CHARACTERS
The Malacca Exile features several characters but I only depict four characters with Point of View. There are other less involved characters precise in their motivations and goals, and are either likeable or stone cold killers.
Finn O’Connor: Finn is the main character and protagonist. He is a widower and ex-military officer who moved to Singapore after his wife was killed in an auto accident. He opens a maritime shipping security company with his long time friend, Ricky. By himself he could only afford a run-down apartment in a poor area on his income so he answered an advert for a roommate in the finest district on the island. His roommates are lesbian (Chinese and an Indonesian) who cannot ‘come out of the closet’ in their strict Singaporean culture. It would destroy the lives of their families who both think Finn is the boyfriend of their respective daughter. Finn meets a woman in a resort island 500 miles north of Singapore. She brushes him off but later in the story, she warms up to him after seeing him in his own environment. Finn is a man who can recognize and analyze a dangerous situation in an instant and react with deadly precision. He is always conscious of his responsibility of his men but when he receives a request for help from a mentor and friend from his past, he doesn’t recognize the inherent dangers.
Admiral Troy Biffle: 4-star Admiral Biffle is a ruthless character with his fingers in illegal activities all over the world. He is the silent partner to the most powerful heroin trafficking organization in Afghanistan. Now he has taken an interest in the rebellion in Indonesia. He seduces the principal financial advisor to AR and JI. The girl from Indonesia is in America studying for a master degree in international finance. After his seduction, he convinces her to return to Indonesia and wait for his instructions for the embezzlement of the huge finances of both AR and JI. He promises her that they will never have to work again and that they can live anywhere she wants.
Biffle was Finn’s mentor and he loves and respects Finn very much. When Finn decides to quit the military and move to Singapore it is a potential threat to Biffle’s activities. As feared, Finn becomes deeply involved in the fight against piracy and everything else that Biffle has created in Singapore. Finn has no idea that Biffle is involved and Biffle tries to misdirect Finn from his interests but Finn was born to sniff out corruption. When a US aircraft carrier is sunken, Admiral Biffle recognizes a way to use Finn and his men to serve his purposes. Biffle is serving as a deputy Joint Chiefs of Staff and has recruited many military leaders to lead his efforts in the various countries.
Rear Admiral Dub Gunn: Gunn is Biffle’s man in Singapore, who carries out the orders of Admiral Biffle. Biffle promises Gunn riches beyond his imagination if he would only stay in his position as Commander, Logistics Command, Singapore. When Finn asked to complete his remainder of his military contract, Biffle assigned him to Gunn’s staff as Aide-de-Camp, a position normally filled by the top lieutenant in the Navy’s Supply Corps.
Aidan McQuire: After three years in Singapore, living with the girls, Finn is still uninterested in finding another love. A precipitance meeting in Penang with a woman named Aidan gives him hope for romance. His initial approach was awkward at best and rude at least. She seems to forgive him and tells him to pick her up for dinner at her hotel and to ‘come up’ to room 526. It is a huge blow to him when his friend tells him that her hotel has only four floors and there is no room 526.
Aidan is surprised and embarrassed when she meets him again in Singapore. Her father is a cruise ship magnate and he invites Finn to join his friends for a cruise in his yacht, which is an overt suggestion to Finn that there might be an opportunity to sell his security services. Aidan’s father meets Finn and his men at the pier. Aidan is skipping around the yacht’s deck and when her father sees her, he insists that she meet Finn O’Connor. Her mocking gaze disappeared when Finn told her father every detail about their first meeting, even making her father laugh at the hotel room trick. Then he has the nerve to dismiss her. After watching him surreptitiously and seeing how he calmly and professionally thwarts an attempted robbery by some of the ship’s crew, she begins to develop a strong interest in the mysterious man. She later gets his address and goes to him for a proper introduction. When she knocks, two beautiful Asian women answer the door. She assumes that one or even both of the girls are his lovers. She apologizes and as she walks away, the girls realize that she is the woman that Finn met in Penang. They call her back to the apartment and tell Finn’s story. After meeting him properly and learning a bit of his history, she is smitten. No more coy behaviour
Gerald “Ricky” Ricardo: Finn’s friend and business partner, Ricky, has made the move with Finn. He sees Finn as the brother he never had and their experiences in Afghanistan brought them closer than any brothers. In addition to the joint ownership of the OSF, Ricky opened a pub. The pub serves two important functions.
- It gives the company men an interesting place to congregate because the ‘office’ at the pier is nothing more than a locker room, weapons hold and communications office.
- It is an outlet for his musical ambitions and quickly becomes one of the most popular pubs in Singapore, drawing famous musicians from around the world.
Ricky, like Finn, is a man who is always alert and aware of possible danger. He has great intuition and is quick to tell Finn that the requests from the Pentagon just aren’t right’.
Kade: Kade is the lover of Mia and she becomes a Point of View character in Chapter ?? after the women are attacked to ‘send a message’ to Finn – to convince him to close the security company. One of the attackers recognizes Mia as the ex-wife of his cousin who committed suicide after learning that his wife had another lover. He forgets his orders to simply slap the girls around and let his fury take over. Mia is brutalized and tortured for nearly an hour before she is finally allowed to die. The killing wasn’t authorized so after their killer follows the order to dispose of Mia’s body, he is executed for acting outside of his orders. Kade is then taken prisoner because of what she knows and because she might have trade value if Finn hasn’t been convinced to shut down his business.
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