Things that go bump

>> East-West Center

Fon Du had parked the unmarked white van without side or rear windows on Dole Street near the bus stop, not knowing then how lucky he'd gotten.

Lucky because the nun in gray habit and more-salt-than-pepper hair was heading that way after hearing the second Lama Jey Tsong Khapa speak.

Because he was trained in such things, Fon Du recalled observing the same nun at two other events with the young lama -- that first night at the Blaisdell and yesterday at the dedication of a shrine at his parents' home.

She was in a hurry. Fon Du motioned with his eyes for his two agents dressed as a rabbi and an imam to keep up.

Watching her walk now, he knew again that it had to be his former lover Bodhicita Guzman. It began with that little bump in the chaos of the crowd outside Jefferson Hall. Like Bodhicita, the nun was both firm and femininely squeezable. More than that, her scent. That was one of the things that drew him to Bodhicita more than any other woman, something that went far beyond her beauty, body and exquisite love-making skills. Now her gait, the sway of hips, all of it gave her away. And it almost made him sick.

In that moment he knew who had betrayed him and Te-Wu. It was he who had blabbed too much that last night, Bodhicita who had lured him into it.

Fon Du was in his own disguise, large, floppy straw hat, blue palaka shirt, faded jeans and sandals. Funny she didn't recognize him. Or maybe that was why she was in such a hurry. One way to find out.

The rabbi and the imam pulled alongside him.

"We've been betrayed," he whispered in Mandarin. "Four of our people arrested."

"How?" Le Nip, the imam, said.

"And who betrayed you?" the Devil Snake, the rabbi, added.

Fon Du didn't like the accusatory way he personalized it.

"Long story, as the Americans say. But it's a good thing it wasn't you who attacked the lama. You'd never have escaped."

"We will find whoever did it," Le Nip said. "And they will suffer."

"I believe," Fon Du said darkly, "the woman dressed as a nun there is the one who betrayed us."

"Looks like she's heading to the bus stop," Devil Snake said. The man who had been a one-man rape machine to scare Western tourists away from visiting Dharamsala, India, home of the Dalai Lama, looked forward to some time alone with the nun.

"Go with her," on Du said. "Speak to her as holy men. Invite her to come hear you speak together later."

"And you?"

"You'll recognize the white van nearby. The van that will be taking you to your speaking engagement, driven by me, your friend David Wong."