Tiger by the Tail (35 page)

“They are over here.” He led the two men to the Chinese general’s containers.

The masked man compared the numbers on the boxes with the list Pras had printed on the inspection invoice, then compared both of those with a third list on a smartphone. Only when he was satisfied did he hit a button on the phone and say something in a strange language.

“Stand right here.” Pras did as ordered. The first man waited for less than a minute before the sound of multiple boat motors could be heard. Moments later, a long, sleek cigarette boat pulled up to the dock outside, and several more men, all clad in black, got out.

Pres looked over to see the man holding out a sheaf of papers. “Finish your inspection and clear this shipment.”

With a shaking hand, Pras did as he was told, marking all of the boxes as having cleared customs on the Import Declaration Form: Kor Sor Kor 99/1. He stamped it where indicated, signed off on releasing the shipment, and held out the papers to the masked man who read them again, then nodded to the other men, who immediately began team lifting the boxes out to the boat.

It took ninety minutes and two trips, but finally all of the boxes were gone. The masked man was the last one to leave the warehouse after handing the customs official his smartphone.

“Go home to your family, Mr. Maneerrattana. They are safe. My people left twenty minutes ago.” The masked man watched him as the cigarette boat powered away from the pier.

A shaking Prasopchai Maneerrattana dialed his house with trembling fingers as he felt his bladder finally let go, releasing warm urine that trickled down his leg.

* * *

During the mid-afternoon of the same day, Mike met General Cong several miles outside Yangon to hand over the liberated shipment. He’d chosen a deserted beach near sparse rows of palm trees dotting the surrounding terrain, and told Cong to arrange for three trucks and either a forklift or a lot of strong backs to offload his cargo.

Dressed in a double-breasted charcoal gray suit, Cong himself had arrived from the Andaman Sea in a thirty-foot cigarette boat to supervise the transfer. He was very meticulous, examining each box as his sweating men unloaded them, but found nothing amiss. “There were no problems, then?”

Mike shook his head. “Nothing we couldn’t handle.”

The general nodded. “And there has been no word about any sort of break-in or incident at the customs facility in the press or across military channels. You have performed admirably, Mr. Jenkins. Are your people ready to go?”

Mike nodded. “Just waiting for the word to move.”

“I have a few things to wrap up in the city, but there is no reason not to get a head start this afternoon. There is a small shipping company that lies just north of the Mingalardon Industrial Park on Route 3. Take Thu Dhammar Road and follow it all the way out of the city. Meet me there in eight hours.”

“We’ll be there.” Mike said, staring into the Andaman Sea, where an amazing superyacht lay at anchor. At least three hundred feet long, it was a third longer than the
Big Fish
, and was a study in sleek white and black steel. With four decks, it looked like it could comfortably sleep twenty, and uncomfortably handle twice that number.

“You like what you see out there?” Cong asked.

“That is a nice boat. Yours?” Mike asked.

The general nodded. “It was built for one of our real estate billionaires. Unfortunately, he ran into some legal trouble with the government, and all of his assets were seized. I got it for a song, all things considered. When we’re finished here, you should come aboard. I’ll give you the captain’s tour.”

“I look forward to it. Until this evening, then.” Mike watched the small man get aboard his shore boat and head back to the huge yacht a half-mile away. “Now that’s the way to sail.” He had made sure to anchor the
Big Fish
several miles away. No sense in letting Cong get any more information on him than the man already had.

“Yeah, if you can afford it,” Adams said beside him. “That sucker would wipe out every dollar you got, and not even come close to buying a third of it, I’d bet.”

“You been looking into the books again, Ass-Boy?”

“Hell no, I just know what you’ve put into the place back home, that’s all. Come on, buddy, your own superyacht will have to wait for another day.”

“Yeah, someday . . .” With a last, wistful look at the magnificent vessel, Mike turned back to his own boat, and signaled for the others to head back to the
Big Fish
.

They were cruising through the sapphire-blue waters of the bay when Mike got a call from Vanner. “You are not going to guess who just requested permission to come aboard?”

“Lieutenant Fang Gui of the Hong Kong Police?”

