Chapter 10
At the Qinghai province near the Goldmud airport, Zara sat in front of a small limousine watching a few cars driving on the road up towards the airport at the end of it. Inside the car, the goon leader sat on the driver seat on the phone talking to someone. The man placed his phone away, then he opened the door of the vehicle getting out of it and walked to the redhead.
"They'll be here in two minutes. They passed with the van without any problem" The man mentioned.
"Have you already located the boy?" Zara questioned making the man shake his head.
"Nope, but I will" The man answered earning a nod from the woman, then he took out his smartphone again to locate the boy. "Do you think they won't find the smartphone?"
"I made sure, that it would be hidden enough under the urn the boy was carrying. I don't think he's going to find it so soon"
"Good. I don't think he's going to take the urn out until he's up at the Himalayas"
"Exactly. Even if they would find it, we have another group landing in Kathmandu the next hours and they'll be closer to the destination and would encounter them, if the boy and Dave are going the right way….Honestly, what are they thinking about going up to the Himalayas to scatter Burnish's ashes? This is just ridiculous"
"It might have been, what the testament of Burnish could have said. You know he was so fascinated with the mount Everest, that he might have chosen to have his ashes scattered there when he wrote his last will"
"Most likely. But one thing is for sure" Zara said turning around to the partner. "If we catch Dave and the boy before the mountains, we threat the kid with Dave's death and the only way to free him would be him going up to the mountain to lure the yeti to him and when we see him, we all aim him with tranquilizer darts to take him down and it's over. The scientists keep their yeti, we get our money and the two….well they're useless they can stay alive, it doesn't matter. Who's going to believe what happened anyway? No one believed Burnish years ago when he saw the yeti for the first time"
"Sounds plausible" The former security leader of the Burnish industries agreed. "Mostly since the other two teens are away" The man mentioned making Zara snicker shortly.
"If they actually would show up, I would have a bigger threat for the boy to go up to the mountains for us"
"This really seems to be easy Zara" The man concurred earning a confident smile of the woman.
"I told you it wouldn't be harder, than it was back then" Zara mentioned, then watched a white van approach with the symbol of the Hongkonger flag and the symbol of the scientific labor, which consisted of a chemical flask with a dropper over it dropping a black-colored liquid in it. Zara smiled and waved her arm at the conductor, which was a raven-haired woman, which moved the vehicle aside from the road to park vice versa to the former criminal pack.
"Shouldn't we discuss the plan somewhere else?" The driver asked earning a nod from the redhead.
"Yes and there's an industrial zone back there. The workers are all busy in the factory, we can park on the outside and discuss it in the van or on the outside without any problem" Zara affirmed earning a thumb up from the woman, which put the blinker of the van on to enter back into the road, then Zara entered along with the man into the black car and made a U-turn to follow the van out of the airport area.
In the afternoon Jin, Yi and Kai were traveling on the train for a few hours. Although it's frustrating for the two to feel well on the long ride, they tried to motivate each other to suffer less on the ride from boredom.
"Okay I know this comes now out of the blue, but FantasyWorks secretly made the past years hilarious and weird scenes in their movies, so that fans could use it to make memes. This why they also nickname the studio Memeworks" Jin asserted while the friend listened to his story.
"Dolan is a great movie studio and that for many generations, but I don't know, I could identify myself better with some of the girls from the FantasyWork movies," Yi mentioned glancing at the tall boy.
"Most of the girls there seem to be tomboys just like you"
"Yes…..I could never become like all the other girls at the school. You know wear makeup, dresses, skirts. I just can't do that. It's just not my thing Jin"
"You're you. And you're just great the way you are"
"I know, thanks" Yi responded. "But have you ever wondered, why I'm actually like that?" The girl questioned making Jin shrug his shoulders.
