Fashionsita - Chapter 7

Rachel had just finished with her lipstick when he knocked on the door.  A graceful exit from the vanity and several steps to practice her walk got her to the door which she opened to a small intake of air from David as he looked at her. 

‘You’ve seen me with much less on than this,’ she demurred.

‘It took a second or two but he finally agreed and stepped inside following her as she led him in.

They fell on the bed together, not in an awkward way, but perfectly in time with each other, their bodies folding and bending in unison giving each a soft fall with Rachel ending up on top.  She smiled at him before tucking her head down and seizing the waistband of his shorts in her teeth and pulling them over his already swelling stem.

‘That’s far enough , I can work them off your body from here,’ she sexily said as the tip of her tongue touched his root sending shivers through him, the feedback beating a steady rhythm  on her tongue. 

Rachel languidly climbed back up his body, her softness paradoxically increasing his hardness, he was at full attention when she slipped over top of him and secured his head.

‘These last few days with you have been great, but you’ve come to learn about the true me and that can be dangerous even deadly for either of us, and I can’t allow that to happen,’ she said softly looking into his eyes her lips mere centimeter s from his, her breath hot and passionate.

‘You know I would never tell anyone,’ he said.

‘I know, but there’s always a chance,’ she responded as her hips pushed down around his cone.

David went to say something, but Rachel stymied it with a simple touch of her finger to his lips.

‘Not to worry, I have just the remedy,’ she said softly as her lips closed about his and she fully engulfed his shaft his body shuddering against hers. 

*             *             * 

The phone buzzed on her desk, turning sideways as she reached for it.  ‘I think I have an answer,’ was all it said.  It was from Elsa.  Claire smiled. 

*             *             *       
       

‘You know everyone is looking at you thinking, Sugar Daddy,’ Benjamin Steinmetz said with a laugh and that twinkle, ever present in his eye.

‘If that is so, let them look, I could never do better,’ Claire Baxter answered as she squeezed his arm she was holding then watched him as he took his chair.

‘Am I really that old and unsteady that you have to watch me get into a chair?  I’m only 91 and still very spritely at that,’ he both questioned and stated.

‘That you are,’ she answered and took her seat beside him.

At present a waiter approached and took their orders, Claire had her usual, a Gin and Tonic, from Bombay Sapphire, that she always had, Ben had Bourbon on the rocks. 

‘Very nice place and of course the company, ‘Ben said.  ‘I don’t see enough of you, however I feel that if this works that will change.  I must say this is an interesting change in strategy or more accurately an addition to it.  I never thought I’d live to see the day that Claire Baxter, the daughter I never had, would open a second front.’

Claire leaned over and kissed his cheek and gave him a hug, just in time as they approached.  She got up and greeted Rachel with a kiss on the cheek and hug.

‘I’m so proud of you, welcome back agent,’ she said with pride to Rachel.

Rachel wore a stunning two piece formal print dress cut just below the knee.  The two piece outfit showed just enough of her toned mid rift to be enticing to all eyes that fell upon it.   Her hair tied in

bun gave an even more fetching look to her as it seem to elevate her height up a little and even more so accentuated her classic beauty and toned physique.  She carried a small shoulder purse.  Her long legs slipped into a pair of open 3 inch heels.  She looked nothing like the former Rachel.

‘This is the agent I always knew was in there!’ Claire said to herself and her smile conveyed that to Rachel.

‘David this is Claire Baxter and Mr. Benjamin Steinmetz,’ Rachel said as David shook both hands and held a chair for Rachel before taking one himself. 

‘I know Mr. Steinmetz by reputation of course.  It’s a pleasure to meet you sir, you’re something of a legend on Wall St.’ David said like he was meeting a sports hero from his youth.

‘I’ve heard those stories, all second hand telling of course, but flatter me, it’s been a while since I last heard my own biography, update me if you will. 

David looked him in the eye, saw the twinkle, smiled back and began.  ‘How I heard it was you were just out of Columbia, working as a newly minted broker, like all brokers do you were trying to build a client base then you hit upon something, you were the first to use demographics to invest strategically, looking at big data if you will to plan when and where to invest, using the force of the post war boom population to maximum effect.  The result was unparalleled decades of success that still continues even to this day.  I was told by everyone I met who knew anything about the business that your company was the place to work, not the biggest, but just an exceptional place to work, but they always said getting in was next to impossible, it was like some kind of club, you had to be asked to join by another member, always added to the air of mystery,’ David explained.

‘You see and you said that PR firm was a waste of money,’ Benjamin laughed as he touched Claire’s hand and she took hold of it and held on.

‘You hear the same story all the time, you just like having your ego flattered,’ she answered.

‘And why not, at 91 you take or make the glory when and where you can,’ he answered then turned to David and his eyes became dark and serious as he leaned forward.  ‘It makes a good story and yes I like hearing my laurels bandied about, but Mr. Jacobs the truth of the matter is even better, would you like to hear it?’

At just that moment a waiter appeared to take the two arrivals order.  David was grateful for the pause as it allowed him to order his thoughts.  So much had happened; he was still digesting it all. 

