Ethan Lawrence Lomibao
23 January 2023
Good Luck With That
My name is Stan. Stanley Kao.
I'm from Singapore. I'm your typical good-for-nothing rich kid who does practically nothing. At least, that's what my parents think. But what do they know? They're too busy pampering my older brothers to pay attention to me or my sister, Erin. Well, despite this negligence, I get around. I consider myself a pretty social guy, meeting people in places and helping them out in any way I can.
One thing has always been a factor, though. I'm real lucky. And I don't mean in the "I win the lottery and have all my crushes like me" sort of way. I mean, "Random things just happen, and they benefit me." For example, when I was 10, I was at a party organised by one of the wealthy families. I had this little toy car that I was playing with, and it just so happened that one of the race car drivers for some Formula 1 team was there. Suffice it to say, I was beyond overjoyed. But that's neither here nor there...
Our story began in August 1998. After five years of living with my aunt and uncle, I had just returned from San Francisco. I met up with an old friend, Roger Leung. He's a criminal investigator for the Singapore Police Department. Real ditzy guy. But I love him like a brother, especially considering that he and his sister Iris were the only friends Erin and I had for a while. Anyway, he invited me over to the Leung Estate so he could show off his skills with a Smith & Wesson.
"You missed every shot. Wow. I'm impressed."
"Oh yeah? Who's on the SPD? You or me?" Roger was always into solving mysteries, even when we were kids. Probably started when he helped clear his nanny's name after his neighbour accused her of stealing. He smiled as he reloaded the revolver and handed it to me. "Go ahead. Show me how it's done, Mr. American."
I took the revolver and aimed it at the target propped up in the botanical-type garden of this massive estate. 6 shots. All on point. Turning around, I could see Roger's eyes nearly popping out.
"Uh... haha... Look, man, I'm just lucky. You know that!"
"Understatement of the year. Ah, I gotta run to the precinct. Gotta grab a couple things before I have to pick up my sister at the airport. Hey, feel free to stick around; it shouldn't take too long. Looks like rain anyways..."
Luck. My luck probably began when my great-grandfather gave me a little maneki-neko when I was 5. Since then, I noticed that things would start to inexplicably happen to me. I'd find change on the ground, I accidentally befriended the kids of the most affluent families in Singapore, I foil an attempted kidnapping plot simply by falling over and knocking over a vase & it hit an attacker on the head, etc.
After a bit, the rain started to come down on the windows. I was spacing out in the living room when my cell phone began to ring. It was Roger.
"Wah! Stan! Hey! Some pickpocket stole my gun! 'Scuse me! Crap, the metro got so crowded after it started raining! Didn't even notice someone taking it! Gah!" It sounded like he was getting off the metro but having a tough time getting through the masses.
"Woah, what? You alright?"
"Damn it, he's about to get away! Pick Iris up for me!" There was the sound of a passing car, and then he hung up.
Figuring that he probably knew what he was doing, I went to pick up his sister, Iris. Singapore is situated in the Strait of Malacca, meaning we get tropical weather. Which also means we get tropical storms. Driving to Changi Airport was simple enough. It didn't help that a three-car pile-up happened right in front of me. As luck would have it (as it usually does), I got by without a scratch.
I hadn't seen Iris since I left for California. Roger told me that she went to Oxford and was studying to become a professor of history or something close to that. Or was it Harvard? Cambridge? I don't remember, and it's probably irrelevant to the story. Anyway...
The long, winding road, lined with palm trees ruffled by the wind, led to Changi Airport. Parking close to the terminal's overhang, I couldn't believe my eyes. There, sticking out like a sore thumb, was this cosmopolitan-looking, svelte young woman holding a briefcase and luggage bag. It looked like Iris, but it couldn't. Iris took after her brother, skittish and playful, not the textbook definition of haute.
"Iris Leung?"
"Mm? Mr. Kao, I presume?" She eyed me up and down, peering over the rims of her glasses as she very gracefully brushed her bangs away from her eye.
"Uh..."
