CHAPTER 117

**Gym:*

There was a regular gym that was frequented by very low-income people due to its extremely affordable fees. This gym was where Ignas, who was the one satisfying Oden’s wife sexually for payment, could be found. It was unclear how he came to have this position.

Ignas was broad-chested, with a wide face and a well-defined physique. He was a quiet young man from the streets who did not mingle much with people. He would go to the gym, do his workouts, and leave without engaging in much conversation with others. This was his daily routine, and no one knew much about his private life. He appeared at the gym sporadically, then would disappear for a while before returning, and no one followed him since everyone was preoccupied with their own lives in the city.

On that day, he arrived at the gym very early and left just as early, as if he had strict plans. His phone was always on, and he was unusually attentive to it, possibly knowing that someone might be looking for him. He had a neat room with everything he needed. He was not a destitute young man but was content with his life.

After leaving the gym, he went to a prearranged location, dressed up, and headed by the roadside without a trace of worry. His physique did not suggest weakness despite people’s assumptions that he might just have a gym body and nothing else. Even Oden knew him in this way, but were they right? Ignas was not in a hurry, casually munching on raw peanuts.

At that evening hour, Oden's guard sent a message to his men to go and forcibly bring Ignas to their boss. Unlike usual, where Ignas was picked up by a single guard and driven to the boss to satisfy his wife, who was then pregnant, these men arrived in a car and left it. They were dressed in suits because the Jeshini area was known for its somewhat affluent residents, especially those from the northwestern part of Tanzania. Hence, anyone who saw these men knew they must be relatives of someone in the area whom they were visiting.

When the men arrived at Ignas’s residence, they were surprised by what they found. The door to his room was wide open, and there was no one else there. They searched every corner but could not find him.

“I think this fool knew we would be here and has run away,” one of the men said as he returned his gun to his holster.

“He can’t have run away; how would he know we would be here?” another man with a deeper voice replied, extinguishing the end of his cigarette.

“I don’t have a direct answer to this, but it’s impossible for someone in a city like this, where theft is rampant, to leave his door wide open and disappear. I think this is a trap or a deliberate move to show us he knew we would come here,” these words led them to agree to track his phone using the number they had. In just a few moments they got the location on the number.

The phone number wasn’t far from where they were; it was showing up close and moving very slowly. So, they had to rush. At that moment, the young man (Ignas) was slowly walking back from where he had been after sitting there for a while.

The men stopped when they saw that the signal was very close to them. When they looked ahead, they saw the young man waiting for them under the tree, with no intention of running from people he didn’t even know he had wronged.

“You’ve kept me waiting for a very long time, and I really don’t like wasting time without a good reason. Whoever among you survives should make sure to arrive on time next time. I’ve waited until I’m tired, and if you had delayed, I would’ve come for you myself,” the young man said as he stood up, dusted himself off, and continued eating his peanuts.

They were all shocked by his words because they knew him as a timid and humble person. Where had this confidence to speak to them like this come from?

“Young man, instead of begging us to spare your life, you’re acting cocky in front of us?”

“Mhhhh, you guys should have run away before we met to save your lives, but without thinking, you brought yourselves here. So, do you think you know me well? Pick who among you should survive to deliver the message,” he said things they couldn’t believe were coming from someone they thought was so weak.

The man at the front felt the young man had greatly disrespected them and thought he needed to teach him a lesson for his arrogance before taking him. He arrogantly moved forward, carelessly lunging at him, thinking the young man was as weak as he had assumed. His leg was swiftly swept from under him, and as he landed with a shout, he was kicked in the chest with a force that felt like a penalty kick.

He slammed into a nearby tree, but before he could fully hit the ground, his neck was struck with a knee, breaking it severely and killing him instantly, his eyes wide open.

It all happened in less than 15 seconds, and they had lost one of their men in such a ridiculous way.

The breaking of that bone served as a warning to the men who were witnessing their comrade being killed. There were five of them initially, but now only four remained. The young man had earlier given them a chance to choose among themselves who should stay alive to deliver a message to their boss, but they had taken it as a joke, and now it was turning against them. One of them, in panic, drew his gun, but his partner stopped him. The guns didn’t have silencers, and since they were in a crowded area and not far from the police station, using the firearms would attract the police to the scene before they could leave, creating trouble for them. So, they had to rely on their hands to subdue the young man.

After confirming he had killed the first man, Ignas reached into his pocket, took out some peanuts, ate a few, and approached the remaining four men. The people who were nearby and had witnessed the killing, seeing another human being slaughtered like a sacrificial goat fled in panic, screaming as they tried to save their own lives. Life is lived once, and they believed that firmly.

Two men stepped forward into the fight, while the other two remained vigilant. One threatened as if to punch Ignas, but Ignas laughed while easily dodging the punches, though it seemed like he had fallen into a trap. He received a double kick to the chest that sent him backwards, but he didn’t fall weakly. As he was going down, he released a knife from his waist, which embedded itself in one man’s chest.

The speed at which Ignas rose and drove the knife deeper into the man’s heart was unbelievable. They only realized what had happened when their comrade grasped his neck, he too had been finished off by that small hand-held knife.

The remaining two men turned the place into a slaughterhouse, being sliced by Ignas’s knife. The last man standing tried his luck at fighting the young man but ended up losing several fingers. He could only beg for mercy.

Ignas didn’t want to kill this last man. He took out a small piece of folded paper from his pocket and handed it to him.

“Make sure it reaches your boss,” he said, handing him the paper.