The Hunt for Shambhala

6

Kunchai took his time over dinner — there were plenty of laughs all round but the waitresses looked mostly terrified. The guests were all men, and they looked like serious underworld figures for the most part. Decker sighed and glanced at his watch again. It was nearly ten at night by the time the gathering began to disperse and they had been standing around the side of the club for half an hour trying to look casual.

The guests finally staggered out to chauffeured limos waiting outside the nightclub — business was finally over, and now they all watched as Kunchai departed the conference room and made his way up the stairs toward his private apartment above.

“Time for us to get going,” Riley said.

They climbed up on the hood of the delivery truck and then clambered up the windshield and onto the roof. From here Riley was able to open the window and they climbed inside.

“It’s pitch black in here,” Selena said, struggling to find a light switch.

“Don’t turn the bloody lights on,” Riley said.

The Australian gently rolled up the bamboo blinds a few inches to let some light into the room and then he quickly saw they were in a storage room filled with bags of rice and cans of coconut milk, lychees and rambutans. They approached the internal door and Riley quietly cracked it open, peering through the gap and seeing a short corridor with a flight of stairs at the end of it.

The kitchen of the downstairs restaurant was at the other end, and now the door was open he could hear the clatter of pans and the hiss of the woks as the chefs worked hard to supply the never-ending stream of hungry tourists with their dinners. Checking the coast was clear, they stepped out into the corridor and were instantly struck by the smell of chilli and lemongrass. It smelled great, but this was no pleasure trip.

If Kunchai found someone breaking and entering one of his clubs there would be an ugly and painful end in one of Ratchawithi’s less savoury soi or alleys… just more victims of a fatal robbery. The Soi Wat Makok was particularly notorious for drug lords and their narcotic violence, and Riley Carr had big dreams of sailing around the world.

They hurried along the corridor with the kitchen at their backs and began to climb the steps to the upper floor. Upstairs they quickly found the office, and closed the door behind them as they entered the small room. They heard two men speaking in Thai at the bottom of the stairs but then their voices faded.

Then Kunchai entered the room. He yawned and loosened his tie and then started toward his desk on the far wall.

“Don’t move,” Riley said.

He watched the Bangkok gangster, expecting him to spin around, but instead he raised his arms and turned slowly to face him. “Who are you?” His voice was cool and measured, not a hint of fear.

Selena stepped out of the shadow of a finger palm and revealed her face to Kunchai.

“A woman?”

“You’re very perceptive,” Selena said.

Now Decker and Charlie came into view and Kunchai gave a sarcastic smile. “I see I am outnumbered.”

“Where’s the journal you stole from us in Hong Kong?” Selena said.

Kunchai fought hard to keep expressionless. “Journal?”

“Don’t piss us about, mate,” Riley said. “We all know you had the private collection in Hong Kong raided and took the journal from us. We got your address from one of your goons.”

Kunchai took a cautious step back toward the door.

“Stay where you are,” Riley said. “This bullet is faster than you are, believe me.”

Kunchai obeyed and stood still once again.

“Where is it, Kunchai?” Selena said.

“I’m sorry to have to tell you it was here for only a few moments. It has already gone to my employer.”

“He’s lying,” Charlie said.

“I am not.”

Selena and Riley shared a quick glance, but Decker spoke next. “And who might your employer be?”

“I forget his name.”

Selena sighed. “We don’t have time for this, Mr Decker.”

“Damn right we don’t,” Riley said, padding over to Kunchai’s laptop and waking it up. It was nestled among ledgers and other piles of paper full of accountancy figures. A single golden Buddha paperweight surveyed all of the clutter with passive indifference.

“Password?”

“I forget.”

Without warning he leapt out of the chair and lunged at Kunchai, grabbing the man around the throat with one hand while pulling his hands behind his back and pinning them down with the other. “You need to see a doctor about your memory, mate, but while you’re waiting for an appointment let’s see if I can help you. What’s the fuckin’ password?”

“I…”

Riley squeezed harder, and Kunchai’s veins began to swell like flooded creeks pulsing over his forehead and neck. “Password?”

Kunchai croaked a Thai word and Riley released him, typing the word in and activating the computer. “Good boy.”

The gangster had collapsed onto all fours as he strained air into his lungs and tried to slow his pounding heart, but the Australian was already busy tapping away on the computer.

“Anything?” Selena asked.

Riley scanned dozens of documents all written in Thai and then moved onto his email account. “Not that I can see — we need to go through this much more carefully.”

“You would be wise to end your journey here,” Kunchai said. “My employer does not take kindly to uninvited guests.”

“Shut the fuck up, you fat bastard,” Riley said, planting a hefty kick in Kunchai’s ribs.

The Thai gangster rolled under the desk and howled in pain, but then he threw his arm out and hit a security button. “My men will be here in seconds…”

Charlie ran to the door and glanced over the balcony rail, peering down into the restaurant. “Three guys with automatic weapons,” he said casually. “They look like they might know more than a few Muay Thai strikes, guys, and they’re heading this way fast.”

Riley aimed the gun and fired at the men. They fell into defensive positions and returned fire, and Riley had emptied the six-shooter in a few seconds. The goons worked out they were out of ammo and were in the room before anyone could react, and then Riley heard a low voice behind him. He spun around to see Kunchai staggering to his feet. “Stay where you are and raise your hands, or I will order my men to kill you all.”

