I kept my eyes on the vehicles behind us, but it didn’t look as if we were being followed. I glanced at Akil. He tapped a nervous finger on the door handle as sweat leaked down the side of his cheek. “I think we’re okay for now,” I told him. “But if I were you I’d take my hand off that door handle and dismiss any thoughts you might have about running. You need me to get you out of here alive.”
Chapter 26
Piece of junk.
Anzor Mdivani threw the M40 sniper rifle down. Damn sights are off. The M40 was the only rifle he could get his hands on in Vietnam on such short notice. It was old and noisy and required a thorough cleaning before he could use it. All along, he knew it was a one-shot rifle; not having sound suppression dictated that. He always carried a Beretta M9, a sound suppressor for it, two extra magazines, and a five-inch tactical knife on his body; all had made it onto the plane in checked luggage without any problems, but he had thought the rifle would do the job.
Mdivani slung a leather knapsack holding his equipment, and a few personal items, and clothing over his shoulders and quickly made his way down from the rooftop. As he approached the hotel, he saw no sign of Sei and Akil, but he hadn’t expected to. He knew they were on the move, but he needed information to figure out where they might have gone.
Mdivani mustered his best attitude and entered the hotel lobby. He had a flawless complexion, sea green eyes, a chiseled jaw, large dimples, and brown wavy hair that curled behind his ears—a combination that usually resulted in women eagerly wanting to talk to him. It also helped that he wore a fitted plaid button-down that showed off his broad shoulders and gave clear indication of the washboard stomach behind the fabric. Designer jeans and black boots rounded off the ensemble.
His target was the young woman behind the reception desk. She appeared no older than twenty-five, and her eyes screamed boredom. She was dressed in a red áo dài, a form-fitting silk tunic that she wore over white slacks. Her hair was pulled back tightly into a bun, showing off her slender face, high cheekbones, and full lips. Her only makeup was pink lipstick.
“Hello,” Mdivani said with a smile and a nod. “I’m hoping you can help me.”
“Yes, of course.” She smiled back. Her teeth were crooked but pearly white.
Mdivani rested an elbow on the desk, closing the distance between them. “I’m a private investigator from France. A father who is desperately searching for his daughter has hired me to find her. I was led to believe she might be staying at your hotel. Would you mind looking at a picture of her?”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.”
He removed his cell phone from his pant pocket and showed her a photo. “Her name is Sei, though she could be using a different name.”
The young girl narrowed her brow as she leaned in for a closer look. “Yes, I know this woman, but that wasn’t the name she used. It was Bouchon.” The woman flipped through a ledger on her desk. “Here it is. Sophie Bouchon. I spoke with her a little this morning. She was with another man. They’ve already checked out of the hotel.”
“I see. She didn’t happen to mention where she was heading, did she?”
“No, but I don’t think they were going to the airport because the hotel has a free shuttle and she wasn’t interested. Is there anything else I can help you with?”
“That will be all. Thank you for your time.”
Mdivani exited the hotel and thought about his options. He knew Sei had searched out Akil for information. If he had any to give her, she would have it already and left him long ago. But she hadn’t. That meant he probably needed to take her somewhere or to someone. Why else would she remain with the scumbag?
Mdivani started tracking Sei while in Paris, shortly after Feki’s death. Thanks to his detailed observation, he felt confident he could closely guess what she was thinking at this moment. He knew from watching her that she didn’t appear to be a very social person, and she was extremely logical and strategic. While in Paris, she spoke only to those who would help her cause. Outside of that, she ate alone and kept to herself. If Akil was taking her to a specific place or to meet someone in Ho Chi Minh City, she would have made him do it right away but that didn’t happen.
They spent the night in the hotel. That was asking a lot for someone like Sei. She could have easily interrogated Akil on the move. Instead, they stayed put. They were buying time. It was likely they needed to travel outside of Ho Chi Minh City, somewhere a taxi wouldn’t be feasible.
If they were planning to leave the city, the next question he had was whether it would be to another location within the country or across the border? Travel options at that point were planes, trains, and buses. Planes were faster—Sei would favor this if at all possible. However, buses were discreet and offered numerous options. Train travel was often slower than a bus and their rigid scheduling eliminated flexibility in travel. Mdivani quickly dismissed the train option.
He chewed his bottom lip as he scanned the hotel parking lot. Did they take a bus or a plane? He glanced at his watch. Nearly twenty minutes had passed since he fired his rifle. The longer he stayed put, the greater the chance of losing them. As it stood, he still had an opportunity to catch up with them. He was one of the best at what he did: tracking humans.
From what he gathered, Akil couldn’t have been in Vietnam very long. The fact that Sei had traveled to Vietnam only confirmed that she herself thought the trail was still fresh. If Akil were new to the city, his network of associates would most likely be contained to Ho Chi Minh City. And if that were true, Mdivani figured he could then rule out other cities in Vietnam. That left one option in his mind: they were planning to leave the country.
