Caroline had missed a call from her boyfriend Nick and had decided to go to his place even though it was early. Something told her that Nick might be in trouble. She had left home hurriedly and arrived at Nick's place well. But her worries increased when she found Nick's door unlocked and he was not in the house. He had thought that maybe he was in the bedroom either sleeping out of exhaustion or sickness. So she went to the bedroom. Her eyes popped out because of the sight that greeted her eyes!
There sitting on the bed was a man she had never seen before. And he was grinning at her, as if he had seen her coming and had waited for her. The smirking had a sinister look to it. But what shocked her was the thing he was holding in his hands. The man had a gun pointed directly at Caroline. From the look of things the man was very serious despite the smirk in his face. His eyes shone with bitterness and a certain kind of determination. Caroline mind worked very fast. She quickly assessed the man and decided that she had less chances of dodging in case he chose to shoot. Then she contemplated screaming but asked herself how that would help in the situation she was in. she decided that the best way was to show submission then slowly find out who the man was and what he wanted from her orNick now that he was in his house. Caroline quickly raised up her hands in a symbol of surrender as well as showing that she was defenceless.
"Please don't shoot me!" she said quickly. The man smirked even broadly, still aiming at her said, "Come on in. Nobody is going to shoot you if you cooperate with us."
Caroline looked around and slightly backwards. That is when she saw two other men at her back both with guns drawn. As she turned to look at them terrified, one of them urged her on, into the room. Caroline looked again at the man sitting on her boyfriends bed.
"I said come in!" the man said again.
Taking very little steps Caroline entered the room, having realized that all her chances of running away were now zero with the two armed behind her. She stood some meters away from the man sitting on the bed. The man looked at her for some times before speaking again.
"Are you surprised lady seeing me here?" She only nodded, severally. The man laughed and stopped almost as abruptly as he had started. "Yes! I was expecting you!" at his words, Caroline got even more perturbed and muddled. How could he have known that she would come to Nick's place on that particular day? She wondered.
The man in the bedroom was Jack, unknown to Caroline but he was Nick's boss. Jack had led his elite team to Nick's place not because he was aware that Nick would come back even though he was on the run. But he came to this house because he was sure his girlfriend would always show up there. This is because he had taken enough time to monitor his errand boy's lifestyle. It had so happened that one day while he was parking at a safe distance from the house, quitely observing the going-ons inside Nick's house, that two beautiful young ladies passed by his car heading to the same house.
Jack waited until the two young ladies entered the house then he turned on the speakers in his car. He needed not to worry because he had bugged Nick's entire house with tiny microphones and he could hear everything that was said in that house. So he heard the conversation going on like this.
"Caroline are you sure it was the right idea to come up here while Nick is not in?"
"Come on Vicky! My guy will be joining us soon. I know him! Besides, he gave me the spare keys and told me I could drop in any time I wanted to!"
"But not with anybody!"
"You are not anybody! You are my best friend. Would you rather have me come up here and wait all alone?"
"No I wouldn't want that, it would be so boring. Besides, it is always good to be aroung Nick for makes all of us to laugh and forget some problems. He is a good man."
"I am lucky, girl!!" and they laughed on and on. Therefore, they passed time telling stories, making fun and even prepared coffee for themselves. Soon after that Nick had arrived in the house. He alighted from his motorbike and entered the house without bothering to scan his environment. Jack conluded that perhaps Nick wasn't very observant.
"That could be a weakness, especially considering the new trade I have found that I want to involve him," he reasoned with himself sitting there in the vehicle. From the house he heard the three young people exchanging pleasantries and knew that they were happy to see each other. What he was unable to distinguish is who the real girlfriend of Nick was, between the two girls. But he noted down the two names, Vicky and Caroline. Then when he heard the conversation turning more and more intimate, he switched off the microphone transmitter and decided to leave. "This young men can do some nasty things I would rather not hear!" he told himself before driving away.
As he went away Jack thought about his new-found business venture. He had met with Ngatilu, a rich drug lord who had been his client for a while now but who seemed to have the gist about diversification. He shared his thoughts with Jack and Jack liked the idea at once. Anything that involved money and that stood to benefit him was welcomed to him. The venture was about supplying of human organs to a certain individual whom Ngatilu declined to name at that moment, in exchange for huge amounts of money. The parts required were mostly the vital organs of the body including male reproductive organs and female breasts apart from the common ones like kidneys, heart and livers.
"And for what does this individual need these tools?" asked Jack. Ngatilu did not answer him, but gave him a long reprimanding look and Jack got the message. It had nothing to do with him whatever purposes the merchant put the organs into. His was just to supply.
"Are you in or not?" Ngatilu wanted to find an answer immediately but Jack said he would need time to lay the strategies first before making his delivery. However, he told Ngatilu to consider to have gotten a deal for himself.
"I trust your ability Jack," he said with an air of finality. Deep in him Jack knew that this new venture would not be a big problem. Already in his mind he had started drawing up plans of how he would operate. Normally, as a camouflage, Jack did operate as a taxi-for-hire man who drove around ferrying different kinds of people. He was a cheerful and charismatic person when in this other venture, building a rapport with all the people he managed to ferry when he was at it. He did this because he recognized the fact that he needed a good diversion from the public eye, something that would prove a good scapegoat int the future, when he needed it most.
At this time while he talked with Ngatilu he envisioned how he would convert that same taxi into a trap for his would-be victims. He would install some hidden tanks full of sedating gases with which he would use to numb the passengers whom he would find fitting.
