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WHITE CHRISTMAS

doing? He was afraid; he cannot speak, cannot call, lost my number, already hours in the hotel, he doesn't know what to do. He was so stupid this guy, he tries to call his family, but he can't dial, because he can't work out the code.

- Rafael

Relieved, Rafael went to another room to organise the booms, putting one set containing 2.5 kilos in the spare bag to courier to his surfer buyer in Sydney. In the other bag, he put 2.5 kilos for the G-stringed horse to finish his run to Bali. Transiting in Malaysia was a tactic to deflect suspicion and more easily slip the booms past Australian and Bali customs. The horse breezed into Bali, but the Sydney deal bombed.

Rafael's longtime Australian buyer went off the grid, unresponsive to all calls and messages. It was an expensive mystery. So Rafael sent Sparrow, who was back in Bali, to unravel it. Sparrow was an unlikely detective, with things always going awry around him.

He's always got black eyes, broken arms, because he's always involved in shit. He likes to argue, to fight, but he doesn't know how to fight and always gets punched. People beat him because he's skinny.

- Rafael

But Sparrow was available after flying in for a surfing holiday, staying in the small room under Rafael's water tower, sharing with Fox. Rafael offered him $1000 to fly to Sydney to chase up the buyer and spindly legged Sparrow, who'd never been to Australia, gladly took the job. Before leaving, Sparrow and Fox sat huddled together on the internet tracking the FedExed windsurfer booms to see if they'd arrived in Newcastle. They had.