Chapter 7(a): Pinocchio Virus.
***
"My mom and dad were good people, but I still didn't like the lies they sometimes told," said Gen, leaning slowly against the back seat. He feels unfair with the lies his parents used to practice.
Inspector Suro and Bella are listening carefully. They've been hearing the sad story about Tanglo all the time. Occasionally, Bella looked up to the ceiling, or wiped her hands down her eyes less clearly. Must be holding back the tears or falling. It would be a shame for her to cry after hearing the story of a suspect, who she had recently shot him with a gun, almost.
"What kind of lie do you mean?" asked the Inspector, intrigued. He felt strongly about the statement of Gen, and there was no lie in the parents of his, a good figure he could have deduced from Gen's story to this time.
"They've been lying to me since childhood," he added with a complaining face. "All my plans to test a child's brave adrenaline are failed. Sky diving, diving into the ocean bed, cruising in the Amazon, and things as if they'd never granted them.." Gen placed both handrails on the table, uttering it seriously. So serious about calculating the losses that have been caused by a lie, as if he were counting out the details of a major corporation's losses when the product failed, and then he was deeply in debt.
The elegant pen on the Inspector's finger suddenly fell down to the table, along with his utter amazement. Even his face was as clear as if he had just woken up from a severe sleepiness.
The wide-eyed Bella now threw away her sympathy at the man in front of her. She was horrified and thought to herself, 'He needs no sympathy at all, only a beating on the head, to lessen his deafness."
"They always say, 'A few days later', but it's a repetitive promise, the promise that they can easily update," added Gen.
"Therefore," said Gen, exclaiming, standing out of his seat. "I do such fun things by myself. You know, on my day off from elementary school I went alone to the Mount Semeru outside the city, a mountain about 1,700 feet [3600 m] high, when I was nine years old."
The two police officers are still listening, Gen may feel that they are concerned about the safety of the 9-year Gen. "Don't worry..!" he said.
The female police officer in front of him smirked, maybe she thought, 'Why should we worry?!'
"Long time before that I was familiar with the strange power that were inside me, Tanglo. I had it under my control," he added. "After a few hundred yards I'm hiking in the dark, I'm so tired. I took my wings out of my back. So that in a few minutes I was at the top of that mountain at its 3600 meters above water face."
"How a Crafty!" Bella said quietly, inaudible to Gen.
"I did so that I would no longer have to make my parents lie. You know, I really hate lies. It will only bring you misfortune, it will only bring you doom."
Bella now is in a little mise--by not ruling out the quirkiness and the speech of Gen--that she could not grasp this man's point with the logic of normal people it seemed to her. What strange people mean has to be understood by yet strange logic, by strange even seldom thought of foreign metaphors, and by this they may be well understood in their conduct.
The enormous and tremendous curiosity of Gen suppressed by the limits upon which his parents built. 'Let me do this alone.'
Crazy things--extreme, according to kids his age--, he tried almost everything. He even tests the own availability of oxygen in the sky. After being briefed by a science teacher at the time, he went up to the roof, made some sort of high-altitude measurement clock and oxygen levels, and then quickly pushed himself into the air. To the high sky. Without anyone knowing it.
Whatever..
But he didn't really care about the school duties. Often slept in the class, always in last place. This should not be copied.
The strangeness of this maniac doesn't stop there. Once he wanted to tease his friends and teachers who used to belittle him. 'Cowling Trophy Achiever' is a customary term for him, perhaps because the one who got the last of the dairy stood up next to the milking cow, smiling as he could, desperately want to get milk, but the first one would push him back, until it--the trophy--was full, not with the cow's milk, but with the cowling. In a semester exam, Gen answered all the exam questions correctly, all the lessons without a single false. The class teacher was amazed, 'How? No teacher ever made the answer key. The exam room guard also reported that there was nothing suspicious about the snot-nosed kid. How can he answer everything? Impossible!'
Impossible! That would have been the easy part for that bad boy. In a superior manner he took the exam recs from the homeroom hands in front of the class, making all classmates shake their heads, let alone who used to get the early grades.
Gen smile satisfied. Nice punch! Nice kick 'Don't mess with Gen..! Or he will mess with you like a toy..'
