Gemsicuted

Written by Julian Robov

Sixteen


It was a Friday morning. Thanon(street) Srichan looked sleepy. The morning sun ascended gradually moving the clouds to a far away destination. Gem dealers loved a clear sky. Some specialized in buying gems in a bad light and selling in good light. Ignorant buyers and novices were taken advantage of by this natural phenomenon in the open gem market of Chanthaburi. Gemstones were everywhere. But the really good ones never emerged in the open market for anyone to view.
The biblical quote, “DON’T CAST PEARLS BEFORE SWINE,” rang the ears of most top quality gem dealers.
It was eleven. The gem market began to warm up. Men, women, and children carrying countless gemstone parcel, mostly rubies, sapphires and, of course, loads of synthetic gemstones crowded the streets. Any buyer or a new face was cordially welcomed by a good quality synthetic gemstone. Judging gems with the unaided eye needed other skills. Price was also an indicator at times, but something more was needed. EXPERIENCE!
Some arrived on foot from the cutting factories scattered around the town while others sped on their motorbike from place to place. Food vendors always had a good time, because everyone loved to eat. If the brokers had problem finding buyers then the immediate option was to talk about the miserable weekend.
If that wasn’t enough, eating remained a possible option, a national sport after boxing. Some weekends were good with too many buyers looking for gems, which they couldn’t find in Bangkok. While other weekends remained a sheer waste of time and money. In the streets, faces and relationships remained more important than money. That’s how people made and lost bundles of money and gems, buying and selling the wrong type or qualities or good quality synthetic gems at an attractive price or the ones which they couldn’t sell. Anyone with sharp eyes, absolute concentration, and fast calculations succeeded incrementally weeding out the chaff from wheat, which came from around the world looking for a bargain.
Chantaburi was not for the novice, but a good place to learn the ropes of ruby trade and the colorful people that populated the environs. Most important of all was TRUST. Then, FACES. Just like the colors of gemstones, people kept changing their colors when buying or selling. Observing their color temperatures and mood swings meant a lost sale or otherwise. Once trust, recognition, and sincerity were established gems kept coming to the table for that first look. That special look made all the difference in a day.
Ken Solby was one among them. He never missed the weekend ritual for one reason. NO TWO RUBIES LOOKED ALIKE. He also bought rubies for Lord and sold to his clients on a percentage basis. The money was good. They also had a common enemy.
Ris Rubyhall!
Lord owed Ken a lot. It was he who plucked the 37carat Burmese ruby from a top Chantaburi dealer who was about to sell it to a London collector. They both bought the ruby for a bargain. The dealer wanted to get rid of the ruby because of several deaths. It didn’t look auspicious. The owner was a Burmese, and superstitious. And to his dismay, he didn’t realize that the very same ruby was out to kill people from the hole where it was discovered. His brother who wanted to sell on his own account killed the miner. No sooner had he arrived in Mandalay a soldier shot him in the street for not stopping at one of the several checkpoints. After plucking the ruby from the corpse, the soldier knew where to sell. It was definitely not in Burma.

He started his journey to the Thai border town of Mae Sai. While negotiating with a Thai dealer in the jungle, the Burmese soldier was shot by a Thai soldier suspecting a drug transaction. But the Thai dealer survived the ambush by fleeing the scene at lightning speed to the nearest Buddhist temple. He knew how to find a buyer. He reached Chantaburi disguised as a Buddhist monk. In Chantaburi, dealers loved to keep the identity of the true owner secret in so many ways. Though the traders were open-minded and humorous, they obviously remained discreet. Just like their Bangkok counterparts. Only a very few knew the inside operation of this multimillion dollar market. So when the 37carat Burmese ruby emerged at one of his contacts table, Ken knew immediately that the ruby was going to disappear soon if he didn’t bid. He never regretted that decision.
But now for a very different reason, Lord had put the ruby indirectly through Miko and Tito to take on Rubyhall.
At least that was Ken’s prognosis.