One Day in Penang

Don't bother reading this if you haven't read 'One Night in Penang' - this story won't make any sense at all.

Any character names, business related events or technical details in this story that bare any resemblance to fact are by sheer coincidence. Not a BTB story. Not a lot of sex.

*****

March 2018 Taman Wira -- Diana's House.

She looked out the second story window of the house she calls home, has called home for three and a half years now. It was an easy decision to buy the house, jumped at it. That it sat on the Butterworth side, in the Taman Wira Estate next to 'their' walk and the roadway that ran parallel to the beach front and not on the Island was of no consequence to her at all, she could see Penang during the day or the twinkling of the lights at night through the trees and she could return to her Island paradise to wander and explore at her leisure which she did often.

The roar of two RMAF or maybe even RAAF F18 Hornets on full after-burn echoed around the estate as they launched and streaked off to the north and out over the Penang Straits.

She loves the F18's -- They remind her of him, Mike - brash, with a visible touch of arrogance when it was needed - both the aeroplane and the man, but also strong and powerful, honest and displaying a quiet confidence in their abilities. Human and mechanical.

Down below in the front garden, she saw him quietly watching as the two aircraft disappeared into the distance. She allowed the smallest of smiles to escape as she watched him. He stretched on tip-toes, one hand shading his young eyes as he strained to get a final glimpse. The look, that same look -- inquisitive, impatient and then a discerning, scrutinizing expression -- it was so familiar, and it left no doubt in her mind even at four years of age, he was his Fathers son.

Still watching him moving to find the next big adventure, her thoughts turned back to the day at hand, the respite that the Hornets and watching Michael Jr had given her was gone.

She had come to hate this day more and more each year, the first couple of months due to the trauma and initial shock of the event she had nightmares but they were long gone now, when on the very rare occasion she had one, it didn't take her long to recognise and overcome.

It had helped to start writing again, helped her get over a lot of what went on in the last four years and before, she managed to write down her and Mikes stories and how she had got to where she was now.

She had changed publishing companies to Tricycle, Leonie's employer, that had allowed both of them to become closer friends, Leonie spending time in Butterworth often. Given the relationships they both had had with Mike, Diana, at times, had actually struggled with Leonie staying but that had changed as the friendship grew and together with Taio and Ai Wu and her other Malaysian friends she had found support around her.

Leonie was the first to contact her on that day - that had been hard and later when the whole story came out. She was careful and considerate when she opened up about who she was - both as an author as well as how she came to share her life with Mike before their divorce. It never hindered her friendship with Leonie at all.

It was always this damn day that got her. She couldn't help herself, let the tears envelop her eyes as she turned back the clock four years - 8th March 2014.

-z-

07 March 2014 Kuala Lumpur - Mike.

Climbing off my connection to K.L. I went off to sign in for my flight to Beijing, breakfast and then cab into the city. I had a meeting at Malaysian Defence Headquarters with technical support services and a power point presentation on proposed Hornet simulator mode and operational procedures updates, intended upgrade of the graphics package and a talk up on a new aggressor red force assimilation programme we had developed.

That was going to take care of three hours plus the question time which always came and would quite often suck up as much time as the presentation.

I'd completed everything I needed to by fourteen hundred and found a hotel that I could get some kip in for a few hours, shower and get a meal, catch up with some emails and hopefully wake up those lazy Canucks and Yanks at home just for 'shits and giggles' (American for 'just for the hell of it').

My phone had been on silent with vibration off and there it was -- a message from Diana:

Mike, You Darling -- I was in a mess for 3 hours until I found you had put your numbers in my phone. Thank You. I love you Mike. OK so please tell me if I'm screwing this up. My first question is 'Do you ever wonder what our life would be like if I hadn't screwed it all up?'

My second question is 'Do you ever think about us, getting our lives back together again?'

I answered: Di, your first question, without that 'If I hadn't screwed it all up' shit on the end - I'm over it. We talked about this last night. Answer -- Yes.

To your second question thinking about us getting back together -- Yes.

