by Ken Goddard
“And I take it you rarely see Clouded Leopards killed by Tigers?” Bulatt said.
“Almost never. Clouded Leopards are taught by their parents to be very wary of Tigers and other large predators from the time they are cubs. Also, Clouded Leopards are excellent climbers, extremely agile, and see very well at night,” the professor explained. “Given the deteriorated condition of the body, it’s difficult to make a conclusive finding; but if I were to guess, I would say that this leopard was taken by surprise… by a Tiger… and on the ground — a very unusual situation, indeed.
“So,” the professor went on when Bulatt and Kulawnit remained silent, “what we have here are two extremely unlikely deaths of two magnificent specimens of Thai wildlife that should not have been so big — or so hungry — occurring within days of each other at roughly the same location. Which brings us to these interesting items,” he said, turning to the technician who handed him a pair of stainless steel trays. “We found these attached to the necks of both leopards.”
Bulatt walked up to the professor, stared down into the trays, and blinked in confusion.
“Fire-flies™?”
“You recognize them?” Colonel Kulawnit asked.
“I think so. These look like a variation of the tracking devices we use to follow suspect vehicles or shipments at night with night-vision goggles,” Bulatt said. “They kick out a burst of infra-red light every few seconds that you can easily spot miles away. The ones I used worked on small lithium batteries, and usually burned out pretty quickly, especially in cold weather; but these seem to be more sophisticated.”
“The batteries are built into the device and recharged through small strips of solar cells attached to the collar,” Kulawnit said.
“Interesting,” Bulatt said. “So who makes them?”
“We don’t know.” Kulawnit shrugged. “We are making inquiries with our military experts now. The professor is familiar with electronic equipment used to track animals for biological research, but he has never seen anything like these devices; and he’s certain that no Thai research biologists are using them in the southern peninsula. Among many other reasons, the cost would be prohibitive.”
“So why were these cats wearing them?” Bulatt asked.
“Exactly.” Kulawnit nodded. “We think the devices were attached to the necks of these creatures in order to make them easy to find, and to kill.”
“But that would be a pretty expensive proposition, to capture an animal like this, tag it with a fire-fly™, release it, and then what — hope you run across it again? That’s an insane way to run a canned hunt, unless you’ve got money to burn.”
“It doesn’t make much sense,” Kulawnit agreed. “But we are constantly trying to deal with wealthy foreign hunters who bribe their way into Thailand to kill our wildlife as trophies, and we don’t like it when mysterious events like this start occurring in our National Preserves. That’s why, when the second leopard was found, I called your office. When they said you were already in Tokyo for our Interpol meeting, I asked them to divert you to Bangkok, but not to tell you why. I wanted to surprise you, and give you the opportunity to enjoy an evening of Thai hospitality too, of course, before we fly back to Tokyo; but my hope also is that you can encourage some of your scientific experts to help us resolve this — ”
At that moment, the cell phone on Colonel Kulawnit’s belt beeped plaintively.
“Excuse me a moment,” he said as he stepped away and brought the phone up to his ear. “Colonel Kulawnit.” He listened for a few moments. “What?!”
As Bulatt and the professor watched in confusion, Kulawnit’s face turned ashen. “I’m on my way there now,” he snapped, and closed the cell phone.
“Khun Prathun, what — ?”
“Four of our Forestry Rangers have been found dead, shot, in the southern peninsula,” he whispered. “One of them is my son.”
CHAPTER 10
Charter Flights Section of the Bangkok International Airport
The cab dropped Wallis off in front of a medium-sized hanger with the name ‘RIGLEY CHARTERS’ painted in big blue letters on the side. As he walked inside the attached office, a slender, clean-cut man in his mid-thirties looked up from a computer. The tabs on his uniform shirt identified him as a pilot.
“Help you, sir?”
“I understand your company charters fast and slow flights from varying locations on short notice?”
“Fast and slow flights?” The pilot cocked his head, looking puzzled.
