Betrayal

Chapter 28

“I need some diamonds,” Matt said, standing at her door.

“You’ve come to the right place,” Jet responded, waving him into her room. “I have them in the safe.”

“I found a taker for two million’ worth. He’ll make a transfer to one of my companies. I’ll get a card when I’m at the bank tomorrow and give it to you. That will be your mad money.”

She padded to the room safe, then brought the leather bag to the table.

“How will you know how many are two million dollars’ worth?”

“I’ll guesstimate. I’ve gotten pretty good at this over the years.”

He dumped out a small pile and quickly sorted a little less than half the stones, then pulled out a plastic bag from his pocket and scooped them in. He returned the rest to the leather sack and handed it to her.

“Call that your emergency fund. After I do this deal tomorrow morning, I’ll head to the bank. It’s a different one than where I keep the stones. Don’t want all my eggs in one basket.”

“It seems sort of crazy to have millions in diamonds lying around a hotel room, doesn’t it?”

“There would be far more risk if we asked the management to lock them in the hotel safe. Besides, if anyone can get past you, I’d say they earned them.”

She smiled, then returned to the safe and locked the diamonds away. “What are we going to do about the ten million in diamonds? That’s not exactly low profile, and I’ll need to get to Europe…”

“I struck a deal with a guy who knows a guy. By the end of the day tomorrow, you’ll have a shiny new passport. Legitimate. A diplomatic passport, to boot. Only three hundred grand.”

“Three hun-”

“I’m not price sensitive. With a diplomatic passport, you won’t have to answer a lot of niggling questions at customs, so whether you have ten million or a hundred million in stones with you, you’ll glide right through. You’ll need to get a photo taken tonight, which won’t be a problem. There are a million shops open, even at ten p.m.. Bangkok is a night city. You want to go take a walk?” he asked.

“Sure. Let me get my gun.”

She had bought a purse large enough to accommodate the Beretta with the silencer as well as other odds and ends. She shouldered it and turned to Matt, who was pulling on a baseball cap.

“Lead on.”

She was still getting used to the casual way that he tossed around figures like a million dollars, and it struck her how completely arbitrary money was. He had a virtually bottomless well of cash, so all the typical financial constraints were meaningless to them.

“How many millions do you have left?”

“About two hundred million,” he said nonchalantly.

“You haven’t spent any of it?”

“On what? I had Pu liquidate a few hundred grands’ worth each time he came out to see me, but that wasn’t a lot. I had to buy guns and ammo, and pay everyone for protection — but even so, it didn’t come to a hundred grand. The truth is, I don’t have anything to spend money on out in the jungle other than weapons and slipping cash to the nearby drug lords to leave me in peace. So technically, I suppose the correct answer is a hundred ninety-nine million and change. But deduct the five million worth I had around my neck, and we can call it a hundred ninety-four.”

“That’s just such a huge amount of money.”

“It is. But it’s blood money. Not that I have a problem with that. But I didn’t do this to get rich. I did it to shut these pricks down.”

“So even if we have to do plan B, you’ll still have…”

“…a lot of diamonds,” Matt finished for her.

They exited the hotel and walked slowly down the sidewalk towards the blinking neon forest a few blocks away, where every kind of shop clamored for customers with thousand-watt signs.

“It’s quite a spectacle, isn’t it?”

“Have you ever been to Tokyo?” he asked.

“No. It’s one of the places I’ve meant to go. Just never was a right time.”

“You’ve never seen anything like it. Blinding. It’s like nothing else on the planet.”

They rounded the corner and found themselves facing a seemingly endless pedestrian thoroughfare lined with shops and bars. Groups of young Thai men roamed in packs, eyeing the giggling swarms of teenage girls while the inevitable bar girls called to passersby, inviting them to come in and sample their charms.

“Not getting too personal, I hope, but what are you going to do once all this is over?” she asked. “I mean, once you’re no longer in danger.”

“I haven’t really thought about it. I like Thailand. I’ve been here too long to feel comfortable anywhere else, I suppose. For all its idiosyncrasies and frustrations, it’s home for me. I don’t know. If I had my choice, I suppose I’d go to one of the islands and live on the beach. But there’s no point torturing myself with dreams of tomorrow. It just makes it harder to be happy today.”

“Very existentialistic.”

“It’s the Buddhist thing rubbing off on me. You stay here long enough and eventually everything seems illusory.”

“Why one of the islands?”

“Different pace. You still get the civilization feel if you want it, but it’s much more laid-back. None of the bustle of the big city. Places like Ko Samui are magical. I gather you’ve never been.”

“No. But I liked living in Trinidad. Islands can be nice. Nice and boring.”

He laughed, genuine merriment evident in his eyes. “I suppose you’ve had enough excitement to last a lifetime.”

“You could say that.”

“There are worse places to disappear forever. You should check out Ko Samui. You’d love it. Breathtakingly beautiful, well-developed, yet still rural enough to have appeal. Time slows when you’re there. It’s almost as if it’s enchanted.”

“You work for their tourism bureau? You make it sound like heaven.”

“For me, it’s the closest thing going.”

He pointed to a photo shop, and they went inside. The old mama-san was all efficiency, and they had their photos within ten minutes.

“You’re also getting diplomatic?” she asked.

“Why not? Such a deal. Two for five hundred. Couldn’t let that slip by me.”

“That should make it easier to move around, don’t you think?”

“Not really. I have about ten passports from my old life stored in with the diamonds. But diplomatic immunity has a lot of appeal, and when it’s safe to go back in the water, I’ll probably use that for the long term.”

They strolled along, no particular destination in mind, surrendering themselves to Bangkok’s nocturnal ambiance.

“You think you’ll be done with everything that needs to happen by the end of the day tomorrow?” she asked.

“I hope so. I don’t want to spend one more second in Bangkok than I need to. I’m not exactly a household name here, but the longer I’m in town, the greater the chance that someone from my past spots me.”

“Then isn’t it a bad idea to be strolling along here?”

“I’m pretty sure that with the dye job and the shave and the cap my own mother would have a hard time recognizing me. Tonight isn’t my worry. It’s the banks.” He looked at his watch. “Which means it’s probably a good idea to get back to our lavish digs. It’s going to be a marathon tomorrow.”

“I’ll say. More for you than for me, but still, I need to catch up on sleep after the last week.”

They looped around and ambled back to the hotel, taking their time: a couple out on a stroll, taking in the sights of Bangkok at night, not a care in the world.