The Amok Runners

by Colin Cotterill

  ‘Oh, good,’ Sissy said.

  ‘Fuck you want?’ he said.

  Sissy was surprised he recognized him.

  ‘I’m good, thanks. You?’

  ‘I said, the fuck do you want?’

  ‘All grammar aside, I have an appointment with Ms Savage,’ Sissy told him.

  Gus was standing sentry in front of the door marked bluescreen studio. It was a double door but he had it covered. He looked my brother up and down, snorted then managed the longest stream of dialogue Sissy had heard from him since they’d first become buddies.

  ‘You’re a loser,’ he said in a gravelly whisper. ‘And I personally don’t see what Miss Savage sees in you. You think dressing up like a girl’s gonna impress her? Make you different from the others? I know bums like you and I know what you’re after. You make my job difficult. So why don’t you get lost?’

  The igloo had been hired for traits other than his good looks and repartee but Sissy admired a man who spoke his mind.

  ‘Come on, pal,’ said Sissy and made a show of clicking his neck. ‘We don’t have to be enemies. You know who I am and …’

  ‘I know you’re good for nothing, is all I know. I know you’re a dope-head and an opportunist.’

  Sissy was surprised Gus knew a word like opportunist. Perhaps they were both misreading each other.

  ‘Does that mean you aren’t going to let me in?’

  ‘You’re not on my list.’

  Sissy saw neither a list nor an attempt to look for one.

  ‘Gus, my friend. You clearly have a dilemma here. I’m the current best friend of the woman who employs you.’

  Gus tensed all his muscles at once and probably caused a tsunami off Hong Kong.

  ‘I know that pisses you off,’ Sissy continued, ‘but them’s the marbles. So over afternoon tea I lean across to my best friend and suggest that she replaces you with someone blacker and nicer. Miss Savage will say, ‘Well sure, Sissy. Whatever you say,’ and you, Gus, will be watching Home Alone 6 in economy on your way back to the states. So, here’s where we are. You either get it out of your system and beat me to wasabe right here and now or you get over it and continue to earn your two thousand bucks a day. Up to you. Just don’t forget; you’re her minder, not her father.’

  Sissy detected some kind of vibration the length and breadth of Gus. He rocked from side to side. All those conflicting urges - get rich, kill, get rich, kill - seemed to be running through his veins. Then, like a spin drier at the end of its cycle, he reached a still calm and stood to one side.

  The large studio was in shadow all but the blue light stage. It engulfed Bunny Savage on three sides like a heavy sky. She was dressed in her Shan princess go-go gear and held a sword. If it had been made of anything but balsa it would have weighed more than she did. A voice that boomed around the high-ceilinged studio was giving her instructions.

  ‘Okay. There’s a damned enormous chariot coming up behind you. You hear it first, look surprised. Look over your left shoulder and there it is. Run and roll.’

  Sissy didn’t see a chariot but Bunny evidently did. There was a consummate look of terror on her face as she strove to avoid its spiked wheels. She was a very good actress if she could fake a Burmese chariot. He sat at the back of the room watching her act. She spent another hour avoiding death from a variety of threats. It appeared to Sissy that the life of a Shan princess was a particularly hazardous one. He looked around at the crew. They were drooling, fantasizing, acting as cute and interesting as they possibly could. The star, glistening with sweat, glowing with sexuality, took a while to realize who the elegant woman in stilettos was. But, to give her credit, she smiled, walked up to Sissy and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

  ‘My lover woman,’ she said.

  ‘You’ve forgiven me?’

  ‘It was all me being dumb. You’re innocent. What are you doing here?’

  ‘I have to talk to a casting company.’

  ‘Ooh, all the excitement of the movie business gone to your head? Did you look at Jensen and decide, if he can do it …?’

  ‘No, well … yeah. I do think that. But that’s not the reason. Can we go somewhere and talk?’

  She had a suite at the Intercontinental. They drank freshly-squeezed mango juice and sat on the Jim Thomson silk-covered sofa, her legs on the coffee table.

  ‘Why didn’t you tell me any of this before?’ she asked.

