Authors: Russell Blake
“No, not given the urgency. I’d say minutes count.”
“That’s what I thought. Hopefully, the surveillance team hasn’t tipped the targets off, although it’s too late to do anything about that now. Still, I’m going to have them move farther from the house, and get a van so they aren’t in plain view of any passers-by – not that there are a lot of people out for a stroll. As it is, though, this is pure amateur night. I can’t believe these are active field assets.”
“They were doing different kind of work in Tripoli. More administrative espionage. Data, developing a network, that sort of thing.”
“Great. So I have file clerks playing at being spies.”
“Look, that area of the world isn’t exactly our normal stomping grounds. With the latest escalation of armed attacks, many of the embassies have pulled their staff out. There are at least two dozen terrorist entities actively working in the country. It’s suicide for anyone to stay in position for any length of time.”
“That’s not really going to matter if we don’t find the nuke, is it?”
The director didn’t respond to her observation, silently conceding the point. “Just do the best you can. A simple home invasion should be pretty routine for someone of your skills. Do what you have to do and then report back. I’ll make some calls about the gear. Is there anything else?”
“If it’s of any interest, I have a bad feeling about all of this.”
“Fine. But the house still needs to be taken. If you’re not going to do it, I’ll have my two agents do so when they arrive. They’re qualified.”
“If you have someone who can pull this off, why am I here?” she fired back.
“Because just like you, I have a bad feeling, and I need the best I can get. I’m not delusional – I know the odds of the nuke being in there are slim. But we need to know for sure, and I want to narrow my odds of a screw-up.”
Jet took a deep breath, forcing her annoyance away. “I’ll do it. But nothing about this mission so far is even remotely positive. We’ve got substandard operatives, we’ve got almost nonexistent logistical support, and so far a near-zero on equipment. This all needs to turn around, and now, or it’s doomed for failure.”
“I understand. I’ll make the calls. The operatives should be there soon – they’ll contact you when they’re in the vicinity.”
Jet hung up and scanned the street, and then her eyes found the back of the building that was under construction. The crew would be finished for the day in another half hour or so, at which point, hopefully, the building would be vacated for the night.
That would be her launching point.
She just hoped that she would have at least a slim element of surprise. At the rate things were going, she wasn’t hopeful. Still, she had a job to do, and one way or another, by the following morning they would know whether they’d found the nuke, or whether the entire exercise had been in vain.
An outcome she was becoming increasingly convinced was most likely.
Chapter 20
Bangkok, Thailand
The late morning traffic was still a snarl downtown – a constant state of affairs for a city that had woefully inadequate street planning and an ever-growing number of cars. An endless procession of daredevil motor scooters, their engines buzzing like a agitated hornets, darted in and out of the stalled cars, narrowly avoiding collisions as their operators jockeyed for openings.
Matt took in the entire crazy ritual with a smile. At least some things were constant, and Bangkok’s insane traffic was one of them. The contrapuntal cacophony of horns accompanied his footsteps as he edged into the column of vehicles and then made his way to the other side of the street, jaywalking with a cheerful carelessness mirrored by dozens of other pedestrians on their way to whatever destinations called to them.
He rounded a corner, and the bank towered in front of him, one of countless new chrome and glass buildings that had sprung into being over the last twenty years as Bangkok had gone on a tear, its nearly non-stop construction adding to the congestion from thousands of workers now having to commute to the myriad monoliths that dotted the skyline. Matt checked the time – he wouldn’t need all the slack he’d cut for himself, but with Thailand, you never knew what would happen next, and sometimes a routine errand like visiting his safe-deposit box could unexpectedly take hours instead of minutes.
Once inside, he approached one of the seated bank officers and announced that he would need to get into the vault. The older woman was courteous and efficient, and after his palm was verified by the wall scanner, she escorted him to the safe-deposit room and left him to his task, assuring him that all he needed to do was push the green button on the wall intercom if he required anything further.
