Human Conditioning (26 page)

Aiden Foster

(1969–2002)

HMP Maidstone

7
^th
December
2001

June 1989

“Gina, just lift your arse up a bit more...”

Gina’s arms were in agony. She
had been in the doggy-style position for over half an hour now. As she raised
her backside into the air, her triceps shook violently. She closed her eyes and
took a deep breath.
Where was Aiden?

Aiden was meant to have
arrived two hours ago to pick her up. Ashley was just taking the piss now. They
should have finished shooting hours ago. But she couldn’t say anything. If
Aiden found out she was giving Ashley shit again, he would give her a hiding,
and she needed cheerful Aiden tonight. She couldn’t bear irate Aiden again this
week.

“And a bit more, Gina...”

She complied once more and
shivered when she felt cold lube being applied to her anus. “Ashley, ain’t it a
bit late for this?” she asked, as politely as she could.

She didn’t receive a reply.
She felt Leon, her Caribbean co-star, drape his muscular body over her back and
a stabbing pain as his large member entered her at the rear.

“OK, roll the camera,” Ashley
instructed Paul, their new cameraman.

Gina took another deep breath
and instantly she was back in character. Panting loudly, she made all the
required noises of someone who was enjoying the pleasure of Leon’s buggery. She
batted her long fake eyelashes at the camera, licked her red lips seductively,
and bared her teeth as if she couldn’t bear the pleasure she was receiving.

When Aiden stepped into the
dark, spotlit room, he sparked up a cigarette and watched the scene before him
with a nonchalance that conveyed that he’d seen it all many times before. Gina
had made over sixty short films in the past couple of years. He was earning a
packet out of her, and he was seeing Gina right too. She had become a bit of a
star across the East End. The only problem was, there was a lot of competition
from bigger stars across the rest of the city, more importantly the West, and
though he and Ashley had had meetings with some of the top distributors across
the city, they had all expressed their interest in Gina doing some of the
‘harder’ style films. Apparently, she looked too hot for general porno. He’d
been told over and over that using her in such films was a waste of her talents
– there were enough girls at their disposal for those nowadays – and a lot
cheaper. Aiden was well aware of what they were asking of Gina, and even he
wondered if he’d be able to sleep at night if he forced her to do that sort of
shit. But it was frustrating to miss out on all that money.

Leon was on the verge of ejaculating, and Gina closed her
eyes and thanked the Lord that he and the film were nearly done. Leon let out a
groan, pulled out of her and came over her back. Gina cried out with false
pleasure and allowed Leon to collapse onto her. Finally, she was able to relax
her arms and she allowed herself to drop to the floor. Leon licked her face,
she responded with another false groan, and the scene was finished.

“Cut!” Ashley instructed.
“Good day today, all!”

“I’ll say...” Gina muttered to
herself.

Leon stood up and, holding out
a hand, he pulled her up from the floor. Paul ran onto the set and handed Leon
a handful of tissues. He took them and began wiping his juices off Gina’s back
then his own stomach. “Long day, eh?” he announced, conversationally, as he
casually got on with the task. Gina smiled and nodded. Leon wasn’t at all bad.
It wasn’t
his
fault that Ashley had made them work late again. He was
merely doing his job, just like her. They said their goodbyes and she slipped
on a dressing gown and approached Aiden. “Hi.”

“Alright?”

She nodded. “I need to get
showered. Can I come back to yours? Maybe we could have an early night?” she
added suggestively, running a long fake fingernail down the middle of his
chest. He was wearing a crisp white shirt and black tie, and she wondered where
he had been, but she didn’t dare ask. Aiden didn’t like her questioning him all
the time. He was frequently absent, away with Kamal and his brothers or trying
to sell the films. The car business was practically run by Alex nowadays and,
though he still worked closely with Reggie, the need to collect debts was at an
all-time low.

“I’m seeing someone later...”
he replied flatly.

She got the sense that he
wasn’t interested in seeing her. She wrapped her dressing gown around herself
and stormed from the room. Aiden sighed. He would have to sort Gina out a car.
He couldn’t keep coming to pick her up all the time, whatever he’d promised. He
had other business to attend to.

