Rising Tiger (11 page)

The general shook his head. “No, I don’t believe that. Neither side wants an escalation. You need to tell your former employer that my government will not attack Taiwan.”

“Haven’t they already done that?”

“That was a rogue general in our missile force,” General Wu Gang explained. “He has been. . .removed from his former job.”

Lined up and shot, Remington guessed. “What’s in it for me?”

General Wu Gang rose up and straightened his pants over his boots. “It would be a favor to me. If you are no longer of use to me, please let me know. I will have to find another man for the job.”

Remington gulped as he took down a long swig of his Scotch. He knew exactly what the general meant by that. The man would have him killed without blinking. He knew too much about this man’s business anyway. But there was no way in hell that he was going to tell the Agency anything directly. “I understand.”

“I hope you do,” the general said. “Can you help me?”

“I’ll do my best. But I’ll have to do it through back channels. Some of my former officers will help me with that.”

“Perfect.” The general started for the door, but he stopped before leaving. “Oh, one more thing. I understand the CIA has sent a man to bring you in. A former officer. A man who once stopped us from acquiring your laser technology. Is this correct?”

“Afraid so, general.”

“Is this man Jake Adams?”

Remington was dumbfounded by the level of this man’s knowledge. “Yes, it is. But I can handle him.”

The general smiled and said, “You mean like in Taiwan and Singapore?”

Taking another swallow of Scotch, Remington said, “Good help is hard to find.”

“Not anymore. From now on, you have all of my resources. My security officer will leave details on how to use my network of agents.” He pointed toward the windows. “Instability is the perfect cover to take care of problems. What’s one more American tourist dying after sticking his nose into business he knows nothing about? Have a good evening.” With that the general left.

Remington gazed at his drink and then swallowed the rest of the liquid, the warmth of more than twenty years in oak bringing some pleasure to his night.

●

Less than an hour later, and Remington’s chief of security let his favorite female agent into his room. Despite her travels from Singapore, she looked refreshed and delightful in her tight black outfit from top to bottom. He made the two of them drinks and sat next to her on the leather sofa. Remington got tingly like a high school boy whenever he was around her. She reminded him of his first wife.

“How was your trip?” he asked her.

She sipped her drink, a whiskey seven, and then said, “I failed you.”

Remington liked this about her. She didn’t make excuses for her actions, unlike some of those he had worked with in the Agency, who always seemed to be looking for someone else to blame for their own incompetence.

“No,” Remington said. “Jake Adams is. . .was one of our best officers. That’s why I sent you with three other agents.” The two of them always spoke with a combination of Thai and English. She wanted to improve her English skills and he wanted to keep what he already knew of Thai.

“But we lost one man with our first encounter at the river,” she said. “He was a former Thai army soldier.”

“What about the Agency officer?”

“I heard he lived,” she said. “A trauma doctor happened to be eating at a restaurant nearby.”

Remington nodded acknowledgment. That was good to hear. “Have you heard from your other men?” he asked.

“Yes. They were able to track the American on the train.” She checked her watch. “They made it to Kuala Lumpur with an hour to spare. Should be getting on the train any minute now.”

“And they know not to kill them on the train?” he confirmed.

“Yes. But I don’t understand. You wanted him dead in Taiwan and Singapore. Why not in Malaysia?”

Remington wondered that himself. Maybe he wanted to see Jake Adams die for himself. The man was like a damn cockroach. “I would like to talk with the man. If we just kill him, the Agency will send someone else.”

She nodded understanding and took down a long swig of her drink. “You want to bribe the man to say he killed you.”

Remington laughed. “That might work with normal men. But Jake Adams isn’t normal. The man has this inordinate desire to always do the honorable thing.”

“That’s disgusting.”

“I know. He’s incorruptible.” But this gave him a good idea. “Perhaps I can convince him that I was doing this on purpose to ingratiate myself with the Chinese.”

“That would be a brilliant plan,” she agreed. “Is it true?”

