White Squad

By Annalu Braga

Rio de Janeiro of beauties and counterpoints. A driver runs over a man who was stuck on the road. A teenager is shot inside a bus in broad daylight. Apparently, everything is weird, but no. Everyone meets in a hospital, where criminals transit freely. A journalist unveils a plot beyond what she imagines, when she falls in love with the last romantic boy in town. A perverted policeman, the good life enjoy the world woman, the drug dealer to the powered people, the intellectual from the community, a more than kind nurse and a poor rich old lady are among the twenty-four elements of an exciting thriller.

From the streets to a carioca hospital, people who frequent the headlines of everyday life and the potholes of a metropolis: a florist shot on a bus in borad day light, the killer buried in Rocinha, a well-meaning doctor, a police officer obsessed with a drug trafficking financier , a nymphomaniac nurse, an intellectual from the community, an exotic oncologist and an enigmatic Brazilian woman who squanders money in Europe. More than suspense, sensuality, psychological games and violence, White Squad is a thriller where you're the only one to have fun. After her father's hit-and-run, a young journalist enters a plot larger than she imagined, involving multifaceted criminals around her.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tektime
• Release date: May 18, 2021
• ISBN: 9788835424208

Book preview

I

The sky dawned, clean, surrounded by a breeze of opportune winds. A beautiful day to be started with sex. It is what comes to mind on such easily predictable days. No obstacles. With a soul empowered by cotton candy covered dreams. The silver jeep parked in the garage, a brand new shine, and, in detail, on the windshield´s right side, a sticker reading Normal and Insane, embellished this atmosphere. Conrado had not yet decided whether or not he liked the prop, invented by the only person who really knew him: his bride, Vera. There are even some colleagues in the hospital who´d think the phrase does not match the image of a doctor at the height of his career – a straight, white figure, forming an impeccable ensemble with his lab coat, the indefectible Lamy in his pocket and the beige leather folder with the Conrado Connor inscription in black and gold. The man accelerates, entering the day´s road, overcoming the passenger cars ahead.

– Get out of the way, I'm in a hurry, damn it.

Conrado stops at his favorite news stand, in front of a pharmacy in Baixo Leblon. A group of people tries to breathe in the rest of the newspaper headlines: Mystery patients serial deaths at a hospital in Rio de Janeiro remains unsolved. He asks the dark skinned stand owner for his two usual newspapers, and he quickly wallows in the main daily papers editions´ copies mud. The doctor pays him with a 20 reais bill and departs at the green light.

– Stupid people, don't know this happens.

Hospital infection is the most common thing in hospitals, even in the high-end, personalized clinics in the United States. He keeps driving, with the newspaper sitting on the steering wheel. A driver overtakes him in a radical overtaking, honking his horn, catching his eye.

–Damn, watch out where you are going! You think your cool car is armored? Shouts the van's helper, but he still doesn't care about the world outside, just minding the news glance.

– It is already time for them to give it up, it´s been a month now, and it is a finished, old and beaten fact for the press.– Another driver passes, trashing him, but he remains unmoved – Old newspaper, this one. The sports section sucks. It would had been better not to have seen anything on the internet.

The doctor parks on the boardwalk, in front of the beach, looking for the sea calmness. Turns on the car stereo and a hip-hop emerges from the tombs of past times.

– American girl, I love this version – he cheers up.

Three phenomenal blonde women cross the sidewalk. At a first glance, they seem like friends telling stories from the previous night, and yes, there is much more left to imagination, by the way they comment, excitedly.

– Michele, isn't five grand good for one night? – says Karin, to her 23-year-old friend.

– You caught a big fish too – concedes Michele, the youngest of the pros.

– Yes, a real marlin – Karin answers with an open grin, showing up her new, implanted teeth arch, like a brand new car leaving the dealership.

– Wow, with that kind of money I´d have my nose done, just like Nicole Kidman's thin nose, I would look great! Imagine, the bewitched and me, equal, twin sisters. That's when the johns would really talk about me– says Wal, 25, excited.

– You have no idea how much I had to wiggle to make these five thousand ...But I'm alive, and in the mood to spend everything at the mall – Karin jokes.

– What? No, not at the mall! An exclusive store, that's what you need, there's a famous one that opened in Ipanema, let's stop by, girls? – Wal suggests .

Conrado observes the hotties closely: the ones on the right have pigeon-shaped breasts, unlike the third one, whose breasts resemble a sweet candy apple. Just thinking about those three beauties in a motel room sauna(TN: In Brazil, motels are fancy, short-time period – usually 4 hours or overnight with an early check-out– hotels used for sex encounters; love motels) , the doctor emerges from of the morning news torment .

