6. IN MEN, WE DONT TRUST

Nairobi is a very big city being the Capital of Kenya, boasting the greatest share of the country’s GDP. It has a great businesses umbworld within its economic realm and attracts a lot of investors. Some of the most prominent people in the world come to visit this famous city to view its unique landscape topography, the parks and recreational centres infused with the cultural heritage it boasts of.  Within it, were constituencies that joined together to forth come  this great city and give it life. 

Westlands was one of this constituencies with high end businesses encroaching its every corner. Indians greatly inhabited this area and called it home. We are not ruling out other ethnic races that were present in the area, only that they were the major residents. Shops popped up in every corner of the streets with malls in strategic areas that were easily accessible to anyone whether on foot or driving. At night, most of this building would shine bright with LED lights making the scene very admirable to the eyes. An aerial view would calm  a tourist journey while on vacation in this great country that shared a border with the horn of Africa. Vehicles kept crawling all its streets incessantly, you would never suspect the high cost of fuel that vehemently digs deeper into its citizens financial pockets.

On parklands road, resided a casino that would be hosting one of the most secret meetings. On entering, you would completely forget where you were since it looked like another city inside a building. There were all kinds of people inside, some in groups and some alone. All derivatives of fantasies existed in this here. An exquisite show of interior design exhibited how professional the designer was. Card tables "Galaxy Deluxe", Texas hold em poker tables “Galaxy deluxe”, American roulette tables “Galaxy”, serving tables “Premium”, Gaming tables “Round Deluxe”, Roulette Wheels “”Crystal Cameigh”, Aurora slot machines and Roulette Displays “Oracle RDS manual” were all strategically arranged in a manner to entice a client never want to leave unless they ran broke. The beautiful ladies that served in it made everyone run for their money.

“I won”

“Check”

“All in..”

“Damn, I hate this place”

“I keep loosing every time”

These were random voices that filled the room on top of the cosy music that playeing in the background.  Some focused on their bets while others drove their attention to ladies. The casino had different VIP cubicles for those who wanted privacy. These cubicles were top notch furnished from bathtubs to Jacuzzis and sunken living rooms. Within the casino was a club with all kinds of strippers. The entrance was heavily guarded, not everyone was allowed into that section regardless of whom you were. A certain wealthy status had to be met. The club was nicknamed “A Free Country” because it was a haven for most wanted criminals the world has ever known and police were not allowed in. Most of these perpetrators laundered money through this club which worked under the umbrella of Lanes Casino. Inside Free Country, everything was legal except killing hence no firearms were allowed. All kinds of erotic scenes were visible in this club, in some corner you would see a gentleman sniffing cocaine from the belly of a lady using a wrapped thousand Kenya shilling bill while on the other corner you find a lounge with both ladies and gentlemen nicely dressed puffing shisha and drinking  to madness. Others would be playing pool with strippers at the same time. 

Free Country  had VIP sections which hosted all kinds of terrorist and gang meetings. Inside one of them was a Texas hold ‘em poker table “Galaxy Deluxe Special Edition” in the middle with two light green accent chairs on both ends. Another one was in the middle to the side of the table presumably the dealers chair in case a game of two was going on. A couple of two seater chesterfield leather sofa surrounded the table a few metres away with only a bar counter breaking the sofa chain. Stylish coffee tables with marble tops accompanied the sofas for guests to have their attachments on.

Maina sat on one side of the poker table with the dealer present,  donned with his official work wear. A three piece suit with a grey shirt. Everything in the casino and club was branded Lanes. On to his right side, a few of his team members sat there with his bodyguard close to him. Indimuli and Steven were all present there with their laptops. They looked anxious since Maina had been hard on them for almost letting them get caught through a system breach. They were still his best men and he trusted them with his life. Back in Mumbai, India, it was Indimuli’s effort that saved his life. Interpol was closing on him and Indimuli managed to penetrate their firewalls and paralyzed their communication, purchasing enough time for their  escape. 

After ten minutes of waiting, Lucas entered the room drawing attention from everyone including Maina. He was followed by Kanga, Jack and Ambenje who sat on the sofas to the left of Maina. Lucas calmly took the seat directly opposite to Maina maintaining good eye contact. Two more staff security joined the room and the door was sealed. There was a counter to the right side of the door with a lady inside. On her counter were cards, chips and more drinks for guests in her VIP lobby. 

Maina and Lucas stared at each other without saying a word. Maina’s dreadlocks scattered all over his back in a very disorganized way. Lucas was dressed in a suit with an overall coat that covered it. A grey one in colour and just by looking at it, you would heed the work of fabric and design was done by an experienced tailor. A black godfather hat topped it all on his head. A classic gentleman’s look of the old days that was used by all sorts of gangsters like mafias and organized crime lords.

