Randomers

by Alexis Dogman

  The Taoist columbarium is located at the center of the beautifully landscaped cemetery grounds, within a large and peaceful pavilion. A tall and thin man in his uniform of light green shirt, black pants and a black tie leads Yuna and Kaew from the management office to the designated columbarium niche. When they reach, the tall man proceeds to shift the red tile adorning a golden name plate aside and behind the tile is a metal door resembling that of a safety deposit box's The man takes his key from a huge ring of keys and inserts it into the lock to turn it open. The door pops slightly ajar.

  "Take your time. I'll be waiting over there when you need me," the tall man says politely in mandarin as he moves away to the edge of the pavilion and stares out into the Japanese garden terrain of the memorial park.

  Yuna opens the door and to Kaew's astonishment, it is empty. Yuna did tell her that she is going to keep the money in her deceased parents' columbarium niche but she didn't say that it is empty. Where are the urns? Without wasting any time, Yuna quickly takes the urn out from her bag and puts it into the niche and closes the metal door.

  "I'm done," Yuna announces somberly in mandarin to the man and he comes back with the key to lock the door before slipping the tile back in place.

  "Finally something huh?" the man smiles to her with empathy.

  "Yeah, finally," Yuna nods.

  "I'll leave you here with your friend?" he asks.

  "We're leaving," she answers and they all turn to leave. There is no time to be wasted.

  Once they have gone separate ways from the man, Kaew asks, "How come empty? Where urn?"

  "My parents bought the niche before they died in a plane accident fourteen years ago. No remains were found. I told the management to put their names onto the tile and pretend they have a proper burial place. It makes me feel better. They told me I could place any keepsakes in there anytime I wanted. Never thought I'll be using it for this," Yuna tells as they hurry back to the car.

  "On with war?" Kaew asks as she puts on her seat belt.

  "On with war," Yuna replies and drives Kaew to KL Sentral a hub that houses the largest interchange station for all public transportation in Kuala Lumpur called Sentral Station.

  "You okay and ready?" Yuna asks as she slows down the vehicle. She has found a suitable location not far from the drop off area for Kaew to exit, away from the scrutiny of security cameras.

  Kaew inhales a deep breath and nods, both their hearts fluttering nervously.

  "If I die, you continue right?" Kaew asks sternly, her brows wrinkle together from the scorn on her face.

  "I promise," Yuna agrees with a firm promise.

  Yuna halts the car about fifty meters away after the drop off area and Kaew immediately hops off before slamming the door behind her. Yuna zooms off immediately.

  Kaew walks back to the entrance of the grand building and the first thing she does is to tilt her face up to the security camera at the entrance with a smug smile. If their guess is right, the killer will be notified of her location right now.

  Chapter 19

  Malaysia: Monday, 17th November 2:10 p.m.

  Meanwhile, in Yuna's home, a man is ransacking her home, turning her condominium unit upside down. It is Chin. He has broken into her home and is going through every nook and upturning every drawer for clues of where Yuna and Kaew might have gone to.

  Chin grunts angrily to his futile search. Just as his boots step onto the broken glass from a photo frame, his leech, designed to look very much like a smart watch, lets out a ping. Automatically synchronized with his leech, the tiny mushroom shaped earpiece wedged into his right ear reads out a message to him.

  Target Kaew Saowaluk detected through security camera at Sentral Station main entrance 2:14pm today.

  With special digital contact lenses, Chin looks at the holographic projection from his leech to which others cannot see with their naked eyes. It is a picture of Kaew smiling smugly at him. She is challenging him to catch her and Chin snorts, infuriated by the insult.

  "Just like your idiotic brother," he grunts as he dashes out of Yuna's place, down the nine floors of staircase and out into the open towards the main gate.

  It is a sizzling hot afternoon and the security guards are almost paralyzed by the heat, causing them to have retreated back into the shelter of their air-conditioned office. It isn't difficult at all for him to slip back out to his parked motorcycle the way he slipped in.

  Chin speeds on his motorcycle towards Sentral Station. Hardly three minutes into his journey, his leech receives another message from the Hive.

  Target Kaew Saowaluk located at Sentral Station ticketing machine.

  Through the visor of his helmet, he can see Kaew's projection smiling smugly at him from the ticketing counter. Her deliberate challenge for Chin to hunt her is more than irksome.

  Hearing the message, Chin turns sharply to his left narrowly avoiding a car coming towards him by mere inches and screeching to a halt by the roadside.

  Clutching the plastic token of a ticket tightly within the grasp of her sweaty palm, Kaew hastily makes a beeline to the line of electronic barrier gates that guarded the entrance of the LRT, which is the light rail transit system of Malaysia consisting of both subways and above ground routes. The clock is ticking away. The cat has seen the mouse and will come sooner than she thinks once she shows him her third location in the station. She has to board the soonest train so that she can be ahead of the killer in this chase.

