To board the Pha Ngan ferry we had to cross the most neglected pier I had ever seen. Thankfully, the damage was mostly cosmetic. The important load bearing struts were well enforced, but I knew that Ben would not be able to tell this. I played upon his insecurity and when he was at the edge of the pier, I did something I was not proud of. I kicked the platform out from under his feet and then grabbed a hold of his backpack to make him believe that I had saved his life. Whilst this was certainly true, he could not have imagined that the real rescue had been several days earlier in a different country.
We stayed together for the rest of the day and shared a few beers at the full moon party. I spotted the girl early, long before he did, but could not say for risk of giving the game away. Instead, I just slowly pushed him in the right direction until they finally found one another. Shortly after, we were separated, but with both of my tracking devices back in play, this did not pose a problem.
I waited twenty four hours before following them to the beach. This gave me time to check out the Americans who had latched onto Asia. I ran their names through the usual channels and apart from a few minor misdemeanours they both came up clean. It never occurred to me that their files might have been tampered with. Then on the second morning following the party, I arrived at a small village named Al Chakolum.
There were no tourist boats available to take me to the beach where Asia was staying, but I managed to hitch a ride with some local fishermen instead. The fishing party dropped me off a short swim away from the beach. Ben was on the shore with the two American men. He seemed surprised, but genuinely pleased to see me. The Americans, on the other hand, acted like real jerks. Over the following days their negative attitude only got worse and on the morning of the dive, tensions were starting to come to a head.
Asia was sunbathing on the beach with Ben and the girls, whilst the American’s were fishing on the rocks at the far end of the bay. I was sat at the bar reading and after an hour they came over with their pathetic catch and tried to intimidate me. The big one shoved a fish that he had caught, face down into my half full glass. Ordinarily, I would never tolerate such insolent behaviour, but the job had to come first. I clenched my fist and it took every ounce of restraint to keep me from ramming it into his face.
‘Is there a problem?’ I asked.
The big one tried to stare me down. It was his more diplomatic, yet no less loathe-able friend who responded to my question.
‘Things were comfortable here before you came,’ he said. ‘In case you haven’t noticed, we all make up couples. The girls are being polite, but nobody really has time for an outsider in the group. We think it may be better if you were to move on.’
I stood up to face him directly.
‘The way I see it, this resort is open to anybody. I am certainly not the only solo traveller to pass through here and if you have a problem, then you are free to leave. Personally, I like it here and I have no intention of going just yet.’
‘We’ll see,’ he replied.
The pair of them left. I knew I was missing something, but I could not figure out what. I was careful not to provoke them during the dive trip, but once I learned of Ben’s run in with the shark, I instantly suspected that they had something to do with it. I invited Manu for a drink after the dive and shared with him my concern. To gain his trust, I had to tell him a little of my assignment. I did not let on who the girl was, just that she was from a wealthy family and that her safety was of great concern. Together, we retrieved the sabotaged air tank and it did not take long to find the shark magnet.
I knew at once that it was I who they had targeted, not Ben. This could only mean that they were after the girl and wanted me out of their way. I intended to follow them on their camping excursion. At the first opportunity, I would have separated them from their hostages. Unfortunately, I had not predicted Ben’s betrayal. I did not blame him; only cursed my stupidity at falling for the spiked drink trick. I had made a mistake, but it was a mistake I was fully intent on rectifying.
Chapter 5
‘Why this girl?’
‘Excuse me?’
‘Why this girl?’ repeated Manu. ‘What made you take a personal interest?’
‘What makes you think this is personal?’
He kept his distance, whilst I waited for his response. A wise man would not antagonise me and Manu was no fool. He took time to think over his reply.
‘Technically, the mission is over. You even said yourself; the senator ordered you to back down. There is no reason for us to still be out here. You can walk away from all of this and take your money. Whatever reason you have for staying, it has nothing to do with your assignment.’
‘You’re right,’ I told him. ‘It has nothing to do with this assignment.’
He opened up a compartment that was built into the side of the seats and pulled out a bottle of bourbon, which he placed on the table in front of me along with two glasses.
‘Care to talk about it?’ he asked.
I took hold of the bottle and poured two double measures.
‘I was working undercover. The mission was to infiltrate one of the major drugs cartels. It was a disaster from the start. The politicians were calling the shots and Senator Cole had the loudest voice. We were supposed to be in it for the long haul. The plan was to ingratiate ourselves with the low-level dealers on the street and gradually work our way up the food chain. With such deep cover, whoever did the job would be forced to break a few laws, which was why they chose not to use official Government personnel. If things went wrong, they did not want anything to be traced back to Washington.’
‘And things did go wrong, I take it?’
He knocked back his drink and then liberally poured himself another. I kept my glass in my hands, but refrained from drinking any of it.
