Kuala Lumpur was hot and humid and seemed to be in permanent gridlock from a huge, slow-moving traffic jam. Thankfully, the "haze season" from the annual forest fires over in Sumatra was almost over. At its worst, visibility in KL could go down to less than 500 metres, making normal life hell, and it was advisable to wear a face-mask when walking on the streets. My serviced apartment, rent free, was palatial and I had a chauffeur driven Lexus at my disposal 24 hours a day. Too bad I had nowhere to go and no one to see outside of work. Life wasnāt totally bad though. The range and quality of the restaurants in the city was astounding and at incredibly cheap prices too if one did not want to drink alcohol. Which wasnāt a problem for me, seeing as I was a light drinker anyway. And I have never seen so many beautiful women in one place ā I resolved to find out where the factory was hidden before I left, because they surely had to have one!
My team of systems engineers and programmers was an eclectic bunch of guys and girls, mainly Indian and Chinese male with a very thin seasoning of Australians and Kiwis. It didnāt take me long to work out that most of the problems stemmed from the fact that they were all "stars" and were simply not working as a team. I quickly learned to ignore the petty insults, bitchiness and backbiting that seemed to be endemic around the place and tempered my reactions to people in terms of their effectiveness or lack of it. Once these ground rules were recognised by all concerned, we began to make progress.
I only needed a simple machine to use for communication with Kate so I purchased an iMac locally, once again, incredibly cheaply. The iMac was also a refreshing change from the Unix world I normally lived in! Setting up ICQ was a dream and we "talked" regularly as promised. I hoped the Malaysian Government didnāt have a policy of monitoring Internet traffic, because some of those conversations were exceptionally "hot", as were some of the pictures Kate took of herself masturbating and then downloaded to me!
After Iād been in KL for six weeks, Kate "dipped her toes in the water" and started going out on dates. She kept me informed on who she was going with and what they did, even sending me the occasional photograph of her latest "hunk". None of them lasted very long, probably because she wouldnāt let them into her pants. One name cropped up quite often, however, a guy called Mark who she met whilst he was on vacation from university. She seemed to be quite taken with him, even to the extent of weekend visits with his family.
It was some time before I got a look at Mark. He was a stocky blond guy with a big Roman nose - a young fighter pilot studying aeronautical engineering under the sponsorship of the RAAF. He looked to have that "arrogant" aura of self-confidence that men in his profession seem to wear naturally. Corinne was quite taken with Mark too. It was she who sent me Markās picture by "snail mail" ā one of him and Kate together and very much at ease with each other. A sexy young guy in a sexy job and I was thousands of miles away. If he was bedding her it was partially of my own making. And there was stuff-all that I could do about it. If Kateās relationship with Mark meant the end of her and me, no doubt Kate would tell me in her own good time. In the meantime, I threw myself into my work and corresponded with her normally without getting any indications that there was anything deeper than a warm friendship between them. And I got more "hunk" pictures from Kate, of other guys she was dating. That could only be positive, I reckoned.
Seven months went by and the health system project was progressing excellently. So well in fact I expected to be on a āplane home a month early.
And then the brown stuff hit the rotating object. There was another project, this time for the police. It would last about two years and pay a hell of a lot more than what I was getting now, which, less tax, was virtually all cash in hand thanks to the "perks" that came with the territory and my ridiculously low cost of living.
The simple mention that I was seriously considering the offer resulted in dead silence from Australia. After ten days of nil response to any e-mails and no ICQ contact, I telephoned. I got Jim, who rather gleefully told me that Kate didnāt want to speak to me and that I was in deep, deep shit. Then he hung up on me. I was stuck in limbo. My current contract terms meant I couldnāt drop everything and get a flight home to try and sort things out and every time I tried to telephone again I couldnāt get through. Except once, when I spoke to Corinne who told me very wearily that Kate never, ever wanted to speak to me again.
"Iām so sorry, Greg. It looks like itās over. Donāt worry about your house, weāll make sure itās securely locked up and checked out every day."
I accepted the new contract. If I was going to be lonely and miserable for the rest of my life I may as well be very rich!
The new project was being put together in Penang. I was glad to get out of KL, especially to such a beautiful place. In addition, I negotiated fairly liberal leave terms and resolved to take a few weeks off in Europe when I felt that the work was on the right track. My principals accommodated me in a villa on the coast south of the city and, because it wasnāt serviced like the apartment in KL, I hired a young Malaysian-Chinese "houseboy" to come in every other day to tidy up. Leeong was a computer science student at the local university ā a very sharp young kid who had a great future if he could afford to finish his studies. As a consequence, and because Iād "been there" myself, I overpaid him. What the hell, it was only money! A brand new Mercedes also went with the job, but I had to drive it myself.
After three months in Penang I settled into a fairly dull routine, only really coming alive at work when wrestling with technical or people problems. And that was routinely 14-15 hours a day, every day except Sunday. If I had been a drinker I could have quickly become an alcoholic, but instead, I set myself to learning the local Malay language, something I started in KL, and I surfed the Net. I gave up looking at Kate and me on the compact discs shortly after my arrival in Penang - the memories were too painful.
I was playing chess over the Net with a boy genius in Milwaukee, who was as usual beating the pants off me, when a message popped up in my ICQ chat room that just blew me away: "Greg, itās me. Can we talk?"
Kate!
Joey in Milwaukee got the fastest chess win of his life.
"Yes, Iām here."
"Iām in the house. It feels so empty and cold. Iāve been looking at us on the computer. I need to see you. Badly."
"How badly?"
"Absolutely the worst way."
"Howās your passport? Current?"
"Yes."
"Stay there a minute."
I got back to Kate seven minutes later.
"Thereās a QANTAS flight from Melbourne to Singapore at midday tomorrow and a connection on EVA Air from Singapore to Penang. Pick up your tickets at the airport. Iāll meet you on arrival."
"Are you sure?"
"No more talk until weāre face-to-face. Be there!"
One thing my sojourn in Malaysia had given me was a ruthless streak Iād never had before. Iād had to use it several times to sort stupid inter-personal conflicts out and get resources to complete the health department contract, and had probably ruined a few peopleās careers in the process. If Kate really wanted to see me, sheād be in Penang the day after tomorrow.