Matt moved down the bank of locked compartments and stopped at one of the larger ones, then removed a key from his wallet and slid it into the lock. It opened with a soft click. He extracted the long drawer and reclosed the compartment before carrying the container to one of the adjacent rooms. After shutting the door behind him, he scanned the chamber for any indication of cameras. Thankfully, like the other room he’d used there, it was just four seamless walls and a ceiling, with no surprises evident.
Matt slid a steel chair from beneath the metal table and set the box down, then lifted the lid and removed one of a dozen black velvet bags. Smiling to himself, he pulled a ladies’ coin purse from his pocket and unsnapped the top, then turned his attention to the black sack. He undid the drawstring and tapped out fifty-five diamonds, each four to six carats, D color, VVSI and IF clarity. After doing a quick mental calculation, he removed another dozen, and then scooped them into the coin purse before removing six more and placing them into an envelope he’d bought on the way there.
His project completed, he stowed the still-bulging pouch of stones back into the box and slid the coin purse and envelope into his front pocket as he rose to carry the drawer into the vault room.
Two minutes later he was back on the street, anonymous in the throng, looking nothing like a man who had ten million dollars in his cargo pants. Glancing at his watch, he figured that he easily had time for a leisurely lunch and a trip back to his hotel to stash all the stones except the ones he planned to sell. He wove his way through the hodgepodge of cars and retraced his steps to his room. After locking the diamonds in his room safe, he set off for a Chinese restaurant near the buyer’s offices, where he’d eaten a few times.
Navigating the streets of Bangkok felt as natural as breathing for Matt, and he wondered absently as he meandered down the sidewalk whether he would ever get Thailand out of his system or feel nearly as comfortable anywhere else. After spending decades there, he’d grown used to the customs and idiosyncrasies. A shapely young Thai woman almost collided with him, and as he apologized for his carelessness his thoughts gravitated to Jet, and he imagined himself with her, somewhere in South America. Maybe he could get used to Argentina – a country he’d never visited, but was game to try. At this stage of his life the future was a blank canvas – for the first time in forever he wasn’t either hiding from someone or on a mission.
As he saw the sign for the Golden Moon restaurant, Matt realized that he had absolutely no idea what to do next – and that he was comfortable with that, as long as he was sharing his time with Jet. True, they were an odd pairing, but he had resolved not to question things too closely and instead follow his gut and see where it led. After all, he had plenty of money, and his enemies were either dead or in disarray, so he could afford to be directionless for a while.
He pushed through the restaurant doors and surveyed the large dining room as a waiter approached him. The lunch crowd hadn’t appeared yet, so he took a table near the rear and ordered, then waited the longer-than-usual time it took to prepare it, reminding himself again where he was. Bangkok functioned at its own pace, and everything took longer than it should. It was just part of the charm that made the place unique.
Once he had finished, he placed a call to his buyer to see if he could move the meeting up an hour since he was running early. Niran sounded overly cheerful when he came on the line, but agreed to Matt’s proposal, assuring him that he had the cash and could do the transaction whenever Matt wanted. They agreed to meet in an hour, and then Matt disconnected, pleased that his errands were almost finished. Perhaps he’d fly to Phuket and spend a couple of days on the beach. He was on no particular schedule, so maybe some relaxation away from everything would do him good.
The taxi dropped him in front of the jeweler’s building – one of the most prestigious boutiques in a city that boasted enormous wealth. Matt entered the cool showroom, nodding to the fashionably attired sales people he passed, and walked to the rear of the shop where a stunning young woman pouted at him from behind a glass display case.
“Something special for a lady friend?” she asked in perfect English, flashing a smile as bright as a solar flare.
Matt shook his head, taking in her expensive blouse and a fitted black dress that clung to her like a second skin.
“No, I’m here to see Niran. I have an appointment. Could you tell him Ralph is here to see him?” he asked in equally flawless Thai. She reappraised him and then turned to a wall phone and dialed a two digit extension before whispering into it.
“Niran will see you now. Please follow me,” she instructed, and then buzzed open the little half door by her perfectly toned thighs so he could trail her into the administrative offices.
