Mr. Imperfectionist 1

36- Drug Lord

Three years ago, I'd gone to a pub for a few drinks because Maya was giving me a hard time like always. Even though I had moved out, she still came to my new house where I lived with Mamá and fought over petty things.

I was having whiskey and sulking alone in a corner when Roberto came up to me and introduced himself. He's tall, dusky, he wore a lot of gold, a black hat, and a purple suit that I found funny. He had his shoulder-length hair tied behind his neck with an elastic band.

He's average built and he's missing the index finger from his right hand, which was quite strange. I didn't pay attention to him much. I wanted him to leave me alone but Roberto was a good talker. He convinced me to tell him why I was upset and I didn't even realize that I was sharing everything with him. He was a good manipulator I should say.

We got talking and soon enough we bonded really well. I was laughing and enjoying myself in his company. Jorge joined us after an hour and we three went to another pub for drinks.

That pub was owned by Roberto. He told me he had five restaurants and pubs in Spain. I started to meet them every day for drinks and dinner.

I was a loner and a shy kid at school. I never made many friends. I was sort of a nerd. Thus I never had a girlfriend before Maya. I never spoke to girls in the school or college. Though in college girls would throw themselves at me and I never understood why. I wasn't even so good in studies.

After college, I was not in touch with anyone, not even the only two friends that I'd made. I never even had time to make friends because of the burden that had fallen on me after Pápa's death.

I started my own business and my full concentration was only in my work. Mr Pérez had become my friend when he joined me but our friendship was only limited till the office hours. Roberto was my first friend in my personal life. I confided in him. He was fun, adventurous, he was happy all the time and Jorge was just like him. They would start dancing in their pub while drinking and pull me with them. I had found my solace.

Maya had completely broken me with all her tantrums and unnecessary fights. However, that changed when I started spending time with these two. I had begun to stay happy. I started taking time off work which I never had done before. Mamá was elated to see this change in me. She could not see the damage Maya had done to me. She wanted me to go on vacation and not just spend all day in the office.

One day we went to a resort here in Barcelona that was owned by Jorge in partnership with some businessman. That was the first time they spoke about their real business. Jorge lifted the mattress of the bed in Roberto's room and my eyes popped out of my socket when I saw hundreds of Crack packets hiding inside the storage compartment of the bed. I was speechless. Roberto offered a deal.

He wanted me to help him send two hundred packages from Barcelona to Santiago. He promised there won't be any risk. Jorge will take care of most of the things.

Apparently, they allied with most of the logistics industries from different countries to make easy deliveries of their illicit drugs. They wanted me to handle drug transportation in Spain. He was offering a huge amount for that. Two million euros only for helping him deliver the Crack.

I denied at first but Roberto has always been a sweet talker. He tried to convince me. He had become my best friend and I didn't want to upset him. Moreover, the amount was good. I could invest that money in my business and expand it even more.

When I was fourteen, I had cracked heroin in school once. Mamá was really upset with me and she made me promise that I would never do it again. I never touched any sort of drugs after that day. I watched my school mates ruining their lives and getting into rehabs. I wanted to stop them and I wanted to stop every youth from consuming this poison. Roberto's offer had me on the fence. Though I didn't want to upset my best friend, helping him in something illicit could damage my career.

Mr Pérez was obviously against it. Roberto promised me this would be the first and the last time he'll be taking my help in this clandestine activity. Smuggling drugs to Santiago wasn't easy and I'd told them once that my contacts were good in entire Spain and most of the other countries as well. They took advantage of that and convinced me to make the deal.

I decided to help them. I convinced Mr Pérez to send a cargo of food items to Santiago. We hid the packets of Crack beneath the containers in a hollow space and sealed them. The cargo was successfully delivered. The money got deposited in my account immediately. Roberto was happy and very impressed with me. We partied the whole night.

After a month he asked for another favour. I'd started to understand their intentions. I denied and asked him never to call me again. I started receiving threats on my mother and one of their men had fired a gun near my office premises. I was trapped in their dark world and no matter how hard I try they won't let me go. I helped them to deliver Cannabis to Seville.

Again a huge amount got transferred into my bank account. I donated it to the charity. I didn't want their dirty money. I was upset because the people I'd called my friends, turned out to be backstabbers. I found out through some resources that Roberto was a Drug Lord of Mexico and Colombia. He had contracts in many countries including Cuba, the USA, German, Italy, Paris, and Spain. He had killed many people who didn't agree to ally with him and he was unashamed of it.

They still wanted to remain my friends but I stopped attending their calls. They continued threatening me for more help. I couldn't even leave everything and go away because I had given years of hard work to bring my company in a position that it's in today.

I decided to fight back. I hired Francisco and Matias for Mamá's protection. Then I hired Julio and Guzman for my protection. Emilio showed interest and said he wanted to help me too. Emilio and I joined NRA Training. We trained there for months and then bought firearms on license. Mr Pérez said I'd need more firearms for protection. He knew someone who sold illegal firearms. We bought more from him and hid them beneath the seat of all my cars and in all the houses that I owned. Emilio and I practised every day.

As expected there was an attack on us outside my house. We took care of them easily because Emilio and I joined the bouncers and shot a few of their men. But they all went back alive because we shot in the wrong places. Francisco was shot on his shoulder. Dr Abascal had been a family doctor for years. He operated on Francisco and since then he helped whenever someone got injured. Julio was a good shooter so Emilio started taking more training from him in their free time.

A year passed by, but Roberto had not given up on me. He tried multiple times to have me back and threaten Mamá's life but all his efforts went down the drain when I hired Polito and Daniel. I wanted the best snipers because Roberto was getting vicious with each passing month.

Through some good contacts in Madrid, I was able to hire Daniel and Polito. They had single-handedly killed around twenty of their men. Julio had killed at least six. Emilio hadn't killed any but he had shot a few of them in their arms and legs. It was easy to get some cops in my favour. Being one of the top industrialists in Spain paid off when the cops were willing to shake hands with me and cover up all the damage done by us for some gravy. Besides, Roberto was a wanted criminal. But it wasn't easy to get hold of him because of his influences. So the police covered up for all the killings we had done because we mostly used non-licensed ammunition and they couldn't find the records.

The vengeance had made me merciless. I used my gun without even blinking an eye. My soft side had gone. Part of the reason for turning into a monster was Maya's humiliation as well. She was shrewish. She had spent millions of my money and yet she didn't want to divorce me. She didn't stop fighting. Her behaviour towards me and Roberto's torture had made me cold.

It's been three years and Roberto continued to put mine and my people's life in danger. It was finally time to end this long time dispute by killing him. One mission was already accomplished by killing Jorge. His death gave me a little more confidence and hope that abducting Roberto was possible. We can do this and we have to do this or everyone I've ever known will die. Roberto won't shy away from killing each one of my men and my Mamá or even going to India himself to track down Saanj and kill her. And he will keep me alive to watch.

I knew him too well. I knew what he was capable of. He can do anything. He was a lunatic. I had to kill him. I had to put an end to all this by killing the Drug Lord of Mexico.