"Bwahaha! Oh, Stan! You shoulda seen the look on your face! Ahahaha!" And there it was. The Iris I knew. She then proceeded to sock me in the arm.
"Ah... It's been too long, hasn't it? It's good to see you again, Stan." Despite the less-than-favourable precipitation, Iris gave me a very warm smile. "Alright! Let's be off, shall we?"
The rain picked up as we trekked back to Tanglin, the neighbourhood where the Leungs lived. However, the trip would be cut short after some information got revealed to me.
"Hey, Stan?"
"Mmm?"
"What's my brother up to right now?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, he called me earlier. Told me you'd be the one to pick me up. But... But it sounded like he was getting his butt kicked. He was yelling about this and that, then I heard some guys yelling at him, and then he hung up."
Cripes. That's not good.
"Did he say where he was or where he was going?"
"Um... Not exactly, but I did hear some men yelling in Cantonese at him," said Iris, wistfully looking out the window at the towering condominiums and office buildings as we entered the Central Region.
"Well... Roger's gun got pickpocketed, and he was going after the thief." From the call he made to me, I tried to remember the station he got off at. It was... It was...
"Think he got off at Raffles Place and chased him into Chinatown." Our best choice of action would be-
"We should go after him!" interjected Iris, throwing my train of thought off the rails. "Let's have an adventure! Just like when we were kids, Stan!"
"Wha- Didn't you just have a 17-hour flight? Also, I have no bloody clue where he could have gone! That was just a guess!"
"Aw, rubbish! You've always been lucky! Every guess you make turns out true! Besides, I don't think you'd want it on your conscience if, dare I say, something happens to my dear Roger, am I right?" Iris then proceeded to give me a longing look with a ferocity I had seen before. It reminded me of the summers I spent with her and Roger. It scared me. But it was enough to yield to her desire to have 'an adventure.'
Chinatown was always busy in Singapore, even in the pouring rain. From a very young age, I was taught that things are not what they seem; one of the tactics you learn when you 'climb the social ladder,' as my father put it. Stepping out of the car, the first thing I noticed was a blond-haired businessman walking down an alleyway. To say he stuck out like a sore thumb would be an understatement. A lone European man that was head and shoulders taller than 85% of the Asians around him. Now, he could have been just a tourist, but-
"Hey! Stan! That guy! Let's follow him!" yelled Iris. Geez, was she always like this?
...
Yeah, she was. It was never a dull day with her. Always going, never stopping to think for a moment usually. Even now, five years later, nothing's really changed. Except she was taller now.
Tailing someone is a precise and calculated process. Which is why we did not do so. The European turned a corner somewhere, and so did Iris at some point. So it was just me going left and right through the alleys of Chinatown. I ran down one street and-
"Shimata! Nantekotta i?!" yelled the very burly, very angry, and very imposing Japanese man I bumped into.
"Uh... Excuse me!"
"Oi! Yameru!"
Seeing as though I didn't want to be disfigured by the Yakuza, I proceeded to run further and faster, turning another corner and-
"Omf- Hey! My cannoli! You know how hard it is to get cannolis in East Asia?! Mi nonna..." started the irate, but well-dressed, Italian man. Great. Apparently, the Mafia decided it would be a great time to visit Singapore too.
Picking myself up again, with two guys on my tail, I ran again. I really should have looked where I was going, because-
"Blin! Kto? Ey!"
Oh. The Bratva. The Russians.
My luck just got better and better. Having had enough of slamming into people on the street, I figured running into a building would be good.
Except I ran into the building where the local Triad group was eating.
I want you to picture it. Sitting in a room where 7 guys, all armed to the teeth, are arguing about what to do with you. Each one of them growing angrier by the second. That was where I was. It didn't help that there was some party happening upstairs. The techno music was pounding. I could feel the vibrations of not just the bass, but the footsteps of the people above me. And cracking.
Cracking?
While the fine gentlemen were plotting to throw my body into the Strait of Singapore, but only after they settled a dispute of some kind between each other, I suppose they didn't realise that the structural integrity of the building was being compromised. With each boom of the bass, the plaster on the ceiling cracked further. Crack. Crack-crack. Crack. Crack-crack. It seemed to make a circle above their heads.
