Clean Money

Breakfast With The Bourgeoisie

‘Did you land safe?’ The distorted voice on the other end asked.

‘Aw, did you call just to check up on me?’ Jae asked with a sneer, knowing full well that wasn’t the case.

‘Obviously. We can’t let our precious cargo go missing now, can we?’ The distorted voice chuckled sinisterly.

Jae resisted the urge to make another biting comment. She didn’t like what their tone implied because they spoke with the kind of tone that was reserved for parents dismissing a child’s threat to harm them if they were ignored; like they knew that they had her by the balls and there was nothing she could do about it, like she was nothing short of simple ‘precious cargo’ to them, an object, a body they could use. They were taunting, speaking with a casual indifference that made her blood boil. Sure, Jae had been working for them for a long time but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t live a life outside of all of this. She could, if she tried hard enough, if she wanted it bad enough, Jae was certain she could make that dream happen for herself and her impromptu hiatus only worked to further prove that to her; had she been a little bit smarter with her money and connections, she could’ve gotten out scot-free. Jae knew she had messed up her opportunity then but she could, in good faith, promise herself that she wouldn’t this time around and with the money this job was giving her she knew she couldn’t afford to mess up again or she really will be stuck with them as her lifeline.

‘That’s it?’ Jae asked curtly.

‘Enjoying the surprise?’ They asked, a surprisingly cheeky glint in their tone.

‘Huh?’ Jae asked, confused.

‘Considering how much s**t you’re bound to see on this mission, it doesn’t hurt that our client is quite a sight for sore eyes, huh?’ They chuckled darkly. Jae frowned. Something about their tone rubbed her the wrong way.

‘Yeah, so? I’m just here to do my job and leave.’ Jae said coolly.

Sure, she agreed with them but she didn’t like what their tone implied. Aida Kimani was an attractive woman and Jae vividly remembers the first time she laid eyes on her and how she had been stunned into silence by her beauty; the warm light spilled from behind her and the shadows played off of her features, highlighting the angled tilt of her high cheekbones as her dark eyes stared back at her, twinkling like cut crystal agate which gave her an air of severe serenity that vaguely reminded Jae of regal repose. Now, Jae had never been around nobility of any kind in all her twenty-five years but if she was informed that Aida hailed from some stately branch, she wouldn’t have questioned it because she carried herself with the same poise and grace as a royal would.

‘You didn’t experience any problems when you arrived, did you?’ The distorted voice asked.

‘No. Obviously not.’ Jae said. ‘Why?’ She asked because she hadn’t missed the way their tone had changed, from mocking to suspiciously curious. It was strange, to say the least. They almost sounded… legitimately concerned.

‘Although we are not allowed to divulge much information to you, we will advise you to take any and all necessary caution on duty.’

Jae raised a brow.

‘What do you mean?’ She asked.

‘We mean your new mission is extremely high risk.’ They said.

‘Well, that’s new.’ Jae said sarcastically.

‘We’re serious – don’t f**k it up.’ They said bluntly.

Jae’s brows now climbed into her hairline. Of all the missions Jae has ever taken, she had never ever been warned about a client directly. Most of the time, there was always a word of warning came with the job and it was often times passed on as part of protocol but in all her years working as an assassin, she had never been warned against a client this viciously. This must mean the client, the person who hired her, was far more powerful and influential that she had originally thought. Sure, Jae had done some jobs for some rather powerful and influential people but she’d never been warned against them in this manner before. If her client had the power to make an entire organisation of well-trained spies and assassins seemingly quake at the very idea of disappointing her in any way, it only left one clear question in Jae’s mind: who the hell was Aida Kimani?

‘I won’t.’ Jae said calmly.

‘Obviously.’ They said solemnly. ‘It would be in your best interest not to.’ Jae rolled her eyes but did take note of the ominous warning in their tone.

‘Yeah, yeah, whatever.’ Jae said. ‘Anything else?’  

