“Artie, it’s Kyle.”
“Detective, I’m glad you called. We got a break in the som tam case. I was—”
“Artie, we got ambushed tonight.”
“What?”
“A bunch of thugs jumped us as we were leaving the Lebua hotel. We had gone there to visit the Sky Bar and collect our answer to the second riddle.”
“Wait, are you sure this wasn’t a mugging?”
“Positive. We were led to a group of men by a taxi tout.”
“But who—”
“It has to be someone connected with the game. No one else in Thailand, except for your department, knows we’re here and why.”
Artie blurted out a barrage of questions, seeking more information, but Kang stopped him. “Artie, listen to me. I’m okay, but Abby…she’s missing. I need your help.”
Kang explained that he couldn’t return to the Landmark Plaza because someone could be waiting there for him. He also didn’t want to let Artie know that he and Abby had a safe location. At that moment, Kang didn’t trust anyone. He would only give the Thai detective the information needed to help find Abby. Artie told Kang to meet him on the first floor of the Terminal 21 shopping center in twenty minutes.
Kang figured he was ten minutes away by foot and moved quickly to get there before Artie. Not wanting to take any chances, he ducked inside a men’s clothing store and waited. The detective was true to his word and showed up at the mall right on the twenty-minute mark. Kang approached him from behind
“Artie,” he said placing a hand on the detective’s shoulder.
Artie jumped. “Are you okay?” he asked, looking Kang over after regaining his composure.
“I’m fine. Is there a place here where we can talk privately?” Kang asked, looking around.
“Yes. Upstairs on the fifth floor, there’s a quiet bar.”
Artie led the way up a multitude of escalators. Neither of them said anything until they were tucked away in a corner table that overlooked the surrounding hotels.
Once the server left with their drink order, Kang told Artie everything that had happened to him from the moment he and Kane had left the Sky Bar until he had contacted the Thai detective.
“And you never saw the men take her?”
“No. At least, that’s what I think happened. It had to have.”
“You have a phone now. Did you try calling her?”
“Yes, but all I got was voicemail.” Kang tried Abby’s cell once more. A few seconds later, he shook his head. “I’m getting voicemail. There’s a chance she might not have her phone.”
Artie watched Kang put the cell down on the table. “Just so you know, I already have men heading over to the hotel to question the vendors and taxi drivers. If we act now, there’s a good chance we can get information that might lead to finding her.”
Kang’s eyes met the detectives. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but how confident are you that it’ll help?” Kang didn’t want to come off as distrusting of the efforts of the Thai police, but he had to ask.
“Sometimes we find people; sometimes we don’t. Let’s hope we’re lucky this time around.”
Chapter 32
Kang felt a little better after talking to Artie. “I’ll go back to the Lebua hotel with you. The vendors may know something about the men who attacked Abby and me.”
“Look, that’s not a good idea. I know she’s your partner and you want to help, but trust me on this one. It’ll only cause more problems.”
“What do you mean? I can finger the vendors who were there. Some of them even attacked me as I tried to escape.”
“This is Thailand, not America. It’s better if a Thai person deals with these people.”
“I understand,” Kang conceded somewhat begrudgingly.
After the two made their way back outside, Kang waited until Artie took off on his motorbike before making his way to the Sheraton Hotel. It wasn’t far from the shopping center, across the busy Sukhumvit Road and another fifty or so yards west.
He and Kane had already collected two key cards for the room and hid them independently in separate locations. Kang had no idea where Kane had put hers and vice versa. Most of the sidewalks in Bangkok were made of square bricks. Kang had found a loose tile near a bush, and that’s where he hid his card and hoped it had remained.
When he reached the location, he sat down on a foot-high perimeter wall that separated the hotel property with the sidewalk. When no one was passing by, he lifted the loose stone. Underneath, he spotted the white hotel card and quickly pocketed it.