‘That all depends on your point of view,’ I replied. ‘The senator got exactly what he wanted, which was a sizeable chunk of publicity without any of the risk. He sent in the cavalry about three years too soon. A few dozen arrests were made; all low-level street dealers, most of them forced into that business in exchange for their lives. At best, maybe two or three hundred kilos of cocaine was seized. It was enough to feed the story to the tabloids as a success even though the only damage done to the cartel in real terms was the loss of about a day’s profit.
‘When the shooting began, I was supposed to keep my head down. I was with some street kid when the SWAT team burst in. His name was Eduardo and he was only sixteen. His brother had owed money to the gang and after they took his brother’s life the debt was passed on to the family. His mother was sick and could not leave the house. She would have starved without him and so there was nowhere to run. He had to work for the gang until the debt was repaid. He was not a bad kid and certainly no criminal, but that life had somehow found him.’
This time I did take a swig of the drink.
‘I take it Eduardo never made it out of the warehouse,’ said Manu.
‘They shot him in the back whilst he was trying to flee. He died in my arms. I think back to all of the opportunities that I had to save him; all of the times I could have blown my cover, but didn’t. I should have helped him. The worst thing is that he died for nothing; the entire operation had been a waste of time.’
‘You still haven’t answered my question,’ said Manu. ‘Why this girl; why now?’
I poured a second for me and gave Manu his third.
‘I guess I’m just looking for a way out. I’ve had enough. The senator wants me to watch his daughter, but to what end? If she’s run away from him she must have her reasons. Maybe it’s better to see what she wants and go with that.’
‘You want to help her disappear, don’t you?’
I shrugged. If I was being truthful, I did not know what I wanted. For whatever reason the girl had been taken, it had something to do with her father. It was for her that I now fought, not him. I finished my drink, but declined a further top-up. I had already said more than
I should have.
I went back to my cabin after my talk with Manu. Now that the senator had cut me loose, it was now a foregone conclusion that the military or the CIA would soon be involved. If I was to have any hope of bringing Asia back, I would need to act fast. Time had already run out. I had no choice but to make my move the following night.
Chapter 6
All of the equipment was primed and ready to go. I planned to launch my assault at midnight. At eleven o’clock Manu called me into his cabin. Something was troubling him. He said there was a story on the radio that I needed to hear. Breaking news just in: Senator Cole was about to make an announcement regarding his daughter. Manu turned up the volume and we both waited with bated breath as the senator’s words began to reverberate around the small cabin.
It is with a heavy heart, I announce that my only child, Katherine, has been taken hostage by a terrorist group working in conjunction with local criminals in Thailand. Earlier today, we received a communication from the terrorists. We do not know how many are involved, but we have so far identified one of them as a South American drug lord named Esteban Cruz. The suspect was part of a drugs cartel, which was successfully infiltrated and shut down by American agents earlier this year. It is believed that the kidnapping is an act of revenge and these criminals want only to cause pain to me and my beloved family.
A hiss came over the transmission and the quality of the broadcast decreased significantly as an extract from a taped message, supposedly from the hostage takers, was played. I put my fist through the wall of the cabin as I heard my voice. Naturally, the words had been twisted and the poor quality implemented to hide the liberal editing that had been undertaken.
I have your daughter. All I ask is that I am given one million dollars, if you want to secure the safe release of your daughter. If you fail to co-operate, the consequences will be dire.
Every word was a lie, yet there was no denying that it was my voice. If I gave up on Asia or failed to bring her home, my life would be over. The news anchor stated that only parts of the tape could be released as the rest was still being analysed by the agents working on the case and was yet to be declassified. He then went on to say that the authorities were hopeful that they could secure the girl’s release and apprehend the suspects soon. Manu looked at me more with concern than suspicion.
‘Are you sure that you’ve told me the whole story about why you are after this girl?’ he asked. ‘Only last night, you said that you had no love for the senator and now this.’
‘This is news to me as much as it is to you. At least now I know why he wanted me to go to the nearest police station. The old fool thought that he could trick me into unwittingly turning myself in.’
‘So what now?’
‘Nothing has changed. If anything, this has strengthened my resolve to bring back the girl. Only she can clear my name now. The senator is covering his back. If he does not get his daughter back alive, he will need a scapegoat to salvage any sort of positive publicity. He made me responsible for her life and now he will hold me accountable for her death.’
My phone started to buzz from inside my pocket.
‘Another call?’ asked Manu.
I checked the display.
‘No,’ I replied. ‘It’s the tracking device. The signal has changed; it’s started oscillating.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘If my hunch is correct; it’s in the water. We have to move right now.’
Manu returned to the helm and increased our speed to catch up with the rapidly diminishing signal. If we did not make it in time and Asia was in the water, she would surely drown. I took hold of my gun as I was not sure what we would be facing.
‘Have you got one of those for me?’ asked Manu.