‘Outside of the usual updates, no.’ They said. With that, Jae promptly hung up the phone and reached her arms over her head, stretching as she stared at her silhouette in the mirror. It was late, pretty late and she was ridiculously exhausted. After her conversation with Aida, Jae had been left to a rather lonesome dinner as Aida excused herself to do some work, which was fine, she guessed. It’s not like they were required to have dinner together, they were strangers and current business partners but that didn’t mean they had to become all that acquainted with each other on a personal level. It was kind of odd but Jae shrugged the feeling off, finishing off her dinner before being escorted back to her new room by Maina. 

The room was quite large and pretty plain, bare of any personal affects. The white wooden king sized poster bed sat on a matching circular stage that was padded with little warm lights beneath it that looked a lot like tiny candles, and was lined with curtains that faded from black and grey to white and matched the soft, silk sheets and pillows in colour. There were heavy white wooden chest drawers for Jae to keep all of her personal belongings and a matching writing desk that was lined with paper, pencils and pens for her to use and a white door that opened to a bathroom. The bathroom was the same colour scheme as the rest of the room with a white marble countertop lined with decorative white lilies, tiled white floors, deep grey toilet and a silver grey shower encased in glass. The bare white walls were plastered with abstract art, potted plants and carved in an intricate design that once again, reminded Jae of an ancient Arabian palace but one that had consummated with a modern biophilic design and producing one of the most awe-inspiring architectural designs Jae had ever seen – it was a perfect blend of the old and new; the secrets of the old history and culture bled into its stylised contemporary but what it had in splendour, it lacked in subtlety.

It had taken Jae a moment to adjust to the room but once she did, she spared no time debugging the room; pulling out wire after wire of hidden microphones and cameras, dissembling them and tossing the mess of wires into one of the empty drawers before answering the call to confirm her safe arrival. Now that she was done with that, she could take a shower and crash, which she did. A single question on her mind as she did so: who was Aida Kimani?

*   *    *

Jae woke as dawn broke. She didn’t want to but her body jumped to a start before she did and since it was damn near impossible for her to simply fall back asleep once she had been woken, Jae decided that might as well go and work out. Jae strapped into her workout gear and headed to the gym which she had been informed was further ahead, at the topmost floor of the West wing of the house. Once there, Jae found herself at a loss for words; the gym was fully equipped, with everything from treadmills, to weight sets, yoga mats, to stationary bikes, skipping rope, and bench-presses – it looked more like a state of the art gym facility than an ordinary home gym and Jae took full advantage of it, her mind wondering as she did so.

Jae knew that she was here on a mission but she didn’t quite know anything about her mission passed a few snippets of information here and there. First, there was the conversation she had with Aida the night before. Jae had been in the business for ten years, one of the reasons she was good at what she does is because she was always concerned with ensuring that her clients got exactly what they wanted out of hiring her which is why their motivations mattered a lot to her.

There were times she had been hired by clients when she realised that her clients weren’t even sure of what it was they truly wanted, much like Aida, she had many clients whose main motivator was revenge but once she had spoken to them, she realised that their revenge wasn’t usually plain on its own, it was always tied to something else. Revenge came from a place of rage, it was a demand for retribution for slights caused against another but it was also a surface emotion, most of the time, the rage usually had the unsurmountable weight of some sort of pain and whatever that pain was, Jae knew that her clients were better off having a clear understanding of what they were doing and why they were hiring her services; it gave Jae a quick and efficient way to find a solution that left her clients satisfied. Whatever happens, her clients were always forced to pay a fee for contacting company services and if they opted against it, they were still required to pay the full sum of the contract and an interest for wasting the company’s precious time and resources.

