The Prince Of Whales (11) There is absolutely no way for them to communicate with the outer world even if they are in the underwater cavities. They might have begun to think that their passive cannibalism is thousand times more justifiable in those circumstances and humanly better than the most voraciously active politico-religio-spirit cannibalism of the ultra modern world. Those members surviving in the cavity must have voluntarily pledged everyday saying, ‘drink my blood and eat my flesh’. They should have slowly adapted to the zoomorphic shapes in those dark underwater cavities. They must have been emitting their telepathic messages from their cavity and desperately listening to each other’s voices in the quiet nights. They have been ravenously greeting each other from the cavity every morning. There are many underwater cavities housing big and small groups of survivors in the Islands. These survivors must be undergoing structural modifications and setting up kangaroo courts in the underwater cavities. They have no way of survival other than dodging and waiting for help from above those cavities with hope of no guarantee. Someday the media guys would surely cash their stories as they did with the lucky ones. Feggy and Cathy anxiously read all stories of the survivors. After going through those articles of some amazing survivors in those dreadful conditions Cathy said, ‘we must do some thing to get Uncle Shea, Sam, Joan and Matthew out. We must act quickly before we lose them forever’. They further discussed about the ways and means to go for the full aerial and underwater search. Feggy felt that Rodrigo is very slow and not taking adequate steps. Feggy determinedly said, ‘tomorrow we must go to the auction place and meet Dr. Cree and the other old guy and directly settle the matter with them. And if necessary we must go with the search team and personally oversee the matter ourselves. I am sure that many of Shea’s friends will come forward to help us take further steps in this matter. We should not sit back like this any more’. Chapter fifteen Just three days Detective Bermann started his breakfast session in the basement. The coconut juice factory is closed for a day. The Jacobsons trustees board chairman has brusquely asked the managers to close all the companies under Shea Foundation. The managers are supposed to present their accounts to trustees board. There is no one in the factory except the gatekeeper. He is sitting inside the big gate and watching the soccer game. All the old folks settled down enjoying their early morning breakfast in the basement. Matthew, Sam and Joan are preparing the kit and the caboodle for each participant in the big drama. Boris and Shea are casually considering the pros and cons of the auction plan. They are mentally preparing themselves for the big action. Detective Bermann requested the attention of all and said, ‘I must thank you all for your altruistic cooperation. I am equally satisfied about all the preparations for our historic adventure to catch the fish. The Big Boss and all his mafia leaders are already in the city with their ziggurat plans to become zillionaires. Remember one thing. We are not going to arrest them today. We must wait until we record their future plans. We must know about the complete network of their operations’. The Thalmulic guys said, ‘then what are we going to do until then?’ Bermann continued, ‘we are going to the auction center to carefully observe their movements. We must establish their links with undeniable proofs. We have thirty air-conditioned suites in the Goldhill Plaza Hotel near the auction center. We will go there as foreigners. Boris is the Kuwait Sheikh Mr. Jihad Zorrilla. Shea is the Moor from Northwest Africa Mr. Berber Alhambra and I will be the Canadian Sikh Mr. Rajah Malay Singha. Matthew, Sam and Joan will be our translators. The good ninja guys are our special security guards. All the Thalmulic folks will be the financial secretaries. Now Joan will explain what you wear and do’. Joan handed over the kits to all and said, ‘everybody should wear these special voice sensor lockets and camera obscura diamond rings. If some thing goes wrong in these transmitting devices you should just sneeze with the code word ‘shmalz’ and the auto mechanical workman in these devices will be activated and repair it almost instantaneously. When you need extra security you must immediately yawn with the code word ‘heurcka’ and the good ninja guys will be at your service. When you forget any thing you just belch with the code word ‘bravoes’ and the prompter will tell you the right word. The last and final thing is this. You have to fix it to your palm. When you find the bad guys you give them golden handshake. The micro-transmitter will be transferred into their bodies. We will know their whereabouts on our screens’. Everybody took their special kits. They rehearsed and practiced their roles. Bermann handed over the individual assignment sheets. They read and got everything by heart. Bermann asked each one of them to memorize the assignments. Matthew started and said, ‘this is my assignment. The Big Boss is staying in Palace Hotel room number is 666 and the telephone number is 456-9876. I will transmit ‘Jihad Zorrilla the Island Buyer and Seller’ advertisement to his TV remote control through the intercom’. Sam said, ‘this is my assignment. The special officer from the department of natural resources of the federal government Mr. Dukhobors is staying in the State guesthouse. Rodrigo