I took one of the pistols that I had stolen from the guards during the raid on my cabin and passed it to the Frenchman. He stuffed it under his belt and then returned to the controls. I checked the readout again; we were within one hundred metres and closing fast. The lights from the pirate vessel were distant and they must have sped away soon after jettisoning their passenger.
‘Can you see anything yet?’ called Manu.
I scanned the black water for any sign of life.
‘Not yet,’ I stopped, as something caught my eye. It was a rubber ring and somebody was inside. ‘Wait, I’ve found something.’
Manu shut off the engine and we allowed the flotation device to bring its passenger to us by the tide.
‘Is it the girl?’ asked Manu.
‘No,’ I replied, ‘but it is one of the hostages. Help me bring him aboard.’
I reached down and offered my hand to the freezing, half-drowned figure that was clinging onto the buoyancy device for his life. Once I got him aboard, I quickly checked him for any injuries. If he had remained in the water for just a short while longer he would have caught pneumonia, but otherwise he was fine. The locket was in his back pocket.
‘A-A-Asia,’ he stammered.
‘Save your strength,’ I told him. ‘Before this night is through, we will have her back.’
I helped him onto his feet and had started to lead him to a cabin when something thudded against the hull of the boat. I turned to see what had caused the noise and saw that Manu was already checking it out.
‘There’s more,’ he shouted.
‘More of what?’ I asked, as I left our guest in order to see what Manu had found.
‘More friends of yours?’ he asked.
I came alongside of him and looked down to see two more figures in the water.
‘No,’ I replied. ‘These are definitely not friendly.’
We hauled the pair of them onto the deck. Both were exhausted and too weak from the struggle of staying afloat and treading water to put up a fight. This was a shame, because I was most definitely ready for a confrontation. We tied them up before placing the pair of them in Manu’s cabin.
‘You should see to your friend,’ said Manu. ‘I will watch these two for you.’
‘There isn’t time,’ I told him. ‘I have to interrogate them now. The longer we leave this, the less chance that we have of getting the girl back alive.’
He placed his hand on my shoulder.
‘I understand,’ he said, ‘but right now you are not thinking straight. You are letting your emotions rule you. Tend to your friend and then come back. Besides, as a former hostage, your friend will have valuable information too. Question him first and then come back for these.’
He was right. I left him to watch over our unwelcome guests whilst I went to find out how Ben had managed to escape. He was cold and shaken, but appeared in good health.
‘Is she alive?’ I asked.
‘Yes, she’s okay,’ he replied. ‘I did not want to leave her. We planned to escape together and not just Asia and I; all of us. I wasn’t strong enough though. In the end I did not escape at all; I was pushed.’
He blamed himself for leaving her, but I could see that it was not his fault. I asked him to tell me everything that he could about the layout of the pirate vessel and its crew. When there was no more for him to tell, I picked up my gun and headed back to Manu’s cabin. The door was ajar. I sensed instantly that something was wrong. When I entered, I found just one of the prisoners inside. Manu and the other captive were nowhere to be seen.
‘Start talking,’ I said to the remaining prisoner, but before he could answer a shadow was cast on the wall behind him.
The silhouette was of an armed man. I slowly turned around.
‘There has been a slight change to the plan,’ said Manu.
In his hand was the same gun I had given him just a short while earlier. He had it pointed directly at me. Asia’s fate was no longer in my hands.
Part 3
Chapter 1
I knew that it was wrong, but I could not help myself. A psychologist would call it a plea for attention. I just call it one in a long line of easily forgettable hook-ups. If I am really honest with myself, I
only screwed him to see if sex would feel any different on a boat. It didn’t – well, not in any positive sense at least. Let’s just say that the Earth did not so much move as merely slosh about a bit. What is it with boys and their toys?
‘When can I see you again?’
Such a stupid question. Why can he not just say what he really means?
‘Tomorrow morning,’ I told him. ‘You have me for Gothic Literature at ten sharp.’
‘I mean when...’
‘...can you fuck me again?’
He cast his eyes away from me. Perhaps the impropriety of the situation had finally caught up with him.
‘It is not like that,’ he protested in a mock British accent. ‘I did not want to say anything so soon, but I have been thinking about leaving Carol.’
Oh please! Why is it that when the other girls screw their professors they get top grades, but all I get is a midlife crisis who thinks he is in love with me? No doubt I will have to change my major yet again.
‘Maybe it would be better if we cooled it for a while,’ I suggested. ‘If you are merely thinking about leaving your wife then it follows that you are also thinking about staying with her too. It would be wrong of me to unduly influence that decision in any way.’
He seemed unsure how to respond. Academics can be so weak. Next time I will seduce the football coach.
‘You should take her out to dinner,’ I added. ‘If you plan on reigniting the spark, you will need to provide some sort of kindling.’
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