World of Trouble (9786167611136) (37 page)

By the time he got to the building, both
vehicles were parked and empty, but he had no doubt by then that he
was in the right place. Just inside the lobby door were two
hard-cases who couldn’t have been anything else but muscle. They
were both wearing identical dark-grey safari suits and pointy-toe
black shoes, but that was where the resemblance ended. One of them
was short and wiry and quivered with nervous energy like a whippet
held at heel. The other one looked half asleep, but he was the
biggest Thai Shepherd had ever seen in his life. The guy made Jello
look like a midget.

Shepherd opened the lobby door. He spoke
quickly, not wanting either of these guys to have a chance to get
jumpy.

“I’m Cary Grant,” he said.

If Keur was right, if this was really a trap,
then this was when it would be sprung. And if it was sprung, he
guessed he was toast. The bruiser looked like he could take out the
entire offensive line of the New York Giants all by himself, and
the little guy seemed the sort who could give martial arts lessons
to Bruce Lee.

The bruiser looked him over with hooded eyes
while the whippet just stood there and quivered. After what felt
like a week to Shepherd, but was probably more like a few seconds,
the bruiser pointed to the elevator.

Shepherd got in. The bruiser followed. There
was barely enough room for both of them.

THE BODYGUARD KNOCKED twice on the apartment door and
then opened it without waiting for a response. He waved Shepherd
inside and closed the door behind him. Kate was sitting on the
couch smoking a cigarette. She was alone.

“I don’t know whether to be happy to see you
or not,” she said with a weary smile. “I can’t remember the last
time you brought me good news.”

“I’m sorry to say this isn’t going to be one
of those times either.”

“I’ve only been prime minister for two days,
and already I’m wondering how I got myself into this.”

“Thailand is lucky to have you. You’re more
than it deserves. Why did you take the damn job?”

Kate looked at Shepherd like she had never
actually thought about that before.

“I have no idea,” she said after a few
moments, and laughed.

Shepherd walked over to an old leather chair
opposite the couch and sat down.

“That’s all the security you’ve got?”
Shepherd tilted his head to indicate where he assumed the
bodyguards were waiting outside. “One big guy and one little
guy?”

“Mutt and Jeff are the best. Don’t
underestimate them.”

“I don’t care how good they are. A hit squad
armed with automatic weapons came after the last person who had
your job. And they got him. Don’t you think that calls for having
more than just a couple of guys around you?”

“If somebody wants to kill me, they will. But
I don’t think anybody really wants to.”

“You don’t know that. Don’t be so damned Zen
about all this.”

“Mutt and Jeff will do me fine, Jack,” Kate
said, closing the subject with the finality she put into her voice.
“What have you got to tell me?”

What indeed? A bunch of suspicions, mixed
with a few observations, seasoned with several bad feelings? Not
much. Maybe not anything.

But Shepherd wanted Kate to pay close
attention. So he laid out his very best card first.

“Do you know where Tommy is?” he asked.

“I hope he’s home getting some sleep for a
change. Why do you ask?”

“Tommy was the source for a story that CNN is
running right now. He told Liz Corbin that the Thai government is
searching for me. They intend to arrest me because they think I’m
in the country to help Charlie start a civil war.”

“Are you?”

“No.”

“Then why would Tommy put out a story like
that?”

“I think he’s trying to drive me to ground.
Not because I’m trying to start a civil war. But because he knows
I’m trying to stop one.”

“You’re not making any sense, Jack.”

Then he told Kate about seeing Tommy in Dubai
getting off Harvey alongside Robert Darling.

“In Dubai? You must be mistaken. Tommy hasn’t
been in Dubai.”

“I was there, Kate. I saw him.”

“And this is the same Robert Darling who
is—”

“Charlie’s partner in Blossom Trading.”

Kate thought about that for a few moments
while Shepherd waited in silence.

“I’ve known Tommy for twenty years, Jack. You
can’t expect me to believe that he’s really working with General
Kitnarok.”

“I don’t know that he is.”

