The Naked Man — Chapter 17

Katerina bolted off the subway, taking the stairs two at a time. She passed a row of bars and tattoo parlors that serviced the area’s hipsters and college kids. Steps led down to basements with signs advertising Jägerbombs, Jell-O shots, and music groups that would play and die there, never seeing anything near the big time.

Kat spotted Lisa near the eatery looking like a supermodel as she leaned into the open window of a limousine. Kat couldn’t see the person in the limo. Lisa said a few words, then nodded her head. She wore a black sheath dress gathered at the waist. It hugged every curve of her body, outlining her perfectly proportioned figure.

The darkened electric window rose and closed. As Katerina approached, Lisa stepped back from the limo and straightened. The limo eased away from the curb and pulled into traffic.

“Are you ready for your complimentary coaching session?” Lisa asked.

“I only have one or two questions,” Kat said.

“That’s fine. There isn’t much I can tell you anyway.”

•••

Katerina observed her lunch partner with a mixture of admiration and jealousy. Lisa owned everything she did, every movement lithe and fluid, with a class and grace most women only hope to possess. Her hair fell shiny and straight to her shoulders, her complexion one smooth, luminous tone. She never hurried; every move flowed into another with unrehearsed ease.

“You’re in law school?” Kat asked, flushing slightly. She had been staring.

“Second year.”

“Does that help with the job?”

Lisa smiled but didn’t appear pleased. “Not at all. I hope you’re not planning to break the rules and discuss the particulars of your assignments.”

The server appeared, balancing plates of food. Kat followed Lisa’s lead, sitting mute until he left.

Kat, who had been thinking of doing just that, shook her head.

“Good. Don’t do that with anyone. It would be a great mistake.”

“I don’t understand. My contacts know details. Not everything. But I’m sure they can put the pieces together.”

“If your contact knows, then he or she was involved. They have no reason to speak up.”

“So you’re saying there is honor among thieves — not that I’m referring to theft.” Kat felt a spike of heat rocket to her face.

Lisa gave the slightest of smiles. “Absolutely not. What I’m saying is that everyone has been paid, in one form or another. Your contact wants you to call again so they can be paid again, in one form or another. Sharing is bad for their business just as much as yours. Most of them aren’t even using their real names.”

“Is Lisa your real name?”

“Maybe,” she said with a slight smile. “Next question.”

Katerina tried to process these new facts that she had never even considered. She began to realize that this well ran deeper than she could imagine. “Why did you choose me?”

“Because you thought fast, and you were quick on your feet. In this line of work those are valuable commodities.” Lisa paused for a moment. “You can still get out if you want to.”

Kat gazed at her salad; her appetite had fled. “Is this part of the complimentary coaching session? Giving me another chance to get out?”

Lisa shrugged.

“Or are you doing another evaluation and reporting back to MJM, whoever she is.”

“I’ve never seen MJM, whoever he or she is.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

Lisa met Kat’s gaze. “Yes.”

They sat in silence for a moment.

“Why only male clients?” Kat asked.

Lisa’s eyebrows lifted and then furrowed as if surprised by such a foolish query. She raised a finger as she ticked off each point. “Because men have the perfect trio of traits that make them the ideal client: they enjoy behaving badly, they enjoy confessing their bad behavior, and they always want a Mommy substitute to clean up the mess and make it all better.”

Shades of Philip, Kat thought. For all his bloated bragging, he wasn’t wrong. The client always wants to confess.

“I’m a little — concerned about how to find — contacts.”

Lisa nodded. “The common mistake a newbie makes is thinking a contact is only good for the one thing you called them for. Use your present contact to find new contacts. Trust me, your connection knows a lot more than he or she is telling you.”

“So my cut really isn’t my cut. I’ll always be paying out to a third party.”

Lisa shook her head and leaned in. “Remember, I said paid in one form or another. Katerina, this game is all about pride and ego. Your contact gets off by being the one out of five people on this planet who can deliver what’s needed at a moment’s notice. Test the fences. See what can be begged, borrowed, or bartered. And if all else fails, don’t underestimate the chance of someone being willing to help a damsel in distress.”

The lunch crowd was thinning. Lisa checked her phone, a sign that she was finished. I’m on my own, Kat thought. But there was one more question she had to ask.

“Don’t you ever — you know — worry?”

Lisa didn’t bat an eye. “You’re being paid large sums of money. You’d be a fool if you didn’t.”

“You don’t look worried.”

“Learn to control it or get out. You have other choices. You can get married and get on the mommy track, drive a computer keyboard for some middle management asshole, or go home. You won’t be disappointing me. I don’t care.”

Kat nodded. They rose from the table.

Lisa shrugged her purse onto her shoulder. “I think you want to be a success. I think you want the power that a successful life brings. I think you’re drawn to it and I think you’re out of options that will get you there and that’s why you’re still here.”

A tinder of fear rumbled in Kat’s belly; she had a vision of a moth, fluttering closer and closer to the flame. The genteel life of summer concerts at the farm and the old fashioned country store with the penny candy belonged to her previous life, even if she had never felt like she belonged there.

“Anything else?” Lisa asked.

“Yes. I have to prove myself to you before I get more than this line of company bullshit, don’t I?”

Lisa’s face relaxed and her smile, for the first time, was genuine. “I knew I was right when I picked you. Stay alert, Rapunzel, and you’ll be okay. Remember, it beats lying on your back for a living.”

Lisa laid down a fifty-dollar bill on top of the check and walked out; she didn’t look back.

When Katerina exited the restaurant, she scanned left and right but Lisa had vanished. A small truck, the name “Exquisite Exports Shipping and Storage” on its side, tooled down the street. Kat watched the truck for a moment and walked in the opposite direction.