  Kaew scans the plastic token onto the scanner of the barrier gate and the plastic flaps immediately slip inside to allow her access. She hurries pass the gate slips it into her pocket as she rushes up the stairs to the platform for the Kelana Jaya line.

  The moment she gets onto the platform, Kaew edges into the crowd waiting for the train and sneaks into hiding behind one of the large pillars. The platform is a shared platform, splitting trains going up the route to the left of the platform and the trains going down the route to the right. Kaew takes a quick glance at the digital information board to check for her next ride. One minute to go. Her body trembles as she cautiously watches her surroundings, her glance flicking between the two staircases that lead down to the platform and the people in the crowd. There are just too many variables to look out for. The longer she waits, the more frightful she gets.

  Kaew stands nervously behind the pillar as the tunnel echoes with the noise of an oncoming train. It is the train for the opposite line. The train screeches to a gentle halt and the doors slide open, pouring out with passengers. Kaew's eyes, large and terrified, looks onto the passengers exiting the train, hiding behind the pillar, praying the killer is not there.

  A large Chinese man exits the train and stops short for a moment, looking left and right as his serious face tense up. Kaew can hardly breathe. The man wanders into the crowd and continues to search and just before he reaches Kaew, a woman shouts to him and his face turns into a gleeful smile before both of them joins the crowd in leaving the platform.

  Kaew coughs out a breath of relief. For a moment back there, she thought she was going to die. The exiting passengers have all left and the train has filled up with a new load of passengers from their platform. Kaew watches gladly as the doors slide close and the train speeds off.

  Just seconds after the platform drops to silence, the tunnel starts to ring with the echo of another oncoming train. This time it is her train. She let other people gather before her as she hides behind a tall Malay man. With her head bowed from the security camera she waits patiently for the passengers to exit the train, hoping that the killer is not in the train. Squeezing through the opened door, she looks up at the CCTV mounted on the ceiling of the coach with the same smug look. Now they will know which train she is taking and in which direction she is heading.

  In the coach, she slowly edges to the walk-through gangway between the two coaches with her eyes scanning each and every passenger wearily like a frightened animal. The doors slide to a close and the train pulls off. Finally, sh
e feels safer as everyone settles down into their spots. Kaew looks up at the route map and counts - her destination is the fifth stop.

  The cars on the road honk wildly as a yellow and black super-bike slither through the traffic at racing speed. Chin's leech lets out a ping and a message follows.

  Train has reached Pasar Seni Station. No signs of target exiting train. Proceed to Masjid Jamek Station.

  Chin swerves his bike off track and diverts his route to the next station hoping to intercept her at the station and finish her immediately.

  He speeds into the narrower roads and tries to cut through the traffic, heading towards the third station en route. Just as he is about fifteen minutes more to the station, another ping comes from his leech, followed by a message.

  Train has reached Masjid Jamek Station. Target remains in train. Proceed to Dang Wangi Station.

  Chin curses through his teeth, "Damn it!" He tugs hard at the brakes and with white smoke trailing behind his wheels he turns the screeching motorcycle around and speeds off in the other direction.

  He zig zags through the congested late afternoon traffic, trying to reach the Dang Wangi station before the train does but that is just almost as impossible as walking through walls.

  Not even half way there, his leech lets out another ping, followed another message.

  Train has reached Dang Wangi station. Target remains in train. Proceed to Kampung Baru station.

  Chin curses again angrily, "Fuck!"

  He is so damn angry with Kaew and her game that he promises himself he will shoot her between the eyes but he knows the chances of her escaping are high. There is no way he can beat the train.

  Just as he expected, not even quarter the distance into his chase, his leech again lets out a ping.

  Train has reached Kampung Baru station. Target remains in train. Proceed to KLCC station.

  Turning his motorbike yet again in another direction, Chin starts to feel like an idiot right now. He is being made to chase the train like a fool when indeed they all know that the result will be fruitless unless they know where she is exiting.

  Ping!

  His leech rings as another message comes through.

  Target exits at KLCC station.

  A picture of Kaew smiling a devilish smirk at him through the security camera of the platform makes Chin want to skin her alive and tear her apart.

  Chin has had enough of her game. He is going to end it all. Like a stuntman, Chin goes for maximum speed and swerves his bike towards his right, jerking it up as man and bike leaps over the curb of grass and cement that divided the two lane roads. He drives notoriously onto the oncoming traffic, causing cars to swerve away from him and honks blaring away wildly.

  Kaew rushes out from the underground platform, which is situated right under the Petronas Twin Tower KLCC, the landmark and prominent business hub cum shopping haven of Kuala Lumpur. She dashes up the human packed staircase towards the barrier gates and drops the plastic token into the slot. The barrier gate opens and she heads straight towards the escalators that ferries visitors up to the concourse level of the shopping center, looking into all the security cameras as she does so.