Then Shepherd told Kate about the building at
the Dubai airport where he had seen Tommy and Darling disembarking
from Harvey.

“It’s an Agency facility,” he said, “just
like the one you showed me here in Bangkok. Tommy wouldn’t have
been at an Agency facility on an Agency-operated aircraft unless he
has some connection with the CIA. Maybe it’s recent, maybe it’s
not. But you have to at least consider the possibility that perhaps
Tommy’s been an Agency asset all along.”

Kate stabbed out her cigarette and
immediately lit another one.

“Why is the CIA involved in all this, Jack?
What do they want?”

“They want Charlie back in charge in
Thailand. He’s military and he’s reliable. They think he would be
an effective counterweight to what they see as spreading Chinese
influence.”

“And they think that I’m… what? A Chinese
stooge?”

“A lot of your supporters do think China
would be a better ally for Thailand than the United States. You
know that’s true.”

“So it’s necessary for Thailand to sign up
for one team or the other, is it?”

“Some people think so.”

“Such as the CIA?”

Shepherd said nothing.

“Do you think General Kitnarok had Somchai
killed?”

“No,” Shepherd said, “Charlie might do a lot
of things, but I don’t think he would organize an
assassination.”

“Somebody gave the order to kill Somchai,
Jack. If it wasn’t General Kitnarok, then who was it?”

Shepherd saw where Kate was going with this,
of course, so he kept his mouth shut.

“Do you think the CIA killed Somchai, hoping
the government would collapse and General Kitnarok would return to
power?”

“I don’t know. It’s possible. I just don’t
know.”

“They’re never going to learn, are they?”
Kate shook her head.

Suddenly she stood up and walked to the
window, although as far as Shepherd knew there wasn’t much outside
to see.

“I think they’re getting ready to arm the red
shirts,” he said quietly.

Kate nodded. She didn’t seem surprised.

“That could tip us over the edge. If the
street mobs get guns…” Kate left the thought unfinished.

“You’ve got a little time if I’m right that
they’re using Harvey to bring in the shipment. I managed to get the
plane impounded for a few days.”

Kate turned from the window and looked at him
with a quizzical expression. “You did what?”

He explained, briefly, the ploy with the
impound order he had managed to get filed in Dubai.

Kate smiled, the first genuine smile Shepherd
had seen from her since he had come into the apartment. He had
forgotten how that smile grabbed him. It was really something.

“How long will that work for?” she asked.

“Not long,” he said.

He felt a twinge as he watched Kate’s smile
fade.

“They’ll get the order lifted by tomorrow. If
Harvey is loaded and ready to go, it will be here by tomorrow
night.”

Kate turned away from the window and sat back
down on the couch.

“When did you last speak to General
Kitnarok?” she asked.

“A few days ago. He asked me to come back to
Dubai. But when I got there he was gone.”

“Gone where?”

“I don’t know. His compound was empty. I
phoned around, but no one seemed to know anything.”

“Do you think General Kitnarok is here in
Thailand now?” Kate asked.

“My first thought was that he had just gone
into hiding after Somchai was shot. And that’s what Keur seemed to
think, but—”

“Keur? Who’s Keur?”

“An FBI agent who’s trying to nail Robert
Darling for illegal arms dealing. I sort of got hooked up with him.
It’s a long story. Nothing to do with Thailand, except maybe…”

Shepherd trailed off. Keur hadn’t exactly
told him to keep the information confidential, but his lawyer
instincts were shouting at him to shut up. He told his instincts to
pipe down.

“Keur says his investigation is being
stonewalled. He thinks the Agency is protecting Darling. That would
tally with the Agency protecting Blossom Trading’s activities here
in Thailand, too. Harvey in Dubai. Tommy on the plane with Darling.
It all fits.”

“Do you believe this man Keur?”

“Not all together. But I want him where I can
keep an eye on him.”

Kate shook another cigarette out of her pack
and lit it.

“Too many of those things can kill you,”
Shepherd said.

“Being Prime Minister of Thailand can kill
me.”

Kate was right, of course. He didn’t mention
the cigarettes again.