Still. That doesn’t change the fact that Jae didn’t know what Aida really wanted. Sure, Aida had mentioned revenge but Jae had seen something else flicker in her eyes, something that led her to believe that Aida wasn’t exactly being wholly truthful with Jae or herself (whether or not she was aware of this was another story) and it bothered Jae to no end because there was something there that she couldn’t quite put her finger on and something she knew she would have a difficult time getting out of Aida herself. Her new client was…stubborn. Jae could tell that getting any form of information out of her was not going to be a walk in the park.

Jae had noted, with charmed amusement, that Aida had committed herself to be as difficult as she could be. Initially, Jae had wanted to dismiss Aida’s immediate reaction to the sight of her as nothing short of surprise but she couldn’t when she noticed how long she had stared, nor when she noticed the quiet tension that had settled between them even through their conversation; it wasn’t uncomfortable but it searing and almost painfully palpable. Jae didn’t know what it was and that frustrated her too; at first, she thought it could be some sort of casual physical attraction but then she thought better of it because she had experienced that kind of tension before and whatever was brewing between them felt slightly different than that…or maybe…maybe Jae was just projecting? She knew she attracted to Aida physically but that didn’t mean the feeling was mutual and if it was, it was hard to tell passed the placid poker face Aida manged to maintain through a good chunk of their conversation.

Whatever that was, however, Jae knew she couldn’t focus her energy on it. She wasn’t here for that, she was here to focus on her mission and that was all – and if she was to indulge in any inequities, it wouldn’t be with her f*****g boss, that would be rather unprofessional…but then again, her profession was technically illegal so enjoying some illicit fun along the way seems rather harmless in light of that. Not that Jae would seek it out with her new boss but she wouldn’t exactly discourage it either, whatever happens, happens.

Speaking of which, Jae needs to find out what happened to Aida. What was the catalyst that made Aida want to hire Jae’s services? What was the incident that Aida that prompted her to make such a bold and brash decision to call for a hit? Jae’s guess is that Aida probably had an attempt made on her life. It made sense if coupled with the motivator she gave Jae; Aida wanted revenge because someone made an attempt on her life and she was looking to catch the culprit before they attempted to strike again and were actually successful.

Unfortunately, Jae knew her reasoning only brought her back to the question that was previously bugging her the night before: who the hell was Aida Kimani? Jae needed to find out what was so special about her because that could help Jae come up with possible suspects and their motives for going after Aida. It would be dishonest and frankly, quite stupid of Jae to dismiss Aida’s assessment that she was probably a target for her wealth; she was right, greed was one of the biggest and oldest motivators present and she clearly had a lot of it…but Jae could also argue that focusing on that alone was just as dishonest and stupid, however, since she didn’t have a list of suspects with personal motives, she just had to work with what she had and focus on money as the main motivator.

Aida Kimani was a fabulously wealthy woman, that was true but Jae couldn’t help but wonder how the hell she got this money. Whenever Jae encountered people with this amount of wealth sitting comfortably in their pockets, spent without any expense spared and laying lavishly in the lap of luxury, she knew without a doubt that their money was tainted in one way or another; be it generational wealth acquired from exploiting and pillaging poorer communities or engaging in some form of proscribed deeds such as the sale of illegal substances or firearms – either way, that money was never ethically sourced.

That being said though, Jae needed to find out how Aida Kimani acquired this amount of wealth and where exactly she fell on the spectrum of wealth; was she old money or new money? Old money always had connections, internal and external links and influence and most of the time, those people from old money circles did tend to band together to create more wealth and circulate it between themselves. New money, on the other hand, was pretty obvious to spot because they hardly had the same privilege as those that came from old money; they had fewer internal and external links which meant they were generally less influential than old money circles and often ran around behind them trying to bite their ankles for an entry like an excited puppy, or try to replace them which hardly ever ends up working in their favour or, on extremely rare occasions, those from new money circles work to establish themselves separate from the existing power structures and if they are successful, they often become well acquainted by old money circles, never truly accepted by them but respected well enough for them to make more money and garner influence through their connections and often times, they are respected and despised in equal measure by their new money contemporary circles who hold them in contempt, even though they may engage with them from time to time, business wise.

