The Silent Courtesan

Kenzie, out of habit scanned the room and paused slightly longer as the knives from the two chefs glinted as they spun in the air. I held a chair for her and she sat at the counter.

"Are you ok?"

She looked at me, I was dividing her attention. In the end I won out and she nodded and smiled.

"I must admit that you're not like any woman I know, they would be ecstatic that they can not only go shopping but buy clothes."

The smile quickly went out of her leaving her lips tight and sealed. Once again she scanned the room, something she seemed to do out of habit.

"I am a Courtesan."

Kenzie said it like it explained everything. To keep the mood from hitting the floor and staying there we both pulled dishes from the conveyor belt in front of us. A woman appeared with Sake,

Kenzie followed what I did and picked up a cup so the woman could pour some in, yet her hold on the cup was the traditional way I had seen in Japan of holding it with one hand whilst supporting it with the other and as she did the sleeve of her blouse slid back to reveal her tattoo. The woman saw it instantly and gasped before taking a step back causing her tray to hit the floor with a loud crash.

The elder of the two chef's instantly stopped his knife routine and came to see what had happened, Kenzie lowered her arm and her sleeve slid back covering her tattoo. My understanding of Japanese was rudimentary but it got me around for the time I was there, the speed the chef and the woman talked meant I stood no chance in keeping up with them. They both seemed to have added some sort of dialect so I could just pick out a handful of words at best.

Once the woman had finished speaking she took a further step back and bowed to Kenzie. The chef looked again at Kenzie and I watched as he looked closer at her arm only to find her sleeve covering the tattoo. The woman then muttered one word that I thought sounded like 'now' that brought him out of his own thoughts and he bowed as low as the woman did. It was then I heard a knife hit the floor and the younger of the two chefs covered the distance between him and us in a blink of an eye.

Still feeling like a bystander to whatever was going on here it took Kenzie to stand as the young chef stood by the side of his friend a kitchen knife held tightly in his hand. Kenzie spoke fluent Japanese and seemed to match the dialect they were all using; the young chef went from anger to fear in a heartbeat. Dropped the knife and bowed just as the older chef and woman stood up.

Without even moving her head she reverted back to English and said. "We leave now."

The silence from all the people there as the strange scene unfolded between us caused what Kenzie said to sound more than just a request. Something in me knew we did have to leave and not try to figure this out here. Whatever was going on it felt like the only way to defuse it was to separate Kenzie from these people. Out of habit I dropped a tip on the table, the younger of the two chefs noticed as he stood from his bow causing him to say something in that cloaked Japanese of theirs.

The counter may have been between us and I figure the young man had mentally thought it a barrier between us and them, but the tone of Kenzie's reply not only made the woman gasp but had the hairs on the back of my neck pay attention.

"Please forgive my son," she begged. "He was born in this country. We have done so much in teaching him the ways but he is still western by birth."

Kenzie continued to talk to the family in the Japanese dialect, her eyes and tone telling me this whole conversation wasn't going to have a happy ending. I reached out and held onto her arm, her head spun around to look directly at me and for the first time in many years I once again believed in the term 'if looks could kill'.

I said the same words to her that she last spoke to me. "We leave now."

She nodded her head and made one last comment to the family which resulted in a look of relief from the mother as she nodded her head.

"I understand; he will be taught, thank you."

With my hand firmly around Kenzie's arm we did the walk of shame out of the restaurant, with all eyes watching and I suspect only four people in that shop knew just what the hell was going on.

*******

She knew I was pissed and did her level best to stay quiet and perhaps hoped that the journey home would mellow my mood. When the car came to a stop in the underground parking I let the engine idle for a moment before finally turning it off. The silence a welcome relief to what I thought lay ahead.

"What happened back there? And if you start this conversation with 'I am a Courtesan' then things are rapidly going to go down hill from then on."

My words seemed to give Kenzie pause for thought and if I figured right she had intended to do just that.

