Chapter Fourteen
Clarity stepped into the back of the Cadillac limousine, thrusted by Kishin against Shalia Owell. A Chinese soldier thrusted Vanity inside, on the other side of Shalia Owell, by opening the other backseat door.
"Do you recognize any of these people?" Asked Kishin.
Clarity saw Dao Bin and his wife hold their breath. Lim Li was playing nervously with his own King Talker. Shalia was clutching her Fendi Astrakhan handbag, looking nervously at a television screen showing changes in the stock price of Owens & Owell on the New York Stock Exchange. Jiong Xiang, the official working at the Economic Counsellor's Office, showed a poker face. A hunch told Clarity to be low key. She pointed at Shalia.
"Shalia, I've met her briefly at the pool of the Marina Bay Sands hotel." Lim Li jumped on the answer given by Clarity.
"Mister Kishin, we do not have much time. We have a business trip pending. We have to go to Paya Lebar Air Base." He took out a piece of paper signed by political commissars of China's military theaters and backed by members of the cabinet in Singapore.
"We have authorization to leave Singapore from the air force base, this business trip may be beneficial to Singapore," said Lim Li. Jiang Xiong raised his hand and shook it in front of Barand Kishin.
"You cannot go with us, there is no authorization for you." Kishin pointed to Clarity and Vanity.
"Leave us the two girls, we have to ask them several questions about the wireless signal which led us here. We know the monks of the Enlightened Jade Dragon Society are here in this area."
"No, they are coming with us," said Jiong Xiang.
The Chinese official wanted to avoid questions on the adult film made by Telval, and a further investigation by the Censorship authority which could link the Economic Counsellor's Office to Dao Bin and the lewd film studio. He insisted that Kishin leave the car, backed by Shalia Owell. Frustrated, Kishin stepped out of the white Cadillac and got inside a Singapore police car.
"Can I go with my friend now?" Asked Clarity. Jiang Xiong shook his head.
"No, Madame Wa insisted that you come with us. You are part of the immortality project we are preparing." Clarity felt anything but immortal. She glanced outside the window and saw several Chinese soldiers guarding the limousine.
"Where are we going?" Asked the teleoperator.
"To China."
They reached the military base of Paya Lebar in the central-eastern part of Singapore, and boarded an old Air China BA 146, a regional airliner built for short haul distances, displaying four turbofan engines mounted on pylons under the wings. Clarity sat near a window, with Vanity close to her. She listened to the conversation between Jiang Xiong and Shalia Owell, taking place at the front of the plane.
"Are you sure you don't want to come with us, Ms. Owell?"
"Yes, I am sure, I will stay in touch with Elsie Chu and Mr. Dao Bin. I have things to do here in Singapore."
Clarity watched Shalia Owell get inside the white Cadillac limousine, which drove away to the exit of the air base. She listened to Dao Bin speak with Jiang Xiong, as several soldiers began to close the door hatch of the plane.
"I want my security guards with me, on the plane," he said.
Clarity watched through the window, seeing five Chinese soldiers kick the ass of Jeng and Mao Sei, ripping their nylon jackets, and leaving the former sumo members in their underwear.
"No, you can have your Rolls Royce, but they will stay here in Singapore," said Jiang Xiong.
Two soldiers pushed the billionaire down to his seat. She was as prisoner of the Chinese government as the Singapore billionaire was, thought Clarity. Somehow, Dao Bin had lost his negotiating clout with his partners from China.
After a few hours of flight, they reached Yinchuan Hedong International Airport in China, within the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, in the Northwest part of the country. Once finished with refuelling, the plane took off again for its real destination: the Xi'an Economic and Technological Development Zone in the Northwest province of Shaanxi in China. The zone, part of the Western Theater Command area of China, attracted foreign investments, companies such as Coca Cola, HP, Mitsubishi Electric, Fujitsu, Rolls Royce, or the Swire Group. Mechanicals, electronics, bio-pharmaceuticals, high-tech and light industry sector companies had settled there already. General Tian Yazhou had agreed with Jiang Xiong to establish the health phone facility of Hunan Enterprises in that area because there was already a business eco-system there that could also hold the one hundred suppliers needed to assemble the new health phone.
