For a little less than a month, days and nights meshed seamlessly. Plenty of new companions shared Louis’s bed but he still preferred the visits from Cam, Sassy and Pretty, as they genuinely enjoyed their time together. Only after a few days, had he noticed that what he mistook for window condensation on the glass on his first day had in fact been etched onto the panes to create a more porous sense of time and melt the days into the nights. Likewise, the mood lighting in the room, which was entirely pre-set and controlled from the main house, was designed to alter his perceptions of time. Moreover, his playmates had always appeared on cue, just when light faded into dark or night gave way to day so as to further erase the passage of time. It was almost three weeks before he saw Paul again, but Louis could no longer recall whether it had been months or just hours. He had lost all sense of time and his entire life seemed to evolve around drinking, smoking, popping pills, watching movies, swimming and having sex in as many positions and with as many people as were provided for him, sometimes drowning in the most depraved acts of his own device. His entire world had become confined to his room. He had no desire to leave or to do anything else but sit there with his whims and wantons catered for day and night. He nonetheless managed to send a few words on a postcard to his sisters, whose addresses he thankfully knew by heart. The words were the same.
“Having a great time. This island is paradise. Waiting for Jacques’ return. Paul is taking good care of me. Hope you are well. Miss you. With love, Louis.”
Cam had seen no harm in posting them and neglected to tell Paul of the small errand he had been entrusted with. He had become a regular companion to Louis and the latter had done his best to avoid asking himself too many questions about his own sexuality; he had come to look forward to his romps with Cam as much as he did with the ever-changing supply of young women. The postcards had shown sunsets along coconut-rimmed beaches from the other side of Koh Samui, since none were available from their side of the island; certainly no photos had ever been published of the compound high on the hills.
When Paul next saw Louis, he was nonetheless shocked by the transformation. Louis had lost over 10 kilos and his once fit frame now looked gaunt. He did not look sick, yet hollow black circles ringed his eyes. He knew from the doctors that Louis suffered from serious constipation, which gave his skin a yellowish hue despite the deep suntan. Although Louis appeared in good spirits, his conversation was impossible to follow; indeed, he jumped erratically from one subject to the other, his memory quite holed and his reasoning skills at an all-time low. He sounded jittery and was beheld by a state of permanent excitation. After his initial observation of his young guest, Paul ordered that all recreational drugs be removed from his daily routine, replacing them instead with mood stabilisers and strong cocktails of minerals and vitamins in order to slowly bring Louis back to a clear understanding of what would now be expected of him. Without a clear head, Louis could not help him. To accelerate the process, he also began substituting the Infinity pills with placebos; without Louis regaining a certain sense of reality, he could not progress to the next stage of his Machiavellian plan. It took another three days before he could seriously talk to him.
On the fourth day of his return to the compound, Paul invited Louis to join him for pre-dinner drinks in his office. When Louis opened the door, he was delighted to see Jade standing by his side. He ran to her and took her in his arms and kissed her passionately, oblivious to Paul just standing there. Without his presence, Louis would have made love to her, right then and there, but calming himself, he led her to the couch instead where they both sat, side by side, hand in hand.
“Oh, I missed you so much,” he breathed into her neck. “Why didn’t you tell me you were here? You look absolutely beautiful,” he added admiring her.
“It was supposed to be a surprise.”
She laughed at his eagerness and did her best at hiding her shock at his changed appearance.
“You’re so tan,” she said instead, looking at him lovingly. “You’ve lost a lot of weight though. What have you been up to? Hasn’t my uncle been looking after you?”
Louis’s world suddenly collapsed.
How was he supposed to answer that? What exactly had he been doing? How long was it in fact since he first landed on the island?
He could not even recall what day it was or even what month. What if Jade found out about his sexual exploits, would she not have every right to be furious?
Louis was still looking for the right words when Paul came to his rescue.
“What can I get to drink for you lovebirds? Louis, please relax. I’ve a movie I want to show you,” he added smirking.
Paul had a champagne flute brought to each of them and then switched off the lights in the suddenly very warm office. Louis sat transfixed while the first images showed his room, his first day windsurfing in the lagoon and then the over-sized bed with the twins asleep. For thirty minutes, the cleverly edited movie played out like a full-length porn of which he was the unwitting star. Jade had closed her eyes. She had already seen some of the footage earlier, when Paul had explained to her how he was going to break Louis. He had told her that, unfortunately, the young man’s first exposure to the very carefully and professionally edited film had to be shown in front of her to reinforce his feelings of shame and shock. Then he would be told that a copy of the small disk would be FedEx to his parents the very next day, with another copy sent to Jacques for good measure. Maybe he would throw in the threat of posting it on the Internet for the world to see. During the projection, Paul had even cruelly remarked that, in his opinion, the short and explicit film was sure to rival in interest the snake documentaries the boys had been sent to Thailand to film.
