The Big 5

19

Prince was asleep when his father came into the room. He sat on his bed and tapped him gently on the forehead.  “hey buddy wanna come with me to the office” said Mr. Molefe. Prince woke up and rubbed his eyes and looked at his father and asked “ why” “ well I’ll be honest with you Lewis is sick and I don’t wanna be alone in the office” said Mr. Molefe. Prince laid back down again and turned his back to his father and said “ go ask Brutus or Themba to be with you in the office” “ Brutus is out of the country and Themba is working on something I assigned him and before you ask Tom is sorting out some legal matters and well Sean….. I don’t know what Sean is up to. So come on it’s you and me today buddy” he said. Prince sat up again and sighed and then he mumbled “ okay let me bath first” “ good boy. We’ll pass by your favorite taco place on the way there.” Mr. Molefe went downstairs to have a cup of coffee as he waited for his son to come downstairs. He then pulled out a burner phone and made a call “ talk to me Mark” he said into the phone “ good tell me what happens after the meeting, I’ll call you when I knock off from work. Are you okay down there without any backup, I could ask a few of my friends in the Namibian taxi industry to be near the hotel where the meeting is going down? Okay if you insist” he said into the phone again before he hung up. Prince came down the stairs and said “let’s go old man” and they got into the car and left. “ you're traveling a bit light today,” said Prince. “ I told you Lewis is sick today, you know he's the one that usually handles security,” said Mr. Molefe. “ Clearly these guys need training, tell Lewis I said that when comes back,” said Prince. They arrived at the office and Mr. Molefe went about his day working whilst Prince helped his father. In the evening after they had finished their work Prince remarked about how he enjoyed the day. “ I should call the taco lady,” said Mr. Molefe. After he made the offer he sat next to Prince and they watched a game of football. “ how come you never ask Johnny to come over and help you out with the business” asked Prince. “ unlike you and your brothers you know Johnny seems content on not joining the business. Besides, I think if he’s not winning fights he’s with that girl” said Mr. Molefe with Prince nodding his head. “ I want to make this more of a habit you know, you shadowing me around” added Mr. Molefe. Prince was shocked to hear this “ why me” he asked. The Taco lady then walked in and said “ sorry sir I hope I’m not interrupting there was no one at the front desk” “no-no. put them on the table.” He pulled out a P200 not and said “ keep the change”. the lady was overjoyed and left. “ you asked a question before she came” said Mr. Molefe with a taco in his hand “ yeah why do you want me to shadow you” asked Prince. “ well I want you to see how I handle the day to day runnings of this business. Before you ask why again I’ll answer you. I want you to take over once I retire. See I’m not as young as I used to be and I wanna spend more time with your mother you know, buy a farm and grow some potatoes and rear cattle” said Mr. Molefe. “ I still don’t understand why,” asked Prince again. “ well because Sean can’t take over. He is ruled by emotions and his temper would lead us into a lot of unnecessary wars, he doesn’t have the patience. And Tom will want to run this like it’s a law firm which it isn’t. besides he doesn’t have the stomach for when things get ugly if you know what I mean. Your sister is married so technically she isn’t a Molefe anymore. And I just said Johnny doesn’t seem interested. So that leaves you to be heir to the Molefe family. And this isn’t because you are the last resort, this is because I believe in you. You have shown me the fire that Sean has, the patience and brains that Tom has and you're the only guy that’s kicked Johnny's ass in a boxing ring.” As Prince was listening to his father talk he was overcome by emotion and he couldn’t keep the tears out of his eyes. He sniffed before he said “ I Never knew you looked at me that way. I always thought I was the forgotten middle child” “ why would you think that” asked Mr. Molefe who was now asking as a concerned father. “ well Sean is handsome on who gets all the girls, Tom is the smart one. The man has a law degree and a master’s in financial law, then there’s Rita. She’s the only girl so obviously, she is going to get attention for that. Then there’s Johnny who seems to upstage us all I mean he has a girlfriend who loves him and they’ve been together since high school, he’s so far doing better than Tom academically at this point and you say I’m the only one to beat him in the ring but he’s winning medals and he might be on the Olympic team if he stays interested for another year or so. And then there’s me. I’ve never had anyone talk about me, it’s always everyone else” cried Prince. “ well I know how you feel to a certain degree. See and it’s the fact that you feel this way but you continue with your life that gives me confidence. Confidence that you are the one to lead this family.” Said Mr. Molefe as he tried to reassure his son.“ you are the next ‘Varona’” as he wrapped his arm around his son. “ Do you think the others will respect me?” asked the Prince who had stopped crying. “ Well I know for a fact that Tom thinks highly of you and Sean will have to deal with it, to be honest. Themba and Brutus are pragmatic like I am. The others well that’s for you to make them respect you” said Mr. Molefe as he stood up to turn his desktop off to close the windows. “ Alright dad, if you believe in me then I believe in myself” said Prince. “ Let's go home before your mom starts to call,” said Mr. Molefe. They got out and Mr. Molefe locked the office door whilst Prince turned off the lights. They got outside and Mr. Molefe said “ how long does it take to bring the car around. I ought to have a word with Lewis tomorrow”.

