The air conditioner rattled and hummed in the tropical air, but inside the office at the top of the iron staircase it felt as if it was doing nothing but stirring the humidity around. If there was any coolness, it came more from the big ceiling fan that whirled and clacked in the centre of the ceiling.
Luca sat back in his office chair under the fan and smiled as he wiped sweat from his forehead and his muscular, almost hairless chest with a hand towel. He was wearing only a pair of loose, lightweight cotton shorts. The longer he stayed in Africa the less he wore. Now, after five months of running his employer, Oscar Riddleman's, tobacco-processing factory in Cameroon, he would have to go completely naked if he wanted to wear less. And at home he did, but this was work.
Towel in hand Luca got up and looked out of the side window, seeing below him the busy floor of the open-sided factory shed where the young men and women were working rolling cigars. From above most of them looked as if they were barely more than children. And seated as they were in rows at long benches, bent over their work, with their fingers flying over the tobacco leaves they were wrapping, they might have been students studying hard. So much for the rolling of cigars against the sweaty thighs of muscular young black men, he thought, remembering his first meeting with Riddleman with a smile.
As soon as they met, Luca had a good idea that his potential employer, Oscar Riddleman, was interested in more than his knowledge of tobacco processing and cigar manufacture, even though that was extensive, or his management skills.
Sure Luca knew cigars like few other men did, and his were very unusual management skills, but still there was something in Riddleman's eyes that said even more was wanted. Well, Luca had no objection to that. Riddleman was a powerful and well-built man who liked control and wealth, and giving men like him what they wanted had never hurt Luca. In fact, it had helped him to climb from being a lazy, good-looking student in high school to being quite a wealthy man in his own right. If it had seen him escaping over back roads in the dead of night from several small South American countries, well, such was life. It had got him here, and with this new job he might end up doing for Riddleman, in Africa, he would become even richer.
"So you don't object to something that is downright illegal then," Riddleman asked twirling a cigar between his fingers as he stood leaning on the mantle of the marble fireplace in the ground floor drawing room of his home.
"Shall we say, I'm versatile?" Luca replied giving Riddleman a bedroom smile.
Legal was a word that didn't really mean much to Luca who did whatever seemed like a good way to make money and get him what he wanted from life. But he had always been fascinated by tobacco and cigars, and he had some good experience in the associated business of cigarette-tobacco selection and grading.
"Do you think you can handle the machinery? This is Africa. The locals in the factory wont have a clue, and there's no service guy waiting up the road on the end of the phone to help you."
"I will manage," Luca replied dropping the bedroom look. He had taken a few bad steps in his time and had learnt to be resourceful. He did whatever it took to survive and prosper. "In Panama I kept the cigar machines going for six months during the trouble. I can be very resourceful Oscar. I have worked in many places that are not peaceful and quiet like this Virginia of yours, and where the workers hardly know what electricity is, let alone machinery."
"That's why you are here Luca," Riddleman said looking at him and moving over to sit in the chair opposite the one Luca was sprawled back in. "I have asked around," he added.
Luca wondered who he had been talking to, but decided thinking about it was pointless. "What I can do is useless if your contacts are not good," he responded instead, annoyed to be the only one having to prove anything. "This money you say we will make, is going to depend on you having good contacts, and the police and customs being taken care of."
"Don't trouble yourself Luca, that side is dealt with. I can sell whatever my factory can make with you running it," Riddleman said firmly
Now Riddleman was sitting opposite Luca, leaning back in his overstuffed leather chair with his legs spread wide, and he asked him, "So you think you can give me whatever I want?" while twisting a fresh cigar between his lips to wet the end of it.
"I know I can," Luca had replied, smiling, and then he was kneeling between Riddleman's spread thighs and reaching for his zip.
"Not so fast boy," Riddelman said, pushing Luca back, "Not so fast. This business may not be completely legal, but I still want high-quality products. Good cigars and a high quality cigarette that 80 percent of our customers won't be able to pick from the real thing. And the rest won't be sure about. I want to be in this business for a while Luca, not ten minutes."
"Of course. We both want that," Luca replied, suddenly uncertain of what was expected of him.
"Whatever else I want from you, first of all I want to know that you really do know how to produce a decent cigar. And to produce a decent cigar you need to know a decent cigar when you pick it up and sniff it," Riddleman said, leaning forward and holding the cigar he had been sucking on under Lucas nose and rolling it between his thumb and forefinger, making it crackle.
Luca sniffed at it, annoyed, "It smells genuine to me," he said, "Not the absolute best, but real Cuban. Hand rolled. You can see that."
Instead of settling back into his overstuffed club chair to smoke his cigar, Riddleman stood up, almost between Luca's thighs, and said, "That was easy. Now I think we will take a little walk."
Luca joined him as he strode a short distance down the wood-paneled hallway of Mystrelle, the historic Virginian plantation house that Riddlman had recently acquired and was now living in. Part way along he opened one of the heavy paneled doors and held it wide for Luca to pass him, then followed him inside and closed it. The room was dry and cool and dark-dimly lit and lined with dark timber. Riddleman opened a panel, and Luca realised that around the walls were dozens of small paneled cupboard doors. But they were not ordinary cupboards; each one was a small humidor, and inside each humidor rested several cigars.