‘Just one more thing I need to say, am sure Rachel has told you this but I need to say it.  If you accept, that’s it, you’re in for life, not going back, no walking away,’ Claire stated, her look firm.

‘You make it sound like Escape from New York, once you go in you don’t come out.  You’re scaring the young man.  It’s nothing like that, sure what she said is true, but if it’s a life sentence, well I have no complaints,’ Benjamin added with a wave of his hand.

‘Thank you, Rachel explained it to me but it’s good to hear re-iteration,’ David said then paused.

‘After I got over the shock and to be truthful disbelief of what she was telling me about herself and her secret life she said perhaps there was a place for me within your organization.  What she didn’t tell me was what you wanted me for and what I would be doing.  I realize you might not be able to tell me without spilling the beans, so to speak, but if I’m going to commit, I need to know what I’m committing to.  Maybe I won’t like it, or don’t want to do.  And added to that what happens if you can’t tell me or I say no?  She didn’t say there’d be more cloak and dagger.’

Claire and Ben both smiled a little at this before the spy answered.  ‘In this business there’s always more, you come to expect that.  But if you say yes, there are no more secrets, your family, this is how I run my organization,’ Claire said looking at him with trust and truth.  ‘But to be fair, I can’t expect that from you if I’m not prepared to reciprocate, so this is what we want from you.  First a little background, FORCE was formed by me as a response to what I perceived as lack of will by the organization I left and created FORCE, recruited agents that shared the same methodology and determination that I did.  Primary we were engaged against an enemy called DOOM however all that changed in a flash when they were destroyed by a combination of The Silkworms, The Poison Geisha and The Strippers Guild to form a new organization called Trident, they have since added new agents and in the chaos of that I seized the opportunity and saved as many former DOOM agents as I could and brought them into FORCE.’

‘Ah Claire I think..’ Rachel said looking from her to David.

She looked at David, his eyes glazed and his mouth slightly open, she knew she’d gone too far too fast with him.  Slow and carefully she backed upped to the beginning, her start with COIL and explained all, then moved on to explain what DOOM, COIL and all the others meant, their anachronisms, how they operated, their tactics, etc.  She watched David carefully for signs, stopped or slowed when she saw him waiver and answered all his questions, of which he had many, usually followed by more astonished facial expressions.  When she had finished he was up to date, they ordered lunch and then after Claire brought up the present situation and why she wanted him.

‘GIGOLO, yes I know, a silly name, but I suppose not any more silly than any of the others, but intention is far removed from their name.  They killed an agent of mine I almost got another killed foolishly chasing an obvious set up, this is where you come in.  This group works for money only, they take their orders from someone, we need to find out who that organisation is.  The reason I say this is because of the nature of what GIGOLO does. They compromise the target, threaten to blackmail or expose them then trade that off for information and insider influence to their superiors who for them it’s a simply fast and cheap way to get information, a third party contract if you will.  The knowledge and powerbase gained is more than offset by the cash outlay, it also shields their agents from potential harm while masking their operations inside another’s.  But, the money has to originate somewhere and then get laundered, that is where you come in on one part, but also on another.  They’re getting Intel, but is it random or targeted, specific end goal or a wide net, that is what we need to know, so we can counteract it and stop the advance.  If you can find that information out, devise a plan and implement it, then we can really do some damage to them, force them into costly mistakes and strategic changes and if we’re, you’re very good have them eat their own, if you follow,’ Claire said.

David nodded that he did.

‘Excellent!  This latest incident, money was transferred to an Argentinian private equity firm, Julieta Strasser owns and runs it, very dubious clientele, family has Nazi past, she herself is a piece of work, but that last part is for me to deal with.  What we need from you is to dig into the firm, find out who’s its clientele are, what she puts their money into, where and how she transfers it and of course where it goes.  I also want you to develop, based on what you find, a methodical way to destroying the investments of her clients.  I get the feeling that these are not people who take losing very gracefully and if played right we can turn her to our advantage.  The second part of this is finding where that money is coming from, but I’m more concerned about the information they are getting. What are they using it for, expansion plans, creating chaos in a country so they can move it, etc, which includes all the things I can’t think of, but you can.’

There was a really long pause as David tried to absorb all he’d been told, he could wrap his head around what they wanted, it was just what they were that he was having a hard time coming to terms with. This whole world of James bond meets Matt Hem meets Derrick Fling and every other crazy spy film you ever saw or book you ever read and then multiply that by exponential factors.

‘From what I hear and have been told through various inquires I’ve made young man is you’re supposed to be some kind of genius, so let’s see some evidence of that or we’re wasting our time here, because if you can’t handle this you haven’t got the hutzpah for what’s to come,’ Benjamin said looking at him then his watch. 