I also failed to notice that one fine gentleman was knocked into the wall immediately after this happened. I guess it was enough to bring the ceiling down.
With one final crack, the roof collapsed on the criminals, bringing plaster, wood, plumbing, furniture, and about 10 people onto them. As luck would have it, the floor only broke in the area where they were arguing, and besides a bit of dust and rain, I managed to get off scot-free. Lucky, huh?
Squeezing past the crowds of people, I found my way back to the car. Iris was there already, which meant she was alright. That was good. The first thing she did was give me a hug.
"Ah! There you are! I was worried something happened to you!"
Ironic.
"Yeah, uh..."
"While you were getting yourself lost, I managed to find something out. You know the tall European guy we were chasing?" We? That was more her than I.
"Yeah?"
Iris then flashed me that same look of deviance she showed before.
"Well, he dropped a bit of information. Literally. I bumped into him and he dropped some tickets for this Japanese idol! I'm guessing that he's gonna go see her tomorrow!"
Interesting. I wasn't sure about the quality of this lead, but it was a lead, which was more than what I had. Moreover, Iris had a reputation to draw whatever luck I had, especially considering the kinds of things she got herself into. In any case, we'd have till tomorrow afternoon to get things sorted.
The rain hadn't cleared up from last night to the next day. I didn't go home after taking Iris back to the Leung estate, so I slept in one of the guest bedrooms. As luck would have it, it just happened to be the room with a maneki-neko. Hm.
For someone whose brother went missing, Iris slept rather soundly. Then again, an international flight does take it out of you. This meant, though, that Iris was more than eager to get going again, despite the nightclub where the idols performed wouldn't open for at least 2 or 3 more hours. At any rate, it would allow us to do a bit of snooping.
The nightclub was located in Geylang, which is notorious for its nightlife. Going in the middle of the day was a very different experience. The bright lights were now a dismal shadow of their nocturnal selves, and the club's interior lights were turned on. I could really see how slightly unkempt everything was. The darkness really did this place a favour.
The idol was on stage talking to someone as the stage crew was moving things around behind her. I wasn't too keen on keeping up on the underground Japanese music scene, much less the one happening here in Singapore. She was, from what I perceived, your pretty standard J-Pop singer. Pretty, youthful, and upbeat. But something was familiar about all this...
It was at this moment Iris entered the building after I did. She took a moment to look around, then at the stage, and then...
"Hey, Stan, isn't that your sister?"
"What? The idol?!"
"No, silly, the woman she's talking to! Hey Erin!"
What the? Upon further inspection, Iris was right. The woman that the idol was talking to was indeed my sister. Iris was already running up to the stage when I also realised that I had seen the idol somewhere before.
"Stan?! What're you doing here?!" said my sister as I walked up to her.
"Erin? I could ask you the same thing! You don't really strike me as someone who's into J-pop!"
"You don't remember, do you? This is Haruka!"
Ah yes, Haruka Koizumi. She was one of my sister's classmates from when we got sent to school in California. She always had that natural charm, so I wasn't too surprised to see her, now that I think about it.
"Haruka! Hey! I didn't know that you'd end up being an idol!"
"Well, you were the one who suggested I become a singer. I remember you said I could be an enka singer, but I told you only old men listened to that! So..." explained Haruka, as if I was supposed to know that. It's strange how people tend to remember things I don't remember doing.
While my sister and Iris were catching up, I had a bit of explaining to do to Haruka. I told her about Roger getting kidnapped, the whole building collapse thing, and the European guy. I told her he's gonna be here tonight and we were thinking of cornering him.
"You know, Stan, I'm supposed to do a little meet and greet with the fans, so I could probably help you guys isolate him. See, every night I perform, I pick one fan to do a more in-depth backstage meet-up."
Just my luck.
