The Thai cousins' boisterous attitudes had rapidly dissipated. The trip back to Bangkok was not quieter than the outbound journey, but the atmosphere in the van was substantially less jovial. Jao spent almost half of the ride on his cell phone, and Chariya kept her eyes fixed on the road. Bob learned from Jao that the mercenaries were still on the job outside of Bangkok, and hoped Mark Birch had arranged a good payment deal. As the city came into view across the endless coastal plain, an unseasonably heavy cloud could be seen moving over it from the west.
The traffic jam did not seem to have significantly changed during the trip, except that the van was now moving in the other direction. Rene, capable of weaving between the slow-moving cars on the motorcycle, was out of sight within minutes. Bob understood Levancon's impatience, but felt uneasy about the Frenchman's intentions nonetheless. Another two-hour traffic jam would give Levancon adequate time to sabotage any number of things without restraint.
"We're dropping you off at your boat." Chariya announced. "Jao and I will get orders. Don't go too far."
"No intention of it." Sadeski frowned at what appeared to be the offspring of a tricycle and a pickup truck in the next lane. "Hope nothing happened to the boat."
Jao popped up from behind the seat. "There is trouble with the dockworkers? I have a cousin who knows the manager of that dock."
"Jao, I'm the only one who knows anyone in that area of Bangkok." Chariya had become more careful about using the rear-view mirror with the safety-minded Zach in the passenger seat. Taylor was not fond of using any means of transportation not under his control, and on short trips and in busy waters he invariably served as the pilot of the Northern Cross. This sensibility had come into direct conflict with Chariya's erratic driving style from early in the trip.
"So you know the manager then? American woman? Been here a long time?" Jao grinned forward, his head awkwardly placed almost on Takeshi's shoulder.
"No, you're imagining things." Bob felt a faint twinge of disappointment. He turned to stare at the unmoving traffic once again.
It was over an hour and a half later that the van pulled up to the Northern Cross. Rene Levancon was leaning against the motorcycle, talking to one of the dockworkers when his companions arrived. The uncharacteristic wave and smile he greeted them with made Bob particularly uneasy. As Sadeski left the van, he heard the dockworker bid Levancon farewell.
"You learn language very fast! Very fast!" Rene answered in Thai. Chariya made an impressed noise.
"Westerners usually don't learn our language. Your Rene is not a normal man." She laughed. "But then again, Westerners are usually tourists. None of you are normal." She grabbed Jao's arm. <You're taking the motorcycle back to Thunder Thais. Tell Mekhala I'm still on this job and she needs to keep running the gym. I'll pick you up in the front.> Her diminutive cousin nodded and moved to take the machine from Rene.
It was quick work unloading the van, and Chariya was ready to leave in a matter of minutes. "We'll come get you later if you're still needed. We may need to go back to Trat." She climbed into the van and drove off towards the fitness center.
The boat seemed to be all in order. Bob inspected much of the vessel, ostensibly making sure no hoodlums had damaged or stolen anything in his absence, (despite Rene's assurance that the boat had been locked up) but keeping an eye out for damages caused by a certain Frenchman. Finding nothing noticeably wrong with the boat, he secluded himself in his room with the laptop, determined to learn the reason for Levancon's behavior.
Mark Birch answered in much the same condition he had been in when Sadeski called from London. "There are times that aren't 5:30 A.M., Bob. How is it that both you and Zeke can't remember what time it is here?"
"Sorry." Bob had legitimately forgotten the time zone. "You look hung over."
"Zeke's fault. Don't remind me." Birch sighed. He turned on another computer visible in the background, then sat up straight at his desk. "I know this isn't a hi-how-are-you, Bob. What's this about?"
Sadeski decided that the best approach would be to soften his employer up first to avoid Mark refusing to talk altogether. "Did a weird Chinese guy call you last night?"
Mark's face reddened. "You call him weird to his face and I'll stick you on Zeke's boat. Do Young Kang has more money than some countries. Anyway, yeah. I heard about his agent meeting you. He wants you guys to do something on Hainan soon. He says it won't be for a few days to weeks. How's the mission going?"
"Fine, fine." Sadeski sighed. "We're getting information on a need-to-know basis. Something with terrorists. Apparently the goddamn Khmer Rouge still exists."
"Yeah, I know that." Birch rubbed his eyes. "You've got a weird contract. Time on the job costs pretty much nothing, so stay active so you get paid more." Mark faced the camera directly. "You're trying to soften me up so you can ask me something I don't want to hear, Bob. Spit it out."
