Chapter Nine
Clarity followed Shalia to the infinity pool on the roof top of the Marina Sands hotel fifty seven floors above the ground floor. Overlooking the skyline of Singapore, the curved pool skypark boasted a row of palm trees with poolside loungers, rivalled only by the Naumi, ParkRoyal and Oasia Hotel Novena infinity pools. The design, brought to construction by architect Moshe Safdie, was based on a deck of cards, appropriate for a hotel whose main attraction was a casino.
Shalia lied down on a wooden lounge chair and ordered a Jasmine cocktail, blending Campari, Cointreau, and lemon juice. Clarity ordered the same and found the concoction tasted like grapefruit juice. Leaving Shalia bathing in the sun, the Malibu teleoperator explored the deck, which spanned three football fields and took twenty minutes to walk. She took a nice swim, enjoying the warm water of the pool and the sunshine bathing her face. When she came back to her lounge chair, Shalia was talking through her smartphone.
"Donovan, what's happening, I'm resting at poolside of the Marina Sands hotel." The face of Shalia became stern after a few seconds of listening to a man's voice.
"I see, my father is up to date on this?" She was referring to second generation family owner Robert J. Owell. The voice spoke briefly and Shalia nodded.
"All right, thank you Donovan, I'll see if there's anything I can do, I'll give you a call if there are any more news on the theft." Shalia placed her smartphone inside a Fendi Astrakhan handbag covered with fur and topped with gemstones set in white gold, an item priced at a whopping seventy three hundred dollars. With the gemstones, the value rose to eighty three thousand dollars.
"It was Donovan Carthill, he's a member of the Executive Committee of Owens & Owell. He advises my father on the company's Board of Directors. He called to let me know there have been some changes with the people involved with the Board. My father has been worried ever since he noticed abnormally high trading volumes of company shares on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges a few weeks ago. He thinks the Chinese are after Owens & Owell."
"Changes?" Asked Clarity.
"New directors, Owens & Owell has a complex board structure involving institutional investors. Two banks, one hedge fund, a large mutual fund, a private equity firm, a foundation, and an insurance and re-insurance company own one board seat each, seven board seats in total. My father and Clarence Owens III each own one board seat, and they have agreements in place with the other investors to keep control of the company. There are eleven seats on the Board of Directors, so that leaves two seats, originally allocated to me and Jenny Owens, each worth five percent of the company."
Shalia Owell grabbed an olive and sipped her cocktail a few seconds. She added that British expatriate Cassandra Scafarel had taken control of both seats with a power of attorney signed by herself and girlfriend-wife Jenny Owens, amounting to a ten percent stake in the global conglomerate. Clarity remembered the Bahrain affair and how she could not prevent the wealthy socialite from becoming involved in Cassandra Scafarel's spiritual outfit for the affluent woman, the Church of the Holy Flower. Fortunately, Shalia Owell did not quite match her own face with her role and agreement with U.S. Sensual Intelligence.
"Still, you've been part of the Board of Directors, then, you can foreseeably recover those seats." Shalia shook her head.
"I have to be a member of the Executive Committee. My father keeps me on a monthly allowance of one hundred thousand dollars, which is paltry." The amount went back and forth, crossing the mind of Clarity several times, saying spend me. The teleoperator wished she had that problem.
"Paltry?"
"Compared to owning five percent of the company, which is five hundred million dollars. Carthill told me that Dao Bin has bought a five percent stake in the company from Scafarel. My father agreed because he wanted Scafarel out of the board. Scafarel agreed to sell her ten percent stake in exchange for being freed from jail by the authorities in Bahrain. Owens & Owell pushed some levers in the kingdom and Bahrain agreed to free Scafarel, in exchange for being a supplier of components for the four engine plane built in Saudi Arabia by Owens & Owell in our facility located in the Prince Abdulaziz bin Mousaed Economic City. Donovan Carthill sent a company representative to negotiate the deal through the British-Saudi Arabia Liaison Office for Economic Affairs. My father is keeping the five percent stake corresponding to my board seat, which he bought back from Scafarel. He says I may be able to be a board member if I do a good job with this theft issue."
