Plausible Denial (20 page)

“Got
it.” Culler removed the pistols and walkie-talkies from each cop and threw them
in the backseat of the cruiser. He dragged each of the cops by their collars,
one in each hand, back away from the trail. Once in the brush he removed their
handcuffs from their belts and cuffed them together with their arms linked
behind them. He tossed the keys far into the underbrush. Neither cop budged.
Both were in la-la land.  

Moments
later Mac returned with the RAV4 and pulled up to the police cruiser. “I’ve got
an idea,” he said.

“Uh
oh, we’re in trouble again.”

“Why
don’t you take the cruiser and follow me like you’re a cop on my tail? That
will give us a little cover and maybe buy us a little more time to get the hell
out of here. I’ll give you a push to get it unstuck.”

“Sounds
like a plan. Let’s do it.”

Chapter Fifty-Eight

P
aiboon
put up his hand to signal his men to stop. They had strung out so far that the
last one was almost fifty meters back. “Did you hear that?” he asked the guard
behind him.

Breathing
heavily and soaked in sweat, the exhausted guard replied, “What?”

“Listen,
shhhhh. Sounds like a car.”

“
Mai
sabai
. The blood is pounding in my ears. I cannot hear anything.”

The
other two caught up and the four of them huddled together, listening intently.

“There
it goes again,” said Paiboon. But they all shook their heads.

“
Mai
pen rai
, no matter. I heard a car from over there. No question about it.
You are all so badly out of shape, huffing and puffing like old women, you
cannot hear anything. Spread out and be careful. It must be them. And turn off
your flashlights. If you screw this up, the Cambodian will make curry stew out
of you.”

Dawn
was setting in but it was still quite dark under the canopy of the jungle,
slowing them down considerably as they picked their way through the underbrush.

When
they got nearer to the clearing, Paiboon heard the unmistakable sounds of a
four-wheel drive vehicle spinning and clawing in low gear ahead of them.
Paiboon pointed to his ears and in the direction of the noise and signaled them
to fan out and to hurry up.

He
estimated the sound was coming from about one hundred meters in front of them.
He was exhausted from his hike, so he stopped and drank heavily from his
canteen before charging off in the direction of the sounds. The combination of
the ground mist and the darkness caused him to trip on a root and he fell
heavily on his face in the mud, cursing.

The
others were out in front of him by the time he recovered and cleaned himself
off enough to resume the chase. Another one of his men tumbled in the
underbrush and cursed. Now he wanted to tell them all to slow down because they
were nearing the edge of the jungle. Suddenly it became much lighter as the
morning sun penetrated the dwindling canopy above them.

The
guard to his left was the first to break through the edge of the jungle. When
he did he immediately brought his AK-47 up and began firing in short, staccato
bursts.

Chapter Fifty-Nine

M
ac
had returned to the police cruiser with the 4WD vehicle. The two vehicles were
nose to nose on the narrow trail. Culler got into the cruiser and put it in
reverse. The wheels spun in the mud of the trail while Mac nudged it backwards
with the RAV4.

Finally
the spinning wheels of the cruiser gained traction and Culler took off weaving
down the trail in reverse, one hand on the wheel and the other on the backrest
of the passenger seat, looking out through the rear window.

When
the cruiser hit firm ground, Culler gunned it, hit the brakes hard and spun the
wheel, executing a perfect mud slinging reverse one-eighty. Then he was off,
careening down the narrow trail with his rear end fishtailing in the dirt and
mud.

Mac
watched closely in the RAV4, admiring Culler’s driving ability. Defensive
driving was something all CIA case officers learned down at The Farm.
Things
are looking up,
he thought.

The
unmistabable staccato sound of an AK-47 shocked him, and then the plinking
sound of the rounds impacting the left rear side of the RAV4 frightened him.

He
popped the gearshift lever into neutral, grabbed his assault rifle and hit the
door hard with his shoulder, tumbling out of the vehicle and rolling. He came
up in a low shooting position behind and to the rear of the right rear wheel.

