Death in the Kingdom (3 page)

‘He did what he did, Tuk Tuk. It happens,' I replied, accepting more whisky. ‘A father cannot be responsible for the actions of his son. Not in the real world,' I added, thinking of my stepfather and the way we had parted. It hadn't been quite as drastic as in Arune and Tuk Tuk's case, but the end result had pretty much been the same.

‘Enough of that past, Daniel. I apologise anyway. Let us toast to our renewed friendship and the future.' Tuk Tuk held his glass out. I pushed mine to his and they touched.

‘Indeed, old friend,' I replied, reaching for another cigarette. I was well on the way to becoming a human chimney. I lit up and stood. ‘Before we talk business I must alleviate the pressure in my bladder,' I said. Tuk Tuk chuckled and Choy just watched as I walked away to the edge of the plateau. There I unzipped and did exactly as I had indicated I would.

The tiny radio microphone in the cigarette pack I'd left on the table was on, and the signal was loud and clear in the equally tiny earpiece built into the ear stem of my Ray Bans. They were speaking Cantonese. My Thai was excellent, as was my Lao. As they both knew this they spoke the language of their birth. Neither of them knew that I had been born in Hong Kong and Cantonese was virtually my first language, compliments of our nanny. Mandarin came in a close second thanks to the cook. It was always wise to keep some secrets in my business.

‘He is telling the truth,' Choy mumbled.

‘I know he is,' Tuk Tuk sighed. ‘Arune was an idiot, but he was my son. Only a father has the right to kill his own son.'

‘You will kill Daniel?'

‘Not yet, Choy. It will pain me to kill him, but eventually I must. Not now, later! First let us hear what business he has for us.'

‘Can I kill him for you then?' Choy was asking. Damn him, he was so eager to have me dead.

‘Maybe when the time comes, but not until I say so,' replied Tuk Tuk as I zipped up and turned to go back to the table. Immediately they both switched to Thai, talking about nothing to create a smoke screen. I sat down and smiled at Tuk Tuk.

‘Okay. It goes like this,' I said. ‘Yamashita's gold!' Those two words dropped into the near silence like a depth charge.

‘Just a legend,' said Tuk Tuk at last, looking faintly disappointed. Choy's expression didn't change, but he was looking intently at his master, as if willing him to give the word.

‘Wrong,' I said. ‘The truth has been presented as legend by those who have the most to gain, namely the former allied block who defeated Japan and recovered much of the gold. That includes, of course, my people, the Americans and the Russians. I have read the most secret files on Yamashita's mission.' I paused purely for effect because the next bit was the one that was going to set the hook I had so carefully laid out for Tuk Tuk Song.

‘General Tomoyuki Yamashita gathered an estimated four billion dollars worth of gold, precious stones and artworks from China and Southeast Asia.' I paused to let the figure sink in. Even as fabulously wealthy as he was, this was something else for Tuk Tuk. ‘Those were the dollar values of the day. Imagine what it would be worth today!' Tuk Tuk's eyes widened and even Choy gave a grunt. Inscrutable Orientals my arse. When it came to wealth they were all too scrutable, just like the rest of us. ‘Yamashita raped half of Asia of everything of value, and when the war was being lost and his retreat cut off, he hid his loot all over the place. The location of most of his bootie is still unknown.'

‘You know where it is?' Tuk Tuk said, his eyes once more bright and hard.

‘Some of it,' I replied. ‘About a hundred tons of gold, give or take,' I added and watched Tuk Tuk's eyes as he did the maths. I'd checked my figures before leaving home and gold had been sitting at over six hundred US dollars an ounce for months. Figuring that as the minimum, the little pile of bullion in the Andaman was worth two or three billion dollars, depending on whether you were into US billions or the other sort. Whichever, it was a lot of dosh.

‘Where?' he whispered at last.

‘Close to here,' I replied. From where we were seated, it was about 150 miles as the crow flies. ‘There is more than gold.' I reached for the laptop. Choy tensed, his gun hand hovering close to the butt of his hand cannon. I gave him what passed for a reassuring smile as I gently opened the Toshiba. I didn't want Choy to do something I was going to regret.