“Private jets and seaplanes,” Wallis translated.
“Well, yes, as a matter of fact, we do. There’s a sweet little G-Four out on the tarmac right now that can get you just about anywhere you want to go very quickly, and with a great deal of comfort and privacy,” the pilot said. “And we do operate out of several other major airports in Southeast Asia. We’re not cheap, by any means; but we do pride ourselves on being adaptive to our customer’s needs. What destination did you have in mind?”
“Singapore; and then, ideally, connecting right away to a seaplane for a flight to the Malacca Strait — somewhere near Langkawi — to pick up a couple of passengers.”
“A Seaplane? Hummm.” The pilot consulted his computer for a few moments and then shrugged. “We do have a converted twin-engine Grumman Super Widgeon based in Singapore that we use mostly for search and rescue operations these days. She’s a little old in the tooth, and bounces around a bit in rough weather, but she’ll get you up the Strait and back, no problem. The pilot’s ex-military, RAF. Bit of an odd duck, but — ”
“He’ll do just fine,” Wallis said.
The pilot shrugged agreeable. “So, how many passengers are we talking about for the flight to Singapore, and when did you want to go? We can configure the G-Four for as many as six, and — ”
“One passenger, right now,” Wallis said.
“You mean — ?”
“Right now,” Wallis repeated as he reached inside his raincoat and pulled out a band-wrapped stack of hundred dollar bills.
The Medical Clinic at the Draganov Research Center
Sergei Draganov and Aleksei Tsarovich stood side by side in the small veterinary medical exam room located in a small building near the research center’s Minimal Containment (MIN) facilities, shivering and still covered with snow from the raging snowstorm outside. They were staring at a set of skull x-rays on a wall-mounted, backlit viewer.
“See how the brow and eye-sockets are thickened?” Tsarovich pointed out with the tip of the pen he held in his thick muscular hand. “Now compare that to the x-ray from three weeks ago.”
Draganov nodded his head slowly. “Yes, I agree, it does look like gamma-five bone-growth. But her eyes — ”
“- are clear, yes. No dye infusion that would indicate a transition infection. But the growth pattern is unmistakable.”
“But how could she be infected?” Draganov demanded, the frustration evident in his strained voice. “She cleans cages and feeds the animals at MIN, never here. Only you and I handle the newly exposed animals.”
“I don’t know. Right now, I’m more interested in reducing her fever.”
Draganov suddenly blinked in awareness. “Wait a minute. What about Borya? Could he be infected also?”
Tsarovich paused for a moment. “It’s unlikely. He has no physical contact with the ones at MAX. It would be much too dangerous, and he understands that. He just cleans cages, distributes food, and drinks.”
Draganov slowly shook his head for a few seconds, his mind racing ahead. Then finally: “We must check, to be sure.”
“Now, in this storm, and so late at night?” Tsarovich looked as if he couldn’t believe his ears.
“Yes,” Draganov nodded firmly, “we must go now.”
Tanya’s room inside the veterinary Medical Clinic
Veterinary Lab Technician Tanya waited quietly in her bed, pretending to be asleep, until she heard Draganov and Tsarovich leave the clinic. She continued to wait until
she heard the Sno-cat’s engine rev up. Then she got up, locked her door, pulled a dresser aside, opened a concealed door, and pulled a small Clouded Leopard kitten out of a hidden cage.
Back in her bed, a feverish Tanya held the kitten close and smiled weakly as it cuddled happily into her arms, it’s eyes flashing a bright emerald green.
CHAPTER 11
Forestry Division Headquarters, Phuket, Thailand
It was nearing dusk when the police helicopter carrying Colonel Kulawnit, Bulatt, and two M4 carbine-armed Thai Forestry investigators who functioned as Kulawnit’s bodyguards, landed at the Forestry Division headquarters in Phuket. A unformed Major was waiting beside a pair of black SUV’s at the edge of the helipad.