A few minutes later, Kang exited the elevator on the twentieth floor of the hotel and headed to room 2077. He drew his weapon before pressing his ear up against the door, listening for a few seconds. Hearing nothing, he inserted the card key into the slot above the doorknob and entered the room. It was empty, and he saw no signs that Kane had been there. He had hoped that she had.
Kang used the hotel phone to call his partner’s cell once more but, again, got her voicemail. Where are you, Abby?
There was nothing more for Kang to do there. He left a message on the hotel’s pad of paper that he had gone out for a smoke—code for their original location.
Kang thought it was important to head back to the Landmark and retrieve the laptop. There wasn’t much more he could do at the moment in the search for Abby aside from calling her contact at the embassy and alerting the Calvary, but that would only hurt their chances at capturing the mastermind.
A big part of their advantage was their ability to keep their game play under the radar. Kang guessed their cover was already blown—it had to have been—but still, bringing more attention to the game by having a team of FBI agents fly into town to help find one of their own only drew more attention. Abby’s a capable agent and can handle herself, he reminded himself. He had to trust that she was okay.
Kang exited the hotel and headed west on Sukhumvit to the Landmark Plaza. It was a fifteen-minute walk away. It was nearing one-thirty in the morning, but the sidewalks were still busy, mostly with packs of men.
Kang knew Bangkok’s red-light districts were lively, but what surprised him was that it wasn’t contained to those two areas. The entire stretch of Sukhumvit Road from Soi Cowboy to Nana Plaza was one big party. Women, booze, and a variety of restaurants were readily available, in that order. A lonely man did not exist in Bangkok.
Kang continued his quick walk and politely declined the repeated requests for a drink by the women who sat at the sidewalk bars. When he reached the hotel, he waited outside until he saw a large contingent of Japanese businessmen entering. He slipped within their ranks and walked with them through the lobby and into the elevator.
Kang exited on the fifteenth floor of the Landmark and walked a short way to room 1515, Abby’s room. Abby had the foresight for each of them to keep a copy of the other’s room key. “Just in case,” he remembered her telling him.
He pressed his ear against the door and listened for a few seconds before drawing his weapon and entering the room. It was empty, but he spotted Abby’s shoulder bag right away. He holstered the small Sig P239, his weapon of choice when traveling, and checked that the laptop was still inside. It was.
Kang powered up the device, eager to plug in the answer they had received from the young girl at the Sky Bar. If the people behind the game were responsible for the attack, he wanted to send a message that they were still playing the game and that it would take more than a street fight to stop them.
Once the game loaded and the paper scroll unraveled, Kang punched in the phrase The Big Mango.
A few seconds later, the paper scroll unraveled further and revealed their task.
Indulge in your favorite forbidden fruit.
It was obvious to Kang that the task called for the player to kill one of the many women or men who hired out their services. Sickening, he thought to himself.
He shut the computer down, slipped it back in the shoulder bag, and headed for his
original room. Kang took the same precautions before entering as he had done with Abby’s room. He still believed someone could be watching him or, worse, setting up for another attack. Kang quickly changed into his own clothing and grabbed his passport from the hotel safe. Everything else he left untouched.
Chapter 33
I woke up with a dull throbbing near the base of my skull and quickly concluded that a blow to my head had knocked me out. It was the only explanation I could think of that would have me waking up in what seemed to be a park—a dark park, I might add.
I sat up and felt relatively okay, except for my head. None of my limbs appeared to be broken, and the best discovery yet was that I had been lying on my purse. Inside, I found my wallet. However, my brand new cell phone, my weapon and the three thousand baht, roughly a hundred dollars, I had in my wallet were gone. No surprise there, but at least I still had my ATM and credit cards.
I sat up and started piecing together the events of the night from the moment we had left the Sky Bar to the fight on the street to the conversation with the masked man. That last one still felt like it never really happened, but it had. How else could I explain waking up under a tree? At the moment, I had more questions than I did answers.
