“Denny! V.A! It’s alright. I think he gets the message. You can take him out and finish the job outside.”

A sleepy Rex put up his legs on the table as his bodyguards picked up the young man they had just pummeled to a pulp a few minutes ago and took him out of the office of their boss.

Rex had woken up from a long nap and made his way to the office, only to be informed by one of his trusted men that the young man, a recent recruit, had been talking trash about him, claiming he had no idea what he was doing and that he needed competition to shake things up. This was obviously a heinous crime in Basilisk Garrison, and Rex had wasted no time in having him report to the office to confess his sin. What followed was a horrific beatdown by his guards, who were surely going to knock the living breath out of him as they carried him out.

Working with Rex was risky business. The last thing you wanted was to find yourself on his bad side, whether as one of his henchmen or as a client. All those years of rejection and delving deep into the world of crime had eroded every bit of compassion in his being, so finding yourself on his bad side usually spelled doom for you. At best, a significant part of your body would never be the same, and at worst, your body would have no breath of life in it.

And if you ever thought he’d spare you because he liked you or you were family or something, he’d quickly remind you how he did not hesitate to finish off his father in an infamous hit-and-run incident after the old man cursed him and claimed he would deal with his son for being such a bane to the citizens’ existence.

Didn’t this new recruit know trying to be the fifth column would end terribly for him? Nobody knew. But as the huge, muscular bodyguards lifted his weak body out, everyone who saw them knew there was only one end in sight for him.

A gruesome death.

Rex yawned and shook his head. Time to return to his slumber.

He turned and opened the inner door behind his chair and walked back into his room. A spacious room, with a 75-inch television, a bar on the left side, his king-size bed in the middle, and a breathtaking gun wall on the right.

A room befitting of the king of underworld crime.

Rex crashed onto his bed, ready to begin his descent into dreamland when the phone rang.

He looked at the screen and sighed. It was Barry Evan.

“Ugh, I’ll call him later,” he mumbled to himself as he put the phone aside. He needed this nap and closed his eyes as the ringing came to an end.

The phone rang again. And ended.

And rang again.

“AAARRGGHHH! Fine!” Rex grumbled, sitting up and taking up the phone.

“Hello, good evening, Mr. Evan.”

“There’s nothing good about the evening, Rex! Your boy just fucked up again. Again, Rex, again! And I’m calling you, and you’re refusing to pick up my calls on top! Ah! For the love of God, what level of incompetence is this? Is this the calibre of hitmen you keep? Coz honestly, it is shit. Absolute shit. My God!”

Quite an explosive start to the conversation.

Rex stared blankly at the phone, then put it back to his ear. The drowsiness in his system had been wiped out completely by that aggressive bark. “Excuse me?”

“Listen, Rex, I am fuming right now. So don’t bring those your scary shenanigans and whatever it is you like doing. I am fucking pissed, because this… this foolish boy messed up again. He got back to me and told me he couldn’t carry out the shooting because he forgot to load the gun! How the flying fuck do you forget something as basic as that?”

The last part of that rant had Rex’s attention. The look of displeasure on his face grew even darker after hearing that. Only that his displeasure had been redirected from the one talking to the one he was talking about. “What? He forgot to load his gun?”

“And as I sat there, giving it to him for slacking, he had the nerve. The actual nerve. To tell me that maybe his failures are a sign that I should just let it go! Such foolishness!”

Rex’s jaw dropped. “Unbelievable!”

“Listen Rex, I dunno what you’re gonna do, but I paid you to get that Addison fool wiped out, and I expect that it be done. If it’s that you’ll fire that useless boy and get somebody else to do it, then let it be done quickly! And good God, the next guy better get it done. Because I am NOT gonna accept any more excuses from you! Absolutely not! I cannot be paying you good money for you to fail miserably! Bullshit!”

The line went dead.

***

“Benyi!”

“Yes, boss!”

“Come in.”

The door to the office opened, and in stepped a young man, well-built, with bushy hair, deep cheekbones, and piercing brown eyes. Eyes that looked like they had seen a lot of pain and hardship. Eyes that were dead to compassion.

Rex smiled as Benyi stood before him.

This was one of his favourite boys. Loyal to a fault, passionate about every task delegated to him, swift to shed blood and so heartless, he’d slit a newborn baby’s throat if he had to.

Which he may or may not have done before. The details of that assignment were way too sketchy, and Benyi never spoke about it.

Nonetheless, this boy was one in whom Rex was well pleased, and he was most certainly on the way to becoming one of his top henchmen in a few years to come.

“Benyi, there’s an assignment. I wanted one of the newbies to handle it, but chale, they don’t know shit about anything. So, please come and get it done for me.”

“No problem, boss. Who’s the target?”

“Gilbert Addison. Forty-nine years of age, currently dwells at Cantonments with a Caucasian lady by name Elisabeth De Mulder. Drives a silver Nissan Patrol, the latest model. Our client is Barry Evans. Apparently, the target had two thugs beat the shit out of him, now he can’t walk. The man’s back in town, and he wants revenge. Find them and silence them for good. Got it?”

“Not a problem, boss. Not a problem at all.”

“Good, good. Koni has all the intelligence you’ll need, so you can go and see him after this and prepare yourself, alright?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good, you can go now… oh yeah, one more thing.”

Benyi turned. “Yes, boss?”

“Is that Romeo boy around?”

“Uhh… yeah, yeah. He walked in just as V.A came to tell me you were looking for me.”

“Tell him to get his dumb ass in here. ASAP.”

**

Romeo rolled up his joint and put his hand in his pocket for the box of matches. Might as well light up my last joint before I get the sack.