Since he’d been working with
the KKKs, he’d been all over the city, following people who owed Kamal money or
people Kamal needed to threaten in order to get what he wanted. Each and every
approach had eventually turned into a ruckus. Sometimes he was instructed to
just give someone a swift kicking; sometimes it was far worse. Murder was all
part of the job. Aiden didn’t think twice about cutting someone’s throat
nowadays. Long gone were the days when he had hesitated, and gone were the days
when he had been
scared
.

He loved it. He finally felt like he was ‘somebody’. Kamal
had given him the credentials he’d needed to move even further up the ranks. He
now associated with other Faces, and although he continued to keep himself to
himself as always, he sometimes socialised with them too, in London’s most
trendy bars and clubs.

With the intention to expand,
Aiden had convinced some of the local girls to do a little night work for him
as a side-line. It had been a natural progression from being involved in the
sex film industry. Ashley had mentioned about some girls looking for work. They
were nowhere near the beauty that Gina was, so they hadn’t made it onto the
screen, but Aiden had come up with another plan; yet another branch to his
money making tree.

The girls all had their own
flats in the area, and all with one or more kids, they worked the benefits
system a treat. With their own premises, it was a no-brainer to get them
accepting trade from the comfort and safety of their own homes. Being limited
to just five girls, he was no Mr Baker, and the business certainly wasn’t his
main earner, but he still pulled in a good few hundred a week so it was worth
the limited hassle.

His money-making tree was
certainly growing beyond his own expectations and still working for Reggie (who
was ignorant of a lot of what he got up to nowadays) was becoming more and more
of a burden. Kamal had been lenient regarding his continuing employment with
Reggie. Aiden was grateful to him. As Reggie’s direct competition, Kamal could
quite easily be a cunt about it. But local drug deals were a very small part of
Kamal’s business these days, a smaller part than Reggie understood it to be.

Working for both Reggie and
the KKKs had worked out alright, even if he was working his arse off. He was
like a father working four jobs, something his own father knew fuck-all about. Most
of what Aiden did, he did for Kamal. He had whole-heartedly embraced each and
every opportunity handed to him, and he was, for now, content with how life was
panning out. He had always envisaged himself having fingers in many lucrative
pies, and that was exactly what he had done. At just nineteen years old, he’d
achieved it far earlier than he’d ever imagined. It was astonishing, really. Sometimes
he had to pinch himself to check he wasn’t dreaming it all.

When Gina returned, she was
fully dressed and ready to go. She stormed out of the house. Aiden lit up a
cigarette and followed her out on a sigh.

Aiden buzzed Mr Baker’s front door and he was let up by
Jackie Mansfield. Jackie was standing at the front door to the apartment when
Aiden arrived at the top of the stairs. “Jackie...” He nodded.

He and Jackie had never seen
eye to eye. For a reason he didn’t care less about, she had never taken to him.

For the past eighteen months
Aiden had been supplying Mr Baker with drugs through Kamal, unbeknown to Reggie,
and Reggie had been livid when Mr Baker had confirmed that he no longer wanted
him to be his supplier. He had sent Aiden to talk him round, and that’s when Aiden
had made his move and arranged the current understanding.

Aiden had to admit: Kamal’s
gear was far better quality than Reggie’s. For clients as affluent as Mr Baker,
you couldn’t get away with anything but the best. Reggie’s gear nowadays was
good enough for those on the estates, but not for big earners, and that’s who
Mr Baker supplied to.

Jackie stepped aside and
allowed Aiden into the apartment. She watched him with contempt as he swaggered
into the lounge like he owned the place. Mr Baker was sitting on his couch,
leaning over some papers that were spread across his glass coffee table.

“Mr Baker, you asked for me,”
Aiden announced.

Mr Baker tore his eyes away
from the coffee table and relaxed back on the couch. “Aiden, sit down.” He gestured
to the armchair opposite, then asked, “Has Jackie offered you a drink?” eyeing
Jackie with a raise of the eyebrows, knowing full well that she despised Aiden
Foster. Jackie considered him arrogant and dangerous. He always responded with
‘Good, we need more dangerous’. Jackie pursed her lips and reluctantly left the
room to perform the task asked of her.

