by Ian Andrew
“Bali.”
“Indonesia?”
“Yeah, but I’ve checked, we have a consulate here in a place called Denpasar,” Kara said.
“I might be able to help you out. I’m not in London but I can probably call a few chaps and arrange it from here if we’re quick. I have to head out in a few hours. Do I want to ask what we’re transporting?”
“Not really,” Kara said.
“Okay. I’ll text you ‘go’ or ‘no-go’ in an hour or so. If it is a go then get whatever it is to Box. Ask for Jamie Birch. Got it?”
“Yeah. That’s great, thanks.”
“Don’t mention it. Only issue will be if Jamie’s not around. No one else I trust to do it. Right, got to dash. Love to all.”
“Bye,” both Tien and Kara said to the laptop screen before Victoria disconnected.
ɸ
Franklyn answered his phone on the fifth ring.
“Yes, who is it?” he asked, the sleep still evident in his voice.
“Me. I need you to call a number but not from your normal phone please.”
His voice was instantly alert, “Certainly. Send it through.”
Kara disconnected and texted the number of an unregistered Indonesian mobile she had bought from a 7-11 across the road from the hotel. It rang a few minutes later.
“Good morning. I’m sorry to have woken you at this early hour,” she said, knowing it had just gone 04:00 in the UK. She put the phone on speaker mode.
“That is alright. I assume it is urgent. What do you need?”
“I want the official side of your contacts to misappropriate some evidence.”
“Go on.”
“I need a quantity of drugs. The harder the better.”
Franklyn didn’t even pause, “Okay, how much of it?”
Kara looked over to Tien, Sammi and Chaz. They looked as surprised as she felt at the way the man had just accepted this strangest of requests.
“One or two kilos would be good. Ten would be better but that might be noticed if it walked out the door.”
“Where do you need it to be?”
Kara told him the details that Victoria had confirmed by her ‘Go’ text message, sent through minutes earlier.
“Fine. Leave it with me. I cannot see it presenting too much of a problem. Do you need confirmation?”
“No. The courier will provide that for us. Keep things simple.”
“Well, I could think of simpler things than what you are suggesting, but yes I concur,” he said and chuckled.
“My, aren’t you in a good mood at such an early hour?”
“I am. Surprisingly. Is there anything else?”
“Yes. Tien will send you a link to a file soon. It contains notes on everything we’ve found out to date. You may want to pass it through to the appropriate people.”
“I shall look forward to reading it. Any word as yet on Swift?”
“None, but if we’re likely to find him, then we’re currently in the right place.”
“I do not doubt it. Anything else?”
“Not for now.”
“Excellent. Stay safe.”
“You too,”
The call disconnected.
“We need to hire another car,” Sammi said.
ɸ
Chaz took over from Toby, who in turn took over from Dinger, while Dan and Eugene were replaced by Tien and Sammi. The kit that Dinger had picked up in London and brought to Paris was now proving invaluable. The jungle pattern combat clothing allowed them to blend in with their surroundings, the long range surveillance glasses meant they had an up-close view of everything going on in the majority of the villa complex and the soft-skinned water bladders they wore on their backs, kept them hydrated in an afternoon sun that was pumping oppressive heat into the day. Soft shimmers of localised mirages rose in the air, but they didn’t prevent a clear view of Jacob, swimming in the pool.
Sammi whispered, “Oh my, he is a well-built boy, isn’t he?” She looked sideways to Tien and could see a flush of colour rising in her face.
“Sammi!” Tien said in a forced whisper.
“Ah admit it. You like him.”
There was quiet for some time before Tien turned her head slowly, “Yes I do. I can’t explain it, but I was horrified at first by what he did in Amsterdam. Then, I, well… I suppose I realised that for such a sweet, shy guy, he must have cared for me to have gotten so mad.”
“Cared for you?” Sammi said with a gentle play to her voice. “The guy is besotted with you. Can’t you see that?”
“No. Well, I mean… I know he… aww stop it Sammi.”
“No Tien, I’m not teasing you. He seriously is. It was written all over his face when I first got to Amsterdam.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really. Anyway, he’s a nice guy. Good for you.”
“Well it’s not like we’ve gone out or anything. We just talked, that’s all.”
“I wouldn’t have thought anything different of you Tien,” Sammi said.
