Once Upon a Crime: Catching up with Hell

By IKE MORAH

Iskar Kekere is barely four years old, as his entire family is eliminated by criminals - slaughtered, raped and killed as he watches. He therefore grows up with only one aim in life vengeance.
He grows up in the streets and due to his ruthlessness becomes a criminal Don as a teenager. Involved in all possible criminal undertakings, he kidnapped, assassinated, brutally and sadistically killed, sold drugs as well as humans and ran prostitution rings amongst others. He soon becomes the most prolific bank robber.

Now the most feared criminal, he kidnaps the president of his country and his family just for the fun, while killing all his female friends girl friends, fiances and wives

Ike, the one-man army and hero of all the assignment series of novels is unleashed on him by the government. In mind tingling and action packed episodes that involved foot-to-the-pedal car chases, gun fights and the most fantastic hand-to-hand combats, he is taken out together with his entire gang. Peace returned after that to the benefit of the law abiding citizens.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Africa
• Release date: Aug 14, 2014
• ISBN: 9781482802818

IKE MORAH

A versatile author who indulges in reading, writing, traveling and photography, Ike lives in Baltimore, Maryland. He is the author of at least nineteen novels before this. Married with children, he is a practicing Pharmacist with the basic philosophy in life that one should try his best and leave the rest to God. For this one should never take life too seriously and never complain. Never complain about your position if you could remember the saying: :I used to complain that I had no shoes till I saw a man with no legs."

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Copyright © 2014 by Ike Morah.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

www.partridgepublishing.com/africa

Contents

Chapter 1    Introduction

Chapter 2    The Love Of Money

Chapter 3    The Criminal Mastermind

Chapter 4    Amoeba Is Hired.

Chapter 5    The Philanderer

Chapter 6    The Final Encounter

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

It all started during an innocent though awkward Sunday brunch and it ended up in total disaster.

A group of terrorists had infused fear and violence into the midst of this community. Anarchy and disaster had been unleashed on the innocent worshippers. This took place at the Saint Bottles Bedrock Evangelical Mission Church – SBBEM – in Danturu. Danturu was a fairly big but completely laid back city. It had always been a very quiet town with next to zero violence and crime. It was like a haven for retirees.

Bomb blasts had shattered the palpable silence that was t this city and they all took place in and around the church premises. The worshippers had just finished their morning service, and as was usual with them, they had all gathered in the hall for a light entertainment. It was right after a little bit of mingling had started amongst them that it took place – the blasts came as if from every imaginable direction. They came in near apocalyptic proportions conveying fear, terror and mayhem.

No one was sure of how it came to be. Some claimed that it was the work of various suicide bombers working together, but others did not see it that way. This other set believed that it was the work of one man alone. They were both correct. After a thorough investigation, crime scene reconstructions, various theories and imaginations, the law enforcement agencies had arrived at the According to their final submission, it was the work of only one suicide bomber, though with the help of various accomplices who had melted away before the incident. The accomplices had helped him plant bombs at various vantage points within the church. They were rather sophisticated bombs with each wirelessly linked to the other, while each packed quite some punch.

The bombs were all rigged to detonate on dialing a particular code number from a cell phone. To avoid accidental detonation, they were to respond to that code number only if it is dialed from the particular cell phone used by the suicide bomber. The code was three sets of three sixes, with the string proceeded as well as proceeded by a zero. It was claimed that the zeros were there just to make it a valid phone number but that the sixes were the ones found in the book of Revelation in the Bible. The three sets were just for emphasis, while choosing from the bible was to make investigation more difficult since they had nothing to do with the Christian religion.

The accomplices had done their work and that could have been enough, but then they wanted that personal touch. It had to come from the individual who will make sure that every thing worked perfectly well. He had come in as one of the new worshippers.

As soon as every one was there, he took out his phone and dialed. Nothing happened! Disappointments are not quite uncommon with even the most meticulous plots. He was a very cool character. When this happened he tried two more times without panic while trying to figure out why. He soon found out why. His oversized middle finger, which he often involuntarily used to dial his phone, touched both the six and the three- key above it at the same time. The three- key was more sensitive. He took care of that slip- up and every other thing became history.

There were many theories as to why this had taken place. Many were of the opinion that they were against ‘foreigners’ in their midst, but they were wrong. They were not against foreigners. They were actually more inclined towards foreigners than other people. The only semblance to reality in that case was that they had a religious as well as cultural belief and practices that had strictly enforced moral codes. Any one who could not behave himself, as it were, was often not too welcome.

More believable however was their position in regards to the consumption of alcohol. It was strictly taboo within the community. No matter the circumstances, alcohol was forbidden – no sales, no possession and of course no consumption. This Church was particularly given to alcohol.

