All out gang warfare on the Cape Flats with an international assassin as catalyst.
And caught in the middle of all of this is Kira Carter, unemployed Cape Flats girl, who can't remember her past. Will she be able to safe her mother and sister when the gangsters attack and why does the leader of the Red Globe Gang have a personal interest in her?
The Cape Flats explodes in violence and all out war like never before. There is hardly a chance to breath. Action on every page as you are taken from one excitement to the next at an intense pace. Inhuman violence like you've never seen before.
What starts out as a simple gang war soon moves to a totally unexpected level of violence and all out revenge.
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EXTRACT FROM GUNSHOTS IN THE NIGHT
Sadiq Davids was always a bully. He grew up with an abusive father who was not
only a psychopath, but also an avid dagga smoker. This made him to beat the toddler Sadiq into
a pulp for even the smallest thing. Thus,
Sadiq grew up with the idea that the only way of life is violence and he
started practicing it from a young age.
When he
was sixteen years old, he joined the local street-gang. The Monkey-punky Kids. The Monkey-punky Kids mostly sold drugs on
the street corners for the local shebeen owner.
They had two prostitutes working for them, but prostitution was not
their major business. Most of their time
was spent hunting and fighting the other gangs in the surrounds. That was when they were not running from
them. In those years, the gangs didn’t
have guns. They uses machetes, axes and
knives for their gang fights. You had to
be big, strong, and very violent to be a gangster in those years and Sadiq was
all of that.
But
Sadiq also had a driving ambition. He
could never stand to play second fiddle in anything. That is what drove him.
When
Sadiq joined the Monkey-punky kids, he was just an ordinary member. In two weeks’ time, after joining the gang,
he had a fall out with the leader of the gang.
Sadiq jumped on him and it wasn't a minute before Sadiq stuck his knife
into the leader’s stomach. He can
remember pulling it upwards afterwards to make the wound even bigger. Then Sadiq picked up a machete and chopped
the now ex-leader into little pieces. He
did it very deliberately and methodically.
Almost like someone making cuts of meat.
When the
other members saw this type of violence they could just stand there and watch
him. After he was done and the rage
started leaving him, Sadiq look towards the other members. His eyes were wide with rage and he had blood
all over him. He looked like a demon
straight out of a surreal nightmare.
When he look at the other members and saw the fear in their eyes, he
knew that he was inside their minds.
That was
where he wanted to be.
At that moment,
he knew that he was meant to lead. That
was his destiny; that was his duty. He
was going to reach the highest level and he was going to rule through pure
fear.
He took
over the gang. Even the other senior
member just fell in with him, too scared to say anything. Even at the age, he was already bigger and
stronger than the others were. Then he
started building his gang. He did not
follow the usual steps; he had his own template on which he built his
gang.
Even
when he was small, he liked to read the comics and other pulp fiction that his
father was always reading. After reading
it, his father would just leave it lying around and the small Sadiq would then
pick it up and start reading. This gave
him a fantastic imagination from a very young age. Imagination is very important if you want to
be a leader.
He did
not like the name Monkey Punky Kids. For
him it was a name created by someone without any imagination. He wanted a name that would immediately go
into the imagination of whomever hears it.
He was
planning to bring fear and death all over the world. He wanted to make the globe red with the
blood of his enemies. So from then on,
they were known as the Red Globe Gang.
He got the best graphic artists in the neighborhood and the signet
of the Red Globe Gang went up everywhere. He later had it made into a stencil, so that
it could be put up in a shorter time. He
even had it stencilled in enemy territory.
As the enemy was still looking at the freshly sprayed signet over
theirs, he and his men would suddenly appear and wipe them out.
Guns
were not easily available in those years as the country still had a competent
government, who took care of the republic.
They used knives, axes and machetes to kill each other. But Sadiq wanted more. He got some of the egg-heads in the
neighborhood together and they started a work-shop where they produced zip guns
for his men. With these zip-guns his men
were soon a force to be reckoned with and he took over whole territories, while
incorporating the other gangs with his.
He always
killed the leader of the gang himself.
Always in front of his men. Then
he simply told the gang members that they now worked under him. There was never any complaints. He always made sure that all his men profited
well from their venture. Everyone was
treated well as long as they worked according to his instructions. This created loyalty that is hard to find
amongst gangsters.