Jae couldn’t exactly tell whether or not Aida was from old money or new money based on the little information she as but she did have a sneaking suspicious that Aida didn’t generate this wealth on her own. Why? Because anyone who did generate this kind of money on their own would have seen some s**t and would know some s**t and would know how to defend themselves and their wealth. The fact that Aida reached out to help from another outside source is evidence enough that either Aida didn’t know how to defend herself and her wealth or she didn’t have any good connections, internally or externally, that she could trust with this mission. If both these things were true, that pointed to the likelihood of Aida being more new money but it didn’t guarantee it…she could be from an old money circle but oblivious to the dangers of her wealth if she was raised as an heiress of some sort – it wasn’t uncommon for a lot of old money circles to groom their children to take over some other palatable part of their franchise such as a fire arms dealer who hides behind the wall of a booming casino business and trains their child to take over the chain of casinos instead. Aida could be the next generation of old money stepping in, a successor of sorts but then…that only left Jae with more questions than answers: what happened to the person before Aida? Where they the ones who owned the wealth directly or were they pawns in a system? How did they acquire their position? How did they acquire their wealth? And how were they hiding it?

Jae sighed.

She was parched and properly worked out, towelling herself off as she took deeps breaths, walking over to lean by the open balcony and watch the sun climb higher and higher as its soft reddish-peach hue gleamed almost harsh against the placating clear sky. Jae always loved sunrises, they were always so beautiful and the ones in Kynea were no different, she relished the way the warm rays felt on her now cooling skin, she loved the way the cool breeze carried with it the salt of the sea and coupled perfectly with the heat and humidity, preventing her from turning into a puddle of sweat on the floor. The palm trees around the estate seemed to sway to life as the city of Asab began to rise, birds cawing the people awake as the sun settled into the clear blue sky.

Jae wished she could wake up to a view like this every day, enjoy sunrises like this every day without the weight of yet another mission crushing her skull as her mind kept churning every possibility in her head; two hours and buckets of sweat later and Jae was still no closer to decoding the mystery that was Aida Kimani. Thank god for that handsome commission because she could already sense that this was going to be one hell of a mission.

‘Good morning.’

Jae almost jumped at the deep voice that greeted her.

‘Morning Maina.’ Jae greeted with a wave. Maina had a slightly puzzled and annoyed look on his face at her greeting.

‘I know that you are American and you aren’t trying to be ignorant to the Kynea’an customs but in Kynea titles are very important to us. It is very disrespectful to most Kynea’ans to not use or address a person by their title so please refrain from addressing people outside of them.’ Maina said. Jae blinked. She didn’t want to be disrespectful towards the Kynea’an people or their culture, not only was it just in bad taste but she knew she would stick out like a sore thumb if she didn’t adopt the common Kynea’an customs and the last thing she wanted to do was sick out.

‘Oh, sorry.’ Jae said. ‘What should I call you then?’

‘Inju Maina.’ He responded. Jae nodded.

‘Okay. Good morning, Inju Maina.’ Jae said formally. This time, he smiled and nodded in approval.

‘Good morning.’ He said. ‘Our Raen has requested for your presence.’

‘Wait, what? Right now?’ She asked. Inju Maina shook his head.

‘No, for breakfast. It starts at eight.’ He informed her.

Jae glanced at her watch and shrugged, she had more than enough preparation time.

‘Okay.’

‘Be sure not to dally. Our Raen doesn’t like to be kept waiting.’ Inju Maina said, disappearing just as suddenly as he had appeared, leaving Jae with her muddle of thoughts. There was so much to sift through and such little time. As she made her way back to her new room, there was one thought that managed to shine through the rest, a thought that made her cheeks flush with a strange level of excitement as she stepped into the shower and that was the thought of breakfast.

In a few moments, Jae Brown was going to be having breakfast with Aida Kimani.