The Fourth Watcher

42

The chalkboard nailed to the wall says speciasl of the weke. Below the misspellings, which are hand-lettered in what looks like indelible paint, the board is blank.

“I hope that’s not my week,” Frank says.

Rafferty says, “We’ll try to see that it isn’t.”

Ming Li sips a watery iced coffee and says, “How do you find these restaurants?” She puts the glass down, and the sound when it hits the table makes Pradya, seated across the restaurant with Leung, jump. Pradya is on the phone with Chu, letting him know they have Frank. His hand is cupped over the phone, but Leung has leaned forward to listen. He glances up at Rafferty and nods.

“I guess we’re on,” Frank says. His forehead is beaded with sweat. One leg jitters up and down beneath the table, providing a rhythm track to whatever is going through his head. He looks at the tabletop, dips a finger in the condensation at the bottom of his own glass, and begins to draw a series of wet loops, like a stretched spring. Ming Li watches his finger move, as intently as if he were writing a secret language only they can read, and Rafferty briefly wonders whether it is. Frank’s hand is trembling, and he pulls it back and puts it in his lap.

Not surprisingly, given the hour, they are the only people in the restaurant, which is just off Khao San, a few blocks from the guesthouse. Fon and Lek are waiting in the car, chattering nervously. When the five of them came in, the waitress, who had been bent over a brightly colored book called Let’s English! had gotten up and turned on the television. During the ten minutes they’ve been there, Steven Seagal has killed a dozen people with no apparent change of expression.

“Poke,” Frank says. He is drawing loops again, and he waits until Rafferty looks over at him. “I’m sorry.”

“I should be apologizing to you,” Rafferty says. “You were right. If I hadn’t brought Arnold into this, you’d probably be gone by now.”

“I didn’t mean that,” Frank says, the words so soft that Rafferty’s not sure he understood them. A series of grunts from the television is followed by a stitchery of gunfire from an automatic. No one bothers to look. “I meant for everything.”

Ming Li has fixed an urgent stare on Poke, but Rafferty can’t find a reply. Something Rose said goes through his mind, something about his having all those words in his head, but none of the ones he really needs.

“Just. . you know,” Frank says. “Whatever happens, I wanted to say that.”

Rafferty says, “Thank you.”

“Is this going to work?” Ming Li demands.

“I don’t know.” Rafferty picks up his own iced coffee and drains it. It’s awful, but he needs the caffeine. “What I do know is that we have to try. I owe it to Arthit, I owe it to Rose and Miaow, and I guess I owe it to you. Chu’s not going to quit. If you got up right now and walked out of here, he’d find you and it would all start over again.”

“You’re right,” Frank says. “Chu’s never given up on anything in his life.”

“What haven’t we thought of?” Ming Li asks.

“A hundred things,” Rafferty says. “What if he just shoots us all as we come in? What if there are a dozen guys we don’t know about? What if the place is booby-trapped?”

“He won’t shoot us when we come in, and there won’t be a booby trap,” Frank says. “He won’t do anything until he knows we’ve got everything he wants. He probably won’t do anything until it’s all in his hands. Chu is a lot of things, but he’s not impulsive. It’s taken him years to build all this-the rubies, the documents, the American identity. He needs this exit more than he needs anything else in the world. So as much as he wants to kill me, he’ll wait. He’ll wait until he’s got everything.”

“And then,” Ming Li says, “he’ll put your head on a spike.”

A bleating sound cuts through the mayhem on the television, and Pradya opens his phone. He says something, hangs up, and leans over to Leung. Leung gets up and comes over to their table.

“Klong Toey,” he says.

“He wants to kill Frank, and you’re just handing him over,” Ming Li says. She puts both hands on Rafferty’s arm. “He’s your father, and you’re giving him away.”

Rafferty gets up. “We’re going to see if we can’t make it a loan.”