Little Girl Gone

by Brett Battles

  Making a split-second decision, he sealed one of the packets back in the envelope, and returned it to the backpack. The other he kept, then headed for the door that opened to the public passageway.

  He paused, listening. Whoever was in the other room was still there. As carefully as he could, he slid the main door open and stepped out.

  Two minutes later, he walked back into the dining car. Daeng was talking to the man Logan had helped the night before, but the other guy wasn’t around. Without looking, Logan rolled the document into a tube, concealing the words written on it, and walked up.

  “Find your friend?” he asked.

  The man turned quickly, then relaxed when he saw Logan. “Not yet.”

  “Have you talked to the porters? They could probably help.”

  “Thanks,” he said, in a way that told Logan they’d already done that. The man looked at Daeng. “Thank you, too, for trying to help.”

  “I keep eyes open, okay,” Daeng said. “If see, I tell.”

  “Thanks.”

  The man headed toward first class. As soon as Logan was sure he’d left the car, he said, “I thought you were going to try to keep both of them away.”

  “I’m sorry. The other one shot right past me. I take it he didn’t see you.”

  Logan shook his head.

  Daeng looked at the paper in his hand. “You took it?”

  “There were two. I think they’re the same thing, but I have no idea what they say.”

  He unrolled it, and handed it to Daeng.

  After glancing at the first page, Daeng said, “This is in Burmese.”

  “Can you read it?”

  “Not quickly, but yes.” Daeng scanned it for a moment. “It’s some kind of contract. A lease, I think.”

  “You mean like for a building?”

  Daeng read some more, then shook his head. “Like for oil rights.”

  36

  The train pulled into Chiang Mai at 9:40 a.m. Daeng got off ahead of the crowd and headed straight into the station, while Logan let several passengers exit before he stepped onto the long platform.

  With the population of Chiang Mai nowhere near the ten million that lived in Bangkok, it was no surprise that its train station was much smaller than the one in the nation’s capital. Logan guessed the red-roofed main building would probably have fit entirely within the central hall of Hualamphong. But compared to the stations they’d stopped at through the night, Chiang Mai’s was huge.

  Logan slowly made his way down the covered platform, all the while keeping an eye on the crowd leaving the train. So far, he had yet to see Aaron’s two friends.

  At the end of the platform, he passed through one of several large, arched openings into the main building. Just inside he found a tourist information booth, and let the girl who was manning it try to talk him into staying at one of the local hotels.

  She was in the middle of her pitch when Aaron’s two friends passed by on their way through the station toward the parking area out front.

  “Thank you,” Logan said to the girl, cutting her off. “I’ll think about it.”

  He fell in behind the men. As they neared the front entrance, Logan spotted Daeng standing to one side, his phone to his ear. The men walked within a couple of feet of him, not giving Daeng a glance.

  Logan paused under the cover of the station, and watched them walk out to the curb, then look around. Within seconds, a car drove up, and stopped directly in front of them.

  I know you, Logan thought as the driver climbed out.

  It was Tooney’s attacker.

  The two men from the train placed their bags in the trunk, then all three got into the car.

  Just after the vehicle pulled away, Logan walked quickly out of the station, and put his hand up to call over a taxi.

  “No,” Daeng said, coming up behind him and grabbing him arm.

  He guided Logan over to a sedan parked in a nearby spot, then told him to get in.

  There was a young guy already behind the wheel. His head was clean shaven, and he was wearing a T-shirt and jeans. Daeng spoke rapidly to him, then the kid dropped the car into gear, and they took off. Their driver turned out to be more than up to the task of following the other car. He was able to keep them within sight without ever getting too close.

  After a while they came to the outskirts of the city. There were still buildings and businesses and homes around, but they were spread out, and the businesses seemed to be more focused on manufacturing and similar services than on retail.

  Ahead, the other car’s brake lights flashed suddenly, then the vehicle took a left off the road. It stopped momentarily in front of a gate built into the opening of a cinderblock wall, then the gate lifted, and it drove inside.

  “Keep going past,” Logan said.

  A couple of hundred feet on, they made a U-turn, then stopped on the shoulder in front of a roadside restaurant. They watched for several minutes to see if the car reappeared, but it didn’t.

  “At the far front corner,” Daeng said. “You see him?”

  Logan looked. Just visible above the top of the wall was the head of a man. He seemed to be watching the road.

  “Yeah,” he said.

