Chapter Eight - (1)

The day before the art fair opened, I disguised myself as a bespectacled middle-aged man and checked into the lavish twenty-story Peace Hotel using a false name. The penthouse suite that I booked, with its opulent furnishings, had a bedroom and a big lounge. It was perfect. No, I was not here to live it up. Rather, this was where I intended to kill the mayor.

A few minutes later, Suet-foong, also in disguise, came to join me in my suite. That night we ran through our plan again and again. We had to. Any slip-up would mean the end of us.

All that time I noticed that her commitment to this deadly mission never wavered. There was absolutely no hint of regret or apprehension whatsoever on her face - she was one heck of a gung ho wench! On the contrary, it was yours truly who was feeling kind of nervous. I mean, I have always worked alone, thus I only need to take care of myself. Now suddenly the love of my life was joining me and I had to watch her back too. Oh, can you imagine the pressure, the stress!

D-day arrived with gray skies lingering above Shanghai. From our hotel window, I could see thunder claps cutting through the morning like cracks of a whip a short distance away. It appeared that a storm was brewing.

"What's eating you, Ake?" asked Suet-foong when she noticed me standing by the window in moody silence.

"Call me a superstitious freak, but I feel this bad weather is an omen of disaster for us," I said, turning my attention toward her. "I'm beginning to have second thoughts about our mission. I don't think we can pull it off."

"That's the trouble with you; always bound by obsolete beliefs and practices," she admonished me. "You won't advance yourself until you think outside the box."

"Tell me more, O wise one."

"Look at this thunderstorm from a different perspective. Instead of brooding over it, tell yourself this is a sign from the heavens that the day of reckoning for Mayor Tan Chin has arrived."

My sage has spoken.

At 9:00 A.M., we set our plan in motion. Suet-foong left the room first. She had to be present at the opening ceremony an hour before the arrival of the mayor anyway. At the same time, she needed to check on her ten paintings to ensure everything was in its right place - yes, she had completed the butt-baring piece with yours truly finally consenting to be her model. But there was an incentive: she was in the nude too when she painted me. I suppose it was one of the fringe benefits of being her fiancee. Amen to that.

To be continued ...