Dragon's Triangle (The Shipwreck Adventures Book 2) (14 page)

While she ate, she tried to sort through what she had learned about the
Bonefish
and what it meant. She supposed it was possible that during that March to May patrol in the South China Sea, the sub had detoured to the Philippines. But suppose it hadn’t. Suppose Peewee
or Irv or whoever he was, was lying to her. She certainly needed to consider the possibility and then, the question was, what was his motivation? He had given her an object that certainly appeared to be made of several ounces of solid gold. That’s not something you’d hand over without a very good reason. The object contained some kind of odd scrolls inside that were not the typical contents for a Tibetan prayer gau. They were not in the Tibetan language, but rather appeared to be in some kind of code.

She and Cole had dealt with codes four years earlier when they were searching for the submarine
Surcouf
, but that certainly didn’t make them cryptologists. But it was a connection, so she needed to think it through. Who knew about that? Obviously Theo—Cole’s first mate—did, but he had disappeared as effectively as Cole. When Riley saw him last in Cherbourg, he told her he had become the head man for Full Fathom Five Maritime Explorations and the captain of the
Shadow Chaser,
formerly Cole’s boat. Six months later, when Riley tried to contact Theo again, the organization had folded, and the boat was no longer listed as a federally documented boat.

So, if all the talk about the
Bonefish
was just a ruse to bring her to Bangkok, and what Peewee really wanted was to get someone to crack this code, why choose her? Where was the connection from Peewee to Riley the code breaker?

Riley’s thoughts were brought back to the present when she saw movement in the hotel lobby. Though the lighting wasn’t terrific, she recognized the peaked military cap on the short man’s head. Peewee passed through the French doors and marched across the dining room to her table. Without a word, he pulled out a chair and sat next to her.

“So how did you find me?” she asked.

“Back at the market, I noticed a business card stuffed in a pocket of your backpack. I could read the name. Easy enough to find the address.”

“You sure get around for an old guy in his nineties.”

“I work at it, sweetheart.”

“What were you doing at Wat Arun with that man—”

He interrupted her. “So you saw us. Listen. We don’t have much time. The item I gave you earlier. I need it back.”

“What?”

“Please.” He rubbed his hands on his pants legs under the table as though to dry off wet palms. “Don’t ask questions. I’m doing this to protect you. That man you saw me with? He is very dangerous. I didn’t realize I would lead him to you, but I should have known. He’s a hell of a tracker. I’m sorry.” As soon as he stopped talking, his lips and tongue started working at his teeth.

“Irv, explain. You look frightened.”

“This is no joke, sweetheart. Give it to me and you’ll be out of this.”

“So, it wasn’t a gift meant for my father, and you never knew my grandfather.” She grabbed her backpack off the back of her chair and reached inside.

“No, Riley, I knew Ozzie. But that’s a long story and Benny’s following me. I gave him the slip this afternoon, but my guess is he’s no more than ten minutes behind me.
It is too late to prepare for danger when our enemies are upon us.
If I don’t give him that thing back, he’ll kill us both.”

“Benny, huh. Kill us?” Riley rummaged around inside the pack. “You’re serious?”

She pulled out her wallet and Peewee stopped working his teeth long enough to stare at her.

“I’m dead serious,” he said. “Give it to me.”

Riley threw several hundred baht onto the table, then zipped her pack closed and threaded her arms through the straps.

“Riley, this is no game. We’ve already used five minutes.”

“I guess we shouldn’t waste our lead time then.” Riley pushed back her chair and stepped around the old man.

“You don’t understand,” he said.

“You’re right. Explain it to me while we get out of here. I’m willing to listen.” She opened the door to the kitchen. “After you.”

“Oh, shit.”

“Suit yourself,” she said, and she stepped through the door.

The kitchen was tiny. The only person back there was an old woman who was standing over a stove. She looked up in surprise as Riley crossed toward the back door. Pausing, Riley stuck her head out and checked the alley in both directions. Nothing but trash cans as far as she could see—which wasn’t far in the pitch-black night. From the corner of her eye, she saw the old woman’s head swing back toward the dining room. Riley turned around and Peewee came trotting through the kitchen, looking like he was about to piss himself.

“Come on, old man,” she said. “Follow me.”

Mandarin Oriental Hotel
Bangkok, Thailand

November 17, 2012

Elijah swirled the ice in his glass and then drank the last sip of his watery scotch. The flimsy paper on the table in front of him was printed in multiple languages, but the print was tiny. There wasn’t enough light at his table out on the Riverside Terrace to read the instructions for the little twenty-dollar disposable cell phone he’d purchased at a 7-Eleven on the way in from the airport. He signaled the waiter to bring him a second drink. When the man arrived, Elijah asked him if he could provide him with a flashlight so he could read the activation instructions for his phone.

“I would be happy to assist you with that if you would like, sir.”

Elijah liked that about this hotel. They knew how to treat a man. And unlike some of the less exclusive hotels, they never made “cowboy” comments about the way he dressed.

“I’d appreciate that.” He handed the man the phone and the cards with the pass codes for adding the minutes he had purchased.

The waiter walked over to the bar and held the phone under the light. He pressed buttons and checked the numbers on the cards.

