Chapter 3

Denise slept through the plane refuelling in Manilla. Several hours later, the pilot came on the intercom to announce that they were now circling Kadoda Island. He pointed out that it was within a quarter of a degree of the equator, that the average annual rainfall was well over fifty inches a year, and that the average natural land height was three meters above sea level, and that the MCS management had paid to have soil shipped in to create small hills and terracing.

As the plane banked, coming in for the landing, Denise could see a couple of resorts along the southern side of the island and the large, well maintained airstrip. Nothing else on the island looked developed. In fact, it looked bewilderingly remote. She wondered why the training facility and the spa would be in such a distant, foreign place.

When the plane landed, it wheeled around on the runway and taxied straight into a huge hanger. The ground crew rolled up a stairway, and the engines shut down. People on the plane laughed and applauded, many clearly happy to be here, perhaps to be returning.

As the onboard air shut down, Denise caught her first whiff of the island. It was humid. People busied themselves getting off the plane. They went down the stairwell and into a covered walkway that had fans blowing on them. Denise could see off to the side that there was a platform on which local musicians were playing something exotic to welcome them. Pretty local girls in sarong style garments put flowers in their hair as they walked by and wished them welcome.

They came to the terminal. The executive types were whisked off to a lounge, and that was the last that Denise saw of them for some time. She was ushered into a line to go through customs, but the check seemed extremely cursory and matter of fact to her. If it weren't for the Indonesian army soldiers patrolling the airport with machine guns, she might have thought security was loose. Her passport stamped, she was once again escorted through a line where she pointed out her bag and a local man rolled it off towards the doors. Behind her, she could see some floor to ceiling curtains that hid the departing passengers from the arrivals. From the quiet on the other side though, she assumed that there were very few people departing that day.

Outside the doors, Denise was briefly hit with the full force of the blazing sun and the fierce humidity, then she was shown into a huge black Mercedes limousine with black glass windows. The air conditioning was on full blast inside, and as she stepped in, cool air wafting over her, yet another pretty woman handed her a drink with an umbrella in it. Already sweating, she gulped at it. It seemed refreshing and slightly tart.

Taking stock for a moment, Denise braved a smile. Things could only be getting better she thought. She noted that she was being taken excellent care of and the staff seemed highly professional. After a couple more men and women, all obviously there as Personal Assistants, climbed into the limousine, the doors slammed closed and the driver welcomed them in accented English over the speaker system in the car. The car rolled off, music began to play, the AC cooled the car off, and people began to talk excitedly. They all chatted, introduced themselves and each other, and sipped at their drinks.

A woman sitting next to Denise introduced herself as Tricia, and volunteered that this was her second trip to The Facility. When she was barraged with questions about the place, she laughed.

"Well, to tell the truth, I must have spent most of that week bombed out of my mind. God, I do remember some pretty wild times, but I know that I had a great time, and I'm really excited to be going back. Hell, this time I might even fucking study the coursework. Hahahaha..." She laughed and the car full of jovial folks laughed with her. Denise found herself laughing a lot as the ride wore on. She was very relaxed, and wondered for just a moment what the local folks put in the drinks.

After about a thirty minute ride in the limousine, which had sometimes driven little more than walking speed around some sharp curves, the car arrived at the resort. The windows of the car were very dark glass, so details were a bit fuzzy, but it really seemed to Denise that the resort just opened up out of the jungle. It entered a covered car port, bus-boys wearing tiny silk sarongs around their waists and nothing else threw open the doors and assisted the laughing, hugging group of revellers out of the car. Denise hardly noticed her luggage carried off at a trot in the arms of a beautifully sweating man with nut brown skin, but she could have sworn that he winked at her.

They were escorted to the reception desk, where Denise signed in. Weirdly enough, there were some complicated legal forms that had to be signed, some even in triplicate, but the staff helped her get that done. Once she was all registered, someone came around the desk and snapped a really quite garish red plastic bracelet around her wrist. There was some kind of little light on it, and a bar code. There seemed to be no way to remove it.

"Wha in the worl is this for?" Denise asked the desk clerk softly, with a big warm smile on her face.

"For drinks and your room key, Miss. It let you in your room. Just hold it up to the scanner. No key to forget, no need for money, everything automatic. Also, if you never get lost, just press little red button and it send signal we can find you." The woman, dressed in a tiny, absolutely indecently tiny silk wrap over a bikini bottom and a revealing silk tube, smiled at her and winked. "Some of our guests might have too much to drink, from time to time."