Remington had never really worked with this woman, but she had come highly recommended by a respected operative. Because of this, he still only trusted her so far.

“Truth is a fluid concept,” he said. “Adams will only believe me if my story is viable and potentially verifiable.” He would have to make sure to make it so.

“So,” she started, “what do we do next?”

He thought for a long minute while he gazed into his glass of Scotch. “We need to lure him to Wat Arun. If there’s one thing I know about Jake Adams, he respects religious locations. He won’t shoot at us there unless he’s simply defending himself. We’ll need to order all of our people to not engage him.”

She smiled. “Speaking of engaging. I could use a shower and then. . .well, you know what I like.”

Thankfully, he knew exactly what she liked, and he was getting stiff now thinking about her wonderful body. He watched her strut off toward the bathroom and couldn’t take his eyes away as she slowly left a trail of clothes behind her.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

When they reached the capital city of Malaysia, Jake had gone toward the back of the train in the third-class section with tattered seats. Since it was nearly midnight, those who did not plan to get off in Kuala Lumpur were sound asleep. The dark compartment smelled like body odor and mold. As the train slowed to a halt at the main train station, Jake sat down and pulled his hat down low. It was a crummy time of night to pick up a train, Jake thought.

There were not a whole lot of people waiting to come aboard, so Jake had no problem seeing the two men who had run into him at the Singapore casino. They were not standing together, but they kept on looking at each other. Also, one of the men was checking his phone, no doubt verifying the GPS tracker in Jake’s pocket was still functioning. But there was no sign of the hot young Asian woman. She obviously had more skill and was waiting for the right time to board. It was possible she put those two men out there to distract Jake, while she jumped on the train at another location.

Now he had two choices. He could let them know which cabin he and Alexandra occupied, which was not a good idea. Or he could make it hard on the men and leave the tracker somewhere on the train for them to find. Then they might think Jake had dropped it there and gotten off the train. That would make it much harder to find him.

Jake chose a third option. He got up and wandered back toward his cabin. When he saw a porter ahead, Jake bumped into the man and slipped the jump drive into the man’s pants pocket. Then Jake wandered back to his cabin and locked the door.

“Everything all right?” Alexandra asked.

“Yeah. The men from Singapore were waiting for us at the station.”

The train slowly pulled away from the terminal and immediately started to pick up speed.

“You want to throw the tracker out the window?” she asked. “Or just smash it.”

He smiled and told her how he had planted it on the porter. “That might have them running around the train for a while.”

Alexandra settled back into her bed. “Good. I need some more sleep.”

Jake got on his phone and called Kurt Jenkins on the outskirts of the city, where the train was still going slow through the suburbs on the way out of Kuala Lumpur. Jenkins wasn’t surprised to hear that Jake and Alexandra were on their way to Bangkok, since he knew that Remington had worked there years ago.

“What do you plan to do, Jake?” Jenkins asked him.

Standing next to the window and watching the slums of Kuala Lumpur slip by, Jake said, “I’m not sure. I was hired to find Bill Remington. I don’t have the authority to hold the man and wait for extradition.”

“I know,” Jenkins acknowledged. “And I know he has a lot of friends still in country.”

“What about our guns?”

“That shouldn’t be a problem. They’ll probably run drug dogs around suspicious-looking characters. Nobody is stupid enough to travel with guns.”

“Thanks.”

“You know what I mean.”

Jake hesitated to look at the lower bunk, where Alexandra slept soundly already. “Remington already knows I’m coming.”

“How?”

He told his old boss about the small GPS tracking device.

“That’s one of ours,” Jenkins said. “Our tech guys developed that two years ago.”

A thought came to Jake. “Is there any way to reprogram it for my own use?”

“Not really. You’d have to have the security code.”

“All right. Then I won’t try to pick the porter’s pocket to retrieve it.”

“Wait a minute,” Jenkins said. “If Remington already knows you’re coming, what makes you think he’ll be there waiting for you?”

Jenkins had a damn good point. “One reason. The Singapore banker is expected to make a cash delivery to Remington tomorrow afternoon.”

