The City

"What side effect?"

I pointed to his groin, then raised my index fingers and curled it down.

He took a quick glance at Henry.

Henry nodded in agreement with what I said.

Got you, I laughed silently inside, happy I was able to pull it off.

Amy Lee clapped her hand, getting everyone's attention, and said, "All right, now the real work starts.

"Henry, Sea Snake Fang and Firecracker Tan, you will have to stay put, to guard the gold.

"The rest of us will go back to Pontianak to arrange for transportation of the gold, out of Indonesia."

We agreed with the plan.

I'm confident nothing will happen to the gold, with them guarding it.

Of course, the prospect of getting back to modern civilian life played a part.

First thing I'll do when I get to a hotel, is to have a nice warm bath, then sleep on the soft bed for as long as I can.

Bobby was gleaming with joy, most likely thinking of having fun with some pretty ladies.

The trek back to Mandor was tedious.

When we passed by the spot where we had buried Clement, it reminded me of his notebook.

I haven't looked at it since I took it from him.

Wasn't sure what he would have written inside it.

…

"Ah, air-con, how did I survive without you." Bobby exclaimed, sitting at the back of the jeep, with his hand stretched and perched on the seat.

I got my body close to the air con duct; we were now drenched in sweat, having just pushed the jeep to kick start it.

The battery had gone dead after being parked idle for so long.

The initial ride back was bumpy as hell, then it got smoother.

Finally, we knew we were back in modern life with all the bikes, cars and houses.

"Woohoo, Pontianak, I'm back." Bobby shouts out in joy seeing all the bustling streets.

"We will stay on the other side of town. I will have to arrange for the transportation company." Amy Lee said as she drove us to the hotel.

This time the hotel was much better.

I got into my room, took off my clothes and had a nice dip in the tub.

All I remembered was the dirt that came off.

Making the water turn brownish.

I had to clean myself with a few tubs of water before the water stayed clear.

Having cleaned up, I took a beer from the bar fridge, sat on the bed and enjoyed it.

With that I took out Clement's notebook and read what he had written.

Most were in French, but I quickly stopped at a page.

There were the words, '山下奉文' (Tomoyuki Yamashita, aka Tiger of Malaya), name of a Japanese convicted war criminal during World War II.

Most importantly, it was rumored that he plundered untold millions from banks, private homes, museums and religious buildings, and hid them somewhere in the caves of Philippines. 

I sat up and tried to focus on reading, but the phone rang.

"Come down to the lobby, let's make a move."

I quickly got dressed and went down to the hotel lobby.

There she was, now with her hair down, and in a black dress.

Looking totally different from her khaki outfit with no makeup on.

Of course, she had that perfume on again.

My heart started pounding hard when I smelled the perfume.

Imagery of lust and passion crept up on my mind again.

I shook my head vigorously to stop the imagery, whistled and pretended to be normal.

Amy Lee laughed and covered her mouth with her hands.

Her transformation was not only in appearance.

All her gestures and actions were so lady like now.

It's hard to believe that just a few days ago, she was killing someone in cold blood.

"I'm here, let's go have some fun." Bobby announced his presence loudly, ready to party.

We got into the jeep and after half an hour's ride, we reached an office building.

At the front of the door, there was a huge signboard with the words 'Heng Logistics – trustworthy and punctual'.

It looked like an ordinary logistic company from the outside.

When you went into it, you would feel the difference.

At the front desk, there was a bald guy, with tattoos all over his body.

"I have an appointment with the caretaker." Amy Lee handed over her name card.

The bald guy, took her name card, picked up the phone and said, "There's this Miss Amy Lee, with two men, waiting for you."

He nodded a few times, receiving instructions from the person on the other end of the phone.

"Only you can go up. Seven floors, turn right, till the last room."

Amy Lee nodded, turned to us and said, "I'll be fine, you guys go and grab some coffee or something."

Bobby pulled me out of the building as fast as he heard it.

I went along, after all being couped up in the jungle for so long, no harm having some fun.

Got to release that pent up tension.

Out on the streets, seeing the busy streets, I proposed to grab something to eat.

Not too far away, there was a food stall selling some noodles.

We pointed at what we wanted, sat down and waited for our noodles.

"What are they doing?" Bobby pointed at a group of men gathering around.

I looked, in the middle there were two men, between them there was a small table.

On the table, there were three bowls, turned upside down.

One of the men had an orange ping pong ball, held it and place it into one of the bowls.

The bowls were then shifted around very rapidly.

The other man then placed his bet on which bowl had the ping pong ball inside.

He won the first time, and the second time.

"Wow, it looks easy to win, let's go have join in." Bobby gleefully rubbed his hands at the prospect of winning.

"You can try, but don't come crying to me when you lose your pants."