Mark Birch sighed. "No, Bob. No calls to Europe, the States, Canada, anywhere worth calling. One to Thailand, and that's it. To the same place you guys were a few days ago. Probably a glitch and another prank message to Zach. You remember last time." The picture was grainy- the heavy communications infrastructure in Bangkok disrupted satellite internet almost as badly as in a First World city.
"Oh yeah, I remember last time. Just making sure. Rene's a bit off sometimes." Bob glanced at his watch. "Our contact should be here soon."
"Ah, right. What's he been like?" Birch leaned forward.
Bob started to say something, thought better of it, tried again, and found a suitable answer. "To say the very least, he's been interesting. He calls himself Jaym Bond."
"James Bond?" Birch's brow knotted in confusion.
"No, Jaym Bond. No 's'. Get what I mean?"
Mark straightened up. "Well, 007 really is their distress code, like I said. Have fun. Bye, Bob." The video feed suddenly ended.
Bob had barely closed the laptop when the Thai agent's head came through the door. "Hello, Boss Sadeski! I bring good news!"
"And what might that be?" Bob stood up. He didn't recall telling the agent his last name.
"We're going to see my cousin for the mission! It'll go very, very fast." He entered the cabin with a bouncing gait. "By the way, I'm allowed to tell you my name. My name is Jao." He grasped Bob's hand and shook it vigorously. "Now we're properly introduced."
It seemed to Sadeski that this man had an endless supply of ways to annoy him. "Where are we going?"
"First, we go to my cousin. He owns a fitness center! He is very, very rich agent." Jao peered through the boat's windshield. "Oh, one-way windshield! This stuff very valuable. Better make sure no one steals it."
"That's my business." Bob growled. "When can we leave?"
"Right now! Come on!" To Sadeski's relief, Jao sprang away from the windshield, headed for the door. "Where are your men? Still sleeping?"
"Until recently." Gordon Weston walked into the room, trailed by Sato. "Rene and Zach are on their way. They were out drinking and are probably hung over."
Bob leaned against the wall. "Dammit..."
"Exercise is a good cure!" Jao had opened the cabin door. "I'll let them use the fitness center for free!"
***
It was only about twenty minutes' walk to the fitness center. Zachary Taylor stared up at the sign with an expression which seemed to be perpetually fluctuating between rage, pain, and amusement. "Thunder... Thais?"
"Out of the way!" A rather overweight American tourist pushed Taylor aside. "Honey, get a picture of me under the sign!"
Jao led the mercenaries to the back entrance, a padlocked steel door in an alley so narrow Gordon almost didn't fit. The door opened into a room filled with computer equipment which appeared to be about ten years outdated. At a lone desk, typing away at a brand-new machine, sat a Thai woman in Western business clothes who appeared to be about thirty. The woman did not appear to notice the entry of Jao and the mercenaries, a reasonable circumstance given the frequent loud noises emitting from a passage which led towards the front room of the building.
Jao pressed a finger to his lips, then crept up behind the woman. He was reaching out to grab her from behind when she spun around on the chair and deftly put him in a headlock. "Hello, boys." Her English was substantially better than Jao's. "Let me guess. You're working for the government, and they've got my dear cousin working as a tour guide?"
The scrawny agent squirmed in his cousin's grip. "Come on, Chariya! I was just going to hug you! Give me a break!" He tried to maneuver himself to see the mercenaries. "My friends! Help me!"
"Nope. You got yourself into this." Sadeski folded his arms, unapologetic for the amused look on his face.
<Hug me? Last time you did that you grabbed my breasts. You're a pervert, Jao.> Chariya had switched to her native Thai.
<I told you it was an accident!> Jao twisted his head from side to side. <You're touching me with them right now!>
"Rene, what are they saying?" Sato murmured. Levancon shot him a dirty look and shrugged.
Chariya released her cousin and violently shoved him into a pile of computer equipment in one fluid motion, folding her arms across her fairly ample bosom as Jao picked himself up. "How does this involve me, anyway? You have a message for me, post-boy?" She launched herself off the chair, arms still folded, and landed standing in front of Jao. Bob could see she was taller than the diminutive Jao. It had been apparent Jao was small, but only now was it clear that the man was barely over five feet.
"All right." Jao picked up a pile of computer supplies that had been left on the table in the center of the room. On the table was a map of Thailand, with notes taped on in places. Chariya hastily removed the notes while Jao set the equipment down in a corner. He returned to the table and began moving his finger back and forth across the map, eventually settling on Bangkok. "Right, we are here." The mercenaries gathered around him.
