You are my angel

Chapter 1- Azamuth

I could hear the wail of sirens as police cars followed closely behind me. I smirked as I saw the underground tunnel that led to Azamuth also called the "black city". My destination was close now. I picked up speed, easily gliding through the thick traffic. They shouldn't have chased someone on a motorbike with cars, I thought ruefully but then glanced sideways at the whirring sounds of the rotor blades of the helicopter above. It was closely following me but I knew they would lose me, the moment I go into the underground passageway leading to Azamuth.

I picked up speed and kept swerving from one lane to another. The helicopter followed me closely. It almost felt like it was breathing down my neck. It didn't unnerve me though. Instead it gave me an odd thrill of exhilaration because I knew they couldn't catch me. I would rather kill myself than get caught by the Police. I would not allow anyone to cage and restrain me again. I say again because I've spend more than half my life restrained in chains in small cages. I wouldn't allow that to happen again. Not to mention, I had no interest in cutting any deals with the Police.

"Luca Dimitrios, stop right now or we are going to shoot you." The police warned through a megaphone. I tsked at that as I swerved past a car again. Did they really think that would scare me? Who did they think I was? I glanced at the mirror on my motorbike to check the helicopter following me and saw a sniper getting ready to shoot. I zigzagged past cars on the highway lanes. They had obviously gone mad to start a shooting spree in such traffic. I knew they wouldn't dare take a chance with missing aim and hitting a civilian. So I kept moving around as much as I could.

The heavy traffic should have been my shield but that didn't necessarily make me less cautious. The Police would shoot at me because I had assassinated the Mayor yesterday on the orders of my gang boss. But my gang had betrayed me by ratting me away to the Police. They wanted to trap me by involving the police because they knew they couldn't take me down easily on their own.

If they really wanted to get rid of me, they could have just said it straight to my face and I would have got lost. But then, that's hardly the style of a gang. The style of the gangs I know is more like stabbing friends and foes wherever you see them. The most cunning and the strongest survive. Usually when you climb up the ranks of a gang, people start fearing you. I was Carlos Dimitrios's right hand man and everyone feared me. But I didn't realize that Dimitrios himself had started getting uneasy around me. He wanted me dead because his gang supposedly respected me more. He assumed I was a backstabbing traitor like him. That was his mistake and that was why he is no longer alive. I killed him and everyone else who got in my way. So I am no longer Luca Dimitrios and with the death of all leaders of the gang, there was now no Dimitrios gang either.

The tunnel approached and a shooting spree ensued in a desperate attempt to catch me before I hit the tunnel but I easily avoided the bullets flying at me. Some did hit on target but I was wearing a bullet proof vest and so it didn't really matter. They should have taken a shot at my head. But I knew them better. They wanted me alive so that they could question me and perhaps hope that I would betray the friends in my network. Well, you see, in a world where violence is the norm, a true friend is something rare and if such a person existed, they would die for you. So, who did they think they were to assume I would give up my friend's names?

I slowed down when I knew I had evaded capture and was safe from the Police. They never come into Azamuth because in Azamuth, criminals hunt the law enforcers. Short of wiping out the town with some kind of mass destruction bomb, there is no hope for the city. It was ruled by gangs and all kinds of criminal activities take place on the streets quite plainly for everyone to see.

I do come to Azamuth from time to time to just relax in my pent house apartment. It's not that it has a great view or that there's anything worthy of seeing there. But it feels safe for people like me who are hiding from the law. I sped through the catacomb like tunnels expertly, knowing exactly which turns to take to not get lost. In ten minutes I started seeing the main road to Azamuth. As usual there were guards around. I stopped at the check post and a familiar beefy man grinned at me.