Chapter Ten

Randy nearly walked right past the downtown noodle shop, until Young Nae waved him back.

“What, this hole in the wall?”

“Exactly.”

Randy sized up the table and two chairs on the sidewalk, and looked around at the busy foot traffic and the noisy, smelly cars, and motor scooters just a few feet away. Randy didn’t like crowds, and the level of buzz, even just from the few minutes they had walked, was starting to get to him. “Do you think we can talk out here?”

“No. Come on in.”

Inside was little more than a cracked linoleum bar with four well-worn bamboo stools. Tucked in the back was a single table with two chairs. It was two o’clock and empty, and it looked like the cook behind the counter was cleaning up to close for the day. He smiled and greeted Young Nae in what Randy recognized as Malay. Young Nae responded in kind and pointed at the table. The cook nodded and waved them back.

“I guess you do come here as often as you said.”

“Been coming here for years.”

The place smelled strongly of spices, but the combination of citrus and peppers and ginger didn’t smell like any cuisine Randy knew. He picked up a menu and none of it was in English.

“Sorry about that,” Young Nae reacted. “Let me order for you. Do you like noodles?”

“Japanese udon is one of my favorites.”

“Well, they won’t have udon here, but I’ll get you something good.” Young Nae waved his hand to get the cook’s attention, then called out an order in Malay.

He turned back to Randy. “You want something to drink?”

“Tsing Tao, if they’ve got it.”

Young Nae called out again to the cook, then turned back. “So, what’s new?”

“Just got out of the hospital,” he announced cheerfully. “I had a heart attack night before last. Had a pacemaker put in to control things.”

Young Nae’s eyebrows shot up and he paused for a long moment. “You’re shitting me, right?”

“No, honest to God.”

“Were you here in K-L?”

“Yeah. I came over to have a session with Sanantha. I ended up calling her at three a.m.”

“Why didn’t you call me?”

“I didn’t know you were in town. All I knew was you were at a conference. I mean, you weren’t at your apartment. That’s where I was when I had the heart attack.”

“Holy crap, Randy.”

The cook brought over two opened bottles.

“It gets even more bizarre. Remember those bug bites all over my back? It turns out Lo Cheung kidnapped me at some point and injected some kind of poison into all those spots. Those spots are all Chi-gong meridians points. The whole pattern forms a trap that links my brain and my heart. If I remember the wrong thing, my heart stops.”

“What the fuck? Are you sure you’re not punking me with this?”

“I agree, it’s unbelievable. You should have seen the doctor’s face when he figured it out. It took him right to the edge of his scientific understanding.”

“Well, you kind of live on that edge.”

“No, I push the envelope to see what’s possible. This guy was staring down something that shouldn’t be possible. It was really scary. It was all I could do not to freak out.”

“So you’ve disarmed the trap now, with the pacemaker?”

“Yeah. At least it shouldn’t be able to kill me anymore.”

“So what, this thing is triggered by memories? Did you remember something from your missing period that tripped this thing?”

“Only flashes. Nothing I can make sense of. The doctor said if I ever fully remember, it will shut down my heart for good.”

Young Nae was clearly having a hard time wrapping his mind around all of this.

“So it looks like Lo Cheung kidnapped me sometime in the last three months, injected me, and returned me without you ever knowing. Is that possible?”

“I’m afraid so. You were at the beach house pretty much the whole time. I spend at least half my time here in K-L or on the road. I’m afraid I wasn’t around to keep close tabs on you. I never thought he would come right onto my property and kidnap you. So I didn’t put a guard on you. I’m really sorry I underestimated him. If he is pulling bold shit like this, then you really need to reconsider leaving Malaysia. He didn’t let up on Cheri until he killed her. I’m afraid the same is going to happen to you.”

“Isn’t it bold shit like this that is going to get him caught? If I leave, then he goes back into hiding.”

Young Nae sighed. “I won’t disagree that you make excellent bait, but that is way riskier than I’m comfortable with.”

Randy took a drink of his bottle of beer. “Now I don’t buy that. You live on risk, you’re an entrepreneur.”

“That’s not how it works. Entrepreneurs are actually risk averse. We love the thrill of the big rewards attached to risk, but we check out every option first, since it is our own money on the table. Then we make well-informed decisions. Good ones are nimble, but that just means we are well informed, not crazy.”

“I stand corrected. What I cannot figure out is, why Lo Cheung would go to all this trouble to mess up my memory and then build this weird trap to kill me, but only if I remember. I mean, why not kill me while he had the chance?”

“That’s a rather chilling thing to ask.”

“Am I wrong?” Randy countered.

Young Nae thought about it for a moment. “Sounds like karma.”

“You mean, what comes around goes around?”

“Not really. That phrase always annoyed me. Karma is the baggage you carry for past sins. If you harm more than you have to, you pick up more karmic baggage, and that can weigh down your soul. For a magician like Lo Cheung, that can mean the difference between success and failure. He has to match the damage he does to his actual need–or he ends up harming himself.”

“Sounds like pretty subtle stuff for a thug who mows down innocent women with trucks,” Randy sneered.

“That’s all I’ve got. I have no idea how this guy’s mind works. All I know is he is ruthless.”

“According to this formula you gave, he won’t kill me unless I become a big enough threat that killing me becomes necessary. So what did I see, that if I remember it, I become worth killing?”

“Beats me. Does he know that you know of him? Have you learned anything sensitive about him?”

“Well what do you know of his motives? You said you can’t go to the police until you have him dead to rights. I imagine you’ve got private investigators working on the case.”

