by Trevor Scott
Remington gazed at his drink and then swallowed the rest of the liquid, the warmth of more than twenty years in oak bringing some pleasure to his night.
●
Less than an hour later, and Remington’s chief of security let his favorite female agent into his room. Despite her travels from Singapore, she looked refreshed and delightful in her tight black outfit from top to bottom. He made the two of them drinks and sat next to her on the leather sofa. Remington got tingly like a high school boy whenever he was around her. She reminded him of his first wife.
“How was your trip?” he asked her.
She sipped her drink, a whiskey seven, and then said, “I failed you.”
Remington liked this about her. She didn’t make excuses for her actions, unlike some of those he had worked with in the Agency, who always seemed to be looking for someone else to blame for their own incompetence.
“No,” Remington said. “Jake Adams is. . .was one of our best officers. That’s why I sent you with three other agents.” The two of them always spoke with a combination of Thai and English. She wanted to improve her English skills and he wanted to keep what he already knew of Thai.
“But we lost one man with our first encounter at the river,” she said. “He was a former Thai army soldier.”
“What about the Agency officer?”
“I heard he lived,” she said. “A trauma doctor happened to be eating at a restaurant nearby.”
Remington nodded acknowledgment. That was good to hear. “Have you heard from your other men?” he asked.
“Yes. They were able to track the American on the train.” She checked her watch. “They made it to Kuala Lumpur with an hour to spare. Should be getting on the train any minute now.”
“And they know not to kill them on the train?” he confirmed.
“Yes. But I don’t understand. You wanted him dead in Taiwan and Singapore. Why not in Malaysia?”
Remington wondered that himself. Maybe he wanted to see Jake Adams die for himself. The man was like a damn cockroach. “I would like to talk with the man. If we just kill him, the Agency will send someone else.”
She nodded understanding and took down a long swig of her drink. “You want to bribe the man to say he killed you.”
Remington laughed. “That might work with normal men. But Jake Adams isn’t normal. The man has this inordinate desire to always do the honorable thing.”
“That’s disgusting.”
“I know. He’s incorruptible.” But this gave him a good idea. “Perhaps I can convince him that I was doing this on purpose to ingratiate myself with the Chinese.”
“That would be a brilliant plan,” she agreed. “Is it true?”
Remington had never really worked with this woman, but she had come highly recommended by a respected operative. Because of this, he still only trusted her so far.
“Truth is a fluid concept,” he said. “Adams will only believe me if my story is viable and potentially verifiable.” He would have to make sure to make it so.
“So,” she started, “what do we do next?”
He thought for a long minute while he gazed into his glass of Scotch. “We need to lure him to Wat Arun. If there’s one thing I know about Jake Adams, he respects religious locations. He won’t shoot at us there unless he’s simply defending himself. We’ll need to order all of our people to not engage him.”
She smiled. “Speaking of engaging. I could use a shower and then. . .well, you know what I like.”
Thankfully, he knew exactly what she liked, and he was getting stiff now thinking about her wonderful body. He watched her strut off toward the bathroom and couldn’t take his eyes away as she slowly left a trail of clothes behind her.
14
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
When they reached the capital city of Malaysia, Jake had gone toward the back of the train in the third-class section with tattered seats. Since it was nearly midnight, those who did not plan to get off in Kuala Lumpur were sound asleep. The dark compartment smelled like body odor and mold. As the train slowed to a halt at the main train station, Jake sat down and pulled his hat down low. It was a crummy time of night to pick up a train, Jake thought.
There were not a whole lot of people waiting to come aboard, so Jake had no problem seeing the two men who had run into him at the Singapore casino. They were not standing together, but they kept on looking at each other. Also, one of the men was checking his phone, no doubt verifying the GPS tracker in Jake’s pocket was still functioning. But there was no sign of the hot young Asian woman. She obviously had more skill and was waiting for the right time to board. It was possible she put those two men out there to distract Jake, while she jumped on the train at another location.
Now he had two choices. He could let them know which cabin he and Alexandra occupied, which was not a good idea. Or he could make it hard on the men and leave the tracker somewhere on the train for them to find. Then they might think Jake had dropped it there and gotten off the train. That would make it much harder to find him.
Jake chose a third option. He got up and wandered back toward his cabin. When he saw a porter ahead, Jake bumped into the man and slipped the jump drive into the man’s pants pocket. Then Jake wandered back to his cabin and locked the door.
“Everything all right?” Alexandra asked.
“Yeah. The men from Singapore were waiting for us at the station.”
The train slowly pulled away from the terminal and immediately started to pick up speed.
“You want to throw the tracker out the window?” she asked. “Or just smash it.”
He smiled and told her how he had planted it on the porter. “That might have them running around the train for a while.”
Alexandra settled back into her bed. “Good. I need some more sleep.”
Jake got on his phone and called Kurt Jenkins on the outskirts of the city, where the train was still going slow through the suburbs on the way out of Kuala Lumpur. Jenkins wasn’t surprised to hear that Jake and Alexandra were on their way to Bangkok, since he knew that Remington had worked there years ago.
