by David Archer
“Honey, you go back in there and tell those people they’re lying, and you don’t leave them until you know where your sister is! I don’t care what you have to do, you find out what’s going on, okay?”
Jenny sniffled. “Okay,” she said, “okay, Daddy. I’ll do my best.”
He ended the call, and Noah handed the phone back to Mitchell. “Sorry about that,” he said, “but you can’t leave her hanging. If she calls you with an act like that, you have to respond instantly.”
Mitchell rolled his eyes. “Yeah, well, usually she gives me some kind of warning before she pulls that sort of thing. I just wasn’t expecting it, this time.”
“I understand,” Noah said, “but that’s why it was easier for me to just take over and do it. If I tried to coach you, someone on her end might have overheard.”
“So what do you think that means?” Neil asked.
“It means she’s gotten to the point they’ve admitted Sarah isn’t there. This is where she’s got to make herself as annoying as possible.”
Marino chuckled. “Oh, trust me, she’s good at that.”
They sat there sipping coffee and tea for another two hours, until Mitchell’s phone rang once again. He answered it again, but then he frowned. “It’s Jenny,” he said. “They ran her out and told her to come back tomorrow morning.”
Noah nodded. “Then that’s what she’ll do,” he said. “Tell her to take a taxi back to the hotel, and we’ll meet her there. Neil, keep watching, just in case something happens before we get back with her.”
“I’m on it,” Neil said.
The men sat there a few more minutes, then got up and paid their tabs. They wandered out to the street, and a moment later they were all moving back toward the hotel. Lange drove a different route than the one taken by the men on the bikes, but they all arrived back at the hotel around the same time.
Jenny had arranged a room for herself and her team, and managed to put it on the same floor as Noah’s. She was standing in the doorway when they came up the stairs, and they all followed her inside.
“I think I got their attention,” she said. “The clerk on duty made several phone calls, then told me I had to come back tomorrow. He said he’ll make sure his supervisor is there to talk to me in the morning. What do you bet the supervisor is connected to the Nay Thas?”
“You could be right,” Noah said. “Just to be on the safe side, we’ll send the car and two of the bikes ahead in the morning, and then Randy and I will follow your taxi. It’s always possible they followed you back here, could try to snatch you in the morning.”
“Great thought,” Neil said. “What if they try to grab her during the night?”
“Then they’ll get a big surprise,” Jenny said. “Between me and the guys, they’d need to bring a platoon.”
Neil shook his head and turned to go back to their own room. “Let me know when it’s time for dinner,” he said. “Don’t know about anyone else, but I’m hungry.”
“We just left a freakin’ restaurant,” Marco said, grinning at him. “Why didn’t you order something to eat while we were there?”
“Because then if something happened,” Neil said, “I’d have to walk away from food. Do you know how hard that would be?” He stomped into the room and shut the door behind him.
Marco rolled his eyes. “I swear, that kid is the Galloping Gizzard! I think he could eat a car.”
Noah looked at him a moment, and turned back to Jenny. “Neil’s right, we should be thinking about getting something to eat. We got caught up in the heat of everything and skipped breakfast, and none of us have even had lunch.”
“They got room service in this joint?” Jenny asked.
“No, but there’s a restaurant downstairs, and several more nearby.”
“Then let’s just send a couple of the boys out to grab some food and bring it back. I don’t really feel like going out right now.”
Marco and Dave volunteered to go fetch food, so Noah went back to his room and lay down on the bed. Neil was sitting at his computer like always, and Noah noticed that he had what looked like a satellite image on the screen.
“What’s that?” He asked.
“I hacked into a satellite,” Neil said. “NSA keeps one over Bangkok. Codename Lemonwood. I’m going through its images for last night, see if I can find out where that van might’ve gone.”
“Excellent thinking,” Noah said. “Let me know if you find anything.”
