The Defector Read online

  ‘Sorry.’ I said, and meant it.

  ‘You, or I, must contact your family,’ she said, slowly.

  I gave her an askance look, but before I could respond Scott was there.

  Kate looked up, ‘Anything?’

  He looked concerned, ‘Yeah, from Ben, there's another message, problems, but I can't get hold of him to find out what.’

  She smiled uncertainly, ‘It'll be ok Scott, we'll be back there soon.’

  He scowled, ‘I hate not knowing what's going on, I knew we shouldn't have come up here so close to the regatta.’

  Kate bit her lip, ‘We'll talk about it later.’ she said, tightly.

  No one said anything while Scott sat down.

  ‘Drinks are coming.’ I said to him, awkwardly.

  He nodded, distant, troubled.

  ‘So,’ Kate said, with what was obviously a big effort at good humour, and a change of subject, ‘what are you up to Martin?’

  ‘Well,’ I started, ‘I'm out of here first thing tomorrow morning.’

  ‘Really? Are you going home? Why didn't you say...’

  ‘No,’ I shook my head, ‘I don't know where I'm going, but I'm not staying here.’

  ‘What's the problem?’ she asked.

  ‘Oh, there's this American I ran into in a bar,’ I hesitated, but I could see no reason not to tell them, ‘to start with he just seemed good company.’ I shook my head ruefully, ‘But he got me wrapped up in these games...’

  ‘What kind of games?’

  I shrugged, ‘You know, spoof, Prisoner's Dilemma...’ I tailed off. My propensity to turn everything into a game or a gamble had been a continual source of friction between us.

  ‘Oh, Martin, you're not still at that? I thought maybe because you were out here, and had given that job up you might have stopped all that betting rubbish too.’

  ‘Well, yeah.’ I stared at the ceiling, watched a fan complete a couple of laps, damn, I should have seen this coming. ‘It was only one game you know, and before I knew it I was mixed up with this real bad guy, major league drug smuggler.’

  ‘Martin!’

  Even Scott turned round and looked interested.

  ‘It's ok, I mean that's why I have to leave. I told him I was out of it. First thing tomorrow I'm on a plane or a boat.’

  ‘Jesus! How on earth could you get involved with drug smuggling?’

  ‘Kate, keep your voice down! I just got sucked in, he picked me out, there was nothing I could do.’ That wasn't entirely true, but true enough for the moment. ‘I'm out of it now. No problem.’

  ‘You think it's that easy?’ said Scott, out of nowhere.

  I turned to look at him, and shrugged. ‘I hope so, I'd have liked to have left tonight, but there's no way off the island.’

  ‘Don't blame you.’ said Scott, ‘There's some pretty bad shit goes down around here, behind all those friendly smiles.’

  I nodded. If only you knew how bad, I thought.

  There was a clink in front of me as the waiter put down the two beers, the coke followed. I distributed them and paid him.

  ‘Well, I've told you all about me, what are you doing here?’

  ‘Not all about you Martin...’ Kate started.

  ‘As much as you're going to get,’ I said firmly, ‘at the moment.’ I glanced at Scott, who had gone back to staring round the room.

  Kate sighed, but there was an almost imperceptible nod, ‘Well, we're just on holiday,’ she said, ‘we needed a break, we've had a hard time recently.’ she smiled at Scott and laid a hand on his arm. I caught Scott's eye without meaning too and he stared me down.

  ‘Oh?’ I said. ‘What kind of hard time?’

  ‘Just boat shit.’ said Scott. So far he hadn't been exactly friendly, but the question provoked an even more negative response. I guessed it was a sensitive subject.

  Kate looked at him, concerned, there was a silence and she obviously felt that she had to fill it, ‘The boat is down in Sydney, we've been getting it ready for a regatta down there. But it's been a lot of hassle. The sponsor won't part with any money and the racing skipper...’ she stopped, and I glanced up just in time to catch Scott giving her a very old fashioned look.

  ‘The skipper?’ I said, as innocently as possible.

  Kate glanced back from Scott, ‘Just boat politics.’ she said.

  There was another silence, this time I was happy to break it.

  ‘So my family's call didn't have anything to do with the choice of holiday venue?’ I said, backing a hunch, and trying to appear innocently mischievous. Ko Samui was, after all, the most obvious place in Thailand to look for someone gone 'walkabout'.

  Kate smiled, a little guiltily, ‘Maybe.’