Sadeski silently cursed his employer's almost inhuman perception. "It's Rene again. He's definitely been spending a lot of time on the phone lately. He vanishes off by himself at night- after he's already come back from leave. His behavior's changed. I really need to know who he's calling."
"You're going crazy, Bob." Birch sighed and turned to the other computer, typing something. Bob could see windows moving on the screen. "You know, you hired him. Everyone except Gordon in that crew is your problem first and foremost." He picked up the laptop he had been using to communicate with Bob and pointed its camera at the other machine's screen. "See this? Nothing except to phones on your plan."
Bob stared at the call list. The calls were consistent with Rene's activity, but the recipient was listed as "Robert Sadeski" and located in the same place every time. This spot, Bob quickly discovered, was Ko Pha Ngan. All was consistent with Birch's previous explanation. It appeared Levancon really had been calling someone in the group, and their phone's GPS was damaged. Still, the Frenchman's behavior had been remarkably strange. Bob suddenly thought back to his comment on the state of Ko Pha Ngan: "the stone age, with modems." That was Rene Levancon. Rene Levancon did not smile and wave when Bob arrived, or randomly stop dockworkers in order to learn Thai. Levancon was a sullen, elitist Frenchman with a massive ego and exactly enough talent to keep the "no hiring girlfriends' younger brothers" policy fresh in Bob's mind without leading to Rene finding himself abandoned on Mauritius to find his own way home.
"Bob, you need to take it easy. I know you don't like him, but he must be doing something right if he's still there." Birch's voice cut through Bob's thoughts. The computer had moved back to its original position. "I can't get jobs for a loony mercenary. It hurts our reputation." He grinned. "Lighten up, man. Big pay day between this and the Hainan job. Unless you've got something else, I'm going back to sleep."
"Nope, that's it." Bob had gained nothing from the call. Mark waved, and the feed went dead. Bob closed the laptop and stalked out of his room, clutching a paper bag.
Exiting the cabin, Sadeski found Anuman the dockworker, unmistakable in his blue bandanna, examining the side of the boat. The Thai sprang away when he noticed Bob's presence and began walking off toward another boat.
"Hey." The dockworker stopped but did not turn. "What were you doing to my boat?"
"Nothing, nothing. Is a very nice boat." Anuman kept his face pointed away.
"Nothing, eh? All right then. I'd like it to stay a nice boat." Bob strode off in the opposite direction, toward the management building.
Leah Silverstone was waiting for him in her office, a bored expression on her face. She smiled as he entered. "I saw you coming."
"You're the eye in the sky up here." Silverstone laughed. Bob looked out the window at the dockworkers in their brightly colored bandannas. He suddenly realized that each had a different color. "That's clever."
"What is?" Bob realized he had spoken aloud. He turned to Leah, who was watching him intently, leaning back in her chair and swiveling slightly back and forth on the base.
"The bandannas. They're all different colors. It's for identification, right?" Sadeski passed the bag from one hand to the other and back.
Silverstone laughed again, a richer sound this time. "Seems you're the clever one. I had to explain that system to my boss. He forgets it. None of the other docks have it, but he's always saying he'll introduce it." She sighed. "He's fat and lazy. He inherited the business and is doing absolutely nothing with it. What's your boss like?" She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the desk and her head on her palms.
"The only thing wrong with my boss is that he's not me." This elicited another laugh. "Seriously, he's a good guy. Gives me a lot of freedom. I can hire freely, spend the money freely, to a fair extent, take the boat on vacation..." Bob glanced down at the bag briefly. "But you don't need a vacation in this line of work. It's all travel and shore leave."
"You're torturing me." Silverstone put on a comically sad expression. "Free hiring, huh. How much do I have to bribe you to get me out of here?" She grinned, but her voice had contained a hint of melancholy, and something else behind it.
Bob shifted the bag to his right hand. "If there's any bribery around here, it's me giving you something." He opened the bag and fumbled with the tissue paper within, then drew out something on a silver chain. Shifting the position of the object in his hands, he allowed it to drop and hang from the chain. A wood and silver amulet, carefully worked in a spiral pattern and centered on a large ruby, gleamed dully in a ray of dying sunlight poking in from under the clouds.
Leah gasped. "Bob, you didn't... this is... wow." She carefully took the pendant from Sadeski. "This is amazing. I haven't seen anything like it."
"Neither had I. That's why I got it." Bob crumpled up the bag and tossed it in a wicker wastebasket standing nearby. His voice had lost his usual edge. It sounded alien even to himself. "It seemed fitting." The ray of sunlight that had been slowly moving downward from its position between Leah and himself finally dipped out of sight.
ns 15.158.61.17da2
