The Kiss of the Dragon

by Lilburne, Guy

  “No problem tee rak. I can get a false one made on Khaosan Road. OK, I find nice hotel. Then what?”

  “Well, I’ll make contact with Mike Hands and meet up with you later. Oh, and Nok, don’t call anyone on the mobile except for me; no family or friends, nobody. They might have taps on their phones, waiting to see if you contact them.”

  “They can do this?”

  “Yes, they can, if they have an ID (identification) on you already. We can’t take the risk.”

  “No problem. I am good detective now, tee rak. I learn a lot already. When all this finish I think I open up ‘The Great British Detective Agency’ here in Thailand.”

  “You’re not British” laughed Danny.

  “I know. I just like the name for my business.”

  “And what will you detect?”

  “Everything. I will think about something.”

  Danny laughed again and Nok smiled. At times like this Danny found her irresistible.

  “OK tee rak. You shower. I get phones.”

  Danny was showered and dressed and smoking a cigarette by the time Nok came back to the room. The two phones that she had bought were second hand and already had some charge in them, enough for a few hours at least. She also showed Danny her new false identity card. Danny tucked the gun into his waistband and folded the papers and notebook into his back pocket. He took one of the phones and arranged to ring Nok later. They left the short time hotel separately. Danny was very surveillance conscious now and scanned everything. He lost himself in the crowds and put in lots of stops and loops and choke points to keep checking that he had not picked up a tail. He found a little bar and had rice soup and a bottle of Chang beer for breakfast. He took out the note from Mike Hands and rang the number. The phone rang three times before a voice that Danny recognised to be Mike answered it.

  “Hello?”

  “Is that Michael Hands?”

  “Yes, is that you Danny?”

  “Yes, can we meet? I think we need to talk.”

  “Yes, we do. The shit has really hit some fans now Danny. The man you killed last night was an American Special Agent.”

  “Jesus! Michael, I didn’t kill him.”

  “I believe you. I can be with you in about half an hour. Where are you? I’ll come to you.”

  “I can trust you, can I?”

  “I think we have to trust each other.”

  “OK.”

  Danny walked out onto the street to see the name of the road and the bar and gave them to Mike. He then spent the next half an hour planning his escape route in case it was a trap, but he was as confident as he could be that Michael Hands was one of the good guys.

  Danny saw Mike turn into his street. He was walking at a slow pace and put in a couple of stops before he got to Danny. The two men looked at each other as Mike walked past and away down the street then put in a big loop to walk back. Classic anti surveillance. Danny could see that this man was a professional. Mike sat at the table next to Danny and ordered a coffee.

  “Hi, Danny. What happened last night mate?”

  “It’s a good question. I was hoping that you could tell me. The explosion was nothing to do with me. What’s all this ‘accidental exploding gas canister’ business in the Thai news? We didn’t have a gas canister on the truck.”

  “I know. I’ve seen the surveillance photos before the explosion. Look, Chris Lovatt contacted me and told me that he thinks you are in deep trouble.”

  “But why?”

  “Because of Jack Morgan.”

  “Who the feck is Jack Morgan? And why are the British government so interested in him, and the CIA?”

  “I can only tell you what me and Chris know. We were hoping that you could put in the missing pieces to the puzzle.”

  “What can you tell me about Jack Morgan, Mike?”

  “After you contacted Chris Lovatt the other day, he did some checks for you on Jack Morgan after you told him that he was an ex-policeman, that he was missing and maybe in danger. Then yesterday, he was greeted at work by his Deputy Chief Constable and two men from MI5, who quizzed him about why he was checking Jack Morgan.”

  Danny lit up a cigarette and Mike continued.

  “We have had some intelligence for a long time that heroin, precious stones and even women are being smuggled into Europe and America from south east Asia, but it was well organized and we never had any names. We only knew that, at the lower end, there is a vast network of Chinese take-away and Thai Restaurants, all over Europe and America, which are distributing the goods once they arrive. But we don’t know which ones and we don’t know who is behind it all, or how they are doing it. A few weeks ago the name Jack Morgan, from Thailand, is flashing up all over intelligence systems in the UK and in the States. This guy is suddenly all over us. We don’t even know if he is real or just a name. But then, just as suddenly as he appeared, he vanished again. Nothing. No more intelligence, no more leads. It’s as if he never existed. Then we get killings and gang wars amongst Chinese and Thai organized gangs, all over the place. It seems that Jack Morgan has taken over the drug supply or, at least, he tried to. A lot of money was paid, but little or no goods arrived. We have had oriental dead people turning up all over the place and nobody knows what is going on. In the UK and in America there has been a huge cover up, just to keep a lid on it all. It seems to have got back to normal, but nobody can risk it. We have long suspected that the opium has been coming in again from Asia, since the war in Afghanistan, but we have no protocols with Thailand and the Chinese are a law unto themselves. So the bottom line is that MI5 and the CIA have been running an illegal operation in Thailand, trying to find Jack Morgan.”

  “Illegal operation?”