My sister was well-favoured by the universe herself. I'm unsure whether it was a family thing, but she often found herself in very lucky situations as well. Only difference between mine and hers was the process of getting to our luck. While I was finding my luck through getting by, Erin found hers by quite literally finding it. Someone dropped some money, she won a raffle at our school, she found everlasting love in a dreamboat of a guy, etc. Hopefully, she could allow us to use this luck of her's to find Roger.
I'm not too sure how to describe live music if I'm completely honest. It's loud, it's wild, and it's one hell of a good time. Especially if you're in a room with 200 people watching an idol go ham on stage. It sucks, but you really have to be there to experience it. The lights, the sounds, and especially the smell. You cannot fathom the smell of musk that emanated from that crowd. But you're here for a mystery adventure, not a music review, huh?
So Haruka finished her setup, and the crowd went wild. I noticed that the European was getting into it very passionately. It wouldn't be too far-fetched for Haruka to pick him for the backstage tour.
"Thank you, Singapore! That's all from me!" yelled Haruka, still ramping up the audience.
"Oh, one more thing! One lucky member will get a special tour backstage!" The audience began cheering even louder, like dogs in a kennel.
"Hmmm... How 'bout you! Mr. Tall Guy! Yup! Alrighty everyone! Mata ne!"
So.
We got the European into the back, lured him to one of the dressing rooms, and Iris bashed him in the back of the head.
Huh.
"Helvete! What the hell?! Who- Excuse me?" said the European, in a very thick Norse accent.
"You've been snooping around! What gives?! Where's my brother?!" yelled Iris, pointing right in this man's face, who, I should add, was a full half-foot taller than her.
"What?! Hold on, are you Iris Leung? I've been looking for your brother!"
"Huh?!"
Well. This was going to be interesting.
The European straightened himself up and began to compose himself. He had this gleam in his eyes that hid an air of ferocity underneath them. That, coupled with the shoulder-length bobbed chestnut blonde hair, just exuded discord from him.
"I'm Agent Jos Ågren with Interpol, but you can call me Joey. Ms. Leung, I have reason to believe that your brother was kidnapped by Wallace Wang."
Wait a second. Wallace Wang was the head of the 3rd wealthiest family in Singapore, with holdings not just across the island, but around the world. What would he want with Roger?
Joey continued, "You see, Wang has been causing incidents in every major company and family here in Singapore. Intelligence reports that he's been employing corporate espionage rings and organised crime."
Iris was bewildered. "That doesn't explain why he kidnapped my brother, though! We aren't exactly influential members of Singaporean society."
"Your brother is a detective, right? Roger was investigating Wang's involvement in a couple incidents, and he was getting close to something big. I was assigned to keep up with him, but he disappeared, which I think you know."
Iris, Erin, and I all looked at each other. Wallace Wang, huh? We knew his grandson, Leon, from back in the day. He was an alright guy, really friendly and outgoing. He loved throwing parties for his friends, even ones he didn't know that well. But it was weird that we never saw his parents or his grandparents. He always alluded to something going on, but we never knew the true extent of it.
"So what do you suppose the next step of action is?" I asked Joey. "It's not exactly easy to get close to Wallace. Even then, do we even know where Roger's being held?"
"Yesterday, I saw Roger get forced into a car registered to one of the in-house employees of Wang. I was going to assume the identity of one of the other employees, who showed up here. But truth be told, I'm also a big fan of yours, Haruka!" Joey gave us this very sheepish look, and I knew we wouldn't get much more out of him.
"So, then, what happened? Where's the other employee?"
"I'm not sure. I saw him go back here with someone else, but he disappeared."
After a couple minutes of questioning, we determined that we had all reached a dead end. How would we get close to Wallace Wang?
Suddenly, Erin got a call.
"Hello? Oh hi, Leon! Mhm, yeah! Of course I remember! Today? Um, yeah, sure! Uh-huh. Can I bring some friends of mine? Huh. Nice. Well, thanks again, Leon. Can't wait. Bye-bye."
I was bewildered. "Did you just get a call from Leon Wang?"
"Oh, I forgot to mention something, haven't I? Leon's part of my book club! He's invited me to his birthday party today."
With wide eyes and gaping maws, we stared at her.
