by Terry Morgan
CHAPTER 74
Daniel was in the arrivals hall at Changi Airport in Singapore when his phone rang with the first piece of bad news. It was Anna.
"Daniel, please listen. I went to the apartment where Solomon lives as you asked me to. You said everyone was going to Singapore. But they are not, Daniel. Solomon is still here. I saw him in the car park at the apartment block. He was with GOB and an Arab man, maybe it was Kader because he was wearing a long white robe like you described to me. And..........."
Anna's breathless voice tailed off. "What is it Anna," Daniel said.
"There were two other men in our hotel this morning. They both looked Arab to me but they wore normal clothes, so I don't know. When I got back from the apartment, they were standing at reception. I heard them ask if Daniel Capelli was staying at the hotel. The receptionist checked and said no. But they didn't go. They stood by the reception desk talking on the telephone. Then I heard them ask if Ian McCann was staying here. That's you, Daniel - sometimes. The receptionist said no. Then they asked if David Franklin was staying here. That's you again, Daniel - sometimes. The receptionist said yes but she wasn't allowed to tell them our room number. They then stood and telephoned again. I immediately went up to our room, packed everything and moved out. I didn't pay the bill, Daniel. I am very worried. "
"Don't worry about the bill, Anna. That's the least concern. We'll sort it. But......." he paused. "Where are you?"
"I am in a taxi. I am going to my old apartment to leave our things, maybe stay there a while. Why don't you come back, Daniel. I am very worried. They know about you. Somehow they know you are in Bangkok. What name did you use at the pharmacy last night? I think that is it. I tried to phone Colin but it is night time and his phone is not on. What shall we do?"
"Stay in the apartment, Anna. I'll come back as soon as I can."
Daniel swore at himself. Then he got up and walked in circles. He'd made a mistake. No question about it. The luck had run out. Colin and Anna had both been right. He should have handed everything over to the authorities to deal with. After all, he, Colin, Larry, Kevin and Tom had all done enough. Let Interpol, the Thai police, the Singapore police or whoever deal with it. But he was an impatient person. He made his own decisions, sometimes they were hasty because he disliked officialdom and bureaucracy. He had always been like that but had always been successful. Daniel Capelli always did things himself - alone.
So where were the police? Had they got their Red Notices yet? And what was the decision on Solomon and Kader. Had they been red noticed as well? So had it been a bad decision to go to Singapore? Yes and no. If he'd stayed in Bangkok at that hotel, the consequences for both himself and Anna were unknown. Who were the men who had turned up? For a few minutes, Daniel was unsure what to do.
But then he phoned the British Embassy and asked to speak to Caroline Mason.
"Caroline, it's Rupert."
"Rupert, dear, back so soon. Missed me?"
"Yes," admitted Daniel to avoid any of the usual, time-wasting female analysis if he'd said no. "Listen I'm in a spot of bother."
"Mm, that's not like you, Rupert. Always in charge. What's up and where are you?"
"Changi. The airport. I arrived an hour ago but I may have to fly back to Bangkok again on the next available."
"Busy man, eh?"
"Yes but this morning I'm a man with a problem, Caroline. I didn't know who else to turn to.."
"So you immediately phone Aunty Caroline. What can Aunty do?"
"You remember Shah Medicals?"
"Yes, naught little David Chua. Did you meet him last time?"
"Yes I did and he's involved in something big and very complicated - so complicated that Interpol have got involved. It'll take me hours to explain everything Caroline so you'll just need to listen to me and believe what I'm about to tell you. But we've got everything here - counterfeit medicines, fraud on an international scale and a plot to deliberately spread a flu virus that has been engineered specifically to kill - some would call it bioterrorism. It's all being run and financed by a small group of rich individuals - relative unknowns operating like the mafia."
"Good Lord, and you are involved?"
"Involved in as much as I'm trying to stop it, get people arrested and mostly intercept a consignment of what I think might be live flu virus coming into Singapore this morning destined for Shah Medicals."
"That'll explain Singapore 2100 then, Rupert. I checked them out - it's an underground group committed to reducing Singapore's population before the island suddenly becomes so top heavy with high rises it tilts over and topples into the sea."
"Yes, and make a tidy profit to those that survive a pandemic, Caroline. Have you had your Malthus A vaccination yet?"
"Never heard of it, Rupert. Is it like bird flu?"
"Well put it this way, Caroline, and in a nutshell. Tests by what, for want of a better name, I'll call the Malthus gang in Nigeria gave rise to one hundred deaths. The guy behind the technology is British, a world renown virologist and whose hobby is to see the world population reduced by fifty percent. And his financial backers are the New York and Egyptian mafia."
Daniel knew his description was colourful but it was not inaccurate and it was said to ensure Caroline took him seriously. And neither did he give her a chance to respond.
"Now listen, Caroline, the UK and US governments have become aware of this. I assume someone in the British Embassy here knows. The Ambassador? I don't know. Whoever it is, I need you to talk to them and tell them you've spoken to me because of the commercial link. Tell them to take it seriously and let me know what's going on. WHO are also starting to wake up. But as far as Interpol is concerned the Singapore police should by now have received a red notice to arrest at least one individual - a guy called Greg O'Brian. But there are several, if not many others involved here as well, including - wittingly or unwittingly - your little friend David Chua.