  ‘I was being manly.’

  ‘Perhaps a bit too manly,’ she said. ‘Protecting the fragile maiden from the truth?’

  ‘Something like that.’

  ‘So, why are you telling me now?’

  ‘We decided the more people that know the better. They’d have to kill the whole lot of you to keep their secrets.’

  ‘But it looks like you don’t know what their secrets are.’

  ‘They obviously think we do.’

  ‘And how does this casting agency fit in?’

  ‘Star Casting and Locations. It’s the firm OB’s people had originally been recommended. It was a big contract. They had to help with the location scouting and find Thai actors to play the smaller roles and line up extras. But at the last minute they decided they weren’t up to it. They handed the whole contract over to some little outfit called Northern Thai Casting. Nobody’s ever heard of them. The only number Star had was a cell phone.’

  ‘And nobody’s answering,’ she guessed.

  ‘You got it.’

  ‘So, you’ve got an appointment to meet the head of the company.’

  ‘Nope.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Because I’m a part-time computer geek from Chiang Mai.’

  ‘So, then … oh, I see.’

  He took his cell from his handbag, found the number and handed it to her.

  ‘Thanks,’ he said.

  ‘I feel so used.’

  The head of Star Casting was four feet seven and built like a bag of rice. She had short reddish hair gelled vertical and a nose ring. She wore sparkly jeans and a black velvet jacket with the sleeves rolled to her elbows. Unlike Sissy, she’d left the country to acquire her American accent. Sissy had checked the company website and discovered Star Casting’s CEO had spent fifteen years in San Francisco.

  ‘Hi, I’m Tip,’ she said, when Bunny Savage opened the door. The woman held up a bottle wrapped in shiny gold paper. ‘It’s not much, but I didn’t have a lot of notice to go shopping.’

  ‘Hello, Tip,’ said Bunny. ‘Come in, please. I hope you don’t mind eating up here.’

  ‘It’s never gonna happen to me but I imagine getting ogled in public places would get old real fast,’ she said.

  Tip was obviously nervous and excited. She hopped from foot to foot and banged her fists together in front of her. Bunny pointed to the set table.

  ‘Won’t you sit down?’

  She saw Tip look at the third placement but not make a comment.

  ‘I have to say I was shocked to get your call. I’m a big fan. I mean a big fan.’

  ‘That’s sweet.’

  ‘I can’t believe you knew Malee in California. She never mentioned it. I mean,’ Tip continued, ‘I’m sorry I was cold on the phone. I just didn’t believe it was you. I was mad at my secretary for being so easily taken in. Then it turned out it was really you. This is great. I’m so excited. I can dine out on this for months.’

  Sissy appeared from the other room and Tip got to her feet.

  ‘This is my friend, Sissy,’ Bunny said.

  ‘Hi.’

  ‘Hi.’

  Sissy sat across the table from her. She must have felt obliged to keep talking.

  ‘So, how do you know Malee?’

  Bunny joined them at the table, took the champagne bottle from the bucket and poured for Tip and Sissy.

  ‘I don’t,’ she said.

  ‘I’m sorry?’

  ‘I don’t know Malee. I lied.’

  Bunny didn’t know anybody called Malee in California or anyw
here else for that matter. It was a ruse devised by Sissy to get Tip there to the hotel. It began with the phone call and the line, ‘Hi, this is Bunny Savage. I’m in Thailand shooting a movie and I promised a mutual friend of ours I’d look you up.’ This was followed by a long silence after which, hopefully Tip would say, ‘Not Malee?’ or some such name. It worked more often than not. Sissy had used it in his old life.

  ‘Wh … I don’t understand,’ said Tip.

  Sissy took up the story. ‘It was a little dishonest but it did get you here.’

  Tip smiled to cover her discomfort.

  ‘We want to talk to you about why you passed up the Siam contract.’

  Any remaining sincerity drained from Tip’s smile. The girlish fan morphed into the officious head of a large company. Her eyes hooded. Her voice deepened.

  ‘There was no Siam contract. And what gives you the …?

  ‘There was,’ Sissy said bluntly. ‘You gave it away.’