They raised their hands and the men stormed into the room with their guns raised. One ran to Kunchai to check he was all right while the other two kept their weapons trained on the intruders.

“Now the tables have turned,” Kunchai said with a smile as he approached Riley. “And you will be the first to pay for your disrespect.”

He turned to the man beside him and ordered him to shoot the Australian.

The man took a step forward and raised the weapon.

Riley’s years in the SAS had equipped him with a lightning reaction, and while most people confronted with a gun would freeze and have to get over the shock before deciding on a course of action, the Australian Special Forces man knew those few seconds were where the advantage passed from you to the man with the gun.

And with that considered, Riley moved fast to his right and grabbed the Buddha paperweight off the desk. A second later it was smashing into the face of the man with the gun, breaking his nose and making him cry out in pain. The man muffled his own cry when he raised his hands to his face to check the new arrangement of his nose.

Decker and Charlie rushed the other men and a fight broke out in the small office as Riley seized the moment and charged into his opponent, elbowing him in the throat with one arm while smashing the gun out of his hand with the other. It hit the cheap vinyl tiles with a muffled smack and the Australian kicked it across the office before his assailant got any idea about picking it up again. The former SAS man had no use for it — there was no need to kill this man, and what else was a gun for?

A second later the man wrestled his way free of his grip and put the Australian in what he recognized as a shime-waza chokehold. It was a good, well-executed grappling hold that very quickly did its job and started constricting the blood supply from his head. Across the room he saw Decker and Charlie disarming the men and engaging in a brutal fistfight while Selena snatched up their weapons.

Riley kicked out against the choke, striking the side of the filing cabinet and almost sending it crashing over. Glancing at the gun he had booted across the room he felt a flash of regret, but then shrugged it off fast. Guns were the last resort in a situation like this. They were dangerous and lazy, and if a former SASR soldier with his level of experience couldn’t get out of a scrape like this with his hands, then he didn’t deserve to walk away. For Riley it was a matter of pride — much of a commando’s work was about beating the enemy silently, and there was nothing quiet about firing a nine mil pistol in an enclosed office.

Slowly, he felt the effects of the blood constriction, and he fought hard in the sweat and humidity of the small space to get a grip on the man and free the chokehold. It was then that he realized Selena had ordered the other men to raise their hands and was now pointing the guns in his opponent’s face.

“Raise ’em to heaven!” she said with a wink to Riley.

The man released the Australian and he sucked the fresh air into his lungs as he tried to regain his full consciousness. Then they all heard the men laughing.

“What’s so funny?” Decker said.

“You have lost Kunchai and the journal!” one of them said.

“What?”

They turned and saw Kunchai was gone.

“He said it was already with his boss,” Selena said.

Charlie rolled his eyes. “And I told you he was lying.”

Riley snatched one of the guns from Selena and held it in the face of the man who had choked him. “Where is he taking the journal?”

“I have no idea. He would never tell us a thing like that.”

Riley pulled back the slide and pushed the muzzle on the man’s forehead. “Where is he going? Last time I ask.”

“I don’t know who he is working for, but the quickest way out of this part of town is the river. It’s where he would go to escape. Go through the food stores on the ground floor.”

Riley pistol-whipped the man and knocked him out, and then turned to his friends. “Tie those goons up!.”

“Sure thing,” Charlie said as he tied up the two men with cables and taped up their mouths with a roll of Scotch tape from Kunchai’s desk.

“I’m going with you!” Selena said.

“Me too,” Decker said. “Until I get my cash I’m your shadow.”

“Fine, but someone’s got to stay here and look after these idiots.”

“That’s me,” Charlie said with a smile. “And I’ll go through his computer files again and see how my Thai holds up.”

When the men were secured, Riley, Selena and Decker dashed down the stairs and scanned the restaurant for an exit. To their right Riley saw a door marked ‘Kitchen’ in Thai and now they sprinted toward it.

Selena watched the Australian raise the Sig and aim it at the door. It was easy to forget about someone else’s past. Riley’s stupid jokes and easy-going manner almost completely eclipsed his former life, but when she saw how confidently he lifted the pistol into the aim and moved toward the unknown danger ahead of them, his past-life as a soldier in the Australian SAS Regiment came to the surface in no uncertain terms.

“Stay behind me,” he said, voice low and steady. “And if I say get down don’t mess about.”

“Got it.”

They entered the kitchen cautiously. It appeared to be deserted of people, but pots and pans bubbled and steamed on the hobs.

“Looks like the Mary Celeste,” Decker said.

A man emerged from behind a walk-in freezer. He wasn’t startled to see them — he’d obviously been deployed there by Kunchai, and he was holding a gun in his hand. “You’re too late,” he said. “Kunchai has gone, and so has the journal.”

“Whoever you are, you have to let us get after him!” Selena said. “You have no idea what’s at stake.”

“I work for Kunchai, not random thieves. Now, it is time for your Bangkok vacation to end.” He raised the pistol until it was pointing at Selena’s head and squinted as he brought the sights right between her eyes. “Game over,” he said, and squeezed the trigger.