  “Not authorized. Very secret, secret ops. Even the Thai government does not know we are running ops. They either do not know anything about what is going on, or they are not interested. We can guess that there is some Chinese connection, because they are using the huge network of Chinese restaurants all over the world to distribute the stuff. I’m afraid it all gets a bit political now, and that’s not my bag. Anyway, you can imagine the interest in you when they find out it is you who requested the information about Jack Morgan. Everyone wants to know what you know and how you know it, who you are working for and how did you got involved? Now, at least, they know which Jack Morgan they are looking for. They know that you think he is dead already, but then again, you thought that he was an ex-policeman, and he isn’t. They also want to know what Charlie Brown has got to do with all this.”

  “What has Charlie Brown got to do with Jack Morgan, Mike?”

  “You don’t know?”

  “I’m still trying to work it out.”

  “Charlie Brown is an ex-policeman and Jack Morgan was a petty crook from Birmingham. Brown has arrested Morgan a few times over the years, but it was all low level crime and it was years ago. Are they partners in this Danny?”

  “Mike, if I knew anything, I’d tell you.”

  “No, you wouldn’t” laughed Mike. “Nails told me you’d say nothing until you had the case cracked. Oh, there is one more thing that you need to know, Danny. I’m not sure how to tell you this, really.”

  “Just say it Mike. We are friends.”

  “You have been assessed as expendable.”

  “By who?”

  “Us, I’m afraid. Well, MI5 to be specific.”

  “And that means they will kill me. Right?”

  “And the girl. They don’t want this out in the open and they don’t want to leave anything behind. They are not even supposed to be here, remember.”

  Chapter 42: Information is power

  Danny and Mike said ‘goodbye’ and Danny left him sitting at his table. He made his way back to Nok. He was thinking over everything that Mike Hands
had just told him. He decided not to tell Nok that she was considered ‘expendable’ by his government. Danny was not too concerned for his own safety. He had had at least two contracts taken out on him when he was a working cop that he knew about. One of them resulted in the murders of his wife and two children in an arson attack. Although he was not concerned about himself, he was worried about Nok. He had found himself getting quite attached to her and, as thoughts of Nok came into his mind, he smiled as he walked along. He liked the way she got her grammar wrong when she spoke in English. He thought it was cute, but he always knew what she meant. Anyway, she always talked a lot of sense. He rang her on the new mobile number and she gave him directions to the new hotel that she had found for them. Danny carried out all the anti-surveillance techniques and was happy that he was not being followed before he got to the hotel. It was perfect. Slightly off the beaten track, but clean. It did not have the feeling of desperation that seemed to fill the last hotel.

  Nok turned the sound down on the TV, which, as usual, was showing some Thai soap opera.

  “What you find out, tee rak?”

  “I found out a lot Nok. I found out that The British and the Americans are following us because they all want Jack Morgan.”

  “Why, tee rak?”

  “It seems Jack Morgan has somehow got involved in shipping drugs and people trafficking, from here to England and America. MI5 and the CIA think that he was making some kind of takeover of operations over here, but all they had was the name Jack Morgan. Nobody knew who he was, but they know now.”

  “Tee rak, they know that he pretend to be Charlie Brown now, and live in Pattaya?”

  “No. They don’t know that, but they will be doing everything they can now to track down Charlie Brown, to find out what the connection is between him and Jack Morgan. Obviously, the person they will end up speaking to will be the real Jack Morgan.”

  “Tee rak, do you know what man die yesterday?”

  “He was an American Special Agent.”

  “Who kill him?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Did they mean to kill us and not special agent?”

  Danny looked at Nok. He did not want to lie to her, but he did not think that now was the time to tell her the truth.

  “I don’t know, Nok.”

  “What we do now, tee rak?”

  “I think Charlie Brown has been murdered. Now we need to prove it. We also need to find out just what Jack Morgan has been up to. Then we can have another chat to him. Both the British and American governments want this man Nok. Besides the big smuggling operation he has been running, he has also started gang wars in England and the States. People have died because of Jack Morgan.”

  “So what we do now?”

  “Now, we go and have a chat to this Thai business man I have heard so much about, Sak Wannadee. We’ll go to the address on that box label and see what we find. It will be interesting to see what Sak Wannadee has to say for himself.”

  “I think we have to be careful, tee rak.”

  “Yes, we have to be careful about everything Nok. Once we find the place, I want you to stay outside and keep watch.”

  They took separate taxis to Sak Wannadee’s business address in Rama VI Road.

  Danny could not see the Asian men getting out of the shiny black Land cruiser that was parked around the corner from their hotel. He did not see them double up on four motor bikes and drop in behind the taxis. In Bangkok people travelled around on motorbikes like huge shoals of fish. Danny was never going to spot them. Rama VI Road was a lot closer to the British Embassy than Danny would have liked. Danny and Nok sat in a small noodle bar a little further down the road on the opposite side. Danny had expected some kind of warehouse premises, maybe because of the ‘Animal Feed Suppliers Ltd’ that was on the label Pon had given him in Khanchanaburi. But this was a brand new office tower with ‘Wannadee Corporation’ in big gold letters at the top of the 27 floor building. Danny’s mind was racing. He needed a plan and he did not have one. His mind raced until an idea dropped into place.