"Please may we go inside? I will explain, but it's difficult because I will have to spend a great deal of time on minor details so that you can see who and why I am as I am."

As I considered her words to me I looked at her, who and why she is? Now a comment like that would sure need explaining, so with a sigh and a nod of my head I agreed, grabbing her bags from the trunk we entered the elevator. It still took awhile when we got to the apartment, as I put her clothes in her room Kenzie walked over to the liquor cabinet and poured me a double taking a bottle of water out of the fridge on the way past.

Kenzie knelt on the floor in front of me and handed me my drink.

"I hang my head in shame, I embarrassed you and I regret that."

She then placed her water on the table and with her now free hand pulled up the sleeve of her blouse and that tattoo was once again on show. For such a small tattoo it held a very intricate and detailed design, a fierce looking dragon in red, orange and black. A different single letter on top, bottom and either side of the dragon made it both real pretty and deeply dark at the same time.

"As I explained many times I am a Courtesan. It was noticed early on in my life that I wasn't as pretty as those that walked our path, I believe the term is 'I am the runt of the litter' it was then decided that I would follow two paths. It is rare and Master Osowar only took one student at a time."

I never did finish my drink, I forgot I even had it in my hand since her opening statement. Hell if she was supposed to be this 'runt of the litter' I truly had to wonder what a true Courtesan looked like. Kenzie was methodical I will give her that. The tattoo was a right of passage of sorts; it was the standard of a clan long since past into history and only talked about via whispers in Japan, whose own history books had long since expunged all knowledge of the clan.

Now the truth was only told by old men and women who passed such information to a younger generation. The clan's battles would be embellished slightly as the verbal history was reported over the years and then came the edict from the Emperor who feared the growing power of the clan. The other clans turned on them; the slaughter was a dark day in Japan's history. Those that survived sought out the shadows and over time their talents became much sought after and a different respect grew from the ashes of the past.

*******

In nineteen-thirty Jacob Masterson and Ashimi his Japanese wife came to America, with the hold that the depression had on this country Jacob was able to buy an old army base from the government. The sale of the land went through quickly, after all Jacob Masterson had something no one else had, money. Throughout the years of the depression Jacob and his wife were patient, they recruited only the best to guard the place and used the most up to date technology of the time to help them.

Men and women were starving with little in the way of hope. Women were offered a place to stay, food and shelter until they chose to leave, but all things came at a price. A price that those with nothing and no hope were willing to pay. The guards had sex with the women, Jacob's wife ruled the camp with an iron will. Any man who abused any woman was killed, in return the children belonged to Jacob and if the women chose to leave they were given money, drugged and left in a city miles away from the camp.

Over the years the camp was forgotten about, eventually Jacob Masterson's influence in the area was so great that the camp even disappeared from every map after the war. As the depression intensified Jacob's long term strategy emerged. The younger women were trained as assassins, when a boy was born his destiny was to become a guard while those women who chose to stay came under the influence of Ashimi Masterson, while Jacob laid the foundation for the farms long term survival so did Ashimi.

She believed in quality not quantity. The cardinal rule was that once a breeder gave birth she was removed from the list for a year, she was still afforded the privileges of a breeder so no woman felt threatened to produce children. Medical checkups for all breeders were the best that Ashimi could find and as science became more advanced newer and more sophisticated equipment appeared in the medical center.

Ashimi Masterson's medical records on everyone at the farm were so exact that she could mate one certain guard with one specific breeder to produce the child both Jacob and Ashimi wished for a task in the future, and everything was about the future with the Masterson's. It was rare but a breeder had been known to be withdrawn from the breeder program for over two or three years so that she was ready when the time was right.

Yes, Jacob Masterson left the breeder program in his wife's capable hands. When they were of an age that they could no longer bare healthy children, all breeder women were given a choice, money and leave never to return, or take up duties of looking after the next generation of breeding women. Most chose to stay, some even married guards and soon Jacob's wife Ashimi set the rate the women should have children. The best of the guards taught the women everything they knew, hand to hand combat, weapons and outdoor skills.

