Gemscentric

Written by Julian Robov


Twenty Six


The telephone rang. Instead of answering the call, Seri asked his secretary to pick up the phone. He was talking on his cell-phone to Jeffrey.
“I have a parcel of blues for you. Can I come to your office now?” Jeffrey asked.
“Oh, not now. I am quite busy with a client,” Seri said. There was nobody in his office. He was lying. At times he loved solitude.
“How is Carly doing?” Jeffrey asked again. “I need her for another client.”
Seri wasn’t ready to loan her to anyone. She was sold again to George for fifty thousand dollars discreetly, and he didn’t want Jeffrey to know about it. It was a deal Seri couldn’t refuse. George was going to buy the stones, but first he wanted Carly. Then, the stones. Seri didn’t care, because he knew that if he wanted another Carly, his agents were going to deliver at any moment. For him, this was a very unusual transaction.
“Ah, not now. I need her,” Seri added. “I can arrange another one for you.”
“Okay. Whatever you say,” Jeffrey said, and hung up.
Seri was in a reflective mood. Several important dates kept haunting him.
“Rudy called,” Seri’s secretary reminded him.
“What did he say?”
Instead, she wrote the details on a piece of paper for him. After reading, Seri retreated to his files working out the final details for the partnership deal. He thought of Meechai. He couldn’t understand why Meechai had to betray him at a crucial period.
He dialed the number.
“Rudy, I need some more time,” Seri said quietly.
“Have you changed your mind?” Rudy asked surprisingly.
“You said that, not me. The deal is still there. All I need is a few more weeks, and then bingo,” Seri added.
Rudy knew the man. Seri was always unpredictable—like Meechai, but the move really caught Rudy by surprise.
“The money is in Bangkok,” Rudy reminded. “We can close the deal earlier.” He then waited.
“Really? That’s good. I’ll think about it, and call you back soon,” Seri quipped and then hung up.

Money. At the end of the day, it was all about money, stones, women, and what not. Seri saw the opportunities ahead praying for more scapegoats. He then took a few pieces of blue sapphire from his drawer, and tossed them on his table. Mentally he saw the fools who were going to hold these speechless stones for whatever reasons.
PERCEIVED VALUE.

That’s what it was all about. And now Rudy was going to burn his money and time thinking that he was doing the right thing. For Seri, Rudy was another fool trying to be a smart ass. He then took five pieces of blue sapphires, and began playing with them—like a child. This was one of his habits, before killing someone in a deal. He always got a kick out of it. He called them KILLER BLUES.

Blue sapphires from Pailin were special for him. Some had a characteristic cornflower blue—like the Kashmir blue sapphires, when nature blessed the ground abundantly with the right chemical composition. Those pieces became his bank, and the less lucky ones, he coated the right mixture of chemicals, and sold them deceptively as the genuine Pailin blue sapphires to anyone, who paid his price. Only a very few knew how to separate the genuine from the enhanced ones. He had a special chemical brew far superior to his competitors, thus making it even more difficult for the experts and idiots to do the separation. Seri was the master, and he wanted to remain that way, as long as he lived. It was wishful thinking.

He then took a 9carat piece, and put it in his mouth doing some kind of tongue testing. The real ones always gave a cool feeling, and after rolling in his mouth for sometime, he then wiped off the saliva from the stone with a piece of cloth, and then put them back in a plastic box. The stone was still smiling at him seductively, and the more he looked at the piece, the more he wanted to lick it. Not just one piece, the whole parcel of stones. He just couldn’t stop the exercise. The hidden blue flashes of the blue sapphires dominated his thoughts and actions. They all had a power and brilliance of its own, which no one understood except perhaps God. He enjoyed licking and playing with them more than having sex with bimbos from around the world. He had the money if he wished, but his body and soul were with blue sapphires, especially from Pailin.

Blue sapphires came not only from Pailin, but also from other exotic localities in Africa, North America, South America, Southeast Asia and South Asia. Seri had seen the qualities several times, but the one which stuck to his heart were the ones from Pailin, and for him no other localities matched the beauty and color like Pailin, and he felt proud showing his friends, when in a good mood.

After a gentle knock, his secretary walked in again, and left a note for him. Seri recognized the telephone number and the message. He counted the blue sapphires once again, before depositing them in a safe vault. Seri wrote a telephone number for his secretary to contact him, if there were any calls coming in for him from his friends.
He then left the office immediately.