Chapter Five
Clarity ducked when Professor Chang glanced at the cabin to leave the bank. A question was surfacing in her mind. Where were the rare earth metal containers of Owens & Owell? She changed the television channel of the CCTV back to its entrance and reception view, and got out of the guard's cabin. She walked at a normal pace towards Xiaolu, who was shaking hands with the security guard. The guard securing the branch was now the beneficial owner of a new retirement policy and he was placing the signed insurance policy in his pocket. She saw a message on the screen of the plastic disposable cell phone that Elsie Chu had provided.
"Go back to the apartment, tell Elsie Chu absolutely everything that took place at the Embassy and the bank, we will stay in touch with the decryptor."
Clarity nodded and took a taxi to the apartment to brief Elsie Chu. The doyenne said nothing while listening to Clarity for several minutes. She looked grim and resented the fact that Dao Bin did not include her in his information loop. She lowered the Stuart Hughes television set, alerted by a red light beaming from a corner of the frame, which indicated that someone was coming up the elevator into Dao Bin's bedroom on the second floor. The sleek silhouette of Olivia Chai, the person leading all real estate matters for Dao Bin, stepped inside the luxurious room. Dao Bin asked Olivia Chai to stand beside the statue of himself as sumo wrestler, and took a photo of his real estate director with his own King Talker smartphone.
"Tell me what Jiong Xiang has told you." Olivia Chai took out a small pad, where she wrote anything important that came to her mind.
"I am discussing with him where the rare earth metal containers are going to be taken."
"Has he told you the location?"
"No, he refuses to tell me, he simply says the project of immortality will take place in China, somewhere in the Western Theater Command territory." That narrowed it somewhat, because China was huge, but the Western Theater Command had jurisdiction over a huge area covering nine provinces in China, Sichuan, Tibet, Gansu, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Yunan, Ningxia, Xinjiang, and Chongqing.
"The real estate arrangement of the plant is a leasehold, twenty five years. Hunan can own the plant to build the health phone, but it cannot own the land."
Dao Bin drew a curtain which prevented Olivia Chai from seeing the belly up position of the billionaire. He grabbed the breasts of Vanity while she rubbed his belly. After a few minutes, he sat her seating astride on him, in classic rider fashion.
"That was to be expected in China," he said, speaking to the curtain.
"The rent is not cheap, about half a million dollars per month. Plus, it's not familiar territory for us, in fact, it won't be our territory at all."
"I don't want to fund this with Hunan cash, let the Chinese invest. Sign the leasehold agreement with Jiang Xiong and ensure all the permits and the paperwork required by the Counsellor's office is in place for the plant. Also ensure the rare earth metals containers are safe in the warehouse. I get a sense that we're going to have to move them at short notice."
Olivia Chai placed her hand on one of the thighs of Dao Bin's sumo wrestling statue. The flow of the statue's fountain rose noticeably. She lifted her hand, and the flow decreased, becoming a thin curtain of water.
"I'd be more comfortable if the rare metals were out of Singapore," she said.
"Lim Li is paying Chang in the same warehouse where the metals are stored. No one can look there, it's a very private place. Does he have the palladium?"
"No."
"I'll tell him to get the palladium for Chang."
"All right, I'll keep you informed about the leasehold and the papers. Are you telling Elsie about all of this?"
"No, she doesn't need to know."
He lifted Vanity six inches in the air, and dropped her on the bed. He liked to see her bounce on the mattress. Vanity smiled after bouncing once, and crossed her legs. She straightened her hand and did a karate chop on his belly. She enjoyed seeing his belly give in with a mushy sound to her chops. Olivia Chai walked towards the elevator and pressed the 'call floor level' button. The door panels opened and Lim Li came out of the elevator, seeing Vanity changing from a scanty bra and panty into no clothes behind a natural wood room divider facing the elevator. Dao Bin enjoyed the tease, and sometimes he crashed through the teasing by crushing through the divider to see her naked. The apartment of the moneytician was several floors below the penthouse of Dao Bin, conveniently located. Lim Li stared at the naked body of Vanity, in particular at her nice perky breasts.
"We were just talking about you," said Olivia Chai, "I'm leaving." The real estate director of Hunan enterprises said good bye and got inside the penthouse elevator.
"Turn up the flow of the fountain," said Dao Bin. The moneytician tapped on the thigh of the sumo wrestler twice, and the flow of water coming out of his groin doubled.
"There is a problem with the funding of the health phone," said Lim Li. Dao Bin lifted himself out of the bed and lifted his hand towards Vanity. He paid his moneytician to come up with legal or corporate structures that would fix any business issue arising out of problems with money. The fact he wasn't getting the job done annoyed him.
"Leave the room, Vanity, please. Take the room divider with you." Vanity walked past the bed with the divider on her back, extending several leg kicks to the statue of Dao Bin at thigh level. The sumo statue began spilling water out of the thigh and the bronze cock stopped flowing water. Lim Li sat on a chair, as far away from Dao Bin as possible.