“I haven’t yet, but I’m pretty sure I will. I just had to figure out its encoding, the way it records its timestamps. It takes a still photo every two seconds, and its lens can cover a pretty big area. All I’ve got to do is find the moment when Sarah was loaded into that van and then scan through the images and keep myself zeroed in on it.” He tapped the keys for a couple more seconds, then grinned. “Okay, there’s the van. Good grief, the resolution on this camera is so good I can even see us hiding behind the bushes.”
Noah sat up on his bed. “What about Sarah?”
“I’m ticking forward one image at a time. The van pulled up at 11:38 and twenty-two seconds. Two frames later I see two men getting out. They’re walking toward the front door, looks like somebody opened it for them when they got there. Now they must be inside, I can’t see them anymore. Another man just got out of the van and is standing beside it. Going through the frames—nothing, nothing, nothing—okay, I’ve gone four minutes ahead, still nothing, one man still standing beside the van. Skipping ahead, one minute—no change, two minutes—no change. Ahead one more minute, still no change—another minute, no change.”
Noah heard the clicking of the keys and then Neil suddenly sat up straight. “Okay, there! Two men coming out, looks like four women, the guy at the van opens the back door and the women get in. Door is closed, the two men go back inside. Skipping a minute, two minutes, three minutes—no change so far.”
Noah stood and walked over to stand beside him, looking over his shoulder at the computer screen. “This is brilliant, Neil,” he said.
“It’ll be brilliant if it helps us find Sarah. I’m at five minutes, no change—six minutes, the door is open, the front door of the prison is open. Okay, I’m backing up a couple frames. There’s the door opening, nobody in sight yet—going frame by frame, now. Bingo, here we go. That’s two men and two women, coming out the front door. Next frame, the door is closed and they’re moving toward the van. Back doors are opened, and the two women are put inside. Doors close, all three men climb in the front of the van. That would be the point where we saw Sarah’s tracker start to move, because there goes the van. It’s moving up the road, and look, there we are looking like idiots as it goes by.”
“Stay on it,” Noah said. “How far can you follow it with this?”
“I’m zoomed way in,” Neil said. “If I zoom all the way out, I can see pretty much all of Asia, but I can’t track the van from that far out. I’m gonna stay on it, but this is going to take a while.”
Noah nodded his head. “Just keep at it as long as you can. Even having a direction to look in would help.” He turned and walked to the door, then stepped out and knocked on Jenny’s door. Neil could hear him giving her the short version, and then he was back with Jenny, Jim and Randy in tow.
Jim Marino pulled a chair away from the table and sat down beside Neil. “Someday,” he said, “you gotta show me how to do this. I always thought I was good, but I can’t get into the satellites.”
“Be quiet, I’m focusing on the van. Look, it’s moving along this little side street, no, it turned onto the main road, 3110. Headed south in the fast lane. I’m going to jump ahead one minute—no, lost it, going back. There it is, I’m sticking to frame by frame.”
“You’re doing great, Neil,” Noah said. “Stay on it.”
“I am, I am,” Neil shot back. “Look, it just turned onto the main superhighway. Still moving south, still in the fast lane. I’m gonna try jumping a few seconds at a time, if I back off the zoom a bit I
should still be able to keep the van in each frame. Yeah, there it is, still south, still south, looks like they might have sped up a bit.”
Marco and Dave came in with a couple of buckets full of fried chicken and curried rice, and started passing the food around. Neil bit into a chicken leg while he kept up his running commentary, and everyone else gathered as close as they could to watch the computer screen.
For almost 20 minutes, Neil managed to track the van as it made its way south and out of the city, finally turning onto Highway 3, one of the major highways in the country. He was able to watch until the van moved into a rural area about forty miles to the south. Once it moved under the cover of trees, however, it seemed to be lost.
Neil was cursing and pounding on the desk, but his computer and the satellite didn’t respond to his threats. After casting about for another half hour, he finally looked at Noah.
“I lost her, boss,” he said. And then he burst into tears.