"But the immediate priority, Caroline, is to intercept a couple of boxes that are being air-freighted into Singapore today. They may even be here already. They are marked as hazardous and not to be opened until final destination. That final destination is Shah Medicals.
"Have you got all that, Caroline?" He ended. "Because I need to get back to Bangkok right now."
"Yes," said Caroline. "I always said I'd drop everything for you, Rupert. But, seriously, yes, I understand. I now see what you were up to a few weeks ago when you were here and I know you well enough to realise this is serious. I'll try to speak to the Ambassador and others right away and we'll check with the Singapore police. How can I get hold of you?"
Daniel gave Caroline his mobile phone number and also the phone number of Colin in London. Right now, he needed to book a flight back to Bangkok and speak to Colin.
By the time Daniel got through to Colin he was in the departures lounge ready to board a Thai Airlines flight back to Bangkok. But before he could speak, Colin had a lot to say.
"You should be proud of that new wife-to-be of yours Daniel, my friend. I've just spoken to her. She's worried about you. She's updated me on your antics last night. Yes, good news about finding Solomon's hide-out and the two boxes going to Singapore but clearly something's gone wrong because we're all being targeted now."
"What do you mean?"
"Well let me give you the first bit of bad news. Wait for it.......... Jimmy's dead."
"Oh no. Oh Christ," said Daniel and put his head in his hands. There was a pause from both men. Then: "How, where, when?" asked Daniel.
"His body was found hidden in a hut at a campsite in the National Park outside Nairobi. He had been shot. It was Louise who told me. Since then I've been onto the Kenyan police direct. And, by the way, the red notice for GOB has gone out. It went out a few hours ago. That still leaves have a dozen or more on the loose out there - Lunneau, Kader, Solomon amongst them. But for Jimmy it's too late."
"I'm so sorry," said Daniel, "I blame myself for pushing him right at the end."
&
nbsp; "Yes," Colin said, "You push everyone, including yourself. Don't push Anna. Do you hear me? She's too good to be tied up in all this shit and yet you have involved her. You asked her to do something this morning."
Colin was right. Daniel knew it.
"And you know what, my friend?" Colin continued, "Right now, she's scared. But she's standing by you because, for some reason, she only sees the good side of you. I've seen all your sides - the good, the bad and the downright foolish risk-taker over the years. Now let me give you another bit of bad news." Colin paused.
"They got too much out of Jimmy before and after he was shot - his mobile phone, his wallet and even his note book. Did you not know that Jimmy, despite his style that always reminded me of Will Smith in a comedy role, was very well organised - too well organised. I told him many times not to carry it around. But the notebook had a lot of names in it including two versions of you, the David Franklin one and the Daniel Capelli one. So GOB knows about you. And they already knew about Asher and Asher, of course, which means me. Now, as you know, I've crossed swords with GOB before. I do not want to be garden forked just yet - do you get my drift?"
"Yes," said Daniel feeling as if he was receiving an Anna-style lecture.
"And the third big problem, my friend, is Anna. Unfortunately, she was seen in the car park of Solomon's apartment block by three people and, from her description, I guess the three people were Solomon, Kader and GOB. They definitely saw her because she had a little accident in the car park and broke a heel on the shoe she was wearing. The concrete needed repairing.
"Now ladies do not always make the best detectives, Daniel, unless properly attired and properly briefed. And Solomon, despite his desire to eliminate half the world population, appears to have a very old-fashioned, gentlemanly side because he rushed to her aid. But he was not quick enough because Anna fled into the street and jumped into a tuk tuk. If that wasn't enough to ring alarm bells with GOB and Kader then I don't know what was.
"So, as a previously successful, self-employed, one-man-band small business for the last fifteen years - I suggest you either stay like that or remember all of this when you next decide to employ others - whether black African male, Thai female or any other nationality. Got it?"
"Yes."
"Now. Next thing. Anna told you she only saw two people at your hotel but there was a third sat outside in a car and I have a horrible suspicion that it was GOB. How do I know this? Anna told me. She roughly described this third man to me, but bear in mind she'd only seen the back of his ugly neck as you sat having dinner last night. She didn't tell you because she didn't want to worry you and because you were already in Singapore. Are you starting to understand this woman of yours Daniel?"
"Yes," said Daniel.
"Now, you need to get back to Bangkok ASAP, right? Go straight to see Anna. You are no longer a sad creature, a lonely, single item who thinks only of himself, but a partnership. So no bloody detours because of a sudden whim or because you've had another of your bloody hunches - accurate though they often are.
"My concern is, and knowing how GOB operates, he may already have seen Anna exit the hotel in a hurry carrying your new, larger, shared suitcase. He may have had her followed. He may have followed her himself. He may, with luck, have lost her taxi in a Bangkok traffic jam and so still be looking for her but.....are you getting my message, Daniel? If he can't get you, he'll get the next best thing."
"Yes," said Daniel, "My flight has just been last-called."
"Then call Anna and me as soon as you get back."
"Thanks, Colin. And I really am so sorry about Jimmy. But - just one other thing from my side - I've spoken to the British Embassy and they now know about Shah Medicals. They are going to try to get the Singapore police or customs to intercept the two boxes."
"Yes, I know. Well done, Daniel. But I've already spoken to someone called Caroline Mason. She phoned me. Now fuck off."