Chapter 29

Kiana and Christine were met at the airport in Chiang Mai by their contact, Lewis Armstrong. Armstrong was a short, thin man with no hair and he seemed both nervous and excited at the same time. He could barely hold still as he talked.

“Thank goodness you’re here. We need to move immediately.”

“Has something happened?” Christine asked.

Armstrong nodded. “While you were on the plane I was able to locate Johnson. At least I’m pretty certain I did.”

“Where is he?”

“He’s being held by a man named Thaksin Ratanarak. He’s the man Johnson and I have been tailing for a while and we were always convinced he was the leader of the smuggling operation we’ve been trying to break up. He has a small estate on the outskirts of town and I believe Johnson is there.”

“How do you know?”

“One of my sources told me.”

“Is the source reliable?”

“Very.”

Armstrong led them to a small, red car in the airport’s parking lot, then started to drive them across town. Kiana was immediately impressed by what she saw. Chiang Mai was an ancient city, over seven hundred years old, that had once been surrounded by a large brick wall and a moat. The moat, which was about fifty feet wide and filled with thick, brown water, was still there, but most of the wall had crumbled and eroded over time, so only portions of it remained. There were Buddhist temples, called wats, everywhere, many of them quite ornate, in shades of red and gold, and the entire city was absolutely bustling with activity. The roads were dense with traffic and were filled with small red trucks with canopies called songthaews. They were Chiang Mai’s version of taxis and people (mostly tourists) rode around town in their canopies. There were also tuktuks, rickshaws, and what seemed like a million scooters (small motorcycles). Scooters appeared to be one of the most popular forms of transportation in Chiang Mai and people rode them everywhere. At each stoplight hundreds of them congregated, waiting for the light to finally turn green. Kiana and Christine laughed as they passed one scooter that had four people on it at the same time, which looked ridiculous since the vehicle was only meant to hold two people at the most.

It took them about thirty minutes but they finally made it to Thaksin’s estate, which was in a residential area somewhere on the outskirts of town, but in an area that was still densely populated. Thaksin’s estate wasn’t overly fancy and it was really just a series of old buildings surrounded by a tall, stone wall.

“Come with me,” Armstrong said. He parked the car at the far end of the road, out of view of the estate, then led them into a nearby building, up a staircase and into a room on the building’s uppermost floor. From there, he went to a window on the far side of the room, and from the window they had a perfect view down into Thaksin’s estate.

“Johnson and I have been using this room for a while now. As you can see, it’s perfect for surveillance.”

Christine and Kiana nodded. From here, they could see just about everything that was going on inside Thaksin’s estate. Not inside the buildings themselves, but at least inside the main wall.

“Originally,” Armstrong said, “I was convinced they weren’t holding Johnson here. And I was right. But this morning a truck showed up and he was in it. They took him into the main building near the rear of the estate.”

“Was he okay?” Christine asked.

“He was bound and gagged but other than that he was fine.”

“Have you been able to figure out how many people we’re dealing with over there?”

“Normally there are at least twenty guards on duty at a time, sometimes more. But Thaksin left this morning and he took at least half of them with him.”

“Where did he go?”

“No idea.”

Christine spent the next couple of minutes looking closely at the estate, clearly sizing it up and trying to decide what to do next. Finally, she turned to Kiana.

“I’m not supposed to expose you to any unnecessary danger and your dad and Beckman will shoot me if anything happens to you. But if you’re willing, I know how we can rescue Johnson.”

“How?”

Christine pointed to a building across the street that was an old, rundown apartment of some type. It was directly to the east of Thaksin’s estate and the only thing separating the two was a small, narrow alley. “I want you, Armstrong, to make your way to the roof of that building and start a fire. I don’t care what you use, but make certain it creates a lot of smoke. The more the better. That will flush the majority of Thaksin’s guards out into the open, if we’re lucky outside the wall and into the street. I then want you, Kiana, to take a couple of them out, then flee down the street back toward the center of town. Entice as many of them to follow you as possible.”

Kiana’s eyes got big. “On foot?”

Christine shook her head. “Use a scooter. I’ve ridden them before and they’re pretty fast for their size. In addition, they’re easy to ride. Head back toward the middle of town where you can blend in with traffic and lose any pursuers. In the meantime, I’ll sneak around the back of the estate, scale the wall, and free Johnson. Which should be pretty easy if you can get enough of the guards to follow you.”

“I’m not certain I like this plan too much. I’m the bait?”

“Either that or I’ll be the bait and you can climb the wall and free Johnson. But I don’t think that’s a good idea because at least one or two of the guards are going to stay behind for certain and they’ll have to be neutralized.”

Kiana nodded. She didn’t like the idea of being used as bait, but at the same time, Christine had a point. The person who served as bait simply had to evade the guards, not confront them.

Christine clearly saw the hesitation in her eyes.

“There’s no pressure, Kiana. I know you’re new to this type of thing. If you’re not up for it just say so and I’ll think of another way. I may -”

Kiana was nervous, there was no denying it, but at the same time she was excited. This was what she had been trained for. This was a real mission. And possibly a man’s life depended on the outcome of it. Johnson was inside that estate, and as far as Kiana knew he could be injured or they could be questioning or torturing him at that very moment. As such, time was of the essence.

