"Well then Chee Eng tells her about the big guys next door and about not wanting to make it obvious that he's been at home in case they have questions, but he wants to play cds, and he's getting sick of the whole thing, and doesn't want to wait anymore for them to leave.

 'But they're moving everything out!' Rosie tells him, her eyes popping. 'There's this big plain lorry downstairs, no insignia on it. I saw it on the way in and I thought it was a really weird time for someone to be moving house. And then I come up the lift and it's the neighbours!' She finishes on a scream-whisper."

 "So the gangsters cleared the place out."

 "Completely. Chee Eng says that he looked through the shutters and the place is empty, right down to the junk in their drawers. It's cleared."

 "Except for a faint odour."

 "Yeah, and no one has come back since. These flats are owned, not rented. What happens with an empty flat? Just leave it forever? What if the family never moves back? What if they've died, if not in the flat, then somewhere else?"

 "What are you worried about, lack of housing for live Singaporeans?"

 "No, its just an interesting question I thought. I wonder if it happens a lot. Maybe HDB families go missing for one reason or another, and then you have these perma-deserted apartments all over the place. No, what I'd like to know is what happened to the neighbours. But only if it's juicy and entertaining, otherwise leave it as it is. I wonder if it really was loan sharks."

 "Or something else." the bad blocks on Cam's drive are all straightened out, so he's fast losing interest.

 "What d'you mean?" Elle's tone is casual. She knows he's slipping away, but a firm attempt to nail down information from him at this point is futile. Answers will become too cryptic and maze-like to follow.

 "Aah-hmmm?" Cam's clicking, double-clicking, he's dialing up. There is very little time left. Gently, gently.

 "What else besides loan sharks, Cam?"

"Bbbbrrrr-eeeeeeeee!" The computer is screeching, connection has been made, zero hour is upon her.

 "Cam?"

 "Erhm?"

 "What else besisdes loan sharks could it be then?"

 "Oh. You know Bo? That girl from the lesbian bar? Her father was in Singapore government somehow and all the kids she went to school with also had fathers in government and she said sometimes these big houses where her schoolmates lived would suddenly be empty, boarded up, kids no longer at school. Nobody says anything, nobody ask."

 "Oh. Wow." Elle pushes her bezier curve around for a while. "That is a very good one indeed. I like that one a lot."

 She doesn't mind talking to herself; Cam is downloading three different warez by now and keying himself into a conversation on Hotline.

 "...Although ...in this case I bet it was loan sharks. But I like the other one a lot better ...Anyway, Chee Eng certainly can tell a story."

 Cam emerges for an instant "Tell me about it."

...the end