and Willy will be in his room. They will be waiting for the special envoys from the state government. The state government is sending an envoy with a sealed cover. Ninja number four and I will stop the envoy. Ninja number four will hypnotize the envoy. We will take the original sealed cover and deliver the other sealed cover to Mr. Dukhobors. He will open it and see the contents. While he is checking the contents we will fix the bug in his room. He will sign the acknowledgement paper and the receipt. We will bring the papers to the envoy. Ninja four will re-hypnotize the envoy to return those papers to the state government authorities’. Joan said, ‘this is my assignment. The Big Boss Nicholas and Mr. Dukhobors will come to Goldhill Plaza Hotel lobby. I will answer their call and take Ninja number one and two with me and meet them in the lobby. They will ask me to arrange an interview with Sheikh Jihad Zorrilla. I will first deny and then take them to the pool. I will ask them to wait. I will go to Sheikh Jihad Zorrilla and convince him. I will first bug them and lead them into the billiards room porch. I will translate their terms’. The assignment memorizing session went on for a while. The cook announced, ‘brunch is ready’. During the brunch hour Detective Bermann read the scheduled program. After the 10 o’clock brunch all of them are supposed to start accomplishing their assignments and return to the basement by eleven. Then they must put on their special costumes. There will have a final rehearsal from twelve to one pm. They must divide into three groups. The Goldhill Plaza Hotel will send three vans to the dock for the three groups. These three groups must join the seaplane passengers and catch the right vans. The Ninja guys will lead the baggage carts to the correct vans. Bermann finished reading the items and said, ‘there should no confusion. We must vacate this basement by one pm sharp. I will leave one transmitter with the information here to attract and confuse the regional ninja guys. It will take at least fifteen minutes for them to identify this location. By that time we must be at the dock. We can take the main tunnel route and join the seaplane passengers’. Everybody finished their brunch and started their assignments. They prepared themselves with adequate devices to access the central database. They have tapped and bugged the mafia phone connections. The whole mafia communications and conversations are now at their reach. They all returned to the basement by eleven and thoroughly practiced their portions. They have tried and learned to put on their costumes in five minutes. Then they packed their baggage items and vacated the basement. They came to the dockyard and joined the seaplane passengers. The Goldhill Plaza Hotel van drivers are standing there with the name signs. Kuwait group walked towards the big hi-tech luxury van. The African group went to the Royal Impala Sedan chair car. The third group settled in the athlete racer car. They saw the ninja guys in muftis running around the coconut juice factory. The ninja guys at the dock area cleared the seaplane passenger vehicles. The three groups came to the Goldhill Plaza Hotel. The manager empowered the bell captain and other dudish chaps to settle the three groups on the thirteenth floor. All settled in their personal suites. Matthew and Sam double-checked their communication devices. The Sikh, Sheikh and Moor found themselves in the billiards room one by one. They met other competing bidders in the lobby and on their way to the pool. They are expecting the Big Fish and the Big Boss any minute. Matthew and Sam are waiting to listen to their conversations. As expected Nick called Rodrigo and Willy and said, ‘hey guys! You have done a very good job. The Big Fish has opened the sealed covers and came to know that some Kuwait Sheikh is the highest bidder among those who submitted the sealed covers. My local ninja friends have promised me that they would take care of the open bidders not to go beyond the Kuwait Sheikh in the bid. As you suggested to the Big Fish he has accepted our plan and invited me to go with him to the Kuwait Sheikh to explain the plan in person. Now I am going to the Goldhill Plaza Hotel along with the Big Fish to convince the Kuwait Sheikh. I am sure that he would accept our offer. I will tell you when I see you at the auction center. But be careful not to contact me. I will contact you in the right time’. Rodrigo and Willy received the message and went to the auction center to see the arrangements and meet the open bidders. The Big Boss Nicholas and Mr. Dukhobors came to the Goldhill Plaza Hotel reception desk. The public relation’s manager checked their identities and called the operator to connect them to Nurzahan the personal secretary to the Kuwait Sheikh. The PR manager foxily spoke to Joan and convinced her to come to the lobby. She said with a tangling voice, ‘you silly. You always surprise me. Let me see my schedule. I must accompany Mr. Zorrilla to the billiards pool in ten minutes. I will see you then. You are the cute public relations guy. Am I right? I remember you. I will see you in ten minutes. Do me a favor. Please don’t call me personal secretary damn you. Just call me Nurrr. I hope you understood’. The PR manager woofed and said, ‘you guys are lucky. She agreed to see me here. Let me handle this in my way. You go and sit there. I will convince her again and introduce you to her. What do you say? I hope it’s reasonable. You know the rules of this