Plausible Denial (26 page)

T
he
alarm didn’t startle Charly Blackburn. She had been watching the clock on and off
all night. Her mind was spinning. She was worried about Mac and Culler, and she
was concerned about her agent, Vanquish.

The
fact that she had renewed her affair with Mac also troubled her. She was
falling for him again, but when this operation was done he would probably move
on again, like he had always done in the past.
Damn
, she thought,
why
can’t I ever get a break?
  

Too
much was going on in her head to sleep, so she was glad when it was finally
six-thirty in the morning and time to get ready for work.

She
pulled herself out of bed, turned on the lights and padded nude into the
bathroom. She planned to get to the office a little early this morning. Her
desk would be pilled high with stacks of cable traffic that had accumulated
over the past few days while she was out of the office, and she wanted to
plunge back into her normal routine. She needed to take her mind off all the
stuff that was causing her stomach to churn and flutter. It was making her
sick.

She
showered, dressed in a cool, bright ensemble of print slacks and blouse and
slipped into matching sandals. The last thing she did before heading downstairs
for breakfast was to strap on her ankle holster.

Her
maid had set the table with a healthy breakfast of juice, fresh fruit, mangos
and sticky rice, yoghurt and coffee. She ate in silence on the veranda while
reading the morning edition of the
Bangkok Post
. 

The
sun was already warming the morning when she tucked her unfinished
Bangkok
Post
under her arm, grabbed her bag and headed for the garage and her
silver Toyota 4Runner.

A
uniformed Thai security guard swung open the gate to her compound, and she
pulled out onto the narrow residential street that would take her past the
Galse Shopping Center to the busy Charoen Prathet Road and north along the Mae
Ping River to the consulate.

It
was cool in the early morning hours, and the air smelled fresh. Rolling her
front windows down to take advantage of the morning air, she concentrated on
all that she needed to do when she got to her office, but not so much that she
didn’t notice the green pickup truck that pulled out of a neighboring driveway
and dropped in a few car lengths behind her.

Something
was not right. The road was practically deserted, which was not unusual for
this time in the morning, but that pickup truck behind her was curious. She
could see in her rear view mirrors two men in the front seat. Maybe they were
workers coming from one of the homes in the neighborhood.

They
had pulled out of one of the driveways beyond her villa, but what were workers
doing there so early? And even if they were workers, why were they leaving at
this hour? Shouldn’t they be arriving?

She
sped up and the pickup did the same to stay directly behind her, a bit too
closely. She slowed down to let the pickup pass, but it slowed as well, keeping
the same distance between them. As a car passed coming from the other
direction, she became nervous. Maybe she was getting paranoid, but she was a
professional – she could not ignore the signs.

She
should get off the narrow residential road. The Galse Shopping Center was about
a kilometer up ahead. Even at this hour there would be people at the shopping
center – shopkeepers opening up for the day and deliverymen. She decided to
pull in there. Maybe the pickup would not follow her into the parking lot.

She
dug into her bag, pulled out her cell phone and placed it between her legs,
ready to call security at the consulate, if necessary. She also removed the PPK
from her ankle holster and pushed it under her right thigh where it would be
handy.

Near
the entrance to the shopping center the road curved sharply to the right, she
turned into the curve with the pickup close behind her. Then she saw it.

Approximately
one hundred meters in front of the entrance to the shopping center was a
stretch limousine with the hood up, completely blocking the road in front of
her. The limo’s chauffeur was standing by the front of the vehicle, looking
directly at her and talking into his cell phone.

Oh
shit
, she thought.
This can’t be happening
. Her mind spun and her
defensive driving training kicked in. She took a deep breath and blew it out
slowly. She was calm now. She was in a bad situation, and she needed to get out
of it.

She
slowed down almost to a stop and dropped the 4Runner down into four wheel drive
and low gear, then she lined up her left front fender with the left rear fender
of the limo and floored it.

 The
4Runner crossed the median of the road, engine wailing, and crashed into the
rear of the limo, spinning it sideways and knocking the chauffeur off of his
feet and into the ditch. She held the accelerator to the floor and bulldozed
the rear of the limo out of the way, its tires screeching along the pavement.

Her
rear wheels spun in the dirt at the side of the road, and then she was through
and free. She jammed the gearshift up into drive, sped through the wreckage and
skidded back onto the road. She popped the gearshift out of four-wheel drive to
gain speed and floored it again.

The
pickup followed her through the wreckage, its rear wheels spinning in the dirt
at the side of the road and almost sliding into the ditch.

Then
the shooting began.

The
traffic on the other side of the shopping center’s entrance was heavier due to
the workers arriving from the more populated side of Chiang Mai. But she kept
the accelerator to the floor. She passed one car after another, swerving to get
back into her lane and to avoid cars coming from the other direction.

She
could hear the bullets striking the rear of her vehicle, and she hunched low
over the wheel to present as small a target as possible.

She
wanted to reach the relative safety of Charoen Prathet Road, where rush hour
traffic would already be moderately heavy.

She
grabbed her cell phone and hit the speed dial for the Marine Security Guard
Detachment at the consulate. The Marine on duty answered after two rings, and
she screamed into the phone: “This is Charly Blackburn. I’ve been ambushed near
the entrance to the Galse Shopping Center. I’m heading east toward Charoen
Prathet Road and being pursued by a green pickup with two men who are shooting
at me. Send help now! Please hurry. Now!”

She
tossed the cell phone on the seat beside her without waiting for a response and
pulled the PPK out from under her thigh.

Two
bullets punctured her rear window and exited through the front windshield,
making her wince and forcing her to drive faster. She sped through the light
traffic, weaving in and out, with the pickup close behind.