To answer when and where: Last night. Taman Wira and the Comptah for both questions.

Diana:A question for you, what do you want? - Send.

Shit! That was fast - She must have been waiting for me to reply: A chance Mike, nothing more.

I answered: You got it. No guarantees. I will help you. But Di if you know its not going to work -- no hiding it cos' I won't -- ok?

She took a little to answer: Thank You. OK - No guarantees. Thank You. Ok -- yes, but I won't go down without a fight, this chance means everything to me, I'm gonna make it work Mike, I promise.

I was laughing to myself as I wrote: Oh and You get to tell Leonie the whole sordid little story!!

She answered: Oh Mike. I s'pose I deserve it. OK. When?

Fuck!: Diana! Lighten the fuck up, I'm joking. I thought about it: Sorry Di, too soon? bad joke.

She answered: LOL. Mike when will I see you again? I can meet you? Anywhere if you would like.

I answered: OK, I'm in China for 2 days, back to Singapore on the 11th and two days there meetings with RSAF and they are full on days. Staying at the Mandarin Orchard, do you want to meet there? We should get Leonie to book you in Di, haha. OK. I know -- childish, I'm a fighter pilot, Bite me!

Diana: Haha, Deal but you have to tell Leonie to make the booking.

I smiled, 'Great. Thats what I was looking for Di, You keep that mindset.'

I typed: Ok, done I'll let you know when I've booked. My finger hovered, love You. Mike.

Di Replied: K - I Love You Mike.

Booking was easy -- done and dusted in five minutes, texted Di. Was I looking forward to being in Singers -- Yep I was. I had another call recognised the number -- John B. Houghton -- American, Chicago based - one of the three founding partners and chief of operations for the company. As well as that we're friends and John was and is a very experienced high-hour F-16 Viper pilot in the USAF. You can imagine what that encompasses, where and what he has done, he maintains an active reserve status.

"Hey John, how's it going mate?"

"Great Mike, already had an email come through about your work today, well done, they seem really happy. Look I know you've got a bit on before you set off to China, but be advised you need to know that given the tension between the US and China over the J-31 versus Lockheed-Martin hack thing, the state department and you can guess who else have sent out a statement asking all aerospace tech companies to limit involvement with China, they aren't saying no, yet. I needed to clarify what they were saying and reached out to Jim Meyers over at State.

So given that we are after component sales for something that is not of a restricted nature we are all good to go, however I'm leaving whether you go up to you. The other thing that you need to know and has come to light thanks to Hal Kline is the Chinese appear to be actively courting our European counterparts and all but ignoring North American companies. Hal's bringing his guys home, they've been sitting on their hands for three days so he feels if nothing else it sends a message. Ok so there it is, it's up to you. We'll support what ever decision you run with."

"Ok John I'll give it some thought and let you know."

"Great, oh how did your holiday in Penang go Mike? Catch up with a few old memories didja?"

"Yeah you could say that mate, yeah it was great John."

"Good, ok got a few more to contact, let me know, good hunting Mike."

Over the last two years we had started manufacturing our own electronic componentry - linear and rotary encoders, stepper motors and various pressure measurement equipment. The original company had a very good product but lacked for sales bolstered by stiff competition from overseas. The partners knew the company had potential and we use a lot of the componentry in our simulators, so to prevent what they saw as a parts supply problem and redesign if the company went under. The partners bought the whole business, invested money and time in research and development and here we were. I was keen to promote the product range - it matched and in some cases exceeded what was being offered by the competition, and had uses in allied industry -- Hydraulic and thermodynamics based industry, CNC machine tools manufacture, Aircraft component and Locomotive engineering, all of the components offered came with both ISO, SAE and U.S. federal certification and authorisation compliance where needed.

I'm not a salesman but I'd invested enough time in understanding the product range and I had no problem facing potential clients. Now I had to decide whether I wanted to go to Beijing or consider it a wasted trip. Given I was going to meet Diana in Singapore on the eleventh I didn't really have an excuse for hanging around so the decision was made -- off to China.

