Twisted Times: Son of Man (Twisted Times Trilogy Book 1) (18 page)

Friday 9
th
November,

Nairobi.

Kate saw Ken enter Safari Tours Travel Agency as though he owned the place. It had been long since she last saw him. She wondered what he really was of late. Just that look on his face and she was feeling like she would fly and hug him, give him the hottest, juiciest kiss ever. For a split second she remembered their golden nights and silver mornings.

She thought of the day she became pregnant. She knew she was on danger days but she gave herself to him. They never used condoms. He trusted her, she trusted him; her church advocated for natural family planning methods. Kate had a memory, just a flash, of the day she was at the backstreet hospital. It was not what she wanted, but she had to do it. She glanced at her left hand middle finger. The diamond ring gleamed with grandeur. Nostalgia came hurtling back on her.

Steve and her, having spent the rest of the day at the white sands on the shores of the Indian Ocean beaches on one of the most exorbitant African Tours hotel at the Coast, had settled at a dimly lit corner for their candle lit dinner. The aura at Serena Beach Hotel this day was pregnant with nothing, if anything, but love.

She ordered African cuisine while he settled for what she had just taken. Her likes were his and his dislikes were hers. Instead of the starters, the maître d’ brought a bouquet of freshly cut flowers and a small ornately decorated casing. She knew instantly what was in there and she just said YES. Steve had, with all bridled care, slid the diamond ring onto her middle finger and then kissed her. Their kiss was interrupted by a deliberated cough by the waiter to alert them that he was around. She had never been happier.

Later they had christened their new relationship status with sweat-slicked lovemaking till the sun was up and went down leaving them still making love. It was then that she had known that there was no turning back.

Steve’s voice snapped her out of her reminiscence. She looked at Ken again and a thin sweat ran through her.

Stop it before you betray yourself, Kate.

Ken’s back was to them from where they were seated, but she couldn’t lie to Steve. He was one man who was hawk-eyed. Steve had not missed that brief interlude. He was watching her and the realization that he was watching her made her feel embarrassed.

“Don’t tell me you still fancy other men my love?”

She blushed, big time. She gave him that smile of hers and he knew he still was the man her heart pulsated for.

Kate looked at the direction of the man she once loved, and God knew she still loved. Ken was saying something to the girl at the reception. The girl was smiling. Gosh! She missed him, her Ken.

He was dressed in a dark suit, a crème shirt and a matching tie, his tar black well-polished shoes completing the whole picture of him. He was more handsome than ever. She couldn’t mistake him, even his silhouette, from a million others.

Ken had not seen them. He was now putting the piece of paper that the receptionist had given him inside his coat breast pocket. He was turning to go now. Gawd! Her eyes met his and for a brief moment he was like mesmerized and then hypnotized before doing something completely insane – walking to where they were.

“Oh my God. Is it you or am I dreaming?” Ken said a moment before noticing the man with her. “What a pleasant surprise, Kate. It’s been so long.”

“And a lovely one, too.” They both restrained the urge to hug and restricted the pleasantries to shaking hands only.

“Ken, meet my fiancé Steve. Steve, Ken.”

The two men shook hands perfunctorily with the usual ‘Nice to meet you’ line and introduced themselves to each other.

Five minutes later, after chitchat and updating each other of what had happened to them in the past four years, Ken left. As he walked out, Kate could not help thinking he was cuter than ever, the guy had style and that she was happy for him. How she missed the old times!

What a coincidence. He was there to book a flight to the Coast just as they were.

Long after he was gone everything was him. She couldn’t believe that for just five minutes she had been with the man she loved with all her heart, body and mind and now he was gone without even leaving the faintest trail of his being there. So much for the time they had not seen each other.

Too bad after so long without seeing him he was to come for such a brief moment yet last for so long inside. Inside her was the memory of the man she had ever known and wanted to be with.

Don’t fight with yourself, Kate. You’re too old to fight; besides, one must not fight to live.

Moreover, some wars are better not fought.

First love.

My goodness! You never forget, or get over, your first love. I had tried my level best to forget Kate but I couldn’t. I don’t think I’d ever forget Kate. I owed her a lot. I did not know she had withdrawn her father’s savings for her for me until she told me the last day I saw her. I’ll live to remember that day. That’s why I felt I could not learn how to live with her away but I had to try.

She belonged to somebody else, they were happy and I did not want to spoil that. I too was
happy
, with Susan, and she made me come alive. Kate saved me from the jaws of death – her last words to me at the campus that day. I owed my life to her. She left without giving me her new phone number; said it was better that way, and I had not tried to contact her via email; still it was better that way – not to stalk her.

I arrived at the Nairobi Hospital where Susan was on internship without even knowing how I got there manoeuvring through the Nairobi traffic. As it had been agreed the last time we had met, we were to go for a weekend at the Coast. That’s why I had gone to my travel agent and bumped into Kate.

I went straight to the Nairobi Hospital staff quarters and found Susan waiting for me.

Susan was as vibrant as ever. We kissed as though we had not been together four hours before. The kiss was wanting then needing. Smooth and delicate at first then rough; cold then warm. The mint taste of her mouth filled the air around us with her, and as the wisps of her smell rose up like smoke, we lost ourselves into each other’s world. It was the vibrating of my phone that interrupted us and brought us back to earth.

“Ignore it,” she said.

I checked the caller identity. I couldn’t. It was my boss, the MD UniStar Kenya. What the f***.

“I can’t. It’s my boss... job calls. Excuse me,” she stayed on the sofa, watching me and listening to my one sided conversation..

