by John Muir
CHAPTER 10
SETTLING IN
VIP Hotel
Exiting the lift at the third floor, the dull lighting in the hallway reinforced his memories. Nothing had been done to improve it. A storage room door was to the right opposite the two lift exits. T.A. paused to read the poorly illuminated room direction sign on the opposite wall.
T.A.'s room number was 308. The directional arrow pointed left for 302-310 and added 'guest lounge seating' in smaller letters under the arrow.
He turned left. The rented rooms were even-numbered and on the right of the hallway giving views over the rusting city rooves. A small guest seating area was on the left of the hallway. It sided on to a large shaft above the kitchen area with its windows supposed to give lighting to the internal area. Years of accumulated cooking residue almost totally blocked out any natural light. Day or night, even when the underpowered globes were switched on at night, the light was too dim for reading. During the day, the shaft was the only source of light for the entire hall area.
The other shallow rooms on the left seemed to be used for either staff accommodation or storage.
Perhaps the management was cost saving by not switching on lighting during daylight in the rarely used areas of the hotel.
T.A. saw one of the solid Japanese from the earlier encounter sitting in a comfortable lounge of the small seating area. He had obviously heard the lift doors open and was looking up when T.A. approached from the darker lift door area.
He quickly stood up, a startled expression on his face, and moved a few paces toward the hallway down which T.A. was going to his room. The Japanese stared down the hallway away from T.A's approach for a brief moment, then turned and looked at T.A. who was now into the lighter area of the hall.
The big man grinned, mixed with an expression that T.A. sensed was relief. The Japanese bowed his head. T.A. instinctively followed suit. The Japanese then returned to his lounge, the grin still on his face, and sat down.
T.A. remembered his visits to Japan and thought about how strange it was how quickly and instinctively he had adopted the habit of bowing in response when someone bowed at him.
After several attempts with the obviously over-used key, the door unlocked and opened. The key was probably a one size fits all he thought.
He closed the door behind him, pushed in the door locking button and slotted the flimsy security chain into the slide. Dropping his backpack, he looked around for the room air-conditioner switch. It was not hard to find, surrounded by a large handwritten note asking all hotel guests to 'please remember to switch off the air-conditioner when leaving the room.
T.A. did not bother to change the coolness setting, he just wanted to have a shower and catch up on some sleep. The combined effects of the early morning departure from Manila, the long traffic delays to get to the domestic airport, and the extended wait for the delayed departure to Cagayan de Oro City had caught up on him. Not to mention the previous nights enjoyment on seeing Pater, and the frustration at still not knowing what happened to Marivic.
The solid Japanese's strange reaction on seeing him passed through his mind. What was he doing sitting in the lounge by himself?
Those thoughts did not last for long. The soothing warmth of the shower relaxed him so much that he was asleep within seconds of lying down.
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V.I.P. Hotel, Ken Yamada's room.
When the knock on the door occurred, Ken Yamada was not surprised, but his new bodyguard Iti, was, and jumped out of the chair in which he had been lounging. The knock had been in the correct sequence for safety, three, pause then two more. Iti knew it was correct but alertness was still the best precaution.
Thirty minutes previously, Yamada had received a phone call from one of his paid Muslim informers. The informer had advised him that he had important information in which he said Yamada would be very interested.
Yamada watched Iti's smooth unhurried walk to the door, and he unconsciously nodded approval as he watched Iti put his right hand behind his back and under the floppy barong he was wearing. He would have his hand around the grip of the silenced .22 pistol, just in case.
Iti had only been with him as a bodyguard for 12 weeks, but showed all the promise of being good at the job. The only disadvantage that Yamada felt he had was that Iti only spoke Japanese, not even a passing word of any of the Filipino languages. If Yamada was to keep him on, Iti would have to start learning Tagalog and Visayan very quickly. He disliked having to speak only in Japanese when talking to Iti. But the training school where Yamada had hired Iti was not a language school. It was one of the leading martial arts camps.
"Donatadesuka?" asked Iti as he got to the door and stood slightly to one side of it. Again, caution dominating his training, even though he knew who it should be.
"Ueda." came the response.
Iti looked through the peephole to confirm the fact and waited for Ueda to nod the correct response sequence in case Ueda had been forced to compromise the knock 'all clear' signal.
It was Ueda who had always insisted that one bodyguard should always be outside the room of any hotel in which Yamada stayed. Ueda was always serious about his job. It was Ueda who had watched the 'Americano' enter room 308 about an hour before. Then 30 minutes later, Iti had come out of the room to tell Ueda that Yamada was expecting the arrival of Oga Butu. He knew Butu from previous meetings.
Yamada's concern for protection had been insisted on by Ueda who had been with him for twelve years. Ueda, as well as his native Japanese, was a fluent speaker of English having lived and studied in England. Ueda was also proficient in Tagalog, Visayan and Ilocano, three of the Filipino languages that Yamada spoke. He also spoke a little Maranao, the language used by some in Iligan and Marawi.
Iti must have received the correct nod from Ueda. Without removing his hand from the pistol behind his back, Iti removed the chain and opened the door.
A thin Filipino had moved about two paces inside the door and was immediately held back by Iti, who frisked him for weapons, even though he knew Ueda would have already done so.
Yamada grinned at the disparity in size. The top of this Filipino's head barely reached the shoulders of his two body-guards. At one stage of the body search, Butu was completely hidden from sight behind Iti's bulk. No, he decided, bulk was a wrong way to think of it. Bulk conjured up thoughts of a slow, lumbering person. Neither Ueda, nor Iti, were slow or lumbering, just large well conditioned and muscled athletes.
Yamada himself was the same size as his bodyguards. His lesser trained skills in the martial arts only gave him a greater appreciation of the honed skills of his protectors. He stood to greet his guest.
"Welcome Oga Butu, come in and have a seat," he gestured toward the seat opposite his with a coffee table separating them.
The Muslim Filipino nervously looked back at the two large bodyguards he knew were watching him like cats ready to pounce on a mouse. He sat in the seat opposite Yamada, though still not feeling relaxed.
Yamada spoke in Japanese to his two bodyguards. Iti left the room to take up the outside position in the mini-lounge near the lift. Ueda remained.
Yamada looked at the skinny Filipino and wondered how long since the dirty jeans Butu was wearing, had been washed. The barong though was almost disconcertingly white.
"Well my friend, you said you have some very important information which I will pay you well for."
Yamada had chosen to speak in English as he generally tried to keep his fluency in understanding Filipino languages as one of his hidden assets.
"Yes," replied Butu still looking nervously at the form of Ueda standing barely two arms lengths to his right. "Something I overheard some jeepney and bus drivers talking about in Marawi two days ago. They were going to be part of it. A road-block, or something."
Yamada looked directly into the man's eyes to try and detect any deception. As with many Filipino's, the man would not maintain eye contact and looked all around where Yamada sat, only briefly re-est
ablishing eye contact before looking away again.
"Go on."
"It is part of a plan to kidnap and kill you after asking for ransom."
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