That still left Mdivani with the transport dilemma. Plane travel was efficient, but it wasn’t without its problems. There was heightened security, their passports could be easily tracked, and it involved much waiting. Traveling by bus eliminated most of those problems, and she could easily keep a weapon while doing so. Mdivani assumed Sei had weapons.
Mdivani hurried back inside the hotel lobby to talk to the receptionist. “Excuse me. If I needed to travel outside the country on a bus, what terminal would I go to?”
“Only charter buses travel outside of Vietnam. What country do you want to go to? Laos or Cambodia?
“Are those the only destinations available?”
“No. You can go to Thailand, but it’s a very long ride and you must change buses a lot. It’s easier to fly.”
“Where can I find a charter bus?”
“There are many.” She removed a pamphlet from a drawer. “Here is a list of the travel agencies that can book travel to Laos and Cambodia. You buy your ticket from them and wait for the bus there. They’re all in the same location.”
“Where is that?”
“Pham Ngu Lao Street.”
Chapter 27
We were able to make it to Pham Ngu Lao Street fairly quickly, even with traffic. Akil said it didn’t matter which travel agency we used, they all sold the same tickets to the same buses. We got lucky: the next bus leaving for Phnom Penh was scheduled to depart in twenty minutes and tickets were still available.
It wasn’t until we were on the bus and on our way that I relaxed a little. Up until then, I expected another attack, considering Akil had been targeted twice in one twelve-hour period. It was unusual for a single assassin to strike that way. It looked like Akil had two separate individuals after him.
However, something about the first attack bothered me. It struck me as a mugging by local thugs. It appeared as if no thought had been put into it. It lacked any sort of coordinated effort to kill Akil, unless their intentions were to subdue him and take him somewhere else.
The second attack had all the marks of a professional hit. A sniper camped at a safe distance with a great deal of patience, as he probably waited all night for those drapes to open. Even though he missed the shot, he would coordinate another attack. At least that was what I would have done if I had missed—but I doubt I would h
ave. With that said, he still needed to track us down. I thought about a possible trail we might have left. There wasn’t much. It would be no easy feat.
After we passed the outer edges of the city, commercial and residential buildings quickly gave way to a mixture of rice fields and orchards, punctuated with grazing water buffalo. The bus we were on was a double-decker with curtained and tinted windows. It had all the amenities one could ask for a comfortable ride: air conditioning, personal entertainment systems, and beverage and snack service. The outside of the vehicle told a different story. Plastered on both sides of the vehicle was a colorful mural of anime characters I couldn’t identify. It screamed party bus. Akil and I sat toward the rear on the lower level. Most of the passengers opted for the scenic upper level. We were practically alone.
“What else can you tell me about that day?” Akil had been staring out the window, lost in a daydream, when I asked the question. I had to shove my elbow into his ribcage to gain his attention.
“Huh?”
“Tell me more about what you saw that day at the clinic.”
“There is nothing more to tell. I was told to stand outside the operating room. I didn’t see much.”
“How many people were involved? Did you know any of them?”
“I don’t know, maybe seven or eight.”
“Were you the only one hired as security?”
“No, there was one other man, but I didn’t know him. I didn’t know anybody.”
“How many nurses?”
Akil’s eyes shot up and to the left. “I think five. They were all women.”
All the information he had given me so far corroborated what Delacroix had conveyed to me about his involvement in the birth. They were both telling the truth for the most part.
“And you’re sure you didn’t know any of these nurses?
He shook his head. “I told you already.”
“Did you see them take my baby from the room?”
“Yes. The doctor and a nurse brought the baby out.”
“Where did they take her?”
“Into another room.”
“What type of room was it? Did they leave the baby inside there?”
“I think it was just another room where they do operations. They were in there for fifteen minutes before the doctor came out and talked to the man in charge.”
“What did this man look like? Was he the one who hired you?”
“I don’t know, he had a mask covering his face. I couldn’t hear what he was saying but after they talked, he paid me and told me to leave.”
“And the other nurses?”
“I think some left and some stayed longer. I can’t be sure because I left the building.”
“So far everything you’ve told me is in line with what I already know.”
“You see,” Akil said, a smile proudly forming across his face, “I’m not lying to you.”
“You may not be, but the problem is you’ve told me nothing I didn’t already know.”
As quickly as his smile appeared, it deflated. Akil shook his head and let out a breath. He scratched his chin. “I can’t win with you.”
“As I said before, I need information I can act on. You haven’t given me any. You promised me information on the Wolf.”
“When we get to Phnom Penh. This is what we agreed.”
“I need to know more now. Do you know his whereabouts? Have you worked with him before or met him?”
Akil’s eyes shifted away from mine briefly. He licked his cracked lips, leaving a thin layer of moisture before mumbling something I couldn’t understand.
“You don’t know any of those things do you Akil? Unless you can answer one of those questions, I’m afraid your time is up.” I reached for the knife I had tucked in my waistband.
“Wait, wait. Okay. Just listen to me. I know somebody who knows the Wolf.”
I shook my head and clenched my jaw. “Not good enough.” I drew the blade from its sheath.