"I'd hope they know that by now, phī̀ chāy n̂xy." Chariya folded her arms over the back of a short chair standing against the table, pointing her back straight out. Sato's gaze fixed on the back of her skirt. "Like what you see of Thailand, Jap?" Her tone was menacing, but her field of vision seemed to be occupied by the map. Takeshi blushed and hastily glanced down at Jao's hand.
"Right. We are going here." He pointed to a province on the south coast, along the Cambodian border. "Trat province. There is a Khmer tribe in that area. The economy collapsed there, and the government suspects this tribe is giving shelter to terrorists. They want their land given to Cambodia, and some of them were Khmer Rouge. You know Khmer Rouge? Bad, bad guys. Killed lots of Cambodians long ago. Just rebels now. They hide along the border and attack both sides. Our government has enough problems with protests in Bangkok. They say we have no Khmer Rouge to U.N., but we still do. So we going to find Khmer Rouge. We have to get this tribe to cooperate." He looked up at Bob. "And that's the story. Easy work!" Jao grinned broadly.
"And you want to use the van. Right?" Chariya straightened up.
Jao brought his hands together and played with his fingers. "Well... and the motorcycle."
"Fine." Chariya sighed. "But you're not driving. At all." She glanced at the clock on her computer. "Ten A.M. It's about four hundred kilometers. We have money for petrol and hotels?"
"Yes…" Jao's voice trailed off. "Wait! You are not on the mission! You don't need come!" He launched into a tirade in Thai, and was promptly shouted down by his cousin.
Bob enjoyed the verbal abuse of Jao almost as much as the physical abuse, even if he couldn't understand it. He was growing tired, though. "Hey, this place we're going to has a lot of coast. Can't we take the boat?"
"Bad idea." Chariya walked off down the hallway leading to the main room.
"Big province. Tribes live away from the sea. They're near the border. Trat town is thirty kilometers from the sea, even if there's a dock. The Khmer are north of Trat town." Jao grinned. "Boat is no good unless you like long walks."
Bob hated to leave the boat unguarded in the heart of a city. Near a fishing village, nobody would steal a boat. In a city, especially one with as much river traffic as Bangkok, there would probably be someone who would try to hijack the expensive craft. Nevertheless, he allowed Chariya to drive the mercenaries to the dock in a gray, unobtrusive van with one-way windows. Jao's hyperactive personality magnified itself even further inside the vehicle and only calmed when Zachary began sharpening his knife as close to the smaller man's face as the rough traffic would allow. Rene had taken the motorcycle and was already on the boat when the rest of the party arrived. Leah Silverstone was waiting on the dock, watching with an intrigued expression. She stopped Bob as he left the van.
"So, it's party time." Her manner was relaxed, providing a sharp contrast to a three-way argument between Taylor and the Thai agents which had broken out as soon as the vehicle was emptied. "Going somewhere interesting?"
"Trat. Pretty far away." Bob's typical stoic attitude had been seriously weakened by the events following Jao's initial arrival. "Want me to bring you back something, Miss Trapped-In-An-Office?"
To his surprise, the offer was taken seriously. "I hear Trat's full of jewels. Wanna bring me some?" She winked at him.
Behind Bob, the argument intensified, and he could now hear Sato joining in. The peaceful feeling that had taken over him began to fade, and he realized he would have to solve the problem himself, whatever it was. "I'll see what I can do. See you soon, Le-" He caught himself, spying Anuman the dockworker watching from the shadow of a large ship moored across the dock. "Miss Silverstone." he finished, inclining his head slightly to alert her of the laborer's presence.
"See you, then." Her tone was cheerful, but held a hint of regret. She wheeled around and marched off towards the dockworker. "Anuman! What's the situation here?"
Bob watched her go, then turned to face his own problems. Jao seemed to be the center of the argument- all three others were yelling at him, though Chariya and Takeshi were having their own argument between shouts at the hapless Thai. Rene and Gordon silently loaded equipment into the van.
"All right!" Bob's tone would have brought a hurricane to a stop. "The enemy is not each other. Zach, deal with it. Takeshi, I don't know what you did, but stop pissing off the owner of our means of transportation for the mission. Jao!" He paused, gathering his wits. "Cool it." His voice had lost a bit of its force by this point, but the fight did not continue.
It was a matter of minutes to finish loading the van, especially with Weston showing off the fruits of his seemingly endless exercise. Rene once again took the motorcycle, while Bob strategically placed Jao in the back of the van with the supplies to avoid a second argument. The agent had calmed down significantly, and his now-sporadic jokes had a serious edge behind them. For once, all seemed to be going well. Then Bob remembered his promise to Silverstone. Sadeski sighed. Solving everyone's problems except his own. That was the job of a mercenary.
ns 15.158.61.6da2