One guard thought he was above the rest and raped one of the girls. He never felt the knife pierce his heart as he slept that night. Jacob knew the powder keg he was sitting on, the women demanded justice. Retribution was swift, ten of the guard's friends lay dead the next morning and a lesson was learned. From that day on the guards looked out towards the fencing and the women learned the skills given to them.

By the late sixties Jacob Masterson added a new aspect to the training regime of the Courtesans. A Japanese husband and wife came, they lived in one of the more remote buildings and the Japanese art of killing was added to the lessons given to the women. But only one student, picked by the Japanese man, would receive a more intense training. Those that survived became the most capable of Courtesans, a killing machine far superior to others produced at the farm, and a hefty price was paid to obtain such a woman.

The farm's reputation slowly and silently grew within the confines of the corridors of power and whispers. A woman trained in the art of sex, trained to be fiercely loyal to the man who has enough wealth to buy one. Such a woman, who when told would kill anyone in her masters path and yet return to her master and put those skills aside so she could concentrate on the art of sex.

The men of power saw the advantages of such a woman and over the course of time the myth behind the Courtesans grew, a mistress who asked for nothing but to be the right hand and protector of her master. Jacob Masterson's long term strategy slowly came to pass because the men of power never realized that their Courtesans served two masters.

As these women were accepted and trusted more by the people of power they carefully fed back information to the farm. Advance notice on share deals, political views on current events, and long term growth deals between governments throughout the world, all got fed back to the farm. Jacob Masterson slowly and carefully acted on it all. Not once did he or the farm ever come under the notice of any agency, his Courtesans saw to that.

Over the years the farm simply ceased to exist to anyone, even when satellites began to orbit the world and the government mapped the whole of the country the farm simply didn't exist because Jacob Masterson had long ago placed a Courtesan with a rising General and now Pentagon official. All the satellites now had an orbit that missed the grounds of the farm by inches. Yet that same General loudly bragged to his fellow officers that he could see a fart from a cricket in any part of the country from a satellite.

The Courtesan standing slightly behind him smiled as well but for a different reason. Ashimi Masterson took her role just as seriously, it was left to her to vet any man wanting a Courtesan and only when he himself passed stringent investigation was he approached as to the reason why he wanted one. When the country headed for a recession she would ease back on the girls training and birth program.

As the economy picked up then so would the program, the health of every woman be they breeders, Courtesans or even wives of the security men all fell on her and she made sure every care was taken of all of them. The Courtesans knew that when they left the farm those they left behind would always be safe. But the one shining jewel in the farms crown was that one Courtesan taught by Shingi Osowar every five years. When word came down amongst the powerful men in the corridors of whispers that the fifth year was upon them the bidding war was at its fiercest.

The Silent Courtesan was greatly respected, more so by her own kind and always saved for that one man who had the most to gain from owning her. Jacob Masterson personally dealt with this auction, because unknown to the powerful men the auction was rigged as always in Jacob Masterson's favor.

Some scoffed at the myth of the Silent Courtesan, yet the smarter of those powerful men sat back and bided their time, for those who owned one of the farms Courtesans knew what they could do and when they questioned them about the silent Courtesan the room fell quiet. Those same men watched as those who knew the art of killing would cast their eyes around the room before denying such a thing existed, and so the enigma grew.

February 1971 Tony Abingdon was found dead in his penthouse suite. His own personal guards saw and heard nothing.

March 1974 Catherine Montgomery was the only witness willing to go in front of a grand jury in the case against Pacific Industries corruption and bribery of certain individuals within a third world country for the right to drill for oil. Found dead in her bedroom guarded by two female Marshals actually in her bedroom and another twelve throughout the safe house. No one saw or heard anything.

