The Boss of Bosses was flying in today. The laptop wasn�t just another piece of tech�it was supposed to be at 93 Abel Street, ready for a private briefing. The Minister himself was meant to use it in a meeting with Carlos Ramirez�the ghost. The minister would be introduced to Carlos by Lesley Black, the man running Southern Africa�s end of the network. Only Lesley and the housemates at 93 Abel Street had ever met the Boss of Bosses. This would be Minister McBride�s first time setting eyes on the figure everyone feared.
Carlos had never set foot on African soil. Today would be his first�and his first face-to-face with the Minister. If the laptop had stayed where it belonged, none of this would matter. There was a backup. There was always a backup. That should�ve killed the panic. But it wasn�t the data that lit the fuse�it was where the laptop ended up: sitting at an unknown location, under the nose of a cop who didn�t scare easy�Captain Luhwani Kgole.
And that raised the real question: why the sudden heat over two gadgets? Joburg sees hundreds of stolen devices every week. None of them pull this kind of attention.
Something stank.
Someone had tipped the wrong ear. Someone had whispered that these gadgets weren�t just gadgets.
Until Mashudu found out who that someone was, redemption wasn�t on the table.
After instructing Mazibuko to locate the gadgets and retrieve them from whoever had custody, Mashudu had been told they weren�t in the evidence room. The officer handling the case was in court, and as soon as he returned, Mazibuko would take custody. That didn�t happen. Now Mashudu had been trying to reach the lieutenant since last night�Tuesday�and Mazibuko wasn�t picking up.
That�s when panic began to creep in. The issue had spiraled out of control. He cursed himself for not stepping in earlier, for listening when McBride told him to keep his distance. �Mazibuko will handle it,� the minister had said.
Now it was too late. Hours from now, the Boss of Bosses would land, and this silly mess was still unresolved.
Without Mazibuko, Mashudu was flying blind. He couldn�t figure out how the heat around these gadgets had flared this high, this fast, unless there was a mole in the ranks�a thought that didn�t add up. Only two people knew what lived inside that