chapter 11e 

(The Ambush) 

Moïse Berri 

and the Reconstruction of the Haitian 

Space Agency 

by Jude Jarda 

11e 

The Ambush 

A couple of miles east from the Châteauguay motel, where Hilaire Veriquin is being held against his will by a shifty sociopath, in the city of Longueuil, also located on the south shore of the Island of Montreal, the four dissident members of the SSG Cell show up to the meeting arranged by Chuck Three-Brothers from his underground office in Mizerikod. The crew drove around the neighbourhood at least ten times before stopping their Dodge Charger in the parking lot of a Chambly Road HLM complex. They did not meet with any watchers or crossed a single police car around Big Moose's residence. 

Candy stays at the steering wheel of the vehicle. The frail woman is hiding a state-of-the-art polymer Walther P99 pistol under her suede coat. Chuck Three-Brothers told the guys that no weapons were aloud at the reunion, but Little Ronnie Costco decided otherwise while high on some unidentified illegal substance. That explains why Jedi concealed a Mossberg 12 gauge shotgun in his trench coat and Gunjah Spliff showed up at the gathering with a Uzi sub-machine gun shoved down his pants; that also clarify the reason why Little Ronnie Costco is holding a 9 mm Browning with plastic handle in each hand, completely entranced and ensorcelled by his weapons. The sparkle in his eyes and his gait indicate that he is ready to wreak havoc. Jedi rings the buzzer, using his knuckles. 
  
“SSG!” Paolo answers. Opening the main door of the building, he adds through the intercom: “Use the elevator, Homies, fourth floor, you'll make less noise.” 

Gunjah Spliff and Jedi follow Paolo's instructions, but Little Ronnie Costco opts for the stairs. He stops on the second floor to smoke more of his illegal medicine, believing it will make him braver, but it only amplifies his current paranoid state. In the meantime, downstairs, Anaïs and Florence sneak out of the garage on the tip of their toes. The girls use black marker pens to mask the two cameras of the main lobby, then go hide in the laundry room. Anaïs and Florence dial 911 on two different phones. They both denounce an ongoing gun battle to the Longueuil Police. Anaïs swears that she has been hit twice to the leg. Florence complains that she has been calling for a while, but was not taken seriously because she sounded ethnic; Ethnic with a capital E. She adds that two Somali toddlers and a grandmother wearing a hijab are lying unconscious in the middle of the street, and that no one is offering any help. Florence warns the operator that the Black Coalition and CTV News are on their way to cover the scandal. She then yells: “Is it really because of the colour of their skin, their social status or their religion, if those victims are left there dying like marine mammals on a remote beach?” The phones are then destroyed by throwing them with force on a functioning drying machine. 

Big Moose's apartment door is wide open. Gunjah, Jedi and Ronnie Costco are in commando mode. The situation smells and looks like a trap. Jedi inspects the contours of the door, trying to detect a wire or a crank that could activate any kind of cleverly hidden lethal defense system. 

“Yo, Bangers! What's going on? I can't hear you. Where are you?” Jedi yells, definitely worried and afraid for his safety, because being shot at is something he dreads a lot and could live without. 
“Come in!” Paolo answers from the bathroom. “Put yourselves at ease. The Brothers went to the store to get us some beer and some chips. You've got plenty of pretzels and peanuts on the table.” 

While Paolo adjusts his bullet proof vest and the sandbags he piled up behind the bathroom door, Big Moose, Ricardo and Drive-by enters the building through the roof, armed like a SWAT unit on a mission. They immediately start shooting blank cartridges in the emergency exit stairs. The goal is to terrorize the SSG rebels and force them to reply with real bullets. Their reaction is exactly like Chuck Three-Brothers predicted from his hole back in Haiti. Jedi, Gunjah and Costco panic. They discharge their guns without thinking, transforming Big Moose's apartment into a giant piece of Swiss cheese. The members of the SSG Crew, loyal to Chuck Three-Brothers, drop their firearms on the floor in the nearest fire escape exit, climb back on the roof, then jump on the neighboring building, where they find refuge in an empty studio. 

Police sirens can be heard approaching. The SSG mutineers are in total dismay. They flee the crime scene. Jedi makes a stop on the second floor. He smashes down the first door he sees and breaks in. Two elderly women are inside, watching a game show. According to the Quebec Civil Code, Jedi automatically becomes a hostage taker. Gunjah Spliff goes down to the garage. He throws his shotgun in the garbage container and leaves the building by an emergency door that leads him to the parking lot. The Dodge Charger is gone. Candy left everyone them behind. The cops are all over the place. Dedicated paramedics are looking for the wounded before they are found by onlookers and YouTubers waving digital cameras. Little Ronnie Costco understands that there is no way out of this situation. The risks of being shot at view by the police are way too high. He puts his deadly tools down on the ground, gets out of the edifice and lays flat on his stomach, waiting to be handcuffed. Chuck Three-Brothers definitely won this set.