The first of the two pictures I had loaded appeared on screen. I turned the computer around so that Tuk Tuk could see the black and white image. He focused intently for a second or two before he raised his head and stared back at me from across the table, a puzzled expression on his face. ‘What do you see?' I asked.

‘A small buddha,' he replied, shrugging dismissively, ‘probably gold and covered with gem stones.'

‘Not just a small buddha,' I said, preparing to drop the choicest morsel of bait into the shark pool. ‘That is a photograph of the Ruby Buddha of Pha To.'

‘Pha To!' Tuk Tuk exclaimed. Suddenly he was interested, very interested. His eyes went back to the screen and he hunched closer to examine the image of one of the greatest of all Thai legends.

The Ruby Buddha of Pha To had been crafted in the sixteenth century. It was one of the truly unique artworks of Thailand, or of any other nation for that matter. Standing a metre high, the gold seated buddha was encrusted with more than 3,000 rubies that formed a robe covering part of its chest, shoulders and back. None of the rubies was reputed to be less than a carat in weight, most of them three and four carats. In addition to the rubies, there were more than two hundred large diamonds and dozens of other precious stones creating designs against the ruby background. All in all, the buddha was worth possibly a couple of hundred million dollars just for the gems and gold. However, as a work of art, it was priceless.

‘But when the Japanese came it was hidden, and the monks who hid it committed suicide rather than tell the invaders where it was,' I said as Tuk Tuk searched his considerable memory bank. ‘Afterwards, people searched for decades but it has never been found—until now.'

I reached across the table and tapped the enter key to bring up a second image, this one in colour, mostly tints of green. I couldn't see the screen from where I was sitting. I didn't need to. I just leaned back in my seat and watched Tuk Tuk's face. His brow furrowed as he squinted at the laptop. I knew it was a difficult image to decipher. The photographer had been hampered by bad light. After all, he had been a hundred or so feet under the surface of the Andaman Sea in the rusting hulk of an old freighter. Gradually Tuk Tuk made sense of what he was seeing and the frown became a question in the making.

‘The Japanese found the buddha,' I said. ‘They moved it to the coast along with their other loot. They loaded it onto one of the freighters that Yamashita had working the Burmese coast to collect whatever his raiding parties found. Shortly afterwards, the freighter was sunk by marauding American fighter-bombers. A year or so ago, a scuba diver found the ship. He wasn't looking for it at the time. Inside, he took that photograph.' I paused for a moment to let this sink in.

‘So, old friend, the Ruby Buddha is still in one piece. The man who returns it to Thailand will become an instant hero. He will have the gratitude of the nation forever.'

A look of understanding began to form on Tuk Tuk's face. He knew exactly what I was getting at. He didn't need gold, despite the lure of a hundred tons of it. He had more wealth than he could use in a dozen lifetimes, and despite everything else, his life was coming to an end. However, like most mere mortals, he craved immortality, and here was his chance to become truly immortal in the eyes of the Thai people. Tuk Tuk wasn't a Buddhist, but to return the famed statue and become a national hero, that would be his legacy. It was infinitely preferable to the alternative of being remembered as a cold-blooded thug, complete with a five-star rating in the great book of infamy. I could see by the expression on his face that the hook was well and truly set.

‘Why has this diver not claimed the buddha?' Tuk Tuk wanted to know.

‘Because he was one of ours,' I replied. ‘He was looking for something else when he found the ship and this.'

‘Why did your people not recover it?'

‘Because it is in Burmese waters and, as you know, our relationship with Myanmar is not as it once was.' I was understating the case there. Britain's relationship with the military regime was at an all-time low. ‘A large-scale salvage operation would attract too much attention, including that of the Burmese authorities. I also doubt that if they found the buddha themselves they would even acknowledge its existence. We decided another approach might be in order.'

What I didn't tell Tuk Tuk was that Bernard, in his infinite wisdom, had decided that the buddha and the gold were the bait I needed to persuade Tuk Tuk to, in the first instance, not kill me, and in the second, set up the nautical aspects of our mission. I had tried to argue the old sod out of involving Tuk Tuk at all. I could have used a common smuggler or fisherman and paid him a few thousand baht to take me to retrieve the object of the exercise. That object was, in fact, a lead-covered box, the contents of which I had no idea. We could so easily have recovered the box and left the buddha and the gold for another day. Bernard, however, had other ideas.