“Oh yes. I even have a couple of people working inside his organization trying to get dirt on him.”

Randolph brightened at this. “Well, there you go. Is there anything I can do to help any of these people?”

“Oh, no. I couldn’t afford the chance of accidentally blowing someone’s cover. No, they have to stay well below the radar.”

“So how can I help? Think of something.”

“First of all, I will put you under closer surveillance. If Cheung makes a move, we’ll see him coming. I mean, if you want to play bait, then we don’t have to set much of a trap. He knows you’re here, and he will soon know that you’ve foiled his heart stopping chi thing.”

“That’s true.” Randolph thought for a moment. “He must know I’m working with

Sanantha to uncover my memories, which is exactly what he wants to stop.”

The cook brought over their food. Randy’s was a bowl of cellophane rice noodles with vegetables and meat floating in broth, while Young Nae’s was a plate of dumplings and lumpia.

“Then we’re on the right track.” Young Nae nodded as he picked up a piece. “Please let me know whatever you remember. It could be huge in our case against Lo Cheung. I’ll put someone on your tail starting right away. You won’t know they’re there, so just go about your daily routines.”

“They’re that invisible?”

“That’s why I pay them as much as I do.”

“That’s good.” Randolph scooped up some of the noodles with chopsticks and tried a bite.“Spicy,” he commented. “Lots of garlic.”

“You like it?”

“Yeah, it’s good. Not what I expected. Thanks.” He paused to collect his thoughts. “Look, I’ve got to ask you something. I’ve been having a hard time trying to think of how to bring this up, so I’m just going to spit it out. I’m still having the nightmares. In fact, they’re getting worse. Sanantha says not to read too much into them, but I can’t shake the feeling that these nightmares are telling me I’m somehow responsible for Desiree’s condition.”

Young Nae leaned forward. “How? What do you think you did?”

“Well, that’s what I’m asking you. I was drunk off my nut for four months. You may not have been around all the time, but you had your wits about you. Did I do anything during that time that would leave me feeling guilty about Desiree’s coma?”

Young shook his head slowly side to side. “No. Nothing. I don’t see how you could be held be to blame for anything.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I think you’ve got to go with your shrink’s advice on this one. Dreams are just dreams.”

Randolph shifted uncomfortably in his cheap diner chair. “Really? That doesn’t sound right coming from you.”

“How do you mean?”

“On the one hand I’m relieved to hear you say I didn’t do anything to cause Desiree harm, but I thought you put big stake in dream images. You’ve told me you have religious visions. Some of those led to our success with Cyto.”

Young Nae smiled and nodded. “True enough, but my visions from Haneulnim don’t come as nightmares about people in my life. They only come after a lot of meditation and making myself ready to receive them. By the way, I haven’t had a vision in years.”

“Well I’m glad you had them when you did. We had some real luck following those connections, and I don’t just mean getting a cool company logo.”

“I was proud to adapt the Cheondogyo flag.”

“It doesn’t hurt that it looks like hands cupped around a cell. So do you still practice the Heavenly Way?”

“It has always been a great comfort to me, knowing that God lives inside of us. I admit I haven’t been to temple in a long time. I’m just too busy.”

“I haven’t been to church in years, not since Dez was in grade school. I have to tell you, though, I’ve been thinking a lot about prayer since this all went down.”

Young Nae frowned. “It kills me to see you suffer like this. I sure hope Doctor Mauwad can help.”

“That’s what I’m in town for.”

“Speaking of in town, I want you to know where I am. I’m going to be out of touch for a couple more days. I’ve got this conference I’m presenting at, and I’m just staying at the hotel. You can reach me on the cell. Please do if you need me this time.”

“Yes, I will. Hopefully I won’t need to.” In between bites, he commented off-hand. “A couple of days, eh? You sure put in the hours.”

“It’s what I do. You put in hours in the lab. I put in hours in meetings.”

“Do you have a social life? I mean, in the last week, I haven’t seen you meet with or even talk to any friends. Let alone a girlfriend.”

“No, at this point in my life I don’t really have time for any of that. I sure as hell don’t have time for a girlfriend.”

“Yeah, multimillion dollar company, and all. You’ve got to have people under you that you can trust to run things once in a while?” he ventured.

“I’ve got a few lieutenants, but nobody that I would trust with anything strategic.”

“That’s got to be a lot of pressure on you. We’ve been spending all this time focused on my problems. How are you holding up? I don’t think I’ve seen you take a drink or smoke a cigarette. What is that you’re drinking, tea? How do you blow off steam?”

“Oh no, I don’t put anything like that in my body. I need my health to be able to stay focused. Living pure is a religious conviction for me. It’s all I can do to not drink too much coffee. And this tea?” he said holding up the bottle. “I know the guy that bottles it. Ginseng green tea, full of antioxidants. You should try some.”

“What do you do for scheduled down time?”

Young Nae leaned back in his creaking chair and thought for a moment. “What do I do to blow off steam? I work out a lot. You see, I don’t see my work as stress. I love what I do.”

“Tell you what. When you get back from this conference, let’s you and me go do something for an afternoon just to take a break and catch up. What about a round of golf? I’m sure they’ve got golf here in Malaysia. We used to love playing golf, back in the day.”

“We did. My current passion is spear fishing. I could take you out on my boat.”

“That’s like hunting, just underwater?” He nodded to himself. “I could get into that. I don’t know how to use scuba gear.”

“I can teach you. I’ve got all the gear you’ll need.” Young Nae laughed. “On the other hand, we will have to rent a giant wet suit for those long legs of yours.”