“Aww, now you are teasing.”
“Maybe I a- Oh for fuck’s sake!”
“Sammi!” Tien said, surprised at the sudden, although still quiet, expletive.
“Well… that’s just not funny, is it?” Sammi said and pointed with a slow nod of her head, to her own left hand.
The women, lying side by side on their stomachs in the hide, had both of their arms out in front of them. It allowed use of the long-range binoculars while ensuring they stayed as flat as possible. The key to successful and therefore unnoticed observation, was minimal movement. Certainly no fast movements. Everything needed to be done with a calmness that allowed the surrounding environment to envelope the observers. That way, those being observed would be completely unaware. It called for a lot of self-discipline.
Tien looked to where Sammi was indicating. A fat, almost thumb-width-fat, black millipede was crawling across the back of Sammi’s hand. Its front legs were rippling over her thumb nail and the last of its back legs hadn’t even reached her little finger.
“Oh!” Tien said. “Mmm, I can see what you meant now. No, not all that funny. But quite a size, isn’t it?”
“Yeah and it tickles, but I don’t think I’ll laugh.”
The women watched the insect traverse over the peaks of Sammi’s knuckles before it bumped its back legs on to the ground. It hunted around with a head section that possessed impressively large pincers and then headed for her right wrist. Sammi raised her hand slowly to allow the wanderer to pass underneath. After a few minutes it left their little clearing and disappeared into the undergrowth.
“See, that’s why I should have filled up my water bladder with vodka. How come we’re doing this and Kara’s swanning around in the city?”
“We’re just lucky, I guess,” Tien said and returned to watching the villa complex. And Jacob.
ɸ
“I’m just lucky, I guess,” Noel Stewart said.
“I agree. Surely it’s not a bad posting though, is it? Beats some other places you could be in,” Tien said, sitting next to the British consular official on the grass in front of the Bajra Sandhi Monument in Denpasar.
“Oh yeah. Although, I have done my time in some right holes. So yeah, it’s nice to do it easy’ish.”
“Speaking of easy, how easy is what I want?” Kara asked.
“Very. The pouch comes in direct to Jakarta on a British Airways flight. Then it and whatever the Jakarta Embassy need to send me gets put on a Foreign Office charter and flown here. Picked up by our in-house security and ferried directly to my office. Full diplomatic status throughout.”
“Timings?”
“Flight leaves Heathrow at midday every day. With the stop in Jakarta and the transfer to the charter, it arrives about seventeen hours later. So, normally around 13:00 local.”
“Great.”
“Except, as soon as I hand it to you, whatever it is, and no, I don’t need or want to know, but as soon as I hand it
over, you lose the diplomatic protection of the pouch. If what you have is illegal, then you’re on your own.”
“Yep. Understood.” She began to push herself up from the grass. “Eh, Noel?”
“Yes,” he said and gave her a quizzical look, squinting up at her and shielding his eyes from the sun.
“If you drove it to a spot on the island and I took it from you there, that would limit the time it was outside diplomatic protection, wouldn’t it?”
“Yes Kara. It would… Is that what you’re asking me to do?”
“Yeah. What’d ya reckon?”
“Shall I assume this is going to benefit Her Majesty’s Government?”
“It certainly won’t damage it and I think she’d be pleased at the outcome.”
Noel stood up, “Fine. Tell me where and when.”
Chapter 33
Monday 30th November.
The rest of the weekend had been spent rotating shifts in and out of the two hides. The off-shift team changed back into normal holiday attire on their way to the hotel, showered, ate, slept and then rotated back out, once more changing from holiday-makers to covert observers in the back of the Toyotas.
During their time in the rear hide, they’d seen Jacob do a lot of swimming in the pool, saw the huge man called Tommo occasionally stand at the side of the pool and watched three guys, who they presumed were the security Jacob had told Kara about, reclining on the loungers near the pool. The front hide saw no one come or go apart from two older Balinese women who seemed to do all the cooking and cleaning. The team designated them as Nigella and Delia.
On the Saturday night, Jacob and Tommo had eaten dinner together from 20:00 to 21:00. The lights of the lounge were bright enough, and not interrupted by curtains, giving a clear view of the scene. The same ritual played out on Sunday.