“So, what’s this all about?”
Aiden enquired with intrigue, placing a shiny Boss winkle-picker shoe over his
knee.

“See all this?” Mr Baker
gestured to his coffee table. “All of this is an account of where my money
comes in and where it goes...” Aiden frowned, confused as to what this had to
do with him, but he allowed Mr Baker to explain. “To cut a long story short,
Aiden, I need to make more money, and you have someone I know could make me – well
us –
a mint.”

“I guess you’re talking about
Gina...” Aiden stated rather than questioned.

“Of course. She’s been a big
hit in your movies, and she’d be a big hit working for me too.”

“I have prior commitments
where Gina’s concerned,” Aiden replied.

Mr Baker smiled. “I understand
Don is interested in selling Gina to the masses.”

Aiden shifted in his chair.
“What do you know of it?”

“Don is a very good friend of
mine.”

Aiden stood abruptly, licking
dry lips. “Had a word with him, did ya?” he retorted.

Mr Baker was not intimidated.
Aiden had always been a lairy little bastard. Eyeing him with confidence, he
explained, “You could earn a lot of money off of her, if you work her through
me, Aiden. As you know, I have a lot of very prestigious contacts who enjoy sex
as much as cocaine. They would pay an arm and a leg to spend a night with Gina
Watson. And I’m talking full nights. We could earn more from her in one night
than you’d make in a week of filming.”

Aiden glared at Mr Baker as he
processed what the man was telling him. So Mr Baker could influence any
decision he made in regards to the sex tapes... this was news to him. He slowly
sat back down. “She wouldn’t work for you without my backing,” he replied
gruffly.

Mr Baker smiled politely. “I
know that, Aiden. She’s very loyal to you. You must make her very happy.”

Aiden didn’t answer. He took a
box of cigarettes out of his pocket and lit one up in the same moment that Jackie
returned with a crystal tumbler half filled with whisky. She set it on the
table beside Aiden’s chair.

“An ashtray, please, Jackie,”
Mr Baker instructed further.

Jackie sighed irately, and
left the room once again. When she returned, she held the ashtray out to Aiden.
He took it from her with a smirk and she spun around to face Mr Baker.
“Anything else?” she asked curtly.

“No, thank you, Jackie,” he
replied, glaring at her now. She took in his fierce expression and skulked out
of the room.

“So, what sort of money are we
talking?” Aiden prompted.

Mr Baker peeled his eyes away
from the doorway through which Jackie had disappeared, and with regained composure
he replied, “Could be anything between £1500 and £3000 a night, depending on
the client.”

Aiden drew on his cigarette and
nodded. “Alright, but she still does the films...”

Mr Baker thought on this for a
moment then replied, “Whatever you say, Aiden. But I must have her at least
four times a week.”

Aiden left Mr Baker’s apartment
feeling apprehensive about what Gina would make of their new arrangement. He
would make her do it, there was no doubt about that, but he wasn’t looking
forward to arguing it out with her.

He jumped into a brand-spanking-new
black – previously red – BMW 3 series that he’d picked up from Lowe & Son
the previous day. He loved this car and was going against his own rules of
driving around in his own stolen goods because he’d wanted to take it for a
ride, but he had a buyer, and Ricky, who had finally passed his driving test,
was picking it up from a garage in Bethnal Green later that evening.

Half an hour later, he was
pulling up outside Kamal Kakar’s apartment in Limehouse. He was buzzed in and
the large glass door opened. Stepping into the foyer lift, he hit the button
for floor six and was elevated to Kamal’s apartment. The front door swung open
and it was Kyle that greeted him. They shook hands and Kyle ushered him inside,
closing the door behind him.

When Aiden stepped into the
lounge, he saw Kamal and three other men he did not recognise huddled around
the large coffee table in the centre of the room. As he approached them, Kamal
stood to his full height and greeted him with a warm smile and a handshake.