I'd made all the plans, sent out a confirmation to Vancouver to get the China trip underway when my phone rang again, not a number I recognised, local.

"Hullo Mike, It is Lieutenant Colonel Hazik Tahir RMAF here, we met this afternoon after your presentation. You may remember me Mike. You gave me one of your cards."

"Lieutenant Colonel, yes I remember you. What is it that I can do for you."

"Well Mike, I was hoping that you might be available tonight for a meal, a semi-official dinner and at the invitation of the RMAF of course. On a strictly professional level and maybe a chat with myself and some of my compatriots. To be specific and as you have probably gathered the air force are more than interested in the assimilation program your company has built and we would like to talk about it in some detail and more so on a pilot to pilot basis. Is this something you could see yourself clear to undertake?" 'Hmmm Definitely no beating about the bush with this guy.'

-z-

07 March 2014 Penang Island - Diana.

She wanted to pinch herself, see if she was dreaming or was it for real. Looking out over the Georgetown landscape below her she took a deep breath -- time to get her head on. She knew what she wanted with the chance she'd been given, no more tears, make the dream real.

Mike wasn't going to like her telling him a couple of things she really needed him to hear - would come in the form of apology's and that was bound to make him angry. In the year prior to their divorce she developed a high-brow arrogant and superior attitude which culminated in her one stupid act of infidelity. The attitude thing set in after the success and popularity of her third and fourth book, at the same time she had surrounded her self with colleagues and work associates from both the publishing and PR companies who considered themselves the literary intelligentsia and they helped to perpetuate and nurture her superior attitude. In the public arena she hid it, it reared it's ugly head when Mike was around - It was him that copped the brunt of it.

Once Mike pulled the pin on their marriage and when that became known by her literary fan club they had all guffawed and flippantly congratulated her on getting her life and other half of her brain back. By then the self-realisation she had fucked up her marriage and private life so successfully she had seethed over those remarks. She was patient though even as she began the process of pushing them away -- they'd get what was coming to them.

When they got the retribution she planned they were all in the same room at the same time, made it so so much easier, it was her fifth book release, not that she cared by then.

She resented the way Mike used those types of words in his every day life, their everyday life. She refused to use them in any of her novels, and had only used that one word, seemingly Mikes favourite, once before. After she'd said it she pulled herself up over it, quickly looked round in embarrassment to make sure she hadn't been heard.

The next time she used the word in public it wasn't only in front of her real fans, her real friends and the public, but also her publisher and staff, PR firm, and of course members of the press and a few news camera's.

It was a balanced rant -- it horrified her fans, general public and press but it wasn't aimed at them. The PR firm had installed a raised stage for all the attending work related 'friends' with champagne flutes in hand that meant she could easily aim her attack in that one direction.

It wasn't that she used the word, it was the frequency and the passion she put behind the usage. They'd probably never heard the word 'fuck' used so boisterously or used in so many different tenses, but the nature of insult to them all was never hidden. It turned into a PR nightmare for a while, the spin they put on her verbal outpouring did work for a while. 'They' were relieved when the press in total took it to heart: the story went that their favorite author was suffering from stress due to a messy divorce and continual and long writing period.

That was the second apology. When she learnt what was contained in the press release on her behalf, she was portrayed as the bereft heart-broken and betrayed Joanna Driscoll, Author extraordinaire, they had stopped short of calling her an abused wife but she had little doubt that would be assumed.

She had signed up for the writing of six books and options on two others with Castille Publishing, 'The Talisman and the Pearl' was number six and about to go to print when she insisted that her statement of love to Mike be included in the front of the book. They very reluctantly agreed after they were informed she would tell the press the truth. It didn't stop the PR Firm grumble long after the fact.

Now, nearly a year on since the book release they never asked Diana whether she would carry on with Castille publishing - they assumed, never did what they should have done -- due diligence and a signed contract. It caught them unawares when she announced at a hastily put together press conference she would not be signing onto Castille Publishing or Diamond PR, she firmly stated they had come to the end of a partnership. When asked 'why?' She had simply said it was a difference of opinions between her and the two companies she had employed - clear and without ambiguity just lacking detail - that detail would come out in her next two novel's.

