“Did the Triads profit from the game?”
The girl shrugged.
“Did the players have to pay a fee to play?”
Again, she shrugged. That conversation was going nowhere fast. Either she had decided to keep quiet, or I was asking the wrong questions.
“How much control did Somchai have over the game?”
“It was his job to make sure the game ran smoothly in Bangkok.”
“So there was someone else who controlled the game above him?”
She looked away and lowered her head.
“Sei, do you know who is in charge of the game?”
She shook her head slowly, still avoiding eye contact with me.
“Was Somchai responsible for approving the pictures that were uploaded in Bangkok?”
“No. He only passed them on to someone else for approval, but I don’t know who that was. My job was to hand out answers. That’s all.”
“So you never saw or met the people Somchai reported to?”
“No.”
We had made a little progress, I guess. She had confirmed what I had been thinking all along, that the overlords of each Chinatown managed the game on a local level but were not the creators or the ones in charge. They weren’t even allowed to approve the pictures submitted. Was that left to the hands of the mastermind? Was the mastermind the head of the Triad organization—the Triads’ top Dragon Head?
I looked down at my watch; time was running out. I needed better information, something concrete. “I think you know more than what you’re telling me. I need you to stop lying.”
Her head perked up as her eyes widened. “I’m telling you the truth.”
“I don’t believe you, and that’s a problem. It means I’ll have to turn you over to these guys.” I kept my eyes on her while I used my thumb to point over my shoulder.
“You have to believe me.” Her breathing became elevated, and her eyes bounced around the room, searching for help. Both were signs that someone was telling the truth, but I knew she wasn’t.
“Why do you insist on keeping up this charade of innocence?” I asked as I crossed my arms over my chest.
“I hand out answers. That’s all.”
“Stop lying.”
“Somchai doesn’t tell me anything.”
“Yes, he does.”
“This is all I know.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“I’m just a girl working for money.”
“Wrong!” My patience had run its course with her innocent act. “You were put in place to keep an eye on Somchai, weren’t you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You reported to his boss. You knew everything he knew and more. Who killed Somchai? Who shut down him and the game in Bangkok? Who do you report to?” The level of my voice rose with each accusation that flew from my mouth.
She was lying. The responsibility of handing out the answers to the riddles was a bigger deal than she was making it seem. That position would require the person to have access to the game, to have knowledge of the riddles, to know what the tasks were, what the players looked like, and so on. Sei knew of all of this. Why was Sei given this access? Who was she? That’s what I wanted to know.
“Tell me why you were placed in Bangkok. Was it to watch Somchai?”
She tried to rebuff my question. “Give me an answer!” I shouted.
I watched a light shade of crimson sour Sei’s ivory-colored face as she tightened her jaw, forcing wet breaths to snake out between her teeth. “You can’t win!” she hissed. “Your attempts to stop the game are futile!”
“I will put an end to this game,” I countered with the same amount of fervor.
She threw her head back and cackled before settling back on me. With her eyes narrowed into dark slits, she lowered her voice. “Abby Kane, the hotshot FBI agent, you are no match for us. You are nothing but a gnat that we have enjoyed playing with, but now we’ve grown tired of you. Understand this: You cannot stop the game.”
No sooner had those words left her mouth than her right leg shot up, and her foot slammed into the side of my face, sending me flying off the wobbly stool and to land on the floor. I was dazed, but I was more surprised by her reach. I thought I had placed enough room between us.
I raised my arms, ready to fend off another attack, but none came. Instead, I watched her leap over me. Faster than anyone would have expected, she moved within striking distance of Artie and punted him in his crotch. In one fell swoop, she had immobilized the detective. I struggled to get to my feet, but the room turned on its axis, and I fell back down.
I watched Artie’s man reach behind his back for his weapon, looking to put an end to the embarrassing debacle, but Sei shouted something in Thai that had him give pause. That little exchange gave her the upper hand. Her leg shot straight out and connected with his knee, hyperextending it and nearly dislocating it completely from the socket. With his leg bent in an unnatural direction and unable to bear his weight, he fell to one knee. A howl escaped his mouth, and his eyes squinted shut as Sei kicked his gun out of his hand.
Our innocent little girl had effectively taken out three law enforcement individuals, all while handcuffed. Sei wasn’t a girl trying to make a living; she was a highly trained fighter.
Before she exited the room, she looked back at me with her hands still cuffed behind her back. She bent forward while sliding her hands down the back of her legs and down to her knees. She then plopped down on her butt and continued to slide her hands under her legs until she slipped them around the bottom of her feet. Her hands were now in front of her.
As she stood up, a smile stretched across her face. “Misjudged me, didn’t you?”
Chapter 67
Artie was the first to recover and give chase. I wobbled after him but we were both too late; Sei had vanished. Somehow, she had made her way out of the building and disappeared into the surrounding dwellings—still handcuffed but definitely much more mobile than we were. Artie ordered the rest of his men to search the area. I watched as they fanned out and disappeared into the night.
