A fourth night after the drama at Peng's apartment. The Man Power Cartel had resumed the street a night before. Lobos' depleted workforce was grinding away with packs of drugs, some in cans others in packets of popular products. In the world of drugs, TBC usually says, "the packet is not a problem but the content," Pengman tells Rina, packaging the drug pack for Lobos.
"So when are you gonna get on with the money chase, hmm," Rina asked, "Already in session and as I said, you shouldn't be worried about any of this. You won't be involved anyway," Peng replied
"I know but I'm the only one you can trust," she pulled him from behind the truck. Peng turns around wearing a worrisome look, "focus, we still have over 100 packs left to fix before an hour,"
"That's not good, the odds are not on our side this time. We won't get to finish,"
"The odds are never on our side," If you haven't seen that yet, then you haven't been watching. Look through the side mirror and spot the big head standing beside the door.
"Are you serious?" Rina says, "you want to steal from Lobos. You're always the cause of our problem,"
"Just look ok, and shut up…" Peng commands, "ok, big dog," Rina settles beside the other front seat, tips her face and shoots the big chest man, "he has turned away. Now,"
"Good girl," Peng wearing his bum bag, slides in a couple of raps, "that'll do,"
"And that'll be the last time I'll watch for you to steal,"
"I'm doing this for us," Peng says
"I don't care. I can take care of myself without your help,"
"You shouldn't be this foolish, there's no money, the rent expires in 2 weeks and Lobos pays in 3. What do you want me to do?...get a nine to five job,"
"Thought you said there was enough money to cover for six months,"
"I was lying, ok. I don't have a skill and no one would offer me a job,"
"I want you to be the man you always was,"
"That man is dead and won't resurrect, so stop being optimistic,"
Rina pauses the packaging for a second, "I hate being the senior sister to my senior brother. I hope you understand,"
"I'm the one with the responsibilities, I'm the one that takes good care of you, the little high school girl, remember," Peng looks Rina full in the face, "don't bother anyway,". Both sat almost half an hour without saying a word to each other, "I'm left with 15 raps, what about you" Rina says
"46 or thereabout, how come you tied yours at a faster pace for the first time,"
"Focus, remember,"
"Someone is finally learning," Peng taps Rina on the leg, "we will get through this," he pulls her leg even more, and Rina smiles. Lobos on his jacket as usual pulls one part of the ambulance truck, "why the delay," he says
Peng replied, "we need more hands,"
"Funny, but there won't be more hands. I have just six remaining men and they're all on the streets,"
"Well I see one remaining hand standing in front of me," Rina moves her eyes through Lobos and Peng,
"I'm your boss, forgotten so soon or you need some reminder,"
"You can also be a worker of your own, what do you say?"
Lobos turns around and looks at Peng. Peng giggles and shrugs, "fuck shit," Lobos jumps into the truck and finds his space, "where do you want me?"
"Help with mine, she's almost finishing," Peng shrugged
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Officer Tancredi sits solo in his office thinking about the end of the chaotic drug business, "it won't end well for any of them," he tells himself, "they'll regret,"
He stands up and paces his office, "I gave the big head Lobos a chance to change things and make things right for himself and his family," he made a hard smile, "he threw it away. A very foolish human being,"
"Boss, boss…" The New replacement for Jace, Prescott Norman walks into the office, "Officer Tancredi," he claps his hands joined with the hard knock that was going on for a while. He decides to walk into Tancredi's office without permission, "boss," he shakes him.
"Who permitted you into my office?" Tancredi yells, "you were busy with your head voice,"
Tancredi partially recovers, "Sorry, what's your name again,"
"Prescott, sir, Prescott Norman," he replied
"Welcome on board, got all your papers with you," Tancredi stretches his face towards Prescott's file holder,
"There it is sir,"
"Good…I'll sign here," Tancredi picks a pen and fills the space, "and here," he arranges it and gives it back to Prescott, "here you go,"
"Thank you, sir," Prescott stands up and walks towards the threshold,
"Prescott," Tancredi called leaning entirely on his executive chair, "welcome on board,"
"Thank you, sir," He tries to move step again,
"One more thing," Norman stopped, "there are many things that can take you out of this job, don't take yourself out," Prescott nodded
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rina suffered jet lag and a decision to drop off the shipments to seven different neighborhoods after an overwhelming back pain, "I'm damn tired," she tells Lobos,
"Those folks are waiting miss, so hurry," Lobos' says
"Why can't Peng here drop off the product before meeting up with you guys," Rina asked
"That's why it's called imperative, I need to be there on time," Pengman says
Rina had nearly dozed off several times, lounging on the seat behind the wheel. Lobos and Peng stay outside, "this is where we part ways for the next two days or so,"
"Take good care, big brother,"
"You too, there's enough money in the bag for you till I'm back," Peng says
"And keep my money…I don't wanna hear stories," Lobos shouted
"You won't have any problem," Rina rounds the wheel and before anyone would notice she had already hit the road, "let's get out here, IC and TBC are waiting," Lobos' tells Peng,
• • • •
IC sitting worried with TBC in the front yard of a house located deep in the woods. He stares steadily at the inky sky until Lobos and Peng finally skidded to a dusty stop beside an old half-cut tree. Lobos was spotted behind the wheels. He left the headlights burning, illuminating a boulder next to a mature tree about a hundred yards away.
