Messiah On The Run

By Coty Mampeule

‘Themba Dube is a young man who is born with a miracle substance in his body. He is here in Johannesburg from Witbank, Mpumalanga. We took liberty at looking at his unique circumstances and we are about to hear the lab interim report from Privanni Jhadda, to see how each one of us can attempt to copy this natural vile.
Once this is done, we will mass produce the substance and a greatest discovery would be accredited to Alabaster Pharmaceutical Corporation. These are the exciting times for us and this is the moment you should be glad that you are working for this company. Soon you will be making history and headlines internationally.’ Angelica Stone, Chief of Research says with a constant smile.
With a Pharmaceutical Corporation failing to capture him to harvest on his fluids, the Government hunting him for murder he didn’t commit, a jealous pathologist wanting him dead, a rich mobster who has a heavily infected dying girl in his care, searching for him, and a martial arts expect Indian lady protecting him, the young man’s life has turned into a nightmare.
Through thrilling escapes and truth finding missions, Themba Dube finds his normal life being changed dramatically, running away from almost everyone. Protecting him is his newly found love, a beautiful Privanni Jhadda, an Indian pathologist, who defies her boss’s orders, to do what is right, she fights tooth and nail for her Black Prince.
But her White secret admirer supervisor, Carter James, wants the Messiah dead at all costs, and her brother’s boss, Black Mobster, Jackie Khumalo taking care of his late partners White adopted daughter Thandie Bloom, suffering from Aids , the chase is mind boggling and filled with deceit, and mystery.
Can Themba and Privanni outsmart everyone?
Can the Hired Killer, the Private Eye, the Bossy and heartless Angelica Stone, the Government Agents, the Minister of Health and Jackie Khumalo get to him that easily?
Can The Messiah On The Run have enough time to save his sister from dying of Aids?
Will he be captured by Alabaster and be used as a lab subject for the rest of his life?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Coty Mampeule
• Release date: Sep 25, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301715268

Coty Mampeule

Coty was born in a township called Witbank, Mpumalanga Region of South Africa. He is the last born of Chief Molate Muller Mampeule of the Balovhedu tribe and Morohang Josephine Mampeule (maiden name, Mahlatsi). He was born on the 11th of January 1973. When his parents separated in 1976, he was only 3 years old, where he moved down south with his mother and other siblings. Later he moved to a township called The Vaal, in Bophelong. This is where he stayed with his grandfather, from the mother’s side. He then went to stay with his other grandmother, a sister to his mother’s mother. This where in an early age, he helped her grandmother with dreams to win the Fa-Fi game of numbers. The grandmother would ask what Coty’s has dreamt of and she would place the first bet of what the dream was about. Miraculously, the number would be selected and the granny would be pleased. Later he moved with his mother to Sebokeng, then to Evaton in the late 1980’s. He was later rejoined with his siblings where they all moved to Evaton Central. During that era, it was popular for grannies to ask what little kids have dreamt and would place bets with such dream results. He was recognized by few women in the yard they used to share and would ask what his dream was and they would come back smiling. In 1981 he started his schooling in a primary school called Montsosi under a strict Head Mistress called Connie Mbowani. He excelled in his studies but prone to sicknesses all the time. He contracted pneumonia that nearly caused him his life. He then finished his primary and went to a higher primary called Phepane High under Mr. Mphahlele. He received a bursary for the Best Academic Student in Grade 8’s. He then tried to move back to his birthplace in Witbank but came back to The Vaal. He joined a secondary school called Tokelo High and finished his Matric in 1991. He then went to further his studies at Vaal University of Technology, where he studied BCommerce degree concentrated in Business Management, Economics and Accounting Sciences. He then joined the First National Bank for his first professional employment. And then moved to SABMiller Group where he continued to work as a Sales person. Then he joined All-pay Group (ABSA Subsidiary) and he worked with Government Grant Payments. He later joined Pernod Ricard South Africa under David de Mardt, as a Sales Representative, and later got promoted to a Manager in Sales. He later was promoted to Activations and Promotions. He then joined a South African based company called The Ceres Beverages Company as a Divisional Activations Manager. Then he formed his own company and sees to its daily survival.

