The Blacklist: The Mombasa Cartel Legacy

You know, 29 years ago in Sierra Leone there was a farmer named Samwel Zuma who had the audacity to identify several low level Mombasa operatives to local authorities. The cartel massacred the entire family. All but the youngest son. He was sold to a local ring of flesh peddlers. The majority of children in those circumstances don’t last more than nine months. He survived eight years. He was 14 when I found him. Too old. Too tall. Too angry and dangerous to be of any further value. He was left to die chained to a standpipe in the basement of a squalid brothel in Nairobi. Branded. Burned. Barely alive. So I took him. Made him well. Saw to his education. He graduated university with a Bachelor’s in English Literature. He speaks four languages fluently and can get by in half a dozen more. He is…splendid. His name is Dembe. Dembe Zuma.

                           Red Reddington

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