Hotel’. Nick gave him hundred-dollar bill again. The PR manager ravenously grabbed the bill and turned to his public relations duty. The Big Boss Nicholas and Mr. Dukhobors found a sofa and aversely sat on it watching the PR manager. They obversely waited for ten decades and finally saw a hooded fairy walking towards the PR manager. The convincing session started with PR’s horselaughs and continued through fairy’s denying nods and ended with PR’s constipating smiles. The PR manager finally stood up and stared walking her towards Nick and Dukh. They thought that the veiled Rebecca statue of Salar Zung Museum of South India became alive and is walking towards them. The PR manager introduced her to them and grabbed his final tip and disappeared. She gave the golden handshake to Dukh first and transferred the micro-transmitter into his body. She needed to put another one on her palm for Nick. It takes some time to do that. She began to take off her red gloves and put the yellow ones. Nick politely said to her, ‘we saw your Jihad Zorrilla Island resale advertisement. We want to buy the thirteenth Island from you soon after the auction is over. We want your price on it’. Joan said, ‘let me check with our finance department’. She took her cell phone from her bag and called the Sheikh’s finance manager. The Thalmulic guy handed over the list. She read the amounts on the list and said, ‘the highest offer we got is six billbucks. My boss is waiting for more than seventeen British billbucks plus transfer charges. That’s the status for now’. She handed over the list to the Thalmulic guy. The Thalmulic guy left. Nick said, ‘we can go for seventeen with no problem. But if someone else offers more than seven you will take his offer. Yes? That’s our problem. We came here to request you to convince your boss to take our offer and to sell the Island thirteen to us only. We can even go up to twenty billbucks’. Joan looked at them and said, ‘then why don’t you directly take it from the auction bid in a legal way? It would be much safer and even cheaper to buy it from the government’. Dukh said, ‘first of all I am the authorized federal authority to sell and do the spot registration of these deluge-affected Islands to the legal buyers. So I cannot be on the buyers’ list. Secondly we are a big group of many partners. Some of us do not want to legally buy any thing directly from the government. Lastly we can raise any amount of money only as a group but not as individuals because we trust our group more than we trust the individual members. Therefore after you legally buy the Island thirteen from the government, we will buy the same from you in our way. Each member of our group will transfer his share money directly from his Swiss bank account to your account. We don’t want to press you for an official registration. We just want the receipts for the amount we pay and the transfer of the Island sales documents. We trust you in this transaction. We know that once you receive the money from us you will never try to claim the Island again even though you will officially continue as its owner on the government legal papers’. Joan asked him, ‘what is so special about Island thirteen? What if some thing goes wrong with the government licenses? I am sure it’s your dreamland and you will do whatever you want to do with it. But if you are caught in some illegal businesses there, we will be accountable and answerable to the government’. They nodded their heads and said, ‘there will be no such thing. We will see that no government agency will step on the Island after we buy it from you. We want to make it the biggest tourist attraction in the world. That’s our dream and we can’t afford to lose it’. Joan smiled and stood up and gave the golden handshake to Nick this time. They finally said, ‘you seem to be a nice gal. You do this favor for us and we will surprise you with our gift’. Joan said, ‘of course you will. If my boss agrees to your offer then you will give me the tenth of it. That’s the favor you will return’. Nick and Dukh quickly nodded their heads in approval. Joan went into the billiards room and returned after ten minutes with good news. She told them, ‘there is little adjustment. The price will be thirteen bucks and you have to accept two more partners. Now if you agree to this I will call the finance management to do the initial paperwork. You can sign those papers at the auction center. It’s time to go to the auction center. It’s nice to do business with you. You get ready the list of the partners and the accounts and amounts for transfer to our accounts. These are the names of your new partners: Mr. Berber Alhambra and Mr. Rajah Malay Singha. They already transferred the three billbucks to our account. Now tell me on to whose name we must make the receipts and transfer’. Nick and Dukh looked at each other and said ‘just say you received so much amount from Ibtos and transfer the Island sale deed documents to Ibtos’. They took the papers and called Rodrigo and Willy. The Palace Hotel operator checked and said that they are in the lobby. Nick called their mobile phone number and explained about the settlement. He described the papers to be submitted with the name of the partners, amounts they share and the Swiss bank account code names to transfer the amounts to Sheikh’s account. Rodrigo and Willy said, ‘we will bring the complete list to the auction center’. The time is moving fast. The sealed cover bidders and the open bidding parties are slowly gathering at the auction