  Tip stood up.

  ‘Things like that happen in business.’

  ‘Only in funny business.’

  Still holding onto her meaningless smile Tip stepped away from the table. ‘If I’d known this was an official meeting I’d have sent one of my staff. I don’t appreciate being duped.’

  Bunny put her elbows on the table and rested her chin on a raft of fingers.

  ‘Tip, did you happen to notice a big square guy in front of the door when you came in?’

  She didn’t reply.

  ‘He’s there for two reasons: to stop people getting in and to stop them getting out. He’s in ‘out’ mode at the moment.’

  ‘You think you can …? What is this all about?’

  She took her cell phone from her pocket and held it in front of her like a weapon, her finger poised over the fast dial button.

  ‘In Fang, there have been attempts on our lives,’ Sissy told her. ‘We aren’t a threat to you. We just want to know what it’s all about so we can stop any more violence. They killed Director Pongpun. All we want is your attention and a little chat. If we can get that in an amicable way it would be much better.’

  ‘Amicable? You drag me here under false pretences then tell me I can’t leave?’

  ‘I know’, said Sissy. ‘Damned rude. And we should be ashamed of ourselves. But, trust me, the things we want to talk about are very relevant to you and the future and reputation of your company. You can press your speed dial and shout for help if you want, but then it’ll come as even more of a shock when you find yourself unemployed and bankrupt.’

  ‘And in jail,’ Bunny added. ‘Sit down and have a sip of champagne. It’s Cristal. Too good to throw down the sink. Come on.’

  Tip put her phone in her pocket and grabbed hold of the back of the chair as if her legs were about to give way. She looked at the vanilla white ceiling above her and a gang of emotions seemed to invade her face. After a deep breath she lowered herself onto the seat.

  ‘We’re working on the movie in Tha Ton,’ Sissy continued. ‘After the first week, Pongpun Wichaiwong was shot to death in a parking lot in Chiang Mai. A few days later a bomber attempted to blow me and my family to high heaven. Two nights ago we were shot at. The filming has been sabotaged at least three times and there are a couple of thousand extras sitting around and none of them speaks Thai.’

  Tip sat staring at the bubbles milling in the glass. Sissy had her attention.

  ‘Now, in San Francisco you’d go see the police and get them to sort everything out for you,’ he said. ‘But we have a strong suspicion that if the police weren’t involved we wouldn’t be having any of these problems. As it was you that passed this project on to the mysterious Northern Thai Castings, which, by the way, seems to have been liquidated as soon as the deals were done, I’d say your company is in deep shit. I’d say you’ll probably never get another overseas contract. So it might help all parties concerned if you’d be so kind as to share with us exactly why you passed this deal on to a bunch of crooks.’

  He was surprised to see tears dribbling down Tip’s face. He immediately felt like a bully and wanted to apologize but it was clear she needed to talk. Bunny slid her chair across and put an arm around the little CEO. They had to wait several minutes before the sobs subsided. The only emotion on Tip’s face now was unhidden grief. Bunny handed her a napkin and she wiped away the tears.

  ‘Somjit went to the north with the location scout from LA,’ she began. ‘Somjit is my partner – in the company – we started it together – and in life. We’ve been together for twenty years. She liked to do the field work and see parts of the country you wouldn’t normally get a chance to see if you’re stuck in an office in Bangkok. The American was interested in Fang, particularly around Tha Ton. So they went to see the local authorities there and everything seemed to be cool for everyone.

  ‘Somjit came back and agreed terms with the movie people and we signed a contract. We even started casting for the bigger roles. She made another trip up north to take photos of spots around Chiang Mai and talk to the people running the elephant camps. We were supposed to find two hundred elephants from someplace. And she …’

  Tip’s voice suddenly became dry and throaty. She emptied the glass of champagne without bothering to enjoy it.

  ‘She disappeared,’ Tip went on. ‘One night she didn’t call. It was our habit to talk on the phone every evening at six. I assumed she was stuck in a meeting or on the road. I called her cell but the message said it was out of service. It was weird. She always had her phone with her, always kept it charged. So I thought perhaps she’s in a place with no signal. Next day, no call. She didn’t reply to emails, nothing. Of course I was worried.

