chapter 12c 

(The Fake Bills) 

Moïse Berri 

and the Reconstruction of the Haitian 

Space Agency 

by Jude Jarda 

12c 

The Fake Bills 

Back in Santa Monica, on the Pacific Coast, Jeanne d'Arc-Victoria Legitime is working on her escape plan. A group of very angered employees came back at her with a vengeance. They learned the truth about the fake bills she handled to them right after lunch to replace their bouncing paychecks. Three of them were arrested for possession, traffic and utilization of counterfeit money in a nearby mall. The maintenance team of the sound studio vandalized her new Tesla electric car. They then established camp in the parking lot of Legit Imco Media Corp and started chanting that leaving without a pay was not an option. Jeanne d'Arc-Victoria doesn't want to call the cops because she fears being questioned by the police about the origin of those illegal banknotes. She makes sure for one last time that all the doors of her office are locked. The mob that went straight to her residence, looking for a wall concealed safe supposedly filled with gold, demolishing her property and setting two Range Rovers on fire, could easily try to do the same with Victoria's last resource hiding place. The daughter of Sixte Osmer Legitime would gladly welcome and make good use of some guidance from her older brothers in this moment of great tribulation, but Jeanne d'Arc-Victoria's pride prevents her from dialing their numbers. 

Jeanne d'Arc-Victoria's phone starts buzzing and vibrating. She takes a look on the device's display. The name that appears immediately makes her blood pressure go up. The businesswoman automatically loses all her good manners, using all sorts of slangs to insult the person at the other end of the line. Junior Grosbois defends himself by pleading total ignorance and his natural propensity to help people in need. Grosso modo, explains Jeanne d'Arc's loathed ex-boyfriend, he did his best to amass the money she desperately needed. Having no direct access to such an amount of cash. Junior made a phone call to a friend of an acquaintance who referred him to a Las Vegas car dealer who could afford to lend him that kind of money without a signed agreement or legal contract. When Junior Grosbois told Victoria that he found a solution to her trouble, he had no idea the Shoshoni loan shark was expecting a three hundred per cent interest rate in return. Junior knew even less about the Comanche with a cobra and a dagger tattooed on his face, delivering fake American bills like pizza at the wheels of a vintage Cadillac hearse with no license plate. 

Junior Grosbois might be a liar and a cheat, but he is not the kind of man to let a buddy down. Junior swears on his mother's head that if Jeanne d'Arc is still alive tomorrow morning, he will come to her rescue with the members of a one per cent motorcycle club from the Glendale area. Jeanne d'Arc-Victoria will be escorted to his house in Burbank, while he fixes things in and around the studio with his muscled companions. Because Jeanne d'Arc-Victoria is still mentally sound and sane, she refuses that completely insane proposition. She clearly doesn't need more trouble. Unfortunately, Junior has already hung up on her. She now remembers why she left Junior Grosbois, the most reckless and immature human being she has ever met.