Book preview

Messiah On The Run

Coty Mampeule

Copyright 2012 by Coty Mampeule

Smashwords Edition

Prologue

1987 Anno Domini, Thushanang Location

Witbank,

South Africa

The streets of the small location are deserted due to a heavy downpour. Lightning is very loud with a thunderous roar that disturbs the lights of the whole area. In a dusky rainfall, a figure of a heavily dressed old man is about in the streets, holding a walking stick, a little taller than him. He pauses at the gate of a dimly lit house and takes off his wet hat and enters the gate. A dog is barking anxiously when he nears himself towards the door. He knocks at the kitchen back door. He waits for an answer.

Inside the house, a young mother prepares the candles in case the thunder trips the electricity supply. She fervently awaits her husband to come back from work. She places the candles strategically to allow sufficient lighting, should the power of nature takes over the manmade one. Hearing the loud knock at the door, she places the last candle stick next to an old coal stove, moves towards the door. The second knock becomes a bit louder, followed by a howling thunder. The thunderous lightning reveals a rather scaring stature of an old man holding a stick, when she opens the door. She is startled and stares in panic of the old man. The lights are tripped and the whole kitchen becomes dark.

‘Are you going to be so kind to allow the old man in?’ the figure at the door speaks, slightly revealed by the second lightning with no thunder in the background.

She prepares to answer but the thunder then roars disturbing her speech. She opens the door wide and places the mat next to the old man’s wet feet. He carries himself in and takes off his wet jacket. The young mother gets hold of a matchbox and strikes a match to light the strategically placed candles. There is an ominous silence as she moves around the kitchen, taking few glances at the old figure which has taken refuge on a seat next to the table. The old man coughs a little. Then the cough is followed by a sneeze which is followed by the second and the last sneeze.

The young woman looks about and asks if she can offer tea. ‘I just had a cup not so while ago; the teapot still has hot tea. Would you like a cup, sir?’ she moves to her cupboard and takes one out, and a saucer.

The old man shakes his head upon seeing her taking the saucer out. ‘No need for formality my child, the cup is just fine. An old man like me is nearing a grave and I don’t think I am to be treated like a gentleman anymore. The world has shown that the elderly are just odds and ends that should be thrown into the grave’.

He looks about and continues, ’you are product of a great woman. Your mother prayed constantly, why did you stop?’

The young woman looks surprised and taken aback with the clear words from the rather old patched face man. She has never seen him in her life and she talks of her mother like he knew her. An old churchgoer who attended the same church as her mother’s maybe. She is quick to ask.

‘Did you know my mother?’ She waits unwearyingly for an answer and she forgets to concentrate on the cup which ended overflowing with tea. She attends to the cup and pours the extra tea back into the teapot. The old man notices the shaking of her hands. He soothes.

‘Don’t you be scared daughter of Nkosi; I am a bearer of great news. You mother has sent me over here to tell you of the son you are going to have. She wants me to tell you that she loves you too much and she will be with you soon.’ He looks about again, holding his stick with his left hand and pounding it to hit the floor with a thud.

He smiles faintly and lifts his arms with joy. The young mother looks at him confused. ‘Your seed will bring hope to millions of ailing world’s inhabitants’.

The young woman frowns at this unhinged old man.

She prepares herself to say something, but the old man snaps and hurriedly hushes her.

‘Quiet little one and have faith. Just because your prayers are not answered in an instant does not mean that the Universe is not responding to your needs and wants. The Universe is always responding to your needs and wants. All you need is a stronger faith. Do you have faith in the powers of the Universe little one?’

Confused and irritated at the same time, the poor young woman walks about touching stuff in a manner that she is taking them from the original places to the awkward locations.

She mumbles something to herself and finally says, ‘Old man, I think you came to the wrong house. A person who dreadfully wants a son is my neighbor next door. She has eight daughters and the husband surely will divorce her if the next baby is not a son. I think you meant to get to the other Nkosis’ and not me.’

The old man looks at the cup in front of him; he slowly picks it up and inspects it instead of drinking it. He notices a dirt stain on the side. He smiles again, but rather faintly this time. He stands up and walks to the door. He pauses at the door and turns around to look at the petrified young woman. He smiles again to intently mock her further, looks about again and shakes his head. The young woman walks towards the door to stand next to him, a few meters away. He apologizes for the confusion and opens the door. The lightning flickers again and shows a silhouette of an old man this time, blinding the young woman. The old man looks up the roof and says.

‘Then if you are not a wife to a gentleman who constantly nags you for a child. If you are not a woman who has stopped praying for a miracle child, if you are not someone who is angry with God for not giving her what other women throw away in abortions and adoptions, then yes, the Nkosi’s next door is where I am suppose to go’. He then faces her with anger.