"We're missing sixty million dollars," said Lim Li. "General Tian Yazhou said we can have access to forty million dollars, the funds are being transferred through OCBC to pay for the intellectual property and the knowledge of Chang." Dao Bin walked to the mini bar area and poured himself a glass of whisky.
"Immortality is more expensive than we thought, but Hunan is not putting a dime in this health phone project, except for the one million dollars Chang wants to receive directly. No problem, we'll talk to Owens and Owell, they've got money."
"You're going to strong-arm them?"
"I'll make them an offer. Now that I'm a shareholder, I can voice my opinion." He added. "Go to the dealer of palladium, get ready to pay Chang at the place where we're keeping the containers. Take Smethens with you, I think I'm going to use him for the meditation experiments that Chang is putting in place for the health phone. Give me some good news now."
The moneytician got up from his chair and took a four panel room divider decorated with bamboo and flowers out of the giant wardrobe of the bedroom. He wanted his boss to be able to alleviate the stress on the divider, and not on him, when he brought Dao Bin more unappealing news.
"Infocomm is tracing our wireless network. They are using deep packet inspection technology to track the shipment of the rare earth metal containers. Their investigation at the harbor where the theft occurred has led them to Hunan. They're being stalled by our network of three hundred suppliers, those making the King Talker smartphone."
From the living room area of the penthouse, Elsie Chu cut off the home television signal and turned to Clarity, who was reflecting upon where the location of the health phone planned by Hunan could be. Elsie Chu wanted to know something else.
"Go with Smethens, and find out where the rare earth metals are. Tell him that I told you to go with him, and not to tell my husband about you. Take the regular elevator while Lim Li finishes the conversation with my husband."
She handed Clarity a stash of five hundred Singapore dollar bills, about three thousand US dollars in total.
"Use the money to get the information," said the wife of the billionaire. Clarity took the elevator and walked down to the parking lot area, until she found the location of the Rolls Royce. Smethens was cleaning the front door with an Alexander Olch tweed handkerchief, wearing a black tailcoat and white gloves. Dao Bin insisted on proper etiquette for his chauffeur.
"Mind if I join you?" The butler of Dao Bin spoke with a perfect British accent.
&nbs
p; "No. Who are you?"
"I am the new personal shopping assistant of Elsie Chu, also her informant on business matters. I want to drive around with you without you telling Mr. Lim Li, or Mr. Dao Bin."
"Oh. You are involved with what business matters?"
"Those that Mr. Dao Bin does not share with Elsie Chu." The butler stopped cleaning. His pay was all right, but his silence was worth more than his pay.
"What can you do for me?" Clarity handed him a five hundred dollar bill. Smethens grabbed it and placed it in his vest pocket. His beeper rang twice, indicating that Dao Bin wanted the Rolls Royce up the elevator to pick him up or whomever was with him in the penthouse.
"Get in the car, front seat, kneel down."
Clarity got in and closed the door, noticing the tinted window separating the front area from the back area of the Rolls Royce. Smethens drove the car to the elevator and they rode up thirty two floors to the penthouse to pick up Lim Li. After a twenty minute ride, they stopped by a gold dealer on New Bridge Road, BullionStar, offering gold bars and gold and silver numismatics and collectibles. Lim Li spoke to Smethens through the car's intercom.
"Get me some cigarettes while I'm out."
The moneytician got out of the back seat and went into the dealer's showroom. Clarity used the time to get out of the luxurious car and walk to a bench, where she sat down, reading a magazine picked up from a garbage can. Lim Li got out of the dealer after fifteen minutes, holding a small case in his hands. Clarity saw him walk to a nearby cafe, probably to inform Dao Bin.
While Smethens bought cigarettes for the moneytician, Clarity walked inside BullionStar's showroom, and questioned the palladium dealer at the front counter, giving him one five hundred dollar bill. The dealer said nothing. She added another bill. This time, the dealer began to talk. Lim Li had sold one million dollars worth of Hunan stock to get the cash which paid for the palladium for Chang.
"I'm not sure where the palladium is going. It's not being stored in our vault room here. He's working with a secure area in Singapore that deals only with very wealthy clients. It's used by auction houses apparently, could be an art gallery or a warehouse used by a museum to store works of art."
"Thanks."
Clarity got back inside the front passenger seat of the Rolls Royce before the moneytician came back. Smethens was last in and took the wheel after giving Lim Li a pack of Insignia cigarettes, which came from India, branded as the most expensive cigarette in the world. While the butler of Dao Bin drove them back to 'Wilkinson Vue' on Cuscaden Walk, the thoughts of Clarity turned to Shalia Owell. She wondered whether she was still in Singapore. What was she doing during all this time? More relevant questions came into her mind. Why had Elsie Chu taken her under her wing so quickly? And how was Dao Bin going to convince Owens & Owell to put so much money, sixty million dollars, for his health phone project?