"One other thing," Ngatilu said, "My client would also appreciate if you could get beautiful girls and deliver to him, alive!" he said and waited. Jack processed the information, opened his mouth to speak then shut it again. He was not dumb enough not to know what that statement actually meant. The person must be involved with operating a brothel as wee, or any other form of commercial sex work, for what else would a person want commodities by the name of 'beautiful girls' who are alive? But this too interested Jack. He was a darling among many ladies and he had a thing for the most beautiful ones. In fact, they just got attracted to him like flies. He knew this was because he had a lot of cash and that is what ladies nowadays in their society went for. One would deny his parents or God just for the sake of money.
"When do I make the first delivery?" Jack asked.
"As soon as you are ready," Ngatilu answered with a smile, knowing too that the second business idea impressed Jack so much. "Just inform me and I will give you the details of the place to do the delivery."
"Consider it done. Anytime from now I will require those details. Next week probably I will be making my second drop-off!"
True to his words, that same evening he had netted a girl from the local university. She was a medical student in her third year. Her name was Rose. As she left the main campus that evening heading to her hostels on foot, Jack drove up to her in a black BMW vehicle. Rose wondered who drove the posh car that drew nearer to her and stopped. The windows rolled and a man who appeared to be in his forties warmly smiled at her and greeted her. This was not a new thing to Rose. Almost daily men of such kinds approached her and she chose whom to go with and who not to. She was so used to it that by just a sentence she would be able to rate you, to decide to hook-up or not.
That evening she had been hurt by Brian, a colleague who had crushed on her but was so stingy. Rose had asked Brian to send him some money for supper and he had promised he would do so. But as she went for it that evening, a seemingly angry Brian sputtered hurting words to her, insulting her morality in front of other classmates. Rose had been stunned but maintained her cool and walked away. Luckily for her, some other girls caught up with her and helped cool her tempers down. She was soor n back to her usual happy self. The girls who were with her branched off to a nearby hostel and left her alone. That is when Jack decided to hit on her.
After exchanging greetings and pleasantries Jack managed to get Rose to hop in and off they drove. He had promised to take her out for dinner at a famous five star hotel in town. Of course Rose knew that it would end, as usual with sex, and some cash gifts from the guy. She had been through this many times and did not fear. The only thing she insisted on was that they would use protection and would first agree on the payments. Occasionally some men demanded for more or for another day when they would meet up on another day. It was all up to her to choose whether to come back or go off radar.
That evening was to be different, but how could she know. Jack drove the car in neck – breaking speed with all the doors firmly locked. The windows were tinted black, obscuring onlookers from seeing the people inside. Then he locked the seat belts in the passenger's seat, where Rose sat so that she could not move, and he started playing music in full blast. Rose sensed that something was wrong, she screamed, shouted and tried all she possibly could but to no avail. Soon he was within a gated compound surrounded with six heavily built men who, by Jack's orders, carried her inside the mansion. Jack then called Ngatulo who sent his men at around midnight and took Rose with them. He was given of the money he was supposed to get. The rest, he was told, would be paid when the commodity had been verified as meeting the requirements.
However, the following morning Jack was called only to be told that the girl did not mean the requirements.
"What sort of requirements Ngatilu? You said you needed her alive and I brought her alive! Did she reach your hands a corpse?" Jack had completely lost it.
"Calm down," Ngatilu said, "No need to be abusive. Though she doesn't meet the requirements for her role, she is suitable in the organ section."
"That then means that I will get paid, right?" Jack asked.
"Am afraid the remaining half will cater for the inconveniences you have caused us." And with that the line went dead.
Jack was not used to losing and this first instance really pained him and that is why he wanted to get a team of at least four men who would effectively handle his trade without creating another mess. He was observing Nick to find how reliable he could be. From that visit and numerous other techniques, he had come to establish that Nick had a girlfriend who frequently visited him or even come into his house even when her boyfriend was not in. That is why when he had a problem with Nick, he was confident that he would get her in Nick's house.
Jack tok his time to speak to Caroline in a somewhat reassuring tone until she could open up.
"Listen, I don't want that pretty face to be disfigured. Nobody will hurt you if you tell me where your boyfriend is," Jack persisted. "Please, am not lying! I really don't know where he is!"
"Then tell us what his plans were. He must have shared with you where he wanted to take you and how he would get the money you need."
"Nick has never told me anything about his work. He just keeps to himself. He only said when he gets enough money he will buy us a better place than this…."
With so many tactics they coerced as much information as they could about Nick from Caroline. What they concluded was that Nick had no plans of stealing from Jack. But they could not let her go. She would be used to draw Nick out of the hole he was hiding in, as Jack liked to put it.
On the other hand, Nick rode following the footpath in the middle of the Mvulia forest. To his surprise he emerged from the forest at a palce closer to where he stayed. It was merely a five – minute distance away. So nick stopped and thought. Then he took his phone from the pocket and checked the caller who had called him earlier. Sure enough, it was his girlfriend Caroline who had called three times that morning. He decided that he would find out immediately from her what she had in store for him. Coincidentally, as he was about to redial the last call on his phone, the same number called him immediately. Receiving it he said into the call; "Hello, darling!" but the voice that answered back was not Caroline's voice. Nick instantly recognized it as Jack's voice. And he knew that Caroline was in deep trouble.
"I can't let them hurt her!" he thought, his mind racing, but loudly he said, "Please boss, don't hurt her. Please. Tell me where you want us to meet and I will be there." He pleaded.
"Yes my boy! Can you go to your house?" That is all that was said then Jack disconnected the call.
Nick was left confused. Why would they want him to go to his house? Was it a trap?
"Come what May! Nick said and took his bike, heading to his home, less than a kilometre away.