‘But hear me woman, you are with child and he shall bring hope to the ailing nations of the world. He shall be born with a cure the world will be in need of in the not so distant future. Have faith and may the power of the Universe stay in touch with you all the time. Indeed, your mother said you are a remarkable woman. Thanks for the tea and stay blessed.’

The old man smiles, the lightning flickers and the young woman closes her eyes momentarily and when she opens them, the old man is nowhere to be found. The electricity lights come back to life. She takes a peep outside to see if she would catch a glimpse of a running figure in the streets, to her astonishment, there is no one there. She walks back into the house and closes the door behind her. She shakes uncontrollably and goes towards the table.

‘He thanks me for tea he didn’t even dri...’ she opens her mouth with awe as she notices the clean empty cup. She looks at the water droplets the old man has left on the kitchen tiled floor, and she sees nothing.

She is startled by a knock with a person pushing through the door and closing it behind him. It is her husband, clutching on a wet newspaper, looking at the two cups of tea on the table. He walks over to her and kisses her forehead. She takes his coat and smiles at him.

The young man, knowing his wife so well, senses her irritable shake and asks, ‘don’t tell me you are still afraid of the lightning Babes, it has been doing this for the last 25 years of your life. Are you okay though?’

The woman nods slowly with a serious frown on her face, forcing some lines on her brow.

‘Josiah, did you by any chance run into an old man on your way here? She asks, taking the newspaper, putting it on the contiguous table.

The young man comes close to her, shaking his head, ‘Why do you asks Babes?’

The young woman begins to relate what had happened. When she reaches the part where the old man tells her of being pregnant, the young husband rushes to the bedroom and comes back with a home pregnancy test, and he hands it to her smiling excitedly. She looks at him and jilts her head and hands it back to him.

She walks to him and gives him a hug and says, ‘I woke up testing myself this morning after you left for work, I am not pregnant baby.’

Then she remembers what the old man said about faith and she grabs the pregnancy test back from the husband and she says, ‘FAITH’. She hurriedly pulls her dress in front her husband excited and pauses. Then she runs into the bathroom and leaves her smiling and yet confounded husband. A moment goes by with the husband inspecting the wet newspaper and muttering words in discontent. He hears his wife screaming with excitement. He rushes to the bathroom and he finds the young Sarah holding the test stick showing a positive pregnancy results.

They embrace happily and the husband looks up and says, ‘Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord.’

The young woman goes back into a kitchen and looks at her visitor’s cup. It was overflowing again.

She looks into the ceiling and says, ‘I love you so much Mama, and Thanks for the Old Man. I will always have Faith, I promise you. Thank the Man upstairs for me too.’

Chapter One

Alabaster Pharmaceutical Head Office, Downtown Johannesburg. Present day.

A young pathologist pushes through the double glass doors. He screams for the lady getting inside the elevator to hold the door. The young woman gives him a look and doesn’t attempt to hold the door. Another young lady inside the elevator places her hand from the back to hold the door, and the young man gets in and snugs for space. He looks at the heartless woman who didn’t hold the door for him and attempts to say something when he is interrupted by another woman’s greeting.

‘Hello Carter. Late again?’ a young Indian woman, early twenties looks at her mid thirties superior, smiling genuinely and playing with her eyebrows.

The pathologist looks at the back and notices her. He smiles and thanks her.

‘For holding the door, that is’. He clarifies. He looks at the woman who didn’t hold the door again.

The woman looks at him back and scoffs. ‘It’s like it’s very habitual of you to be late. You are supposed to open doors for women and not ask women to hold doors for you. What kind of a gentleman are you?’

The elevator opens and two people get off, creating some space for Carter to move deeper and closer to Privanni, his savoir. Privanni moves a bit farther to create enough space. She puts her hand on Carter’s shoulder and says, ‘Linda is giving you hell again? You should go home early in order to satisfy her. Doing it late at night until early hours of the morning won’t help you. You will always run late like this.’

Carter looks back at her and says, ‘As if I am getting any.’

The elderly woman standing next to her punches his stomach with a light hit. He apologizes faintly.

The heartless woman overhears and says, ‘Oh, so that’s why you are late all the time.’ Carter looks at the woman in an unbelievable gesture and opens his mouth with such awe. The elevator doors open and the three of them walk out. They walk briskly towards the Alabaster Pharmaceutical offices.

