Felicity Banks

Sun3

The name’s Bind. Jimmy Bind. On mission to China. I can tell the flight attendant wants me diced on a tiny tray. Time for some airline food.

*

He comes at me with a poison toothpick. I click my pen and squirt gas in his eye. He reels and hits the Wong twins. Two Wongs make it right.

*

The Wongs knock the flight attendant out cold. I unclick my pen and accidentally poison myself. When I wake up, we’re in Beijing. Smooth.

Mon4

Tracked the faux attendant to a meeting in Chinatown. Too bad Beijing IS Chinatown. Got distracted buying shoes. Stumbled across baddie.

*

Baddie is Mr Fu. The girl with him is Yen. I chase him and he throws a shoe at me. It explodes. He runs. I bind my wounds with duct tape.

*

I follow Fu and corner him in an alley. He throws some kung fu, and I throw some bricks. “Who’s your boss?” I scream.

“It’s her!” he weeps.

Tue5

I’ve a yen for Yen. She’s small, dark, and deadly, like an expresso. I track her by smell and find her sleeping. “Where’s the jewel?” I ask.

*

She yawns, briefly distracting me. Her leg wraps around my neck (also distracting). Suddenly she yields to my good looks and leans closer.

*

I wake up strapped to the side of the Great Wall; tied firmly with two rolls of my own duct tape. Curses!

Wed6

After a surprisingly good night’s sleep, I notice writing on the wall: “Forgive me, mother. The ruby is at. . .”

I fall.

*

I fall among Shaolin monks, who immediately attack! Luckily I have my blow-up gum and I spit it at them just in time. Kaboom! No more monks.

*

Due to budget cuts, my car is a matchbox car. Luckily it has vertical grip and a camera. I discover the ruby is at Solo – in Indonesia.

Th7

I go shoe-shopping, hoping to dispatch Yen and/or get hiking boots before I leave. An old saleswoman is suspiciously attractive.

*

I neck-chop the woman and she says blearily, “Yen? Is that you?”

“Yes,” I say (femininely).

She says, “Your stupid brother stole the ruby.”

*

Is my wall-writer Yen’s naughty brother? Is Fu as powerless as he seems? Is the boss Yen or her Mum? And are these boots the best or what?!

Fri8

Another flight. Fu appears dressed as a fat woman and slips me a note. “Meet me in Solo,” it says – “come solo!”

I nod.

*

“Yen’s my sister,” Fu explains over unripe-coconut milk. He tells me to search in the temple.

I put sleeping-gas in his drink just in case.

Sat9

The temple staff make me nervous after the Shaolins. Suddenly they spit acid! Luckily I’d already wrapped my torso in duct tape.

*

The holy men’s acid burns through my precious tape. I grab some gum but all it does is freshen my breath! The Indonesians close in. . .

Sun10

I can hear tourists jabbering above my cell. Even when I beg for help in nine languages, all they do is clap. My last meal was airline food.

*

I make a gun using duct tape and my matchbox car (which is made mainly of cast iron and black powder, plus of course matches), and wait.

*

Yen appears. As I scrabble to light the match to shoot her I accidentally click my pen, gassing us both. We instantly sleep. Together.

Mon11

Yen slaps me awake. I sit up fast. If she spoils my good looks all will be lost. “Where’d you take the ruby?” she says.

I say, “Huh?”

*

She shoves me back onto the floor and storms out, slamming the door so hard she breaks the lock. I run out and shoot the guard dead.

Tue12

I find Fu shoe-shopping, and demanded the truth. “It’s a bomb,” he says, showing me the glowing ruby,“and only a volcano can destroy it.”

*

“Give it to me,” I say.

He says, “No.”

“But –”

“No.”

“I –”

“No.”

“Pretty please?” I say.

He says, “Oh, if you put it like that. . . no.”

Wed13

Fu and I walk up Mount Bromo at dawn. He says, “I don’t like my family, and I don’t like you!” and shoves me into the steaming crater.

*

Sulphuric rain falls, choking my lungs and coating the crater’s sides in poison! Luckily my duct tape retains some adhesiveness. I climb.

*

Mrs Fu appears on the crater’s rim. “Not so fast!” She stomps on my fingers but I grab her ankles.

She tumbles down and smashes to bits!

Th14

The waiter at my hotel smells of sulphur. My foe, Fu! “Your mother is dead,” I say.

He says, “Thanks,” and stabs a fork into my shin.

*

I grab for his apron but the strings slip through my fingers. Luckily I catch a glimpse of an Aussie flag on his boxers. So that’s next.

Fri15

Yen sits beside me on my flight to Canberra. “Mum wanted you to have this,” she says – and kisses me on the cheek.

It burns! Acid!

*

I rush to the tiny bathroom but my face is permanently scarred. In a white-hot rage I pull Yen’s hair until she screams. Then I gas her.

*

Yen is arrested at the airport. That leaves Fu – and a bomb shaped like a precious jewel.

Sat16

I spot Fu in rehearsal for Australia Day celebrations, and drive my spare matchbox car camera up his leg and into his fake chest hair.

*

He goes to the Chinese embassy, and between bursts of static from the ASIO bugs I discover he plans to bomb Questacon. No! Not the children!

Sun17

I cunningly disguise myself as an eight-year old girl and wait for Fu near the Earthquake House. He comes in dressed as a staff member.

*

“I have you now, fiend!” I cry.

Fu attacks me with a remote-controlled chest-hair fireball, but I dodge. I punch him in the nose.

*

Fu collapses. I grab the bomb. It has just minutes to explode.

Ripping open the lightning cage, I throw it in, fold back the cage, and duck.

Mon18

I wake in hospital, and realise at once the doc has thrown in a little plastic surgery on the side.

Yen lies beside me, getting hair grafts.

*

“Bind,” I whisper through my bandages. “Jimmy Bind.”

She smiles at me sweetly and says, “I’m in a bind myself. Can you bust me out?”

*

I look into her dark eyes, and suddenly I have a plan. My shoes are beside my bed, so I grab the left one and make the necessary calls.

19 Jan

Yen is sent to a high-security tropical island for the criminally insane. I volunteer to help her readjust to society.

It’s what I do.

THE END