Sweat poured out of Louis’s every pore. He began to shake uncontrollably; he was not sure whether it was from shock, from anger or from drug withdrawal. The film had shown him in every position possible, having intercourse with men and women alike, seemingly without preference, indulging in the most perverted acts. The film also clearly underscored his constant drug taking. Some of his discourses while under the influence were taped as voice over during sex scenes, portraying him as no less than a depraved young man, who had little respect for himself or anyone else and would partake in anything and everything without discrimination. Paul had prepared himself for a violent outburst at having being played so masterfully, but instead Louis dropped his head in the palms of his hands and began to sob quietly. Jade stood shell-shocked, both repulsed and mesmerised by what she had seen, even though she had expected it. The film had shown a demon unleashed, a man whose perversions had no depth, a man for whom the division of right and wrong had blurred at the most instinctual levels. Yet, the beautiful man displayed on screen was the same man she had lured into her trap and was also the one she had begun to fall in love with. She could not help herself and drew him into her arms, cooing to him until the sobs that rocked him finally subsided. Paul looked at them, unfazed. When Louis lifted his head, he could only utter “why?”
“Well, I’ll tell you why,” replied Paul sarcastically. “I want you to be utterly convinced that I can ruin your life past, present and future unless you agree to work for me. In fact, I need your full cooperation.”
Louis too despondent to answer, just nodded, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“We have plenty of time,” added Paul, calmly. “So you two become re-acquainted first and then get changed for dinner. I will then lay out my plan and, Louis, you’ll soon come to understand that you’re left with little choice but to agree with me. Don’t worry, it’ll all work out and if you agree, I give you my word that this little piece of art will never see the light of day. I’m sure though that your parents would never recover and they really don’t need to be exposed to it, now do they? We’ll work this out, I promise.”
Once more Louis nodded despondently and Jade helped him stand up. Louis walked out of the room a broken man.
Jade walked silently by Louis’s side, who ke
pt on muttering to himself. She helped him take a shower and wash off the sweat of fear and shame that had soaked his shirt and his twill pants. She washed his body lovingly and tried to erase from her mind the recent images as she did so. She laid out new clothes on the bed and urged him to dress. She then lit him a joint and poured him a drink to calm him down. Avoiding any references to what had just happened, she chatted instead of her time visiting her mother. She described vividly the village in which she lived and many other small things. Listening absent-mindedly, Louis finally asked for the date and she told him. He shook his head when he realised almost a month had gone by since he had last seen her. He then asked her for forgiveness and tears welled in his eyes as he confessed his shame. She assured him that it did not change anything between them. It never occurred to a badly shaken Louis to ask what her role in all of this was, assuming still that she was just another innocent bystander and somehow a victim of Paul’s manipulations, just like him. After one hour of cajoling, Louis began to feel more in control and they walked back to the house, holding hands. He would listen to what Paul had to say and see whether he could deal with the consequences of his actions. Yet, he already knew that such a tape would destroy his parents, alienate his sisters and lose him the few friends he still had; whatever choices he would be presented with, he remained under no illusion that he would have to accept them, whatever they turned out to be.
The dinner table was set for three and lavishly so. While Louis would have thought that the last couple of hours had entirely cut his appetite, his stomach still rumbled at the enticing smells of the dishes laid out before them. He resisted the urge to help himself or comment on the meal in anyway and waited instead for Paul to open the conversation.
“Louis. I’m sorry it had to come to this, but you’ll soon understand that I had to find a way that you couldn’t say no to my proposition. You’re a very smart boy, Louis, and I’m sure you’ve gathered by now that my riches couldn’t come solely from peddling simple pharmaceutical drugs. In fact, my fortune comes mostly from the manufacturing and distribution of Infinity, the small green-coloured pills you’ve so enjoyed. In large dosages the drug makes you lose all sense of time, shed all inhibitions and deprives you of sleep, therefore annihilating your better judgment. It also controls your appetite and stimulates your sex drive while heightening your sensory perceptions. In short dosage, it’s heralded as the ultimate party drug. My market of choice is Europe. In order for me to make money, I need a courier.”
So that was it, thought Louis desperately. I was right all along, this guy wants me to run drugs for him! Why hadn’t he trusted his gut feeling?
“…Or rather,” added Paul, “I need a viable, unsusceptible container to ferry a very large quantity at once.”
“I’m confused,” counter-acted Louis. “You’re proposing I ingest a huge amount of pills and thereby carry them across borders?”
“If that’s all I needed,” replied Paul a touch contemptuously, “I wouldn’t need you, would I? Nor would I spend so much time on you and groom you for the job, sort of speak. In fact, to put it rather bluntly, I need you dead.”
Louis blanched, chills running down his back.
“No, I’m not going to kill you. Jade here wouldn’t permit it, would you, my dear?” he said, winking at her. “But I need your alleged coffin to transport the drugs. In fact, we need to stage and fake your death, send a death certificate to the French Embassy, who will then subsequently order for the body to be repatriated. Once in Paris, the drugs will be delivered. An empty casket will be buried in the ground, with no one the wiser.”
Louis sat dumbfounded, both stunned by the ingenuity of the plan and bewildered by its implications.
“You want me to pretend to my family that I’m dead? Like permanently? You want me to watch my mother bury me? How could I ever do that? Not even this film could turn me into such a monster!” yelled Louis outraged, banging his fist on the table.