Noah laid a hand on his shoulder. “No, you didn’t,” he said. “You’ve given us our best lead yet. We know that her captors were taking her towards Pattaya, and that’s one of their major operational markets. Sooner or later, we’re going to find someone who can tell us exactly where she’s been taken, but this puts us ahead of the game. We already have an idea of the general direction, now what we need are specifics.”
Jenny patted Neil on the back. “You done good, there, Neil. Now, with any luck, this so-called supervisor I’m meeting in the morning will send the same animals after me, and then we’ll be able to get down and dirty with them.”
“But this doesn’t help,” Neil said through his tears. “She can be anywhere between where I lost the van and the South China Sea.”
“It does help,” Noah said. “Whatever answers Jenny gets tomorrow, we’ll know if they’re being honest or not because we already know part of the truth. We know she went south, so if they claim she went north or east, we know it’s time to put on the pressure.”
Marco handed Neil a couple of napkins and the kid wiped his eyes. He suddenly seemed to realize that he had broken down in front of them all, and his face blushed bright red. “Look,” he said, “I’m just tired, all right? I don’t normally start crying like that, you got it?”
Jenny smiled at him. “Of course not,” she said. “We can tell.”
SEVENTEEN
Sarah had been surprised when the boat landed on one of the most beautiful white sand beaches she had ever seen. The vessel was propelled right onto the beach, and the men began yelling at the girls to get out as soon as it stopped. She, Sharon and the others hopped over the side into the knee-deep water, and waded onto the shore.
“This place almost looks like a resort,” Sharon whispered, “but somehow I don’t think it is.”
“No, I’m sure you’re right,” Sarah replied. “Just stay calm and let’s try to survive this.”
One of the men started walking into the forest that seemed to cover most of the island, and the Asian girls fell into line behind him. The other two men pushed Sarah and Sharon, and they caught on. They got into line and followed the other girls.
The forest was dense, but the path seemed pretty well worn. They walked about a mile, Sarah guessed, and finally came to a group of simple earthen huts. There was an open area near them with some picnic tables, and several women were sitting around them, watching the newcomers arrive. Some of them were laughing and smiling, but Sarah noticed that the smiles didn’t seem to reach their eyes.
The man leading their group stopped and pointed at one of the tables, and Sarah and Sharon followed as the other girls sat down. A moment later, an older woman came out of one of the huts and set bowls of rice, chicken and fish in front of each of them. The food was fresh and actually smelled pretty good, so when the other girls began shoving it into their mouths, Sarah did likewise.
“Eat up,” she said to Sharon. “It’s all about keeping up your strength, not getting hurt. If we’re going to survive this, if we’re going to be alive when Noah comes to get us, we got to do whatever it takes.” She took another bite and then grinned. “Tell you what, this isn’t half bad.”
Sharon gave her a sour look, but picked up her own bowl and began to eat. “They could at least give us silverware,” she said. The comment struck Sarah as funny, and she began to giggle; a moment later they were both trying to suppress their laughter.
One of the men noticed and came to stand over them. “You laugh? Something funny?” he asked in broken English. The simple absurdity of the situation was too much, and Sarah began laughing even harder. The man stood there and stared at her for several seconds, then turned around and stomped away.
As soon as they had finished eating, the six of them were pulled away from the table and pushed into one of the huts. There were pallets inside, just as they had seen in the sleeping rooms at the prison, and Sarah quickly claimed two of them for herself and Sharon. “Looks like maybe we get to rest a bit more,” she said. “I don’t know about you, but I could stand a few more hours of sleep.”
“Yeah,” Sharon said. “It’s bound to be more comfortable than the bottom of that van.”
The two of them lay down on the pallets and closed their eyes, but the other girls began talking. Sarah ignored them for a few moments, then opened one eye and found Sharon looking at her. “I wish we could understand what they’re saying,” Sarah said. “We might get some idea of what’s in store for us.”
“My own imagination is doing enough of that,” Sharon said. “I don’t think I want to know any more than I already do.”