“Colonel, I offer my most humble apologies. Your son died while under my supervision and care, and there is no excuse for my failure. I will forward my resignation immediately,” Major Sathan Preithat said in English, acknowledging Bulatt’s presence, as he opened the rear door of the SUV and stepped aside.
Bulatt glanced at the Major’s face and decided that he’d never before seen anyone who managed to combine the looks of utter dismay and absolute rage into one barely-controlled expression.
Kulawnit had been stone-faced as he walked toward the waiting vehicles; but he hesitated at Major Preithat’s words, blinked, and then shook his head and turned to face his subordinate commander.
“Khun Sat,” Kulawnit said. “There shall be no more talk of your resignation. I placed my son in your charge because I considered you to be the most competent and loyal commander in our Division. I did so because I believed he would have the best opportunity to become a skilled leader of good men under your guidance. And I know from his letters that you were succeeding in his training beyond all of my expectations. His death was not your fault. Please devote your skills now to helping me find the killers of my son, and our Rangers.”
The Major’s expression shifted slightly, his sorrow- and rage-filled eyes taking on a glistening edge. “We will find them, Khun Prathun, I promise you that.”
“Khun Sat, this is U.S. Wildlife Special Agent Gedimin Bulatt, a member of Interpol, and my friend.”
Bulatt and Preithat acknowledged each other with brief nods.
“Khun Ged left the Tokyo Interpol meeting this morning to assist us with the Clouded Leopard investigation,” Kulawnit went on. “He now offers us his skills as a crime scene investigator. He also believes he may have useful knowledge about the foreign hunters who plague our country that could help us in tracking down these killers, so I want him to be a part of our investigation. I trust him as I trust you, so please give both of us your full briefing.”
“Yes sir, of course.”
“If there’s anything I can do without interfering with your work, I’m at your service, Major,” Bulatt said, staring into Preithat’s glint-edged eyes. “And I promise to help you and Khun Prathun find these people, and bring them to justice, in any way that I possibly can.
Preithat hesitated, and Bulatt thought he could see the Major having to fight against a deeply ingrained sense of national pride; but if there was an internal battle being fought, it didn’t last long.
“If you see or know anything that will help us identify and locate these… creatures, Agent Bulatt — ” Preithat struggled visibly to control his words. “Please, do not hesitate to speak out. I would be both grateful, and in your debt.”
“Good, then we’re all in agreement. Let us not waste any more time,” Kulawnit said as he pulled himself into the back seat of the SUV. “Tell us everything you know so far about my son’s death.”
On the road to the Police Morgue, Phuket, Thailand
“I sent them out on patrol to investigate some information I received from an informant — that three British or Australian guides were taking their wealthy clients into the Khlong Saeng Wildlife Preserve to kill endangered animals for trophies,” Major Preithat said from the front seat of the SUV. “We’ve had many such complaints against foreign guides in the last two years; but when we investigate, we almost never find evidence of illegal kills.”
“Instead, you find them in possession of legal kills, and with all of the proper documentation; as if they knew your Rangers were coming?” Bulatt asked.
“Yes, exactly.”
Bulatt could almost hear the Major’s teeth grinding together.
“Our Interpol associates in Russian are facing the same situation,” Bulatt said, and then hesitated before continuing on. “In their case, the foreign clients — mostly hunters from the United States — are wealthy enough to bribe the Russian permit officials and their supervisors, who make sure the efforts of Russian game wardens in the area are focused on ‘less valuable’ suspects.”
“That may be our situation as well, only worse,” Preithat said bitterly. “Our informant also suggested these guides were working under the protection of a senior Forestry Division Ranger.”
“One of your own men?” Bulatt blinked in surprise. “Did the informant give you a name?”
“No, but I — ” Preithat hesitated and looked over at Colonel Kulawnit who nodded his head silently.
“I had reason to believe one of my Captains might be taking bribes — from the foreign guides as well as some of our own criminals,” Preithat continued. “I was investigating this possibility when one of my informants called yesterday morning. So I sent Captain Choonhavan on an assignment that would require him to spend the next two days in Surat Thani. After he left, I sent Lieutenant Kulawnit and Sergeant Tongproh out to patrol the Chieo Lan Reservoir area with a pair of Rangers they brought down from headquarters.”
