Redback (33 page)

Kelman stepped between the intruders and the table to hide his gun and the fact that Rawley was
tied up. Tano was standing about six feet to his left, and the other Thai was perched and ready on
the edge of the couch behind them.

The woman meanwhile was hanging on to the doorframe flashing her cleavage and giggling stupidly
at the man who was too hammered to get up off the floor.

'Oh excellent, a not-Thai person,' the woman slurred. 'Tell me you speak English.'

'Yes. And I'll be using it to ask you to turn around and leave, now.'

'Oh no, wait. Please tell me there's a toilet in here. I am busting,' Gideon said, pretending to
reach for Coop but then smacking his hand away with a teasing laugh.

'Sorry folks, this is a private party,' Kelman said.

'A party?' Coop drawled from the floor. 'Cool bananas.'

'I don't want a party doofus, I need a toilet,' Gideon said to Coop, crossing her legs for
effect.

'Look, there is no toilet here,' Kelman enunciated, moving forward to try and crowd them out of
the room. 'So get lost, okay?'

Gideon swayed loosely in the doorway as she squinted at Jana's redheaded commando. 'Okay, fine,
but there's no need to get snippy, Skippy.'

'Skippy indeed,'
Triko acknowledged.

'Oh my God, it's
you
again,' Alan proclaimed.

Kelman's attention was still swivelling back to Gideon from Alan and his pointing finger, when
Tano fell heavily to his knees and backwards on his haunches - for no apparent reason. Kelman
frowned down at him then shot a backwards glance, in time to watch the other Thai smack face-first
into the floor, before he grasped the situation.

'Oh shit, no,' Kelman swore as he turned back…straight into a fist.

Rawley, who'd seen the T-dart strike Tano in the neck, kicked the table again; hard this time. He
leapt up and turned his back to grab the weapon that pure physics was sending his way.

Gideon snapped out a second jab. She caught Kelman square in the nose this time, forcing him back
a step and straight into Coop's slamming leg kick, which shoved him flailing onto the still moving
table.

Gideon advanced as Kelman, Rawley and the loose weapon crashed to the floor amidst broken bits of
table and a couple of chairs. As Coop flipped to his feet, Gideon dropped her knees onto Kelman's
chest, knocked the breath clean out of him and pinned him to the floor.

When Triko entered the room, a mere 15 seconds after firing his second T-dart, Rawley was still
scrabbling around in the debris trying to get his bound hands in front of his body, and wondering
what the hell had just happened.

Triko surveyed the mess and calmly shut the door to keep the party private. Gideon and Coop
literally had Kelman well in hand, as they hauled the redhead up by his shirtfront; so Triko set
about securing the temporarily incapacitated Thais with disposable nylon cuffs.

'When you're done with them Triko, can you go get the Doc please,' Gideon requested. 'I don't
want her out there alone too long.' She looked for somewhere to put Kelman. The guy wasn't putting
up any kind of a struggle, but she knew that wouldn't last.

Meanwhile, 'Man oh man, oh man, someone up there must like me,' Alan was saying inanely. 'This is
amazing. I don't believe you've come to rescue me again.'

'Hey dickhead,' Coop said to him. 'Move your arse. We want to put the bad guy there.'

Alan barely managed to scramble out of the way before Coop and Gideon dumped Kelman into the
armchair.

'Righto,' Gideon said. 'Talk fast because we want to go watch the kickboxing. Who are you?'

'Was about to ask you the same thing, bitch.'

'Oh dear, we're not going to have a gender glitch in our communication are we?' Gideon asked.
'You're not really miffed you got decked by a girl, are you?'

Kelman lifted his shirt to wipe the blood from his nose while he glared at the Amazon freak in
front of him. The guy who'd helped manhandle him tapped his knee and pointed to the older dude who
was on his way out of the room.

'Take my advice sunshine,' Triko said to him from the doorway, 'do not for one minute assume that
she took you by surprise.'

Kelman snorted, or he would have if his nose wasn't broken. Instead, his effort merely sprayed
blood over his chest and made his eyes water. 'I'm not telling you anything,' he said.

'Of course you're not, Kelman,' Gideon smiled. 'But your buddy there, the one who knew he wasn't
getting out of here alive tonight, might have other ideas.'

Kelman flashed Rawley a warning look. 'We are not that stupid, when it's unlikely you'll let
either of us go.'

