CH50: TROUBLE IN DUCAL PARADISE

This is a passion work. So, I would really appreciate it if you leave behind a review when you're done reading.

***

CH50: TROUBLE IN DUCAL PARADISE.

Three Star Gentleman's Club.

The Three-Star Gentleman's Club was well-known among the elites in Onitsha. It was a gathering place of some of the richest and most influential people or their relatives in Onitsha. In the public eye, the club had a high standing with some of its members, groups and associations taking part in philanthropic projects as well as being good role models in society.

In private, however, the club was a high-end prostitution and gambling racket belonging to the NDz. The waitresses were high-end prostitutes that could be approached at any time by members of the club as long as the lady was free. The upper floors of the Club building were part of an illegal high-stakes casino. Of course, not all members have access to or even know about these illegal activities of the Club. Only members with 'exotic' tastes were introduced to these more private parts of the club.

As one of his favourite projects, the Duke liked to bring his most important guests here for relaxation.

Currently, he was sitted with Oziomo Okoh, the leader of the Saints gang, and Adesusu Amadin, the leader of the A4 gang.

The two gangs were from the neighbouring states, Saints from Delta state and A4 from Edo state. There were at the Club to relax and await the time of the drug deal. As this wasn't the first deal they had done with each other, there was a sense of familiarity amongst the three as they chatted and laughed to pass the time.

The Duke was about to say something when he was interrupted by one of his bodyguards who handed him an envelope addressed to him. He was slightly annoyed at the interruption but he knew his guards wouldn't have interrupted him if it wasn't important.

"What's this?" The Duke asked.

"A man claiming to be a DSS agent left it at the front desk before walking away. I was told he said you will want to read it as early as possible because it's about your brother. He also said to do so privately. I dared not disregard it so after I confirmed there was nothing wrong with it, I brought it here." The bodyguard replied quietly that only the Duke heard him.

The Duke nodded his head.

Everyone close to him in the gang knew how much he cared for his brother. They wouldn't disregard any information about him no matter how small. He turned to his guests and apologised.

"I'm so sorry. There seems to be something I need to check on for a moment."

"No problem. Comes with running a big business" Oziomo Okoh replied. Adesusu Amadin nodded in agreement.

The Duke stood up and made his way to one of the private rooms where the guest enjoyed their time with the Club girls. Once in, he locked the door behind him and quickly opened the letter. He wasn't expecting what he saw.

It was a picture. A picture of his brother and wife kissing.

He had been worried about what his brother had gotten into with the DSS. He wasn't expecting to see a picture of his brother and wife in an intimate position.

He was pissed!

Even though he didn't love his wife and regularly cheated on her, he was very angry just seeing her kiss another man, especially when it was his younger brother.

One of the few people he trusted.

Keeping his rage in check a bit, he searched the envelope but there was nothing else in it besides the picture. He turned the picture over and saw some words on it.

'This isn't simple adultery. If you want to know more, pick up the phone at the restaurant tomorrow. Know that this information concerns your life and empire. I want five million naira for the information.'

His rage flared up. He was someone who built his empire on a foundation of fear. Yet, not only did his wife dare to cheat on him with his brother, someone else he didn't even know had the guts to extort him.

He picked up the nearest object close to him and threw it at the mirror. The mirror cracked but didn't break.

For some reason, the Duke thought that he saw a reflection of his life in the mirror. A clear image, just a few moments ago, had transformed into smaller deformed ones, some were also distorted.

A few moments ago, he was laughing thinking he had it all. A beautiful obedient wife that he could control as he pleased. A brother that he trusted a lot and could hand over the gang to in a few years.

Now, he finds out that the brother he loved and trusted so much was cheating on him with his wife. It was like the image he built for himself had deformed and distorted. If it wasn't for the picture, he wouldn't believe it. Even now, he didn't believe it.

He took another object and threw it at the mirror. This time, the mirror shattered to the floor. At the same time, the Duke also decided with a sinister expression on his face.

'If the image has cracked, then I will destroy it completely.'

He brought out a lighter from his trouser pocket and set the picture on fire. He threw it on a metal tray and watched as the fire slowly burnt away the image of the couple. When the picture burnt completely, he left the room with a neutral expression. He wasn't calm, his rage was still burning strong but he knew he couldn't show it on his face hence why he forced himself to have a neutral expression.

He wanted to get back home immediately but he couldn't just leave without saying anything to his guests. So, he returned to them.

"I'm sorry. Something urgent came up that I have to attend to, in person." The Duke said.

"How about our deal?" Adesusu Amadin asked.

Oziomo Okoh also showed an expression indicating that he also wanted to know the answer.

"Don't worry, this has nothing to do with the deal. It will go on as planned. Chidozie is the one handling it so you will get your product."

Hearing this, the two gang leaders calmed down and nodded their heads. They didn't care about the Duke's problems. All that mattered was that they get the drugs they paid for. Both gangs had to gather almost all the liquid funds they had to be able to make this deal. Nothing must go wrong.

Jonathan Duke and his six bodyguards left the lounge and made their way to the parking area. They approached three SUVs and the Duke got into the car in the middle. The bodyguard that gave him the envelope and another took the car's passenger and driver seat respectively. The other bodyguards entered the two other cars.

"Take me home." Duke ordered.

The order was relayed to the other cars and soon, the convoy made their way to the Duke's Mansion home.

After a forty-five minutes drive, the convoy arrived at the mansion. Jonathan got out and made his way inside. He was greeted by the housemaids as he passed by. He was about to turn a corridor when he asked a maid,

"What about my wife?"

"Madame has gone to sleep, sir." The maid replied.

Jonathan looked at the time, it was past 11 pm. He nodded before asking again.

