Jose Fernandez bowed his head as his boss, Alvarez Tata paced in impatience. Tonight was such a huge night for the drug lord and Jose understands the reason for his tenseness. For several years, his boss had been the lord ruling over every drug center and corner in Mexico City. Recently, another lord had risen to fame, and Tata as they popularly call his boss was slowly losing his fame and authority. Worse, the new man had so little regard for Tata and thought nothing of making a mockery of the Mexico drug lord. And the worst of it was that no one knew the identity of this new man. All they knew was that his name had begun to spread about like a wildfire. Tata had lost all his drug customers within a week of this man's appearance. It's been a month since the man arrived to disrupt their business and succeeded. Jose didn't think that they had sold a 30 kg bag of their drugs in the last month. It had given Tata so many sleepless nights. Jose knew that because he was the drug lord's left hand man.
About three days ago, however, someone had given Tata information that the new drug lord had arrived in Mexico City about five days ago to see how business was moving and would be returning in two days. Tata had sent his right-hand man to verify the information immediately. The other man had returned with an affirmation of the information. For an entire day, they had secretly stalked the man to know his plans. This means that they only had tonight to finish off the man and destroy his business. And Tata had sent his right-hand man to confirm if the man was still at the same hotel they followed him to the previous day, but the other man was yet to be back, hence the reason for the black mood.
The right-hand man, Dagger as he was popularly known as, came in from the door with a rush. He bowed slightly to the lord and confirmed that the man was indeed there. And that was the only thing their lord needed to hear. He had assembled every one of his men who were of value together and gave them instructions and roles they needed to play. Together, they had moved out of the dungeon they used for their operations, gotten into the car, and drove straight for the hotel.
As they moved, Jose was a little bit angry with Tata. As the left-hand man, he had expected that he would go in with the lord along with Dagger, who was the right-hand man, to assassinate the man. But, Tata had given Jose the mere post of making sure a car was ready for them to escape by the time they were done. Yet, Dagger had been allowed to go in with the lord. He wondered if he had done something wrong to make the lord angry with him. Ever since he had joined the underground operation of Tata as a mere lackey, he had dedicated his time and energy to making sure the drug lord noticed him. His efforts began to pay off little by little until he had risen to the top. He wasn't where he wanted yet, but it was getting better. Dagger however, had only appeared about a year ago and Tata had made him his right hand man simply because he had successfully succeeded at delivering a drug job Jose had failed to deliver successfully. Which was why he couldn't afford to lose Tata's interest in him. He would obey the command for tonight but as soon as they were back in the dungeon, he would ask the lord if he had done anything wrong.
They arrived at the hotel and everyone, including the lord, trooped out of the car. Only Jose remained in the car and he watched as they moved into the hotel. Tata acted like an important person and the other men with him acted like his bodyguards. Jose saw a male and a female receptionist seated at the desk. As soon as the two receptionists saw them, they both stood up and the lady she attended to Tata with honor. Jose watched as Tata and the rest of the men disappeared from his view and smiled. Very soon, the mysterious man would be dead and forgotten. He drove the car out of view to a dark corner by the road.
Thirty minutes later, he heard three loud rapid shots ring out from the hotel. Fear gripped Jose and he got down from the car to inspect what was going on. When he was at a corner, he looked out at the front of the hotel just in time to see one of their boys being thrown from the top of the hotel down to the floor. Jose stiffened the sound that nearly escaped from his mouth. He saw two of the men escaping from the hotel through the front door and saw the receptionists shoot them down. Jose took in the scene and realized that they had been set up. He saw another one of their men try to leave and a dagger embedded itself on the man's leg. It couldn't be, Jose thought as he stared at the dagger. He would recognize that dagger anywhere. Before he could deny the scene he was staring at, he saw Dagger shot at the man in the skull to kill him completely.
Dagger had betrayed them? But why? Tata had always been affectionate and treated the younger man like his child. So, why would Dagger endanger the life of the man who had given him a second chance at life? And if he had betrayed them, with whom had he pledged his allegiance to? The mysterious lord?
Another shot rang out and Jose shivered as he saw another one of theirs go down lifeless. He had to get out of the place if he wanted to survive since Dagger knew where he was. Jose rushed to the car and gave a short cry when he saw Tata in the car lying low. Jose was about to ask him what had gone wrong when a shot hit the side of the car. He put his hand into his pocket to get the car key but couldn't find it. He patted his body but still couldn't find it. He was sure that he had the key with him before he went out of the car earlier, so where was it? The answer to his question came when he looked out and saw the key lying around at the corner he had stood a few moments ago.
He got out of the car and rushed to the place the key was lying on the ground. He picked it up and turned to leave. He felt a hot searing pain in his shoulder and realized that he had been hit by a bullet. Just as he turned to see who had shot, a knife carved his left cheek open. He didn't have time to react as a bullet hit the man who had just injured him and the man became as lifeless as a doll on the floor. Another shot rang out and Jose saw the male receptionist fall. He turned and saw that Tata had gotten out of the car and was protecting him. He picked up the knife beside the dead man and tried to combat another man coming. Before he could, Tata had shot the man down.