Before that happened she wanted Mike to know she had been stupidly foolish in trusting both Castille and Diamond to have had such a controlling influence in their marriage and their lives. While it wasn't all their doing she knew they had certainly helped things along -- she had easily severed that relationship now. More importantly she had recently made changes drastic enough in her life that on the way she had rediscovered what she realised was the true Diana Blake, not the dollied-up version she had become or they had portrayed.

So that was where she was when she left Melbourne to come to Penang this time, no collection of literary genius' clouding the picture, no publisher, no PR company.

-z-

07 March 2014 Kuala Lumpur - Mike.

The dinner and meeting with Hazik Tahir and his fellow pilots didn't go completely to plan. The whole deal tonight they were hoping to expand on tomorrow if I was available. They would all head back to Butterworth AFB tomorrow afternoon if I agreed to a meeting the following morning. It was obvious by their questions dealing with detail around the assimilation programme there was a definite escalation in interest in the programme from the time of the presentation that afternoon til now.

There is a five power integrated air defense partnership that Malaysia is a signatory too. The assimilation programme and the ability to download real-time air warfare exercise intelligence to it would allow all the partners to progress to the same level of expertise as demonstrated by similar programs developed by other air forces, the program algorithms allowing the program to build it's own learning experience.

Because of the Beijing meetings I rescheduled a meeting at Butterworth on the 12th before I met with their Singaporean counterparts. I'd reschedule the meeting with the Singaporeans and talk to Diana as well. At least we'd still get some time before coming back to Penang and Butterworth.

Hazik and his crew reluctantly decided they would head home in the a.m. and we would meet at the rescheduled date. I was getting the feeling I was looking at an extended stay in Asia with increased work load if tonight's dinner was anything to go by. The one bright spot in amongst that was the time Diana and I would get to reconnect ...maybe, no - hopefully.

Anyway it was 2200 hours local and I'd managed to not get my quick kip in -- 'Oh fucking joy!' repacked my carry-on, I had Diana's book to read, made sure I had my ticket -- 'Check your flight number and gate you clown'. I have a bad habit of not doing that.

-z-

07 March 2014 Penang Island - Diana.

She felt dog tired and smiled to herself when she remembered why, the previous night and early morning fun she and Mike had indulged in - if she was honest she knew she couldn't wait for more in Singapore.

She had gone over in her head how to approach Mike with her apology's and realised he wasn't going to like the head-on 'come-to-Jesus' type talk and Diana understood that.

She had no problem with honouring Mike's wish that what happened in the past stays there -- in the past, he was over it. In the end she was going to bring up the fact that she had left Castille and Diamond and that she was courting with the idea of moving to Tricycle as Joanna Driscoll. That would allow Mike the chance to ask the questions himself, of his own cognisance if he wanted.

He may shy away from anything to do with the 'why' knowing it may involve delving somewhere he didn't want to go and in the event he asked - Diana could query whether he really wanted to go there or not -- it would be Mikes decision how much or what he wanted to know.

There was also Leonie and how they handled telling her about them both, Diana winced about that, she knew Leonie admitted to having played netball and still dabbled so Leonie had good aim and a throwing arm, the merest smile broke out when she thought about it -- decided her and Mike would tell Leonie at the same time, if it became a throwing war she was pretty sure she could duck behind Mike if needs be.

It exhilarated her to know she had planned her first step forward they could do this one piece at a time. Still she felt confident, wanted to celebrate. She knew what she wanted to do -- get out into her city, walk through it, go to the markets - not to buy, Immerse herself in her surroundings, watch and listen to the people and city sounds. Thats what she did, found her favourite Makan -- nasi goreng with a bunch of extra vegetable s-- simple, tasty and green tea to go along with it. The noise, smell and sounds of Penang enveloping her senses.