The relationship of Shalia with her father was complex. Her father demanded complete business obedience to his daughter and Shalia was more entrepreneurial in spirit, clashing with the more conservative outlook of her father. On a personal level, they both had sanguine personalities and had a well known preference for expressing their views clearly and loudly, something which did not always lead to agreement or a common viewpoint. Shalia sighed, throwing her phone in her purse and lying on Clarity's stomach, bringing all of her weight on the teleoperator.
"I can't figure out how to please him," said Shalia. She added. "I prefer to please you." Clarity wondered how long the infatuation with her would last.
Shalia's phone began ringing in her purse.
"Your purse is ringing," said Clarity.
Shalia ignored Clarity and glanced at her fitbit wireless activity wristband, looking at the time. The device provided day-stats like steps taken, distance traveled, calories burned, stairs climbed and swimming lengths done. Notifications appeared on the device when her smartphone was nearby, and a record of her sleeping activity was kept to monitor the number of hours of sound sleep accomplished every day. The name of Elsie Chu appeared on the fitbit. Shalia reached for her smartphone and began speaking. After a few minutes, she hung up, turning to Clarity.
"Elsie Chu is sending a car for a chi monitoring at the Institute. You wanna do it?" Shalia's face beamed with a coy expression.
"Sure," said Clarity.
They took a shower together inside the Suite, and half an hour later, the hotel phone rang, telling them a car was waiting for them at the hotel entrance. The Malibu teleoperator got in the back seat of the luxurious Audi A8 driven by Elsie Chu herself. The cheeky doyenne wanted to meet Shalia in person. She greeted the rebellious heiress and completely ignored Clarity, thinking the teleoperator was simply a friend visiting from the U.S.
"Now that my husband is a member of the board of Owens & Owell, we should spend more time together," said Elsie. Shalia said nothing and smiled.
Clarity held onto a car handle, as Elsie Chu drove recklessly North through Bayfront Avenue, then West to Marina Square, the National Museum, and Eber to Orchard Road. After a fifteen minute drive, they reached the Institute of Long Health. Shalia stepped out of the car, letting Clarity walk in front of her. The wealthy socialite turned to Elsie Chu, who had to leave because of another appointment.
"You've tried this before?" Asked Shalia.
"Yes, simply go along with it," said Elsie Chu, "Madame Wa knows what to do."
They crossed the entrance of the Institute and the receptionist led them to a massage room smelling of incense. A few minutes later, Madame Wa came in, dressed in a loose red color cheongsam showing a White Tigress etched in the back. The older oriental woman showed Shalia and Clarity a book passed on by earlier generations of White Tigresses, explaining various terms coming from Taoist texts like the Yellow Emperor's Internal Medicine Classic. Taoists were the original freethinkers of Chinese society, interpreting classics like the Tao Te King of Lao Tse, as spiritual alchemy, contemplative philosophy or sexual regeneration. These views clashed with Confucian ideals of moral and social order, part of the reason why Taoists had been persecuted by Chinese officials for centuries, spawning the birth of sects and secret societies.
"Are you sure you want to go along with this?" Asked Madame Wa.
Clarity felt less than reassured, but Shalia answered a resolute yes.
"The teachings you are about to receive are matriarchal in na
ture. We must bow to the spirit of the women who came before us, who made the teachings available today. When you are ready, you can begin to practice with a Green Dragon, a man used to restore youthfulness of the White Tigress."
Madame Wa bowed in front of Shalia and Clarity, and the Malibu teleoperator did the same.
"How do you choose a Green Dragon?" Asked Shalia.
"Do not rely on looks. Choose a man who does not want a romantic relationship, and instead wants you. Do not be impatient, you must first learn the ways of the White Tigress before engaging in practice with your Ching Loong. Then, after nine encounters, you might find an appropriate Jade Dragon, the one who knows how to keep his elixir intact, a provider of financial and emotional security, that you can meet for three years." Clarity smiled inwardly, thinking that Shalia needed emotional security, but not financial security.
"How does a woman keep her youthfulness?" Asked Shalia.
"By absorbing the man's essence and elixir, and performing fellatio," said Madame Wa. Clarity understood in the partially cryptic answer that the older oriental woman was referring to the sexual fluids of the man.