“I can do it. Just show me how to ride one of those darn things.”

Armstrong made his way over to the far building, to start preparations for the fire he was going to build, and in the meantime Christine and Kiana stole a scooter that was parked in an adjacent alley (it was easy to steal since the owner had left the key in its ignition). Kiana felt bad about stealing someone’s scooter but Christine assured her they would return it as soon as they finished the op. Christine then showed her how to ride it and like she had said, it was amazingly easy, since it was small, light, and had an automatic transmission. Really, all Kiana had to do was grab onto the handlebars, give it some gas, and go.

A few minutes later, they parked it at the far end of the street, just a ways down from Thaksin’s estate, right where Kiana could get to it when needed.

“Wait for me to get into position,” Christine said. “Once I’m in position, I’ll signal Armstrong to start the fire. Once the guards start to emerge, take out as many of them as you can, then flee. I’ll take care of everything else from there and I’ll rendezvous with you later as soon as I can.”

“What’ll I do until I hear from you?”

“Lay low.” And then she smiled. “And stay away from Thai boys. I hear they like American girls, especially little hotties like you.”

Kiana smiled. She thought it was pretty funny Christine was making a joke at a time like that, when they were just about to try something that, if it went wrong, could lead to their deaths. But then again, Christine was an experienced, knowledgeable agent and had probably done this type of thing many times in the past, so maybe it was no big deal for her.

But it was to Kiana. Her heart was absolutely pounding in her chest. She couldn’t believe what she had gotten herself into. But there was nothing she could do about it, and it was way too late to change her mind and alter the plan. Christine had already moved away, to take her position at the back of Thaksin’s estate. Soon, she would give the signal to Armstrong and things would officially be under way.

On a few occasions in the past, Kiana had had butterflies in her stomach. Her first taekwondo match came immediately to mind. As did her first softball game. But right at that moment, as she stood there waiting for Christine’s signal, she had more than just butterflies. For a few seconds, she was so nervous she actually wondered if she was going to get sick and vomit right there on the spot.

And it seemed like it took forever. At one point, she even started to wonder if something had already gone wrong and she started to wonder if something had happened to Christine. What if one of Thaksin’s guards had spotted her trying to make her way into position and she had been captured? What would Kiana do then? Would she have to rescue her? And if so, how? Kiana wasn’t confident, not one bit, that she was capable of doing such a thing.

Kiana forced the thought out of her mind. Christine was a well-trained agent. She knew what she was doing. She would be okay. Kiana just had to be patient.

And then she saw it. Smoke had started to form on the top of the apartment building. It wasn’t very thick at first, and actually it was barely visible at all, but a few minutes later it had thickened immensely and the entire roof looked like it was aflame.

Good heavens, Kiana thought. What had Armstrong done up there? Had he dumped an entire can of gasoline on the building’s roof? Christine had asked him to make a distraction, not burn the entire place down.

Regardless, it worked. Within a minute, Kiana heard shouts coming from inside Thaksin’s estate (she could no longer see inside since she was on the street and her view was blocked by the wall), and then she saw its front gate slide open and several men stroll out, no doubt in an attempt to get a better vantage point to view what was happening. The men were talking as they emerged but Kiana couldn’t understand anything they were saying since they were speaking in Thai (of all the languages she knew, Thai was not one of them). As expected, however, they had their backs to her, since she was down the street in the exact opposite direction of the fire.

She drew her pistol from her shoulder holster but waited for several seconds, hoping as many men as possible would come out into the open. Six of them had emerged and walked into the street and a seventh was standing in the doorway when one of them turned unexpectedly and looked directly at her. Almost immediately, he spotted the pistol in her hand and shouted something in Thai.

The next few minutes were a complete blur. Without thinking, Kiana raised the pistol and shot him in the chest, then shot the man next to him, then watched briefly as they dropped to the ground, unconscious. She fired at one more, then turned and ran as fast as she could for her scooter. She had already started it and it was sitting there idling, waiting for her, so she was able to jump on it and take off immediately upon reaching it. In the meantime, however, the remaining guards drew their weapons and chased after her. Kiana cringed as she heard a CRACK and a bullet raced over her head. A window in a nearby building shattered as it was hit. Luckily, however, the men couldn’t keep up with her for long on foot so she was able to get out of their range before they could fire any more shots at her.

Unfortunately, however, she wasn’t safe for long. It took a few minutes but the guards regrouped and four of them grabbed scooters of their own (they must have had some within a garage in Thaksin’s estate) and chased after her. She had built up quite a lead but it didn’t last for long since their scooters had bigger engines than hers and could go quite a bit faster. Kiana tried to lose them by driving down a side street and it actually worked for a few seconds, but unfortunately one of them spotted her and the chase resumed again. As such, Kiana was forced to zip out into traffic, onto the main road that surrounded Chiang Mai’s downtown area, which was just inside the moat she had seen on their voyage from the airport into town. The moat was actually right in the middle of the street, separating one direction of traffic from the other. She zipped past a songthaew, raced past a tuktuk, and at one spot even went up onto the sidewalk.