“There are a lot of financial incentives for you as well. Just open your mind and listen to all I have to say before you jump all over me,” suggested Paul calmly.
Paul lit a joint and handed it to Louis who turned it down.
“Listen to me. You don’t have to decide anything tonight. Let me tell you the rest of the proposal. You can sleep on it. Do you remember, Louis, the first dinner at my house when you opened up and told us about your family, your constant battle with addiction, what your parents meant to you, how sad you were to permanently disappoint them and how you could never look them in the face? You love them, don’t you? And you know better than anyone that this film would kill them. What I offer you is a chance. I’d even pay you 4 million dollars for it, in American dollars, wired to any account you nominate. You can disappear wherever you want. You can go live in South America, even though that’s a bit too cliché for me, or even remain anywhere in the East. We’d establish a new identity for you. You could start fresh. You’d have enough money to live comfortably. You couldn’t stay in Thailand of course, at least not at first, since your death certificate would be issued here. But you could go and live in Laos or Vietnam where they speak French, at least in some parts of it. Or maybe you could move to Bali. Bali is quite beautiful and I’ve a few friends there who could help you get settled. It’s true that while it would be hard on your parents at first, time does atone all pain and all that. Think of their shame. It’d kill them. And wouldn’t it be better for once if it were you sacrificing yourself, after all they have done for you? And just imagine if the film ended up in the wrong hands, or worse, on the Internet? It would end up ruining their reputation and their careers as well. And what about your sisters? Don’t they still go by the same last name as you? Think of it that way: I’m offering you a chance to redeem the past and build a future. Isn’t it worth a few tears?”
Louis nodded helplessly throughout Paul’s monologue, beginning to see where he was coming from, incapable of faulting the plan or the reasoning. When Louis’s next question focused on the money, Paul breathed a sigh of relief: he knew he had him. From then on, they would enter the nitty-gritty of the negotiation stage, an art Paul mastered better than most, especially in Louis’s condition. Jade would continue her close monitoring of his moods and movements and keep him well lubricated in all senses of the term. Paul chuckled at his own wit. This score was going to make him richer than he ever dreamed of and money in Thailand was after all the ultimate power.
“Louis, you’ve had enough shocks for one night. Let’s meet again over breakfast to further discuss this. It’s a balmy night. Perhaps Jade could take you down to the beach for a walk by moonlight.”
Louis just shrugged, incapable of fathoming what laid in front of him. Once again Jade helped him stand and as the young couple left hand in hand, Paul could not help but muse over the handsome pair they made, almost regretting that their romance could not blossom. He was confident though that the next day a deal would be struck and that Louis’s fate would be sealed.
Instead of returning to his room, the young couple decided that they would take advantage of Paul’s offer and drive down to the beach. Since he was not used to driving on the treacherous hillside roads, he let Jade borrow the jeep parked at the rear of the main house and drive. He could not believe that he had not been out of the compound for over four weeks nor had any desire to. They travelled for 20 minutes or so through thick jungles and dirt roads until they came to a stretch of beach at the bottom of the hillside. They parked the car next to a series of bikes and mopeds. Past the street stalls they followed a windy path to the beach. The still warm sand, soft and white, creaked under their feet. The temperature of a tepid bath, the sea glistened under the moonlight. A slight breeze ruffled the top of the palm trees. As they walked past, an old woman in fisherman pants, pointing to small paper balloons, asked them whether they wanted her to make good luck for them. Jade explained that the custom of sending tiny paper balloon to the heavens derived from old mortuary customs, which was said to
transport the soul to the next life. Louis agreed that in the light of the day’s events it was more than appropriate: he would light one and send his wishes to the universe.
After some bargaining, Jade paid 200 baht and they stood on the water’s edge where they were told to simply hold the corners of the paper column while the old woman lit the kerosene-soaked centre ring. As soon as the air became hot enough, the balloon lifted from their hands and gently rose to the sky, drifting with the breeze.
“What was your wish?” asked Jade timidly, looking at her lover’s thoughtful face.
“Isn’t the entire purpose defeated if you tell the other one your wish?” chided Louis.
“Oh, I think that’s an urban legend, and only true when it comes to birthday candles,” laughed Jade.
“I wished I could get out of this mess. No, in fact I wish it was already all over with. I wished for a new life where I wouldn’t constantly mess up and disappoint those I love. What about you?”
“I wished for my mother to find peace,” replied Jade truthfully. “I wished for her not to smoke so much. I also wished you’d still love me when this is all over.”
“Who said I loved you in the first place?” replied Louis teasingly.
“You don’t say so,” admitted the young woman. “But I can see it in your heart,” she added smiling sweetly.
“Really?” said Louis lifting her in the air and twirling her around. “Should we go have a drink?”
“Sure, look, there is a little bar on the beach, right over there,” agreed Jade pointing to a couple of tables and a few bar stools propped against a bar built out of the fallen trunk of a large coconut tree. “The music should be good too. And maybe you want to talk about what you’re going to say to Paul tomorrow. Perhaps I could be of help?”
The Samui Conspiracy Page 16