorated the pain in his shoulder and the bleeding which had previously reseeded began to stream with a little more purpose. Limping round the Mercedes and over to Jay’s side Leon said ‘you’re gonna be ok man. Just hold on for me.’

  ‘No worries,’ Jay replied. ‘Just don’t keep a nigger waiting.’

  Leon chuckled.

  After picking up the shot-gun and Gucci bag from the back seat Na’talia leaned back onto the side of the trunk and watched her older brother tend to Jay. Despite carrying out her initial objective she still felt unfulfilled, something was missing. However before her mind was allowed to snowball she watched Jay say something to Leon that caused them both to burst into genuine laughter which immediately put her fears aside. Seeing the smile on her face Leon flashed one back and then waved her to come in closer.

  ‘She’s gonna be cool.’ He said to Jay in a low voice.

  ‘I’ll be fine.’ she thought - as she walked over to her new found family.

  At 5'9 Na’talia was not what you would call ‘a small women’, but she was still inches shorter than Leon and Jay, so with her in the middle it was quite the spectacle witnessing her help both men back down the pebbled driveway. Leaving Leon and Jay at the entrance to the main road, Na’talia took off running the remaining 100meters to the black Yukon still parked on the side of the curb down the road.

  CHAPTER 24

  Five minutes later and Leon is in the driving seat of the Yukon – grateful Aaron had stabbed him in the left ankle and not his driving leg, while Jay lie in the back seat with Na’talia sitting to the left of him, - tending to his wounds.

  ‘Nathan, what’s the plan?’ Na’talia asked while tearing the sleeve of Jay’s shirt.

  Looking down at the speedometer, Leon watched the needle break 50mph.

  ‘I need to go faster’. He thought.

  ‘Well? What we gonna do now?’ Jay asked wearily. ‘You do realise we’re straight up outlaws.’ He paused and gritted his teeth as Na’talia wiped away the excess blood and poured the antiseptic powder she had retrieved from the first aid kit, in and around his wound.

  After a stifled groan Jay said ‘We witnessed the death of the motherfuking Superior! We had fucking foot-soldiers sent after us, forget the ‘Most-Wanted’ list. We on the motherfucking shit-list…’ He paused again to allow Na’talia to tape down a square piece of gauze over the hole in the front of his shoulder before saying ‘. . . Where we gonna go?’ before Na’talia turned him round to start the same medical procedure on his exit wound.

  ‘We need to meet Karim?’ Leon said bluntly. ‘We have what they want. What they need; and, with twenty men dead they now know we we’re not gonna get walked over.’

  ‘So?’ Na’talia questioned. ‘What if they decide to just cut their losses?’

  ‘Yeah… Foreal…’ Jay said with his head on Na’talia’s lap. ‘What if they decide to say “Fuck it” and figure we’re just too much hassle.’

  Following the road back the way they came, Leon continued to increase his speed. After clearing his throat and catching Jay’s reflection in the rear-view mirror Leon replied ‘I spoke to a man on a satellite phone in the Superiors house.’

  ‘You serious?’ Jay said calmly, certain that was not the most important thing Leon was going to say.

  ‘They watched the whole thing.’ Leon informed. ‘All on CCTV; Camistock watched Aaron kill everyone around the Superior, then watched him beat and tie him to a chair for the codes - the same codes we have.’

  ‘Sorry dude…’ Jay cut in. ‘. . . but that doesn’t sound good to me. All that says is the Sup’ was dispensable. Which means, so are we.’

  ‘No. We’re not.’ Leon said adamantly. ‘That guy I spoke to needs us.’

  ‘What makes you so sure?’ Na’talia interjected. Still unaware of what the man had said to Leon.

  ‘Because the integrity and recovery of those bonds are his primary concern. Remember they are payment to Karim. As long as we have them in our possession we hold the upper hand.’

  ‘You think?’ Jay said with a sigh.

  ‘Why else would he have told us to leave the bag with the codes in the house and walk… ?’ Leon insisted. ‘Why would he tell us how long we had before the clean-up crew arrived… ?’ Leon paused, swallowed hard and then said ‘. . . He also told me, Aaron was not planning to do Karim any harm but he was going to enlighten him.’

