Singapore Sling Shot (21 page)

The police eventually left. Because there had been no ransom demand for the missing staff members, their hands were tied. Missing person's bulletins would go out and they would mount a full investigation. There was nothing else they could do.

Jo and I answered Sami's call and went into the building and up to the fifteenth floor. The stench of burned plastic, gasoline fumes and water-sodden carpet filled the atmosphere. The air conditioning was on full. There were several broken windows and the others that could be opened gaped wide. The carpet and walls were blackened in places, soot covered everything, but the sprinklers and fire hoses had done the major damage. Everything was soaked. Everything, that is, apart from Stanley's office.

Stanley, it appeared, had been security conscious in one way at least. The office had a heavy fire- and impact-proof door and a serious mortise lock. It had still been locked when the fire crew had smashed their way through the wall beside it. The sprinklers had soaked the room, but apart from that, it was intact.

With kidnap presumably highest on their agenda, Lu's men had hit and run. I assumed that the fire had been more for nuisance value than anything else. Whatever, the office was where K and we three were now congregated. K had arrived from the Cairnhill apartment with the ransom note just moments after the police had left.

It was 15:22. In a little over three hours, Sami had to contact Lu.

“Where is he holding them?” Sami was staring unseeing at the huge satellite photomap of Singapore that was attached to the wall. The map was under a Perspex covering, so it hadn't been damaged by water. Intella Island and the connecting bridge had been added using Photoshop.

“It's a big island when you look at it like that,” I said, lighting a Marlboro. I went to stand at Sami's side. I was referring to Singapore as a whole, minus Sami's bolt-on island. Jo was looking out the window behind us. K was sitting on the edge of what had been Stanley's huge desk, seemingly meditating.

“No more warehouses,” I replied. “He has to figure you've got him tabbed on that. Given that you cleaned the money out of the last one and he torched another. Just how much real estate can he own?”

“A lot,” Sami replied distractedly, “and much of that unofficially so we can't check a register or anything like that.”

“Can we try the CCTV cameras again and see what vehicles left the car park just prior to the fire? It had to be a people mover or a van of some sort to shift two or three of Lu's guys and the four women.”

“My people are working on it.”

“Can we pre-empt him?” It was Jo.

“How?” Sami and I queried simultaneously.

“Figure this,” he said. “I would bet that whatever exchange he is going to make, it will be at dawn tomorrow. It needs to take place in a semi-public area, but not right out in the open or in rush hour. Not too obvious, but there will have to be people around. The women will arrive in a van or small bus and there will be an exchange for a truck with the money. Simple swap and enough people around to prevent it all ending in a firefight.”

“That sounds about right,” I agreed.

“I know where he has the women.” It was K. He stood and walked to the map and stabbed a finger at it. “The hotel on Sentosa.”

“What makes you think he'll hold them there?” Sami wanted to know.

“He thinks he is very clever. But he has to keep them in an isolated place and that is perfect,” K replied. “You said it was deserted but for workmen. Perfect place to house an army or hostages.”

“He's just arrogant enough to do that,” Sami mused. “It would be just like him to use it again as a private joke against me. He's so sure that because it is so obvious, I'll consider the hotel and discount it.”

“Reverse reversed psychology, or whatever,” I agreed, “but more than that. On a practical level, K is right. It's logical. It's the ideal place to maintain his people out of sight until needed.”

“Then let's look at turning the tables yet again on Mr Lu.” Jo had a smile on his face. That was unusual in itself. It was the sort of smile that meant someone was going to get hurt. “I have a plan!”

To work, Jo's plan relied on three things: that the hostages were being held at the Silver Sands Hotel; that Lu would press for a dawn exchange; and that a reconnaissance run be made to check out the hotel. K left to organise that.

Sami used the phone. This call was to the man in charge of the computers. The reply he was seeking came back a few minutes later. They had isolated a van entering Scotts Road from the building's car park at the time of the fire. It was then Sami asked that they cut to the chase. Instead of letting the computers wade through millions of images, he had them concentrate on the Sentosa Bridge footage. Twenty minutes after it left Scotts Road, the van crossed the bridge onto the island.