He
spotted the shooter standing behind a tree by the edge of the woods, still
firing short bursts at his vehicle.

Mac
put the red chevron on the assailant’s chest and pulled the trigger, firing off
a silent burst from his POF. Seven 5.56mm rounds stitched the tree and the
assailant at chest level, sending bark and gun flying, and spinning the hapless
guard hard around and down with four rounds in his chest and arm.

Still
in a prone shooting position, Mac used the scope to scan the tree line to the
northwest where they had exited the jungle. He spotted another guard running
through the brush toward the logging trail, carrying his AK-47 at port arms.

Mac
touched the trigger, sending three deadly rounds into the man’s gut. The man
went down with a crash in the underbush.

Mac’s
earpiece came alive. “Nice shooting, Mac. Now let’s get the hell out of here
before any more of those guys come out of the woods. Are you okay?”

“I’m
fine. See if you can get that police cruiser moving a little faster while I
cover us from here.”

“I’m
working on it. Don’t want to get too far from you. Just get your ass over
here.”

Mac
took a last long look through his scope and, seeing nothing, bolted up and back
into the RAV4. He pulled the gear shift lever back into drive and floored it,
spraying mud and dirt behind him from all four wheels.

Then
it came again. The pop, pop, pop, sound of an AK-47 rattled off a long burst,
and the rear of the RAV absorbed the 7.62mm rounds in a staccato plink, plink,
plink. One of the rounds ricocheted through the back of his seat and creased
his left hip, causing him to wince in pain.

Santos
yelled into his lapel mic. “Are you okay? Are you hit?”

“Shit,
shit, shit! I caught one in the butt. Stings like a sonofabitch. I’m on my
way.”

“Me
too. I’m moving out.”

“I
can see you. I’m right behind you.”

The
two cars careened down the narrow logging trail. Soon they were out of sight of
their pursuers and the automatic weapons fire ceased.

Chapter Sixty

P
aiboon
cursed as the vehicle sped out of sight down the trail. He stood up from his
kneeling shooting position, exchanged the empty magazine for a full one and
slung the hot assault rifle over his shoulder. His remaining security guard was
huffing and puffing toward him.

“They
are gone,” he said to no one in particular. “But they cannot get far.”

He
keyed his walkie-talkie. “Base, this is One.”

The
Cambodian answered from the helicopter. “This is Base. Go ahead, One.”

“They
are heading east on a trail which leads into this strip of jungle,
approximately eight or nine kilometers south of our warehouse. They are in two
vehicles, a police cruiser and a small jeep, and they are moving fast.”

“Talk
us in, One. We are turning around and heading for your position now. Did you
say one of the vehicles was a police cruiser? How did they get a police
cruiser?”

“I
don’t know, sir, but the two vehicles left together and I saw no police
around.”

The
Cambodian thought for a moment before answering.

“The
police have been searching for them. Khun Ut notified them. They must have
killed the police and taken their cruiser, so their bodies must be around there
someplace. Find them and I will notify the police to be on the lookout for a
police cruiser as well as their vehicle.”

“Yes
sir. I hear your helicopter coming this way… I see you now… Keep coming. Keep
coming… Left about thirty degrees… Good, keep coming and you will pass directly
over my position… Okay, now turn due west and you will be directly over the
trail. It must head out to a road.”

“Good
work, One. We can see the trail. Base out.”

Chapter Sixty-One

T
he
two vehicles careened down the logging trail as fast as possible, but it wasn’t
fast enough. Mac heard the sound of the helicopter first. “Uh-oh, we’ve got
company again.”

“I
hear it,” Culler replied.

The
helicopter passed directly overhead and continued in a westerly direction. “I
think they missed us,” said Mac. “The tree cover is still pretty good along
this strip of road. It’ll be hard for them to find us from the air until we hit
the road, but not impossible. What do you think?”

Culler
fought the wheel of the police cruiser, trying to keep up his speed but being
thrown from one side of the trail to the other by the deep muddy ruts left by
logging trucks.

