The Desert Lion's True Colours (41 page)

Still walking away Leon chuckled and without turning around said ‘Come, let me introduce you.’

Not wanting to look too eager Clive decided to stand his ground for a moment however his intention was not fulfilled as Jay came up behind him and shoved him in the back. Jay and the two Miami thugs watched him to fall forward onto his hands.

‘Why you stalling… ?’ Jay said, in a mixture of agitation and joy all at the same time. ‘. . . You wanna know where the dough is? Then get up and get your whack suit wearing behind on.’

Slowly, Clive got back to his feet and made his way over the grass, (behind Leon) to a silver and black Maybach parked a short distance away.

‘Who’s in the car?’ Clive asked, as they walked up to the black and silver $350,000 car.

‘You’ll see.’ Leon replied.

‘Can’t you just tell me?’

Leon did not reply. Just took his time to walk around the luxurious vehicle and wait for the rear door to open. Clive Cedar stood next to the rear door on his side expecting it do the same but when nothing happened decided to open it himself.

‘Whoa, whoa. What makes you think you’re getting in here?’

Clive Cedar gave the question a moment of pause before taking a step back from the Maybach to quickly scan the area around him. Leon chuckled.

‘I thought you were taking me to your contact.’ He said finally
-
unsure if that was the best thing to say.

‘See, that’s why you should never assume. All it does, is make an ass out of you and me, you know.’

Clive stayed silent. For the first time in years he actually felt as if he had no control. Apart from his immediate superiors he was a boss in his own right
–
a director if you will. Someone who had as much,
-
if not more power than the Chief Superior Upson himself. Sure his power was used in different ways, but it was power none-the-less. However at that very moment he was unarmed and outnumbered and was finding it hard to understand how he allowed himself to be caught in this predicament. He was now the underdog, not the prey and now all the power he thought he had was meaningless.

Keeping his eyes on Clive, Leon placed his walking stick inside the car and gently tapped on the roof of the Maybach. A second passed before the electronic curtain behind the glass of the rear door
-
facing Clive, parted to the side and the vehicles irregularly thick glass made its way down. To Clive Cedar’s astonishment sitting in the seat closest to the open window was Arif “
Red
Death
” Karim. Alive and smiling and sitting directly next to him was the Sultans youngest son
–
Saheed Karim. The same young man Aaron had the late night meeting with a couple weeks ago.

Leon had located Usain’s number from Aaron’s phone and called him the same day they left the hospital. He advised Usain that Aaron was dead and that he was going to be double crossed. He then managed to convince him to meet back in New-York so that they could give him proof of what they were saying. After they helped Usain to realise they were all being used, Karim decided he would pass the information onto Karim. He did not like what Karim had become but now being armed with the truth he knew Karim would see things differently.

Seeing the two brothers sitting in the back seat almost knocked Clive out for the count. He had figured Leon either sold the bonds to someone on the black market or worst case scenario try to blackmail Camistock with a bidding war over the bonds. But handing them to Karim was the last thing he or Camistock expected.

Regaining his composure and remembering who he was, Clive bent at the hip slightly
-
so he could see directly into the vehicle and calmly said ‘Karim, It’s been a long time.’

‘Yes, it has Clive.’

Hearing there introductions made Leon just a little uneasy as he had no idea Karim knew Clive but he kept silent.

‘So you’re the ones with the bonds?’ asked Clive rhetorically.

‘For now?’ replied Karim with a nod of the head.

‘For now?’ Clive responded.

Leaning forward Saheed cleared his throat and said ‘We know everything. How you recruited my brother and brainwashed him. How you turned him against his family, And now our new friend here has advised us of where this money comes from…’

Cutting Saheed off in mid-sentence, Clive started to laugh and without apology turned his attention to Karim and said ‘Come on Karim. How many years have you been selling weapons to countries that couldn’t afford toilet paper? Do you really care where the money comes from? You know as well as I do the Government has a slightly chequered past but which country doesn’t. Take the bonds. Deposit them. Use the money as you see fit and we will call it a day.’

Without waiting for a reply, Clive looked up and over the roof of the Maybach at Leon standing on the other side and said ‘I knew you weren’t smart. Didn’t you know the bonds were supposed to be for Karim anyway? All you did was make the drop for us?’

Leon shook his head.

‘He did more than that.’ Karim interjected.

‘Oh?’

Karim’s face gave way to a very faint smile before he said, ‘Clive we met when I was what… ? Twenty, twenty-one…’

Clive nodded.

‘. . . Well, I’m not the same person I was back then. Before I left home my family instilled certain values in me, I guess never left. You could say I am the prodigal son and now I am going home to my father. I will be taking the bonds with me and will be informing him of your full intentions. You know the moment I am home you can never touch me; and with what I know about Camistock it would be best we just let our relationship die here. What my father decides to do with the bonds will be down to him. Let’s just hope he will now be able to make certain decisions without being impeded or held to previous agreements. I’m sure Camistock knows exactly what that means…’ He paused to give Clive a broad smile and then said ‘. . . We wouldn’t want him to have to call the president with demands
-
now, would we?’

Clive shook his head from side to side. ‘Karim, you know the kind of power we have…’ he said. ‘. . . Not just over the US government but over the world. You know what we are capable of; don’t you know we planned the rise and fall of every nation for the last 120 years. Do you really want to make the decision of becoming an enemy of Camistock… on behalf of your father
and
your country?’

Both Karim and his brother started to laugh.

‘How would you know what our father or country wants?’ Saheed replied from within the car.

Again, not answering him directly Clive turned to Karim and said, ‘Think about what you’re doing Karim. Think about what you’re throwing away. Are you sure this is what you want?’