Gideon frowned. 'Why wouldn't we?'

'Well, you are clearly the same fuckers, no gender indicated, who screwed up our gig on Laui. And
you're obviously prepared to do whatever it takes,' he pointed at Alan and waved around at the room,
'to find out who we are, while remaining anonymous.'

'Wow. That's quite a misunderstanding you've got going on there,' Gideon said. 'First of all,
Nick
, we don't actually give a damn who you are.'

Kelman looked doubtful. 'Good, in that case let's all just call it a night shall we? Rawley and I
can just walk away. Or you can take your reporter friend and leave first. Your call.'

Gideon raised her eyebrows as if she was giving her call some thought, but then bent over to
remove the knife from her ankle holster. She took a moment to dust off her jeans before flicking the
blade out and turning her back on Kelman.

'You wanna go with him?' she asked the other American, who was sitting on the floor with his
bound hands now resting on his knees. 'Not particularly,' Rawley smiled.

'Didn't think so.' Gideon cut the rope on his wrists and helped him up. She then righted an
upended chair and sat on it in front of Kelman, whose gaze remained fixed, dead centre of her
chest.

'Let me guess, Nick,' she said, pulling her shirt out from where she'd tucked it in her bra to
make the most of not much cleavage, 'you're still trying to figure out whether I punched you fair
and square, or you were stupid enough to be distracted by my tits?'

'They're not that good,' he said, lifting his gaze to her face.

'Ah, but they did the trick. Now, just so you are clear on where we stand, our only reason for
being here was to save him,' she pointed at Alan, 'from himself.'

Kelman looked surprised.

Alan, sensing an insult, demanded, 'Me? Why?'

'Because you're a prize moron,' said Jana Rossi from the doorway.

Alan's mouth fell open as his world span nauseatingly out on a crazy adventure ride; taking him
in a manner of seconds from heroic correspondent to terrified abductee to rescued hostage to man
struck in recurring nightmare.

'Alan,' Gideon snapped her fingers at him. 'Say one single word and we'll leave you here with
Kelman, tied to his unconscious Thai boxer. Now go stand with the Doc.'

Coop cuffed Kelman's wrists to the wooden arms of the chair and smiled. 'If you don't manage to
get out of these yourself, your mates will come to in about ten minutes.'

'What, you really are just leaving?' Kelman asked.

'Yes,' Gideon said, as if stating the obvious. 'We have what we came for,' she added, implying
Alan but meaning Rawley.

Kelman looked relieved but unconvinced. 'Do not tell these fuckers anything, Rawley. You do not
know what's at stake. I wouldn't want to have to come after you again; or your new friends.'

'Oh shut up, Kelman,' said Gideon, as she got to her feet.

'Yeah, what she said,' Rawley added, stepping in beside Gideon. 'You're a prick, Nick.'

It looked like he was going to smack Kelman in the mouth - just because he could - so no one
stopped him. But Rawley had other ideas. He jammed the business end of the silencer of Kelman's own
Barak SP-21 into his thigh and pulled the trigger.

Kelman screamed until Coop hit him hard enough to banish the pain by knocking him out. Rawley
simply dropped the weapon and stepped back again.

'Sorry about that,' Rawley shrugged. 'But he can't come after us if he can't walk.'

'I guess not,' Gideon agreed. 'He might be really pissed off with you now though.'

'Oh well. Thanks, by the way,' Rawley smiled, 'but I've gotta go now.' He bolted for the open
door, strong-arming Triko out of the way.

'Oh shit, I'll get him,' Gideon said, already on the run. 'Take care of Kelman's leg.'

Rawley made the mistake of running a beeline from the door, so Gideon simply launched herself
from the edge of the veranda and caught him in a low tackle. She hung on to his knees as he squirmed
around in the dirt for a moment before giving up and just lying there.

Apart from not being able to dislodge the woman, Rawley realised her back-up had arrived and were
standing either side of his head. On top of that, a dozen or so people were gathering a few yards
away to watch. Rawley started laughing.

Triko told the Thai onlookers that everything was okay, they would take the stupid westerner
away. The small crowd broke up, disappointed they weren't going to see an unscheduled fight -
especially a mixed sex one between a couple of
farang
.

Gideon rolled Rawley upright and he sat in a cross-legged position. She sat opposite him.

'Who the hell
are
you?' he asked.