"Aye man, we're here, where do we start," Lobos asked TBC after an accustomed handshake.
"I'm blindfolded by the way you treat me Lobos," IC says "I was here with TBC but you decided to bypass my…"
Lobos cuts in immediately, "we are not friends, so stop acting like we are,"
"You're only here on the probability that we may need your help later, " Peng says, "the moment we find the bag, you'll be left alone with Lobos to settle your dispute,"
"You threaten to lock me in a box with a wild animal, huh,"
"You have two hands and two legs, he has two hands and two legs, I don't see any partiality there," T says
"Don't worry I'll take good care of you, hmm," Lobos smiles
"Let my eyes grow accustomed to the truth that I'm on a death wish to die. Because I see no reason to help any of you, so I'll just hit the road and maybe I'll get home before midnight,". IC hops down the veranda through the three-block steps to the outside, "I'm going…"
"Ah ah ah, you're not leaving this place, not on my watch," Peng walks closer to him and holds his hands, "what do you want?"
"It's disturbing…" IC says
"Shut up and tell us what you want," T yells
"Nothing, I want out. I want a normal life,"
"You want to run drugs and be a normal man, what a perfect mixture," Lobos says
"I don't want anything to do with any of this. I want to leave drugs and build a life for myself"
T laughs, pushes back, and says shouting "I contributed three million dollars to a shipment you stole, and now my money is in the hands of a dead bag. And you want out,"
"He needs some motivations," Lobos rushes to fight with IC,
Peng immediately grabs Lobos full two hands on his shirt, "Lobos calm down, no one is getting out of here, not without bloodshed,"
"Are you trying to mean something, college boy? Why do you guys think I stole the money in the first place? I needed compensation and I saw a clear chance to take it, very simple," IC laments
T had his flexible arms and fat legs at peak performance, just in case things get worse, "I'll give you 500k dollars, as compensation," T says
"You wanna give this rabbit hole a dime, damn. You got enough," Lobos looking angry and determined, bathing the scene with his awkward walk-through and annoying foul language, "I'll do it,"
Everyone chuckles, "the skinny man was looking for a sum," Peng says
"Good, let's get things started with," T opens the door and they all marched in, "house of blood," Lobos says
"What do we do from here college boy," IC said,
"We cleanse the whole apartment, we know how it's done, room by room, bags by bags, every nook and cranny. This man was a drug dealer, we have to think like he thought to actually know where he kept the money. My best guess is he packed the money like coke. So we look for all available backpacks we can find > 5 million is a whole lot, my dear,"
"Ideas rule the world," T said from behind the center table,
"I'll take the kitchen and sitting room," T says, "I'll take the two rooms," Peng says, "I'll take the remaining rooms and the store room," Lobos said, "I'll the take the basement," IC says,
"Just the basement," Lobos says
"Do we have any other leftovers?" IC stared all over their faces. No one said a word "that's what I thought,"
"Let's get to work," Pengman enters the room on the left and begins the search. While Lobos walks through to the far end of the corridor and starts with the store. T had already started scattering the living room; lifting and moving chairs around. IC walked down the staircase comfortably to the basement. He immediately spots a symbol, sort of an arrow, seeing it halfway from where he stood. It was like an arrow pointing in four different directions, forming a prism in the middle, "everybody come to the basement there's something you all need to see,"
Regardless of the distance between the store and the basement. Lobos was the first to rush down, then TBC, then Pengman, "what's this?" Lobos shouted pointing his middle finger towards the sign "is this 5 million U.S dollars, huh, or you don't know what a black bag pack looks like,"
"IC next time you don't see something meaningful to say don't disturb yourself calling at us. Now let's get back to work," T says
Pengman focused on the signed longer, "I think he's right," Peng says
"You see, no one is here to play, Iron condemn,"
"No, I'm talking to you, T, IC is right. We can't just expect to come across five million dollars, if it was me, I would have given visible directions not physical cash,"
"See, told you, college boy here would identify what's worth," IC says,
"So what do we do now," Lobos says
Pengman walks towards the four-headed arrow and plugs his hands in-between the formed Prism. "Ahh," Peng feels scared as a rusty thing draws out.
"What's that? IC asked. "Only one way to find out," Lobos replies. Peng draws it out with ease, and fills his hands inside the rusty can, "... mmmm, what can I find here?" He runs his eyes through the lines of the paper, "Man Power," he shouted, "This is gold,"
"Give me that," T with an angry face forcefully collects the paper from Peng. He looks through to the end and raises his face to the four arrows, "the money has been distributed into four different places. It turns out the friend of my friend is my enemy,"