“Yeah, how in the hell did you know?”

“Because he
is
the very last person I would expect to see out here.” Mike frowned as he pushed the throttle forward, making the sleek boat’s bow rise out of the glass-smooth water as it surged ahead. “Have him come aboard, keep him on the rear deck, and tell him we will be there in about twenty minutes. By the way, we are still in international waters, right?”

Vanner snorted. “We haven’t even come within ten miles of any territories’ nautical border since leaving Hong Kong.”

“Good. Oh, and be sure to keep the Asian prostitutes below deck and quiet, will you?” Mike signed off, but overheard part of Vanner’s comment to himself.

“Never thought I’d
ever
hear that kind of order . . .”

* * *

“Lieutenant, this is truly an unexpected surprise,” Mike said as he climbed aboard the
Big Fish
’s stern. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were keeping tabs on us.”

Fang Gui turned from where he was watching the far-off landscape of Myanmar. He looked just as rumpled as when Mike had first met him, only his suit was a different shade of tan. The two Special Police Unit men with him remained on their boat, but stayed close enough to lend assistance if needed. “The U.S. is not the only one with satellites, Mr. Jenkins. How have you been enjoying your cruise through our waters?”

Waving the police officer to a chair at the table, Mike pulled out another one and sat down. “Considering we’re at least five days from Hong Kong, I hardly think these qualify as ‘your’ waters.”

“Of course.” Fang smiled. “I merely meant to ask if you are enjoying your time in the South Pacific? You’ve certainly been busy over the past couple of days since your unexpected departure from our city.”

Mike waved a hand at the azure ocean and far-off land mass on the horizon. “Well, there’s so much to see out here, I want to make the most of our time in the area.”

“Naturally.” Fang nodded. “I’m not here about what happened at the shipping dock, in case you are wondering. You accomplished what needed to be done, and in a most spectacular fashion.”

“About that, I sincerely hope that none of your men were injured too badly.”

“I expect I should be happy that you didn’t kill any of them. One has a ruptured eardrum, and another is recovering from a minor concussion, but other than a lot of bumps and bruises, everyone is all right.”

“Good. I told my men to incapacitate as harmlessly as possible, but often the best approach is still fairly brutal.”

“That is one way of putting it. There is one loose end regarding that incident. I suppose you have no idea whatsoever about Mr. Than’s current whereabouts?”

“He left us more than a day ago.”

That part, at least, was true. Once Than had made his delivery, he had wished Mike the best of luck. He also said if Mike ever needed anything in this area of the world, to get in touch with him through Chal. Mike said he would do that, and extended an offer to drop by if the fixer ever found himself east of the Black Sea. “Can I get you a drink?”

“Technically I am on duty, but I don’t expect anyone to be asking too many questions about what I did when meeting with a confidential informant. A beer would be great.”

“Got just the thing.” Mike held up two fingers and nodded at Daria, who went below. “So, I’m your CI now? If your visit really is official business, why don’t you tell me what I could have possibly done to bring you all the way out here.”

“Like I said, Mr. Jenkins, you have been very busy. Everywhere you go, things happen. Your yacht was spotted in the vicinity of Phuket Island off Thailand thirty-six hours ago. Less than twenty-four hours later, the known headquarters of a local gang was destroyed in what the local police described as a ‘military-style assault,’ leaving no one alive. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

“Phuket is a lovely island. Great beaches, and the nightlife cannot be beat. Ah, here’s our beers.” One of the girls had returned with a bucket filled with bottles of Mountain Tiger on ice. Mike grabbed one, opened it, and clinked the neck against the lieutenant’s. “Cheers.”

“We typically say ‘
suíyì
,’ which means each person can drink how they like. If I wanted you to drain the entire bottle, I would say ‘
gānbēi
!
’
However, my favorite is
wàn shòu wú jiāng
—to longevity and health.” The policeman sipped, then drank deeper, his eyes widening. “What heavenly brew is this?”

“Glad you like it. It’s from my neck of the woods, brewed in the valley of the Keldara.”

“It is truly unlike anything I have ever tasted.” Like most people who drank Mountain Tiger for the first time, Fang had a hard time setting the bottle down.