Was there trouble in gameland? Why else would they reach out to us? Is it just Bangkok, or are they having trouble in all the cities? Could the game really be unraveling? But the most pressing question in my mind was, if the man or men behind the game knew that Kang and I weren’t the real Carlsons, why let us continue to play the game? What do they have to gain from it? How long have they known?
I didn’t know the answer, but I figured if they controlled the game, they determined what information we received. They’re in control. They’ve always been in control. And now they’re using us to fix a problem.
I couldn’t be sure whether Kang had escaped the ambush or if he, too, had been taken and later released. I wished those men hadn’t taken my phone; I could have at least called him or checked to see if he had tried to reach me. With our identities compromised, I knew Kang would make his way back to the safe location we had set up. And that’s exactly where I intended to go.
Off in the distance, I saw a line of streetlights—a road. If I could reach that area, I would be able to flag a cab, or so I hoped. My eyesight had adjusted fairly quickly to the dark. I could make out the trees and bushes around me, so I didn’t think I would have trouble navigating. However, there was one problem I wasn’t prepared for—the hissing I heard nearby.
Still on my knees, I spun around and saw a shadowy, four-legged creature with a long tail approaching me. It hissed again just as it came out from the shadows of the tree and into the moonlight. It was a large monitor lizard, and it was heading my way.
I popped to my feet faster than a kernel of corn hitting hot oil and took off for the highway. I looked back and saw that the mini-dragon was fast on my heels. What the hell is that thing doing in a park? I had no idea, but it looked hungry.
Adrenaline raced through my body, moving my tiny legs at the speed of blur, or at least that’s the speed I hoped to be moving at. I had kicked off my sandals after my first few strides and continued barefoot.
My heart thumped against my chest almost immediately. Sweat rained down my face and neck. The humidity in the air had begun its assault. All at once, it seemed like my clothes soaked up a bathtub of water and clung to my body like fresh papier-mâché, but I had no intention of slowing down and becoming that lizard’s late-night snack.
With the reptile quickly gaining on me, I knew I had to throw that guy a curve ball or something close to it. I tried running in a zigzag course, hoping it didn’t have the agility to pivot while running. Wrong. It pivoted just fine.
I must have sounded the alarm, because out of the corner of my eye, I saw another lizard scurrying toward me. What the hell? I had always thought these lizards were vegetarians, happy to eat fruits and vegetables. At least, that’s what I had always seen them eating in the zoo. Maybe they were opportunists and took advantage of sick or dead animals. Did I really look worse than I felt?
I watched the scaly creature to my right close in on me. It had an angle that would put him on course for a collision with my legs.
Without thought, my years of training from running the 110-meter hurdles as a teenager instinctively came back. I put my head down and focused on my own timing. At the right moment, I leaped. My left leg shot out in front, and my right foot bent at the knee as my arms powered me forward. I sailed over the confused creature.
My form was dead-on for someone wearing jeans and clutching a small purse. I stuck my landing, and my legs continued to propel me forward. Up ahead, another lizard appeared, and I sailed effortlessly over that one as well. That night, I was leapin’ lizards.
As I neared the road and the streetlights got brighter, I looked behind me and saw that the trio of lizards had backed off. I didn’t slow, though, and kept my pace until my feet hit the hard sidewalk. I took another peek behind and did not see them. They had disappeared. What kind of park lets five-foot-long lizards roam their grounds?
I continued, barefoot, along the sidewalk, looking for a taxi. My clothes were drenched with sweat, and I was still breathing hard. From what I could tell, the only other people out here at this time of the night were working. Most of the streetwalkers I passed were ladyboys, but these ladyboys didn’t look much like ladies. They stared but said nothing as I passed them by. I didn’t feel threatened, confident I could take any one of them on, perhaps even two at once.
One of them approached me cautiously. My guard was up, reasonable if you ask me, considering the night I’d had.
The ladyboy spoke with a heavy accent. “You okay?”
“I’m fine. Could you tell me where I am?”