He now
moved into prostitution full force.
Pornography were forbidden in the republic in those years. Porn usually came in via the many sailors
that came into the country or those who were returning home. They would bring the porn in and then
distribute it amongst the people at home.
Because porn was such a scarce item, it was very valuable. Any porn book would be crumbled, full of
folds and tears as it moved from person to person.
Sadiq
immediately saw the potential in this.
He started his own underground press where he produced porn books by the
thousands. People were willing to pay a
pretty penny for a brand new, very neat looking book with naked girls active in
all sorts of sexual acts. He even had
two full porn movies made locally. Both
movies were also distributed overseas as it was seen as an exotic ‘blue film’.
On the
drug side of the business, he also innovated and made it even more lucrative
than what it already was. He did not
just buy the drugs from the incoming ships and then resell it. He got the raw material at a much cheaper
price and then he started producing his own drugs. The profits were more and the competition
less.
He
discovered the underground tunnels in Woodstock and Salt River. These tunnels were made under the houses in
those areas many years ago. For what
reason he could never find out, but they were there and perfect for their activities,
because no one knew about it. This made
him take over whole streets. Although
ordinary families lived in the houses, his gang had full access to the tunnels
beneath the houses. In those secret tunnels,
he had his drug laboratories, his film studios and his illegal printing
presses. The police searched but could
not find anything. Sadiq knew that he
would always had to be just one step ahead of the police.
Another
point where Sadiq beat the other gangs was that there were no informers in his gang. In the first place, he treated all his men
very well. Once you were a member of the
gang, you were treated in a civil manner.
Everyone was made to feel special.
Secondly,
he told the men that if any of them informed, he would not kill that person,
because by that time the damage would have been done already. He would, however, kill that person's whole
family. Everyone, including babies and
extended family.
You must
always kill a family in whole, because those you left alive, will come out to
take revenge, was his believe.
And he
told the potential informers that he will do of much of that killing in front
of them. The men knew that Sadiq never
just said something. He was a man of his
word. So there were never anyone who
informed on what he and his gang was doing.
The fear kept them on the straight and narrow.
The Red
Globe Gang got notoriety all over the Cape Peninsula and it was a force to be
reckoned with. There were other major
gangs, but none as glorious and as rich as the Red Globe Gang.
Then
something happened that changed all that.
Back in
the present Sadiq is sitting in his lounge.
He is in his house in Manenberg.
He loves this house. Although
this is not the area that he grew up in, he and his father visited many a time
here when he was a boy. So he knows the
area very well. Manenberg is also one of
the areas totally under his control and endorsed by The Circle.
He could
easily call himself the King of Manenberg and no one would deny it.
In the
area all the non-governmental organizations which were there to help the poor
where under his control. No one would be
helped by those organizations unless he gives the go ahead for such help.
He could
also walk into the local police station at any time and go straight to the
offices of the different commanders.
Iron gates where unlocked for him as if by magic as he walked in. He got priority treatment around here and
everyone knew it. The commanders and many
of the ordinary law officers each got their little brown envelopes on a certain
date in the middle of the month. Sadiq
knew this was the time when most police officers really needed money and the
amount he gave them was really something to smile about. This meant he had nothing to fear from the
police. He owned them.
The only
thing that he disliked was the fact that he was working under The Circle. Although he was a member of the second Ring,
it did not satisfy his imperial tendencies.
He wanted to be on top of the pyramid.
He appreciated the fact that there was an organization, which united all
the criminal gangs in the province. Why,
if it were not established, he would have establish such an organization
himself.
Now, as
he sits in his lounge, he had already received the reports of what happened in
Dark City. Almost his whole crew killed
and the under-boss only escaping with his life.
According to all he heard, this was done by a single girl. A single girl.
Worse of
all was that everybody saw this. The
whole community saw his men getting humiliated.
Something like this will undermine the authority of the gangs in a huge
way and he simply could not allow it.
Never. He feels the rage boiling
up in him.
As he
stands up to make himself another drink, his mobile phone starts ringing and
the reports starts coming in. With the
second report, he sinks down in his luxurious couch with dismay. This cannot be happening.
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