City of God (56 page)

‘You need to get those wounds blessed, then have someone work some magic to protect you,' advised Carrots after Knockout's parents had gone. Knockout said nothing.

When the news reached Tiny, he was still behind The Hill. He started pacing back and forth, and laughed his quick, shrill little laugh, cutting the silence, which was so intense it seemed old. He looked at Night Owl and bellowed:

‘Didn't you kill a heap of pawns? So go kill 'im then, go on!'

An apprehensive silence was resumed for a short time.

‘Leave it to me – I'll kill 'im!' growled Slick, who now wore a red and black top hat. Where and when he'd started wearing it, no one could say for sure.

This time the silence was not cut by Tiny's laughter. With bulging eyes, he left without saying where he was going.

A beverages truck was making a delivery at the shops at around eight o'clock at night. Part of the gang was drinking beer there. Slick held his revolver to the driver's head, said something to him, then climbed into the back and called Night Owl, who also clambered up. As soon as his helper returned to the vehicle, the driver manoeuvred the truck in the square and turned left. The gangsters watched in silence as the truck drove away. It headed down the street along the right branch of the river, turned left again, crossed the bridge, and followed the river's edge to Block Thirteen. Slick climbed down, talked to Butterfly and went back to the truck, which then turned slowly into Middle Street. Under the tarpaulin, Slick and Night Owl watched everything through two holes they'd made on the way there with a piece of metal they'd found in the truck, which now turned into a street adjacent to Block Fifteen. It drove all the way down the street, turned, drove back and stopped at the entrance to the square.

‘Let's take a walk. It's too hot here!'

‘Yeah, I'm boilin'!'

‘Stay put, man! You're not well!' said Carrots.

‘You guys smoke too much. Fresh air's good for you.'

After his parents had left, and confused at the path his life had taken, Knockout went overboard snorting coke and smoked one joint after another. Then, always calm and polite with his friends, he said he was just going to stretch his legs and that he'd come right back to lie down. He tooled up and headed out with his pals to the square on Block Fifteen, where his friends usually hung around.

Knockout stayed at one end of the square talking with the cool guys from Up Top. He said he'd never expected the war
would assume such proportions, and repeated that he had nothing against most of the guys in Tiny's gang; his wrath was reserved specifically for Tiny himself. The driver and his helper got out of the truck unnoticed.

Butterfly divided seventy men into seven groups of ten, decided where each group was to attack from and headed Up Top. Earthquake, My Man, Butterfly, Tiger, Moth and Cererê were carrying machine guns and five of the pawns carried sawn-off shotguns. They had orders to keep firing, even if only into the air, to split up the enemy gang.

The first shots were fired at the river's edge, then gunfire was heard in a number of places. Knockout's men were disorientated, and ran in all directions, firing at random. Although debilitated, Knockout cocked his gun and headed for the middle of the square. On the back of the lorry, Slick and Night Owl waited for the right moment. More than one hundred shots were fired at the same time. Knockout shouted at the top of his lungs that he didn't need protection, and that each man should fend for himself. He ordered his men to split up, then decided to leave the square and head for enemy territory, imagining he'd catch some bastard returning to Block Thirteen. He ran with difficulty towards the truck, the addict following behind. He was the only one who decided to cover him.

Over in The Flats, Tiny was talking with Bicky in his flat. He said Slick had to be killed as soon as possible because even though he didn't believe in
macumba
any more (after Sparrow's death, he'd stopped going to the
terreiro
to talk to Street Keeper, and he no longer recited the prayer he'd taught him or lit candles), he had a bad feeling about this business of him wearing an
exu's
top hat. He'd set him up in the next attack Up Top.

‘How?'

‘I'll get 'im when he least expects it, man! When the bullets are flyin', know what I mean? I'll just wait til his back's turned and pull the trigger. I've already taken out about five like that … Bernardo, Giovani, Alligator …'

‘Fuck! Was that you? What for?'