Nodding his head Karim simply replied. ‘It is.’ Then after a short pause said ‘You did not buy me out. I quit. Let’s hope we will never meet again Clive, not in this life or the next.’

‘You can’t be serious Karim…’ Clive shouted while taking a step away from the car. ‘. . . You know Camistock does not take kindly to threats.’

‘This is not a threat.’ replied Karim.

With a smile Clive looked over at Leon then at Jay
-
who was now standing at the front of the Maybach with Delroy and Mervin, then back at Karim before saying, ‘You know we will just find someone else to take your place. May be these guys.’

‘I don’t think so.’ Replied Karim adamantly.

Clive was about to say something else but Karim cut him off with a simple waive of the hand and the words ‘
good
bye
.’

With that Leon closed the door in front of him, tapped the roof of the Maybach with his knuckles and watched the luxury vehicle slowly drive away. Clive looked at Leon standing in the same position and said ‘Do you know what’s going to happen to you?’

‘No…’ Replied Leon casually, ‘. . . but I can tell you what is going to happen to you.’ Leon paused, motioned to Jay to come in closer, removed one of his P-266 from underneath his jacket and said ‘. . . First you’re going to call the boss man…’ Leon paused again to pass the phone over to Jay
-
to hand back to Clive, then said ‘. . . And then you’re going to tell him what has happened here today and that there is a new deal.’

Clive never took orders from anyone other than the two men who hired him
–
Goliath and Molech, Goliath being the gentleman Leon had spoken to on the Satellite phone. However, despite knowing Goliath’s secret admiration for Leon he knew his boss was not going to take this information smiling.

Knowing the type of conversation that was about to ensue, Clive took his time to dial the number and slowly raised the phone to his ear. To his surprise before he could even say hello Mervin, Delroy and Jay rushed in on him. Mervin held Clive’s left arm behind his back, Jay clamped the phone down on Clive’s right ear and then from out of his front pocket, Mervin pulled out a role of silver duct tape and quickly wrapped it around Clive’s head
–
binding his hand and phone to the side of his face. Clive tried his best to break free but it was no use. Jay was using both hands to hold Clive’s head in place and Delroy’s hold on him was tight
-
so any awkward movement sent shocks of pain through his arm and down his back. After Mervin had unravelled enough tape to keep Clive’s hand stuck to his ear, Delroy cuffed Clive’s free wrist to the back of his belt and then stepped away.

Jay started to chuckle. He looked ridiculous with his hand tied behind his back and the tape wrapped around his head like a silver hat. Every time he tried to pull his hand away from his face his whole head would jerk to the side.

‘Is this supposed to be a joke… ?’ Clive shouted.

‘What you think?’ replied Jay.

Clive did not respond to him because his attentions were diverted to the person on the other end of his phone.

‘. . . Hello, sir. They have me tied up.’

Unsure if the person on the other end of the phone was still on the line Leon called out ‘If they’re listening. Tell them the next time they contact me I want the location of my mother and only then will we talk about a deal. Oh, and if anything should happen to any of us, procedures have already been put in place for information to be passed onto the right people. Those who Camistock know they can’t touch without setting off a shit storm.’

‘You are crazy!’ Clive Cedar shouted
-
still trying to pull his hand away from the side of his face.

To Leon’s left a black Range Rover Sport pulled up and stopped a little behind the spot the Maybach was stationed. Pyro was at the steering wheel and smiling. Leon slowly limped over to the front passenger door without saying another word to Clive and Jay followed behind giving Mervin and Delroy a pound on the way.

‘Where are you going? You can’t leave me like this?’ yelled Clive.

Closing the back passenger door beside him Jay could not help but smile at how Clive Cedars demeanour changed rather quickly.

‘Hey, you two…’ Clive called to Mervin and Delroy. ‘. . . You know who I am. I can make you rich.’

‘We already hood rich, niggah.’ Mervin replied.

With that the both of them gave the universal head nod in the direction of the black Range Rover, turned around and jogged away.

Clive watched the Range Rover pull away and called out for them to stop but it was too late. The luxury SUV had increased its speed and was already a good distance ahead. Inside its black leather interior, Leon raised his hand out over his shoulder, to which was immediately filled with a matchbox size detonator, which had a single red button and one flashing red light.

‘Thanks sis.’ Leon said smiling.

‘No problem.’ Na’talia replied.

Leon turned in his seat and looked over to the far right of the Range Rovers back seat and smiled.

‘You cool Shorty?’ he said.

Kerry looked back at Leon with a smile and gently nodded her head in reply. Finally sitting comfortably in his seat, Leon waited for them to exit the cemetery gates before pressing the single button on the small plastic antenna in his hand. Immediately Clive
-
who had started running towards the entrance himself, heard a beeping coming from the phone taped securely to his head. He stopped dead in his tracks. Resolute in his defeat he fell to his knees and under his breath simply said ‘Shit!’

A second later the micro compound bomb that was attached to the back of the phone exploded, tearing off his arm
-
mid way between the wrist and the elbow, and his head clean off of his shoulders.

Due to the Chiefs funeral that day the cemetery had been closed to the public which meant Clive Cedars decapitated body would not to be noticed until 6 o’clock that evening when the night security started their shift.

Driving back East, Pyro looked over at Leon in the passenger seat beside him and said, ‘You know there is no going back now?’

‘I know.’ Leon replied assuredly. He was in a reflective mood, not down or disheartened but happy and thankful he was going up against Camistock on his own but with family and friends. It was not going to be easy but he understood that if he planned for everything they would be free.

CHAPTER 26