Second Encounter with Hamood

"We will have to try to get out of here.

"But not with Heng Logistics, they would've been under heavy surveillance by now.

"We need to find someone else," I said.

"Who can we approach? Do you have someone in mind?" Bobby asked with a concerned look.

I nodded and replied, "I have someone in mind, but first we need to get back to the hotel to get something I need."

Amy Lee put her hands on my shoulder and asked, "Are you confident in whatever plan you have?"

"Yes, I'm confident."

She thought for a while, considering how my plan had succeeded earlier with Clement, and said, "I'm in."

When we walked back to the hotel, there were luckily no soldiers in sight.

I went back into my room; while packing my stuff, I heard tapping on the window.

My hands stopped and froze.

The room was on the fourth floor, and I was alone in it.

Who could be tapping at the window?

It's impossible.

Unless…

Taking deep breaths, I slowly raised my head and looked up towards the window.

First, the familiar boots.

Then the right arm, missing, having been blown off.

Lastly, his signature smile.

Kuranwan!

Pale white and translucent like Snookey.

He was using his remaining left hand to tap at the window.

Seeing that I noticed him, he stopped and used his left hand to lift his head up.

Then he threw his head at me.

I saw his head fly closer and closer to me.

Finally, I couldn't take it and had to close my eyes.

After a moment, nothing happened.

I opened my eyes, and he was gone.

Thinking about how he was tapping the window, I went over and looked out.

A few streets away, I could see military vehicles stuck in traffic.

The soldiers came down from their vehicles to ask the other vehicles to clear the path.

They were obviously coming our way.

I quickly grabbed my stuff and warned the others.

"Hurry, let's go." I knocked on Bobby's door and moved on to warn Amy Lee.

Bobby opened the door, saw me running down the corridor, tilted his head, thought for a moment, then grabbed his stuff and followed me.

When I reached Amy Lee's room, I lifted my hand, just as I was about to knock on her door, she opened it.

She was now already dressed in a khaki outfit, ready to move.

Just as we left the hotel lobby and walked away from it for about twenty meters, the soldiers arrived.

The leader shouted out instructions and they got inside the hotel swiftly with their rifles.

We hailed a taxi, and on our way, I wasn't feeling too good.

What was happening to me?

First, it was Snookey, now it's Kuranwan.

Was I going crazy, I thought to myself.

The only common thing I could think of was that both had died indirectly because of me.

Were they figments of my guilt-ridden mind, a sign that I deserved punishment, or a call to help them find peace and ascend to heaven?

I couldn't decide.

"We are here," Amy Lee interrupted my thoughts.

We got out of the taxi, grabbed our stuff, and went into the snooker parlor.

Yes, we were back at Snookey's place.

It was busy as usual, cigarette smoke filled the air, men playing snooker, music thumping with heavy bass in the background.

When we went in, a guy with long hair, smoking, was at the counter.

Amy Lee, being the only one speaking Indonesian, went up and asked, "We are here to find Hamood."

"Find who?" The guy couldn't hear what Amy Lee was saying over the loud music.

"Hamood! We are here to find Hamood!" She shouted.

Then the music stopped.

All the men froze in the middle of what they were doing.

They then stood up, stared at us, grabbed whatever they had in their hands, and slowly surrounded us.

"What business do you have with him?" The man at the counter asked.

"We have important information for him, regarding the murderers of his brother," Amy Lee replied.

The man looked at us intensely, thought for a moment, and said, "Wait."

He called Hamood on his phone, nodding as Hamood gave his instructions.

After putting down the phone, he led us to a room behind the counter.

There was a sofa and a coffee table; this room was presumably the rest area for the employees.

We sat down on the sofa and waited.

"Sam, are you sure it will work?" Bobby peeped out of the room, turned around, and asked.

"Trust me, everything will be all right," I assured Bobby.

Just as I said that, the door slammed open, sending Bobby stumbling across the room and landing on the sofa.

"You better deliver, or else, die!" Hamood scanned the room, staring at the three of us.

"We know where the French guy who killed your brother is," Amy Lee said.

Hamood lit up a cigarette and said, "How do I know you are telling the truth?"

Amy Lee glanced at me.

I then reached into my backpack, took out Clement's notebook and Crystal Siti's crystal.

He picked up the notebook, flipped through the pages, and saw that it was all written in French.

Then he picked up the crystal and thought about it.

Most likely he was half convinced.

I saw his hesitation, took out all the cash I had taken from Shifu's safe.

Placed it on the table.

After he saw the cash, he relented, "Where are they?"

"They are dead. We killed them and buried them out in the jungle. To show you where they are, we need you to get us out of Pontianak," Amy Lee said.

"That can be done." Hamood turned to the man beside him and gave some instructions.

He then left the room and made a speech to all the men outside.

The men all cheered and roared out in a celebratory mood.

I guess he was announcing Clement's death to his followers.

He might have had doubts about who was the killer of his brother.

Right now, truth didn't matter anymore; he consolidated his support with how he relentlessly tried to find the killers. The extra money offered was, of course, a huge bonus.

We waited for around an hour, then someone came in and gestured for us to follow him.

"What? This is it?"