They got off the plane at Xianyang International Airport, at Xi'an, and stepped inside a black Hongqi L5, the only luxury car manufactured in China. Clarity sat with Vanity and Professor Chang in the backseat, while Madame Wa chatted with the chauffeur in Chinese from the passenger seat. Clarity glanced behind and saw the Rolls Royce of Dao Bin driving behind them. Somehow the billionaire's car had made it to Xi'an, and was carrying Dao Bin, his wife, moneytician Lim Li, and Jiang Xiong. After a short ride, they reached a modern light grey building in the pioneering park of Xi'an, a place known as Gazelle Valley which acted as incubator for sci-tech companies. All of the one hundred suppliers for the Hunan health phone had established presence there, under the hospice of the Foreign Investment Promotion Bureau of China. A troop of Red Army soldiers led them to a conference room on the second floor of an office building which housed the manufacturing facility of the Hunan health phone on the first floor. After five hours of waiting, a clerk working for the Central Military Commission made an announcement.
"General Tian Yazhou is here, he will see you now."
General Tian Yazhou made a glorious entrance into the meeting room of the manufacturing facility. A towering six foot figure, always surrounded by several officials from his municipality and a few agents of the People's Armed Police in charge of internal security, he prided himself on having high connections within the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Those connections included members of the Political Bureau and the Central Military Commission, Tuanpai who came from the Communist Youth League, and some Central Committee members who worked in state-owned enterprises.
Born in the town of Xining, in the province of Qinghai, Tian Yazhou had joined the military at an early age. After the reform of the People's Liberation Army into five military theaters, an order from the deputy leader of the Group for Military Reform, backed by several members of the Central Military Commission named him political commissar of the Western Theater Command. His duties included political education and ideology, and civilian control of the military. He set aside a cigarette held by a Sanda rosewood holder filter, and placed both in an ashtray. He smiled at the official from the Economic Counsellor's Office.
"Good work, Jiang Xiong, we have put the rare earth metals to good use, and received the symbolic decryptor and the charts of Professor Chang from Le Freeport. The first health phone of Hunan-Shaanxi Enterprises has been assembled. The hope now is that you will be able to use it when you are one hundred and ten years old."
"Our communications team figured out the decryption protocol used by the symbolic decryptor. I called Kishin to alert him of the location of the monks at the Ascendas industrial park, which was in one of the modules of the decryptor, encrypted. If he finds the facility of the monks, and the monks, it will mean less competition for us."
The Chinese General walked straight towards Elsie Chu, kissed her hand, and took notice of her ring.
"This ring is quite versatile, I hear, it has several properties. Our communications branch in Singapore has made great effort to trace its signal."
"It's an expensive ring, but there's nothing special."
The Chinese General told the wife of Dao Bin to take out the ring and gave it to a pair of scientists, a gemologist and a specialist of wireless cryptography. From her seat beside moneytician Lim Li, Clarity observed the scientists setting up a retooling table which they used to dismantle the ring into several pieces.
"The ring has a miniature wireless router inside," said the first scientist. The second scientist, the gemologist, added. "It's below the diamond, and it activates when you turn the middle band of the ring. There is space for five frequencies corresponding to five notches, which can be linked to any smartphone."
"Does it have intercept capabilities?" Asked Tian Yazhou.
"Yes. Deep packet inspection technology applied to wireless equipment. Frequency 503 is used to intercept calls or inhibit their signal so that the caller cannot be heard." Tian Yazhou turned to Elsie Chu.
"This wireless technology can only be used by the military. You may not be able to leave China now, Ms. Chu. Your husband will stay here as well for an indefinite period of time. In the meantime, the Central Military Commission, and me, as its representative, will take ownership of Hunan Enterprises, all of its resources, and the relationships with all of its suppliers." Tian Yazhou turned to a guard behind him. "Take the Rolls Royce of Mr. Dao Bin to my private parking."
