Mokele

Indaba

Mokele was not born a king. He was born in the bidonvilles of Kinshasa, where the streets taught him before school ever could. At sixteen, after his father abandoned the family, he stepped up to protect his mother, and he chose the streets so that she would never have to beg again.

This book follows his rise from child to hustler to Prince of the Streets, one deal and one betrayal at a time, until the whole city learns to whisper his name. He lives by Article 15, the Kinshasa survival code that means fend for yourself.

By 2040 he sits at the top of a Kinshasa of speed and excess: a palace guarded by lion statues, a fleet of cars, a seat in the world of Formula racing, and a leopard chair where he sits alone at night. Fatshi, his most loyal man, and Sikiliza, the brother the streets gave him, stand at his side. Zaïko, the Leopard Phantom King, stands in his way.

His gift is the most dangerous of all: whatever he draws becomes real. On the steps of his palace he draws two tigers and they come to life, one that builds and one that destroys. In the ISOLELE Universe, power is not only inherited. Sometimes it is taken, and then it must be mastered.