"Quick, Jose. Get in the car, let's get out of here," Tata called out to him.
Jose gladly obeyed the order and ran to the car. He got in and clicked the key into the ignition hole. Just as the car came to life, Jose heard about six rapid shots. He saw Tata slumped into the car, looking like he was dead. He didn't wait to check out the wound of the drug lord. He sped up the distance adjuster to 120 km per hour and sped off out of the hotel. Shots rang behind him and he heard the rear glass shatter. He drove over a long distance. When he was sure that no one followed behind, he stopped the car. By this time, Tata was already wheezing.
"Tata," Jose called. He tried to help the older man sit but the man held his arm to stop him.
"It was the Mexico police force." The drug lord forced the words out. "Dagger… Dagger is… one of them. He… pretended to… be one of us… so that he can… know… everything… about us," Tata managed to explain. His hold on Jose's arm slacked and fell to his side.
Jose didn't bother to check on the man since he knew that he was gone. His only sign that he was affected by the man's death was the single tear that fell from his left eye stopped by the open wound. Tata had taken him when he was only ten years old and no one else had been willing to. For ten years of his life, Jose had only looked up to the man who had saved his life. He had treated the man as his idol and done everything he could to make the man proud of him. And now, he was gone. Jose hadn't even gotten the chance to say goodbye to the man, he thought as he looked at Tata's lifeless body.
Jose got out of the car, opened the booth, and brought out the can of petrol in the booth. He poured the petrol all over the car and threw the keg back into the booth, then shut it down. He closed the driver's side door, moved back to a safe distance, and lit a cigarette. After he took two long puffs from it, he threw the rest at the car and watched as light blasted from it right away. He bowed his head in last respect to the man who was like his father, then he turned and left without even a backward glance.
Jose located a doctor and had his face stitched. The bullet in his shoulder was also removed and stitched too. After that, he devoted his time to locating Dagger. He found him at his vacation house with the female receptionist after a month of tracking and asking questions. He also found out that Dagger was the so-called mysterious new lord who had gone behind their backs to threaten their customers with jail terms if they bought any more drugs from them. As luck would be on his side, he didn't have any security around the house, so Jose got in easily. He met them both asleep. If only they knew that this would be their last peaceful sleep on earth, he snickered. He brought out his gun and shot the receptionist twice in places he knew she would never survive. The shots woke Dagger up and the shocked look on his face as he saw Jose told him that he hadn't expected him to be alive. Jose maliciously smiled at him before he shot the man in the shoulders and his two legs. After that, Jose tied Dagger's body with ropes. He picked up the petrol he had brought with him and drenched the man with some, ignoring his pleas. He poured the rest around the house and went out. He looked through the window and saw Dagger trying to free himself. Jose brought out a cigarette and held it in between his two fingers.
"Hey, Dagger." He called the other man who looked surprised to find him there. Jose smiled at him, placed the cigarette between his lips, and brought out a matchbox. He lit it and lit his cigarette with it. He stared at Dagger in the face as he threw the lit match stick into the room.
"No!!!" He heard Dagger scream.
Jose ignored the loud wail and walked away. A few minutes later, the smell of burning flesh filled the air, and he smiled. He looked up to heaven and silently told Tata he had gotten revenge on behalf of him. That same night, Jose escaped to America through the smugglers who smuggled people or things in. They worked for Tata when the man was alive and as a favor for the help the old man had rendered to them, they had helped Jose.
When Jose arrived in America, he had used the last of the money with him to get an apartment and got by for two weeks. After that, he began to feed on hand to mouth. In a month, he had nearly died of hunger. He managed to get a job as a waiter at a bar and began to work there. Even though it was hard, Jose was determined to change and make himself a better man. He didn't want to end up as Tata had. He wanted to live in peace and not have to look behind him every second to see if he had an enemy at his back. However, after working at the bar for two weeks, he was caught stealing an expensive wine. The owner had dismissed him with immediate effects without giving him any pay.
Jose went out and got another job. This time he stayed clear of bars because he saw wines and beers as a weakness for him, and he didn't want to lose his job again. He got a job at a club as a stage cleaner, which he didn't mind. He was determined to live a normal life for all causes. He didn't spend a week at the new job because he had been caught trying to force himself on a stage dancer. It wasn't his fault that it had happened. The girl was always flaunting her body in front of him every time, making him wish he was in her, grinding her hard. He had seen her alone that evening and he couldn't hold back himself. Despite his many pleas, the owner had a deaf ear to them all. The owner of the club had given him the option of either walking away peacefully or having the cops after him. Jose had counted his losses and left.
By the time he had gotten six other jobs and failed at them all, Jose knew that there was no other way for him other than the one way he knew best. He still had some drugs left with him that he could get a few bucks for. The only problem he had was how to market the drugs and where to get the right audience to sell his goods to. He went back to the base of the smugglers who had once worked with Tata and got the names of the people who were Tata's buyers in America. He also made arrangements with them on how to smuggle more drugs into the state if he was successful in his line of business. The first buyer he had approached bought all the drugs he had with him, and that too at a price which was better than he had bargained for. And that began his journey as one of the biggest drug dealers in America.