“We hear that a lot. So, you were about to tell me the real reason you are here in person?” Mike asked.

“Of course. How is your follow-up of the computer boards going?”

“It’s progressing. I suppose you are aware of a General Zháo Cong in the Chinese Army?”

“Oh, yes, very much so. Are you saying he’s involved?”

“I watched Than hand the case to him in his luxury hotel suite yesterday. I think that counts as involved.”

“Ah, that would explain this footage we took of you meeting him earlier today.” Fang slid his smartphone over to Mike, who watched as the boxes of weapons were unloaded on the beach where he had just been less than an hour ago.

“You guys sure like keeping tabs on me and mine.” Mike’s jaw worked. “There may come a time in the future when I am not very fond of that.”

Fang spread his hands. “What can I say? Wherever you go, Mr. Jenkins, it seems that you also happen to do a lot of our work for us. That shipment of weapons was under surveillance the moment it arrived in Bangkok. The customs official who was ‘persuaded’ by an unknown group of masked and black-clad men to release it has been arrested and is being interrogated by the local police. We’ve been keeping an eye on it ever since that same party liberated it from customs. It is fortunate that I had instructed the customs security to let that particular shipment go, but to notify us when anyone inquired about it or moved it. When I received word that you had taken it, I was unsurprised.”

While the lieutenant was talking, Mike was sipping his beer to quell the turmoil in his stomach at realizing how close Jace and his team had come to possibly getting arrested by the customs police. His expression, however, was a study in nonchalance. “And all of that concerns me how?”

“Well, you are still working with General Cong, correct?”

“You would just bring out something to prove I was lying if I said no, wouldn’t you?” Mike asked.

“You could try it and see.” Fang smiled before draining his bottle.

“Have another.” Mike finished his and opened another bottle while filling Fang in on their rest of their assignment for Cong. “Either he has got a big buyer, perhaps a local group up there who has cash and a desire to commit suicide against the army, or someone in country’s planning to do something that involves a lot of bullets in the near future.”

“Quite. A man like Cong is the worst example of a rank opportunist, exploiting his position and the trust of his nation to line his own pockets. It sullies the reputation of the entire People’s Army.”

“Yes, but I suppose the torture that your police and prison guards inflict on suspected dissidents and minorities, particularly the practitioners of Falun Gong, is fine for China’s international reputation. But I guess truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance don’t have a place in twenty-first-century China, do they?” Mike kept his gaze and jaw still as he watched Fang. He didn’t really care what the Chinese did to their people in their prisons; he was more interested in seeing how the police officer would react.

The lieutenant stiffened and set his bottle down on the table with a
clink
. “They are opposed to the Communist Party of China and the central government, and spread sedition by preaching idealism, theism, and feudal superstition. The so-called ‘truth, kindness and forbearance’ principle preached by Li has nothing in common with the socialist ethical and cultural progress we are striving to achieve.”

“So, you
are
a good little Communist. That’s a pretty good sound bite you’ve memorized, by the way. Straight out of the Xinhua News Agency.” Mike leaned back in his chair. “Cong was in charge of a large military prison outside of Beijing. I only bring this up as it would seem to be a sufficient reason as to why he was transferred to his current position.”

“I have no knowledge of whether that was a factor or not.” Fang’s mouth said “
no”
while his eyes said “
yes
.” “Bringing this conversation back to the matter at hand, we would like you to follow up with Cong and find out exactly what he is up to.”

“You have got to be kidding me. Surely you’ve been able to get a man inside his operation?”

“The last one died ten months ago. It was handled so skillfully that even we are not sure whether the man’s death was accidental or on purpose. Lately Cong has grown more paranoid about who works with him. You must have impressed him greatly. I cannot remember the last time, if ever, that he worked with foreigners.”

“On the other hand, if he doesn’t trust other Chinese, which, judging by whom I’m talking to right now, might be a wise idea for him, he would look outside the box to someone like us,” Mike replied. “That means that he might just see me and my men as disposable
gwai-lo
labor. In which case we go into the jungle and never come out again.”