Chapter 06: The Daring Rescue

By the time Wingit got to Karikan’s Curry Powder Stall, Dirty Tortoise was already waiting for him patiently while chewing on a tea leaf, beside a tarpaulin covering a large pile of something. Sonky was nowhere to be seen, but they could hear the sound of Qicak sobbing away inside her cage, all locked up in a cabinet at the far corner of Karikan’s stall.

“Ah, Wingit! Right on time! Quick we have no time to lose. I’ve already told Qicak what we’re doing, but she can’t seem to stop crying. Sonky has already finished half his mission and will be with us shortly to save Qicak,” he said. “Anyway, I reckon we have only about two and a half or so human hours before the next phase of my plan kicks in, so we need to work fast if our plan is to succeed.”

“Jolly good, my dear tortoise! I’ve got the secret beef jerky-making powder you wanted. It was a glorious mission, one that I managed to pull off without a cinch!” proclaimed Wingit proudly, conveniently glossing over the fact that he was THIS CLOSE to giving up on the mission, and would have come back empty-handed if not for the help of Jasper the Talking Hamster. “So what else would you have me do?”

“Since we can’t rescue Qicak until Sonky returns with Maniam’s lock picks, we shall proceed with the part of the plan where we try to kick Karikan out of the Wet Market first then,” said Dirty Tortoise. “See this tarpaulin over here? This is where Karikan keeps his BIG pile of curry powder. Now come, help me pull the tarpaulin off… but be careful! We don’t want to disturb the pile. Our plan depends on Karikan NOT knowing that it’s been tampered with.”

With that, Wingit took off, circled around the mound looking for a good landing spot, and landed gently on the top, so gently that the tarpaulin hardly stirred. Grasping the top of the tarpaulin with both claws, he lifted it slowly, ever so slightly, just so that it was elevated above the mound of curry powder, and Dirty Tortoise slowly, and gently pulled the tarpaulin off from the side with his teeth. Little by little, inch by inch, with Wingit flying to and fro lifting different parts of the tarpaulin to minimise the movement of the powder, they managed to get it off.

“Ok Wingit, now make a hole at the top of the mound, and pour Texas Jerk’s secret beef jerky powder inside the hole,” instructed Dirty Tortoise. After Wingit had done that, he then directed the cherry eagle to dry his feet, and then stir the mixture of powders around inside that hole, while taking care not to disturb the entire mound.

“Ok, once you’re done, fill up the mound, and come back down! I see Sonky coming back… we need to cover up the curry powder mound with the tarpaulin again and move one with our plan!”

Sonky arrived just as Wingit landed on Dirty Tortoise’s back, and together, they covered the curry powder mound with the tarpaulin once again (it was a lot easier because at least one of them had hands this time, though they had to keep reminding Sonky to stop dancing more than once.)

“Now, on to Phase Two of my plan – rescuing our friend!” declared Dirty Tortoise. “We have even less time this time, because Sonky has now triggered the old police alarm that the Very Important Politician used to have when he was still Wet Market Administrator. The police will be here in about 30 minutes, so we have to hurry and get Qicak out before that!”

With that, he instructed Wingit to fly up to the rafters to keep an eye out for approaching police cars, and told Sonky to use the lock pick on the large but cheap pasar malam lock that Karikan used to lock up the cabinet in which he kept all his valuables – including Qicak’s cage.

(Now, before you start wondering how Sonky knew how to pick a lock… well, he doesn’t. All he knows about picking locks is watching Maniam open a cabinet drawer once in Chiu’s stall, by simply sticking the lock pick in and shaking it about until the lock opened. Maniam’s other lock-picking ‘skill’ involved sticking the lock pick in the keyhole and shaking it around so violently that the lock broke. Then he would tell the unfortunate owner that the lock was faulty and that the whole drawer would have to be forced open, thus charging even more money for his services).

Sonky stuck the lock pick in the lock, and pausing for dramatic effect, began to shake the lock pick around the keyhole violently; so violently in fact, that Qicak, trapped inside the cabinet with no clue about what was happening outside, though that they were having a fight outside. Even Dirty Tortoise grew worried after a couple of minutes of Sonky’s violent ‘lock picking’, as time was running out and the police would be arriving anytime now.

Just as he was about to go into plan B (which pretty involved throwing in the towel and hoping for the best), they both heard it – a satisfying ‘KECHUK!’; and the lock SPRUNG open triumphantly!

Hurriedly, Sonky opened the doors of the cabinet, and took out the cage in which Qicak was trapped in.

“SONKY! DIRTY TORTOISE! Am I ever so glad to see you all!” cried Qicak in a high pitched voice mixed with relief and excitement. “I was beginning to worry that I was going to be trapped in there forever!”

“Hello again, dear Qicak! Now let us get you out of that cage so you may stretch your legs!” said Dirty Tortoise.

With the help of Sonky, the friends managed to open the door of the cage just wide enough for Qicak to crawl through, and then the funky monkey put the cage back where they found it and locked the cabinet door once again. As the doors slammed shut, Wingit flew down from his lookout post, and announced that the police cars had arrived at the Wet Market entrance.

“Ok everyone, let’s wrap things up! We’ve done what we came to do, so all we have to do now is to sit back and let events unfold by themselves!” said Dirty Tortoise.

“You guy’s are a great team! You would give the A-Team, the B-Team, the Inglourious Basterds, and all those other TV teams a run for their money!” said Qicak.

“Er, the Basterds were never on TV, Qicak,” said Dirty Tortoise.

“Whatever. Now let’s get out of here before we get caught!”
With that, the four of them scurried, climbed, flew and plodded their way back to their respective corners of the Wet Market; and not a moment too soon – as soon as Dirty Tortoise got home, the Wet Market front entrance was forced open and the Wet Market was soon filled with torch and gun-wielding policemen looking for signs of criminal activity.

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