Zach turns back and apologizes immediately. Usually Samantha would have gotten really annoyed and angry but this time she just swallows it, as she stares heart achingly at the scratch on her two thousand dollar boots. Anyone in the airport may be her 'task' right now. So she can't risk making enemies until she is sure they are not the target couple. Samantha grits her teeth letting out a soft growl watching the two morons as they make a beeline towards the check-in counter.
Remembering that she too is just on time for checking-in, Samantha makes her way to the nearest self service check-in kiosk and before she can place her finger onto the touchscreen, an announcement comes through the airport's P.A. system.
"Paging for Ms. Samantha Wilde. Please collect your boarding pass from Air Elite's check-in counter immediately. Thank you," a woman's voice announces slowly and clearly.
Samantha is astonished, looking up at the ceiling wondering what is happening.
"Paging for Ms. Samantha Wilde. Please collect your boarding pass from Air Elite's check-in counter immediately. Thank you," the announcement repeats.
Confused, Samantha stands rooted to the floor for a second before walking towards the check-in counter dreamily. As soon as the lady behind the counter sees her from afar, she stands up and waves for Samantha to go over, cutting the queue of eight people, including Zach and Nikki who are third in queue.
The people in queue stare at Samantha as she edges her way to the front in a blur. The lady in her uniform of a button up sky blue blouse and pink scarf pushes a boarding pass to her.
"So glad we found you Ms. Samantha. You left your boarding pass on the counter," the lady says politely as she pushes the boarding pass towards the edge of the counter to Samantha. Samantha gingerly pulls it off the counter-top, whispering an inaudible thank you, wondering what kind of sorcery this is again.
"Zach, I thought I saw her coming out of the limo in front of us. How come her boarding pass is already done?" Nikki asks.
"I dunno. Maybe she went back home to look for it," Zach suggests with a shrug.
"Maybe," Nikki nods. Zach's reply satisfies her curiosity well. She places her head against Zach's shoulder and he gives her a peck on the top of her head.
"Do you think she's prettier than me?" Nikki suddenly looks up at Zach asking.
"What? She? No way," Zach answers right away, shaking his head most disapprovingly. If there's anything he's learnt about women it's never to praise another woman for her good looks.
Nikki proudly smiles back and tips her toes to give Zach a peck on his cheek. Zach widens his eyes in relief that he has managed to successfully dodge the bullet of the day.
It's finally their turn. Nikki excitedly pulls Zach ahead and they both pass their tickets and passports to the smiley lady behind the check-in counter.
"Can we have window seats please?" Nikki asks eagerly.
"Of course, but for business class, the window seat is a single seat. You will have to be seated separately," the lady smiles back after looking into her computer.
"Oh... it's okay then," Nikki says, obviously disappointed.
"Are there any luggage to check-in?" the lady continues to ask.
"Uh yes, one please," Zach answers, petting Nikki on the shoulder before proceeding to lift the yellow hard-shell onto the conveyor belt.
After everything is done, the lady proceeds to slide the tickets, passports and boarding passes back to Zach and Nikki, wishing them, "Have a pleasant journey."
"Thanks," Nikki says and sweeps the documents from the counter-top.
"You okay babe?" Zach asks as they walk towards the security checkpoint.
"Of course. It's free business class. You'll let me take the aisle seat right?" Nikki smiles.
ONE HOUR LATER
Samantha enters the plane. Craning her neck to look around at the few occupied seats of the business class as she shows her boarding pass to the steward by the entrance, she hopes to get a glimpse of who the target couple is. The business class is made up of single window seats on both sides and twin aisle seats in the middle. Both aisles and seats are more than wide and roomy.
The steward hands the boarding pass back to Samantha and she enters into the plane where another stewardess ushers her down the wide aisle towards seat C12 which is the right window seat. The twin aisle seats of row C, separated by just an aisle from hers are still disappointingly empty. Samantha nervously takes her designated seat and waits timorously for the mysterious couple to appear.
As more and more passengers move in to fill the business class, the suspense of waiting for her task to appear boils up inside Samantha causing her to rub both her sweaty hands red.
Finally Zach and Nikki enter the plane and is ushered to C10 and C11. Samantha is more than glad to finally know who her target couple is. And now that they have finally boarded the plane, once the task is completed, she will be a free woman again. She excitedly watches the stewardess help them stick their backpacks into the above head luggage compartments.
Zach smiles a hello at Samantha as he gently moves into the seat closest to Samantha.
"I'll take that seat," Nikki says, as she pulls Zach back. She is not going to let Zach sit next to a hot chick, not even if they are separated by an aisle. If he hasn't smiled to her, she would have just let it be.
Zach retracts his steps and lets Nikki take the seat. Samantha just smiles to Nikki.
