Meeting

“Good evening, Mr. Windu; this is Indra. Is my sound clear?”

“Good evening, I can hear you loud and clear. How’s life?”

“Wonderful, I met my friends at a café this afternoon. How about you, sir?”

“Nice! I went fishing this morning at Opak River. A nice jackpot of 15 Tawes. I ended up frying all of them for breakfast and lunch.”

“A great jackpot, sir!”

“Any random conversation you have with your friends?”

“Mostly about languages, like euphemism and maternal elements in the Indonesian language. But soon it diverts into geography, food, and surname.”

“A great chat! I talked with a retired chef while fishing; he taught me how to bake cakes like a patissier and fillet different fish types.”

“I see, speaking about fishing, do you know about ikejime?”

“I have used it several times on a Snapper and yellowfin tuna. It’s a bit tricky to do. First, you spike the brain. Then, you bleed the fish by cutting the membrane behind both gills. Followed by another cut at the base of the tail fin. Flush the fish with plenty of water. The last step… Um… With the cut made in the tail, look for the canal above the spine. That’s where the spinal cord is. Run the wire up the canal all the way to the brain and then pull it back and forth several times to paralyze the fish. If you do it correctly, the fish will occasionally buck and flare its fins. If the fish stops moving, you’re done. You can store the fish for a week or more in your refrigerator. But my recommend to consume that fish within 3-5 days.”

“I see…”

Iwan is sitting cross-legged, drinking his tea and chomping a fried banana, trying to learn more about fishing. Agatha, on the other hand, slowly grows more and more impatient, but Iwan manages to handle it. So instead, she dozes off for a little while. When the topic changes, more bushes are beaten.

“Mr. Windu, one of my biggest failures as a representative of Caturtunggal is picking the wrong subcontractors to fix a bridge’s expansion joint at Affandi Avenue and patching potholes around Deresan.”

“I heard Deresan and Affandi Avenue is often passed by delivery trucks. To fix potholes, as far as I know and remember. Drill the surrounding hole square so the edges function as a wall. Put a hot mix of asphalt; I think the thickness should be around 5 cm. Compact the asphalt, and it’s done. But when it comes to expansion joint, I have no idea.”

“Thank you for sharing your knowledge with me, sir. Do you like to drink coffee?”

“Yes, I love Toraja arabica coffee. I bought a pack of it yesterday, but I haven’t turned it into a drinkable liquid yet.”

“If I may give you a tip, please put around 2-3 teaspoons of coffee in your cup. Heat the water until 80-90 degrees centigrade, and then pour the water into the cup. Wait for 5 minutes to let the cream settle down. Before you drink it, shake it up a bit and enjoy.”

“I see; I’ll try that right now; after that, let’s get down to business!”

“Good luck, sir!”

Once the actual talk starts, Agatha wakes up, and Iwan’s fried bananas are replaced with steamed peanuts.

“Alright, Indra, let’s keep it quick. Regarding the increasing population of this region, I suggest that we build more housing. The most dense residential zones are inside the ring road since development is limitless. When it comes to residential zones outside the ring road, they are limited, and all of them are low-density. The zoning boundary is also strict, but demand is rapidly increasing. We should use this chance to the fullest.”

“I agree, sir. We can capitalize on this demand by simply providing supplies and creating legal laws. My plan is to create a new law called the ‘land utilization commandment.’ It allows more land zones to be turned into residential zones, but it will not be favourable to the locals. Instead, we can mark designated spots, make an accident that makes the land unusable, and build housing. Rent them all at cheap prices, and we’ll be rich.”

“A great plan! But why called it a commandment?”

“The locals preferred it that way; a spoken commandment has more power than a written law. That’s how it works here.”

“How about your idea of revolution?”

“I’ll do it subtly by strict surveillance. When push comes to shove, I’ll use a method called mysterious disappearance.”

“Mysterious disappearance?”

“Let’s just say criminals get iced.”

“Who’s gonna iced them?”

“Droid police unit. They don’t have to do it directly; they can make it look like an accident and pay the media to keep them quiet.”

“I see well about the designated spots… here’s a map; the spots are these tiny dots with a boundary line of how much we can expand.”

“Most of them are farmland; it’ll be best to do it between harvest and replanting season during the beginning of the dry season. For the forest, whether dry or wet season, trees are quite challenging to catch on fire thanks to abundant groundwater. But it’s best to burn them at the peak of the dry season.”

“The time windows are quite thin; we have to be careful. Let’s not implement this right away. We need more time to plan and pull it off just in time.”

“Very well then. Will there be any other developer who would like to join the project?”

“I’ve invited my colleagues, and it’s a matter of time before they join this project. It’s too good to be sleep on.”

“Indeed it is.”

“Alright then, let’s keep it short and end it here. I hope no one would hijack this call and record this entire meeting.”

“Have no worries, sir, we’ll be fine.”

“Okay then, thank you for today. Ciao!”

“Thank you, sir. Have a wonderful evening!”

Iwan and Agatha recorded the whole meeting, which is important evidence. If those conspiracy theories are proven to be true, their laid-back investigation might pay off.

Note:

Tawes: Java barb (Barbonymus gonionotus)