Su Yi gave her a sphinxlike smile, as if she was trying to decide whether or not to let her in on something. And then she shared her secret.
—
Emerging from the memory of Su Yi’s story, an idea began to form in Ah Ling’s mind. She looked up at Vikram and said, “There is a secret about this house that even you don’t know. Something from the war times.”
Vikram looked at her in surprise.
Ah Ling continued, “Now, don’t you have connections in the Khoo household?”
“Sure, I know their head of security very well.”
“This is what I need you to do…”
···
Nick and Colin were spending the afternoon hanging out at Red Point Record Warehouse on Playfair Road, where they had spent countless hours listening to obscure records back when they were teenagers. As Nick flipped through the meticulously organized bins, he called out to Colin, “Did you know that the Cocteau Twins collaborated with Faye Wong?”
“No way!”
“Take a look at this,” Nick said, handing him a record. While Colin read the liner notes to a rare EP recorded by the Hong Kong diva titled The Amusement Park, his phone buzzed with a text message. He glanced at the screen and read a message from Aloysius Pang—the head of his family’s security team—summoning him to his father’s house to pick up a package ASAP. Colin wondered what this was all about, as it was highly uncharacteristic of Aloysius to summon him like this.
“Hey Nick, I need to run over to my dad’s place to pick up something that’s apparently quite urgent. Do you want to stay here or come with?”
“I’ll come along. If I stay any longer I’ll just end up buying the whole store,” Nick replied.
The two of them sped over to Colin’s father’s house on Leedon Road, a stately Georgian mansion that looked like it had been transported straight out of Bel Air, California.
“Jeez, it’s been years since I’ve been here,” Nick remarked as they entered the house through the front door. A grandfather clock ticked loudly in the circular foyer, and all the curtains in the formal living room had been closed to block out the afternoon sun. “Is anyone home?”
“My dad and stepmom are on a safari in Kenya at the moment,” Colin answered, as a Filipino maid appeared from the corridor.
“Is Aloysius here?”
“No, but there’s a package for you, Sir Colin,” the woman replied. She went into the kitchen and returned moments later with a large padded envelope that didn’t bear the markings of any courier service.
“Who dropped this off?” Colin asked.
“Sir, Mr. Pang, sir.”
He ripped open the envelope, and inside was a smaller manila envelope that was stamped PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL. There was a Post-it affixed to the front of it. Colin looked up at Nick in surprise. “This package isn’t for me—it’s for you!”
“Really?” Taking the package, Nick saw that the Post-it note read:
Please give this letter by hand to your friend Nicholas Young.
It is imperative that he receives it by tonight.
“Well this is convenient! I guess whoever sent this knows I’m crashing at your place,” Nick said as he began tearing into the sealed envelope.
“Wait! Wait! Are you sure you want to do that?” Colin said.
“Why not?”
Colin glanced suspiciously at the package. “I dunno…what if there’s anthrax or something in there?”
“I don’t think my life is as exciting as that. But here, why don’t you open it?”
“Fuck no.”