After everyone's seated and comfortable in their wide seats, Samantha turns over to introduce herself across the aisle, "So you're my lovely neighbors. Hi, I'm Samantha." Samantha is a street smart woman and she knows her way into anyone's heart. In this case, to succeed in her task, the only way is to please the jealous woman.
"Hi, I'm Nikki and this is my husband Zach," Nikki smiles back as Zach waves a hi and stretches his long legs into the comfort of the roomy leg room of the business class.
"Here's a lucky guy," Samantha praises Nikki, trying to break the ice.
"Let me guess, honeymoon?" Samantha asks cheekily as Nikki blushes, nodding happily.
"I remember mine," Samantha continues to say.
"You're married? Where's your husband?" Nikki asks, curious how come Samantha is not cuddling next to her husband.
Samantha inhales a deep breath as though trying to hold back tears, "He passed away two months ago in an accident."
"Oh my God, I'm so sorry!" Nikki immediately apologizes, surprised.
"It's okay. He's always here." Samantha says reassuringly to Nikki putting her own right hand onto her own chest as she forces a sad smile. She has always been good in acting.
At the same time, an air stewardess struts down the aisle in her light blue blouse, pink scarf, pink knee length skirt and black pumps taking headcounts of the air passengers, her finger clicking away on the finger tally counting device.
Nikki starts to feel touched and sympathetic all at once and she has totally softened for this poor, young widow. All her good looks are just a balance for the terrible things she has to go through in her life. That's what Nikki thinks.
"I've learnt a lot about making myself happy. I just listen to my favorite song ‘Running Man’ and shout out loud to it," Samantha says after a second.
"Running Man? That's Zach's favorite song too!" Nikki cries.
"Really? Then he must listen to this version," Samantha says and removes her smartphone from her pocket. She starts playing the file that has been downloaded into her phone and passes it to Nikki. The excitement on Zach's face when he hears the acoustic version is equivalent to that of a five year old seeing a chocolate fountain.
"This is awesome!" Zach exclaims in a whisper. Ada has done a good enough homework to know that this is Zach's favorite song of the year, making Samantha's work so much smoother.
"I know, I know," Samantha nods, laughing at Zach.
"Can I have this?" Zach asks eagerly.
"Just turn on your bluetooth," Samantha laughs. In her heart she is laughing because her first task is almost complete.
In less than three seconds, the file has been transferred successfully onto Zach's phone infecting it with the embedded virus to allow Ada to do her tricks.
Meantime, the door of the plane closes and the tiny non-smoking sign and fasten seat-belt sign above their heads light up with a ding. Everyone buckles up as the chief stewardess makes a welcome statement through the plane's P.A. system, "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard Air Elite. This is a direct flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with a two hours stopover at Hong Kong. Total flight time will be sixteen hours and thirty five minutes. Please make sure that your seat backs and tray tables are in their full upright position. Also ensure that your seat belt is fastened correctly. Any electronic equipment must be turned off. Thank you and have a pleasant flight.”
Samantha turns her phone off and puts it into her handbag. A few minutes later, the plane starts to push back followed by another announcement, "Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to direct your attention to the television monitors. We will be showing our safety demonstration and would like the next few minutes of your complete attention.” The individual monitors on the back of each seat then start to play the safety demonstration video while the plane navigates towards its runway. Zach and Nikki are utterly amazed.
The video finishes playing and the captain makes his announcement before take off, “Flight attendants, prepare for take-off please.”
The plane has driven onto its runway and is ready for take off. It begins gaining speed, soon lifting itself up into the air, ascending quickly. Samantha feels partial relief that things have by far gone well with the two morons. Being a proud woman of her class, she won't even choose to look their way given the normal circumstances. By the way they dress and the luggage they carry, she can tell that they are from the lower income segment. She remembers well the days when she once belonged to that distasteful segment. But things are different now that she has escalated to become a woman of the super rich.
The plane climbs rapidly above the clouds and soon the seat-belt signs turn off with a ding. Nikki and Zach are excited beyond words. It is their first flying experience and Samantha rolls her eyes in secret just hearing them giggle. She decides she can not tolerate being near them anymore, so the best thing to do is to go to sleep as soon as possible.
"I'm gonna pop a pill and sleep through it. Don't wanna disturb you love birds," Samantha turns to say to Nikki as she removes her seat-belt, and bends down to remove her handbag from her leg room.
Nikki smiles as she watches Samantha take a small blue pill from its white cylinder container, pops it into her mouth and tilts her head to swallow it without water. Samantha then presses the button for a stewardess.
Almost immediately a steward scoots over to serve Samantha.
"Hi, what can I do for you?" the steward asks politely, bending low.
"I'd like to take a rest, can you get me a pillow and blanket?" Samantha asks.
"Sure, I'll be right back," the steward replies with a broad, friendly smile and hurries off.
"You guys have fun," Samantha says to Nikki while she reclines the back of her seat to a flat, sleeping position, converting the seat into a bed itself.
