CHAPTER TWO
Night was falling and Bobby Deacon lay relaxed in a hammock in the back yard of his base when he heard the first barrage of heavy gunfire. He fell out of the hammock and crawled behind a low wall.
"The guy dropped out of the hammock. He must be on the ground," he heard one of the gunmen say.
He pulled the Glock pistol from his waist. It must be Shadow’s fighters, who were shooting at him. Two shots came, aimed at the ground under the hammock. Where were Linkman and Markie? How had they let Shadow’s fighters get so close to him? He wasn’t sure of the amount of men out there. But the two men could be dead or seriously injured judging by the amount of gunfire he had heard. What worried him most was the fact that he hadn’t heard from either man. He saw a shadow move and he fired and heard somebody scream.
"Hell, he shot me! Bobby Deacon shot me!" the man screamed.
Bobby Deacon fired some more shots in the direction of the screams. He was answered by more gunfire. Then another man opened up, spraying gunshots all over the place. Bobby Deacon kept down his head behind the wall which was quite thick. He then heard running footsteps.
He didn’t move from his position, but he saw Linkman and Markie crawling over to him.
"Who were those men and where were both of you?"
"They looked like Shadow’s fighters, Don," Linkman replied.
"So how come they’ve infiltrated so far? Call Dixie and tell him to try and head them off," Bobby Deacon instructed as Linkman got on his cell phone.
Linkman spoke to Dixie for a few seconds.
"He wants to talk to you, Don," he said, passing his cell phone to the young Don.
Bobby Deacon talked to his chief lieutenant for a few minutes before ending the call.
"He thinks we should plan an attack on Shadow's headquarters no later than tonight.”
Markie raised the M-16 assault rifle in the air.
"Those boys should be dead. If we don't hit them from tonight they’re going to keep attacking us."
"Let’s go back inside the house and plan some strategies.”
"Aren’t you going for Leta?" Linkman asked.
"I’m going to let her stay up at her sister tonight.”
Leta was Bobby Deacon’s twenty five year old baby mother. She had a four year old daughter for him.
The men went into the house.
“Dixie, Reds, Colin and the others will soon come, they’ll go with us too,” Bobby Deacon stated.
When Dixie and the other fighters arrived, they started planning the attack on Shadow's headquarters.
That night at twelve midnight two carloads of heavily armed men left Bobby Deacon’s headquarters at Bryan Street.
Shadow was at his base with a fresh young girl when he heard the first barrage of heavy gunfire. He dropped off the couch and grabbed his Ruger handgun as the heavy gunfire continued. He crawled out into one of the passageways.
"Don, some men are attacking us!" Val shouted.
"What the hell, are you sure it’s not the police?" Shadow asked, perplexed as he and none of the syndicates were at war.
"It looks as if it's those guys from up Bryan Street," Buddho declared.
"Bobby Deacon, but he and I are not at war."
There was more gunfire and then there was silence.
Shadow's cell phone rang.
"Hey Shadow, how come you sent your fighters to shoot up my base like that?" Bobby Deacon demanded.
"So it's your fighters who were just shooting at us. How they came to shoot up my base like that, Bobby Deacon?"
"So it wasn't you, who sent those men to shoot after me?"
"It’s Coltrane’s men, they hit me about two hours ago too." "Hey Shadow, hold tight, no harm was done. We have to set up some roadblocks."
If it was Coltrane’s fighters who had attacked them it meant that something big was afoot. He had to team up with Shadow to keep Coltrane’s fighters at bay.
***
Shadow had sent the fresh young girl home. He didn't want any distractions. If Coltrane's men had attacked Bobby Deacon they might attack him too. They had only fired a few shots on his base before Bobby Deacon attacked him. Only Rupie, Dickie, Val and Buddho were around. He would have to call up his other fighters. He knew from a long time that Coltrane wanted to be the top Don around.
***
Dixie looked at Bobby Deacon.
"If it was Coltrane’s fighters who attack us, it means that he has started to make a move on us."
"We have to put fighters on the road to watch every corner,” Bobby Deacon told him.
"We should be careful lest we spread ourselves too thin," Dixie warned. "I have a good youth that I met when I was locked down.
A youth named Douse. That guy would make a good fighter," Bobby Deacon told them.