hall center. It’s a big hall that can hold about five thousand people. There are thirteen big screens showing the thirteen deluge-affected Islands with all the details and descriptions. On the top right side of the screen the highest sealed cover offer appeared in US dollars. The security measures at the main entrance gate are very simple and commendable. All the vehicles passing through the main gate are automatically scanned. The security personnel can easily detect any evidences of weapons of mass destruction on their screens. After passing though the main entrance gate the vehicles are going to the big parking lot. As soon as a vehicle is parked and the persons stepped out, the security personnel will know if there are any knives, hand grenades, blades, scissors, caribou toothpicks, plastic bombs in the guise of bankcards, ball point pens, pencils and chewing gums. The security personnel will request the participants to leave all those items in the vehicles then and there. Then the participants will come to the final entrance doors. Those entrance doors will do the rest of the security check requirements. If the participants are wearing any suicide bomb equipment in their wigs, belts, underwear, teeth, stockings, shoes, wallets, ladies knapsack, valise model toilet bags or any jaunty items in the oral, menstrual, vaginal, anal carefree kits, the androgynous e-security device will smell it right away. Then the participants will stay out until they publish it to the security personnel. After they enter into the hall they have every thing at their seat in the shape of buttons. There is a small computer screen in front of every seat. The participants do not need to yell or even raise their hands to get the attention of the conductor. They can punch the buttons and accomplish every thing right from their seats. The announcements are heard through earphones. All the requests are sent through the computer e-mail buttons. The ticker clock will stop at the highest amount offered on any Island at any time after three audible warnings on the big screens. The balcony is also full with the aristocrats. While the secretaries are taking care of the practical matters in the main hall, these aristocrats observe from the balcony. All the expected parties have arrived and occupied the reserved seats in the hall and the balcony. The old friends greeted each other with the same old ‘long time no see’ expression. Others are looking for new friends. They have every thing available in the balcony. They can eat drink and chat while their secretaries take care of the business. The auctioneers finally invited the federal government agent Mr. Dukh to introduce him to the bidders and participants. He came to the dais and explained the legal aspects of the registration situation and appreciated the auctioneers for commencing the auction at the right Hawaiian time. The concerned State government officer started giving the detailed description of the seasonal physical structure of each Island. The auctioneer of Island thirteen described the physical features of the island and said, ‘people have an extraordinary dread of the number 13. Because of its connection with occultism people regarded it as a powerful and fatalistic number. A mystic picture of a skeleton with a scythe in its bony hands reaping down human beings represented the occult symbolism that stood for this number. As a matter of fact it is not at all an unlucky number. Some adept occultists said, ‘he who understands the number 13 has the keys of power and dominion. In the Indian Pantheon there were 13 Buddhas. Mexicans have 13 snake gods. The original states that formed the American union were 13. George Washington raised the republican standard and he was saluted with 13 guns. Think twice before you decide to buy Island thirteen. It’s all up to you to decide’. Eliza was sitting in the up stair balcony and chatting with the Sheikh. Joan came with the registration papers and said to the Sheikh, ‘you have got Island thirteen for ten billbucks. As you wished we had registered Island thirteen in the name of Mrs. Eliza Jacobson. These are the official registration papers’. He took the papers and turned towards Eliza Jacobson and said, ‘Mrs. Jacobson! I told you that I am your husband’s best friend. But you didn’t believe me. Your husband wanted me to buy this Island for you. All these years you have been waiting for him. Now as you became normal again I have bought the Island thirteen for you as he wished. We will make your summer resort ready for you by tomorrow morning. Then you can go there and wait for your husband. I will bring him there. Don’t forget to prepare luau for us ’. Eliza took the papers and said, ‘O Mr. Sheikh. Thank you very much for every thing. I have been waiting for my husband Boris all these years. I can’t wait any more to see him. Tell him to meet me at the Island resort soon. I will prepare luau for both of you. I am starving. I must go to the Kosher Twilight. You want to join with me for dinner’. Sheikh said, ‘yes’. She stood up and said, ‘where is my stupid limousine driver? I am tired of this lazy guy’. Joan said, ‘I will find him for you. Let me go to the main hall and see if he is there’. Joan came to the main hall and looked for Rodrigo and Willy. She saw them coming towards her with bunch of papers. Rodrigo prepared the lists of all the group members of Ibtos and brought all the required papers to Joan.
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Copyright © 2001 Shmuel Yacobi |