“Well, in that case let’s just try to ignore them.” She closed her eyes again and tried to relax herself into sleep.
She never made it. They were only in the hut for about fifteen minutes when one of the men pulled aside the curtain it used for a door and shouted at them all to come out. Sarah didn’t understand his words, but the way the other girls responded made it clear what he wanted. She and Sharon followed and lined up with the others when they got outside.
There were several men wandering around, and most of them were carrying automatic rifles. One of them looked at the two American girls and seemed to smile. “Westerners,” he said clearly in English. “You’ll bring us some good money.” He paused, and Sarah felt his eyes roaming her body.
“I am Pak,” he said. He walked closer, until he was standing in front of Sarah. “You are lucky,” he said, “that we took you out of that hell hole of a prison. You would not have lasted long there, not as pretty as you are. The Toms there would fight over you, and sooner or later one of them would become jealous. It would be a shame if you were killed over such foolishness.”
Sarah felt a shiver go down her spine, as it dawned on her that such a fate might have awaited Sharon if nothing had been done to rescue her, but she didn’t see their current situation as anything lucky. “And what you want us for is better?”
“Of course,” he said, his smile widening. “You will be adored by many men, and lavished with gifts. You will earn money greater than you could hope for in your own country, and you will probably move in the circles of power. Princes and Presidents will come to you, and perhaps one will choose to make you his own. Is that not a better fate than the one we saved you from?”
Sarah looked into his eyes for a moment and realized that this man actually believed what he was saying. She decided to play up to his conceit and look for any advantage it might give her.
“Okay, maybe,” she said, chewing her bottom lip. “But why would you want to let others have us? Maybe you might want us for yourself.”
Sharon’s eyes went wide as she looked at Sarah, but she didn’t say anything. The man chuckled.
“Little flower, I am not a man who craves women,” he said. “I seek wealth and power, and being a purveyor of such fine goods is what brings me both. Don’t worry yourself, though, I won’t let you go to a dog.” He turned his eyes to Sharon, who forced herself to smile. “You will both serve well at
the feet of the powerful, I am sure, and if you are as smart as you are lovely, you will live long, happy lives.”
He turned away and barked an order in Thai to one of the other men, who looked at the two girls and grinned. Both of them cringed inwardly, as the new man came toward them.
“This is Cho,” the first man said. “He speaks your language almost as well as I, so he will begin teaching you what is expected of you. Do not give him trouble, and he will not hurt you.”
Sarah looked at Cho, a short, stocky man with a scarred face, then turned back to Pak. “And can you tell me what it is that he plans to teach us?”
Pak smiled, and the evil in it sent a shiver down the spines of both girls. “He will teach you that you are nothing,” he said, and then he walked away.
Cho came to stand in front of them and his own eyes drank in their figures and faces. “You come with me now,” he said, and then he turned and walked off toward a stand of trees.
Sarah looked at Sharon and grimaced. “We have to survive,” she said. “And we can survive, no matter what. Everything depends on us being alive and unhurt when Noah gets here.”
Sharon stared at her for a second, then nodded slowly as she started to follow Cho. “Survive,” she said. “Just survive.”
The two of them caught up with him a moment later, as he led them into a clearing that was separated from the rest of the compound by a wall of trees. There was nothing in the clearing but a series of boxes, roughly four feet in every dimension. The tops were hinged and had been thrown open, and Cho simply pointed at the first one as he looked at Sarah. “You go in,” he said.
Sarah looked at the box, then turned to stare at Cho. “In the box? Why?”
Cho didn’t bother to answer. He simply grabbed her by her neck and one leg, picked her up and dropped her unceremoniously into the box. A moment later the top slammed shut, and she heard the clicking that meant a pin went into the hasp that would hold it shut.
“You go in,” she heard Cho say, and then she heard what sounded like a sob from Sharon, followed by a squeal as she was apparently subjected to the same treatment. The other box slammed shut, and another pin was put into place.