Clarity noticed that Dao Bin's face had become pale. Jiang Xiong provided additional evidence against the billionaire.
"Telval is an adult film studio. It provides decadent material and Mr. Dao Bin is a shareholder. I escaped a reputation attack by refusing an invitation to a lewd party in Singapore." Jiang Xiong gave a copy of 'Golden Lamp of Casa Mollino' to the Chinese General and a Hell Bank note with his name on it.
"I will watch this film to ensure it is not allowed by China's censorship Bureau. We cannot allow one of our business partners to be involved in porn. Our local sovereign fund here in Xi'an will take control of the money controlled by Hunan. Mr. Dao Bin and his wife will serve a ten year sentence at the Shaanxi Province jail."
Dao Bin glanced at his wife, who was becoming as pale as him, thinking he should have built the health phone on his own, in Singapore. Opening the Chinese market for Hunan Enterprises was beginning to turn his lifestyle of the rich and famous into the life of a Chinese dissident.
Professor Chang changed the topic of the conversation.
"We should move on with the meditation experiments." He glanced at Clarity and Vanity.
"Placing them in the fantasy chamber." Tian Yazhou pointed to Elsie Chu.
"With her as well."
A group of Red Army soldiers led the group of women to a cubicle made of plastic walls, which allowed those outside to see through. Clarity stepped inside, followed by Vanity, Madame Wa, and Elsie Chu. Madame Wa got naked with Clarity and Vanity in a room barely lit. Elsie Chu followed, not knowing what was happening. Madame Wa began to instruct them, on how to meditate in an environment of risk which was hostile, where danger was present. The meditation was called Fusion of the Five Elements.
"Do you feel any uncomfortable feeling associated with fear?"
Clarity thought that the White Tigress practitioner was kidding. The whole environment was hostile. She wanted to know how the left hand path addressed the emotion of fear.
"Yes," said Clarity. Vanity nodded as well.
"Bring that fear down visually to the perineum area from the kidney area, and lead that fear in a line to the cauldron area, two inches below the navel. Clarity did as told, and the sensation of fear and apprehension lowered slightly.
"Fear is natural though," said Clarity, "it can be used by the body to alert of danger. If we get rid of fear, how do we sense danger?"
"I sense danger," said Vanity, "danger of working for Madame Wa."
"That is the point," said Madame Wa, "a White Tigress ignores danger until it ceases to exist. They are immune to fear."
Elsie Chu began to show signs of apprehension.
"This is not going well, I don't feel so good. I need my ring, I feel sort of naked without it." She began to have second thoughts which led her to the idea of ditching support for her husband.
"Well, you are naked, that is normal, but I see what you mean, you are not a White Tigress yet. No, that ring will be mine when I teach General Tian Yazhou techniques for recycling sexual energy."
"I am ready to tell the truth regarding the ring and serve the Chinese authorities."
Madame Wa pressed on a switch to turn on the light in the room. She waved at the tinted window in front of her and Jiang Xiong came into the room.
"Take off your clothes," said Madame Wa, "she is ready to talk."
"It is not proper etiquette," said the Chinese official.
"We are all equals here," said Madame Wa, "you too can become a Jade Dragon."
Jiang Xiong did not believe in White Tigress teachings, but he did not deem it wise to offend Madame Wa, who was catching the interest of Tian Yazhou. The Economic Counsellor took off his clothes reluctantly and immediately showed an erection by watching Vanity and Clarity naked. Madame Wa grabbed his sexual organ, in order to calm down his arousal. He pressed on several points of his chest and stomach, told the official to breathe the sexual energy up his spine, and the organ lost its 'jade' appearance.
"Where did your ring come from?" He asked.
Elsie Chu began to talk and Madame Wa grabbed the organ ot Jiang Xiong more strongly, to release her own tension.
"I received instructions from a group known as the privilege club to pick up my ring at Le Freeport deposit box, from a jewelry shop in Singapore."
"Which one?" said Madame Wa. Elsie Chu turned to Jiang Xiong.
"I can show you, as long as we get out of here. And as long as you give me access to my husband's business, his money and his Rolls Royce."