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Mzee Ajabu

Sometimes he couldn't understand why they had this problem. I mean he had built a giant corporation from the ground up but he still had to kiss ass, grease hands and play nice.

The problem about a large company was that it demanded too much working capital upfront. Clients never paid on time and well, rent needed to be paid, a broken window fixed, employees' salaries paid. All these things needed money and that's how Ajabu Digital found itself with liquidity issues.

Today was the day Mzee Ajabu would solve those issues. He stretched and pointed at his caddie. He handed him the pitching wedge. He stretched some more. He was in a white polo shirt, brown chinos and golf shoes. He took the pitching wedge and aimed for the ball. Then with a fine swing he hit the ball. It did not go very far. It rolled and tapered off into one of the bunker.

He loathed the game of golf, maybe even more than the kekeing and kissing ass. He remembered years ago when he had struggled to join the club. Now he was a part of the elite and he was quickly realizing that it was a different side of the same coin. Here they still stabbed you in the back, they still pulled the rag under your feet. They only difference is, they did it with an aged whisky on their hand.

He was cut from his train of thought by a tap on his shoulder. It was the chief executive officer of Kenya Independent Bank. The biggest bank in the country. Tom stood 6'1, black with thin rimmed glasses. This was the man who would solve all his cash flow problems.

He looked at him in his receding hairline, lean structure and stared through his clear glasses to his brown eyes. It felt like he was looking in the mirror. They were both men who knew what it took to get to the top. They were also men who knew the dance. There were no free lunches only giving and taking, the question was ever, who would be doing the giving and who the taking?

"Tom, even the grass looks greener now that you are here." Mzee Ajabu said, he had learnt along time to kiss the right buttocks.

"You flatter me, how is the wife and kids?"

"The missus is great, the kids too, except for Wairimu but she's been coming around of late."

"That one is a fireball my friend. If I was not so old we could have talked dowry." He laughed nervously. "But you know what they say, the apple does not fall far from the tree."

Mzee Ajabu coughed as if something was caught in his throat, it was disgust.

"Shall we?" he managed to mouth after clearing his larynx.

"Of course."

Mzee ajabu placed his golf ball and his caddie handed him the wedge. He took a powerful swing and missed almost taking to the ground. He steadied himself again and this time he hit the ball, it was the same as his first shot, it tapered off and fell into the pond. He looked at Tom. He was wearing a look of embarrassment.

"I'm getting rusty," he said to save face. "Tell me what I need to do to sort out my cash-flows?"

Tom steadied the ball and took a fine swing. It flew into the air and out of sight. There was a reason he had a handicap of Zero.

"My friend you know I'm a straight shooter and I also have a board of directors I have to report too. I pitched your idea. They feel you're swimming too deep into the ocean. You're in how many countries now? Kenya, Mauritius, Rwanda, Uganda, Botswana and...?"

"Ghana and Mozambique and soon to open in South Africa."

"Yes, they feel you're high risk. Your empire might come tumbling down any minute,"

"There is no other way you can go around it."

He steadied himself and moved his buttocks."

"You could go public."

Mzee Ajabu could not risk going public, not when he had seen too many founders and their families left in the cold by a mercenary board of directors and who was to say Tom wasn't looking to buy majority of the shares? They were all sharks here and he knew Tom could smell blood.

He knew he could not get through the man today unless he offered him shares, a board seat or her daughter.

"Come into my office at the Mirage and let's talk about this further," Mzee Ajabu said while calling to his caddie.

"I will open up a day next week," Tom stretched his hand.

Mzee Ajabu had broken into a sweat. Sports often left him exhausted. Especially the kind where he did not get what he wanted. He reached into his pocket, fished out his phone and called Diana. That had been a long day's work. He could do with a massage.