Mark made his way into the club. He walked upstairs to the VIP section where he found he had a table reserved for him. He sat at the table. A waitress came by with a bottle of Hennessy VSOP and then said “ compliments of Mr. Khatombela”. Mark smiled at the waitress. He checked her out and thought he ought to invite her to his room later. He began to enjoy his drink before Robert approached him “ Mark Tsipiyagae” he asked. Mark only nodded “ I'm Robert Singano, I manage Mr. Khatombela’s affairs. He has asked me to come to fetch you so we can talk in the back in his office away from the noise.” Mark again only nodded and motioned for Robert to lead the way. He followed Robert to the back and went into the office and sat down. He could see there was someone sitting on the chair behind the desk but he was facing the other way so Mark couldn’t make out who it was. The man in the chair turned around and to Mark’s surprise, it was Obakeng and not Mr. Khatombela. Before he could even react he felt a sharp pain in his stomach, it was Robert stabbing him in the stomach. Robert stabbed him a few more times before Mark punched Robert in the face. He hit Robert so hard that he staggered across the office. Mark then proceeded to toss the chair he was sitting on at Obakeng. He then struggled out of the office and opened the door to leave. As he closed the door he checked the passage and saw it was clear before he made his way to the exit. As he was moving he was in extreme pain from the stab wounds and was losing a lot of blood. As he approached the back door of the club he heard a gun go off. He was shot in the back and he fell forward face first. As he rolled over he saw the shooter was Gerry Khosa. As Gerry approached him to deliver the final shot he kicked Gerry in the groin causing him to cower down in pain. He struggled to make it back to his feet as he pulled out his pistol to kill Gerry before another gun went off. The gun was fired by Obakeng who shot Mark in the chest. Mark fell backward this time. He felt the strength in his body fading before he saw Gerry standing over him with his gun in his hand. He fired and Mark’s blood splattered across his face. Gerry sat back down and clutched his groin and said “ f**k my balls”. Obakeng then said, “ I’ll get the boys to clean up the mess”. He went over to Gerry and sat next to him. They both laughed with Gerry saying “ we did it we f*****g did it” before he grabbed his groin. “ I don’t know how I’m going to explain the scars on my face,” said Obakeng. “ What happened, I thought you guys were going to be quick about it” asked Robert. “ So Mark gets in the office, and then freaks when he sees me, then Robert shanks the guy, and Robert stabbed like 6 or 7 times and the motherfucker proceeds to punch Robert knocking the guy out before he tosses a chair at me,” said Obakeng. “ You know if I hadn’t heard you scream he would have gotten away, that and the trail of blood he left,” said Gerry. “ he would have killed you if it wasn’t for me,” said Obakeng. “ yeah you’re a right kid. We make a good team” said Gerry. “ I’ll call Mr. Dambe and get him to deal with the cops. Those gunshots are sure to have attracted attention,” said Gerry. “ Well we did the hard part. I hope the guys in Gaborone deliver on their part” Obakeng. He then grunted and stood up and said “ let me go wake up Robert” as he headed to the office.

Mr Molefe and Prince had been waiting for the car tocome around for about 10 minuetes before Prince finally said “ let me go the parking lot to see whats taking them so long” “ no just wait here with me” replied Mr Molefe. Mr Molefe then checked his phone and noticed a missed call from Mark. He tried to call him but the line was disconnected. Strange he thought to himself Mark never turned his off whenever he had tried to call, he ignored the thought that something could be wrong before he felt his chest getting pierced by something. He had been shot. Prince watched his father fall to the ground and he tried to move him back into the office when the shooter missed him. He then retreated into the office as he pulled out his gun and tried to locate the shooter. Prince then fired a few shots in the direction of where he thought the shooter was. He then pulled a walkie talkie he found by the reciptoinist desk and called for backup. He then looked at his father and he tried to go to him before he was cut off. Mr Molefe was only regaining conscienceness when he tried to stand up out of instinct. He used the wall to try helphimself up and then he tried to run back into the office when he was shot again in the back. He fell forward landing hard and hitting his face on the concrete pavement. Prince let out a scream before he rushed to his father. As he clutched his fallen father in his arms the security team arrived firing shots in the direction of the shooter before they tended to Mr Molefe who was now covered in a pool of his blood. As they pulled Prince away from his father to load the old man into the car and rush him to the hospital Prince pulled out his phone and called Sean.