‘I had a feelin' they were up to no good, know what I mean? They were givin' me the evil eye. When I feel someone's got it in for me, I get 'em quickly … But hey: no one knows, OK? Keep it to yourself.'

Slick nudged Night Owl and said in a low voice that he didn't even need to shoot Knockout. Since he'd knocked back a few that afternoon, however, Night Owl understood that it was time to shoot Knockout and suddenly lifted up the canvas to fire, shouting:

‘Nooooow!'

Dumbfounded, it took Slick a few minutes to work out what was going on. Knockout was also taken by surprise, but still he was quicker and fired three shots, although he didn't take aim. The pair jumped from the truck and ran. Without much agility or speed, Knockout went after them firing his gun, not giving them time to shoot back. Slick and Night Owl zigzagged back and forth as they ran. The addict looked behind him, then to both sides and, not seeing anyone, shot Knockout three times in the back. Knockout still managed to turn and point his revolver in an attempt to kill him. The addict shot him once more.

Knockout fell.

And along came the wind to make little dust whirls on the dry ground, to carry the sound of the gunfire to more distant places, to destroy poorly made birds' nests, to tug at kites caught on wires, to weave its way through the alleys, to creep under roof tiles, to make a kind of inspection of the tiniest cracks in that
hour, to nudge along the blood running from Knockout's mouth, and along came the rain with heavy raindrops ricocheting on the rooftops, flooding the streets, increasing the volume of water in the river and its two branches. It was so heavy that some thought it was trying to drench the course of time forever, from that moment on.

‘Get someone to bring an ox, I want an ox … find a good cook and have her make some ox-tail stew, get another to make cow-heel soup, and another to chop up the meat for the barbecue … Nip over to the butcher and tell 'im to bring us everythin', quick … Hey, you there, start rolling joints … The stuff's on the house at the den … just dope, not coke, the coke's only on the house for the gang,' said Tiny, his left arm draped around Slick's shoulder and his right hand holding his dog's collar. ‘I knew you were gonna kill 'im, I knew it! When you said it, I knew you meant it!'

‘I was facin' 'im like this, right? Firin' away … So was Night Owl. I sunk the first one in his balls. Night Owl was also shootin', right? We had more than twenty of his men shootin' at us, so we got out of there …'

The party to celebrate Knockout's death went on for three days, while Up Top everything was silent, the streets were deserted, and bars and shops were closed. A wake was held for Knockout in his own home, without any gang members present. In numbers his funeral surpassed Sparrow's and Niftyfeet's.

The day after Knockout's death, the addict asked Tiny's men, who were gathered in the square on Block Fifteen, for the gang's two best weapons. He said he was going to give them a going over to keep them in good nick, walked off as if heading towards the house where he was staying, then turned down an alley, crossed Middle Street, pointed a pistol at the first car he saw,
ordered the driver out, got in, put the two guns in the back seat and took off. He took Edgar Werneck Avenue at high speed heading towards Barra da Tijuca, happier than ever because he'd finally taken out the man who, while trying to kill Slick and Skinny, had killed his brother in Cruzada de São Sebastião.

‘Footy, my brother, I got 'em back for you!' he thought aloud.

Near Jacarepaguaá Lake the motor began to splutter, and a little further along it cut out completely, even though it was travelling at high speed. The addict turned the key back and forth in the ignition, but the car kept starting, then cutting out. He began to get nervous and pulled the car over onto the hard shoulder, without noticing a police patrol car drawing near. He was about to get out when he saw the police car and tried again to get the car to start. The police officers, who had only intended to give him a helping hand, noticed his desperation and told him he was under arrest. First they frisked him, then they searched the car, where they found the guns. They started beating him up right then and there. Down at the station, he told them everything he knew about Knockout's gang.

