Heartless Mind

Chapter 2

Matilda shook her head in the negative. “I’m doing this for you Malik, all for you. Your sick father needs you, the palace needs you and your people need you. They all need you more than I do. You are a prince. I am nothing but a foreigner who’d ruin your life and ambition, farewell Malik.

Malik held her cheeks with both hands, tears steamed his face. The last time he cried like this was when he lost his twin, Majdi. That was eight years ago.

He had learnt to move on, Matilda coming into his life was a great help with that.

He’d thought Matilda was the incarnate of Majdi. They both had one thing in common, brightening up his mood.

He can’t lose Matilda! What would his life be like? Trash, hopeless, frustrated, miserable?

“Goodbye Malik, please don’t bother looking for me ’cause we’d be moving out of the country sooner or later. Please remember this, I love you and I’ll always do” she pecked him on the forehead.

“Take this necklace, it’ll remind you of me….bye”.

She gave him a silver necklace with a pendant made of glass. Inside the glass was a capture of her beautiful self.

Malik wept to stupor he didn’t mind the embarrassing fact that he was standing on the ground. He wished the earth around him would just squeak and swallow him up.

What reason is there to leave when the two most important people in his life are gone?

He wiped away his tears. Every cloud has a silver lining, it's high time he concentrates more on the family he has left; his sick father, ageing mother and kid sister.

He picked his broken self together and drove back to the palace, what a day!

First, he gave his dad a heart attack and now his lover has left him, the joyous Hassan in him flew away, he was left with a shattered body and soul to deal with.

Matilda and her family left the country a week later. There in the United States, she realised she was pregnant. She’s already called it quits with Malik, moreso the pregnancy wouldn’t change anything. Her belly grew bigger as the days passed by, nine months later; the glorious period!

She gave birth to a set of identical twins; Jesse and Jaden.

She nurtured and showered them with all the love a mother could breed. But something was missing, a father!

Five years afterwards, she fell in love with Spencer Sherwood; an afro American.

Their beautiful union brought forth a child- David.

Sherwood died a couple of years later. Leaving Matilda to think she wasn’t destined to be married.

**

The sun was high above the sky, even the blind could tell winter had run back to her hideout. Rows of royal palm flocked the roadsides adding beauty to the city.

The city was as busy as nomadic and their animals on Greenland.

Jesse was nodding to a reggae song beaming from his car’s stereo.

He drove to a popular yacht station and killed his engine just when he drove into the parking lot.

He stepped out of his black Hyundai sonata and took a glance at the environment.

He heard it on the grapevine that the feds were always watching, he must be as stealthy as a ghost!

He was clad in a black Taiwan leather jacket, black sweat pants and black shades.

His attire was gracely embarrassed by his milk skin and well-toned body. He was on a low cut but his hair was so very curly. His hair was his trademark!

Having made sure that the coast was clear, he stepped into a ski-jet prepared for him and sailed down the ocean blue waters.

Jesse was an ex American CIA. He was burned for his sticky fingers with government funds.

In the heat of the moment, an underground syndicate based and temporarily operating in the UAE found him useful and recruited him straight to the position of a top agent.

The syndicate had benefited so much from Jesse's skills and expertise. He was always on the war front of important missions such as the one he was embarking on.

The mission was an easy peasy, sign the contract and get out.

The boss specifically sent him ’because he, Jesse knew every nook and cranny of Miami, more so, he was a master of disguise, a grand duke of stealth and a gladiator of modern times.

Jesse brought his ski-jet to a halt before a white yacht. Without a tiny bug of ado, He hopped into the yacht. He didn’t move two steps before he was accosted by two masked fully armed men. Was this the best Evgani could do? He chuckled inwardly.

“Your hands above your head” one of the armed men commanded in a husky and thick Russian accent.

The guard searched Jesse roughly.

“He is clean, lead him to the boss” the man commanded his fellow, having been satisfied with his little security check.

Jesse took bold steps into the yacht. Evgeni was seated on an acoustic chair with two armed men by his left and right respectively. The interior of the yacht looked more like a third world war infantry. Weapons of variant calibres occupied the room.

Bory Evgeni was Russia's most notorious drug dealer who had his pictures pasted in the military intelligence base of almost all nations of the world. He was declared internationally wanted roughly two years ago, yet he hasn’t been captured. He was good at what he does, not even the airport authorities knew he was in the USA.