"Sure will," Nikki chirps.
The steward returns with a gray blanket, a fluffy gray pillow and a black satin eye mask, all warm and fresh out of sterilization. He gently passes them to Samantha.
"Is there anything else that I can do for you?" the steward asks and helps Samantha lower the window shutter.
"I'm going for a long sleep. Don't bother waking me for lunch okay?" Samantha instructs to the steward as she puts on her eye mask.
"No problem," the steward replies with a wide grin and gets going.
Meanwhile, Zach and Nikki start to get busy by staring out the faraway plane window towards their left, into the horizon of puffy white clouds.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" Zach says to Nikki who is craning her neck to look.
"Can we change seats, please?" Nikki begs. Zach smiles and gets up. He knows why she had wanted the other seat previously. Talk about women and their insecurities!
For the next few hours, Nikki and Zach spends their time enjoying their first lunch in the air, rounds of complimentary cocktails and snacks, exploring the in-flight entertainment touch screen monitor before them, enjoying movies, songs, videos and computer games. Several hours after that, they too have become exhausted and have gone to sleep under the snug of warm blankets.
Chapter 18
Malaysia: Monday, 17th November 10:16 a.m.
Inside a tiny, old squatter house of wooden walls, a cement floor and a rusty zinc roof, squished into the middle of the illegal Thai settlement just outside the border of the city, are Kaew and Yuna. It is from here that A-Wut has built his kingdom of illegal trade. Yuna and Kaew have gone through the night executing an extremely risky plan, which is to identify the killer sent after them. Second phase will be playing a game of cat and mouse while reaching out to the last three victims on the pattern and finally fleeing the country and go missing forever.
Urgent fingers rapping at the barricaded wooden front door startles the two nervous women.
"Open the door, it's us," a voice says in Thai. It's one of the Thai boys from yesterday.
"Is them," Kaew nods at Yuna and they immediately remove the long rattan sofa and two wooden stools used to barricade the door. The two teenage boys enter with two large, black plastic bags which looked like two huge bags of groceries and a rather large white ceramic urn.
Yuna immediately closes the door after them and is about to push the sofa back into place to barricade it when one of the boys stop her by waving his hand at her. They pass the two bags to Kaew, say something to her in Thai and turn to leave. Kaew sees them to the door and watches them leave in a yellow, beaten truck.
After another round of barricade building, they return to check on the contents of the two large bags, whether they are what they asked for specifically. Yuna and Kaew each takes a bag and starts to pull out its contents.
The one in Yuna's hand contains two baseball caps, two large sunglasses, a black head scarf, a pair of abaya, which is a black cloak worn by Muslim women, a niqab, the black face covering Muslim women wear and some other plain clothing meant for blending in.
In Kaew's bag is a large yellow padded envelope, hair dyes, a pair of scissors and some makeup and makeup tools. Kaew removes the padded envelope and undoes the string circling below the little coin sized white paper disc to open the flap. Yuna watches impatiently as Kaew pours the contents onto the cement floor. There are stacks of cash money, all old hundred ringgit bills - one million ringgit to be exact. Those are not a gift from A-wut but part of Yuna's gains from signing an agreement to legally transfer a property of hers to him for only half of the market value. It is a win-win situation, Yuna gets the urgent cold hard cash she needs and A-wut gets double the value of his cash. On the floor beside the money are two fake driving licenses and identity cards and four fake passports. Instead of going for the money, both Kaew's and Yuna's hands dip quickly for their set of one fake Malaysian driving license and identity card, one fake Malaysian passport and one fake British passport. Their new Malaysian identities are Wang Jun Li and Lily John, while their British identities are Sylvia Ho and Hom Montri.
They pick up their respective driving license, identity card and passports and dump them into their own backpacks. Yuna then picks the cash up, takes a stack, dumps it into her bag and carefully fills the urn with the remaining. Kaew places the clothes into her backpack and they are ready to leave their safe house. Their first stop is to find a place to keep the money and Yuna knows just where.
Yuna steps out of the warehouse in a dark blue T-shirt and a pair of jeans and sneakers. Her long black hair is pulled back into a ponytail and tucked over her head under a black cap. Nothing too different about her yet. Kaew puts on a plain gray T-shirt with black jeans and lets her hair fall to cover both sides of her face as usual. They gather their bags and come
out of the plywood house.
Parked in front of the house with the car keys still in the ignition is a stolen local black subcompact car. With fake registration plates and a full tank of fuel they are ready to go. Yuna loads the trunk with the two black bags full of artillery and places her backpack into the leg room of the back seat. Kaew throws her back pack into the leg room as well and they climb into the front seats with Yuna behind the wheel. They put on their sunglasses and start their journey. Their first stop, Haven Memorial Park situated a little outside the city towards the outskirts.
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