K reported back half an hour later from the island. There was a transit van parked in the car park at the Silver Sands Hotel. The registration number matched that on the CCTV cameras. He also reported that the relatively isolated car park, with its fringe of tended jungle, was the perfect scenario for what we had in mind. That was, of course, if we were right about the hostages being inside the hotel. If we were wrong, people were going to die.

“I can't seem to stay away from Sentosa,” I muttered to no one in particular. Sami heard me.

“At least you won't have to swim this time.”

“I hope,” I replied, looking round the office, wondering if Stanley's bar was still intact. It was!

It was a few minutes to 19:00 when Sami made the call to Thomas Lu.

Thomas Lu was almost laughing as he set his cellphone down on the shelf protruding from the side of the spa. He had set his trap and now he had received a wonderful piece of news. Bad weather over the Pacific had led to Carlos Mendez postponing the long flight to Sydney to refuel and then carry on to Singapore. Lu not only had another twenty-four or forty-eight hours before the Colombian arrived, but Sami Somsak had agreed to return the money in exchange for the women.

“A soft man at heart,” Lu said as he gloated at his good luck. “A soft man to give away two billion dollars for a handful of women.”

Lu relaxed in his spa. Michael was in the shower prior to joining him.

The transfer would take place at a location of Lu's selection at dawn. He hadn't told Somsak where this would be. That meant there would be no chance of an ambush. He would direct the whole operation by cellphone.

The truck with the money would be directed on a route he chose, and at the point he chose, the truck would be ordered to stop. He would then verify the money was indeed aboard and then, and only then, he would order the van with the women aboard to the transfer site. The transfer would be made and that would very much be that. Part of him, of course, wanted Sami Somsak dead as part of the exchange. However, there would be witnesses, so Somsak's demise would have to wait a little longer.

In any other situation he would have expected a double-cross, but there simply was no way that the Thai could organise one, short of filling the truck with gunmen, and that would guarantee the death of the women, so it was not going to happen. Thomas Lu took a sip of whisky. There would be no chance of a double-cross. The plan was as near perfect as he could make it.

“I should have done this to get that cursed recorder back,” Lu murmured thoughtfully. It would have been so simple. Why had he not thought of it sooner? Now, of course, it was too late. Its damage had been done, but that damage wasn't irreversible. Lu's musings were interrupted as Michael slipped into the spa. The youngster really was beautiful. Lu put down his glass and reached for his lover.

26

Sentosa at pre-dawn. Apart from the cold white of the lights in the various entrances and buildings, there was just a heavy greyness, not pitch black. The moon and the stars, at this transition between night and day, were gone. The air was cool for the moment. There was little noise, just the muted sound of the sparse early-morning traffic coupled with the continual sound of the container port.

Once more it was back to the jungle for K, four others from Jo's old squad and me. Jo was with Sami and the truck bearing the container. And yes, the money was aboard. All of it! If we were wrong in our attempt to pre-empt Lu, then Sami would pay the money over to free the women. Of course, each of the bales in the container had a GPS tracer buried deep in it, but that was little consolation if it all turned to crap and there was blood on the floor.

We were in the jungle fringe surrounding the Silver Sands car park. Each of us was wearing the standard overall plus gloves and a balaclava. Dressing the same meant we knew who was who. It meant observers couldn't identify individuals. The tough, all-encompassing overalls kept everything in, as did the flash gloves. No fibres or DNA could get out. We each carried a silenced weapon. My choice for this exercise was an H&K MP5. The others had a selection of weapons of their choice. The only criteria was that they had to be as quiet as possible and they had to hit their designated targets.

Despite the way they are depicted in movies, silencers, or more correctly suppressers, don't totally muffle the sound of a gunshot. In most cases they reduce it and they change it from a sharp boom-crack to a duller thump. The report then becomes harder to identify. Was it someone dropping something? Was it a backfire? Hell, was it someone farting? Whatever, one problem remained: with a semi-automatic weapon, if the breech isn't locked for single fire, the rattle of the mechanism as the weapon re-cocks is a giveaway to anyone in the know. Nevertheless, to the uninitiated ear of those asleep in the neighbouring hotels, hopefully any gunfire from us would be just an unidentified sound in the gloom.

