My Kind of Town
So smart, so stupid
>> Honolulu Soap Co.
Her brother Laird up in Palo Alto was apparently speaking Swahili or something. Because even though the words he was speaking into the phone were exactly the words Lily Ah Sun wanted to hear, they were not making any sense. She pulled the phone away from her head and looked into the ear piece, as if that would offer a better explanation.
"I don't get it it," Lily said. "What's the big problem?" Their father was naming Laird, who was about to graduate from Stanford Business with honors, to take over the family-owned Soap Co. -- the one job Lily wanted above all others. "You ought to be happy."
"But it's not what I want to do Lily, at least not right now," Laird protested. "I've got things that I want to do, on my own."
Lily could not believe what she was hearing. "What plans?"
"Lily, I just finished reading the most amazing book, 'Jesus Was a CEO -- The Gospel of Acquisitions.' It changed my life."
"You're not kidding, are you?"
"Not at all! It relates the teachings of Jesus to fundamental capitalism."
"Oh." Lily, a strict bottom-liner, had never been big on theory.
"Anyway, the author has an organization that sends groups out to Third World countries. I just signed up to spend a year in Afghanistan, teaching them Christianity and capitalism!"
Lily reacted like a big sister. "Laird, if you're smart enough to go to Stanford, how can you be so stupid?!"
>> Kapahulu Avenue
Commander Chuck Ryan of Navy intelligence accelerated the Intrepid through a yellow light at Date Street, catching a flicker of red, and glanced in the rear view mirror. The last thing he needed was to get pulled over by a local cop. Ryan was timing it so that he could pull onto the H-1 just as the silver-blue rental van passed. He'd tail the van and let Lt. Martin Luther Washington drop back.
Ryan was using the ear piece for his secure-line cell phone and heard Washington say, "We're just entering the H-1, passing Kahala Mall."
"Any idea who the woman and child they picked up are?" Ryan said.
"Old friends or family, judging from the way they greeted him. We're checking on it now."
Ryan's real concern was the young woman driving Muhammed Resurreccion's rental van.
"How's your girl Sandy doing?"
That was the code name they'd given Wilhemina Orlando, who came to Washington with a tale of impending treason and, she suspected, terror. "Playing the role, sir, driving well. So far."
Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek.
His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin
with weekly summaries on Sunday.
He can be emailed at dchapman@midweek.com