“She couldn’t have gotten far,” Artie said, turning back toward me. “We’ll find her.”
“Really? We underestimated her once. Let’s not embarrass ourselves further by doing it again.”
Artie’s nostrils flared as he dismissed my statement, but he knew I spoke the truth. That girl was long gone, probably already doubling back or circling around to cover her tracks. I suspected Artie’s men would come up empty-handed.
We had all grossly misread her, and she had capitalized on that. Shame on us. The whole ordeal angered me; I should have known better. I had gained many advantages over my opponents because they had underestimated my abilities due to my short stature.
“Height is an advantage, Abby. Don’t forget that,” my father had always told me. When he’d said that, I had always thought it only applied to me and not to others. Now I knew I wrong. Sorry, Dad.
“Your questions toward the end—those are what set her off.” Artie walked back to where I stood. “Why did you suspect that she was more than just a low-level employee?”
“The Triads don’t usually use women in that manner. I believe she was placed there primarily to keep an eye on Kang and I, but she was also to watch over Somchai. It explains how someone got to him before we did. She was a mole.”
“So what is she, some hired assassin?”
“That would be my first guess, but for some reason, my gut tells me she’s loyal to one person in the Triads, or to the Triads as a group. I don’t get the feeling she’s a gun for hire. One thing’s for sure: She’ll report what happened here tonight to her boss, whoever that might be.”
“Somchai must have done something to warrant his death.”
“I’m guessing kidnapping me and telling me about the Creeper wasn’t a smart thing, especially if it wasn’t sanctioned. That’s not how the Triads operate. They’re sticklers for procedu
re. He would have needed to inform his superiors if there were a problem.”
I let out a yawn before looking at my watch. It was nearing five in the morning; it would be daylight soon.
“I’m sorry about the way this turned out,” Artie said. “I’m not sure you got anything out of it except a kick to the face.”
“I’m happy it wasn’t the same side of my face that the Creeper chose to beat,” I said with a chuckle. I don’t bruise easily, but I do swell. Signs of the beating I had taken from the Creeper had disappeared by the following day, and the tenderness had all but vanished. The side of my face that had been kicked felt warm but not swollen. “It’s not that bad.”
Artie nodded and looked around. It was just the two of us. It was quiet except for the shuffling of our feet on the asphalt. The driver who had brought me here appeared from the side of the building. He must have been inside the whole time.
“You should go back to your hotel and get some rest. There’s nothing for you to do here. This is my mess to clean up.”
I couldn’t have agreed more. And I had no intention of helping Artie find his missing girl or explain the dead body inside the building. That was all him. I walked over to the front passenger side of the car. “I’m sorry, too,” I said before getting inside.
<><><>
Artie pocketed his hands in his pants and rocked on his heels as he watched the black sedan drive away. He had underestimated the girl, but how could he have known? At least, that was how he had rationalized it in his head. He wasn’t too broken up about it. It looked like he would be getting credit for taking down Somchai Neelapaijit earlier in the night, even though he’d had nothing to do with the leader’s death. This little mishap, as he considered it, could easily be buried and forgotten about. Somchai will be the focus, not his underlings.
Artie turned around to walk back toward the building but instead found himself face to face with the girl his men were out hunting.
“You didn’t think I would leave with these on, did you?” Sei held her hands up, the metal cuffs twinkled in the moonlight.
Before Artie could even hint at any attempt of restraining her, she had pivoted around him and jumped on his back. Her thin legs locked around his chest for balance as she slipped her hands over his head, hooking the handcuffs underneath his chin and into the crook of his neck.
Artie managed to grab her hands and pull in an effort to prevent her from choking him, but she was faster. She had already released her leg lock and maneuvered them both behind his back. She pulled, drilling her knees into his back for leverage. He tried to slip a finger underneath the chain of the handcuffs to create separation from his throat, but it was too tight.
Artie twisted and rocked his torso, trying anything to buck her off or at least disrupt the leverage she was creating, but she clung to him like a stubborn barnacle. She maneuvered her feet until both were placed flat against his back. He felt her begin to straighten out her body, pulling her handcuffs tighter against his neck and driving the hard metal of each cuff deeper into his soft flesh.
The force toppled them backward, and he landed on Sei, but she still managed to keep both of her feet firmly planted on his back as she rolled them over to the side. While his legs flailed, his fists battered her arms relentlessly, hoping to create even the tiniest break in her grip. Nothing he did appeared to have any effect on her. She was a machine, but Artie refused to give up. He fought and fought. With each blink, the night sky grew darker during a time when he knew the sun should have been rising until all there was left for him to see was the blackness of death.
Chapter 68
After grabbing a few hours of much-needed sleep, I joined the rest of my team for a late lunch. As far as I knew, no one had any idea that I had left the hotel to meet with Artie, but it was time to come clean. On the way down to the lobby, I tried to formulate how I would broach the subject. Everything that popped into my head sounded very silly. The best approach would be honesty.
When I entered the hotel restaurant, I saw the others sitting at a table. They had already made a pass at the buffet and were digging in. Kang saw me first.