***
"How many years have passed and you have done nothing for me?" asked a man is sitting at one of the round tables. His chair was separated from the other chairs. The person who's sitting on the chair would indicate authority--or obedience caused by fear of cruelty--the person sitting on it.
"We got all the kids, but we didn't have any clue," said one of the people in the closest seats.
"Shut up, Andreas!" the man exclaimed. Andreas quickly fell silent, he was one of the gangster bosses who conspired to wipe out the 'Black Wind' of that time. His face was starting to wrinkle, his hair was falling out, the rest he threw back, to the very top, partly covered in gray hair. A man of age, yet he still tries to run from it.
"You and your men are completely incompetent, completely useless," the man exclaimed.
Andreas looked down, scared, ashamed of his low self-esteem.
"My Prince Mac, as we know, our country has a vast territory, we need lot of time to search," said the other.
Mac, apparently who's sitting there was Doja Mac, how unafraid they were, every time Mac got angry, the black hands would quickly wave off his back, looking for food. Mac's hair is now the same style, except with a reddish--orange dye on the top, the waves a little longer than they used to be, and the edges remain black.
"You too, Hobian. I don't really have high expectations for phony thugs like you, weak and stupid," Mac said.
Hobian was less frantic about these denunciations from his Prince--Mac's men must to call him by that--, because he was so often his suggestion was heard. He was also one of the gangster bosses left that time. He was loyal to Mac, and he even provided his home as the headquarters of a 'Black Wind Reborn', Mac's army composed of all the gangsters in the Kartajh City.
You can see that the main hall of the house has been converted into a gang leaders' conference room. That's where all the evil plans are set up. In the middle of the wall, right behind Mac's chair, covered the logo of 'Black Wind', the same logo as the old one, a circle inside which has a blowing symbol of wind, except when the logo was added with a vertical line at the center, from the edge of the circle to the other. The hobian house is the largest house of Mac's followers, a house that resembles a palace of white, orange and cream, in one of the hills of West Kartajh. Simply, Hobian's got a card which means it's a fail-safe in the time he needs.
"And you, Morry Atmaja? Are my education people as common as these hoodlums?" asked Mac.
"Recently my men found something in the place you pointed out, My Prince," he said casually. It was as if he were boasting about his success. "A unique ball was found at the top of the national monument," he added, tossing it out, setting it on the table, a full-flecked ball. That's the outer layer of the Tanglo.
The old Hidden Service has been hijacked by Mac agents from the police detectives who sided with Morry. They must have been fascinated by the place, especially with what Mac was looking for.
"Accept my filial duty, My Prince," he said.
"Filial duty?" replied Mac, black hands leapt over the ball, sending it into the table.
'Brraghh..!' The sound of the table had been hit hard, the iron table sunk inside, with one third of the outer layer of the Tanglo in the shape of a ball. The gangs' big hair stood: Hobian Luki, Andreas Chodo, also another big boss named Etoro Zans, police commissioner general Morry Atmaja, also Setu Majan the rising politician, as well as Gorda Cecal the leader of special forces of Black Wind Reborn. Was there a man today who melted down his bones? As a reborn 'Black Wind' logo was on the back of the right hand of Mac followers who were activated, causing its owners to die instantly, violently. Even if their right hand were cut to avoid it, the curse would not depart unless it was the will of the curse-maker. That was a killer leash.
"Don't expect a gold of grain, Morry..," Mac said with great emotion, angrily. The police looked down immediately, his catch was nothing but a useless sandal to his Prince.
It had been 24 years, and the more Mac grew, the more angry to the wild rats--the Hidden Service and his sister protectors--had hidden away. Mac, with his vast network of gang members, couldn't reach them, from politicians, policemen and gangsters with all their influence and business networks. They couldn't smell the new Hidden Service at all.
"We, also.., My-Prince..," said Morry in hesitation, stammering. Mac looked at him seriously.
"We found something unusual, My Prince. Something was strange about Susan, My Prince's sister's friend from the college. We've been scouting her for a long time, and we found something."
Mac pulled back his black hand.
"Please forgive us once again, My Prince.. Police operating systems are not that simple. One wrong step would only dig his own grave," added Morry. "We will complete this mission quickly."
"Well, I'll trust you with this, Morry, and do you know what will happen if you let me down..?"
"Yes, My Prince, off course.." answered Morry.