The two commanders went out and began organizing the defense of their base, ensuring that the fighters were placed in strategic positions to repulse any attack.
Shadow was also organizing his forces to repel any further attacks.
The attack, when it came was fast and furious. Bobby Deacon and Dixie were all over the place, giving instruction to the men as the fighting intensified. Bobby Deacon knew that their attackers were firing from M-16 and AK-47 assault rifles.
They were holding off Coltrane's fighters.
"Hey guy, Bobby Deacon, you’re not leaving here tonight.
You must dead!" Talbert, Coltrane's top lieutenant, shouted.
Bobby Deacon knew that Coltrane wasn’t there.
He let off a burst of gunfire from his Uzi submachine gun in Talbert's direction and dived as a barrage of heavy sub-machine gunfire came in his direction. He saw Delhi fall screaming and lay still.
He crawled over to where the fighter had fallen. He examined him. “He’s dead!”
Several of the fighters bowed their heads in acknowledgement of what Bobby Deacon had just said.
"Bobby Deacon, it looks like Shadow’s men have stopped fighting!" Dixie shouted.
They were in a building that was guarded by high concrete walls, all around but had no roof. It was next door to their base.
Reds, who was sitting on a cement block, shouted. “Shadow’s men are pulling out, Bobby Deacon!"
"All of you saw what happen to Delhi," Bobby Deacon stated. “We have to revenge him and any other fighter who is killed tonight.”
"He’s dead," Linkman moaned.
"They’re getting nearer, Bobby Deacon!" Dixie shouted.
"What happen to our fighters on the road?" Bobby Deacon asked. Dixie got on his cell phone to Colin.
They spoke briefly
"Colin says they can't hold out any longer and Shadow's fighters have surrendered. Pablo’s just been shot!”
“Is he shot up bad?”
“I don’t know. Colin couldn’t tell me that.”
Bobby Deacon looked at Reds and heard when the youth gave a scream and pitched forward and lay still. Men dived for new cover.
Bobby Deacon crawled over to the youth and examined him. “He’s dead!”
Bullets were flying all around, loud explosions could be heard and dust spewed into the air as the heavy gunshots ripped into the concrete walls.
Blood was spewing from the blood spattered bodies of the two dead men. Bobby Deacon stared into Red’s lifeless eyes. A section of Delhi’s head back was missing, blown off by the force of the bullet that had killed him. There were about three bullet holes in the middle of Red’s chest, holes big enough for him to put his fist through.
Their attackers were getting nearer. Linkman crawled over to Bobby Deacon. "We have to leave, Bobby Deacon!”
Bobby Deacon looked at him and said.
"And leave the fighters, we have to stay and fight, Linkman."
Dixie crawled on his hands and knees over to him.
"They’re coming along Williams Street, Bobby Deacon, they’re surrounding us. We have to get out now!”
"Tell the men to pull out Dixie," Bobby Deacon instructed.
"We have to leave here, Bobby Deacon! If we stay, they’re going to wipe us out!” Linkman shouted as Colin reversed down the lane in a Ford F-150 pick-up and they all piled in.
***
Douse was now using Barry's car as a taxi. Cherry told him that she suspected that it was he, Barry's killers were after. She applied and got a commercial license plate for the taxi with him as the designated driver.
He was mostly in Cross Roads. They had come to an agreement that she would pay him a weekly wage and he would keep an account of his collections and expenditures.
He had heard about the war, but didn’t know who were the people involved. He had a sneaky suspicion that Bobby Deacon might be one of the major players. Based on what he had learned from Tad, he felt he might just be right.
His suspicions were confirmed a few days later when the police issued an appeal for Bobby Deacon and his gang members to turn themselves in. They were suspected to be the ones behind the killing of the three men and the wounding of several other persons on Bryan Street. The police had also launched a manhunt for the fugitives.
Both Shadow and Coltrane spoke to the news media.They accused Bobby Deacon and his gang of being behind the recent flare up of violence in the area.
Douse knew that both men were lying. From what he knew of Bobby Deacon, the youth was a man of peace. He had to be provoked to resort to violence. It appeared that he was being framed.