“What do you plan to do, Jake?” Jenkins asked him.
Standing next to the window and watching the slums of Kuala Lumpur slip by, Jake said, “I’m not sure. I was hired to find Bill Remington. I don’t have the authority to hold the man and wait for extradition.”
“I know,” Jenkins acknowledged. “And I know he has a lot of friends still in country.”
“What about our guns?”
“That shouldn’t be a problem. They’ll probably run drug dogs around suspicious-looking characters. Nobody is stupid enough to travel with guns.”
“Thanks.”
“You know what I mean.”
Jake hesitated to look at the lower bunk, where Alexandra slept soundly already. “Remington already knows I’m coming.”
“How?”
He told his old boss about the small GPS tracking device.
“That’s one of ours,” Jenkins said. “Our tech guys developed that two years ago.”
A thought came to Jake. “Is there any way to reprogram it for my own use?”
“Not really. You’d have to have the security code.”
“All right. Then I won’t try to pick the porter’s pocket to retrieve it.”
“Wait a minute,” Jenkins said. “If Remington already knows you’re coming, what makes you think he’ll be there waiting for you?”
Jenkins had a damn good point. “One reason. The Singapore banker is expected to make a cash delivery to Remington tomorrow afternoon.”
“Doesn’t Remington know the Agency froze his assets at that bank?”
“The banker told him that,” Jake answered. “But Remington was smart enough to stash a bunch of cash in a safe deposit box. The banker has been making regular milk runs from Singapore to Bangkok with just under ten grand each time. Now, if Remington is smart, knowing I was just at the bank, he’ll set up someone else to pic
k up the money.”
“Good point. He might also have a contingency to have the money delivered to a third country.”
“That’s what I was thinking, too,” Jake said. “And if I had to guess, I’d put my money on Cambodia. Remington worked there and they have no extradition with America.”
“Plus you could live like a king there with the kind of money Remington has acquired from the Chinese,” Jenkins reasoned.
“Okay. So, since Remington knows I’m coming, why don’t you make sure we have some Agency assets in place to run interference at the train station. Just in case those assholes jack us up and find the guns.”
Jenkins agreed, saying the station chief he had appointed was still in place there.
“One more thing,” Jake said, and then he hesitated and observed the suburbs giving way to small food plots lit only be the occasional house light. “Could you find out from the current director what he wants me to do with the man once I catch up with him?”
“Roger that.”
The two of them both clicked off the call. Jake glanced back at Alexandra sleeping. He considered taking off his clothes, but decided against it. Instead, he unzipped a side pouch on his backpack and pulled out his Glock. Then he crawled up into the top bunk and put the gun under his pillow. He wished he had a dollar for every time he slept with a gun.
Now, with the rocking of the train, sleep would come easy for him.
15
Bangkok, Thailand
The train slowed as soon as it reached the sprawling outer limits of Bangkok. Jake and Alexandra were packed and ready to get off as soon as the train came to a stop. They had both slept better than at any time in the past few days. For Jake he had not slept that well since leaving his fishing resort in Costa Rica.
Jake had even ventured out a few hours ago to pick up some breakfast for them, a bag of pastries and black coffee. To his astonishment, one of the men from Singapore had been sitting in a back corner of the dining car, and he didn’t even look concerned or try to make a move on Jake. In the man’s defense, there were a lot of witnesses trying to grab food before the train reached Bangkok. But Jake didn’t think that’s what stopped the guy. Something was up.
Glancing out the window and observing the graffiti-riddled buildings pass by, Jake said, “I still don’t know why those two didn’t try to come for us last night.”
The two of them had discussed this since waking up.
Alexandra met him at the window. “I have no clue. But I’m guessing they were ordered to stand down.”
Jake turned and gazed into her eyes. “I tend to agree with you. I’m just not sure why. If I had to guess, I’d say Remington has something planned for us in Bangkok.”
The train slowed even more and Jake peered toward the front of the car, seeing the terminal ahead. He checked his watch and saw it was quarter after ten in the morning. The train was actually fifteen minutes early.
“You have your gun ready?” he asked her.
She reached down and patted her backpack. “Right inside this zipper.”
His was equally accessible. “Good. Let’s get going.”
When they got out to the passageway, others were already lined up with their bags. The train came to a stop and everyone shoved toward the exits on either side of their first class car.
Once they got to the platform, Jake immediately saw the two men from Singapore. One was smoking a cigarette and the other was on his phone. They both kept a respectable distance as they trailed Jake and Alexandra.
She smiled to Jake, having seen the two men also. The men weren’t even trying to hide.
Looking forward again, Jake noticed a number of police officers checking passports. And Kurt Jenkins had been right, the police had two dogs sniffing bags. It made sense. Bangkok was a huge drug corridor.
Jake and Alexandra both showed their passports together, showing them that they were a married couple from Canada. Nothing to worry about. The drug dog looked a little skeptical, but didn’t alert to their bags.
As soon as they got into the terminal building, a young man in khakis and a white traditional Thai button up shirt lifted his chin at Jake. He screamed of Agency complacency. The guy needed a lesson in blending in a little better, but that wouldn’t have been easy in any case. He was six feet tall with red hair and freckles.
