I remembered looking at the glass box. Seeing how the male manta ray struggling with its blindness. The banging, the crashing and in the end, it gave up. I expected more than that thing. It should’ve lived. The result didn’t turn out as I expected.
And then there was that Abu. Looking like a helpless monkey. I regret bringing him here. It was all because of Prof Z and his guilty conscience. And because of him, I had to drag this kid along. I told him I didn’t want to but he insisted. Shit! That old man even tried blackmailing me if I didn’t take Abu with me. What was he thinking? It’s not like these two sea creatures belong to him. It belongs to the wild. It belongs to anyone who puts a claim on them. And now it belongs to me.
And now, look at them. I have that female ray left. Melur..what’s with the name anyway. I need to make sure this experiment we’re dealing with will become a success this time round. No more failure. We’ve..I mean I have been working my ass off and now is the time.
"Mari ikut akak, mencari ulam melur; mari lawan ombak, mencari bintang timur.."
Man, this guy has guts. The codes, the secrets. Even his own brother has no idea what’s actually happening right now.
I was deep into my thoughts when I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket. I took it out and pressed the read button. 1 message in. All it say was “Landed.”
I had to smile. After all this time, alas. The star..My star. My bintang timur..
I dialed the number that was on the message. “Maya, you landed?”
“Yeah, I’ve landed.” Maya answered. Sweet voice. So sweet..”How are things in London, Hakimi?”
“Good. Ok..not that good actually. But hey, it’ll better if you were here instead.”
“Yeah? You’ll be back soon anyway. So a couple of days wouldn’t change that much, right?”
“I guess so. Getting a call from you was a surprise. But to actually meeting you after so long, a couple of days could wait,” I replied. Flirty, I thought. She wants me in the game, I’m in.
I was just about to get my gears up when I received and incoming call. Looking at the number, I knew it was urgent.
“Hey Maya, I have an urgent call coming in. I’ll call you later if its okay with you.
“Sure. I’ll be waiting,” Maya responded.
“Okay. Bye." I hung up and answered the incoming call.
“Hey, what’s up? You know you’re not supposed to call me on this line. What’s so urgent?” I was obviously irritated.
“Shit Hakimi! What have you done?? We’ve made a deal! You promised me you were going to take care of them. And now, Raja’s dead gooddammit!!” the voice on the phone was practically screaming at me and I had to pull the phone away from my ears.
“Shut up! You know the risks. And this is one of them. We still have Melur.” I replied. Trying really hard to control myself. I knew anger would get me nowhere.
“You swear to me now Hakimi. Melur will not be your next lab rat. She’s the KEY. Our key. Don’t you fuck this time!” The voice was calmer but the hint of detest was still visible.
“Yes, Angah. I know. And you’d better hang up coz you’ll get both of us into trouble in case someone’s tracing this line.”
And at that moment Angah hung up and I did the same.