“Lumpini Park. You want cab?”
“Yes. I need to go to Sukhumvit, near the Terminal 21 shopping center.”
She motioned for me to stop and walked to the edge of the sidewalk. One of her heels buckled, but she quickly righted herself and flagged a taxi. She opened the back door and said something in Thai before looking back at me. “Okay, he take you, but must pay 200b. No meter.”
At that point, I didn’t care if I overpaid, and I nodded that it was fine. I knew I had no money on me, but ATMs were abundant. The cabbie would have no choice but to wait and trust that I wouldn’t skip out on the fare. Worst-case scenario, I pull out my FBI badge and pull rank on the poor guy.
Chapter 34
I exited the cab a block before the Sheraton hotel. I had hidden the key card to the room in a pebble garden near the hotel’s entrance. I waited for a few hotel guests to pass me by before bending down and digging under some rocks. The card was still there, and a wave of relief moved through my body.
My blouse remained stuck to my chest and back, and my jeans had a fair share of grass stains on them, but other than that, I didn’t think I would draw any attention unless someone noticed I wasn’t wearing shoes. But this was Bangkok; I was sure the hotel staff saw people wander through the lobby in all sorts of dress. I walked steadily to the elevator, avoiding eye contact with anyone and headed up to the twentieth floor.
When I reached the room, I stood outside the door for minute listening. I didn’t have a weapon, so I was apprehensive about barging in, even though I knew the location was safe. I inserted the card key into the slot and slowly opened the door. The lights were on from the night’s turndown service, but the room itself was empty. I closed the door behind me and looked for any signs that Kang might have made it to the location before I did, but I saw nothing.
I moved over to the hotel phone and dialed Kang’s cell. All I got was voicemail. I left a message saying I was at the restaurant. At the moment, all I could do was hope Kang had survived our attack and was making his way back to the location. I also had no way to get a hold of Artie. I had tossed his card after punching his phone number into my cell, which I didn’t have.
When we checked i
nto the hotel, I’d had the clarity of mind to stash a bag containing a change of clothes in the room. I had asked Kang if he’d wanted to do the same, but he said he could do without it; to each his own. I took a shower and changed into fresh jeans and a T-shirt.
Afterward, I put a call into Reilly to update him on the situation. As usual, he wanted to send reinforcements. He even broached the subject of pulling me out.
“Abby, this is serious. You have a member of the SFPD unaccounted for, he could be dead for all we know, and now there’s a bounty on your head.”
“Calm down. We don’t know that. Kang’s a tough guy. I’m sure he’s alive somewhere.”
“What makes you so sure of that?”
“The men that attacked us, as far as I can tell, need us. It’s the only reason I can see why they would alert us that another team is targeting us. They could have let it play out and enjoyed the outcome, but they didn’t. Something’s wrong.”
Reilly remained quiet on the line for a brief second before speaking again. “Okay, Abby. You’ve got twelve hours. If after that the situation still remains the same, I’m pulling you out. I’ll have to alert Detective Kang’s superiors about the situation. I can’t control what they will do, but I’ll encourage them to give you time. Hopefully they’ll have as much confidence in their guy as I do in you.”
I thanked Reilly for the extra time and hung up. My next thought was to track down Artie by seeking help from his precinct in Thong Lo.
I was about to leave when I heard a noise outside the door. I hit the lights and hid myself inside the closet near the room door. Is that Kyle? The closet door had slats. The levers pointed down, so I had some visibility. There was a flashlight hanging from the wall right above the hotel safe. It felt heavy enough to use as a club.
I heard more movement outside the door and then a key card being inserted into the lock mechanism. A beat later, the door opened and the light from the hallway poured into the room. A shadowy figure entered, though because of my short stature, I could only see the bottom half of the person for a brief moment before the door closed and the room went dark. That was my opportunity.
Lumpini Park (Abby Kane FBI Thriller - Chasing Chinatown Trilogy Book 2) Page 10