“I
don’t think anyone’s following us from behind any longer, so let’s pull over
into some cover the next chance we get and try to wait them out. That
helicopter’s been in the air since before dawn. They’ll have to refuel sooner
or later, so if we can hide till then…”

“Good
idea. Let’s ditch the RAV4 as well. Everyone’s looking for it and it’s riddled
with bullet holes. But the police cruiser looks like every other police car in
Thailand. And this is as good a place as any. Hold on, I’m going to pull off
into that brush over there to my right.”

Mac
pulled off the trail and ran the vehicle deep the underbrush beneath a thicket
of fichus trees. Culler stopped the cruiser and backed up to get as close as he
could to the RAV4.

Stripping
off his gear and Ghillie-suit, Santos said, “We better get out of this
camouflage shit, so we don’t look like a couple of jungle monsters.” He opened
the trunk of the cruiser and tossed his gear into it. He was now dressed in a
sweat soaked white tee-shirt and blue jeans.

Mac
followed suit. His Ghillie-suit and jeans were torn and bloodied from the
ricochet. He turned to help Culler, who was busy emptying the RAV and loading
their gear into the back of the cruiser. They decided to keep their rifles and
pistols beside them in the cab.

Culler
surveyed the back and side of the RAV. “You sure did get shot up. How’s your
butt?”

Mac
looked down at a three-inch tear in his jeans high on his hip between the
pocket and belt. The tear was coated in blood. “Stings like a bitch but it’s
not too deep. I’ll live. We’ll get it fixed up later.”

The
helicopter returned from the west and thump-thumped over their position,
rustling the trees and bushes in its powerful downdraft. They could barely see
the helicopter through the trees as it passed overhead. “We’ve still got pretty
good cover on this trail,” said Mac. “What do you think?”

Culler
threw the last of the gear into the cruiser and slammed the trunk. He looked up
through the trees and assessed their situation. “We’re most vulnerable out on
the trail. The helicopter can see it from up there. I think our best bet is to
move as fast as we can down the trail and dash for cover whenever we hear the
bastards approaching.”

“Good
idea. I don’t want to hang out around here any longer than we have to, and if
we can get out on the road with the cruiser, we’ll be able to blend in better.”

“And
thank God for those tinted windows. People won’t be able to see our big
farang
faces peering out at them.”

“Yeah,”
said Mac, “got to avoid being seen. Leaving the trail for the highway will be tricky.
That’ll have to be timed just right. But they’ll be looking for two vehicles,
not just one, which is a good thing.”

Mac
thought for a moment. “Wait a minute. What about the police? Surely they’re out
looking for their guys, too. And what if Khun Ut’s men in the helicopter have
communicated with them about this? Damn, Culler, we need to get the hell out of
here
tout de suite
before the whole goddamned world converges on this
trail.”

Chapter Sixty-Two

T
he
Cambodian cursed into his walkie-talkie. “This is bullshit.
Mai sabai
.
How long ago did they leave? We cannot see them from up here.”

“They
left not more than ten minutes ago. I called you immediately. I hit the jeep as
they were leaving. Maybe I got one of them.”

“Then
why did you stop following them? We cannot see the ground from here.”

“
Phom
mai khao jai khrap
, we could not follow, Ung Chea. There are only two of us
left, and they are in vehicles and we are on foot.”

“Why
are there only two of you left?
Mai pen rai
, you are incompetent. Have
you found the bodies of the police officers yet?”

“Yes,
Ung Chea, we just found them. They are unconscious but not dead.”

“
Dee
mak
, thank you. Stay with them until the police arrive. They are on their
way. We will continue to search from here.”

Chapter Sixty-Three

C
uller
and Mac piled into the cruiser. Culler drove and Mac sat in the passenger seat
with his POF across his knees. His left hip burned like hell, and he tried to
keep it from rubbing on the seat. Culler hit the gas and the cruiser leapt
forward down the narrow trail.