"And you guys are invited too! Chances are, his parents and grandparents will be there..."
One quick costume change later, we were on our way to the party. The Wang estate was located on some land in the Singapore Botanical Gardens. Suffice it to say, it was lavish. We got there just as things got started. Leon was out front when we pulled up, greeting guests.
"Hey! If it isn't the Kao siblings! How are you guys? It's been a while, eh, Stan?" said Leon, who looked as chipper as ever.
"Thanks for inviting us, Leon. Happy birthday."
"Ah, you know what they say: the more, the merrier! Now then, what's all this then? Iris Leung, is that you?"
"Hiya, Leon. It's great to see you again! Happy birthday!" said Iris, proceeding to do a secret handshake I remembered from our childhood.
"So, then who're these two?" said Leon, gesturing to Joey and Haruka.
"Hej, Joseph Vargsson, Bramblesauce Network Productions. I'm friends with Stan here. I represent idols, like the lovely miss-"
"Hey, aren't you Haruka Koizumi? The underground idol?" interjected Leon, eyes wide with wonder and excitement.
"Yeah! You've heard of me?"
"Oh, yeah, you bet I have! You're one of my favourite artists! I saw you live when..." And on Leon began to ramble.
Iris, Erin, and I proceeded to enter the house rather than staying to hear Leon fanboy over Haruka. We recognised a lot of the guests as they were the kids of the most noteworthy people in Singapore. But we weren't there to socialise. We were there to snoop. Except for Iris. Who was there to do both.
We split up to cover enough ground considering the mansion was more than 1000 square metres. Erin decided to look around the upper floor, which had substantially fewer people and was prime for looking about. I looked around the main floor, trying to keep Iris accountable. Somehow, she got away again, but that was fine. Nothing unusual. After a bit of walking around, I found nothing on the location of Roger. I did, however, notice some other guests who were pacing around like I was. Looked like a tall American guy with a cowboy hat, a dapper Brit, an Indian man with shades, and I think a Korean girl in a luxurious dress. I wasn't sure at the time.
Erin called me not too long after, telling me that Joey and Haruka wanted to see me in the west wing. Haruka met me at the main foyer alone.
Haruka led me through the corridors to a library that seemed to take up the majority of the west wing of the Wang estate. Joey was looking up at the immense oil painting of Wallace Wang, and Erin was perusing the shelves as we walked in.
Joey spun around to greet us. It looked like he was fully engrossed in the painting since we might have caught him off-guard. Not sure about an Interpol agent who gets distracted like that.
"Oh! There you are! Hey, where's Iris?"
"Last I saw her was in the garden, but I'm sure she's fine."
"Huh. Okay. Well, check this out. Based on how the floor is kinda scratched here, this bookshelf is supposed to swing out. The only thing is to find the switch that opens it."
Joey walked over to one of the vases situated on one of the shelves. "Maybe this is the switch!" He then knocked it over, and the glass marbles and water inside it spilt all over the hardwood flooring.
"Whoops. Uh, watch your step. Maybe it's... these books!" Joey pulled on a couple of them and... they fell to the ground. "Buh..."
Erin shook her head and scoffed. "While we could go around and break things willy nilly, I could just redirect your attention to this." Erin raised up a pair of keys and jingled them. "I found these in one of the books, which was hollowed out. And, I believe, they fit in... right.... here!"
Erin inserted a key into a nook under a small statue of Budai. "I noticed that this statue's head here was looking a bit worse for wear, so..." She turned the statue, and the sound of locks opening behind a shelf preluded the shelf swinging open. "Voila!"
Figuring whatever lay in the back was probably too dangerous for even a lucky man like myself to face, Joey took Haruka with him to the back. Haruka said something along the lines of being a black belt in karate, so that's why Joey took her along. Either way, the sheer chaos I knew Joey could cause was going to be enough for what the secret room had in store.
In the meantime, Erin and I went to go look for Iris, who had been gone for a little over an hour now. We split up again, making sure to call one another as soon as possible. I went upstairs and looped around the upper floor of the west wing. It eventually led me to the upper balcony above the library.