"Have the clothes from yesterday been washed yet?"

"No, sir. The clothes will only be taken to the dry cleaners tomorrow." The maid responded.

"Ok." He said before making his way to the laundry.

Once there, he rummaged around and found what he was looking for.

"It's here."

It was his wife's dress. The same dress she wore in the picture. She wasn't wearing it when he saw her yesterday which meant she had only worn it when she went to meet his brother. In his rage, he almost tore the dress but he held himself in. He would be alerting her if he did so. He put the dress down before he made his way to the master bedroom.

Inside, he found his wife, Esther, fast asleep. He had the mind to strangle her in her sleep. He, however, was able to stop himself. She was sleeping the way she always did. Jonathan couldn't believe that his ever-obedient wife that moved only to his whim would have the guts to cheat on him. And with his brother no less. Even with the picture and the dress, he still didn't believe it. He made his way back to the bodyguards he left behind in the living room.

"Chike, I want to know everything my brother did this past week." Jonathan said.

Although Chike was surprised by the order, he knew his job was to follow orders and not question them.

"Alright, I will get it done." Chike responded.

"I want to know 'everything'. " Jonathan emphasised before heading for his study. He didn't know what he would do if he slept with his wife. He also couldn't sleep in the other rooms. That would make it obvious that something was wrong.

The bodyguards looked at each other in confusion before Chike quickly went to carry out his order.

Day 2 of Operation PythonSlaying came to an end

The Duke had thrown the drug deal to the back of his mind. He was more preoccupied trying to understand the matters in his home. He couldn't help but wonder what else the 'DSS agent' wanted to tell him.

Unknown to him, the architect of his current troubles was taking advantage of his absence to cause him more trouble elsewhere.

[Isn't this too elaborate?] Aon couldn't help but ask.

This time, it paid attention when Korede was formulating and executing his plan. So, it knew exactly what its host was planning.

'It sure is.' Korede responded with a chuckle.

[Then why are you doing it? Don't you know complex plans like this are more likely to fail?]

'Of course, I know but elaborate plans are fun. Also, the satisfaction from completing it will be greater.'

[You are about to ruin a deal worth a lot of resources, aren't you enjoying this too much?]

'Nobody said I couldn't take satisfaction in my work. '

Korede had just completed the preparation of his plan for the deal. Just as Aon said, it was elaborate and required tedious planning and execution. It would be a miracle if the plan worked. Normally, the preparation for this type of plan should take days, weeks, if not, months. Korede, however, completed the same in a few hours.

'Don't worry. These guys aren't professionals. The preparation will be enough. Besides, if it doesn't work, we can always move on to plan B. The good old fashion gunfight and killing everyone on in sight plan.'

Aon didn't bother to respond. Korede chuckled as he looked at the time.

'It's 1 am. The NDI team should have Chidozie and the kidney in their custody by now. I should go over everything again and make sure I didn't miss anything.'

A few moments later, he was done running through his preparations in his mind. There was only one thing left to do. Korede got on Chidozie's bike and rode to a location close to the Onitsha Main Market. It was the location Chidozie had planned to meet with his men.

The last thing Korede needed to do was to convince the NDz members that he was a representative sent from upper management to replace Chidozie during the deal.

The location of the meet with Chidozie's men was a large parking space. By the time Korede got there, all twenty gang members under Chidozie's direct control were already there. These men were the heart of the NDz smuggling operation. Each of them had multiple men under them which meant that the smuggling section had a large number of men, second only to the security section.

Hearing the familiar rev of Chidozie's Yamaha YZF R1, the gang members turned in the direction of the source. They were surprised when they saw an unfamiliar face on the bike.

"Who are you?" One of the men asked.

"Who I am doesn't matter. You might not see me again after today. All you need to know is that the Boss and Chidozie are busy with something else at the moment and so I'm here to take Chidozie's place in coordinating the deal. I expect you guys to follow my orders fully." Korede replied.

"Why should we believe you? Where is the leader? Let's call to confirm." The man said.

One of them picked up the phone to call. Korede did nothing to stop him. He kept on calling for a few minutes without any response. Korede looked at him with an expression of disdain.

"I just said your leader and Boss are busy. Do you think Chidozie will have the time to pick your call when he is dealing with something for the Boss? Chidozie had said you guys were smart. He said as long as you saw his bike, you would know he trusted me. Maybe I was expecting too much."

"You could have stolen the bike for all we know." The man argued.

For some reason, he didn't like or trust this new guy. Perhaps it was the way he was looking down on them.

The look of disdain on Korede's face got clearer.

"Are you stupid? With how much the guy treasures his bike, don't you think he would know by now if it was stolen? Wouldn't he have every one of you searching for it?" Korede responded. He sighed, "It seems Chidozie overestimated your intelligence."

"You little…" The man lunged at Korede to hold him by his collar. Korede dodged and punched him in the stomach. The man fell to the floor gasping for breath as the punch forced out most of the air in his lungs.

"I don't care who you are or what you think. The Boss sent me here to handle the deal. So, you are expected to follow my orders. As for why I'm here, it's simple. I'm here to make sure the deal goes off without a hitch. If you think you can't follow my orders because you don't know who I am, you are free to take your men and keep away. I'm more than capable of handling everything and anything that can happen myself."

"Do you think you can handle all the men of the A4 and Saints yourself? You have a death wish?" Another gang member said.

"Why don't you try and see? I'm sure you all want to put me in my place." Korede replied with a faint disdainful smile.

The man Korede punched got back up and shouted, "Let's beat up this fool."

The others hesitated but seeing the disdain in his expression, they couldn't take it anymore and attacked Korede.

[A.N: Please, don't forget to leave a review of the work to encourage me. Your opinion matters to me.]