Chapter Seven
That same evening, Clarity saw how the staff of the Scrub hotel resort went out of their way to prepare the learning area of the Sheik, a passage of hot coal ashes six feet wide and twenty five feet long laid out in the garden area. Wearing shorts and a shabby sweater, Hari stood barefoot in front of Merhab, a few feet away from the firewalking ritual area.
"You are ready Hari?"
"You are sure this is not going to hurt? That bit of coal over there looks a bit hot, kind of red you know."
"No, you will be able to conquer your fears and anything else that gets in the way. Tony Robbins did the same exercise."
"I don't need to get over my fears, I've got money," said Hari. The Sheik picked up Floyd, who was prying around, and threw him across the firewalk area, landing him safely on the other side of it. Floyd, who was experienced as a thrown human being, rolled on his side when he hit the ground and recovered pretty quickly, moving towards the cocktail area, right below the dress of Lohvia.
"Why doesn't he have to walk on that hot coal as well?"
"Because I'm not coaching him, I'm coaching you. This is getting you ready to move along the path, without your venting out team."
"Can I get a cocktail as well?"
"No."
Clarity overheard the coach of the Sheik and drew a line for Hari using chalk, thinking that Merhab was not telling Hari about the thirty people who had received treatment for burns as a result of the motivation exercise done by the famous motivational speaker Tony Robbins. Instead of changing their beliefs, those people had understood that hot coal could actually be a good thermal conductor at times. Robbins claimed that only five people had to be hospitalized, and Clarity began thinking that being coached was becoming more dangerous than being a firefighter. Hari looked like a firefighter without protection.
Merhab pushed Hari onto the coal, sensing he could be out of his coaching job if Hakeem didn't see him coach Hari properly.
"Is it all right?" Asked Merhab.
"This thing is hot." Hari flashed across the passage in less than twenty seconds, running faster than the rabbit he pursued the day earlier.
"Geez." His feet were clean, but a piece of hot coal had landed onto his shorts, turning them into shabbier shorts. Hari grabbed his ass and rubbed off the coal, without thinking he actually had discovered a new style of clothing.
"Ouch, bring some water Merhab."
The coach took a hose used to keep the garden green, and watered the butt of Hari abundantly. The Sheik was soaked, but felt cooler. Clarity was part of the next exercise, which Hari was told to watch. It involved rescuing from a large bonfire, several stacks of twenty dollar bills meant as the meagre salary for her, generously offered by the Sheik, before they burned, after they were thrown by Gawdat or Behir. The bonfire was about nine feet in diameter. Merhab approached Clarity and said that she could use her hands or her own means of rescue. Clarity opted for using a butterfly net instead of her hands.
Gawdat saw her ready to catch the stack of bills he was holding and passed the stack from one hand to the other, like a basketball player holding a ball. With Clarity in front of her, the guard of the Sheik threw the stack high into the air, well above the net of Clarity, right into the large bonfire, that Hari was using to cook a single marshmallow as appetizer, while he watched. The Sheik also threw a copy of the Oz Mandino book, The Greatest Salesman in the World, into the bonfire, without letting Merhab see it. He was tired of this idea that you had to sell something to people. If people wanted something, they would buy it, without needing a sleazy salesperson to motivate them into buying. Engagement is what was driving things in any case, he sensed. Gawdat turned to Clarity.
"That's half your salary," said the guard.
"Good thing that the Sheik provides food and lodge," said Clarity. She walked away from the security guard, closer to the bonfire.
"Yeah, this is not an easy salary," said Gawdat. Clarity began talking to Nora about the way the bonfire was set, to ensure it was a proper bonfire designed according to the right rules of dollar bill bonfiring. Nora shook her head and pointed Clarity towards the guard of the Sheik, alerting her of a new move. Gawdat threw the second stack, thinking that Clarity had given up on the money and was not paying attention. This time, Clarity turned around and caught the low flying stack with the net before it reached the bonfire.
"All right, this time I got it." She counted ten twenty dollar bills, amounting to two hundred dollars, and slid them in her pocket. Merhab congratulated her, and also congratulated Hari for cooking the marshmallow correctly. Yergat Ghazakian, the cook of the Sheik, announced dinner.
"Buffet is ready."
Everyone moved to a private terrace with two dinner tables set up for the guests. Clarity sat at one table, with Plum, Hari, Nives and Julia, listening to some easy music coming from two large loudspeakers. She opened a bottle of red wine with a corkscrew and poured a glass for everyone, glancing to her right. Sitting at another table, Hakeem was already munching on several ribs with barbecue sauce, with Merhab sitting next to him. The coach kept talking to Gawdat and Behir about how they could benefit from firewalking. Nora was also seated at the same table, telling Lohvia that the plane of the Sheik needed a refurbishing, showing more gold, in particular above the throne. The teleoperator listened to Hari, who had replaced his shorts with an even shabbier version, a pair of ripped blue denim shorts with several holes.
"I certainly feel more comfortable with her." He was speaking of Lohvia. Clarity saw the Slovene woman excuse herself, heading for the bathroom. The teleoperator stood up and walked towards the buffet, to get some roast beef. A sudden thought crossed her mind, and she followed her intuition. She looked at the cook and pointed to her plate.
"Can you keep this warm for me for a second?" She asked. Yergat nodded.
"Sure."
Clarity walked along the garden area of the terrace, on a narrow passage covered with Lyon caliza floor. The ladies bathroom had a window which was open, which stood about five feet from the ground. Clarity peeked inside and saw Lohvia on all fours getting banged doggy style by Floyd, who'd lifted her dress and stood behind her, hands firmly grabbing her hips, and the firm flesh of her bum.
