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My Kind of Town Don Chapman |
Oooh, babe ...
>> Kahala
Bodhicita Guzman read about it in MidWeek -- the Schwabach computer column -- and on a lark bought a camera that looked like a lipstick tube. Between that and her photo-taking cell phone and PDA, spying on the Chinese secret police was ridiculously easy. At least the technical part was.
The emotional part was tougher. The joy had left her relationship with Fon Du, supposedly vice president of the Bank of Lhasa's Honolulu branch, but who Kamasami Khan believed was something more. So she relied on the mechanics of love -- how to make a man believe he's loved. No joy, but still it was pretty good, technically speaking, if she didn't think about it. When she did, and revilement crept in, she reminded herself that she was serving Buddha and the two holy men who were coming to Hawaii.
Nearly every day she e-mailed images of Fon Du and his housemates, all employees of the Bank of Lhasa, to a secret FTP site set up by Joe Kharma, the lama's older brother. A computer guru, Joe did volunteer work for the Free Tibet Warrior Society.
(He also set up another secret site where Tibetans in exile could donate money anonymously to the work of the FTWS. He'd attached it to the Los Angeles Times Web site, chosen simply because he wanted a host site that was already attracting a gazillion hits each day and his clients would not be noticed.
By double-clicking the o in Los and typing FREE TIBET while holding down the option key, they would be routed to another site, where another double-click and code would get them into what amounted to an electronic deposit slip. Once funds were transferred to the FTWS account, the program erased any record of the transaction. The account was nearly to the point that Khan could fulfill his dream of leading guerilla strikes against the Communist Chinese occupiers of Tibet.)
Joe sent Bodhicita's images to international members of FTWS and received several confirmations. He also ran the photos against those of known members of Te-Wu and got some matches. Which left Khan with a problem. Tell Bodhicita that she was sleeping with the Chinese secret police and let her make the decision to continue or bail? Or leave her in the dark and let her act natural? Khan was a warrior, but also a Buddhist, and one of Buddhism's strengths was its respect for women, all creatures being equal.
He made the call. She thanked him, said if things got sticky she'd opt out, but for now she was in.
Actually, things were getting slippery that night before the Dalai Lama and the young Hawaiian lama were to appear at the Blaisdell. "Oooh, babe, your neck is really tight tonight," she said, and poured more lavender massage oil on Fon Du's back.
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Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek. His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin. He can be e-mailed at dchapman@midweek.com