  ‘What does that mean?’ asked Na’talia.

  Leon thought about it for a moment then said ‘It has to be information they wanted to keep away from Karim. We already know those bonds were going to be payment. But what if the bonds came with conditions Karim didn’t know about. What if his taking the money was just part of their plan to get rid of evidence linking them to what happened in Belize? Or maybe the bond’s is just a lure to trap him for some other reason. Either way, I’m guessing Aaron knew what they had planned and was going to let the cat out of the bag - Probably in exchange for a portion of the cash bonds and some other reason.’

  ‘Whoa…’ Jay said with his head back and eyes closed. ‘. . . You mean to tell me Aaron was on the real. He really was trying to bring Camistock down?’

  ‘Who knows?’ Replied Leon.

  ‘Who gives a fuck?’ followed Na’talia.

  The car fell silent for a moment and Leon took the time to decide if he should take the expressway back to New-York however at the very last minute he made the last turn before the junction and said, ‘There’s another reason why I feel if we play things right, we can still have a chance to walk away from this frigging nightmare.’

  Na’talia and Jay waited for Leon’s revelation in silence.

  ‘I know this might sound weird,’ He said, ‘Shit - It sound’s crazy in my head. But he called me “young cub”’

  ‘Who?’ asked Jay.

  ‘The guy on the phone.’ Replied Leon

  ‘So’ Na’talia said unimpressed.

  ‘That’s the same thing Pyro called him.’ Jay said, seeing Na’talia looked a little confused. ‘. . . So what, you think he’s on our side. You think he was trying to help you just because he called you young cub?’

  ‘I don’t know if I would say it like that but let’s just say I have a gut feeling he has power. So if he says we can walk, then I kinda believe we have a chance to do just that…’ Leon paused, caught a glimpse of Jay lying on Na’talia’s lap in the rear-view then said, ‘But before we go find Karim, we need to go get you fixed up.’

  ‘And your leg.’ Na’talia called from the back seat.


  ‘Yeah, and my ankle.’ Leon replied.

  ‘Yo, what happened with that?’ Jay asked enquiring about Leon’s injury.

  ‘That fool stabbed me with a pen.’ Leon retorted.

  ‘With a pen!’ Jay said surprised, looking up at Na’talia nodding her head in the affirmative.

  ‘With a Pen.’ Leon repeated firmly.

  A brief moment of silence took over the car before they all started to laugh. Not so much due to what Leon said but because it highlighted the fact that things could have gone very differently. Leon always thought it was better to laugh than cry. Staying on the road he was on, Leon headed for a hospital he knew was in the area.

  Not hearing any news bulletins on the radio about the carnage at Superior Upson’s house, or the death of three Arabians in the Sofitel Hotel earlier that day or having received a single correspondence from any of her trusted associates in regards to her status, Na’talia decided she would be the first one to enter the hospital. Leaving Jay at the Hospitals main Emergency entrance and Leon back in the truck, Na’talia walked right into the middle of the waiting room - directly in front of the main reception, and with her hands on her hips did a slow 360' turn, looking at people just long enough for them to notice someone else had entered the already busy holding area for the sick. No body shifted in there seat. No one looked surprised. Na’talia noticed the security guard making his way into the ER through a remote activated door on the other side of the room and deliberately stared in his direction to catch his eye. Seeing Na’talia staring at him made him pause for a moment however after giving her a tired smile and the weakest of waves he continued on his pre-destined path towards a phone that seemed to have been placed there just for him. Na’talia watched the security guard on the phone and tried her best to read his lips. She smiled. He was telling whoever it was on the other end of the phone that ‘he had just been’. And she was pretty sure he said ‘that’s not my job.’ Na’talia smiled again. So far they seemed to be in the clear. She looked up at the two 22' inch T.V’s in the corner of either side of the room and they were surprisingly not on some local news channel, CNN or the weather channel like most hospitals but they were showing some early episode of Colombo. For whatever reason the hospital had a back log of sick patience and it seemed prudent to change the channel onto something make believe than bombard them with more bad news.