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Location: Manila, Philippines
Time: 1532 (3:32 PM) Local Time

The water outside the office of Pan-Asia was being whipped up agaisnt the side of the docks, and the metal sides of the large sea plane tied next to it. The building was fairly unassuming, since it looked more like a home that might have been converted into a small office setup. A sign hung beside the door to the building, having once proudly declared itself Pan-Asia Cargo. Now the sign was a bit worn by the salt spray of the harbor, a bit of the pain chipped here and flaking there.

It wasn't the building that would catch the attention of others though, the large sea plane, a PBY by the looks of it, seemed to be the heart of activity. A few of the locals were busy taking some cargo crates out, although that seemed a bit impractical at times as the sea plane bobbed up and down some with the motion of the waves. Another person seemed to be putting fuel into the massive metal beast, although with the rocking of the plane, he occasionally had to stop just to make sure he didn't waste any.

It was the person on the top of the wing, balancing there as the aircraft rolled under him, that seemed to be in charge. He looked over to one of the folks hauling cargo out of the plane, and leaned over the wing, balancing himself by squating down and using his hands to hold onto the engine and wing. "...drop that crate off in the truck, and then bring me back the box of stuff I ordered. The number 2 engine's acting up again...", he say, before turning to go back to the engine, still balancing himself a bit before he could sit down on top of the engine and open up the side of the engine cowling.

Alex sighed softly as he took his coat off and tossed it down beside his toolkit on the wing, then reached over for a few tools before leaned over the exposed engine, try and get at one of the multiple parts deep inside it. At least it gave him something to do until his employee brought him the box he asked for.

Soon enough, he'd fished out the engine's fuel line, and held it up. It took a second, but the fuel line began to drip what fuel it held onto the top of the wing, although the expression on Alex's face showed he was none too happy with it. He stretched the line out, and once he was sure most of the line was dry, he look a look peek through it. "Ta Ma Duh", he cursed to himself, noting the thick build up inside the fuel line that had been choking the poor engine.

It was about then the employee called up to Alex, "Here you go boss", he said, sliding the box up onto the wing. Alex smiled as he went over to the small brown box, and pulled out some new hoses. It wasn't too many seconds later that Alex looked down, "These are oil lines, not fuel lines. You get the phone, and you tell those idiots that they need to send over some FUEL lines. And make sure they get it right or we're not gunna buy any more of their feh wu again!"

The employee winced some and then nodded. "Sure thing boss", he say hastily before running off towards the office to make the phone call. The mechanic on the wing didn't seem to be done though as he stood up to yell out, "And bring me back a Coke when you're done!" He then turned, cursing a bit under his breath of a few chinese phrases that seemed to apply, especially after a larger wave pushed up against the plane, sending Alex's footing a bit off as the wing moved, causing him to fall onto his rear, although luckily not off the wing.

He sat there a second, and chuckled to himself. He grabbed a bottle of oil spray from his toolkit, and used it to blast out most of the gunk clogging the original fuel line. "No sense in worrying about it now I guess. Gotta make this work before customers show up." He turned to look up at the office, wondering if he'd have to wait long for customers. Some might need cargo hauled, or people even. Its not like he didn't know a few nice islands to fly vacationing folks to nearby.

Once Alex decided the fuel line was going to be as clean as it was going to get, he tossed the spray back into his tool kit, and grabbed his tools again, before diving back into the engine to patch it back up.

Alex sighed and wiped his head as he got the fuel line reconnected, smearing some of the engine grease onto his brow. From behind his mirrored glasses, he looked up, spotting someone who wasn't one of his employees, carrying a container. In the back of Alex's mind, the word customer surfaced once more. He had gotten so caught up in fixing the engine, that he forget he still needed paying customers to run the join.

He tossed his tools into the tool kit, grabbing a rag from it as he did, and made his way down the side of the plane, and onto the dock. He ran down the dock some, wiping his head, and his head some, trying to clean off the grease he'd managed to get onto himself. "Hello there...", he called out to Tristan, holding the rag in his left hand as walked up to him. "How can I help you today?", he inquired.

He wipes his hands off a bit more and holds out his right hand to Tristan. "I'm Alexander, and passage on short notice you say? Well, I'm sure we can work out something." He looks back over towards the PBY, as she floats in the water, reminding himself mentally that he needs to grab his coat and his tools off the top of the wing before take off.

"Where were you looking for passage? Hong Kong? Tiawan? Guam? Australia?" He looked over towards one of the workers and yelled at him, "Go get me the shipping orders we have so far!" He then turned back, as the employee ran off to the office. "If we've got cargo going someplace, I might be able to cut you a deal on the pricing. So where ya heading?"

Its a bit of a shock to Alex that someone who needs to get something to Berlin would come to him. Now, Alex could think of a lot of reasons why, but yes, most likely he didn't want to know what was in the box. It wasn't his business. His business was flying folks places.

Its about then, the employee runs up to the pilot and hands him a list of possible cargo runs needing to be taken care of. "Berlin? Well, the PBY helped the Americans go there in World War 2, but I don't think it'll get you there fast enough. But if you're needing to fly to someplace where you can get there with your cargo... I have some cargo folks I deal with in Hong Kong. They might be able to help. I'm sure I could get you to the main airport there in good time, and get you hooked up with transportation there. Plus, it looks like I have another delievery there anyways. How's it sound?", he asks, tossing the clipboard back to the employee.

Alex looked the card over and then smiled, "Nice to meet you Tristan. The plane's gassed up. Let me just get her loaded up with the shipment for Hong Kong, and we'll be ready to go." He looks over to the folks who were now resting, the same ones who had been offloading cardgo before, and walks over to them.

"Ok, I'm taking the cargo for Hong Kong early. Get on the phone and let the client know we'll have the stuff at the airport at the usual time. Also get those crates loaded up. Lets go! I'm not about to let this how shi sung chung get away from us." He then looks back to Tristan, while the workers get back to work. "If you want, you can wait in the office while we get the plane loaded up. Should be 20 minutes tops." In fact, he starts to lead him over to the small office and the waiting room inside.

The pilot seems to be in a good mood as he holds the door open for Tristan, and then looks to the person behind the counter. "Chow, paying customer here. He's flying with the Cargo Run to Hong Kong, so knock off 20% from what we regularly charge..." Chow, the guy behind the desk nods. "Sure thing boss!"

The office itself was quant, if you could call the makeshift office space that. There were several pictures hanging from the wall, most of them pictures from other customers who had taken them during their trips provided by the large PBY outside. Quite a few of them even show off some journalists who had been renting the services of the company to help them cover the tsunami the year before.

Chow goes over the paperwork, which was pretty standard overall. Just some basic stuff really. The conversation probably wasn't the greatest either, since mostly Chow just mentioned some of the things about the PBY, like the fact the cabin wasn't pressurized, but that wouldn't be a problem since the plane wouldn't be flying to terribly high.

Outside, the workers loaded up various boxes into the plane. By now the sea had calmed down, and Alex made his way along the top and back of the plane, checking it for anything that might cause him issues. He dropped the toolkit back down onto the waiting dock below, and then grabbed his jacket, as it still rested on the top of the wing. He put the coat on even though the weather was pretty warm, and dropped back down onto the dock.

The opening of the door of the office helped to announce that the plane was ready. "Alright. Looks like we're ready to go. If we can get you and your crate loaded into the plane, we can get you over to Hong Kong..." And with that, Alex held the door open, and looked back to Chow. "Make sure you get that flight plan filed and then tell the workers that'll be it for today. See you tomorrow...", he say to him, looking like he was having a good day.