Chapter Five
The following day, all of the entourage of the Sheik chartered a boat and headed to Tortola, home of the Road Harbor, which housed the largest charter boat fleet in the world. The Luxardo Amaretto terrace, the new workplace of Hari, was not too far from the bar and grill restaurant of Village Cay Marina, a place in Road Town which offered a nice range of sailing ships available for charter. Hari donned a sleeveless black waiter vest, and the owner of the terrace gave him a matching white napkin to clean the tables.
"Do good work, Hari, I don't want to hear you had any problems with the customers," said Merhab.
"Of course," said Hari.
Clarity settled with Plum, Nives and Julia in one of the tables of the terrace, overlooking the marina, while Merhab and Hakeem sat in a separate table, a few feet away, discussing business and the next steps in the training of the Sheik. They ordered drinks, and Hari came by to deliver them.
"So did you enjoy being part of Casa Mollino?" Asked Plum. Clarity moved her chair slightly, somewhat surprised by the statement, and the thought that Plum knew she'd taken part in the filming of an adult film.
"It was all right," said Clarity, "I have not seen the whole film."
"Golden Lamp of Casa Mollino has involved many people, prominent people known by the wealthy social strata that you and I never meet. It also has a secret, it's not shown in the film, but some of the people and the elements in the film lead to it. The lamp is real." Plum sipped her cucumber lemonade mocktail.
"What kind of secret?" Clarity began savoring her summer drink, a Sangria Flora made with an elderflower liqueur called St. Germain, one quarter cup of Cointreau, six strawberries, six raspberries, two peaches, and one orange. The mixture had been created by Lynette Marrero, the bartender of Freemans in New York city.
"The lamp refers to the everburning lamp."
"I've never heard of it, you mean a lamp which keeps burning?" Plum placed her glass on the table.
"The lamp has several interpretations. You can actually find it in the flag of the British Virgin Islands. The coat of arms shows twelve lamps, representing eleven thousand virgins. Historically, it is thought that the secret temples of the Buddhists in Tibet, India, and Japan, adopted asbestos as wick in their lamp, which burned continuously without replenishing. Mateer, a missionary, knew of a golden lamp at Trevandrum, in the kingdom of Travancore, which he thought had been burning for one hundred twenty years. The Abbe Huc, a traveller, states that he has seen and examined an everburning lamp."
Plum pulled out a worn out brown book from her purse. It was dated from 1922 and wore the seal of a Library she'd never heard mention anywhere, which said HSAF Library. The title said 'The Rose of the Initiates', and it had an inverted triangle on the page preceding the table of contents, which was incomplete at the top, shown without its base, filled instead by the illustration of the flame.
"The inner fire is what truly is real about a person. The flame of the everburning lamp speaks of an Eternity of life."
"What is the inner fire, the flame you are talking about?" Asked Clarity.
"It refers to a vibration in the body, which is real, when the body awakens to subtle energies, related to but not only made with sexual energy, the energy that pervades all of creation." Clarity resonated with the statement.
"Do you feel the inner fire?" Asked Clarity.
"Not sure, I might, " said Plum, "that's one thing I'd like to confirm, one of the reasons I left Macau with my friends. But in order to do that, I need to find a person who knows how to interpret this book. She is an older lady, her name is Lady Mulham. She has abandoned the spheres of power years ago, but she keeps several antennae, places chosen by her for those interested in the flame. But she is not easy to find, you need to break through several layers of high society before you find her or those places chosen by her. And I know Hari can lead us to her, his family has connections with many people associated with money and power." Clarity moved her hand towards the book Plum was holding and began turning the pages.
"Who gave you this book?" Asked Clarity. She flipped the pages back to the second page and noticed the book had been published in a limited edition of only sixty three copies.
"A slot machine technician in Macau, someone aware of the pyramid of power in Asia, and in general. Some of those people are involved in gambling, or like to gamble." Clarity looked beyond Plum, at Hari, who was asking the owner about how to make cocktails with Amaretto.
"What do you want to do? Why did you decide to follow the Sheik?" Asked Clarity.
"I want to bring Hari closer to Lohvia, and get him to break up with Nora."
"Why?"
"I want to introduce both of them to the inner flame, Nora is too mundane and conventional in her ways of thinking, but Lohvia and Hari are more open-minded. Those around Lady Mulham will be receptive to a couple like them, with access to many resources. And by bringing Hari, we can also get into her lodge."
"And then? Once they are closer?" Asked Nives.
"I want Hari to marry Lohvia, and lead Hari to share his agenda with us, without drawing the attention of Hakeem, his retainer, in order to find a connection who knows Lady Mulham." Plum turned to Clarity and held her hand.
"Will you help us, you're not stupid you know?"
Clarity knew she wasn't dumb, but she'd barely met Plum, and did not fully trust her intention. She ran her finger along one of the nails of Plum, decorated with an elegant black and blue striped design. It was hard to read her.
"Sure, all right," she said.
Clarity was unsure of where it would lead her, but the thought of the everburning lamp intrigued her. The book did say 1922, all of what she was reading had not been invented by Plum. She glanced at the other end of the terrace, watching Hari engaged in a lively conversation. After serving drinks and sweeping tables for a few hours, Hari had begun to talk with a tourist from the U.S. who lived in Arkansas. His sociable side got the best of him, and he began talking because he simply liked to talk to people.
"I almost passed my series 6 exam," said Hari, "but I decided it was kind of difficult, I may do series 7, but not sure it is easy either. I like easy, life should be easy." The tourist kept listening to the advice of Hari on stocks.
"Put some money in Limming, it is an oil and gas driller, and Heliam Energy Savings, they have recovered some oil rigs and might be awarded some intervention and repair business in the Gulf of Mexico, that is stuff which might be making money."