  ‘The problem was I didn’t know exactly where she was. Last time we spoke she was in Chiang Mai and said she’d be working her way up to Fang – stopping off at the camps. When I called the police, I couldn’t tell them where she might have been. They said, ‘She’ll turn up.’ She didn’t. We went up there, me and two staff. Went to all the camps, resorts, hotels. We asked. Searched. Nothing. I even hired a guy. We’d used him before. He was a sort of private investigator. He had contacts. The last place anyone saw Somjit was at the elephant show grounds in Chiang Dao but whether she’d carried on north from there or turned back to the city, nobody knew.

  ‘I was shattered. Couldn’t sleep. Didn’t know what to do – who to turn to. I had to come back to the company but I had the guy in the north stay on it full time. It was like … I don’t know. Like she just dissolved.’

  Bunny refilled Tip’s glass and she finished that also.

  ‘I was working late one night,’ she continued. ‘That was my life then – work. And the security guard called up to my office. He told me there were some men downstairs from Fang with urgent news. I buzzed them up. There were these two – short hair – shifty looking. I felt … I don’t know, exposed, vulnerable. I couldn’t understand why the security guard stayed downstairs. I wished he hadn’t let them in.

  ‘They were, what’s the word? Condescending. Asked how someone like me could operate a company. Asked if my dad allowed me to make decisions. I didn’t know how to talk to them. They said they were from a company in Chiang Mai called Northern Thai Castings. I said I’d never heard of it. They said there was a Hollywood movie coming to Fang and the local authorities had decided, as it was a northern production they didn’t want a Bangkok company handling it.

  ‘I laughed and one of them slapped my face, made my nose bleed. The other one pushed me back into my chair and yanked out the phone. I pressed the alarm button under my desk. It was supposed to bring the security people running but nothing happened. He said, “maybe you don’t understand” and pulled a wad of documents from his briefcase. On top was a contract; three copies. It signed over the rights for casting and location for Siam to Northern Thai. I refused to sign. I told them times had changed in Thailand. We didn’t do business like that anymore. He slapped me again. But I wasn’t going to sign anything.


  ‘Where were the security people? I had no idea what to do. I told them, even if I wanted to – and I didn’t – I couldn’t sign any documents. All contracts had to be co-signed by both directors and witnessed for them to mean anything. He flipped the papers to the back page and my heart just died. It was Somjit’s signature on all three copies. I couldn’t imagine what had possessed her to … I asked where she was – what had they done with her? Then they showed me the photograph – just the one, and I stopped living, I swear. I was numb for a minute. I couldn’t bring myself to react. I can’t bear to think about it. She looked so … so empty of hope. She was cut, bruised. Her eyes were looking off into some far off place. I wanted to rip their throats out, those two …’

  Tip broke down again and allowed Bunny to squeeze an arm around her. She and Sissy were crying too – tears free-flowing. The pain was almost vented. The poor woman had just one more lap to go and all the hate and misery she’d bottled up would be out. Not better, but shared.

  ‘They told me it was a simple business deal’, she said. ‘I sign over the Siam contract and I get back my partner. Did I believe them? Did I honestly think they’d honour the deal and send her back from hell? No. I told them – I was shaking, I was peeing my pants, but I had to try. I told them to bring her to me unharmed and when I saw she was alive I’d sign. The same man who’d shown me the photo took a sheet from his bag and put it on the desk in front of me. It was a list of names and locations. At the top was an address I knew very well. It was the house I’d grown up in. The house where my parents still live. All my friends and family were on the list. He said, ‘How do you think we got your girlfriend to sign?’

  ‘Once I’d put my signature on the contracts he came and sat in front of me on the desk. He reached into his back pocket and took out his wallet. He said “If I were you I’d go to the police about this violation of your rights. You’d be quite justified and I’d respect you for it. There’s only one small problem.” He took out one card and held it in front of me. His thumb was over the name but I got to see the rest of it. It was a Royal Thai Police identification card with his photo.