Akil’s hands went up in a defensive position. “I swear. She can help you. She was the one who brought your baby out of the room. She held her.”
At the mention of those last three words, a shiver of hope radiated outward from my chest to my arms, legs, and back. Akil had pressed the right button. Up until then, Delacroix was the closest connection I had to my daughter. When I found out he had been killed, hope of finding her died with him, but knowing there was another person out there, someone who actually held my daughter… It almost brought tears to my eyes. “Where is this nurse?”
“I’m speaking the truth, but I won’t say more until I’m safe.”
Akil would never be safe so long as the Wolf had an open contract on him. If escorting him to Cambodia made him think otherwise, I could live with that.
“Is she in Phnom Penh?”
Akil didn’t say anything.
“Tell me she’s at least in Southeast Asia and not back in France.”
“She’s not in France.”
“Your cryptic answers are testing my nerves. Where is she?” I said, digging the tip of my knife into his side.
Akil gasped. “She’s…she’s in Thailand.”
“Thailand? Really? I think you’re lying, Akil. I think you’ve told me everything you know and are trying to buy yourself time.”
“I promise it’s the truth.”
“You told me slivers of the truth and I’ve run out of patience.”
“I swear, once we get to Cambodia I’ll give you her name and where she is.”
“Is there anything else I need to know?”
He hesitated then swallowed.
“Akil?”
He took a deep breath and licked his lips again. “I know the men who attacked me last night. They’re a Cambodian gang from Phnom Penh.”
Chapter 28
I slammed my fist into the headrest of the seat in front of me. “Why on earth are we heading to Phnom Penh? You can’t be that stupid?”
Oh, but yes, he is, Sei. Yes, he is.
At that moment, the two attacks completely made sense. Someone other than the Wolf wanted Akil dead. To make matters worse, we were heading straight into the gang’s home territory. What they lacked in skill could be made up in numbers.
A large part of me wanted to wipe Akil from my life, even my memory. My frustration with the situation continued to bubble. It seemed as if whenever I thought we had a clear path forward, a roadblock appeared. I gritted my teeth and took a deep breath. I couldn’t let these obstacles get to me. Find a solution. There’s always one. Plus, I had promised myself that I would chase down every lead in the search for my daughter. I couldn’t walk away not knowing if what he said about the nurse in Thailand was true.
“Tell me everything about this gang. Why are they after you? How many members do they have? How strong are they? The more I know about them, the better I can protect you. Leave anything out and I cannot promise your safety.”
Akil nodded. “They’re a big gang in Phnom Penh. They call themselves Khmer Kings, and they hired me to transport girls between Cambodia and Vietnam.”
“Why do they want you dead?”
Akil shifted in his seat and then looked out the window at the passing countryside. “A girl died, and they blame me.”
“Were you responsible for her death?”
“It was an accident.”
The details weren’t necessary for me to realize he had most likely killed her during a violent sex escapade.
“We were playing,” he said with a flippant shrug. He turned to me. “It was unfortunate.”
Smack!
I had thrown a punch straight into the side of Akil’s face. “One. What you did to that girl was unfortunate. Two. Don’t ever speak about what it is you do as if it were normal.”
Akil held his face and crinkled his brow. His eyes bore into me with hate. “You cannot treat me this way,” he snipped.
“Be mindful of how you speak to me. This isn’t a partnership we have here.
There’s no equality.”
He stared at me for a few seconds longer before reclining his seat, turning his body away from me, and resting his head against the window. I regretted helping him, but it was one of the necessary evils I knew I would have to endure in the search for my daughter. But helping him while knowing what kind of person he was brought out my emotions, something that didn’t happened often.
With a Cambodian gang and a hired assassin after Akil, I questioned whether escorting him to Phnom Penh was worth it. I thought briefly about checking into a small hotel and applying other techniques to retrieve the information. But up until that point, he had spoken truthfully about that day in a clinic. That was his saving grace.
We kept to ourselves for the remainder of the ride to the Moc Bai border crossing. It was better that way. It kept me calm, and Akil didn’t get punched again.
It took us just under two hours to reach the border crossing. I was a bit surprised at how commercially developed the area was. The way Akil spoke about it, I pictured two guard shacks positioned near an imaginary territory border.
A variety of shops, restaurants, and small hotels lined the road leading to the Vietnamese immigration building: an imposing structure with a wide concrete sweeping rooftop reminiscent of imperial Chinese architecture.
“We get off here and wait in that building,” Akil said. “The bus driver will meet with the immigration officials. Afterward, he’ll return everyone’s passport.”
“What happens to you?” I asked.
“We will give the driver some money, and he will take care of it. I will be allowed to leave the building with the rest of the group.”
After we paid the driver, we waited inside the building for nearly an hour before he returned with everyone’s passports. We exited the building into a free zone between Vietnam and Cambodia. The driver instructed everyone to get on board and proceeded to drive us the fifty yards to the Cambodian immigration building.
Contract: Sicko (Sei Assassin Thriller Book 2) Page 9
