The Hunt for Shambhala

12

“Mr Kuan is expecting you,” the man said confidently. “You’re already late for your meeting and he’s not the sort of man who likes to be kept waiting.”

“Meeting?” Selena said. “I don’t understand.”

“He will explain.” The guard took a long look at the woman and then turned his attention briefly to the six and a half foot man standing slightly behind her. “Now get up and leave the rifles on the ground.” He waved the gun in their faces.

“My pleasure, mate,” Riley said. “Can’t wait to get this show on the road.”

“Me too. I want this over and done with.”

“Not only that,” he said. “I really need a slash.”

Selena rolled her eyes and sighed. “You’ll just have to hang on to it. Something tells me Kuan isn’t the kind of man who would respond kindly to finding you piddling all over his fan palms.”

The man marched them past the second tier of guards and into the sprawling compound. As they drew closer to the villa they realized just how much money there must be in pushing heroin around the world. It seemed to go on in every direction as far as the eye could see, and now they turned the corner of yet another section of the sprawling Modernist villa and walked beside a high wall punctuated with fold-back windows.

“This way.”

They ascended a floating staircase until they reached the upper storey where a cantilevered infinity pool jutted out over the cliff, shrouded by the tropical undergrowth of flame trees either side of it. The pool pointed out into the hot Thai night and reflected the tropical stars in its smooth surface like speckles of silver on black oil. The sound of waterfalls could be heard roaring in the distance.

Kuan’s man marched them around the wraparound deck and made a big show of his new prisoners for his boss who was sitting just a few yards away. Now, they reached their final destination and looked at one another.

They were in the bizarre setting of a pool party.

Kuan’s eyes widened and a look of smug satisfaction appeared on his face. “Ah — my guests have arrived.”

The crowd of party-goers that was gathered around the poolside table parted to reveal a clearer view of a small man in a sharp suit. A large cigar burned in his right hand. He clicked his fingers and the crowd of people dispersed, leaving behind only two men standing a step or two behind him, each with roughly the same dimensions as a walk-in cooler.

“Are you looking for this, by any chance?” he said, and held up Stanhope’s journal.

Riley and Selena shared a glance but said nothing.

“Allow me to introduce myself,” Kuan said, smiling warmly. “I am Lee Kuan, the man you have been antagonizing for the last few days.”

“How did you know we would be here tonight?” Riley asked.

“I did not know you would be tonight, but after a brief consultation with a colleague it became apparent you were actively looking to retrieve the journal. Due to this colleague’s gross incompetence, it was only a matter of time until you got here.”

“That was my journal and you stole it!” Selena said.

“I’m going to kill you in a few moments, my dear,” he said coolly. “So if that doesn’t concern me you can imagine how little I care about the theft of an old book. You see what happened to the last man who antagonized me.”

He gestured toward the pool where a giant inflatable dragon was bobbing about. Selena realized with horror that there was a dead man stuffed inside it.

“You remember poor Kunchai from your exploits in Bangkok, no doubt.”

He began to laugh — a coarse, weak and dry affair that sounded more like someone coughing, but soon his terrified entourage burst into laughter as well. Selena and Riley shared an anxious glance. “He, of course, is the aforementioned colleague. I’m delighted to say I was forced to terminate his employment after his bungling in Bangkok.”

“This is insane,” Selena said.

“You call getting paid ten million dollars for a book insane?”

Kuan looked carefully at his guests and repeated his words. “She calls getting paid ten million dollars for a book insane.”

Everyone laughed, except for Kuan. “My employer has — shall we say… mystic interpretations of our world. He is driven by more than simple material greed. I am not.”

“Who is you employer?”

“You have no need to know this,” Kuan snapped. “You need only know that your role in this is now over. You used your skills to locate the journal and I was hired to retrieve it from you. As you have seen, we had a slight problem with Kunchai’s end of the operation in Bangkok. It was due to his bungling that I increased my security on the island and now you can see this has all been settled to everyone’s satisfaction. With you out the way the last loose strings have been tied.”

Selena glanced at Kunchai once again, still bobbing up and down on the inflatable dragon with a cocktail glass in his hand and a party hat on his head. “You’re sick.”

“If I am, I will soon be able to afford the greatest doctors in the world.”

More laughter.

“Now, it is time for you to join Kunchai, and exit our party. You’re… what’s the expression — bringing down the vibe?”

“You son of a bitch!” Riley said.

“Don’t worry — it will not be painful or humiliating like poor Kunchai’s death. I have respect for you both. You have already met Vòng here — he is the one who found you stalking outside my villa. He is my most highly trained man, a former soldier in a very covert Vietnamese Special Forces unit you will not have heard of. He will make your deaths fast and painless.”

“How kind,” Selena said.

“This does not mean to say they will not be entertaining for us, so we will now watch as Vòng dispatches you. I presume you are both happy with a burial at sea?”

Before they could reply, Kuan gave Vòng a series of clipped orders in Vietnamese and he waved them over to the infinity pool with the barrel of the gun. The Big Boss then rose from his chair and walked beside the Vietnamese commando.

With Vòng and Kuan a few feet behind them, Riley and Selena walked together around the side of the pool. The tall Australian leaned into her and lowered his voice. “Ever heard of tombstoning?”

She kept her head facing forward and her voice down when she made her reply. “If you mean cliff jumping then you must be out of your mind. We’re forty metres above the sea and we haven’t the faintest idea how deep the water is in the cove below us.”

“You’re right, we don’t have the faintest idea how deep it is, but I have more than a faint idea about what happens when a nine mil bullet tears into your back at twelve hundred feet a second.”

“Jesus, Riley… what have we got ourselves into?”

“Life’s an adventure, Lena.”

“Right, but tombstoning is for numbnuts.”