“Crazy farang!” an old man shouted as she zipped past him, missing him by less than inch. She didn’t know it at the time, but ‘farang’ was the Thai word for foreigner and it was usually used in a derogatory way.

In the meantime, Thaksin’s guards continued to pursue her and one of them took a wild shot that hit a fruit cart directly to her right, sending melon juice spraying in all directions, including all over her face and hair. Growing desperate, she turned her scooter hard to the right and darted back in the exact opposite direction, in a desperate attempt to double back and lose them, and she actually ended up going down the street in the wrong direction, completely against the flow of traffic. She swerved to the left to avoid a collision with a red Toyota, then swerved to the right to miss a yellow Honda, then swerved back to the left to avoid a small bus. One of the guards tried to do the same but he wasn’t quite as lucky. The bus hit him head-on and demolished him.

In the meantime, Kiana continued to race along, weaving in and out of traffic, and finally she came to a small bridge that went across the moat and onto the street on the far side. She darted across it and zipped along, and much to her relief she had resumed traveling with the flow of traffic again, instead of going against it. In addition, she was able to pick up some serious speed and in no time her scooter was moving along as fast it could. Its engine was absolutely humming beneath her. Unfortunately, however, it wasn’t humming quite fast enough and the three remaining scooters, who had doubled back and crossed the bridge, were gaining on her quickly. She grimaced as a bullet flew over her head and shattered a restaurant’s front window.

At that point, she wasn’t certain she was happy with Christine’s plan. When she had agreed to do it, she had thought she was going to sneak away quickly and easily, not end up in a ridiculous and extremely dangerous chase.

And then she wondered about Christine. She wondered how she had done with her part of the plan. Had she been able to get inside the estate and free Johnson? Or had things gone wrong on her end just like they had gone wrong for Kiana?

Another gunshot snapped her back to attention. She’d have to worry about Christine later. For now, she had to worry about herself. And she needed to think of something quickly because the men were getting closer and closer by the second. Within seconds, they would be in range and Kiana’s days as a secret agent would be over.

Then an idea came to mind. Way back, during her initial visit to the USIA’s headquarters, Walters had given her some equipment. One of the items was her phone, which had a removable battery that doubled as a flash grenade. Her eyes got big as she thought of it. Clearly, it could help her. She reached down, pulled her phone from her pocket (which wasn’t an easy thing to do while driving a scooter and weaving in and out of traffic), popped off its back (which was the battery itself) and tossed it on the ground behind her. A few seconds later, and much to her delight, it exploded in a brilliant flash of gold and red, and it took out the lead guard as it did. He spun to the side and crashed into a cart that was filled with fruits, vegetables, and countless other items.

Unfortunately, the remaining guards were undaunted and they continued their pursuit. Kiana tried to think of something more to do with the equipment Walters had given her but nothing came to mind. As such, she decided the equipment wasn’t going to help her any more. If she was going to survive the chase, she was going to have to do something herself. And whatever she was going to do would have to be something spectacular.

So she did the most spectacular thing she could think of.

She jumped the moat.

She had come to a portion of the street where it curved sharply to the left. The moat was directly in front of her, since it curved along with the street, and there was a large dirt and grass berm in front of it that looked to Kiana like it would work as a makeshift ramp. If Kiana could get to the other side of the moat she might be safe, at least for a few minutes, because she doubted the guards would be crazy enough to try to follow her across.

She hit the berm at full speed and went completely airborne. For a few brief, terrifying seconds she flew through the air at least ten feet above the water. At one point, she didn’t think her trajectory was right and she didn’t think she’d make it all of the way to the far side, but much to her relief and delight, she did. Her joy was short-lived, however. The minute her front tire hit the ground, she went straight over her handlebars. It all happened so fast she didn’t even know what had happened at first. All she knew was she had landed on the ground, on the dirt right next to the sidewalk, flat on her back. Luckily, the dirt was soft and it had actually cushioned her fall a little, so she was stunned but not hurt in any way (other than a few bumps and bruises). Had she landed a few feet to the left, however, on the concrete sidewalk, her fate would have been substantially different and she would have likely broken every bone in her body.

Much to her surprise, both of the guards tried to jump the moat after her, but unlike her they suffered terrible fates as a result. One didn’t fly far enough, so he ended up crashing headfirst into the thick, murky water, and the other soared right over the top of her (his back tire missed her head by less than a foot) and landed in the middle of the street. There was a tremendous crash as he hit the side of a truck and crumpled to the ground, and an even louder crash as a bus ran right over the top of him.

Kiana was still pretty shaken from the whole ordeal but was finally able to recover and collect her wits. She climbed to her feet and slipped down the nearest alley. Within seconds, she had disappeared into the shadows and, like Christine had instructed her, she was going to remain hidden until contacted. As far as she was concerned, she had had more than enough excitement for one day.