Their belief was that one of the first recorded miracles officially attributed to Christianity was the turning of water into wine. They therefore reasoned, or at least felt, that it must be very important. They therefore poured libations at will. They often consumed it to excess.

Each Sunday service was followed by the light entertainment. During this, a lot of alcohol was consumed and it came in all its forms. Many consumed spirits but it seemed their most favorite drink was the ‘ODEKU’ – a particular brand and size of Guinness Stout beer. This was very jealously followed by the palm wine, especially the ‘up wine and the ‘itikili’. They were all smuggled into the community and used as part of their Sunday after service libations.

The storm had been brewing for long and various attempts had been made to stop them but it was all to no avail. It was the most radical group that finally came to a permanent solution – kill off all of them together with their alcohol.

This was the most plausible explanation as to the cause of the carnage, and the government quickly went for it. The group was blamed for taking the laws into their own hands but there was no plan of bringing them to justice. The main reason was that no one knew who they really were. The mayhem was never to be forgotten and Saint Bottles Church had been once and for all.

This single act had become a bag of mixed blessings. It was have ushered peace into that area where it took place, and so the dawn of a new era. On the other hand it was beginning to signal the dawn of another new era in the other part of the country. It was going to be an era of subdued upheaval, mistrust and social agony. Forgiveness seemed to be a very remote idea and many asked for the country to be split up into autonomous units with each having next to nothing to do with the other.

Many others felt that unity was the only reasonable step forwards, since unification seems to be the present world order. Many countries are now beginning to come together as unions so why split up?

One group also opined for separation not on the expected grounds. According to this group, war usually leads to peace and so in like manner separation would also be expected to eventually lead to unity, so why not separate right now so that unity will be closer.

The motto for the church as could be seen on the banner at the entrance to the mega-church read: WELLCOME TO BEDROCK WHERE EVERYONE IS A WINNER. The terrorists have for once proven them wrong, or at least so it seemed. Every single member that was there had perished in the compound blast and they had all lost their lives. On the other hand they could have all become winners. Supposing, though not likely, that they had all, against all odds, headed for heaven; then they had all become winners as the motto had proclaimed. Only one soul did not perish with them and we shall soon see who it was.

It was not until three days after this abominable incident that a group came out and claimed responsibility for the action. Many believe that they were not even capable of carrying that out but were rather cashing in on cheap notoriety or maybe popularity, as they will be seen. It was the Jihadist sect of Marabock. That was the first time that the name was heard of and it probably did not exist either. Many feared them anyway. They may not exist or maybe they did but were actually invisible. The fear of the unknown was always there.

As was earlier pointed out, one soul was not there. He was that proverbial cat with nine lives. He had just left the church to minister to a female member whom he claimed had just fallen grievously ill. Incidentally she was rumored to be his mistress. Who knows? He was neither the pastor nor the bishop to the mission. He was the highest-ranking authority there and went with the title ‘Ambassador plenipotentiary’ to the mission. He had just finished giving the congregation a very moving oration before leaving and he was the one and only SENIOR EVANGELIST ISKAR TIMOTHY.

Just as if in anticipation of what was to take place, he had asked them to always take hearth in case of any adversities. No one was in the know of all the facts of life and so it was always better to keep an open mind. No matter what happens they were always to have that consolation that the Holy Spirit was always there with them. Since the Holy Spirit was essentially like the shadow of God, they should in other words realize that God was there with them.

It is this Holy Spirit, according to him, that often helps one understand and realize the outer exoteric applications and observance of faith in God as we can often witness. He however admonished them not to forget that the most important thing is that perceived inner esoteric experience of the Divine – being born again. It was more important

Reviews for Once Upon a Crime

[rachelfromsarasota · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a book of short crime stories that were based on fairy tales. Too many of the stories were a waste of time, but a few others were great -- particularly the wonderful, if grim, story of the real Cinderella, "After Happily Ever After" by Gillian Roberts. Other enjoyable and well-written ones were Ed Gorman's "Of the Fog", John Helfer's "The Better to Eat You With", and Les Roberts' "The Brave Little Costume Designer". This particular crime collection really hammered home the point that the short story might be one of the hardest genres for a writer to excel in. If you come across this one in a library, it would serve to while away an hour or two -- but I wouldn't recommend it as a permanent addition to a personal library.

[wyvernfriend · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a very mixed bag of stories, all clever and all interesting. These take a twist on the stories of fairy tale, taking a more crime oriented look at these stories. Many of them are clever and interesting but some of them are a litle laboured, trying to twist the story a little too much to fit the fairy tale. However it kept me interested and amused throughout.

[vegaheim · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

great, funny, entertaining.