“Doesn’t Remington know the Agency froze his assets at that bank?”

“The banker told him that,” Jake answered. “But Remington was smart enough to stash a bunch of cash in a safe deposit box. The banker has been making regular milk runs from Singapore to Bangkok with just under ten grand each time. Now, if Remington is smart, knowing I was just at the bank, he’ll set up someone else to pick up the money.”

“Good point. He might also have a contingency to have the money delivered to a third country.”

“That’s what I was thinking, too,” Jake said. “And if I had to guess, I’d put my money on Cambodia. Remington worked there and they have no extradition with America.”

“Plus you could live like a king there with the kind of money Remington has acquired from the Chinese,” Jenkins reasoned.

“Okay. So, since Remington knows I’m coming, why don’t you make sure we have some Agency assets in place to run interference at the train station. Just in case those assholes jack us up and find the guns.”

Jenkins agreed, saying the station chief he had appointed was still in place there.

“One more thing,” Jake said, and then he hesitated and observed the suburbs giving way to small food plots lit only be the occasional house light. “Could you find out from the current director what he wants me to do with the man once I catch up with him?”

“Roger that.”

The two of them both clicked off the call. Jake glanced back at Alexandra sleeping. He considered taking off his clothes, but decided against it. Instead, he unzipped a side pouch on his backpack and pulled out his Glock. Then he crawled up into the top bunk and put the gun under his pillow. He wished he had a dollar for every time he slept with a gun.

Now, with the rocking of the train, sleep would come easy for him.

Bangkok, Thailand

The train slowed as soon as it reached the sprawling outer limits of Bangkok. Jake and Alexandra were packed and ready to get off as soon as the train came to a stop. They had both slept better than at any time in the past few days. For Jake he had not slept that well since leaving his fishing resort in Costa Rica.

Jake had even ventured out a few hours ago to pick up some breakfast for them, a bag of pastries and black coffee. To his astonishment, one of the men from Singapore had been sitting in a back corner of the dining car, and he didn’t even look concerned or try to make a move on Jake. In the man’s defense, there were a lot of witnesses trying to grab food before the train reached Bangkok. But Jake didn’t think that’s what stopped the guy. Something was up.

Glancing out the window and observing the graffiti-riddled buildings pass by, Jake said, “I still don’t know why those two didn’t try to come for us last night.”

The two of them had discussed this since waking up.

Alexandra met him at the window. “I have no clue. But I’m guessing they were ordered to stand down.”

Jake turned and gazed into her eyes. “I tend to agree with you. I’m just not sure why. If I had to guess, I’d say Remington has something planned for us in Bangkok.”

The train slowed even more and Jake peered toward the front of the car, seeing the terminal ahead. He checked his watch and saw it was quarter after ten in the morning. The train was actually fifteen minutes early.

“You have your gun ready?” he asked her.

She reached down and patted her backpack. “Right inside this zipper.”

His was equally accessible. “Good. Let’s get going.”

When they got out to the passageway, others were already lined up with their bags. The train came to a stop and everyone shoved toward the exits on either side of their first class car.

Once they got to the platform, Jake immediately saw the two men from Singapore. One was smoking a cigarette and the other was on his phone. They both kept a respectable distance as they trailed Jake and Alexandra.

She smiled to Jake, having seen the two men also. The men weren’t even trying to hide.

Looking forward again, Jake noticed a number of police officers checking passports. And Kurt Jenkins had been right, the police had two dogs sniffing bags. It made sense. Bangkok was a huge drug corridor.

Jake and Alexandra both showed their passports together, showing them that they were a married couple from Canada. Nothing to worry about. The drug dog looked a little skeptical, but didn’t alert to their bags.

As soon as they got into the terminal building, a young man in khakis and a white traditional Thai button up shirt lifted his chin at Jake. He screamed of Agency complacency. The guy needed a lesson in blending in a little better, but that wouldn’t have been easy in any case. He was six feet tall with red hair and freckles.