‘Understand me, Daniel,' he'd explained in that damn schoolmasterly tone of his. ‘The buddha and the gold do not matter to us. All that matters is the box. Use the buddha, use the gold as bait and payment for the boat and crew. The box is the be-all and end-all. Everything else is unimportant.' Those had been his exact words. ‘Also, we may need Tuk Tuk's services later. This will clean the slate and ensure he is on our side.'

Knowing the convoluted logic that the old bastard was capable of, I had eventually conceded, not that I had had any choice at the end of the day. He was the fucking boss after all. Bernard had come up with the strategy to lock Tuk Tuk into the game, now I had to deliver the sell in my own words.

‘And you came to me, why?' Tuk Tuk brought me back to the present and it was time for me to perform. I shrugged and gave him a half smile. ‘I knew you well and you knew me well. We were friends before Arune's death.' I switched to English because some words did not translate well. ‘Of all the people in Thailand who have the resources to help, and who, perhaps, deserve a chance at redemption, the choice was you.'

‘Redemption.' Tuk Tuk repeated the word slowly in English, rolling it around his lips. ‘An unusual choice of words,' he said at last reverting back to Thai.

‘Apt, I think. History will bear your name proudly.' Tuk Tuk chuckled at that and nodded as he reached for his whisky.

‘Yes, Daniel. Very good! Very clever! You knew how to get through to me. That is something few have ever managed to do. Well done!' We touched glasses again. Tuk Tuk chuckled on for a moment then asked the question he had to ask. ‘If not the gold and the buddha, what is it your people want, Daniel? We know it isn't to help me redeem my soul.'

‘There is a small box that I must find,' I replied. ‘I have no idea what it contains. My orders are to find it and get it to my people.'

‘A most valuable box,' Tuk Tuk said thoughtfully, ‘if a hundred tons of gold and the most valuable buddha in the world are in the balance.'

‘The buddha and the gold for you, the box for me,' I reiterated.

‘Of course, Daniel,' Tuk Tuk replied raising his glass to mine, a broad smile on his face. ‘Redemption for me. The box for you.'

Choy wasn't smiling. He knew that it could be a long time, if ever, before Tuk Tuk called down the hit on me. Dead son or not, the prospect of achieving immortality appealed immensely more to Tuk Tuk Song than any crude revenge on me. The goal posts had been shifted and Choy, waiting on the penalty spot, was staring at the back of the net from the wrong side.

3

There are several sensations that defy description. One of them is being dragged up from the depths of the deepest sleep by a skilled set of lips and a tongue as they give you an expert blowjob. That was what happened to me the afternoon of the day following my meeting with Tuk Tuk Song. I'd been dropped back at Geezer's place and I had crashed out in his guest room.

I awoke as I came. Jesus, what an experience! For a second I didn't know where I was, and I didn't care. Then I stared down my naked body to the equally naked woman who was kneeling beside me. She was a young Thai, waif-like, with golden skin and a mass of long, gleaming ebony hair that touched the sheet below her. I fell back against the pillow and let her continue doing what she was doing.

A minute or two later she crawled up my body and propped on her elbows so she could smile down at me. ‘I'm Nan,' she said. ‘Mr Geezer said to come in and wake you the special way. You like?'

‘Hi, Nan,' I said blinking up at her. ‘What's not to like? That was very amazing.'

‘Good,' she said. ‘Now you want to fuck?'

‘I don't think after that I am going to be capable,' I replied honestly. She just smiled and vanished back down to where she had been. Within a minute she was astride me and yes, I wanted to fuck. When she proposed a repeat performance fifteen minutes later, I begged off. At forty-two I have to conserve some resources. We did, however, have a delightful shower together.

Later, I said farewell Nan with the promise that we would do it all again very soon. The whole thing had been a treat from Geezer. ‘Out of the housekeeping budget,' he said when I tried to settle up.

Over coffee on the patio he expressed his amazement that Tuk Tuk hadn't killed me. I told him just enough for him to know that it was extremely unlikely that Tuk Tuk would whack me in the foreseeable future. I also told him that Choy, perhaps, didn't have quite the same motivation. ‘You going to see Tuk Tuk again today?' Geezer asked.