“Welcome to Lanes Casino gentlemen, we are here to provide you with the best services we offer at an admirable level”, the dealer began as he shifted his glance from left to right ensuring his audience were paying enough attention, which they weren’t. Both of the two mains were just staring at each other. Like gauging each other mentally. The better it was to the dealer since in his mind he had already pictured the kind of trickery he was  to witness in todays game. “As we have been informed, you two recognized gentlemen have a meeting of ultimate secrecy and would love to play some poker while at it. I wish to affirm both of you that all our employees here have taken an oath of secrecy thus we were never here.” He paused for a moment and looked at the two player to his sides. The one to his immediate left was his small blind and automatically the other became the big blind. He rose from his seat and headed over to the counter. The lady over there handed him a deck of cards which he came back with on the table.

“Which game is your favourite, gentlemen?” he asked them.

“No-limit”, Maina retorted quickly. The dealer turned to Lucas who nodded in agreement apprehensively.

“Aaaah”, Lucas sighed, “not scared I see.”

“Ha-ha”, came the sarcastic laugh from Maina, “I want the money.”

“sounds like you are a pro.”

“Not really that much as I cant play out freely in the open without being rushed out of the place by my people, paranoia.”

“With such an empire you run, I guess you already know that you should expect nothing less.”

The rest of the guys in the space were mesmerized. These two gentlemen were not in their best of terms a few minutes ago and now they were juts talking up like old brothers without even any introduction. The only common stuff for these gents was the poker table in between them.

“We are also in the same business, ain’t we? Like right now you are my buyer and am the seller.”

“Since you have mentioned that, you have the merchandise here for viewing?”

“We never agreed there will be any viewing today? We just coming here to get acquainted and see how these business should be done smoothly. As you are aware, I cant carry a bomb all over the city.”

Lucas turned to the dealer, “can I get fifteen million Kenya shillings chips?”

“Same as for me,” Maina added as soon as the dealer nodded in convention. The dealer moved to the counter and gave instructions to the attendant who handed two trays full of chips worth fifteen million each and a PDQ. He placed the chips directly in front of the players on the poker table and handed each of them the PDQ’s in turns for them to swipe their cards. Interestingly, with there shady business, they were both owners of black cards due to the many umbrella companies they owned.

“All payment confirmed. Gentlemen, we are set to start the first hand. Mr Lucas, you are the small blind and Maina the big blind.” He shuffled the cards very fast within his fingers professionally .  “Pre-fold round begins”, he stated this for everyone in the room. At the same time he distributed to both his two players two hole cards each.

“Lets place the bets.” The dealer instructed them.

“I have been meaning to ask?” Maina cut in, “ You know previously I was really yearning to meet you because for one, I never thought that merchandise would ever retail for that price.”

“I also had the same idea”, Lucas supported him, making Maina change from a happy face to muzzled look, “Is there any way we can re-bargain, get to lower it. My team finds your price too high and we sealed the buy now clause to reserve the merchandise.”

Maina burst out with laughter and checked his hole cards. He didn’t even reply to it and placed his bet. “five hundred thousand”, he mentioned this as he pushed chips worth the same amount from his stack.

“Thought you are a reasonable guy... or maybe you are but a lets say a reasonable rich guy.”

“Wow, so you got a sense of humour lad. You going to call or raise...?”

“Raise to seven hundred thousand.” Lucas affirmed while pushing an equal amount of chips to the middle. He did not even bother checking his hole cards but rather glance at his phone strategically from time to time as if he was waiting for something.

“You that confident with your holes! you haven’t even checked them?”

“That’s cheating”, Lucas added while laughing, “ I can sue you for that.”

“Which court will listen to you?” they both laughed. Finally the atmosphere was getting comfortable with the ambience more amicable. Indimuli wasn’t focused that much at these two gentlemen discussing but rather on his laptop. There was nothing much for him to pay attention to since they still had not got to the nitty gritty affairs. 

“Since I don’t want to be sued, then I call”, he moved some few chips making the total of the pot to one million four hundred thousand. They both waited a few seconds as the dealer placed one card aside and placed three community cards on the table. Their identities were a nine of flowers, a five of flowers and a six of flowers. Maina checked his cards, in his mind he was already feeling the win since as per the community cards, he was bound to get a pair. Unfortunately, a pair still ranks a little lower in poker hand ranking and Lucas unreadable face didn’t give him any hint of his expectations. That’s poker anyway, he said to himself. 

For the first time, Lucas peeped at his cards and looked up at Maina who was literally staring laconically  at him. 

“Am I going to get my discount?” he asked him.

“I don’t think so.”

“Am all in.” Lucas addressed the room. Everyone turned immediately to Lucas as he pushed all his chips to the centre of the table. There eyes were wide open in amazement. This meant Maina had to make the call or fold and if he folds he looses his current bet which was way better. On other hand if he staked to match Lucas fifteen million shillings meant he would walk away with thirty million shillings in this one hand. That’s a stunner for sure.

“You are bluffing”, was all he said to Lucas as he contemplated the situation.