***
Douse became friendly with Nykola, the girl who had been in the taxi. When he told her about Barry’s death, she swore that those bullets had been meant for him. He was restive, he couldn’t let Barry’s death go like that and the hustling from the taxi was getting smaller by the day. Nykola wanted them to live together, but he told her that he wasn’t ready as yet. He slept at her house, mostly on weekends.
***
Following the defeat of the Bobby Deacon fighters, Coltrane moved quickly to consolidate his hold on power. Orders were sent out for Shadow to visit him at his Uptown headquarters at Kings Avenue. There he learnt the terms of the peace treaty. His men could only operate in certain parts of the city and certain runnings were out of their control. A reward was also posted on the head of Bobby Deacon and as many of his fighters as could be found.
***
Bobby Deacon and his fighters were hiding out in safe houses.
In all he had lost four men as Pablo had been killed on the outskirts of their base. Lambie had been killed in the pursuit and subsequent gun battle with Coltrane’s fighters.
He knew he had to plan fast, he could go to England and cool out. He had family and friends over there who could take care of him, but he didn’t want to make it look like he was running away. His funds were low and he had to start building back the base plus there was the question of Shadow. He had pulled out his forces leaving him exposed on several fronts. Among themselves they had passed a death sentence on him so it was just a matter of when and how to execute that sentence.
Markie swore that it was Shadow’s fighters who had killed Pablo. He also said that he heard Talbert giving retreating Shadow fighters orders to turn their guns on the Bobby Deacon fighters. So there was a distinct possibility they could have been responsible for one if not all of Bobby Deacon’s dead fighters except Lambie.
Bidey, their spy, had put them on full alert of a police manhunt for them. He told them that both Shadow and Coltrane had accused them of killing three of their workers and wounding several others. That put Bobby Deacon on full alert and they began to move between their two safe houses. They never stayed more than a day at any of the safe houses.
***
Meanwhile, things weren’t going to Shadow's liking.
Coltrane’s fighters had his enforcers and collectors confined to certain areas. The takings each week were hardly enough to meet the weekly wage bill.
If he started any laying off of his workers, they might defect to Coltrane. He was also angry that the man had taken over Bobby Deacon’s areas instead of giving him to operate in. His operators complained daily about the constant harassment from Coltrane's men.
They also complained that they were being spied upon. Shadow knew he had to do something fast. He wondered if Coltrane was pushing him to break the peace treaty.
He wondered if he could form an alliance with Bobby Deacon. The young Don pretender had taken up refuge in his safe houses in the country. He, Shadow, had two safe houses. One was in St. Thomas and the other in St. Mary.
These houses were packed with food and ammunition. They were equipped to last retreating fighters at least three months. He wondered if this was the case with Bobby Deacon.
He knew that before forming any alliances with the young Don he had to try and rebuild the alliance they once had. The young Don would feel betrayed by what he had done. But if he hadn’t pulled out his men, Coltrane would have wiped them out and driven him out of the area.
In fact, three of his fighters had picked up bullet wounds and one of Coltrane’s fighters had been slightly wounded. As for Bobby Deacon, Coltrane had reported that they had killed three of his fighters. The man swore that had Bobby Deacon not pulled out when he did, all of his fighters, including himself would have been wiped out.
However, they had given the police a different story which put the blame for the killings and the violence on the Bobby Deacon fighters. The police had launched several unsuccessful manhunts for them.
***
Meanwhile, Talbert led a team of fighters to look for Bobby Deacon. Talbert felt that the young Don had disrespected him. They were at a dance three months ago, and both had said something disrespectful to the other. He didn't have time to react before the guy had doused him with beer. Looking around, he realized that his forces were outnumbered and they had to retreat.
***
guns.
"Hey, guy, don't move!" Speng shouted as Bus-up darted around the back of the premises, dropping his gun in the process. "We must catch him!" Robbie shouted as they both put away their guns and drew their ratchet knives. Balance was running after them. Around the back of the premises, Bus-up saw an ackee tree and jumped up into it. He then jumped over the neighboring zinc fence.
His pursuers reached the back of the yard to see him making his descent over the fence. Balance fired a shot at him, but he disappeared over the fence and down into the gully. They ran up to the fence and peered over it into the gully, but there was no sign of the intruder.