  “ Nok, is there anywhere around here that we can get another fake ID made up?”

  “Yes, many places tee rak. Cost 200 baht.” (£4)

  “Come on. We need a fake ID, a suit and a tie.”

  They walked along the road and meandered along the side sois, until they found a market and a stall that made fake ID’s. Danny tried to describe, as best he could remember, the British Embassy ID card. The young Thai man laughed.

  “Sure. No problem.” He took a big bound book from a pile of several more and opened it up. The book seemed to have every security pass and ID card, from every country in the world, for every industry and business. The young Thai man flipped the pages until he got to British Embassy security passes. He showed the page to Danny. Danny was shocked.

  “Jesus!”

  “What do you want to be?” asked the young man.

  Danny looked at the various replica cards held in the plastic sleeves on the page.

  “I want to be an MI5 British Agent.”

  “No problem. Please sit.”

  Danny sat on the small stool offered to him. The young man took his photo against a plain white board backdrop. He attached it to his laptop and started typing and moving the mouse.

  “What you want to be called, please?”

  “Danny O’Brien.”

  “Spell please.”

  Danny spelt his name.

  “Sign name here please.” He handed Danny a plastic stick, like a pen with no nib. He signed his invisible name on a black plastic square that the young man held out in front of him.

  The young Thai man opened a box of plain white cards the size of bank cards and placed one inside the slot of a plastic, square box wired to the lap top. A blue-white laser light could be seen moving across the card slot in the box. A minute later the MI5 ID card slid out, complete with Danny’s photo and signature.

  “One moment please.” The man reached under the counter and picked up a little black leather wallet and inserted the card into it and then handed it to Danny.

  “500 baht please.”

  Danny handed him six. He was shocked and impressed with the speed and quality of the fake. The young man wai’d to him.

  “Thank you very much. Enjoy your new job” he laughed.

  Danny and Nok walked around the market and Danny got kitted out in a smart black suit, black Oxford shoes, white shirt and red tie. He tucked the gun into the back of his waistband and his new ID in the inside breast pocket.

  “Wow, you handsome man now, tee rak” said Nok.

  At least now he looked like a secret agent. He told Nok to wait at the noodle bar. Danny weaved his way through the slow moving traffic to cross the road. He walked into the grey marbled and gold reception of ‘Wannadee Corporation’ Head Office.

  Chapter 43: Wannadee Corporation Head Office

  The building was home to many businesses and there were a lot of people coming and going. There were four lifts on each wall to the right and left. A huge Buddha sat raised on the wall directly in front of him, surrounded by flowers, candles and burning incense sticks. A few business type people were kneeling in front of the Buddha in prayer, having removed their shoes at the edge of the mat in front of the shrine. Danny walked to the business address map held in glass on a gold plinth in the centre of the reception hall. Sak Wannadee Corporation Head Office was the entire top floor. Danny got in a lift and went up. He stepped out of the lift and was greeted by two ladies in traditional Thai dress.

  “Sawasdee ka” they chorused, in sweet voices. They gave a long, slow wai to Danny. He nodded his acknowledgement and walked to another pretty Thai lady sitting behind a reception desk, who also greeted him with a respectful wai.

  “I’d like to see Sa
k Wannadee, please.”

  “Yes sir. Is Khun Wannadee expecting you?”

  “I doubt it.”

  “Can I enquire the nature of your business?”

  “Tell him Danny O’Brien is here from the British Embassy and I want to talk to him about Jack Morgan. Tell him that we may be of use to each other.” Danny took out his fake ID and flashed it to the receptionist.

  “Sorry sir, can I see again, please. I have to enter your details in the visitors’ book.”

  Danny handed the wallet to her and held his breath, hoping she would not spot it as a fake. She did not. She simply entered the details from the card into a register as she spoke in Thai on the telephone. She put the phone down at the same time that she finished writing.

  “Can I get you tea or coffee, Mr. O’Brien?”

  “No. I’m grand thanks.”

  “Khun Wannadee will see you very shortly. Please take a seat. I can also offer you water or orange juice?”

  “No. I’m grand thanks.”

  Danny did not sit down. He wandered over to a small pond and waterfall, which was amongst some rocks and real plants. The trickling water and Koi carp made for a relaxing oasis in a high powered business world.

  “Sir.” Another lady in traditional dress stood at a door and greeted Danny with a smile and a wai when he looked around at her.

  “This way, please.”

  Danny followed her into a huge office; much bigger than any office needed to be. The views from the big windows were magnificent and it even had a balcony. It was opulent and impressive. Sak Wannadee sat behind the desk. He was probably about 30 years old. He was smartly dressed in an Armani suit. Danny also noticed the Rolex watch and knew that nothing about Sak Wannadee was fake. He was a self-made man. He was a handsome man and had a pleasant, friendly smile. He got up from behind the desk as soon as Danny had entered and greeted him with a wai, which Danny returned. Danny did not want to like this man, but already he found that he did like him.