I remembered when I was a hot-blooded fifteen-year-old. I promised my girlfriend, Nafissa, that I wouldn’t even look at another girl. And I made the same pledge to Fayza, whose tits were bigger. And to Hanuna, whose father worked in the brewery. Everything was just fine until Nafissa found out about Hanuna, and Fayza’s father found out about both of the others. The girls would have cut my balls off and scratched out my eyes. Instead, I slipped out of Algiers while the enemy slept, and so began the odyssey that brought me to this city.
That’s a dead, dry story and of little relevance here. I’m just suggesting how much trouble Hajjar was looking at if Friedlander Bey and Reda Abu Adil ever caught on to his two-timing.
“Isn’t Abu Adil your chief competitor?” I asked.
“The gentleman may think we compete. I do not think that we are in conflict in any way. Allah grants Abu Adil the right to sell his beaten brass where I am selling my beaten brass. If someone chooses to buy from Abu Adil rather than from me, then both customer and merchant have my blessing. I will get my livelihood from Allah, and nothing Abu Adil can do will help or hinder me.”
I thought of the vast sums of money that passed through Friedlander Bey’s house, some of it ending up in fat envelopes on my own desk. I was confident that none of it derived from the sale of beaten brass. But it made a pleasant euphemism; I let it go.
“According to Lieutenant Hajjar,” I said, “you think Abu Adil is planning to put you out of business altogether.”
“Only the Gatherer of Nations shall do that, my son.” Papa gave me a fond look. “But I am pleased by your concern. You needn’t worry about Abu Adil.”
“I can use my position down at the copshop to find out what he’s up to.”
He stood up and ran a hand through his white hair. “If you wish. If it will ease your mind.”
Kmuzu pulled my chair away from the table and I stood up also. “My uncle,” I said, “I beg you to excuse me.
“May your table be pleasant to you. I wish you a blessed meal.”
Frieollander Bey came to me and kissed me on each cheek. “Go in safety, my darling,” he said. “I am most pleased with you.”
As I left the dining room, I turned to see Papa sitting once again in his chair. There was a grim look on the old man’s face, and the Stone That Speaks was bending low to hear something Papa was saying. I wondered just what Friedlander Bey shared with his slave, but not yet with me.
“You’ve got to finish moving in, don’t you?” I said to Kmuzu as we walked back to my apartment.
“I will bring a mattress, yaa Sidi. That will be enough for tonight.”
“Good. I have some work to do on the data deck.”
“The report on Reda Abu Adil?”
I looked at him sharply. “Yes,” I said, “that’s right.”
“Perhaps I can help you get a clearer picture of the man and his motives.”
“How is it that you know so much about him, Kmuzu?” I asked.
“When I was first brought to the city, I was employed as a bodyguard for one of Abu Adil’s wives.”
I thought that information was remarkable. Consider: I begin an investigation of a total stranger, and my brand-new slave turns out to have once worked for that same man. This wasn’t a coincidence, I could feel it. I had faith that it’d all fit together eventually. I just hoped I’d still be alive and healthy when it did.
I paused outside the door to my suite. “Go get your bedding and your belongings,” I told Kmuzu. “I’ll be going through the file on Abu Adil. Don’t worry about disturbing me, though. When I’m working, it takes a bomb blast to distract me.”
“Thank you, yaa Sidi. I will be as quiet as I can.”
I began to turn the color lock on the door. Kmuzu gave a little bow and headed toward the servants’ quarters. When he’d turned the corner, I hurried away in the opposite direction. I went down to the garage and found my car. It felt strange, sneaking away from my own servant, but I just didn’t feel like having him tagging along with me tonight. I drove through the Christian quarter and then through the upper-class shopping district east of the Budayeen. I parked the car on the Boulevard il-Jameel, not far from where Bill usually sat in his taxi. Before I left the car, I took out my pillcase. It seemed like it had been a long time since I’d treated myself to some friendly drugs. I was well supplied, thanks to my higher income and the many new contacts I’d met through Papa. I selected a couple of blue triphets; I was in such a hurry that I swallowed them right there, without water. In a little while I’d be ramping with energy and feeling indomitable. I was going to need the help, because I had an ugly scene ahead of me.
I also thought about chipping in a moddy, but at the last moment I decided against it. I needed to talk with Chiri, and I had enough respect for her to show up in my own head. Afterward, though, things might be different. I might feel like going home as someone else entirely.
Chiri’s club was crowded that night. The air was still and warm inside, sweet with a dozen different perfumes, sour with sweat and spilled beer. The sex changes and pre-op debs chatted with the customers with false cheerfulness, and their laughter broke through the shrill music as they called for more champagne cocktails. Bright bolts of red and blue neon slashed down slantwise behind the bar, and brilliant points of light from spinning mirror balls sparkled on the walls and ceiling. In one corner there was a hologram of Honey Pilar, writhing alone upon a blond mink coat spread on the white sands of some romantic beach. It was an ad for her new sex moddy, Slow, Slow Burn. I stared at it for a moment, almost hypnotized.
“Audran,” came Chiriga’s hoarse voice. She didn’t sound happy to see me. “Mr. Boss.”
“Listen, Chiri,” I said. “Let me—”
“Lily,” she called to one of the changes, “get the new owner a drink. Gin and bingara with a hit of Rose’s.” She looked at me fiercely. “The tende is mine, Audran. Private stock. It doesn’t go with the club, and I’m taking it with me.”
She was making it hard for me. I could only imagine how she felt. “Wait a minute, Chiri. I had nothing to do with—”
“These are the keys. This one’s for the register. The money in there’s all yours. The girls are yours, the hassles are yours from now on too. You got any problems you can go to Papa with “em.” She snatched her bottle of tende from under the bar. “Kwa heri, motherfucker,” she snarled at me. Then she stormed out of the club.
Everything got real quiet then. Whatever song had been playing came to an end and nobody put on another one. A deb named Kandy was on stage, and she just stood there and stared at me like I might start slavering and shrieking at any moment. People got up from their stools near me and edged away. I looked into their faces and I saw hostility and contempt.
Friedlander Bey wanted to divorce me from all my connections to the Budayeen. Making me a cop had been a great start, but even so I still had a few loyal friends. Forcing Chiri to sell her club had been another brilliant stroke. Soon I’d be just as lonely and friendless as Papa himself, except I wouldn’t have the consolation of his wealth and power.
“Look,” I said, “this is all a mistake. I got to settle this with Chiri. Indihar, take charge, okay? I’ll be right back.”
Indihar just gave me a disdainful look. She didn’t say anything. I couldn’t stand to be in there another minute. I grabbed the keys Chiri’d dropped on the bar and I went outside. She wasn’t anywhere in sight on the Street. She might have gone straight home, but she’d probably gone to another club.
I went to the Fee Blanche, old man Gargotier’s cafe on Ninth Street. Saied, Mahmoud, Jacques, and I hung out there a lot. We liked to sit on the patio and play cards early in the evening. It was a good place to catch the action.