Elijah liked the fact that the man stayed where he could keep an eye on him so he’d know if the waiter dropped the phone or something.

Unfortunately, that was his reality. He could not count on anyone to do things as well as he could do them himself. God alone knew what was happening back on the ranch with Caleb left to his own devices. Or take Belmonte. It made no difference that the man didn’t even know who he really worked for or the stakes involved. He was a Filipino, so how could he understand what the Enterprise was truly all about? From the moment of her birth America has had her enemies. It was only once they found the gold here in the Philippines that men like Elijah had acquired the resources to fight those enemies without government interference. His predecessors had successfully fought the communist threat through all those Cold War years, and now the Enterprise would deal with the Global War on Terror just as well. Even if Belmonte couldn’t appreciate
why
, resmelting the gold for export was his job, and the old man was the key to their new supply. Belmonte never should have let him escape.

After a couple of minutes, the waiter returned.

“Here you are, sir.” He set the phone down on the table.

“Thanks. I’ll let you know when I’m ready to order.”

Elijah had selected this table because it was off in an isolated corner and there were no other diners nearby. He could have made this call from the room, but he wanted a drink and the opportunity to admire the great view of the river and the city skyline.

He liked Bangkok but he didn’t get to come here often enough. Maybe he’d stick around this time once he’d finished his business here. Meet a nice Thai girl. He understood they were even better than the Filipinas when it came to knowing how to treat a man right. He deserved it after all he’d done for the Enterprise lately.

Before he’d left Baguio, Belmonte gave him Benny’s Bangkok number, and Elijah had committed it to memory. He dialed the number and it only rang twice.

“Yeah?”

“Benny, it’s Mr. Hawkes.”

“Hey.”

“So, what do you have to report?”

He didn’t answer for several seconds. Elijah knew it wasn’t going to be good. When the news was good, guys from the field couldn’t wait to tell you.

“I saw the old man pass something off to a woman. She’s American. I assume it’s what you’re looking for. No one gives me those details. The woman got away.”

Elijah tried to insert a comment, but Benny kept right on talking.

“I got my hands on the old man and convinced him to take me to her. I don’t trust him so I let him go, and I’ve been following him. He’ll take me to her. I’m standing outside a hotel now and I’m certain they’re both inside.”

“Describe her.”

“She’s about five foot six, light brown hair down to her shoulders. Midthirties but still looks good—like an athlete. She can run.”

Benny might find her attractive, but Elijah knew he wouldn’t. American women disgusted him. So many of them were strident feminists and man-haters with ridiculous ideas about equality. They had no respect for the natural order that God intended. Not like Asian women. “How’d you let her get away in the first place?”

“I think she had help.”

“Really.” Elijah wondered if she represented competing buyers. “Any idea who she is?”

“Not yet. But I will.”

“That’s what I want to hear. You usually do better work than this.”

“What do you want me to do when I have her in hand?”

“Bring both of them to me. I’m staying at the Oriental. And if she had help, we need to know who she’s working for.”

“Anything else?”

It was the way he said it, like he, Benny, was dismissing
him
.

Elijah clicked the red button to disconnect. One of these days he was going to teach that savage some manners.

Thanon Phra Arthit
Bangkok, Thailand

November 17, 2012

Benny heard the phone disconnect. He pulled it away from his ear and looked at the small screen. The man had just hung up without a word. He hated working with Hawkes. He’d only done it a couple of times before, but every time, he did weird shit like this. He had some inflated sense of self-importance, and he went out of his way to demand respect. Demanding it didn’t work. You had to earn it.

He stood at the corner of Phra Arthit and a narrow alley where he could keep an eye on the door to the Napa Place hotel about a hundred meters away. Benny knew the old man he was after was over ninety years old. He must have a strong heart to have lived this long. Benny hoped it would stay strong so he would last awhile under Benny’s attentions—when he got his hands on him. He intended to make the old guy suffer for what he did today. It was too bad that Hawkes wanted him to bring both the woman and the old man back to him alive. That made his job more difficult. But also more valuable.

When he’d found the men’s room empty at Wat Arun, Benny had run for the docks. The ferry had just pulled out, and he saw the old man’s cap in the middle of the Thai passengers. There was a long-tail boat tied to the far side of the dock, but the driver was nowhere to be seen. Benny jumped into the boat and began searching for how to start the engine himself. The driver, who was sitting under a tree on the temple grounds, shouted at him and came running down a ramp. By the time the boatman arrived and Benny had struck a deal for passage across the river, the ferry was almost to the dock on the opposite bank.

Benny had some luck on his side. On the far side of the river when he jumped out of the long-tail boat, there was a loudmouthed woman in the ticket booth who called out to him when he started asking people on the dock about the old man. She remembered (after he’d showed her one hundred baht) hearing Peewee asking if anyone had heard of a place called Napa House.

When Benny got to the street, he hailed a taxi. The first driver was very young, and he had never heard of Napa anything, but on his second try he found an old man who said he knew of a Napa Place. Benny told him to hurry.

Now he was wondering if the old man had beat him there or if he was still asking for directions. If they were in a hotel room, he couldn’t go room to room opening doors. Then he had an idea, and he pulled out his cell phone. He got the number from the information service and dialed the hotel.