She
snapped off a couple of rounds out the window in the direction of the pickup
behind her but held little hope of them hitting anything. Getting away was her
main concern, but why not frighten them a bit, letting them know she was armed
and dangerous?

She
hit the entrance to Charoen Prathet Road, but it was backed up with traffic at
the red light. She spun around the traffic on the shoulder of the entrance
ramp, ran the red light and careened onto the main road. The pickup hesitated
for a moment but then followed her around the stalled traffic, through the red
light and up the ramp onto the road.

Blaring
her horn to get people to move, she wove back and forth through the traffic
with the pickup close behind her.
Why won’t they drop off
? Three more
rounds punctured the window, one dangerously close to her head.

They
were still five kilometers from the consulate when she saw the Marine Security
Humvee speeding toward her from the other direction, lights flashing and siren
blasting. It passed her in a blur and then, as the driver recognized her and
the green pickup, spun off the side of the road and reversed direction. The
pickup was now between Charly and the swiftly closing Marines.

She
continued to weave through traffic as rapidly as possible, heading for the
safety of the consulate, while the security vehicle was gaining on the pickup.
She heard the distinct sound of automatic M-16 fire behind her and gleefully
thought,
Now the bastards will know what it feels like to be in the sights
of U.S. Marines.

The
men in the pickup evidently did not want to mess with the Marines. They broke
off the chase and exited the highway heading west.

As
soon as she saw the pickup exit the highway, she eased her foot off of the
accelerator. The Marines caught up to her and pulled alongside. They gave her
the thumbs up sign and signaled her to follow them. She blew them a kiss and
pulled in behind.

Chapter Eighty-Three

S
he
did what? You let her get away? This was supposed to be a simple operation.”
Khun Ut was furious. He was standing behind his desk in the Ban Hin Taek
mountain villa, dressed in a tailored, eggshell-colored safari suit, jamming
his cheroot at the Cambodian.

Ung
Chea was not intimidated by Khun Ut’s rant, but he was ashamed. “She is very
good, sir. She drove through Paiboon’s limousine like it was a movie prop. I
never saw anything like it.”

“Of
course she is good. I told you that in the first place. She is CIA. You should
have taken more men to do a proper ambush. The three of you were clearly not
enough.”

Ung
Chea was not used to being berated by anyone, including Khun Ut, whom he
considered to be a friend as well as a boss.

“I
am sorry, Khun Ut. If I were Japanese I would commit suicide right here and
now, in front of your desk.”

“Okay,
okay. Enough.” Khun Ut collapsed in his chair and swung his good leg up on his
desk. “Let us not dwell on the past. We screwed up. All of us. We should have
used more people. We underestimated her. Now what can we do to get things back
on track?”

The
Cambodian dropped heavily into one of the chairs in front of Khun Ut’s desk and
massaged the nub of his missing ear, trying to get his mind around what had
just happened.

“I
think we are done with the girl. If she ever leaves the consulate again, we can
be sure it will be with armed guards. If she does go back to her home, she will
take plenty of protection with her. She will be out of reach for us, at least
for the time being.”

Khun
Ut took a long drag from his cheroot and exhaled a stream of smoke toward the
ceiling. “Maybe, maybe not. But…damn, she was key. She was the one with
information on the two
farangs
, all the information. She was the only
one who could tell us everything—what they are up to, who sent them and what
their next move will be.
Mai pen rai
, we have to move on.” 

He
thought, toying with his cheroot. “What about Paiboon’s source? You know who I
mean, the one you told me about who is close to Sawat’s whore?”

“I
was thinking the same thing, sir.”

Chapter Eighty-Four

M
ac
and Culler reached the rendezvous point before daybreak, with a whole day to
kill before the arrival of Vanquish and his heroin-laden donkey caravan. They
checked his progress on the GPS regularly, noting the wristwatch Charly had
given him was working perfectly. They would not be surprised by his arrival.

They
found a comfortable spot, ate a snack of granola bars and water, doused
themselves with mosquito repellent, and made themselves comfortable. They slept
or just rested for most of the day.

“Come
on, Mac, let’s get moving. It’s almost four o’clock. We’ve only got another
couple of hours of sunlight left.”

“Yeah,
yeah, I know. I was having a great dream, though.” Mac sat up, rubbing his
eyes.

“I
never met a person older than a teenager who could sleep like you can. How do
you do it?”

“Practice,
my friend, practice.”

They
scouted the area and found a good location about one hundred-fifty meters west
of where Vanquish would set up his camp. An outcropping of rocks would give
them good concealment from the camp, and there was a place where they could
burrow into the undergrowth in case they needed to hide from anyone searching
the area.

They
stood side by side at the base of the boulders. Looking up, Mac said, “This is
as good a place as any for us to wait for them. We can lay up there on the top
of the rocks tonight and get a good view of their campsite. Now let’s
reconnoiter the area around here and take another look at the layout of their
campsite.”

They
stood in the middle of the campsite area and looked around them, trying to
reconstruct what Vanquish had told them during their meeting.

“The
guy is really good,” said Mac. “See how the stream circles the place like a
horseshoe? Over there to the south is where they will have their fire and
sleep. See the remains of their last campfire? Surely that’s where they’ll camp
tonight.”

“Yep,
that’s what he said they would do.”

“And
here, about where we’re standing now, is where the packs of heroin bricks will
be stacked. That means the donkeys and horses will be tethered over there to
the north.”

They
walked to the spot and Mac pointed out signs of hoof prints and manure as
indications the animals had been there before. “You know it’s actually a pretty
nice campsite. It’s no wonder Vanquish didn’t think he’d have any problem
convincing them to return here for their first night.”

“You’re
pretty good at reading animal shit. You must be part Indian. Let’s find the
spot where they crossed the stream the last time. I believe he said…I can’t
remember. Did he mention it?”