The White Tigress began the meditation session by telling Shalia and Clarity to take their pants off. The two girls obeyed diligently and sat down on two plain ladder back chairs made of wood. Clarity rubbed her hands and tucked them together, closing her eyes at the request of the older White Tigress. After a few moments of keeping her eyes closed, she heard Madame Wa closing the blinds of the room, leaving them in semi-darkness. She focused her thoughts on her belly, breathing slowly in and out, feeling nothing.
The hand of Madame Wa moved down her Tu Mo front meridian, stopping at her belly. She rubbed the stomach of Clarity several times, and slid her hand underneath her panties. The sensation took Clarity by surprise and she felt the fingers of the older woman nubbing her clitoris. The aroused energy, or Ching, began to stir pleasant feelings in the body of Clarity. She could hear Shalia breathing slowly beside her. The version of Qigong carried out by Madame Wa involved 'working the breath' and the aroused energy around the Lesser Heavenly Circuit, the Jen Mo meridian up the spine, and the Tu Mo meridian in the front. As the aroused energy cooled down and Madame Wa sat on a third chair, Clarity began feeling a low intensity current in her belly.
"Simply feel the chi in your body slowly making its way through the Lesser Heavenly Circuit, down the front part of your body, past your genitals, and up the spine through the sacral point, until you feel a refreshing energy tap the head. Smile at your body, feeling a sense of balance at all times."
Madame Wa whispered a few sentences to Shalia, and Clarity heard her friend say yes to the older initiated woman. Opening one eye, Clarity saw a pair of 'dragon pearls', stimulation pearls called Mien Ling, or Ben Wa balls, carried by Madame Wa, brought to Shalia. The tinkling bells, made of jade, were meant for the intimate parts of the woman, and were placed there, ideally for up to six hours a day. They were used widely in China, Japan and Korea, by factory workers spending a lot of time sitting while doing their knitting, textile work, sewing batiks or making umbrellas with bamboo.
"The dragon pearls provide a more intense experience of aroused chi. After opening the Lesser Heavenly Circuit, or microcosmic orbit, you will be able to open the Greater Heavenly Circuit, including your arms and legs." Madame Wa turned to Clarity.
"Sweetie, would you like balls for you as well?" Clarity shook her head, preferring to feel the natural flow of her energy, without any aids.
"No, thank you."
Madame Wa guided their meditation, pronouncing names corresponding to meridian points along the spine, Wei Lu, Ming Men, Jia Ji, and down the front of the body, Tan Zhong, Shen Guan. Following instructions from Madame Wa, Clarity began to feel something, like a current, about one inch below her skin. She led the low intensity electrical current one inch inside her body, back to her stomach, the 'cauldron' which was the appropriate place to store chi, away from the head.
Clarity opened her eyes and saw Madame Wa a few feet away from her, turning on a machine which looked like an oscilloscope used to monitor electricity. The White Tigress connected two probes to Shalia Owell, one on her thigh, one on her arm, linked to the device. The woman turned to Clarity and the teleoperator closed her eyes.
"Professor Chang has built this device to monitor chi in the body. It can measure low intensity currents that other devices do not measure. With this, we can also see whether the energy is blocked and the person can remain healthy." Shalia did not protest and the device began measuring the subtle currents produced by the inner channels of the wealthy, young socialite. Clarity heard the sound of several steps a few feet from them. Opening her eyes slightly, she noticed a familiar face watching them from a distance. Lim Li, the moneytician of Dao Bin, was quietly standing behind the room's back door. She noticed Madame Wa was sitting again, rubbing her hands to finish the meditation, and she closed her eyes to let the White Tigress think she was still meditating. Without saying a word, Madame Wa got up and walked towards Lim Li, lowering his pants, and taking his sexual organ in her mouth. A realization entered the mind of Clarity. Lim Li was a Green Dragon of Madame Wa, providing an intense sexual encounter to the White Tigress working at the Institute. She wondered how loyal he was to Madame Wa. And the role Professor Chang played. For all the fame and esoteric knowledge he boasted, he was notoriously absent in his own Institute. Had he arranged the meeting between Madame Wa and Shalia Owell? And if so, why?