Cursing their luck, they returned to the front to see Lloydie's Lexus parked and Denton relating the episode to him.
The producer shook his head when given a description of the intruder and what he said he had come about.
"I don’t know what he’s talking about that I owe Ricky money. I paid that guy all the money I owed him," he said, looking at the gun the man had dropped while running away.
"It's an old gun too. That guy is an imposter. I don’t think Ricky sent him anywhere," he declared, pulling his Magnum .44 from his waist.
"Still, you guys should have held him until I came and let me give him two of this," he threatened, pointing the gun in the direction the intruder had fled.
***
Bus-up had fled through the gully after dropping into it.
He followed its path, aware that he had only his ratchet knife on him.
The gun he had left behind was Nully's gun that he had loaned him for thirty thousand dollars. He had given him a down payment of ten thousand dollars and had promised to pay him the balance when he returned the gun in a week’s time.
He had gone to the producer after hearing that he was behind on his payments to another producer, Ricky. He would have told him that the man had sent him to collect on his behalf and he was to pay up or else.
He had to be on the dodge from Shadow’s fighters. They had staked out the major town centers in Kingston. He had used Shadow’s money along with some money he had saved, to buy a second had car. He was using it as a robot taxi. A week later he had parked the car in Three Miles and went to get some food. When he returned the car was missing. At first he thought that it had been towed away by the authorities, but a little old man told him that he saw two young guys driving away in it. He never saw the car again.
He wanted to begin his payments to the Don so as to take the heat off him. If his car hadn’t been stolen, he would have paid back a great deal of that money already. Lately, though he was wondering about it as based on what he had heard, Shadow was being controlled by a bigger Don, Coltrane. He had been trying to get a link to the whole Coltrane set-up.
That could draw the heat off him. If he could feed Coltrane information about Shadow, the bigger Don might just get rid of Shadow and take the heat off him. He climbed out of the gully. He didn’t have any money on him as he had rented the gun with all the money he had. He didn’t like holding up people, but he wanted some food money.
As he walked along the road, he saw a little shop in a lane. The area was quiet, at this time of day most persons had gone to work and most youths had gone to school. He went over to the shop and knocked on the counter.
An old man staggered out of the house into the shop. What was even better, it wasn’t fenced, Bus-up thought.
"Elder, I have my gun on me so just give me all the money in the till."
The old man shouted for murder and rushed out of the shop.
His son ran to his assistance with a machete, chopped at Bus-up. The latter evaded the weapon and slashed the man above his right eye. He dropped the machete and put his hands over the wound to stem the flow of blood.
Other neighbors hearing the cries for help rushed out of their houses to see Bus-up rounding a corner. Two youths with machetes set off after him while others went to the assistance of the wounded man and his father.
That day Bus-up out-ran his pursuers and didn’t stop running until he felt he was in a safer area. If he only had his gun, he would have shown those boys running after him a thing or two. Meanwhile, he had to have a rest as he contemplated his next move as the hunger began to gnaw at his stomach.
***
Myra, Dixie’s woman drove her van from Falmouth that Tuesday evening. She knew that Dixie and Bobby Deacon along with the fighters were at the safe houses. Not even she knew where they were.
So that day when Talbert invaded her house, she couldn’t tell them where they were despite their threats to kill her or go to the country for her two children.
A police party had also visited the house searching for Bobby Deacon and Dixie. She had told them that she didn’t know where either man was. Two days later they returned with a search warrant, looking for guns and drugs. They hadn’t found anything. The inspector leading the team had threatened to lock her up. She simply told him that she bought and sold clothes and wasn’t involved in running guns or drugs.
She had to go to the two bases tonight to see if everybody had reported. Some of the London Yardies were still looking for Selma. The girl had got through Heathrow Airport, only to disappear with ninety packets of cocaine.
She had told Dixie not to get involved in Bobby Deacon's set up, but he had said that they needed him for protection. She was worried now that Coltrane had control of the streets. Talbert had pointed a twelve gauge shotgun at her, promising to blow her head off the next time if she didn't tell him where Dixie was.
Was a car following her? Ever since she had left Old Harbor that black Honda Accord had either been on her tail or one car before her. She decided to turn and go on the Dundleholden main road.