The tourist invested a few thousand dollars in the companies mentioned by Hari and in Fairsight Energy, a mining company with a position in the Illinois coal basin, also recommended by the Sheik. Two days later, Hari found the same tourist sitting at the same table.
"I lost my money," he said. Hari knew what to say.
"I know how you feel, losses can be tough, but you have to remain in there, just watch the stock some more, even if it keeps losing money."
"I mean I lost ninety percent of my money in one day, dude, not just a little. What exactly do you know about these stocks? They are garbage."
"I know how you feel, garbage can be difficult to handle."
Clarity saw Hari sweep the table of the customer with his napkin, throwing some chip bits and sunflower seed shells on the floor. Hari did not know how to deal with stock garbage, although the comment from the loss-making investor did prompt an idea in his mind, which was to recycle that new kind of paper garbage. Recycling was a business with a future, and stock market garbage needed a future.
The teleoperator watched Merhab approach the table of Hakeem, who was enjoying a beer, looking into the marina. The retainer had just bought a new car for Hari, and was thinking about how to pay for it, cash or credit.
"We got a problem, Hakeem, Hari recommended a loss-making investment, some kind of trade."
Clarity looked at the owner of the terrace, walking briskly towards Hari, with the customer claiming he'd been ripped off by a waiter from the Emirates. Two orange
s, an apple and a bunch of bananas landed near the retainer, with one whole papaya missing his head by just a few inches. Hari was not known as 'HDH', His Dumb Highness, for nothing, thought Hakeem. The Sheik did walk the talk, when the chips of a failed penny stock came down. They came down on him, and on everyone else around him.
"Let's get out of here, now, everyone," said Hakeem.
Everyone got up from their chairs, which made loud noises, creeking and falling on the floor. The retainer began running away from the Luxardo Amaretto terrace, heading east towards the new shops area and the south side, followed by Merhab, Clarity, Plum, Nives, and Julia, with Hari closing in, letting go of his napkin on the pavement.
The group stopped running when they reached the new Pier Area on the south side of the Bay, where a new cruise ship village was being built that will accommodate larger ocean liners, like the City of Wellington. Merhab, out of breath, called two taxis, after receiving a key ring with several keys from Hakeem, all the while listening to the retainer, who was yelling at him, also out of breath. Merhab turned to Clarity.
"Get Nora at the airport with Hari's car, it's in Nanny Cay Marina. Her plane is landing in one hour. She will be looking for you, don't forget the sign, it's in the back of the trunk." Merhab threw the keys to Clarity, who caught them before they landed on the floor.
"We will meet back at the resort in Scrub Island."
Clarity nodded, and hopped on the first cab which got there a few minutes later. She took a taxi to the Nanny Cay Marina and found the car bought by Melchior on behalf of the Sheik, a dark green MG convertible from 2004, showing the eighty years spanning the brand in the back, 1924-2004.
She drove to the airport, getting directions from a worn out map of Tortola folded inside the glove compartment. In the parking lot area, using her keys, Clarity opened the trunk of the convertible and found the sign that she had to carry. It was not made of plastic or wood, it was a large square fifteen inch tile made of thick marble. Noticing how heavy the sign was, she brought a passenger trolley made by RKS Industries, and carried the sign on it to the airport terminal building. She stood in the arrivals area of the Terrance International Airport hallway, and decided to lift the sign over her head, struggling under the weight of the heavy marble sign, which said Welcome Nora, go with the woman lifting the sign. After ten minutes, the flight board announced the arrival of the RJ85 regional jet operated by BVI Airways, coming from Miami. A woman in her thirties wearing grey tweed stretch trousers and a white blouse approached the teleoperator.
"Hi, I'm Nora." The sign, carried by its own weight, crashed on the woman's trolley, breaking into several pieces.
"Hi, I'm Clarity." Clarity shook the hand of Nora and used a broom and dustpan borrowed from a nearby cleaning man, to sweep the rubble of the sign into a garbage can.
"Let me help you with your trolley."
Clarity opened the door of the convertible for Nora, and got out of the airport parking lot. The air was warm and the breeze pleasant. They drove past an old toll and entered the Queen Elizabeth II bridge, connecting Beef Island with Tortola. They chit-chatted about jet lag from London, and the conversation turned to Hari.
"Hari needs a woman in his life, someone who will put some order and give him the stability he needs. Would you like to fill that role?" Clarity did not expect the question.
"I thought you were his girlfriend." Clarity pressed the accelerator of the MG, passing a bus full of tourists going to the forty room Long Bay Beach Club and the Vista Do Mar villas. Nora did not address her comment.
"There is money to be made with this guy, Hari is clueless, the family is in decline. Argyris is using that to their benefit."
Nora reached with her hand for the ventilation grill of the car, and tweaked it so that the incoming air began to blow towards the window instead of her own face. According to the girlfriend of Hari, there was simply a delicate, sensitive investigation on the Sheik and his family, by about two hundred journalists, led by the wealth magazine Argyris, and its head, Alfio Andreadis.
"Argyris? What kind of name is that, why is it relevant?" Asked Clarity.
"It comes from the ancient word for silver in Greek, Argyros. The magazine formulates the opinion on general matters for those with money. As long as you don't get involved with all the journalists, you'll be all right."
"Why are you considering leaving your spot near Hari to someone else then?" Nora did not deny the question.
"I want to focus on my work, I love my work as a journalist. Hari wants me at home, with him, taking care of him, he is traditional. Think about it, I'll show you the working arrangement if you're interested."
Sun on the Rocks - The Shabby Sheik Page 6