They walked down an onyx-floored hallway, and she offered another megawatt smile as her glittering eyes flitted to the armed security guards framing the front entry. Matt strode behind her, admiring her fluid stride, as smooth as if she was gliding on ball bearings. He edged past her as she beckoned to Niran’s door.
“I know the way. Thanks,” he said, then grasped the lever and twisted it as she spun on stiletto heels to return to her sales duties. He stepped into the spacious office, and an obese Thai man wearing a garish red and orange Hawaiian shirt and white linen pants, sweating in spite of the frigid air pumping from the air conditioner, rounded an enormous desk to greet him.
“My friend. It’s been too long. May I get you a refreshment? Something cool to drink? Water or a soda…or perhaps something stronger?” Niran asked, eyeing Matt like a wolf eyes a lamb.
“I’m good. Thanks for seeing me early. I’ve got a ton of stuff to take care of today. You have the money here?” he asked, in the customarily brusque manner he affected when doing these transactions.
“But of course. In the safe.” Niran gestured to a glass-topped table on one side of the room with a scope, a scale and a variety of gemological instruments on it. “Please. Take a seat and let’s get a look at what you’ve got for me today.”
Matt did as requested and removed the envelope from his pocket, then slid it across the table to Niran. “As always, they’re top of the color and clarity scale. Probably worth more like one point two wholesale, but everyone’s got to make a few bucks, right?” Matt said.
Niran studied the stones greedily, trying to mask his delight, and after a few minutes carefully examining each, he nodded. “It’s too bad the market’s been so soft lately. They’re beautiful. But I’m not sure they’d bring what you think they would.”
Matt leaned back, smiling, relaxed. “That’s a shame for you then, my friend. As I said, I have others that would be more than happy to buy them at the offered price. Perhaps you’d like to take only half, and I’ll find a home for the others? To mitigate your risk, of course.”
Niran’s face tightened. “I didn’t say that I wouldn’t take them. It’s more a question of value…”
“As always. Look, I know they’re worth at least twenty to thirty percent more than I’m asking. I know that because this is my business, and I’m not a stupid man. If making that margin – assuming you flipped them to a wholesaler and didn’t double or triple your money selling them retail – isn’t enough for a day’s work, then no hard feelings, it’s time for me to get going, and I wish you nothing but success in your future endeavors.”
Niran sighed noisily. “You drive a hard bargain, my friend, but for you, I will pay more than I should. Nine-fifty. It’s the realities of the new marketplace. Since the economic crisis…”
“Nine seventy-five, or I’m wasting my time, you pirate.” Matt fully expected to take a small haircut, and he frankly didn’t care about the final number that much – it was still a hell of a lot of money.
Both men grinned as Niran considered pushing back one last time; and then sizing Matt up, thought better of it.
“Fine. Rob me. Just take my money and leave me destitute. I don’t care. I’ll do this out of friendship. Nine seventy-five it is. Love is blind,” Niran said with an exaggerated eye roll. Matt watched him carefully as he put the diamonds back into the envelope, stood, and waddled to the safe.
It took less than five minutes to verify the number of hundred dollar bills in the brick-thick stacks using the automated bill counter. Once Matt was done, he returned the rubber band-wrapped bundles to the chocolate-colored leather satchel in which Niran had carried them and rose, his business with the Thai merchant concluded. He looked at his watch, confirmed that he had adequate time to make it to his other bank to deposit the funds, and said his goodbyes. Niran buzzed the showroom, and the same Thai woman returned to escort Matt to the exit, offering another brilliant flash of teeth as she showed him out.
Back on the sidewalk, he crossed the street and made for the intersection. Thirty seconds later he’d flagged down a taxi, and after giving the driver the address of his bank, he reclined into the seat and closed his eyes for a moment, another milestone completed.
A red Yamaha motorcycle pulled from the curb where it had been parked eighty yards from the jeweler. The rider eased the powerful bike into the dense stream of vehicles, the black tinted glass of his helmet shielding his eyes from the sun as he took up a position behind the car, following at a safe distance as the taxi progressed in fits and starts toward the financial district.