"I never really cared if you were more like the girls or not. At least, when I was younger and we were always hanging out together…..hey probably one of the reasons you're more of a tomboy is because you were always hanging out with me and Peng most of the times." Jin mentioned. "We were always doing boys stuff like playing basketball"
"Eventually?" I don't remember beside I used to wear many t-shirts or shorts, when I went out. I never had the interest to wear any skirts or dresses. Not even today"
"Well, you never needed to wear a dress to look amazing. Like…...any other girl just wears them, cause its a girl thing and all,"
"You don't sound like you've got a good knowledge about girls, Jin" Yi mentioned with a chuckle making Jin roll his eyes.
"The douche Casanova you knew back then is history. Don't ask me, what's was going on through my head at that time,"
"Puberty?" Yi added seeing Jin mock laugh at her comment.
"Really funny" Jin grumbled.
"Yeah, I see that. I just wondered how your reputation didn't get ruined with all the dates you had in that space of time"
"I didn't have them all at once in the first place. Second, if I would get caught I would really have a bad reputation and it would have ruined my popularity back in high school"
"Poor past you" Yi commented making Jin shake his head while smiling amused at the friend. "What?"
"Nothing" Jin pointed out. "I always thought you disliked the fact I was popular back in high school"
"Yeah I did, but mostly how you acted towards me sometimes when you were around your new friends. You know as if I was a stranger or some loser,"
"I know and I'm sorry about it, I…."
"It's alright Jin, I'm just saying. You don't need to say anything"
"I know, but I feel like it doesn't make me feel better" Jin confessed observing Yi take out her smartphone, then she glanced at the medical student.
"Look Jin. It's been a year since we bounded again after we accompanied Everest back home. We've been more opener and honest with each other about our lives as our friendship was restrained. We texted each other once in a while during our courses and we're here together without the urge to take each other down for silly things" Yi mentioned unlocking her smartphone, then she furrowed her left eyebrow as she saw she had a message from Jin's smartphone. "I think Peng sent us a message?" Yi said and Jin leaned his head beside Yi's to check the message.
"What did he say?" Jin asked reading the message. "Hello Yi, it's me, Peng. I know you and Jin are worried about me, but I'm good. One of Miss Burnish's employees is here with me. He's nice and all, but I miss you guys. The trip isn't the same without you in it. Dave and I are right now in the city called Xining. If you want to know it. I love you guys"
"When was the message sent?" Yi asked, then Jin pointed at the top of the message, which said the date and the time, the message had arrived. "Almost seven hours ago" The Chinese boy mentioned.
"Let's check his location now" Yi suggested opening the smartphone tracking app again, then added Jin's phone number on it and pressed the updating button to look for Peng's current location.
"He's close to Türpan. Probably an hour away from there" Jin guessed holding his index finger on the phone symbol on the display. "At least we're on the same route"
"If Peng and Dave decide to overnight at Urümqui we might be able to catch up with them before they continue" The Chinese girl predicted observing Jin press the home button before he handed it back to Yi.
"You've got any idea, what we're going to do when we find Peng?" Jin questioned the friend, who looked up at the boy a little perplexed. "Does it make sense for us to go back with him?"
"We're on the other end of China. If we take the conventional line down to the borders, we'll be In two days I guess near the Himalayas," Pointed out the short-haired girl. "If you still prefer to go back to Shanghai, it's fine," Yi said looking at the friend, which thought about Yi's words.
"I'll think about that"
"I know you were against it at the start, but I think now, that we're all out here we should continue our way to Mount Everest to fulfill Mr. Burnish's last wish," Yi added watching Jin sink his head down looking neutrally at the floor. Yi placed her hand on the friend's shoulder bowing down at eye level to the teenage boy, afterward he rolled his eyes at the girl meeting her own eyes, then saw the girl giving him a soft smile. Jin smiled courteously at the girl friend and raised his head up again.
"Thanks, Yi," Jin said holding out his hand for the friend to shake, but she gave him a hug instead, making him grin and lean his head beside Yi's enjoying it.