  Going into the tourist filled center court under the scrutiny of the security cameras, she runs up the escalators to the cinema at level three and buys a ticket for a show that's already started showing. She enters the cinema and continues to run towards the dedicated screening hall and pushes the heavy doors open to enter. The lights are out and everyone is in their seats. She stands at the dimly lit corridor that separates the entrance from the two aisles that go down the cinema and unloads the backpack from her shoulders. Swinging the bag to her front she slips it back up onto her shoulders, letting the bag hang down to her stomach. Kaew unzips it and removes the abaya, niqab and headscarf from it. She hastily slips into the abaya, ties her hair up and puts on the headscarf and niqab, transforming herself into a mildly pregnant Muslim ninja with nothing left to identify but her eyes.

  She removes a small handbag from her backpack and slings it onto her shoulder. Smoothing out her abaya, she exits the screening hall. Kaew heads into the toilet and goes to the mirror to adjust her headscarf and niqab properly. Kaew then opens her purse to remove a pair of colored contact lenses and puts them on, turning her iris into emerald green. She removes a digital camera from her purse and turns it on. Once everything is perfect, she calmly walks out of the toilet.

  Hoping that the killer isn't here yet, she waits at the entrance of the screening house next to her own. She puts the camera into recording mode as she holds the camera in her hand nervously, pretending to be waiting for someone as she takes pictures of herself beside the wall mounted movie posters.

  From Chin's direction, he figures the fastest way will be by slicing through the integrated park before the shopping center. Chin rides straight through the park, cutting through the landscaped grass and jogging paths, amidst screaming joggers and cyclist to reach the mall entrance. He halts his super-bike before the mall entrance where four furious mall guards in black suits and purple ties have gathered to apprehend him.

  Chin alights from his bike, removes his helmet and glares at the guards with a stare so icy cold and threatening that they hold their steps. Chin puts his helmet onto the back of the motorcycle and shoves a fake police ID into their faces before turning to storm straight into the mall. The guards watch silently as Chin slides an aviator sunglasses over his eyes as he marches into the mall.

  His leech let's out another ping.

  Target entered house two of the cinema.

  Chin wastes no time at all by dashing up the escalators to level three. At the entrance to the screening house, Chin flashes his fake police ID again and once again gains uninterrupted access from the ticket taker. Chin storms his way up to house two.

  Kaew, still standing before house one with her camera aiming at the corridor that leads into house one and two, shudders at the sight of a large Chinese man in sunglasses and a long gray jacket storming his way through the corridor towards house two. The man reaches his right hand underneath his jacket as if to retrieve a gun as his left fingers reach out to push the door open. However, he stops just as his fingers are about to touch the metal plate.

  From the corner of his eyes someone has caught his attention. Chin holds his footsteps, and turns his head to Kaew's direction. It is a pregnant Middle Eastern woman and she is staring back at him with her green eyes. There is something about her glance that makes Chin feel familiar and uncomfortable. He can't pin point what however. Chin removes his sunglasses to take a better look at her and that is when Kaew finally got a clear shot of his face. With a threatening stare in his eyes, Kaew is actually trembling under that abaya, barely able to breath beneath the niqab.

  After two seconds of stare off, Chin finally turns his face back towards the door, breaking their stare.

  Kaew watches as he pushes the door apart and slips into the screening hall. A drop of sweat flows down the corner of her left brow as she watches Chin fall for her trap. Once the heavy doors close shut, Kaew runs helter-skelter out the corridor, rushing down and out of the cinema.

  Chin is ten steps down the dark aisle when suddenly it strikes him that those green eyes belong to the target. His killer's hunch tells him that it is the Middle Eastern woman. He immediately turns around and hurries back up the aisle and out the screening hall entrance. The woman is gone. He hurries back out the cinema and she is no where in sight.

  “A woman in a black cloak just left house two. Trace her," Chin speaks into his leech and waits for a response.

  After about three seconds which seemed like an hour, a ping comes from his leech.

  Target is heading down escalator to ground floor.

  The holographic projection of Kaew running down the escalator in her flowing abaya confirms his doubts. Chin immediately sprints towards the nearest escalator and starts pushing his way down. He watches as she runs towards the main entrance of the building. Chin reaches f
or his gun intending to shoot from the escalator.

  Kaew steals a look back at Chin and immediately breaks her way into the crowd of tourist gathering for a group photo, hoping that Chin won't open fire.

  Seeing her in the crowd and knowing how the Hive will react to him exposing himself and the Hive to the public, he swallows his pride and slips his gun back into its leather holster. He continues to push his way down the escalator but Kaew has already exited the Jalan Ampang entrance and once outside, a dusty white cub speeds up towards Kaew and halts before her. It's Yuna. Kaew jumps onto the back and off they go.

  Chin reaches too late, only to watch them disappear into the traffic and the Hive knows how he has failed. It will make them reconsider if this cat is still a viable asset to rid the house of rats.