“So that no one in your office except you would know Lieutenant Kulawnit and Sergeant Tongproh were out on patrol last night?” Bulatt asked.
“That was my intent,” Preithat replied with a heavy sigh. “With Choonhavan out of the way — and unable to provide a warning or a false permit at the last minute — I had hoped these guides might be caught in the act with their wealthy client.”
“Do you know if Lieutenant Kulawnit and his patrol made contact with these individuals?” Bulatt asked.
“No, I don’t. The last radio contact we had with them was late last night when Lieutenant Kulawnit advised our dispatcher they were going to investigate a gunshot in the southern portion of the Khlong Saeng Preserve.”
“So we do know that someone was poaching in the Preserve last night?” Kulawnit asked.
“We think so, but we don’t know where. There are so many tire tracks on the roads, and the rains make it very difficult to distinguish and follow any one set. However,” Preithat added, “we do know that someone with an Australian or possibly British accent tried to contact Captain Choonhavan late last night. Unfortunately, the night duty clerk hadn’t been properly briefed, so she provided the caller with his contact information in Surat Thani.”
“So we must assume he’s been warned,” Kulawnit muttered. “Do we have him in custody yet?”
“No, we are looking for him now. We have a witness who thinks they saw him leaving his hotel early this morning with a Caucasian male.”
“We need to find him quickly,” Kulawnit growled.
“Yes, we will, Khun Prathun,” Preithat promised. “In the meantime, we know that three Australian or British nationals checked out of the Shining Wind hotel late last night, along with an American hunter who is extremely wealthy. They stayed in expensive suites and ate expensive meals; but, at the moment, no one at the hotel can find any of their records. We’re trying to locate the hotel manager now.”
“Did anyone see these men leave Phuket?” Kulawnit asked.
“Not that we’ve found so far,” Preithat replied. “We know a helicopter arrived at the Phuket heliport late last night, and a private jet took off shortly thereafter. It seems likely they would be connected. We’re talking with the night shift personnel at the airport and examining their records now.”
“Assuming it’s an American plane, if you can get me t
he registration number, I’ll try to track it down from our end,” Bulatt said.
Preithat made a quick note in his field notebook.
“We also understand that the three guides often chartered a local helicopter and pilot, and two local workmen to assist in their hunts. The helicopter is missing and we’re trying to locate the workmen and the pilot now. And we have some information that the guides owned an expensive fishing yacht — the Avatar — which they moored at Phuket Harbor. The Avatar is no longer at the harbor, and no one seems to know its whereabouts. We’re looking for the harbor master now.”
“Major Preithat, you seem to be looking for a large number of people related to this incident,” Bulatt said hesitantly. “I don’t mean to sound critical. It just seems… unusual that so many significant people would suddenly be so difficult for the Thai police to find. Conspiracies can be large, of course, but — ”
“It is very unusual, and puzzling,” Preithat agreed. “It’s understandable that the people involved would try to disappear if they knew we’d found Lieutenant Kulawnit and his team; but we have that information tightly controlled.”
“What about your informant?”
“There are two who have been providing us information. One is a corrupt businessman named Yak who works out of Surat Thani. What you would call ‘organized crime’ in your country, only in Thailand they are not so much organized as competitive. When pressed, he grudgingly provides information, but mostly about his competitors. The other is a Malaysian pirate named Kai. We have reason to believe that these informants may be conspiring to control the illegal guiding business in southern Thailand.”
“By control, you mean putting themselves in direct competition — and presumably in conflict — with these Australian or British guides?”
“Yes, but I should add a working alliance between these two informants is highly unlikely,” Preithat said. “These are extremely devious, daring and dangerous adversaries. I’m sure they’re both planning on cutting the other out of the business once they’ve eliminated their competition.”