The Agency man glanced around cautiously and then approached Jake with his hand extended. “Liam,” the man said. “Nice to meet you.” Then the guy looked at Alexandra and reached his hand to her. She ignored the man, her eyes searching for any danger.
Jake had gotten a photo of this man from Kurt about an hour ago. Kurt’s assessment of the man as ‘a tall ginger,’ was an apt description. “What do you have for us?” Jake asked.
“A ride,” Liam said. “Car is out front.”
The three of them walked together toward the front of the building. Jake checked his six in the reflection of the windows, but the two men had disappeared. He couldn’t help drawing comparisons on the half-dome structure to the Frankfurt, Germany main train station.
Before they piled into the new black KIA, Jake in the front seat and Alexandra in the back, both of them pulled their Glocks from their bags and prepared for easy access.
As they drove slowly through the downtown of Bangkok, Jake thought about the last time he had been in the city. Even though his last trip had been brief, not much seemed to have changed since then. The air was still dirty, leaving a dark residue on nearly every building. Other than the people and the food, there wasn’t much that Jake found appealing about the place. If Remington wanted to stay here in exile, Jake might have been inclined to let the guy do so.
“What can you tell me about your search for Bill Remington?” Jake asked the driver.
The young man bit his lower lip, his eyes concentrating on the heavy traffic. “Not much, sir. We’re a bit undermanned here. The whole staff underwent a lie detector. Anyone with any deception or possible favorable opinion toward Remington was sent back to Langley.”
Interesting, Jake thought. Kurt Jenkins hadn’t mentioned that. Maybe he didn’t know. “How many did you lose?”
Liam shook his head. “About half of our staff.”
“That’s understandable,” Jake reasoned. “Remington worked here and knows the city quite well. His first wife was from here, and her family was well connected.”
When they approached a large park, Liam slowed the car and nodded his head. The park was packed with protestors, who had set up makeshift tents and turned the place into their own radical city within a city. To Jake it looked like a damn landfill, with garbage piled up everywhere.
“This is getting much worse,” the driver said. “We’ve pretty much been taken off the search for Remington and are working our agents for insight as to what’s going down next with these radicals.”
“What do they want now?” Alexandra asked from the back seat.
“That’s hard to say, ma’am,” Liam said, his eyes checking out his passenger in the rearview mirror. “We think they eventually want a new government. One day they ask for a new prime minister, and the next they ask for the military to take control. Then they ask for a complete purge of the parliament. Not sure what they want today.”
“How far to the tailor?” Jake asked.
“A couple miles. But that could take us a while if the protestors close down some streets. What’s at the tailor?”
Jake glanced at the side mirror to make sure they were not being followed. But that was a problem, considering all this traffic. “I need a new leather jacket,” Jake said. Which was the truth. “My last one got sliced up in Taiwan.”
“Well, you’ve chosen wisely,” Liam said. “I’ve used this guy a couple times myself. I think he’s the best in Thailand. I also understand Remington has used the guy.” He hesitated for a beat and then nodded his head. “Oh, I see. That’s why you’re going there.”
“You’re a quick study. Let me guess. Harvard?”
“How’d you know.”
“First, your accent,” Jake said. “I’m guessing you were a local boy, but not a South Boston guy. With a name like Liam, I would guess you’re Irish Catholic from Winchester. Not old money, though. Probably more like Kennedy money.”
The Agency driver turned to Jake, a look of concern on his freckled face. “You read a briefing on me.”
Alexandra laughed from the back.
“Afraid not, Liam. I’m guessing you got into Harvard on scholarship in. . .lacrosse.”
“Fencing,” Liam admitted.
“Okay, I can see that. Epee, right. Long arms help there.”
Liam let out a breath of air and looked back into the rearview mirror. “Is he always like this?” he asked Alexandra.
She leaned forward. “No. He’s usually obnoxious. He happened to get good sleep last night. So, was epee correct?”
Liam reluctantly said, “Yes. But he only had three choices.”
The driver turned down a side street and pulled the car around a corner, ending up in a dead end. To the left was a two-story building with an inconspicuous sign saying a tailor worked there. The sign simply read, ‘Best Tailor House.’ Sitting outside the building was a line of tuk tuks, small carts attached to motorcycles. The little transports were ubiquitous in Bangkok.
Liam shut down the engine and turned to Jake. “I’ll wait out here for you.”
“Why?”
“Because if I go in there, I’ll come out much poorer. And my wife will be pissed that I bought another suit.”
“All right.” Jake got out and met Alexandra. As the two of them walked toward the front of the building, Jake whispered to her, “Let me ask the questions. Just stand back and look like you’re ready to kill all of them.”
“I can do that,” she said.
They walked in through an unimpressive first floor corridor and were escorted upstairs to an area that looked like a high-end bordello waiting room. From there they were showed into a back room with leather benches, a nice glass coffee table, and walls surrounded in samples of fabric and leather. One end had three mirrors with a platform, so customers could step up and see themselves from three sides.