Race by Mobashar Qureshi Read Free Book Online

it,” said Aldrich.   “Gangs prefer to have a niche in the market and they protect this niche.   The Italian Mafia deals in gambling and prostitution; Colombian Cartels: cocaine; Jamaican Posse: crack; Chinese Triads: Heroin.   They don’t and won’t allow anyone to enter their market.   When a new group tries to enter their turf, there’s a war.    Gang wars are part of their business.   RACE knows and understands this very well.   They’re not interested in marijuana, crack, cocaine, heroin, Ecstasy or any of the existing drugs.   No.
    “They’re interested in creating their own niche.   They want to be the sole providers of a new product.    They want this new product to be bigger than ecstasy.     Our sources, which I’ll mention shortly, tell us that this new drug will be sold like a pill, similar to ecstasy.   Which means, once manufactured and distributed, the drug will be harder to catch.”  
    Aldrich took a few seconds to collect his thoughts.  
    This was way too much information for me.    I needed a day.   
    “As you all know, the two major stock-market busts in Canada were Nortel and Bre -X.    You take the first letter of Nortel and the last letter of Bre -X and you get N-X, or on the street it might come to be known as Nex .” Aldrich picked up a manila folder and retrieved a sheet from it.   He glanced at it briefly and then spoke again.   “Once swallowed, Nex takes immediate effect.   Sources say it explodes inside the human body, similar to how the finances of Nortel and Bre -X did in the stock market.   The human nervous system then becomes paralyzed or numb for a short period, maybe seconds, maybe minutes.   But for that brief moment, the user will feel such relaxation that I cannot possibly describe it without having experienced it myself.               
    “Such a drug can be compared to a painkiller.   But it is not.   It’s far more dangerous.   The sudden shutting of the nervous system can cause heart attacks or seizures.   Also, the human system eventually becomes resistant.   It takes more and more pills to get that sudden effect.   Slowly and gradually the human body begins to lose sensation.   The mind and body eventually become anaesthetized, where the habitual users die a slow and horrible death.
    “It’s like a person who has Lou Gehrig’s disease, Alzheimer’s, and multiple sclerosis all at once.”
    I listened attentively.   This was serious.   What the hell was I doing here?
    A hand shot up. Clara Terries.   “Who are the target users?” she asked.
    “Everyone,” answered Aldrich, as if he was proud of this knowledge.    “Anyone can use it to cope with stress,” Aldrich continued.   “A CEO, who is putting in seventy hours a week, stressed out; he might take a pill.    A single mother, unable to handle three children and two jobs, might take one.   Teenagers who just want to experiment might take a few and in doing so get addicted.   Movie stars, athletes, singers, anyone might be enticed to use it.”
    “How do you know all this?” asked Simon Nemdharry .
    Aldrich crossed his hands behind his back.   “One of our undercover officers stumbled upon RACE.   At that time the drug squad was maximized in its resources.   New investigations were not a priority.   But this undercover officer was resilient.   He felt that this new discovery could pose a real threat.   I authorized the officer to investigate.    In a span of four months he began to uncover the inner workings of RACE.   They were working on something big.   Nex .”
    With a hand raised, Simon Nemdharry said, “Will the undercover officer brief us?”
    “No.   There will be no direct contract with the officer,” replied Aldrich.
    Simon Nemdharry waited.   We all waited for an explanation.
    Aldrich said, “We will continue our investigation.   I know and understand that most of you, except for Detective Beadsworth , are not familiar