CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Hatred and tension among crew members became a matter of concern to Alijha. He had to deal with internal conflicts amongst the crew more often, and it seemed not to be getting better. Jr had caused all these commotions, and Alijha kept wondering for weeks how he would get rid of his grandson or take back the position he gave him. Van was now identified as Alijha’s traitor who is capable of bringing down Alijha’s kingdom.
The hotel’s meat supply came from the camp every Wednesday and Dika was in charge of delivering it. One early morning Jr set an accidental trap by tempering the brakes’ cables of the delivering car. He knew well how to do it, and he was sure of the fatality it would cause. The assignment Jr gave Martin gave him sleepless nights wondering about the best way of approaching Jr, to explain why that can’t be possible at the moment.
After twenty-four hours, Dika and the two other guys had not arrived back to the camp. It was an unusual thing. Alijha ended up gathering together the present crew members. Before they could be settled down in the conference room, Alijha said to them with a concerned voice, “Dika and the twin brothers haven’t returned yet, and we expected them to be back 24 hours ago.” They all remained silent. Van Zyl gave Jr a suspecting look.
“I wonder if they had an accident,” Alijha added.
“I can take the truck and make a follow up maybe they got stuck on the way. Van lets go together.”
“OK, please leave now and follow them up,” Alijha commanded. They hurriedly got the car keys and took off. All other guys suspected that since Jr and Dika hated each other so bad, he suddenly chose to follow up. Alijha wondered too, figuring out what could this mean. “That was absurd. You should have chosen some else instead of me because if anything has happened to those guys, we would be the only suspects.” Van said as they got out of the camp.
“I couldn’t choose anyone I’m not accustomed to. Suspects will always be there Van. Don’t fear anything.”
They remained silent in the car. Jr kept looking on the sides of the road and then finally saw the car off the road and beyond repair. He didn’t want to see Dika alive.
He parked the car, and they got off to see what happened. The twin brother was already dead, and Dika was struggling to breathe. He had bled a lot and seemed to have even lost his conscious.
The twin brothers had deep cuts, and the other one’s head was crushed. They pulled out Dika who was crying faintly in agony.