– Today I can do anything, the day dawned beautifully and everything goes– a prophecy. He approaches the women and, without hesitation, makes the invitation, showing the wallet full of hundred-real bills. At first, even the dunes say yes.

On the way to São Conrado, there is a motel, embedded in stone, where he likes to have sex watching the waves foaming on the rocks, following their pace. Slowly and deeply, deeper each time.

Wal and Michele sweeten themselves, as if it were the first time for the two women, while he finishes enjoying himself on Karin's back, drooling all over her body. Conrado reaches for the wallet. He picks up an envelope, pouring the white content onto the convex salience on the blonde's spine, and stretches a foot-long cocaine line. He embraces her, rubbing his member in the middle of her legs and sniffing the powder until a prolonged end, at the furrow of the small, and muscular girl's butt. The sex and power nuptial march continues, while he watches excitedly, as Wal's mouth sinks into her partner's pubic hair, as she stands on the table. Her vulva, a dull and penetrating pink, contrasts with the dyed blond hair, making him more horny, sipping in the flesh confrontations´ details . Michele asks her to finalize her actions with the due compassion: materializing the pleasure contained in martyrdom.

– Kill me, Wal, but kill me willingly ... – and Wal adds energy to her lover's face expression, using fingers and tongue in the cradle of her golden-red dreams. The doctor watches everything with learning determination, as if he could never overcome them in bed. Drinks the rest of his whiskey, keeping a small piece of ice between his teeth. He approaches Karin's back and runs the ice-melted tongue around her spine, doing sequential circles down to her butt.

– Your time has come, stud. Babe, call me Doc, this is how I like it, okay?

It's your turn to experience my power.

Karin, naughtlly, allows herself to be entirely embraced, being approached with the intensity of one man. His desire is voracious, perpetuating within the walls of the motel.

– Approach is loyal. Penetration is lion, – ponders Wal, the blonde with a thousand sexual spells.

Leaning against his shoulder, Michele, the creature with green eyes and a clearly livid after-sex look, theorizes that anything can happen uptown, this is Zona Sul (TN: Literally, South End, usually the best neighborhood in Brazilian cities). After she moved from Niterói to Rio, only sex maniacs have showed up in her sexual encounters. Since she met her colleagues and, as she vows – was co-opted -, it has been a succession of setbacks, but now there is no turning back, it´s all fine.

In bed, Karin gets surrounded by the male stalker organ. Conrad imposes a crazy rhythm, with little saliva and exceeding impatience. With an experienced succession of firm strokes, he smiles, convinced of his power, while working, surrounding the female. Wal helps herself to a drink ,and leans against the jealous window edge. Not even the sea is that blue today ... Michele joins her, wrapped in a red satin towel.

– This little doctor is going to give us a lot of trouble. I thought it would be a quickie, but the consultation will last a long time. There's two in the waiting line— she mocks.

The way he's snorted, he's not going to drop the ball" —her friend says. openly.

The afternoon sun already shows up on the horizon, like a thin trace in the middle of the sea, waking the bodies lying over the bed. Conrado consults his watch with the defiant tone of a robot. Rubs his eyes and gets up, still naked.

– Dammit! Ladies, it's time to set sail!

Intertwined, Michele and Wal grumble when they are awakened. Conrado dresses in seconds, in a bad-mood foam. Separates 10 100-real bills and hands eight to the green-eyed blonde Karin, the chosen goddess, the one totally consumed. The other pair of notes is disputed by the rest. He recommends the young women leave their business cards with the brunet receptionist and picks up his car´s keys. Karin looks at the girls with an inviting look, and they reciprocate. The commander leaves and the crew starts the party, saying so, locks the bedroom door and the blondes´ private little party begins .

In the apartment facing the Lagoon (TN: Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon, a well-known touristic venue in Rio as well as a neighborhood denomination), Roberta cries, but it's not the first time she's shedding tears for her husband. The old-fashioned linen embroidered scarf is named after João Henrique. If I had embraced  some religion, I wouldn't be suffering so much, reflects the woman, marked by a long white hair wick lying on the right side of her fringe.

Without a shadow of a doubt, a beautiful woman in her fifties. Overlooking the balcony ´s rail in the Lagoa's apartment, she watches the comes and goes of cars on the waterfront.

The light turns green and a car crash becomes a new ordeal. Roberta observes the confusion, worried. It's not the first time, never is. Remembers the tragic accident that hit João Henrique.