There were dim lights on in the back of the eight-storey hotel. The only vehicle in the car park was a dark transit. We could see occasional silhouettes against the faint glow of interior lights. There were men on watch at several of the windows. K, possibly the best jungle scout I have ever worked with, did one of his phantom runs to the front of the hotel. Yes, there were men on watch there as well, three of them. Lu was taking no chances that his fortress would be stormed.

We were wired for sound, of course, but the instructions were clear: we shoot to kill and we keep the women alive at all costs. Two of our team, Quong and Sindip, were positioned on the far side of the car park, which appeared to be about the size of two tennis courts. Their task was to take out anyone appearing at the windows overlooking the car park and then lay down suppression fire on the rear face of the building. They both had silenced MP5s and a lot of magazines.

I was situated in the jungle fringe on one side of the sliding glass door that opened into the car park. K was opposite me, hiding in the shadows of the various bins and tanks of the hotel's loading bay. We could trust one not to shoot the other in a crossfire. The remaining pair, Loc and Dnap, were each armed with Sami's ubiquitous silenced Brownings. They were situated ten metres beyond K and me, covering the belly of the car park.

There was movement in the building. Several bright unshaded room lights had come on. There were closed drapes over most of the windows, but with the harsh lights now on, shadows showed plainly. Was this the moment that Lu's people brought the hostages out to the car park and loaded them into the van? What was happening with Sami and the truck?

“You will drive from Changi and down the East Coast Parkway towards the city and await further instructions.”

“We have to go to Changi. It will take us thirty minutes from where we are,” Sami lied.

“Do that. Call me when you start on the parkway!”

Thomas Lu closed his cellphone. He was almost gloating, imagining the frustration of Somsak, and imagining his ransom on its way back to him.

Lu was at the wheel of the black Lexus. Although he seldom drove himself, he was proficient enough. Despite the fact that his manpower was stretched thinly, he was confident that all would go well. A second vehicle, an anonymous older model Mazda, was waiting back on the parkway to pick up Somsak's tail. All its occupants were armed. Not that he expected they would need their weapons. Somsak wanted his women back alive. When they parked to make the transfer in the car park beside Siglap Canal, there would be traffic and enough people around to discourage any open aggression on Somsak's part.

“Let's go.”

“Okay.” Jo Ankar was at the wheel of the truck. Sami was beside him. They had left the warehouse and had been sitting awaiting Lu's call in a side street in Tampines. Now they were rolling. Given the almost non-existent traffic, thirty minutes had been an exaggerated estimate of the time they needed, but Sami hadn't wanted Lu to have any idea where they had been based.

It took a little under ten minutes to get to the East Coast. Jo pulled them over and while they waited out the next fifteen minutes, Sami sat there and wondered what was happening on Sentosa. The moment Daniel confirmed the girls were there and that they were safe, phase two of their plan for Thomas Lu's downfall would go into action. Despite the fact it had been created in just a matter of an hour or two, it was an elaborate plan in that it called for several things to happen in rapid succession.

At the end of it all, Sami Somsak's aim was to have the women back, the money still in his possession, and Thomas Lu as well.

Lu sat in his Lexus and waited for the call from the Thai. Then, once he had confirmation they were moving and there was no tail, he would give them the location of the car park where the exchange would take place. He would only do that when Somsak was well down the parkway. There was no way Somsak could anticipate the meeting spot and set up an ambush.

There was definitely a lot happening inside the Silver Sands. Quong, the senior of our pair at the far end of the car park, obviously had the best vantagepoint. He called in what they were seeing. Lights had come on down the building in what they assumed was the main stairwell. He could see people moving down it through the tinted glass wall. In three rooms there were men stationed at windows looking down into the car park. They had weapons, and they were the first targets. I had to figure that the glass walls of the hotel put them at a huge disadvantage in the coming firefight.