Kara had met Noel Stewart on the ravine road on Sunday afternoon and taken delivery of three kilos of cocaine. It had been divided, carefully, back at the hotel, into four large, treble wrapped freezer bags, secured with heavy duty tape. Now, on Monday night, those bags resided within a single backpack that lay between Dan and Eugene in the rear hide.
Kara was stepping out of her hotel shower when her phone rang. She quickly wrapped herself in a towel and hurried into the bedroom, grabbing the phone up from the side table.
“Yep?”
“Kara you need to get over here. I think we’ve got something happening,” Dan said, his voice soft and unhurried.
“Go ahead.”
“Jacob and Tommo had their meal as usual but instead of getting up from the table like Saturday and Sunday, they’ve stayed sitting. Now Toby’s just called in that a car’s arrived on the driveway. Two men, white, middle-aged getting out and going up, wait.”
Kara could hear Eugene whispering to his brother, “Okay Kara, these two have joined Tommo and Jacob in the lounge room. Tommo made a big fuss of them. Handshakes all round. I think this is the get together happening, wait.”
This time Kara heard nothing while she waited.
“That was Toby again, we have another car turning up. Another white male. Nigella and Delia have already left so this isn’t a late night supper with friends.”
“No worries, we’ll be there in twenty. Call Chaz in from the ravine road car and send him to join Toby at the front. The rest of us will come and join you.”
She hung up and speed dialled Tien. “How long before you’re good to move?”
“Five minutes?”
“Great, ring Sammi and let her know we’re moving now. We’ll meet in the lobby and go as soon as we’re all there. I’ll ring Dinger.” She hung up.
Six and a half minutes later the four of them climbed into the black Toyota.
ɸ
Kara crawled into the small hide next to Dan, while Tien, Sammi and Dinger crouched just behind, in the cover of the trees.
“What’s happening?”
Dan passed her a set of binoculars and whispered, “We’ve had another guest turn up. You might want to take a look.”
In the large lounge room Tommo’s great bulk sat at the head of the dining room table, his back to Kara. To his left three men sat drinking beers. All were white, all were in their forties or fifties. Two of them were dark haired, one grey. To Tommo’s right was Jacob. He also had a beer. Next to him was the last man present. Kara moved the binoculars a fraction and stared into the face of Derek Swift.
“Oh you son of a bitch!” She said.
“Yeah, thought you’d like to see it before I called you on the radio. We all set?”
“Hope so. We’ll just watch and wait, get the lay of what’s occurring and look to make a mov-”
She was cut off by the radio earpiece making a small ‘Tic’. Chaz’s voice came through to them all.
“We have a small panel van coming up the driveway. Two male occupants in the front. Look like they’re Balinese.”
No one spoke, waiting patiently for Chaz to continue when he had more to report. The Cicadas played a constant theme in the background, before even they were drowned out by a long, low roll of thunder that lasted for a good fifteen seconds. Kara gazed up but the sky was cloudless. The full moon bright and unimpaired.
“Kara, we have a problem,” Chaz said. At the same time they all heard Toby, alongside Chaz, say “No fucking way.”
“Explain,” Kara said.
Chaz sounded rattled, “Confirmed, two Balinese men, but they’ve just opened the rear door of the van and made six kids step out. They’re all little girls Kara. Not one of them more than ten, can’t be. They’re tiny. They’re taking them inside. Kara, we can’t ha-”
“Quiet Chaz,” she said, slewing the binoculars over to look at the entrance to the lounge. Sure enough six little girls were being shepherded into the room. Tommo was getting up from the table. He pointed and gesticulated to the futons and the Balinese men made the girls sit down. Then the big man waved Jacob and the rest of his guests forward. They all rose and stood in a line. Kara saw Jacob take a single pace backwards. Tommo, still animated and with a broad grin, moved over and pulled Jacob forward to stand in front of the rest. Kara could see him waving his hand at the girls and turning back to Jacob.
“Oh my fucking God,” Kara said as the truth of what she was looking at hit home. “They’re making him pick which girl he wants. This is how they prove he’s one of them.”
She watched Jacob take a pace forward, then slowly turn round to face the other men.
The time for whispering was over. Dan and Eugene who lay beside her and were seeing what she was seeing were already moving by the time she yelled, “Plan’s changed. We need to get in there right now. Storm the fucking place, GO, GO, GO.”