The office reception area is wide open with few chairs lined by the wall. Two sofas are next to a coffee table hosting a few opened magazines. The receptionist sees Carter and takes two envelopes and starts to wave them to him. He reaches to her and says hello. Then he hurriedly catches up with Privanni with the third woman tagging along a few meters from them. They approach the glass boardroom where a few suits are already seated. Carter glances at his watch and he is relieved to see that it is exactly 08h00. He places his file and two envelopes from the reception on the table and clears his throat. He is about to begin and sees the elevator woman enters the boardroom. The young man sitting next to an empty chair, lifts up his hand to show her where to seat. She notices the gesture and moves towards the young guy, playing with her body movements to entice with her hips and curves.

‘I am sorry, and you are?’ Carter asks with his hand on his mouth, standing in front of the table, next to the well set projector screen.

‘Well, Carter,’ she says sarcastically, ‘my name is Angelica Stone. I am a new Head of Research Department with Alabaster Pharmaceutical Corporation. I have assumed my duties in the company in the last…,’ she looks at her white gold wrist watch, ‘two minutes and I am happy to see you all.’

Carter looks at Privanni who in turn shrugs her shoulders. He looks at the woman with such concern, looks at the envelopes in his possession and notices that they were from his CEO. He quickly opens one and reads the letter silently. He clears his throat and looks about the room.

He smiles and says, ‘Guys, please join me in welcoming our new boss, Angelica Stone.’

He refers back to the letter and asks, ’Is it a Miss or Mrs.?’

Angelica looks at him mystified.

‘It’s Miss, Mr. Carter James. Miss Angelica Stone’. She smiles teasingly and pulls her body back to lean fully on the chair, folding her arms at the same time.

Carter opens his file pretending not to notice the act of continuous sarcasm. He starts his presentation by clicking on an open laptop, which he prepared while asking the new sexy boss questions. He clicks a few slides open, moving a cursor to click on the full screen function. The screen shows a clear picture of Alabaster logo. The animation on the logo shows the word Alabaster rotating around the golden globe, with the words, PHARMACEUTICAL CORPORATION on the bottom end. He marvels at the new logo and faces his audience.

‘Now that we have discussed the non vital trivial issues, let’s get to the stuff that gets us paid. The APC is lacking behind with its new findings on few researches it has worked on, or currently working on. The CEO has made it clear that should we continue with this slow progress, we might move into third position and that is a position he is not willing to position himself for.’

A few people in the room chuckles at the grammatical ingenuous speech. He looks at his new boss to catch her reaction. He is pleased to see her smiling too. He carries on by clicking on the laptop showing his next slide of a graph, showing a decline with a line of red line going down. He looks at the back of the room and asks a fellow researcher.

‘Sam, you earlier mentioned this week that we may look forward to your riveting new revelation on the research you were doing, on the strain of recent flu outbreak. Any chance you can regale us with your triumphant stories?’

Carter looks straight to the back avoiding looking at his new boss’s reaction. Young Sam at the back, looking unsure of himself. He stands to speak but Angelica notices and signals him to remain seated. He obliges with reluctance.

‘I have managed to separate the molecular structure of the virus from the T cells it had infected, and I have realized that it is not going to be easy, as the isolation itself caused the virus to be immediately inactive. Once that happened, I couldn’t work on it anymore. I tried again but this time concentrated at a group of unaffected T cells and the viral load was not enough to cause the necessary reaction I had contemplated.’ He pauses and looks at the new boss.

Carter feels a bit uneasy with that but he says nothing, except to tell the young researcher to continue.

And then the eager to take control Angelica, stands up to interrupt. She walks to the front and asks Carter to ‘please take a seat’. She switches off the computer and places her hands on the heavy mahogany table and says.

‘Guys I am giving all of you two weeks to work a miracle. Mr. Alabaster trusts you all and takes care of you abundantly. You are the highest paid people in this business, which means you are doing exceptionally well in your duties. Everyday people die because they are waiting for you guys to come up with a cure of diseases. Separating the molecular structures of a virus is like you are trying to see if you can recreate the virus Sam, please be sure to find out how you can disable it by other methods that are scientifically workable. We can’t drain the patient’s total fluids to separate each and every cell of the infecting virus. Please go back to your labs and start working on something tangible. This meeting is adjourned.’

All hurriedly take their files and laptops and flee the boardroom casually. Carter walks down to Angelica, and prepares for a contest talk. He is quickly stopped by a finger placed on his half opened mouth. Privanni looks back to see what is going on.

Obliviously, Angelica draws herself next to Carter and takes a pen out of his shirt pocket, removes her finger from his mouth.

‘I am the new Head,