As she reached a part of the road the black car came up firing shots through her windows. Myra had to duck, miraculously keeping the van on the road. As soon as she felt that she was in control of the vehicle, she stopped and jumped out.
The enemy car was rounding a bend, she fired three shots at it. She got back in the van and decided that it would be best to turn around and take the Spanish Town route back to town and go to base one at Renford Avenue tonight.
She was sure that maybe those men might be lying in wait for her further along the road. Could it be Johny, who was setting her up? She thought about the quarter of a kilo of cocaine that she had purchased from him.
Could it be him who had sent those men to retrieve the merchandise? She had better get to the base fast and unload the stuff. The chemist would almost certainly start tonight in processing the cocaine and making the capsules for the couriers to swallow.
***
Shadow had lost two of his most trusted fighters. Tad had gone to the United States, vowing to do something bad to the man, who had set him up.
Sam had gone to England after buying a visa from a syndicate who dealt in such commodities. He was now working in a nightclub owned by a friend.
***
When Myra reached base one at Renford Avenue, she found Delroy, Maggie, Prince, Julie and Donnie. She handed them the stuff and it was weighed and recorded in Donnie's little pocket book. He then called the chemist who told them that he would come tonight to do the processing.
Myra also told them about the latest with the gunmen shooting at her. They all said that they couldn’t believe that it was Johny who had done it.
***
Bus-up and Othneil were cursing their luck on the Dundeholden main road as they drove out of the well laid trap they had set up for Myra. Bus-up was worried, the coke seizure would be part of his repayment to Shadow and it had gone wrong.
He knew that the two men, who had been relentlessly pursuing him all these months had left the old Don’s organization. But the man had sent other fighters to hound him. With this assignment, he had agreed to stop them from pursuing him. His failure to get the stuff from Myra would mean that the man would set his hounds on him again.
Beside him Othneil was driving, but that was all that he had been paid to do.
He was also worried, Nully wanted back the gun or fifty thousand dollars. Where was he going to get a gun from or that kind of money? Nully had also said that Elton was the owner of the gun and he had to pay up by Saturday or else they would come looking for him.
***
When Myra reached base two at Oakley Avenue with the rest of the cocaine, she found the couriers there. They were due to fly out tomorrow. They would start taking the packets in the morning. A different chemist was due to come in later to do the processing.
The five couriers were Merrick, Dalton, Keith, Natalie and Sonia. Merrick, Natalie and Dalton had done a trip last year, but this was Keith and Sonia's first trip. Myra looked at them and asked if they felt nervous. Both replied in the negative.
Myra drove back that night to Dorraine Avenue. It was drizzling slightly so she took her time on the road.
Everybody knew where Dorraine Avenue was. She felt lonely without Dixie. She had never thought of taking a lover. Most men who knew her knew that Dixie was a general.
Whenever they were together they would spend all of their time there. It could be defended so all their fighters would stay there. She would prefer living somewhere where she could come and go as she liked.
The house at Dorraine Avenue, was built like a fortress. There were the normal security precautions of most apartment courts. She wondered how Dixie was doing at the safe house. He had told her not to call him as he would call her.
As she dropped off to sleep after a light meal she wondered about tomorrow and the couriers. The phone calls she would receive from England telling her that the cargo was safe.
***
Bus-up was asleep in his shack that Saturday morning when he heard someone calling his name. He woke up and peered through the window. The two men were Nully and Elton! He could see the big guns, both men were carrying.
"Hey boy, come out here, either you give me back my gun, pay me for it or else I’m going to kill you," Elton warned.
"Bus-up, come out and talk to us about the gun," Nully shouted, impatiently.
Bus-up kept as quiet as possible. He opened the back door that led down into a nearby gully.
"How we can't hear anything from him? Go around the back Nully, I’m going to bust down this door.”
Nully ran around the back of the house to see Bus-up slipping down into a gully.
"Hey Bus-up, come back!" he shouted and let off a barrage of gunshots after him.
Elton had come through the back door to join him.
They ran down to the edge of the gully, but there was no sign of the fugitive. "He escaped into that gully, we must catch him," Nully declared.
"You mean kill him. The next time I see him, I’m going to empty out my gun in him," Elton warned as they made their way out of Bus-up's yard.