As she rose to her feet, Jacob’s fist connected solidly with the face of Derek Swift. The lounge room erupted.
ɸ
Being only ten metres from it, Chaz and Toby hit the front door of the villa ahead of everyone else. It hadn’t been locked since the children had been taken inside and was still ajar. Toby slammed it back with his shoulder and sent it rocketing into the cream coloured wall. Chaz bypassed him and, bathed in the golden lights of the hallway, saw one of Tommo’s security men, the bald one with the prison tattoos, only five paces ahead of him.
The man turned quickly, shouted something Chaz didn’t catch and began to raise his hands. Chaz’s speed closed the distance in a second. He hit him with straight fingers to the throat, crushing the man’s windpipe and causing the tattooed arms to flail and claw, leaving the body undefended. Chaz kicked him in the groin, physically lifting him off the ground with the force. As the man began to collapse, Chaz spun to the right, grabbed, twisted and thrust the man’s head down towards the knee he was ramming up to meet it. Somewhere in the back of his mind, honed and trained by decades of practise, Chaz knew he had never delivered three strikes with more fury. He also knew it was a corpse he was letting go of.
He gained the open entrance to the lounge and saw three little girls cowe
ring and screaming on one of the futons. Another hid behind it, a fifth was standing frozen in the corner. The unconscious body of Derek Swift lay to the side. Tommo was standing halfway between the dining table and Jacob, who was on the ground, curled as tightly as possible, hands protecting his head, with a frenzy of kicks being aimed at him by the other three men.
Chaz was wearing a pair of high-leg combat boots, the soles of which squeaked against the marble floor. He planted his right food hard, used the forward momentum of his onrushing frame and spun just past one hundred and eighty degrees. The squeal of the rubber on the marble was the only warning the nearest man to him had, before Chaz’s left heel impacted into his right eye socket.
The man cannoned backwards, knocked two of the dining chairs aside, fell and bounced his shoulder off the table. That caused his body to pivot and he face-planted into the white Italian marble. It discoloured with a vibrant splash of red.
The other two men who had been kicking Jacob stopped.
Jacob, realising help was on hand, rolled towards the futons and regained his feet. His head was a mass of pain with the blow that Tommo, of all people, had landed on him. It was true. Big Tommo must have been fast in his day. Jacob saw Toby coming through the entrance to the lounge, then saw him turn and go back out. He looked to Chaz and what he saw made him take half a step backwards. Chaz’s pupils were fully dilated, his face was serene, not twisted or angry looking, yet in his expression, there was a menace that was unquantifiable. Jacob saw in his periphery the two Balinese men, who to this point had not moved, begin to run. He saw one of the men who had been kicking him, run. He saw the last, the grey-haired guy, start to back away, but Chaz was almost on him. Jacob moved to shield the little girls from what was about to happen, but the action of him turning towards them broke their spell. They shrieked even more. Then ran.
Chaz was aware of the man furthest from him bolting for the door. He saw the two Balinese men also run, but mostly he heard the cries of children and watched the last of the men who had been assaulting Jacob, trying to back away towards the large windows. In the ten steps it took to reach him, Chaz played through his options. In the end he kept it simple. He dropped his hands to his sides. The man, who Chaz noticed had a full head of wavy grey hair, came at him with a swinging right. Chaz moved left, parrying the oncoming fist by applying a light touch with his left hand to the back of the man’s right elbow. At the same time he placed his right hand on the inside of the man’s right wrist. With both hands now on opposite sides of the man’s arm, he applied a full force snap and simultaneously dislocated the man’s shoulder while breaking the elbow joint. Maintaining his grip on the arm, Chaz stepped forward and pivoted. The man’s own momentum caused him to turn a full half-somersault, ripping the last of the shoulder joint and surrounding tissue into a useless pulp. He landed on his backside, sitting up and facing away from Chaz who, by a final twist to the wrist, broke it as well. Letting go of the irreparably damaged limb, Chaz smashed his left elbow back into the grey haired man’s face and watched with satisfaction as the unconscious body fell straight back on to the floor. Its short journey ended in a crack of head on marble. Chaz felt his senses relax. He was aware of higher-pitched screaming coming from the kids and looked back to where Jacob was standing. He called on the radio, “Tien, Sammi, Kara, the kids are terrified of any man. You’re going to have to find them and calm them down.”