The Wolf's Bite - An Action Thriller Novel (A Noah Wolf Novel, Thriller, Action, Mystery Book 5)

by David Archer

  Noah nodded. “Then let’s go,” he said. Each of the men tucked a Glock into the back of his pants and put a light jacket over it. Neil hung his Uzi from his shoulder by its strap, and it hung nicely and concealed when he put his own jacket on.

  Jenny slung her purse over her shoulder and led the way out the door. Once again, she, Dave and Neil rode in the car, while the rest climbed onto the motorcycles and followed. Neil had called the gym up on his GPS, and it led them to a parking area close to Walking Street.

  From there, they went on foot. The area was extremely crowded, and they saw a number of Western tourists. Jenny pointed out that all of the dozens of bars they saw had sexily dressed girls standing in front of them, flirting with every male that walked by. Neil actually blushed more than once, when girls would run up to him and try to press themselves against his long legs.

  They reached the alley after only a few minutes, and had no trouble locating Champions’ Arena. The place was brightly lighted, with neon signs proclaimed it as the home gymnasium of several Muay Thai past champions. They stopped and looked it over for a moment before they entered, and then Jenny led the way once again.

  “Mr. Pak?” Jenny said to the first man she saw. “I’m looking for Mr. Pak, is he around?”

  That man called to another one, who hurried over and looked at Jenny. “I am so sorry,” he said, “but my friend, he does not speak English. What can I do to help you?”

  “Oh, thank you,” Jenny said. “I’m looking for Mr. Pak, can you tell me where to find them?”

  The man looked at her somewhat suspiciously. “Mr. Pak? May I ask why you wish to see him?”

  Jenny smiled sweetly and pointed at Noah. “Because I think my fighter, here, can beat his fighters. I thought maybe we could set up a match, and both of us make some money.”

  The man’s eyebrows rose as he looked at Noah over, but he nodded once and asked Jenny to wait. He turned and jogged across the room, and Jenny turned to look at Noah.

  “Hey, I know a little bit about Muay Thai,” she said. “It’s called the art of eight limbs, because you use essentially every part of your body in fighting. Knees, elbows, they’re just as important as feet and fists, and if you don’t know what you’re doing, the other guy’s elbow can be downright deadly.”

  Neil leaned around Noah and glared at her. “And you just challenged this guy to let Noah fight one of his people? Holy crap, you really are insane, aren’t you?”

  “No, she’s not,” Noah said. He was closely watching two men in a boxing ring who were sparring, and his eyes were following every move they made. “I see what they’re doing, and it’s simply logical. In order to get the maximum effect from your limbs in a fight, you need to minimize the amount of motion necessary to deliver the force you want to apply. It isn’t necessary to swing your whole arm to punch with a fist if you can deliver the same amount of force with an elbow or knee.”

  Neal looked at the boxing ring, then back to Noah. He started to speak, but Marco interrupted him.

  “Boss, I got to agree with the kid. You get in a ring with one of those guys, we’ll be scraping you up with a spoon.”

  “Well, don’t worry about it,” Jenny said. “I sincerely doubt our friend Pak is going to accept the challenge from some farang bitch who walks in off the street, no matter how big her fighter seems to be. All I’m really trying to do is get his attention, and if he’s like a lot of Thais I’ve known, failing to come out and speak with me would be similar to a Japanese losing face. Hush, here comes the messenger.”

  The man they had spoken to ran back up to Jenny and bowed respectfully, then looked her in the eye. “Mr. Pak, he says please come to his office.” He turned and started walking away, expecting them to follow.

  They did so, and a moment later they were ushered into a large and luxurious office room. Pak was sitting behind the desk, and the expression on his face indicated that he was not feeling amused.

  “Which of these children is your fighter?” Pak asked.

  Jenny pointed at Noah. “This is him,” she said. “I’m new in the area, but I know a champion when I see one, and this is the next one. Do you have anyone who can fight in his class? I’m curious to see how long one of yours can stay in the ring with mine.”

  A smile began slowly to spread across Pak’s face, and then he began to laugh. “You are all Americans,” he said, “farangs. This is the first time any group of Americans has entered my arena, and the timing of your arrival leads me to think that scheduling a match is not what you genuinely have in mind.”

  Jenny smiled and looked inquisitive. “Oh, really? And what do you think my real reason might be for coming to see you?”

  “I believe it may have something to do with certain unfortunate events that took place late last night,” Pak replied, “on a certain island not far from here. Am I correct? Please respect me enough to be honest. And do not expect me to be frightened, even though I see that you and your men are armed. There are more than two-dozen of my trainees in the building, and I have already told my assistants to alert them. If you attempt to harm me in any way, none of you will make it out of this place alive.”

  Jenny laughed delightedly, and leaned forward to put her hands on the edge of Pak’s desk. “You are indeed correct,” she said. “I’m afraid we paid a visit to your friends on that island last night in search of a friend of our own. Unfortunately, we did not find her, but one of your men was extremely happy to tell us that you should be able to provide us with information about where she’s gone.”

  Pak leaned back and folded his hands over his stomach. “Why would you believe that I would know anything about your friend?”

  “Oh, did I leave that part out? You see, your man was good enough to tell me that he saw you sell our friend to someone else. Now, where we come from, people don’t get bought and sold, so that kind of bothers us. We can settle this whole thing in a hurry though, if you’ll just tell us who bought her, and where she was taking.”