October 1983 Joseph Richards was found dead on his private Yacht the morning before he was due to meet with Senator Wilson regarding an immunity deal. In return for which he had agreed to hand over proof that three members of the New York stock exchange were guilty of insider trading. Mr. Richard's security detail, all ex-special forces saw and heard nothing.

Those men of power in the corridors of whispers would look towards their own Courtesan's, who in turn would only shrug their shoulders. The one topic that such men wanted so much detail about and their own Courtesans would stand silent. Once again the legend of the silent Courtesans would grow.

*******

To say I was frozen to my seat may have been a slight exaggeration, but not much of one. As Kenzie's story came to an end I found her hands tightly holding mine, her sleeve had once again rolled down her arm revealing that tattoo again.

"I assume the family at the sushi bar knows what you are then?"

She nodded her head, "My clan are dealers in death, the art of death. We are the invisible clan. The woman's family came from the part of Japan where the final battle and the near extinction of my clan took place."

Her arm twisted slightly and the light caught the tattoo showing it in all its glory.

"This is our banner, with the decimation of our clan the Emperor demanded the banner burned at the end of the battle, those few that survived hid the banner and in so doing denied the Emperor his wish."

By now every detail of that tattoo was burned into my memory. I suppose the only question I had left was the one I should have asked in the first place.

"Why me Kenzie?"

She seemed to fidget for a moment and our eye contact broke for the first time, she seemed to take a deep breath and hold it for a moment, what I saw in her eyes when she was brave enough to look at me chilled me.

"I am the last of the Silent Courtesan's. Our clan truly does believe in debt as well as honor, but Jacob and Ashimi Masterson twisted that to their own ends. We owed Jacob Masterson a debt, in June of nineteen sixty-seven Jacob returned to Japan and demanded the debt be paid. His demand ripped into the core of our clan he wanted only the best of us to return with him, even his wife was to leave their homeland and join him here."

It had taken this long for Shingi Osowar to find the exact location of the farm such was the distrust of Jacob Masterson. It was left to Kenzie to make her escape before she was delivered to her new master and inform the clan of its location.

*******

We talked throughout the night, over this topic. I even asked why she didn't get out of the car and run. It seems her guard had little trust in any of the girls he transported, even less with her. What I couldn't see from my angle into their car was that she was chained to the back seat and the driver kept the key in the glove box so that if he was ever over powered by one of the girls she was still chained to the car and out of reach of the key.

It seems the driver took his job real serious that was for sure.

"So why are you still here?"

Her face took on a strange look before she answered.

"Debt. You saved me and I am in your debt."

At first I ignored her comment, which turned out to be a BIG mistake. Pointing to the phone I then added, "Ok then phone your people and tell them were to find this farm. Your dept is paid then isn't it?"

Kenzie's face took on an almost mother like look when she had to explain something real simple to a child. It also seems my eighteen months in Japan didn't allow me to truly grasp the meaning of debt and honor that's instilled within the core of their culture and seemed to ooze from every pour of this woman who sat across from me.

"Please, just understand that I will know when that time has come," she paused to look directly at me. "We both will. The farm has existed for many years, my clan is patient, as

am I."

The silence that followed her brief statement was me waiting for her to finish, it took me an age to realize that in her mind she actually had. Feeling that it may be best to come at all this from another angle I suggested we make dinner, Kenzie helped and an hour later we sat at the table eating while I still tried to figure out that angle. In my haste to move the conversation along I asked perhaps the most stupid of all questions, well to her anyway.

"So what's next?"

Kenzie put her fork down and waited me out, when I figured she wanted my undivided attention I did the same.

"With your permission I will live here with you, I am a courtesan. I truly do know the art of keeping you happy and healthy."

I'm so glad she waited for me to stop eating so I didn't choke when she said that.

"Now wait a minute." Even as I spoke she stood.

In what looked like a well rehearsed manner. She undid her clothes and all I could do was watch as they started to pool around her feet. It was the hands on hips gesture that still threw me.