The Queen of Africa

Chapter 11

Rose walked back to her personal office in silence, a million thoughts evading her head. What on earth would the Italian mafia want with her? And who was the young man that Samuel spoke of, the last time she heard Gregorio was the head of the Italian mafia and he was 64, maybe it was his son since the Italian mafia was normally generational? Jacques followed her into the office as she sat down and stared at him
"Don't tell me you're starting to doubt me?" he said breaking the silence, she sighed
"No, Of course not, I know who I can trust"
"Then what are you thinking?" she stared at him with a blank face

"Many, many things, things I can't say until I'm sure not even to you"

"Do you have an idea who the man might be?"

"I'm not sure and like I said I can't say anything right now" he nodded his head in understanding

"You'll come to know, you always do. See you later viper" he said as he walked out of the door. She frowned her lips in confusion, was that some sort of clue? Did Jacques know who the man was? She sighed loudly in frustration, too many thoughts, too many hypothesises. Her head hurt, she had to get to the bottom of this.
The ringing of her phone brought her attention to the real world, she picked it up gently and stared at the caller ID

'Tony'. She bit her lips and answered

"Latest news now is that my own goddaughter has decided not to call me again" Tony's husky and carefree voice came from the other end, she smiled,

"I missed you too Tony and I'm sorry I haven't been calling, things have been hectic nowadays"

"It's always hectic there, why do you think I retired? I couldn't carry the burden forever"

"That's why you passed it unto me, you wicked old man" his loud laugh was heard

"I am not old viper" she rolled her eyes

"Yeah, because being 52 means you're still young"

"Exactly, I still have some energy on this hips and when was the last time you visited me?" she groaned

"I'm busy Tony"

"I'm busy, I'm busy, that's what you always say, and I'm tired of that old line. From now on, I don't care how busy you are, you're taking a break and visiting me in South Africa this weekend, Jacques can take care of things there" she sighed

"I'm guessing I can't object to that"

"You know me viper, I don't allow objections" she laughed

"Fine, have it your way, I'll be coming over this weekend"

"Wonderful...I have to go now, it's dinnertime, see you soon"

"See you soon" she replied as the receiver went dead.

She stood up and walked out of the door, to check out on how things were doing. She had warehouses in various centres all over the continent and she had video conferences every Monday with the managers she had kept there, people that had been with her in the training camp when she was a child. There was Murvita Lener, she was the manager that took over salons that harboured and sold drugs in secret located in Liberia, Gambon Daniel that used aircraft in the transportation of drugs and armoury located in Kenya, Els de Marib Vanessa that used ships to transport arms through the Pacific Ocean located in Madagascar, Pereves Jamuil that was involved in human trafficking located in Cote d' Ivoire, not her favourite guy but as the saying goes it was better to keep her friends close and her enemies closer, plus he was trustworthy and the last hers located in Equitorial Guinea that took major control over other warehouses and they asked her for permission when transacting with major mafias or cartels. Lener had asked her to deliver those drugs the day she went to meet Samuel and luckily enough she was able to catch on to an upcoming threat quickly.
She went down the stairs and towards the base of the warehouse where she met Jacques talking to Sango, Sango immediately kept quiet as soon as he saw her. Jacques who wondered what the cause was, turned and smiled at her

"Wonderful, just in time. I've just arranged the conference room for the video call"

"I hope there is good news this time"

"So do I, the sinking of one of Vanessa's ship wasn't easy to take" she nodded and began walking towards the meeting room which was located above the base in a hidden hallway. She placed her hand on the fingerprint scanner that was successively placed hidden in the wall. The doors opened automatically and they walked through as the doors closed behind them, the room painted with white and blue was fully air-conditioned, with a metal long table in the middle of the room with metal chairs surrounding it, a gold trophy sat on a desk at the left corner of the room, the desk filled with the recordings of former meetings. A steel cabinet was placed in the right corner with a safe placed beside it, she sat down on the chair placed at the far end of the table and behind her, the wall was a painting of an oceanic scenery giving the room a sense of calmness. Jacques sat down by her right before dimming the lights using the remote control and putting on the flat-screen TV's that were placed on the other side of the wall and one by one, the faces of her colleagues appeared on the screen. Lener wore a light blue T-shirt that accented her fair skin with nude pink lips and the beautiful Brazilian weaving she had done, Daniel had worn a tight fitted red T-shirt with a black jacket placed on top, he had black spiky hair and diamond stud earrings, he was referred to as the joker of the group, Vanessa had put on a pink summer gown with a white rose placed in her natural full wavy black hair, she was much like Rose who preferred to go natural, she put on pink lip gloss on her full lips which accented the silvery eye shadow she had put on and the last Jamuil who wore a black shirt and a golden chain around his neck, his lips bore a frown as they always did and he had gotten another tattoo of an eagle on his neck.

"Rose" Vanessa started with a smile that showed off her dimples "how is it lately? This is rush hour month, deals are breaking in faster than I can paint nails, I'm even lucky to have Grace by my side"

"yeah, here also" added Daniel "I've had to purchase tons of fuel for planes and helicopters, just yesterday I had to balance three different demands of cocaine, guns and Indian Hemp at the same time, on the same day and in the same place" she sighed

"Things are not different here and to make issues even worse, it seems I may have unknowingly made an acquaintance with the head of the Italian mafia"

"Italian mafia? Since when did we start making deals with them" Lener asked confused "never" she replied

"Then what on earth do the Italian mafia want with you?" Jamuil asked with an accusing tone in his voice, she scowled at him

"Watch your tone Jamuil, you of all people should know I have no dealings with them and it seems Gregorio has been replaced according to what Samuel told me"

"Samuel? Weren't you supposed to have a deal with him about some days ago?" Vanessa asked getting more confused with the situation

"I was and I did but it was a fraud, he was out to dupe me"

"No, that's not possible" replied Daniel shaking his head "Samuel is not like that, he always keeps his deals"

"Exactly what I thought and even more suspicious was the fact that his men were newbies and Michael wasn't with him"

"Impossible, Samuel doesn't go anywhere without Michael. What's going on Viper?" Lener asked getting annoyed at the information, Rose waited for a few seconds before replying

"Samuel was dethroned by the Italian mafia" a surprised gasp was heard from Vanessa and the rest all wore expressions of disbelief, she continued "when I took Samuel, he told me that the head was a young man and he wanted me. He knew he was going to have a deal with me in a few days, Michael had betrayed him" the group was speechless at the surprising information, Daniel's had a thoughtful look on his face and Rose raised a brow in question "anything we should know Daniel?" she asked, he looked at her and sighed

"I may know the name of this new mafia leader" everyone looked at him in surprise including her

"And who exactly is he?" she asked uneasily

"His name is Miguél" he finally replied.