“If General Kitnarok is determined to arm the
red shirts,” Kate said, “I don’t know that I can stop him.”

“I don’t think Charlie’s your real problem
any more. I think it’s the Agency.”

“Why would you think that?”

“It’s got to be the Agency behind the arms
shipment. Charlie wouldn’t be arming street gangs. I know him. He’s
my friend.”

Kate looked at Shepherd, smiled slightly, and
tilted her head to one side.

“I thought
I
was your friend,” she
said.

“You are.”

“Then, my friend Jack, you are in one hell of
a lousy position here.”

Shepherd couldn’t argue with that.

Abruptly, Kate stood up and headed for the
kitchen. “I hope to hell there’s something to drink around here
someplace.”

While Kate was in the kitchen, Shepherd
walked over to the window where she had been standing and looked
out. Sure enough, the view was pretty prosaic. But there was still
something about it that held him.

Everything seemed so peaceful out there, and
yet in here he and Kate were talking about weapons to arm street
mobs and the assassination of prime ministers. Within a couple of
days, if he were standing in this very place again, he wondered if
he would be hearing gunfire and watching smoke rise over the city.
Shepherd thought back to the riot he had been caught up in a few
days ago on Silom Road. He remembered the fierceness and the rage
he had seen then in people’s faces. If Bangkok were flooded with
weapons, it would be a slaughter. There would be no going back.

“The whiskey is probably fake,” Kate said
from behind him. “The NIA would never spring for decent booze.”

Shepherd glanced over his shoulder and
watched Kate put a half-full bottle of Black Label on the coffee
table along with two glasses.

“I’ll take my chances.”

Kate poured two generous measures. She handed
one to him and took the other one. They tipped their glasses toward
each other.

“To your health,” she said.

“No, Madam Prime Minister,” Shepherd said,
“to
yours
.”

They sat and drank quietly in silence. It was
a companionable silence and the warmth of it did a great deal to
ease Shepherd’s growing sense of dread.

“Can you find General Kitnarok?” Kate asked
after few minutes.

“I’m certainly going to try. At least I will
if you’ll make sure nobody arrests me while I’m at it.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll take care of
Tommy.”

Shepherd just nodded. Although he did wonder
for a moment exactly what Kate meant by that.

“If General Kitnarok really is being used by
the Agency,” Kate said, “he could help me stop this thing.”

“I think he could.”

“But you’ve got to find him first.”

“I’ll do my best. Keep that Nokia I gave you
handy. We don’t want to talk about this on any of your usual
telephone numbers.”

“Do you really think—”

“This is the CIA we’re going up against,
Kate. Occasionally, they do get something right.”

Kate nodded and looked away, thinking.

“I have some people in Dubai,” she said.
“I’ll get them to watch the facility where Harvey is. They’ll let
me know when it leaves.”

“Can you get the flight plan?”

“It won’t mean anything. They’ll file for
some neutral destination and then divert at the last moment to
wherever they’re really going.”

“But you’ll see the plane on radar. You’ll
know where it is.”

“It’s not as easy as you make it sound. If
they change their flight plan at the last moment and alter their
transponder code at the same time, it will take a while to figure
it out. We’ll find them, of course, but by then they could be on
the ground somewhere and offloading their cargo.”

“So how do we stop the plane?”

Kate smiled at that. “What do you mean
we
, white man?”

“That’s a very old joke,” Shepherd said. “You
probably stole it from me. I hold the copyright on all very old
jokes.”

Kate didn’t laugh and she didn’t say anything
else for quite a while. She just sat there smoking quietly. When
she was done with her cigarette, she stubbed it out, folded her
arms, and looked at Shepherd.

“I’m not going to let them win, Jack.”

Shepherd just nodded.

He knew she wouldn’t.

But he also knew they might win anyway.

WHEN SHEPHERD GOT back to the apartment, Keur was
sitting on one of the sofas in the living room with a glass in his
hand. The glass was half full of something clear. It could have
been water, but Shepherd doubted it.

“You didn’t have to wait up for me,
Mother.”