“Hello... yes ma’am. What? When? No. I don’t know anything of that sort. Please. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Really? You better tell me ‘coz I hear it from you. But how? I endorsed nothing. No, no, no, no… Maybe. So what do you want me to do? But I am going to... please don’t do this. The tickets are already... are you sure of what you’re saying? I just can’t. Okay. I’ll come over then.”

“What now?” Susan said once I was through.

“I don’t know, Sue. I’m being called to be told that I need to sign my resignation.”

“What? Why?”

“I have purportedly been found to have endorsed some cheques on behalf of the company that have been found to be fake…”

“But you can’t be called to sign your resignation. It is you who can tender in your resignation.
Kwani
it was written for you?”

“That’s how it seems. All what I have to do is sign…”

“But you can’t…”

“It’s the company policy, Susan,” I told her. “Once you are accused of anything, even without prior investigations, you have to resign…”

“Yes, but not to go sign a resignation. That’s unprocedural…”

“Susan, there are many things in that company that are not procedural, and the people who run it are very powerful. People whom you can’t fight…”

“So you’re just going to be…”

“These multinationals even control the government, my love. They influence policies, change laws, even put presidents to power. I am a fledgeling, a nothing.”

“You can’t be such a wimp. You know you have not done anything, expose the rot that is…”

“Nothing can be done, Sue. Believe me. It’s not what meets the eye. Either way I would have done it sooner or later. I couldn’t have stayed there.”

Susan wanted to argue more but the look on my face told her not to, not this one. She then said, “OK, we shall get through this together. You might as well turn the other cheek…”

“Please, Sue. Not this one.”

“When they persecute you in one town run away to another one. I assure you that you will not finish your work in all the towns of...” Susan’s sarcasm stung, but I did not lose it.

“Internal politics are at play here, and something else that could bring down the whole company right from Paris and New York. You think they will accept to have their empire brought down by a single man?” I said. “I refused to accept a cheque that was supposedly paid to us by TriStar, a ghost South African cosmetics company, to window-dress our accounts so we could win a government tender. That same day I was approached to sign cheques and LPOs for a bogus company that doesn’t exist. A powerful cartel of businessmen control this economy, and one of their tools is multinational corporations. You can’t just fight them. Things are going to be pretty slick from now on, but I have a plan, trust me.”

“You know better, Ken,” she said resignedly. “You’re the one who’s been telling me not to let emotions come in the way of my clear thinking. Please, don’t make hasty decisions.”

“I promise.”

I drove my BMW at fighter jet speed to the UniStar Kenya offices in Upper Hill where I found the MD waiting for me like a leopard. I knew all was not well from the look on her face.

And yes, my resignation was written for me. What I was expected to do was to sign it. I had proved to be incompetent for my job. Investigations were ongoing of the circumstances under which I tried to defraud the Barclays Bank of Kenya and UniStar Global of billions of shillings.

“I don’t remember doing such a thing if my memory serves me well. Fraud is a crime, and you know that. So is defamation…”

“Not really, Mr. Maina. What I’m saying is that your lack of cooperation is detrimental to the operation of this company. As a matter-of-fact, I cannot allow one individual to jeopardize the operations of this company. For God’s sake, we’ve a good name, Maina.

“UniStar is known world over. We have a reputation to be guarded at all costs. You know that better than anyone else, don’t you? You want to taint that name with purported claims of corruption, racketeering, funding of terrorism, and black market. You have no ground unless you can prove that beyond reasonable doubt. What you have isn’t incriminating yet but we both know what it can do to the company. You do not know what you’re getting yourself into. For your sake, and that of Susan, please back off, lie low and enjoy the fringe benefits the company gives you. This whole thing is more than you think.”

The mention of Susan made my head crack. “You leave Susan out of this, hear me?”

“Calm down, Ken. There is nothing to worry about…”

“So, I am not guilty of anything?”

“That depends.”

“On what?”

“You. I have already told you, stop poking your nose into where it shouldn’t.”

“Are you finished? And what if I am not about to do that?”

“Then I won’t be able to help you. In this life things aren’t what you want them to be. I can see that dumb head of yours is full of idealistic bullshit. You’re dreaming. The whole thing is a dream to you, but you need to wake up.”

“You know I have heard this for long. You want me to sign the resignation that you drafted for me? I am going to do it. I can’t be party to this.”

“Think about the one who recommended you. Solomon promised me that you’ll not disappoint us.”

“It’s about me, not Solomon, not anyone else. I can’t do this. I am quitting…”

“I can’t protect you while you are out there, Ken. We want you in with us, not out.”

“So this whole thing was a ruse to get to me, to threaten me with God knows what?”

“If it works, why not. You attempted to defraud UniStar Global over Ksh10b. Preliminary hearing would be on...”

“Please don’t tell me we will walk down that rabbit hole. Why don’t you just lay me off...?”

“We can’t just lay you off. A disgruntled employee can cause a scandal we can’t contain. But if you stay, you choose to work for the company, life would be good for you. Money, wealth, name it. If you append your signature on the dotted line, know that you are on your own.”

“These threats…”

“No one is threatening you. Are you ready to pay the price? You should listen to me. I’ve tried my level best, Mr. Maina.”

“You mean it was you...? You’re sending them to me? O my God!”

“Ken, enough of this. I am offering you a chance to redeem yourself. Just do what is required of you to do and everything is going to be alright. The choice is yours.”

I did not hesitate. “You want my answer? The answer is still no, N-O.”

“It’s your loss. It seems you’re still full of glum idealistic thoughts. When I first saw you I knew that that cute head of yours can be smarter than that but it never struck me that with time you’d be dumber. It seems there isn’t much I can do for you.”

“Yeah, there isn’t much I can do for you too, Monica.”