After talking a lot to Butterfly in private, Tiger ended up convincing him to break ties with Tiny and Slick. He said that this business of only the two of them earning loads of money without fully exposing themselves and everyone else having to risk getting caught in robberies and hold-ups was wrong – it was unfair. They decided that some of the gang members would take turns selling the drugs and give seventy per cent to the den, while the others would just stay on guard to protect the den from their enemies and the police. My Man would be the manager and the two of them would run the show. They'd use the seventy per cent to give the main soldiers and lookouts a weekly wage and health insurance plan, help the local workers when they were in
need, buy more weapons, hire a lawyer to work for the gang, and restock their merchandise. Butterfly thought there were too many people and that the money wouldn't stretch that far, but agreed with his friend nonetheless.

‘We ain't got nothin' to do with Tiny no more, didn't you know? Or with you guys either. The money that comes in here stays here. How come we gotta give it to you guys? Tell your partner that Block Thirteen ain't got nothin' to do with The Flats no more – right?' said Butterfly with My Man, Earthquake, Moth and Cererê beside him, guns cocked.

Slick looked them quickly in the face one by one. He saw that the boys were no longer so boyish. They'd grown not only in height, but in shrewdness and cunning. The rest of the gang, more than ninety men, were posted on the corners of Miracle Street. It was best to be friendly and agreeable, because he was pretty sure he'd be killed if he weren't.

Tiny got angry when he heard of their decision and said he was going to send off all the no-goods on Block Thirteen to meet their maker. But he relaxed a few minutes later when Good Life told him it was better to leave things as they were than to make more enemies, and that the Block Thirteen den wasn't doing much business.

With so much newspaper coverage of the violence in City of God, the Department of Public Safety and the Military Police told the press through the Department's chief press secretary that a large-scale police operation would be put in place in the region. Two days after the official press release, in the middle of a stifling hot May, Lieutenant Cabra assumed command of the police post, which had been completely renovated and extended. The
post, where there had previously been only ten officers, received thirty well-armed men, and six new patrol cars joined the lone car that had been there.

The order that Colonel Marins, commander of the Eighteenth Military Police Battalion, gave Lieutenant Cabra to be passed down to his subordinates, was that gangsters should be arrested, but if they reached for their waistbands to draw guns, they could shoot to kill.

This battalion was responsible for public safety in Jacarepaguá, Barra da Tijuca and Recreio dos Bandeirantes, and the commander also ordered all men to report to headquarters an hour and a half earlier, and all patrol cars to pass through the
favela
before heading for their beat.

The police action plan was primarily based on intelligence work. Dozens of police officers disguised as customers had gone to the dens to buy drugs. Others, taking advantage of the fact that mentally handicapped patients from Juliano Moreira Hospital in Taquara were always running away from the asylum and wandering through the
favela
, had pretended to be runaway patients, wearing the asylum's uniform, making funny faces and acting weird. They kept an eye on the gangs and followed their behaviour. In this way, Lieutenant Cabra arrived with a substantial list of gangsters and their respective addresses. Their first raids failed, however, because most of the newspapers had divulged the information beforehand. The gangsters kept an eye on the city's main newspapers and when they discovered the authorities' intentions, they moved house and went to ground during the first week of the new police presence in the
favela
.

Even with all the police infrastructure, drug dealing was still rampant. The dealers sold at different points each day of the week, and posted pawns on street corners to cry, ‘Bread for sale! Bread for sale!' whenever the police approached on foot or by car. On the other hand, the gangsters began to live in fear when they
heard there were plain-clothes police officers around, ready to pounce on them. Their lives were threatened by anyone willing to grass, so if in doubt, they'd take out the potential traitor with no time for explanations, pleading or pardon. No room for screw-ups. Already wily, they became even more violent. Workers, cool guys, addicts – anyone at all could find themselves at the mercy of the gangsters' whims and discrimination.

Paranoia reigned in the
favela
. Even the addicts, previously valued customers because they kept the dens running, found themselves in danger. For ordinary residents this was yet another fear they had to live with. The police on one side, the gangs on the other, both spreading fear and putting lives at risk.

Earthquake was dealing one Saturday, and to get up Bicky's nose, crossed Edgar Werneck Avenue to sell his drugs near Bicky's den. A few pawns were left at his original spot to tell the junkies where the drugs were now being sold.