 This isn’t just about me, I can’t possibly do this by myself, this will require a staff and more importantly, most importantly,’ he corrected himself. ‘Access to a very fast mainframe that’s running complex analytic programs from a massive and constantly scalable database, I know something of your business Mr. Steinmetz and I think I can safely say you do not have such a computer or network of them, no offense.  Without that kind of computing power any analysis would be useless, Big Data does have its drawbacks, its costly.’  So I suppose my question is and forgive me, the both of you, but where are you getting the resources for this cost centre?  Your company is not big enough for that type of operation, in terms of hiding those internal cost sir and Miss Baxter, again apologies, but I’ve never heard of you in the investment circles and your far too young and beautiful to go unnoticed.’

‘You see now we’re getting somewhere!  The practical mind, don’t commit to a project until you know the resources are there.  Now David, let me ask you another question, yes the Socratic Method and I know I didn’t answer yours yet but I promise I will.  Your last sentence about Claire, what does that say?’ Ben asked.

David looked at Claire and Ben whose faces he could not read as he analyzed and ordered his thoughts.

‘That the money comes from others sources and she is just the face of her organization, saying what they want, or somehow it is as she says her money and it has been so well hidden in the financial systems of the world that it’s impossible to untangle. But even if that were possible, how could someone so young have so much money, just from a mathematical model its impossible, even under the best possible model of zero error.  There are other explanations but they have statistical values of almost zero as outcomes, but if I discount the first two then I have to consider the third as the only viable result and therefore the one pursing no matter how close to zero the chance is,’ David explained.

‘What would you say if I told you you’re sitting across from the richest woman in the world,’ Ben said and sat back.

‘Christy Walton is the richest woman in the world,’ he answered.

‘Not even close.  But before I go on, I did promise to answer your questions.  Claire owns, or more accurately, one of her many companies, owns a Cielo mainframe, off spring of the Roadrunner, do you think that would meet your needs for computational power and processing speed?  Now for the money and how she got it,’ Ben smiled as he turned to Claire.

The spy launched into the File ‘The Boundaries of Time’ giving every detail and then letting Ben explain the monetary operations of how she acquired her wealth.

David never touched his food, he said nothing just pushed back his chair and moved off in the direction of the beach.  Rachel motioned to go after him but Ben put his hand up and went in her stead, nimbly catching up to him, belying his age. 

‘He’s good looking, nice catch,’ Claire said.  ‘And he’s very bright, double bonus.’

‘I like him,’ Rachel said happily.

‘He does know about?’ Claire began.

‘I told him all about what could happen on missions, every aspect, including me being killed.  Of course this was before all this came up and we just could have ended up a vacation romance fling and occasional friends with benefits.  Now, well things and feelings could be different, not from my perspective, but its two that make it work,’ Rachel said.

‘You’ll know one way or another soon.  I have another mission for you,’ the spy said.

Rachel was thrilled about that but maintained outward calm.  They passed the time in idle talk; Claire seemed unconcerned about the two men on the beach walking back and forth, Rachel cast glances their way every few minutes.

‘They won’t come back until its all resolved one way or another,” Claire stated, catching Rachel looking for the umpteenth time.

‘What do you think?’ Rachel asked.

‘Tall order, we’re asking someone who believes, trust, puts all their faith and lives for facts to make a leap of faith and embrace the abstract that can throw people.  But on the other hand, he was inquisitive enough to hang around and meet us, shows he’s not all data, of course it could be just you, he’s crazy about you, anyone can see that, even if he tries to hide it, but I don’t want that to be the reason he takes the job and I intend to make that clear before he answers. Eat some salad, it’s fantastic,’ Claire said motioning with her fork to eat.

Rachel had just resolved to do just that, the fork halfway to her mouth when the two men were back. 

‘Sorry several more things before you say yes, one you’ve heard already and the other, well that should not be a surprise, because knowing  my man here as I do,’ Claire said slipping her hand into Benjamin’s. ‘He already told you.  I know Rachel told you about the possible consequences of her line of work, I just want to make sure you understand that fully and all the consequences that can involve, including, well it may not work out between you two, who knows.  Second, while I give you free hand to do what you think is best with my money, in terms of buying, selling and moving it about and I can tolerate losses more than most, I do expect my investments to make money for me at some point.  If we have to buy things to deny the opposition a foothold in an industry or to strategically position ourselves in such matters I understand that, but you have to be able justify it and it has to show results on either side of the ledger, if you understand that?’

‘Of course, the financial side and the covert side. I need to grow the business on both,’ he said.

‘Excellent.  You are in charge, hire the people you need, we vet them, but you direct them.  Ben and his family are there to help and guide you.  Finally and this was said before but I want it said again, you accept, you and anyone you hire, and they’ll get the same introduction and rules as you and are I having right now, you’re in for life.  There is no leaving because you want to do something else, we can’t risk that.  Maybe that’s harsh, but so is the game we play.  Now having said all that, welcome aboard David Jacobs VP Strategic Development and Asset Allocation,” Claire said reaching out her hand.

‘I didn’t say yes yet,’ he smiled.

Then say it, my salad is getting limp,’ she smiled back

‘Yes,’

‘Good to see you haven’t lost the sales touch,’ Claire said as she kissed Ben on the cheek.

‘See I had to come all the way here to get that, but it’s worth it,’ Ben laughed.