“Hey! I tombstone back on Oz all the time.”

“Your point?”

He smiled and turned to her as they reached the edge of the pool. It was littered with empty champagne bottles and ashtrays. “We’re going to need that journal though.”

“That’s far enough,” Kuan said. He was still holding the journal in one hand, and a cocktail glass in the other. Behind him, dozens of revellers looked on curiously as the execution of the two foreigners unfolded right before their eyes.

“You can’t do this, Kuan!” Selena said.

“I can, and I will.” He turned calmly to Vòng. “Kill them both.”

Without letting another second pass, Riley charged forward into the pool and sprinted along the diving board. He bounced off the board and flew through the air toward Kuan. Vòng raised the gun and fired at him but the bullets missed and vanished in the night.

The party-goers gasped as Riley crashed to earth on top of Kuan and punched him hard in the face, knocking him into a daze. He snatched his gun and pulled him up over his body to use a human shield.

Seeing no clear shot, Vòng hesitated for just enough time to allow Selena to snatch up an empty champagne bottle and belt it around the back of the commando’s skull. He fell forward onto his knees and then crashed out at the side of the pool.

Riley tore the journal from Kuan’s hand. He heard more gasps and then some macabre cheers from the crowd, and glanced up to see two or three more goons sprinting toward them from the direction of the villa. They were holding submachine guns and began firing wildly in their direction.

“We’re out of here!” he said, and ran over to Selena at the side of the infinity pool.

“What do I do?”

“Stand straight and keep rigid with your feet together. If you turn in the air you’ll have time to come back to position. Don’t hold your nose when you hit the water — blow air out through it when you make contact with the surface.”

“Got it.”

He breathed out as he looked down at the black water. “The pool gives us a bit of an overhang so that’s a lucky break.”

“What if there are rocks?”

“The usual method would be to hit them really hard, break your legs and then die painfully in the sea.”

“Got it.”

The men were closer now, sprinting around the pool decking and firing at them. Their bullets ripped into the varnished wooden deck and kicked up a shower of sharp splinters.

“Now or never, mate,” he said with a wink.

“Should we hold hands?”

“Pointless. We’ll be pulled part a second after we jump, which is on three…”

“One,” she said, but then he pushed her off and leaped into the air behind her. A second later they were immersed in the spray of the immense waterfalls.

He spun around and saw a dazed Kuan run up to the edge of the pool and looked down, gun in hand, but the darkness of the night had already swallowed them.

He spun back and straightened up for the entry but saw Selena had timed it wrong, and was going to hit the surface on her back. Better than her front, he thought, but it was going to hurt like hell.

He drilled down into the darkness of the water and for a second the universe was silent. He floated in the black as if he was in outer space, and then he swam as fast as he could to the surface.

He gasped for air as he wiped the water from his eyes. He scanned the horizon for Selena and then he saw her, drifting on the surface and knocked out colder than an ice cube.

“Oh no…”

He fought against the violent swell of the tide in the small cove and made his way over to her. He flipped her over and held her out of the sea as he was treading water and thinking about what to do next. It was a hell of a swim around the cliffs to get out of the cove, and he knew Kuan and his men would be after them like shot out of a gun.

And then, on the horizon was Charlie Valentine and he was steering their little boat toward them. “Thank fuck for that!” he called out. “Lena — we’re saved!”

But she was still out cold as he and Charlie manoeuvred her into the boat.

“What the hell?” Charlie said.

“Get us out of here Charlie!” Riley yelled, and leaned over Selena to give her the kiss of life.

She started coughing just as Charlie opened the throttle and steered the boat out of the cove. “Is she okay?”

Selena leaned over and heaved seawater out of her lungs and mouth, gasping wildly for fresh air. “Oh God that hurts…”

“She’s going to be fine,” Riley said, rubbing her back.

They got out into the open water and headed for Ko Samui around the north coast of the island.

“Kuan’s men!” Selena cried out.

“Three boatloads of the bastards,” Riley said. “And they’ve got automatic weapons.”

“And what was that?” Selena asked, seeing a puff of smoke on the other boat.

The response was an enormous grenade explosion a few feet off their starboard bow that sprayed them with sea water and nearly tipped their boat over.

Riley turned desperate eyes up to Charlie. “If we don’t get out of here right now, we’re dead meat.”

Charlie got the message and turned the boat into the island. His plan was to hug the coast and make their silhouette less visible. It was all he could think of to give them more time and then maybe they could get back to the safety of Ko Samui.

They pulled into another cove farther around the northern coast of the island and watched with relief as Kuan and his men ripped past them. Waiting until the coast was clear Charlie turned the boat and made the decision to sail north again.

A few tense minutes passed until they all reached the conclusion they had hoodwinked Kuan and it would be plain-sailing back to the larger island, but then they heard another popping sound and turned to see Kuan was once again on their tail. He had turned and was now tearing south toward them, and the second grenade was even closer. It traced over their heads and blasted the water in front of them creating a massive trough which they ploughed into like a tractor crashing into a ditch.

Propelled forward, all three of them were nearly flung out of the tiny boat but they held on as Charlie pulled them out of it and increased speed in a vain attempt to escape their pursuers.

“Shit, Riley!” Charlie said. “They outnumber us, they outgun us and they’re faster than us. We’re properly fucked this time.”

As Kuan raced toward them, Riley and Selena shared an anxious glance.

“Pom might have a point,” he said. “We can’t out run them.”

Selena looked scared. “What the hell are we going to do, Riley?”

“That is a bloody good question, mate,” he said, and for once, he was fresh out of ideas.

Charlie was now pushing the boat to its max and knew there was nothing left in the tiny outboard motor. “Whatever we come up with it needs to be fast because we’ve got about sixty seconds before Kuan gets here.”