  Pak cocked his head to one side and looked at her, then looked at the men with her. “Ah,” he said, “you must refer to the little blonde flower. I am so sorry, but it is with great regret that I must tell you that your friend is no longer among the living.”

  Neil surged forward suddenly, and the little Uzi appeared in his hand as if by magic. “You’re a liar,” he screamed. “Now tell us where she is, or I’ll blow your ass away!”

  Pak grinned at him. “You may kill me if you wish,” he said, “but it will not change the fact that the little flower has indeed withered. It will also only bring on your own death, for my men are standing outside this room, prepared to kill each and every one of you unless I call them off.” He continued to stare into Neil’s eyes, and the young man’s resolve began to waver. After a moment, he lowered the gun and stepped back behind Noah once again.

  Noah’s expression had not changed, and no one standing nearby would have thought Pak’s words had any effect on him, but something inside Noah snapped with a crack as loud as thunder. For a split second, he wondered where he had heard—felt—that sound before, and then he realized that it was on the day, when he was only a child, that his father had killed his mother and then himself. Whatever emotion had been trying to come back to life in Noah Wolf was suddenly dragged to a precipice, and was teetering on the edge.

  Jenny looked at Neil and smiled, then turned back to Pak. “Let’s just say I find it hard to believe you,” she said. “If you say she’s dead, tell me how she died.”

  “She tried to attack one of my men, and he took exception to it. Unfortunately, he does not know his own strength. The kick he gave to her head, I am afraid, proved to be fatal.”

  Neil suddenly began to cry, tears streaming down his face. Noah glanced at him, but then turned back to face Pak. “Where’s her body?” he asked.

  Pak spread his hands. “When one of these girls dies, she is cremated. Her ashes are then placed in a beautiful garden, so that her spirit may enjoy beauty unt
il it is time for her to be reborn.”

  Noah stood there for a moment, then cocked his head slightly to one side. “If she died yesterday, would she be cremated already?”

  “But of course she would,” Pak said. “She would have no family to mourn her, no friends to attend a funeral; there is no point in delay. She was taken to the monks for cremation early this morning, and they were grateful for the gifts we gave them in return for the service.”

  Jenny looked at Noah and raised an eyebrow, but he didn’t give her any response. She turned back to Pak. “We are prepared to kill you, and then try to fight our way out of here,” she said, “but personally, I prefer to do things the easy way. If you would take us to her ashes, we could be on our way, and you would not need to see us again.”

  Pak looked her in the eye. “Is this a genuine offer?” he asked. “I would be willing to avoid the bloodshed, if it is.”

  Jenny nodded. “It’s genuine,” she said. “Take us to proof that she is dead, and we will be on our way.”

  Pak slowly rose from his chair, and nodded his head. “Follow me,” he said, and walked out the door into the gym. A dozen of his trainees stepped back, each of them obviously prepared to fight, but Pak waved a hand and they all walked away.

  They followed him out a back door of the building, and several of the trainees followed them as they walked down the long alley to a small temple surrounded by trees and bushes. A monk was sitting outside the temple, and looked up at Pak with a smile.

  Pak spoke in Thai, and the monk instantly rose and went inside. A moment later, he returned with another monk who looked at Pak and said, “Yes, old friend?”

  “These people were friends of the little flower who passed from the earth,” Pak said. “Can you show them to her ashes?”

  “Indeed,” the monk said, bowing to him. He looked at the Americans and smiled. “If you would come this way, please.”

  They followed him around the temple to a small garden, where a number of monks were sitting in poses of meditation and prayer. They were led past them all, to a small flower garden, and the monk turned to them. “We spread her ashes here,” he said softly, “and to commemorate her life, we have taken some of her hair and strewn it among the petals.”

  He pointed down, and Noah saw a lock of blonde hair lying among the flowers. It appeared to be fresh and new, and he saw that it was exactly the color of Sarah’s hair.

  He stared at it for a moment, and then turned and started walking back the way they had come. Jenny and the others watched him for a moment, and then hurried to catch up to him.

  They returned to the hotel without any of them speaking, and Noah began packing. He called Darryl Knapp and told him to come and pick up the equipment, then told Neil and Marco to get ready to return home.

  Neil grabbed his arm. “Noah, we can’t…”

  “The hair I saw was Sarah’s,” Noah said. “The way it was curled is from her twirling it whenever she gets frustrated with me.”

  “But, but maybe they only clipped it off her and planted it there,” Neil sputtered, but Noah put a hand on his shoulder and stopped him.

  “Neil, I can’t imagine they’d go to such an elaborate length as that. How would they know we’d come asking about her? Why would they bother setting this up at all?”

  “But…”

  “Let’s go home, Neil,” Noah said. “We won’t forget her, but there’s nothing more we can do here.”

  Neil walked away, and Jenny came to Noah. “I don’t get it,” she said. “You walked away and left Pak alive. If you honestly believe that Sarah is dead, why would you do that?”

  Noah looked at her for a long moment, then shrugged his shoulders. “More violence isn’t going to bring her back,” he said. “I’ll just save it for the next mission.”

  She leaned her head to the left and stared at him for a few more seconds, then shook her head and walked away. Noah watched her go, before looking around at all the members of the two teams that were gathered in the room.

  Which one of you is the traitor? Noah asked himself silently.

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