Chapter Twenty Seven

“Why didn’t you take better care of her?”

Kae was furious with Vig. The Chinaman was the professional here, experienced and watchful. Surely he should have been able to keep tabs on Jean, their trump card. This wouldn’t be the first time he’d had a simple kidnap to manage. It was a preferred skill on the job description. If anything this abduction would have been easier to organise than most, especially seeing that the girl didn’t realise she was in a kidnap situation (although judging from her current reaction it looked like things had recently changed).

Now with Jean taking off over the mud like a rabbit fleeing the farmer’s shotgun all hopes and dreams were fading. His lucrative café bar lay in smouldering ruins, his life rubbed out by PC38. Involving those fascist wankers from the outset had seemed such a plan, a stroke of criminal genius, given their tentacle fingers. He hoped he could play them into his pit of dreams, keeping the Vietnamese fraternity thinking he was hard at work alone. He needed their dollars and contacts in equal measures: Triad tentacles verses dictatorial police. Now he mourned the day he had ever mentioned it. All he now had was this fucking mission; everything was now pegged to it. If the girl got away and chummed up with her friends he was fucked. He would still have to run to the highest hill, this time with no untold wealth.

“Don’t just stand there, get after her! We need that bitch!” His anger produced spit as he spoke.

Kae’s comment was largely aimed at Vig, but all three took off nevertheless. Who would want to hang around and face the wrath of a fuming Asian Mussolini? Vig disguised any alarm as he pursued Jean through the heavy rain and mud. There was an edge of the desperate warlord in Kae’s reaction. Vig was used to a spot of temper-letting; Kae’s anger was infamous amongst Vientiane’s colourful underworld. Neither was it unusual for Vig to become the target for Kae’s volcanic wrath. It was the raw intensity, the reckless edge that worried Vig. The barriers were down and now his venom was thrown at Jean, a girl he needed to keep calm, to show trust and understanding towards even if their friendship were lacking in sincerity. He had much to sacrifice: his life was hanging on this one, but Kae was losing it and that spelt danger.

He could just make out Jean up ahead, maybe 50 feet in front. The heavy rain obscured much of his vision. She was making good progress. Vig guessed that with several armed mercenaries hot on her tail she was unlikely to hold back and take in the view. If anything, she would be running for Olympic gold. His fear was in not getting to her before she had the chance to reach the corner and raise all kinds of hell. He upped his speed, his army training taking over. Over a short distance he could still do it. Any pain became blocked out as he stepped up several gears. His footing was guided by instinct, each step firm throwing his speed forward. He was briefly aware of movement to his side, happy that the chosen aides were very capable of slogging it out through the mud. For a few seconds he was sure that they might just do it. Old aches were ignored as he closed in on Jean. He could now clearly see her blonde hair, darkened by the relentless rain. As he was working on his next move he was startled by a revving engine.

“Come on! Let’s get after her!”

There was a tone of raw desperation in his voice. Kae was driving the jeep with his head out of the window. Heavy rain blew into his exposed face, preventing visibility beyond more than a few feet. Vig was witnessing a side to Kae not previously seen before. Alarms were rattling off within him. His paymaster would always remain composed to the extent of detached coldness, whatever the situation. On one occasion he faced an opponent in a western-style gun draw, sinking his 9mm burning lead into the guy’s neck before the opposing hand had drawn. That took guts, gaining long-term respect and admiration from Vig. This was so different. Perhaps Kae was putting too much on the line. Whatever the prize hanging off the end of this one, it must be colossal given what the Thai was gambling. Colossal prizes came with big complications coated in danger. The way he was acting, he was likely to drag them all into danger head-first. Vig would need to keep an eye on things and act accordingly. If Kae was losing the plot and taking them all with him, Vig intended on having the option to jump first. Loyalties would come a far-off second. Once they had Kae he could not see PC38 coming for others down the murky chain.

Whilst his attention was still fixed on Kae, the Thai produced what looked like a Glock pistol and fired into the air. Vig was incredulous. The idiot might as well run on ahead and shout warnings to any waiting Hmong that they were well and truly here.

“You must stop her!” Kae shouted. The pouring rain tried to muffle much of what he was trying to say. “Keep after her and I’ll fire over her head this time. It should scare her into freezing up.”

Before Vig could even shout back what an ass he was becoming, two further shots rang out. The ridiculous commotion had taken away his attention. Without realising he had slowed his fast sprint to a trot. Turning back he could see that far from stopping her in those muddy tracks, Kae’s shots looked to have pushed her forward into warp speed. Unless she fell it was now pointless trying to beat her to the corner up ahead. Once she took the bend even a blind bat would know that she was on her way. Any Hmong hanging back with the stranded truck would be sure to see a blonde New Zealander pelting towards them.

With leg power no longer an option, Vig hoped Kae might at least be able to cut her off in the jeep. He was wrong again. With Kae’s attention focused purely on Jean, the jeep careered sharply to the right, the deep ruts hauling the wheels sharply. Kae lost control as the jeep spun around, bouncing its irate passenger as it went.

With little alternative, Vig made his way towards the stricken vehicle. Now that Jean was firmly out of sight, her newfound Olympian legs carrying her on her way to waiting allies, it was time to rethink the situation. Short of wanting to strangle Kae, he figured that he ought to report back and unleash a few thoughts on how not to pursue a captive. The Thai had fucked up in a major way and needed to learn some form of lesson from all of this, arrogance being a point high up on the agenda. As he approached he didn’t even bother helping the Thai out of the stricken Chinese jeep. His generous salary covered many things, but bailing out Kae from this situation was not included in his terms.

“We nearly had her Vig, so nearly.” Kae was climbing out from the driver’s seat. He was clearly out of breath, the brief excitement of the moment having taken its toll on his ragged nerves. “My fault back there for getting carried away. I was just so keen to stop Jean getting away like that. I wasn’t expecting her to pull such a trick.”

Kae’s apology put a stop to Vig’s intention to walk away from the current, seemingly doomed, mission. He still felt in the ascendancy, occupying much of the professional high-ground, estimating that this could be a good time for Kae to tell him what the hell was going on and why it was worth all the high-profile risk. It would also provide for a good opportunity to renegotiate some of those terms.

The others caught up as Kae emerged from the jeep. He waved them to huddle around, once again a figure of authority.

“Right, we know that there is a truck just down the road with some Hmong aboard, presumably armed. At this moment we have to presume that Jean has reached them. Let’s face it, they can hardly miss each other. We’ll also have to presume that they will be alerted and be waiting for us. At this stage they will not know who we are. They will be high on suspicion but will not know our true intent or danger. In order for this to work we need Jean back. Our best plan is to outflank them, using the deception that we come in peace. Their hesitation should buy us time. Vig and myself will walk down the road, arms raised in a peaceful gesture, whilst you other guys cut through the forest and open up on them. We want a show of fireworks, not bodies. I want to capture that truck in one piece, which includes the occupants.”

“Any questions?” Kae continued, challenging his audience to pick fault in his plan.

“Yes, just one.” It was Vig.

“Go on.”

“What the fuck is this all about?”