  “We should go into the restaurant. He may have spotted us when we turned, and he’ll be more curious if we don’t get out.”

  The place wasn’t much more than a glorified food cart with a permanent roof over the eating area. They took a table near the front so they could keep an eye across the street, then, for appearance sake, Daeng ordered them some food.

  “What do you think?” he asked Logan.

  “Aaron said the hand over was going to happen today.”

  “You think that’s where it’s supposed to take place?”

  Logan looked over at the wall. It encircled a large property with a couple of commercial-type buildings in the center. “Figure the guys from the train must have reported that Aaron was missing before we even got to Chiang Mai. If I were in charge, I would want to talk to them in person as soon as possible. What I wouldn’t want, though, was have them brought someplace where I had another meeting set up. So either the hand off’s happening right now somewhere else, and these guys are just sitting there waiting, or it’s happening later, and they’re having their debrief right now.” He looked at Daeng. “I’m going to assume it’s the latter.”

  “If that’s the case,” Daeng said, “there’s a pretty good chance the girl is—”

  “—right over there,” Logan finished for him, his eyes firmly fixed on the cinderblock wall. “Which means I need to get inside.”

  “Do I need to point out again that it’s guarded?”

  “I know. But so far they’ve shown a lack of interest in using local help. If they’ve only got the people they came with, then they’ll be spread pretty thin guarding that place.”

  “We don’t know that for sure.”

  “Again, true.” Logan paused for a second. “At the very least, we know that they have someone up front.” He put a napkin in the middle of the table. “This is the walled in property. And this is us.” He set a soupspoon in their approximate position relative to the napkin. Using his finger, he traced a route across the tabletop. “If I’m careful, I should be able to work my way around and come at them from here.” He tapped the back corner of the napkin. “To your point about not knowing for sure, I’ll have staged goals. One, assess their security. And two, depending on the results of number one, enter the property, and see what I can find out. What I need you to do is create a diversion up front.” He put another spoon where the front gate would be. “Doable?”

  “In my sleep,” Daeng said, but then frowned. “But I’m not completely comfortable with this, though.”

  Logan sat back. “All right. What do you suggest?”

  “That I come with you.”

  “What about the diversion?”

  “Don’t worry,” he said. “It’ll be handled.”

  37

 
Within thirty minutes Logan and Daeng were on the move.

  Their driver stayed at the restaurant to act as spotter in case anyone left the compound. If they did, his job was to follow them, and report back.

  Logan had no idea who was going to be doing the actual diversion. Daeng dealt with them on the phone, checking in every few minutes as he and Logan worked their way through the neighborhood, and around to the back corner of the target lot.

  When they got there, they found enough junk lying around to create a step that would make getting over the wall a little bit easier.

  “Let me know when you’re ready,” Daeng said. His diversion team was standing by on the other end of the line.

  Staying in a crouch so that his head would remain below the top of the wall, Logan climbed up on the step. “I’m ready.”

  “Okay,” Daeng said into the phone.

  At first it seemed like nothing happened. Logan gave it a few seconds, then looked back at Daeng. “Anytime now.”

  “Patience,” Daeng said.

  There was another minute of nothing, then just before Logan was going to ask if something was wrong, he heard a loud voice coming from the direction of the front gate. It was soon joined by others. None of them sounded angry, though. In fact, their tones were just the opposite. Logan thought he even heard laughter.

  This time when he looked at Daeng, he raised an eyebrow.

  Daeng smiled. “Diversion. Burmese style.”

  “Burmese?”

  “Refugees. They sneak out of the camps to find work here in Chiang Mai. When I’m able, I send whatever I can their way. So they’re happy to help.”

  Logan raised his head above the wall just high enough so he could peek over. Standing just beyond the gate was a crowd of maybe a dozen people. They were smiling and laughing. A few were even carrying musical instruments of some kind. There were a several children, too, running around the adults, and sometimes ducking under the gate for a moment before returning to the other side.

  A Caucasian man stood just inside the gate, facing them. His hands were empty, but Logan had no doubt he had a weapon hidden somewhere. Two others, the two who’d been on the train, Logan realized, were walking toward the gate from the main building. Suddenly, the refugee group broke into song.

  “How long can they keep it up?” Logan asked.

  “They can go all day if we want,” Daeng said. “It’s not like the farang are going to call the police.”

  Logan nodded. “I’m going over.”

  “Are you sure it’s safe?”

