Page 60 of Quasim III: King Inferno

Corleon spooned cereal into his mouth. “Like my privacy…. You thirsty or some shit?”

“I’m good.”

I followed him through his house, and from the foyer, you could see the back terrace. It was sprawling with lounge chairs scattered like it was a resort instead of someone’s personal home. A black tiled infinity pool shimmered near the edge, daring the trees and mountains to compete with its beauty. The backyard screamed opulence, and from the way he just walked around in sweats and no shirt while eating cereal out a paper bowl, you wouldn’t know he was the damn owner.

I was normally comfortable everywhere I went, but a nigga was feeling out of place. The marble floors, expensive art that donned the walls, and the sculptures told me he put time and care into this home.

This was his vision, and it was well put together. Everything had a strategic space, and he had designed it to be so. Even with it being massive, it still had this homey feeling that you didn’t usually get when it came to homes as big as his. The digital pictures of his family switched every so often and went to an older picture of a woman, whom I assumed was his adoptive mother. Then the picture switched to a picture of Des and Jean.

Jean looked exactly like Capri, while Des mirrored all three of his sons, while they were standing in front of an old school BMW. I heard the stories of Des back in the day, and how he and Papa handled shit back then.

“Why you looking around all amazed and shit like you broke?”

I snorted. “Money is always good, but it ain’t this damn good.”

He laughed as we headed down a long hall before coming up on a flight of stairs. We took them down, and I noticed that you could still access a different part of the backyard from the basement of the home.

Before we could fully enter the basement, there was a glass double door that prevented our access. Core paused and turned to look at me for a second before I realized why he was staring at me.

“The fuck? You think I’m gonna break into your shit?”

He continued to stare at me while he held the bowl with one hand. I was lowkey offended that he waited for me to turn away before he put the code in. I turned around once I heard the chime, and we entered the basement. He made sure he closed the door back and that’s when I thought I was losing my mind.

“Hoe, is you a fucking wizard?” I nearly screamed, trying to understand what the fuck just happened. How the fuck did we come through this door, and everything was completelydifferent? I felt like I stepped into a Granger novel with a talking cat named Quan.

When we came down the steps, you saw a simple lavish living area that was meant for a second family space. From the stairs, you could see a tennis court and the doors that led you to the backyard and the rest of the property.

The minute I stepped through the doors, that wasn’t what I saw at all. There were huge windows with a view of Singapore, and computer monitors everywhere. It was like watching the world from a home basement.

“Relax… it’s a simulation. I can make the view be whatever I wanna see… was feeling like Singapore today. Capri tells me that it’s beautiful there.” He laughed as he sat in one of the computer chairs. “Plus, my boo told me that all this shit has to be off limits for my daughter.”

“You have a daughter?” Why was I learning all this shit about Corleon now?

The leather chair with the high back comforted his body as he sat the empty bowl on the desk. “Yeah… Estella. How the fuck you in her home and don’t know her name?”

“Well, where the fuck is she? House seemed empty as fuck when we were upstairs.” I was becoming even more confused the more I stood here.

The fact that we were somewhere in Jersey, and I felt like I was in a high rise in Singapore was tripping me out, and I wasn’t someone that was easily fucked with.

“Not important… it’s clear you got some shit on your mind… what’s up?” He got more comfortable in his chair and watched me.

“The fuck is all of this?”

“I don’t know why you surprised… I fucking hack and you didn’t think I had a set up…. Now, tell me the real reason you here.”

I walked around slowly, watching the different monitors that showed different street cameras within the city. How in the fuck was I looking at the inside of the Holland tunnel and the traffic on the Verrazano bridge at the same time?

“You can pull up any camera in the city?”

“Uh huh.”

“Any address or location?” I continued to probe.

“Not about to pull up the cameras on some chick you fucking with, Hassan,” he yawned, leaning his head back in the chair.

Her fine ass was probably at work anyway, so I ain’t even have to worry about pulling up on her electronically. “How does one even learn this shit?”

“A lot of time and patience… You made contact with him… what is your next step, Hassan? Been over at that man’s house twice for dinner.” I wasn’t surprised that he already knew what I was up to.

---