Jesse was to strike a deal with him for hard drugs which are to be shipped into the UAE in a matter of months.

Evgeni smiled on seeing Jesse, his tooth was grey, only God knows how bad they smell!

” I thought you wouldn’t make it, Jesse”

“I’m not scared of the authorities, you know that” Jesse smirked.

Evgeni owed him big time. Jesse had saved his life before.

“Shall we get down to business?” asked the impatient Jesse.

“Oh yes!” Evgeni snapped his fingers and a guard gave Jesse a pen and document to sign. Jesse signed it and passed the written document to Evgeni who also signed his part of the deal.

“I need the shipments as soon as they are ready; my clients are impatient about this” stuttered Jesse.

“of course”

The duo shook hands and Jesse walked out of the yacht. Mission accomplished! He hopped into his ski- jet and ignited the engine.

Not long into his sailing festival, his phone rang. He picked it up without checking who the caller was.

“Sorry Jesse, your story ends here, good to know you wouldn’t have time to repent, demons as you dance in hell!”

said the caller from the other end of the line. Jesse was for a moment gobsmacked. He checked for the caller identity, it was hidden. Damn it! His cover can never blow just like that, this must be the handwork of a friendly enemy.

“Who are you? He asked courageously.

“Jesse!!” a voice screamed into his ear. He wasn’t sure where that voice came from because he had a micro Bluetooth earpiece in his ear, a mobile phone on the other ear and the outside world.

“Jesse! There is a bomb in the boat” this time he was sure it was his colleague speaking, he heard the voice emanating from his earpiece. He turned to search for the bomb.

His gaze fell on a time bomb it's time to read “00:01” before you could read JERK NEVILLE. The bomb went off, everything in the boat was caught in angry flames. Even the water nearby wasn’t left out.

Location: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Time: 20:06

The room was gloomy but bright enough for everyone to see its magnificence. No wonder it was called crystal; everything seemed to be made of glass from the roof to the ceramic tiles to the state of the art computers to the sites. There was enough elbow room to contain the aforementioned.

Katarina and Bronswort occupied two seats while Anderson sat next to the computerised wall as usual.

His fingers were racing from one keypad to the other. He was already used to it!

The large CCTV monitor had clips of various places showing on it. However, Anderson poured all his attention on the section displaying Jesse. He was on an important mission and communication was vital!

Anderson couldn’t bring himself to believe what he saw, a bomb was resting majestically in Jesse’s ski-jet.

He warned Jesse about it but it was rather too late, the bomb exploded, causing the screen to take the hazy path. Everything went cloudy as smokes and flames filled the air.

No! This can’t be happening, it must be a fragment of hallucination. He reversed the footage to be sure.

Anderson was the computer guru in an underground syndicate nicknamed “THE DARK HORSES” they involve in various illegal activities ranging from kidnaps to assassination of prominent persons. The top four agents in the syndicate were known as dark horses, they radiate nothing less than modern gladiators. Their works were always as clean as crystals, to say they are the best is gross hyperbole.

“Boss there is a situation here” Anderson interrupted Katarina and Bronswort who were killing time. Katarina swerved her chair to face Anderson.

“Everything alright? She asked in a mixture of Arab and American accents. She was an American born Arabian. Her dad was the boss, he showed himself on a month of Sundays, his daughter was his mirror as he’ll sit inside and give orders while she directs its execution.

“Jesse was involved in an explosion” Anderson tipped.

The name Jesse alone triggered fibres of shocks in her, he was the love of her life. She knew he loved her though he’d never admitted it. Katarina stood to her feet, she took a few steps towards Anderson who reversed the footage for her to watch. Tears threatened to gush down her cheeks as her eyes embraced the terrifying scene. She took comfort in the fact that she was the boss around and her emotions shouldn’t intervene in matters related to dark horses.

“Trace the last number he called,” Bronswort commanded.

Anderson shook his head in disappointment. “I tried doing that, no tracks were left, the caller identity wasn’t traceable”.

“Could we have enemies? Asked Abubakar who just walked in.

Katarina heaved. “This must have been planned. We need to be very careful, you’ve been making lots of noise lately”

She warned and walked away to her father’s wing.