The couple had prepared to hit the road and enjoy the moments together. Almost thirty years of marriage and this was the promised vacation from one to the other, to rekindle the relationship. Ouro Preto would be the final destination, the most romantic place possible for them.

On the highway, the car started choking.

– Roberta, we are out of gas!

– How come, is it empty?

– Look at the marker!

– João, haven´t you fueled the tank before we left Rio?

– Honey, I was so anxious for this trip, I forgot. I'm sorry, but you leave it to me. Stay in the car, I'm going to push it.

In a split second, headlights appeared on the other side of the road. Roberta saw the lights and signaled at it, asking for help.The car at high speed skidded on the curve, hitting the side of the couple's car. The impact projected João's body to the shoulder. The driver braked, but gave up, and resumed his way, speeding. Roberta came across her husband on the side of the shoulder: the shirt stained at breast height, and she shouted his name.

An ambulance appeared at the curve with opened doors , and paramedics jumped, nimbly. The doctor examined João Henrique, searching for some fracture.

– Calm down, sir, you don't have to struggle. Just hold on tight til the hospital in Teresópolis. It's about 8 miles from here.

– My wife, please tell her I'm fine.

– Do you feel any pain here?

– The shoulder blade hurts a lot.

On arrival at the hospital, Roberta, after digging for some calm somewhere in her mind, called her daughter, . Roberta lit a cigarette, taking a long drag. She quit smoking more than four years ago, and now there was no way to keep the pledge.

– No, not to me! " her cry drowned out by the comfort of tobacco.

In the hospital corridors, there was a general rush. Major accident. A nurse held the hand of a young girl, her face shredded by glass cuts . But my husband is going to get away with this, it's just a cracked rib. That's all, Roberta sought the lull of a hypothetical sea amid chaos.

In the background, a man hugged the doctor and begged him to save his sister. Roberta watched the scene and tried to convince herself that it was just routine procedure. Tatiana called next, crying.

– Tati, I didn't remember filling it up with gas in Rio. If anyone's guilty, it's me.

– Mom, it was the guy who ran over Dad. He was in the wrong direction. I'm going to the police station and see if anyone saw it. It's not possible that there was no one on the road, or in a nearby house, someone who witnessed this tragedy.

– There's no point in doing anything now. First we need to get your father out of here, this hospital is horrible.

– I'm going there.

The surgeon in charge called her name. Roberta looked around her and noticed the place´s odness, with corridors full of distressed people and arid paints on their souls. She took a deep breath when the doctor began explaining the situation.

– As we expected, it was just a rib fissure, and the treatment consists basically on resting. For now, we will maintain his functions normalized, and assist with artificial ventilation to reduce pulmonary effort. In a week, at most, he'll be fine.

At the apartment window,  an ambulance siren throws her into the present. If I had looked into the car´s gas level ... If  I had not gone into the car ... If I had him push the car to the shoulder and waited for help, none of this would have happened. I would have him, I would have everything, my life back, it was just what I wanted, her morbid heart cries.

In downtown Rio de Janeiro, teenager Flavinho, carrying the flowers for his latest delivery, agrees with his girlfriend to pick her up in ten minutes. With a glance at the clock's hand, he enters a fine gift shop and hands the bouquet of yellow roses to the Japanese girl. The girl barely has the time to say thanks, eager to know who was the treat´s author. Flavinho picks up the client's signature and looks over the perfume showcase. Checks prices for one that fits his salary. Counts what's in his pocket, eighty-seven reais. It won´t do. Ashamed, asks to see a simple lavender flask. Shimitzu doesn't answer, just ignores the delivery boy.

At the people´s bazaar, he glances over the front row like a remote control. In one of the tents, there is a blinding shelf of gold like glittering jewels. He chooses with the dignity of his naked soul, comparing one by one. Reaches into his pocket to check how much he has, and decides for a pair of heart-shaped earrings. The blond curly-haired boy asks for a gift wrap for a year of love. The saleswoman serves him with pleasure. Flavinho puts the box into his backpack inner pocket. Pays fifty-five reais. He and Margo celebrate their one-year dating anniversary today. His love. He meets his girlfriend at the appointed time, by the door of the store where she works. She, wearing new clothes, miniskirt and beige top, looks beautiful.

– You look stunning today, princess." Margo opens herself brightly, even guessing the compliment from who won her heart a year , four hours and forty-five minutes ago, for being an ultra-romantic guy.

– Flavinho, let's spend the afternoon at the beach?

– Love, today