  Logan took a quick look around. There was no one in the back area. In fact the only thing he could see that probably hadn’t been there for a long time was a large, gray cargo van parked by the side of the building.

  “I’ll know soon enough.”

  If he had it figured correctly, and Bell had limited his group to the men he’d come to Thailand with, then there should have only been two people left in the building, not counting the possibility of Elyse.

  As soon as Logan pulled himself over the wall, Daeng followed. Logan almost told him to stay where he was, but he knew Daeng wouldn’t listen. So together they made their way across the junk-strewn lot to the back of the central building.

  Like the rest of the property, it was rundown, with several windows broken out and many of its bricks missing. Logan quickly figured out that they could use this to their advantage.

  He whispered his idea to Daeng, then started up the side of the building, using the holes where bricks had been as a makeshift ladder. Soon he came up beside one of the broken second-floor windows, and peeked in. The room beyond looked like it hadn’t been used in years.

  He slipped his hand through the break, and undid the latch. A few seconds later, he was standing inside.

  Except for several chairs piled up against one wall, the room was empty. The only exit was a closed door directly across from the window.

  Stepping lightly, he made his way over to it, and inched it open. As he did, Daeng enter the room, and came up behind him. Logan took a peek through the slit in the doorway. On the other side was a wide room that took up much of the rest of the floor. It, too, appeared empty.

  The others had probably contained their activity to the ground floor, having no use for anything more. Logan led the way in, intending to find a staircase that could take them down.

  “Wait,” Daeng whispered. “What are those?”

  Logan wasn’t sure what he meant at first, but then he saw the holes. There were dozens of them, each about the size of a soda can, cut into the floor about every six feet. He guessed that the place had once been used for manufacturing of some kind, and the holes, though empty now, had served as conduits for cables and wires.

  He knelt next to one, hoping he would be able to see down into the first floor. Unfortunately, the only thing he saw was darkness. He moved to the next one. Black again. He checked three more, all the same.

  Standing up, he decided the stairs were still their best bet, but before he could start looking for them, Daeng motioned for him to come over.

  Logan crouched beside him, next to another one of the holes.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  Daeng held a finger to his mouth, then pointed down.

  Logan looked into the hole, and wasn’t surprised to see it was dark like the others. He was about to say as much, when he realized that while it did looked like the others, it didn’t sound like the others. There were voices coming up through it.

  He leaned down, turning his head so that his ear was only inches from the opening.

  “…out of here,” a male voice said.

  “I tried to find out what they want, but I don’t think any of them speak English,” a second replied.

  “Find someone who does, and get rid of them!”

  There was a lull, then a third voice spoke up. “Does it really matter? They’re not doing anything. Just standing at the gate, playing a few songs. Have you tried giving them money? Maybe that’s all they want.”

  “We tried that,” the second voice said. “It just made them play more.”

  “I bet if we ignore them, they’ll go away.”

  “They can’t be there when we head out.” This was the first voice again, the most authoritative of the three.

  “That’s not for another four hours. More, if we haven’t heard from the woman by then. It’ll be fine.”

  There was a pause, then the first voice said, “It better be.”

  Silence again. Logan looked at his watch. It was almost 11:00 a.m. If the four hours was an approximation, that meant they would probably be leaving anytime between 2:30 to 3:30.

  He had to assume the ‘where’ was wherever this hand off Aaron had mentioned was to take place. Time was rapidly running out. If Elyse was in the building, Logan needed to get her out now.

  He pushed himself up.

  “Where are you going?” Daeng whispered.

  Instead of answering, Logan turned toward the back of the room. Along the far wall were several doors, including the one to the room they’d entered through. He figured the stairs would be at one end or the other, and since he was closer to the door on the right, he went there first.

  Bingo.

  Daeng caught up to him just as Logan entering the stairwell. “What are you doing?”

  “If she’s here, we have to get her.”

  “Are you kidding? You go downstairs, they’ll catch you. That’s not going to do anyone any good.”

  “It’s the only way we can find out if she’s here or not.”

  On that point, Daeng had no argument, and he knew it. “I’ll go,” he said. “If they catch me, I’m just an unlucky local who stumbled into something he shouldn’t have.”

  “That’s not going to make it any safer for you.”

  “Maybe not a lot, but it’s better than them finding you. They’ve pretty much all seen your face now.”

  “Those two from the train know what you look like, too.”


  “I’m Thai, remember? There are millions of us here. They won’t recognize me.”