"Oh, God, yes, a bit more slowly Floyd, I love to keep the pearl there while my vulva is filled with a cock."
The dwarf slowed his hip action, pulling the cute shop clerk from Slovenia towards him, to feel her warmth. Clarity watched them a few minutes and headed back to her table with her plate. Hari was talking to Plum, pouring a glass of champagne in her glass, while Nives and Julia were chit-chatting.
"I am pretty sure that I can love Lohvia," said Hari, "with Nora it's not the same."
"Lohvia is a good woman for you," said Plum.
"Yes, she has got a sex drive more like me, it's an important affinity you know, Nora doesn't have as much of a libido."
Plum glanced at the other table, ensuring Hakeem was looking away. Moving her hands under the table, she reached for her purse, taking out her copy of the book which spoke of the everburning flame. She showed it carefully to Hari, ensuring he did not touch any of the pages. The Sheik was intrigued by notions and words that he'd never seen before. And even more so by the possibilities of doing with Lohvia some of the things that Plum was mentioning. The videographer closed the book and moved her head towards the Sheik, lowering her voice.
"Would you like to marry Lohvia?" The eyes of Hari widened.
"What do you mean? My girlfriend is Nora."
A mischievous look appeared on Hari's face, and he glanced surreptitiously towards his official girlfriend sitting at the other table. His decision to marry had to go through his family and Hakeem, also probably his coach. The proposal of Plum did not make him uncomfortable, it did not feel out of place.
"Marry Lohvia onboard Heir Force One without telling anyone, sort of eloping to the solarium area of the plane with her, just to see if you love her. If you love Lohvia after you marr
y her, it means she is a good match for you."
"Yeah, that makes sense," said Hari. "That way, if the marriage fails, no one will know, because everything happens in the plane."
Plum nodded, and Clarity did as well, but the teleoperator noticed there was a block of logic missing, like the part about what marriage meant to him. To the Sheik, though, no interpretation was incorrect, mistakes, fallacies, and misrepresentations served their purpose, and they served him very well.
With Lohvia back at her seat, Yergat served dessert, mango ice cream served with burning Grand Marnier liqueur, making the dish look like a miniature bonfire. Hakeem interrupted their conversation and made an announcement for both tables.
"After long hours of talk, Merhab and I have been able to negotiate a deal for Sheik Al-Najib. Our Royal Highness has a new job. He is going to be an associate at Kuwait Trade House Capital Offshore Branch at BVI, to learn about buying and selling currency, foreign trade and capital markets."
Lohvia clapped but Nora was not very happy, simply pouring some red wine in her glass. Hari was sort of speechless, his mouth was open. He felt he was being led into areas of knowledge suspiciously higher than his ability, much higher. He did not know diddly about capital markets, nor trade, and currency was something everyone else carried for him. He did not need to know anything, because his retainer Hakeem took care of everything for him. He began to think, which he felt was strenuous after dinner. If Hakeem took care of everything, why was he involving him in something which sounded like work, that would allow him to bring money on his own? It did not make sense to Hari. All of this was suspicious, and he knew Hakeem was up to something. He grabbed the arm of Clarity.
"Clarity, can you go to my room and bring me my smartphone, I want to know the extent of my losses today."
Clarity got up from her seat and grabbed the resort key of Hari. She used the key of the Sheik to get inside his room and grabbed his smartphone, laid out on the table. The phone did not have a password and his desktop had the usual application icons, agenda, search engine, chat, a weather app, and an icon labeled solarium viewing area of Heir Force One. Then, it had two other ones which caught her attention. One was called Odyssey area. She opened the tab and a live camera screen appeared, showing a group of thirty seven wild boars, each of them labeled with a number on their flank, reminiscent of the numbers shown by cars involved in the mile miglia, the open road endurance race which took place in Italy. The boars flocked as a wild boar reserve, living in a field near the palace of the Sheik in Saudi Arabia. A wild boar, caught on camera, number thirty six, looked right into it during several seconds. Clarity saw a red light flash and instinctively pressed on it, thinking someone might be alerted of her tampering with the Sheik's phone.
A large dump truck parked several feet away from the general boar herd, dumped a huge load of acorns, forbs, grass, tubers, roots, bulbs and fungi. The wild boar looking at the camera froze at the camera briefly, sensing something, and it avoided the dump falling on him, jumping a few feet away, then standing mesmerized a few seconds watching the pile, not expecting so much food. Clarity realized she'd pushed a remote feeding button, and saw thirty six other boars running towards its peer, who began to eat from the unexpected pile. The reserve was one of the endearing properties of the Sheik and was meant to enliven the lives of people in Saudi Arabia, teaching them about the odyssey of the boar through the television channel the Sheik had, which broadcasted from Riyadh.
She turned off the application and opened the other application which she'd noticed, labeled SRA-199. She pressed on the button and a spreadsheet file opened, listing the assets of the flagship company of the Sheik, Sheik Royal Assets-199. The liability side, all sources of funds for the company listed ten billion three hundred million dollars, but the asset side listing the uses of funds, listed only six billion flat. Clarity knew from having worked in accounting that the assets and liabilities of a balance sheet, a snapshot of a company, had to match, because all the money a company received was used to pay for something or purchase something. Part of the assets of the company were missing, about four billion dollars, or they were hidden from view on purpose, to prevent Hari from seeing them. Looking through the report, Clarity noticed that there were some payments pending on the purchase of Heir Force One, a plane previously owned by a prominent person, labeled as 'the rich guy with a smirk' on the balance sheet notes. Technically, the plane of the Sheik was not owned by him. Taking out a pen and a small pad from her pocket, she jotted the phone number of the Sheik's smartphone on it.
Sun on the Rocks - The Shabby Sheik Page 8