Meanwhile, Joey and Haruka went deeper into the back. There was a short flight of stairs, followed by a corridor with three rooms at the end. Joey looked through the ajar steel door of that room and there he was. Roger. He was gagged and tied to a metal chair in the middle of the room and looked like he'd seen better days.
"Vid Odens skägg, are you alright?!"
Roger just stared at him with wild eyes and muffled screams. Haruka caught on and turned around. "Ano, Joey?!"
All of a sudden, four individuals jumped out from a side room.
While this was happening, Erin called me.
"Stan, where are you?!"
"Woah, Erin, is everything alright?"
"Not to alarm you or anything, but I saw Wallace! I think he's doing something with Iris right now!"
"Ah crap, really?! Don't tell me he's on his way to the library right now, 'cause that's where I am! I'm on the second floor!"
"Think he is! Stay where you are! Hide or something!"
Back in the corridor, things weren't looking too good either. The four people behind Haruka and Joey jumped out, and they meant business.
"Freeze! Agent Dusker, CIA!"
"Agent Dawne, MI5!"
"Agent Seon, NIS!"
"Agent Muni, R&AW!"
Each one of the foreign agents flashed their respective badges with one hand and another on a holstered piece or knife.
"Wha- Hold on! Buh- Agent Ågren, Interpol Sweden!" Joey fumbled a bit pulling his identification out.
"Ah... Haruka Koizumi, Naichō! But I'm just an informant!"
Joey looked at Haruka, the chaos brewing beneath his furrowed brow. "Japanese Intelligence?! How long were you going to keep that secret?!"
"It wasn't relevant at the time!"
I looked down on the library from under a table by the railing, keeping myself concealed. In walked Wallace Wang and Iris, but something was off. Iris wasn't talking.
"Your brother, not so smart. He go looking for trouble, and looks like you too." Wang was definitely holding Iris at gunpoint. She looked far too uncomfortable. What was I going to do?
Erin ran in at this point and looks like Leon was with her too.
"Ā gōng, what are you doing?! Let her go!"
"Get back, Leon! You too random girl! Nobody get hurt as long as you get out!"
It was at this moment the six people in the corridor came out.
"Ai yah! More troublemakers! All of you! Make one move and the Leung girl gets it!"
Roger was furious. "Why are you doing this?! What do you have to do with Iris?! It's me you want!"
"Exactly. You so close to bringing down my empire. So close to zhēnxiàng. The truth. Either you leave and I keep her alive or I shoot."
The agents looked at each other. The time to act was growing shorter with every passing minute. So I got up.
I forget I'm lucky sometimes. I bumped into the table I was hiding under, which caused a vase on top to topple over and go over the edge.
Right onto Wallace's head.
Not even a second later, something equally incredible happened.
"Singapore Police! Wallace Wang, you're under arrest for tax... evasion... What is going on here?! Why is Wang knocked out?! Who are you people?!"
The SPD basically raided the party, as this was the first time Wallace was back in the country in five years. As mentioned, he'd been wanted for tax fraud. But that's not all.
The Americans wanted to get Wallace for illegal purchases of fine art stolen from their museums. The British wanted him for dealings with the Hong Kong triads. The South Koreans wanted him for corporate espionage. And the Indians wanted him for his ties to international smuggling rings in the Indian Ocean. Oh, and the Japanese were keeping tabs on his connections to political scandals.
But that wasn't important to me. Not as much as getting my friend back, and keeping his sister safe.
I’m Stan. Stanley Kao.
I’m a guy who basically does whatever I want, with all sorts of people I meet. I’ve got an incredible older sister named Erin, and she’s been with me through thick and thin. I’ve always got interesting company and interesting stories to tell.
I can find myself in some very dangerous situations, but manage to get out without a scratch. My sister can find literal diamonds in the rough. My friend Roger can always count on the right people to be looking out for him, even when he’s getting himself into trouble. And his sister, Iris, can make my day, even though when I’m with her it’s one hell of a time. My life is, in short, crazy.
One thing remains constant, though. I’m real lucky.