The CHANGI BULLET

Chapter 5 - Ding

With over forty million "watchers" on his media social profile, Ding Bingtao was the most famous adventurist and survival expert in the world. The very handsome and extremely fit 25-year-old Chinese man lived in Peking with his model girlfriend, Wu Peng, and also kept a house in Batavia, Indonesia, with his other girlfriend, Devi.

Ding had done many exciting adventures over the years: such as cycling coast to coast across barren New Spain, walking through the Amazonian desert, and his most thrilling exploit of all: venturing 2000km on foot into Australia, before having to be rescued. He vowed never to go to that God-forsaken shithole ever again.

All his adventures were filmed by himself for his "watchers". He made his money from sponsorship deals and product placement. He had done reality television shows, in both China and England, and there was talk of a film about his life. He was very rich, indeed.

Ding had done his National Military Service for China, as all Chinese males were required to do at eighteen years of age, and subsequently trained the army in survival techniques, so, as a result, he was thought to be linked to the Chinese government, something he always denied.

He had done two space trips, not in his official survivalist capacity, but more for the celebrity status he brought with him. It was thought that someone with survival skills would be needed for the Izzati exploration mission, so the SEASA officials (backed by the English and Indonesian governments, and opposed by the Russian one) reached out for the main man.

At first, he wasn't at all interested. Even if, for work, he was usually quite happy living off bugs and raw crocodile eggs, he did enjoy his lavish lifestyle of fast cars and big houses – so why would he swap all that for the grim, pioneer reality, not to mention insane danger, of going to a new planet? Well, the gigantic payment to his foundation for underprivileged Chinese boys helped, somewhat, and then a media social campaign pointed out that he would be the most famous man in the world if he made the historic trip.

He began to reconsider his position. He had done most challenges in his life, so maybe he needed the ultimate challenge. He had no children to worry about. The only sticking point was his two girlfriends (who didn't know about the other – which was a feat of survival in itself for a famous man) and the promise that they would have seats on the second flight.

So, he signed on the dotted line. He said goodbye to his only living parent, his father, who didn't care for him that much. He put his business affairs in order (he had laughed, it felt like he had been given a year to live by doctors) and started to plan his route to England.

'What do you mean, Ding?' asked Wu Peng, reclined on a couch.

'Darling, I'm not going to jump on a commercial airplane. I'm Ding Bingtao. I have to get there in a unique, adventurous way.'

'Such as?'

'I was thinking... are you ready for this? Microlight half way, then kayak the rest.'

Wu Peng raised her clinically-preened eyebrows at him, then went back to reading her fashion magazine.

Ding's people mapped out the whole trip for him; upgrading the camera attached to the handlebar of his microlight aircraft, and also the one on the bow of his kayak. The plan was to fly solo to Hong Kong, then kayak across the South China Sea, keeping to the coast of Vietnam for much of the way. The hotel suite was booked in Hong Kong (charged to SEASA) and support aircraft and speedboats were being sourced.

'No support craft,' ordered Ding.

'I beg your pardon?' asked Tiffany Chao, his long-time personal assistant/publicity manager.

'My last, biggest adventure, Tiff. I want to go it alone.'

Tiffany objected, was rebuffed, objected again, but realized she was wasting her breath. She rightly supposed, if Ding couldn't get from mainland China to England by himself, then what use would he be on a deep space mission?

Ding met SEASA officials in Batavia to finalize the details of his involvement in the project. It also allowed him to spend time with girlfriend No. 2. Devi was a sweet, uncomplicated girl from a tiny village in Java. She had grown up in poverty, and was aware of the coming threat from the animal virus, so supported him wholeheartedly and promised to join him as soon as she could.

Ding practiced for two months with both his microlight, and getting his style back with the kayak. He ignored pleas from SEASA officials to get a move on and join up with the crew in Changi. Only when he felt that he was ready did he tell his millions of "watchers" about his momentous decision, causing a media firestorm. His fame grew to all corners of the world. He was the man who was going to look after the Izzati crew once they landed in an alien world.

Early one morning, on a cold, remote airfield on the southern outskirts of Peking, he waved goodbye to his team, hugged a well-wrapped-up, quite emotional Tiffany (Wu Peng was away on a modelling assignment) and set off on his big adventure.    

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