“Abby, what happened to your face?” he said, wiping his mouth with a cloth napkin.
“I can explain.” A nervous chuckle followed. I wasn’t looking forward to what I had to say next. “Last night, I met up with Artie.”
All at once, they stopped stuffing their faces and gave me their full attention. No one said anything, but their eyes told me they were looking for an explanation.
House spoke up first. “Abby, you should have told us you were meeting with him,” she said, her tone direct. I didn’t blame her for being worried.
“I know.”
“We’re a team. We look out for each other. Our strength is in our numbers, too, not just our brains,” she continued.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to involve any of you in Artie’s shady tactics for extracting information. I knew you guys wouldn’t have cared, but we’re already stepping on eggshells here.” I told them Artie had already started interrogating the gang members when he called because I could hear screaming in the background.
“Regardless, Abby, you should have told us. And if the deal was for you to fly solo, at least we would have known you were with Artie,” Kang said as he stabbed a piece of bacon with his fork and shoved the entire thing into his mouth.
“You’re right.”
“Did you learn anything useful from your interview?” he asked as he chewed noisily.
“I got information, but I don’t know if it’s useful yet.”
They listened intensely as I recapped the early-morning events.
Kang responded first. “The shop girl, the innocent-looking one that gave us our answers, is an assassin?”
“It’s a pretty good assessment considering the abilities she displayed.”
Kang ran his hand through his hair as he tried to make sense of what I said. The others looked just as dumbfounded.
“I also wasn’t expecting to hear that.” House tilted her head to the side before spooning fresh-cut pineapple into her mouth. “The dead body, the beatings—that wasn’t a surprise.”
“This girl adds a new dimension to the investigation,” I said. “Do we focus on her? Was she really a plant or just hired help? Does she know the mastermind?”
“What’s the first thing that popped into your head?” Kang asked.
“That she was inserted into Somchai’s crew to keep an eye on him. And if I’m right, that means somebody expected a problem and wanted a solution in place.”
“Maybe we’re more of a threat to the game than we think,” Kang said between bites.
“Then why let us play? It doesn’t make sense.”
“I agree,” House said. “And what makes even less sense is that the end result was them having to eliminate their own people and shut down the game play in Bangkok. How is that helpful?”
“Maybe they weren’t expecting that.” Kang pointed his fork at me.
“You might be right there. Sei did indicate that, in the beginning, entertainment was the driving factor in letting us play.”
“Boy, these people are really dumb. Because they let us play the game, they lost two cities and three teams.”
Sokolov swallowed and then cleared his throat. “Are we positive the game is finished here?”
I shrugged. “It’s more of an assumption. We think Somchai managed the game. With him dead and his crew in shambles, who’s left to run the game? I don’t think it’s a big deal for them to shut down a city. Really, they can still play the game with the eighteen other cities.”
“Or open up a new city,” Kang added. “Plenty of untapped Chinatowns.”
“You know, Abby, you still have the other plan that Reilly’s implementing—taking out the management in the remaining Chinatowns. It’s a lot easier to target the person in charge than to find the killers.”
“I don’t disagree. It’s the best plan we have. And h
onestly, if the game becomes a pain, these players will abandon it. That by itself could effectively shut the entire game down. It won’t, however, deliver us the mastermind.”
I looked around the table and knew what they were all thinking: Reilly was already putting the best plan into motion, and the discovery of this girl didn’t trump it. Even if I did think she had ties to the mastermind, I couldn’t prove it, and to make matters worse, I had no idea where she was. Sei had become a ghost, as Reilly would have put it.
“I need to eat,” I said, breaking the silence. I got up and headed to the buffet. It wasn’t often I walked away from a lead, but I had walked away from that one. There just wasn’t enough there.
I headed straight for the buffet table with the fruit and zeroed in on the platter loaded with papaya. I scooped up nearly half of the dark orange pulp onto my plate before making the rounds to see what else could tempt a second trip. Before I could return to the table, my cell rang. I recognized the number. It was Special Agent Jacob Brewer, my contact at the embassy. Shoot! I thought Reilly had talked to him.
“Agent Brewer, how can I help you?”
“It’s imperative that you and your team leave the country immediately.”
“We have flights booked tomorrow night, and—”
“Not good enough, there’s a chartered flight leaving tonight. I’ll get you guys on it.”
“What’s going on, Agent?”
“Your detective friend, Songwut Soppipat—”
“You mean Artie?”
“It’s unofficial, but my sources tell me he was found dead this morning.”
“What? How can that be? I—”
“Don’t say anything, Agent Kane. I don’t want to know. I’m not saying you were involved or had previous knowledge of this, but in the event that the Thai authorities think otherwise, it’s best we field their questions on our turf.”
“But we didn’t do—”
“Not another word, Agent. Inform your team and wait for my instructions. Is that understood?”
“Yes.”
Lumpini Park (Abby Kane FBI Thriller - Chasing Chinatown Trilogy Book 2) Page 19