Gideon shrugged. 'Show and tell is a two-way gig with us. You can come along and share, or Triko
here will zap you with Zeus juice and we'll take you anyway.'

Rawley, still smiling, threw up his arms. 'I'm all yours. Take me to your leader.'

Gideon ducked her head. 'That'd be me,' she said.

Chiang Mai, Thailand
Sunday 10.30 pm

Ari Carver looked nothing like Scott had expected, although he now couldn't recall
what that had been exactly. He was compact, thin-haired, bright-eyed and Australian. He hailed from
the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda, but had left Australia for good 22 years ago, he told Scott. He'd
lived first in Tokyo, where he befriended and worked with fellow
manga
freak and techno-wiz
Hiroyuki Kaga, and fell in love with Hiro's brother Hiroshi.

Hiro and Ari had created
NiteScape
and the
Diamond Ninja Clan
together. The success
of the comics and then the original PC game versions, in Japan alone, made them a fortune which led
to bigger premises, more designers, more games, bigger plans, wilder dreams and eventually the
MindMap
phenomenon which rocketed Nayazuki Firebolt into the seriously big time. Firebolt's
catalogue was eventually duplicated for game consoles and, with the advent of the internet, launched
into cyberspace.

But, after 15 years living constantly in a fantasy realm, Ari had decided to rejoin the real
world. He returned to his other love, economics, and finished his PhD. Then he and his true love
travelled the world for four years before moving to Thailand to live.

'The Scapers and Mappers in Tokyo were also starting to freak Hiroshi out a bit,' Ari explained.
'They were kind of stalking us for a while.'

'It is much more peaceful here in Chiang Mai,' Hiroshi said, taking the tray of coffee from their
Thai houseboy. 'Nobody here knows Ari for what he was.'

'Your home is certainly a haven from the world,' Scott said from a deeply cushioned cane chair on
the mosaic patio of the House of HiroshAri. Flickering candles in a multitude of stone shrines and
statues scattered along the meandering garden paths, amongst rockeries and around the fishponds and
small swimming pool, added to the harmony. In fact the whole house - an eclectic but oddly aesthetic
blend of Thai, Japanese and Spanish - had kind of a Zen, Othello,
feng
shui
vibe to
it.

Scott loved it, especially now that Kaisha had taken her chatterbox off to bed. 'Sorry to bring
us back to the bad old world outside your garden walls but I do need to know what Hiro's message
meant.'

'Fire away,' Ari said.

Scott flipped open his notebook in which he'd transcribed Hiro Kaga's last words, as recounted by
Kaisha, but now amended with what he now thought was the correct information. 'Hiro said: The game
has been altered. Check source. Take Kaisha to Hiroshi. Convince Ari Carver, debt talks, he will
explain everything. Make Scott understand the danger, and also the deception in their next
actions.'

Ari Carver looked like he was still at the Debt Talks in KL trying to understand the Indian who
was translating the Chinese delegate. 'That's it?'

Scott shrugged. 'He did say, 'it has started' but Kaisha wasn't sure if that was for me or
not.'

'Do you have any ideas yourself?' Ari asked, with a look that said he was totally clueless.

'Me?' Scott was swamped with disappointment. 'Given your reaction, I think my idea is now to go
to bed and forget about this whole thing.'

Ari laughed. 'I need more info, Scott. You didn't go to Tokyo to meet Hiro for nothing. And he
must have had some idea why you were there in order to leave you that strange message.'

'True,' Scott nodded. 'It is strange - and even ridiculous. It's all segued into something far
more sinister - or perhaps 'far-fetched' is more apt.' And so he told Ari his story.

'I wrote a story for the
Washington Post
a couple of years ago on how terrorists groups
like al-Qaeda and other Islamic
jihad
organisations, as well as organised militants,
insurgents and even wacko paramilitary groups in the US, had long been using the internet to spread
their ideas, exchange information and attract recruits.

'This year I thought I'd look at how legitimate governments
- like the US, Britain, Israel and Australia - had belatedly latched onto the technology that all
these terrorists and criminals had been exploiting for well over a decade.' Scott could see Ari
was interested.

'Not surprisingly I found that, in the last few years, the military establishments of a host of
western countries have jumped on that same internet war wagon. Democracies the world over have
launched new game platforms and online battle arenas like
WarP
and
SEAL Recon
in order
to stem their falling recruitment levels. You know, encourage kids to play now and when they get to
cannon-fodder age they can join up to get really shot at.