Empty.

That was the best adjective to describe how he felt. Empty.

There really was nothing more he could say. He had gotten way more than was expected from Rex, yet he had failed woefully each and every time. He had not expected any mercy from Rex the previous times, but he knew there was no way he was getting through this one unscathed. His days in Basilisk Garrison were certainly numbered.

“Romeo!”

He looked up. Benyi, the one who had called him, nodded in the direction of Rex’s office.

He nodded, snuffed out the fire on his joint and tossed it to the floor.

It was time to face the music.

***

Romeo knocked at the door.

“Enter.”

He opened the door and stepped in. Next to the two chairs in front of the table sat a stool. Rex, a straight look on his face, nodded in the stool’s direction.

“Sit down.”

Romeo silently sat on the stool. He had not been told about this stool, so he had no idea if it represented his sacking or something. Whatever it was, it was not going to be good.

Rex rose from his seat and silently paced the office, not looking Romeo in the face in the two minutes he did so. A shiver of uneasiness rained upon Romeo’s body, wondering what his boss was going to say to him. He knew it wasn’t going to be pleasant, but curiosity and fright still had him thinking about what kind of vile words he’d be receiving.

Then Rex stopped moving. He looked at Romeo.

“Nigga. You fucked up. Again.”

Lowering his head, he trembled and nodded. “Yes, Boss. I…”

“And according to the crippled asshole, after failing in the most pathetic schoolboy style possible, you told him that it’s probably a sign to forgive and that he should let it go. Is that correct?”

Romeo sucked in his breath. He had not expected Barry to inform Rex about that. “Uhh… well, it was a, it was kinda like a-“

“Did you or did you not tell him to let it go? It’s a simple fucking question, young man. Now answer me! Fast!”

“Yes, yes, I told him to let it go,” Romeo blurted out, startled by Rex’s sudden outburst.

Rex, still looking him dead in the eye, maintained his hard gaze for a couple of seconds. Then he broke away and laughed while shaking his head. He opened his mouth to speak.

“You know, Romeo, there are some things that I do not tolerate in any way. I do not accept incompetence from my men when I give them a task to perform, and you know that all too well. But you know another thing I despise with a burning passion? Turning into a pussy ass nigga with all those cute flowery words about forgiveness and reconciliation and bullshit. I do not entertain that churchy shit in any way in this place! If you wanna talk about that crap, go get a fucking pastor or whatever! It’s an eye for an eye shit we do over here!”

Romeo shivered as Rex spoke, the anger gradually increasing as he rambled along.

“But anyways, back to the main point. I fucking hate incompetence. And nigga, you have been the fucking definition of the fucking word! Three attempts! I gave you three fucking attempts to get your first kill and you fucked up at every single one of them. Fucking hell! I gave you two extra chances because I thought you had what it takes, only to discover you’re so fucking useless, you probably couldn’t get a pickpocket job done right if I told you to!”

This is it.

“Because of you, I’ve had to put up with that paraplegic fucker talking to me like I’ve got fucking water where my brain is, telling me I deal with jokers and incompetence and whatnot. All because of your clueless ass! And to make matters even worse, after all these phenomenal failures of epic proportions, you went ahead to say that it’s probably a sign that he should forgive? You now wanna become a fucking pope? Huh?”

Romeo was really shivering at that moment. Rex had the tendency to go from 0 to 100 and back to 0 at any time, and it could be nerve-wracking. But at this point, he was on a 100 and getting pretty close to a 120. This man was absolutely livid.

I-I-I’m sorry, sir. I’m really sorry,” Romeo mumbled. “I-I’m sorry I failed you. It’ll never happen again.”

“You’re damn right it’s not gonna happen again!”

Rex suddenly turned and walked to his table. Standing by it, with his back turned to Romeo, he stated firmly, “You are fired. Get your shit together and get out of this place. And let me never see your sorry ass around this place ever again!”

The inevitable had come. Romeo nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“Now get the hell out of my office.”

Romeo slowly got up and walked toward the door. It had finally happened.

His ambition squeezed into the drain. He was no longer part of Basilisk Garrison. Now what?

This definitely meant he would have to go back to the streets, right? Back to hustling and petty thievery to survive. Not the most pleasant way to make it. But he had no choice.

He had had his chance and had blown it. He had to pay the price.

Hey, at least he was still in one piece. Rex hadn’t called in his men to break any bones. That was something to be happy about.

“Oh, one more thing.”

His hand on the doorknob, Romeo turned around.

And saw the pistol in Rex’s hand.

Pointed right at him.

He opened his mouth to scream…

“NOO-“

POW! POW! POW! POW!

Within a matter of seconds, all post-Basilisk plans Romeo had drawn up in his mind. All his ideas of how to survive after this sacking…

…snuffed out by the four bullets in that gun.

***

It was over in a matter of seconds.

Just as Rex had planned from the moment Barry hung up on him.

He stared scornfully at the young man’s lifeless body leaning against his door and shook his head. He should’ve known this young man would amount to nothing in this corner of the city. For some reason, he thought Romeo had the potential to become every bit as evil as he was, and wanted to help him get there. But nope. Three chances given, and he had squandered them all in the most lackadaisical manner. He was not worth it.

To think I first thought he might just be a diamond in the rough. But nope, the stupid nigga was a stinking part of the rough. Oh well, good riddance to bad rubbish!

“V. A! Denny!” he called out to his personal bodyguards as he yawned. “Come take this good-for-nothing piece of shit outta my office. I’m going back to sleep.”

Damn! Rex killed him. I guess it was coming, the way he kept failing…