  ‘Yeah, you're the reason I'm here instead of doing my job.’ said Scott to me, openly hostile now.

  Kate turned on him quickly. ‘That's bullshit and you know it, you promised me this holiday weeks before I heard about Martin.’ And then back to me, ‘We weren't looking for you. I just thought, well, that if you were around we might bump into you, and we did.’

  I sat back, things were becoming clearer. I tried to pour a little oil. ‘Look, I really appreciate that you're here, whatever the reason. I'm glad to see a friendly face, this guy has me a little freaked.’

  Scott took a big swallow of his beer, and stared fixedly at the ceiling. Kate said, ‘So where are you going next. You won't stay in Thailand and you won't go home?’

  I shrugged, ‘No, not home for sure,’ I stopped my hand halfway to the giveaway eyebrow and redirected it to the beer, I wished she'd stay away from that subject, ‘I'll go anywhere else, somewhere the sun shines and the living is easy.’

  Kate glanced at Scott, a mixture of emotions crossing her face. She seemed to come to a decision, ‘We're going back to Sydney tomorrow. Why don't you come to Australia? It's the perfect place, great weather, great people. You can relax, get in touch with your family. I can help you sort things out. Scott, Martin can come with us to Sydney can't he?’

  To say that Scott didn't look too impressed with the idea would be an understatement. ‘I guess.’ he muttered, eventually.

  And Kate leaned forward, smiling. ‘So, Martin, what do you think?’

  I looked at her again. It was a long way from Janac. It could be a good half-way house on the way back to normality. I looked at Kate and knew I was rationalising a decision that I'd made the second I saw her. I'd lost her three years ago, I wasn't going to let her slip away again. Scott or no Scott. ‘I'd love to,’ I replied.

  ‘Excellent.’ Kate looked genuinely pleased.

  I felt euphoric, ‘I'll go down to the airport in the morning and catch the first plane I can get on.’

  ‘I think our flight is a little later,’ said Kate, ‘after lunch.’

  ‘Well, I'll get to Bangkok and just keep going to Sydney.’

  ‘Exactly. Come and find us at the boat. It's called Gold, and it's in the yacht club marina at Rushcutter's Bay.’

  ‘I don't have a pen.’ I said.

  ‘No problem, we'll get one at the desk later.’

  ‘Great.’ There was a silence, ‘Well, shall we eat?’

  The meal was every bit as good as I expected. And Scott relaxed after a few more beers. Kate made a fuss of him and he kept a territorial arm round her for much of the time. But I wasn't fazed, everything comes to those who wait. And so it was a much happier man that left dinner, than the one that had left lunch. The resort was darkened and quiet when I arrived back a little after one in the morning and I slipped into my room unnoticed. I set the alarm for just before sunrise, so I could leave equally unobtrusively.

  Chapter 7

  The crash as the door flew open had me sitting bolt upright in bed instantly, ‘What the hell!’

  ‘Shut up.’ the words were English but the accent was Thai. A torch shone in my eyes and I put my arm up to protect them - too late, I was completely blinded, ‘What the hell is going on! Who are you?’ I asked in a voice
as panicked as I felt. There was a whoosh of air before the blow landed heavily on my shoulder and I gasped with the pain of the impact.

  ‘I said, shut up. We're police, searching your room for illegal substances on the basis of information we've been given.’

  ‘That's bullshit,’ I started to protest, but this time no one responded. I peered out from behind my arm and could vaguely make out several figures through blurred eyes. Torch beams swung through the air, flicking over the floor, my gear... There was another bang and some scraping, then voices. One of the torches swung round and lit up an arm, then a hand.

  ‘What's this!’

  I peered at the hand and the package. ‘I don't know, I've never seen it before.’ My protest sounded pathetic. I'd heard the stories about this type of thing, but never met anybody it had happened to. It didn't really happen.

  ‘Bring him along.’

  ‘No!’

  Several arms grabbed and started to haul me off the bed. I was scrabbling for the sheet, bizarrely worried about my nakedness more than the arrest. Then it hit me. I couldn't let them take me. I started to yell, and that was all, a flash of pain and then nothing.

  It was the throbbing in my head that I felt first. A deep booming pulse that echoed through my body. I shifted slightly and realised two things: my head hurt a great deal more when I moved, and I wasn't lying down. I was sitting on a chair. I could remember going to bed, but nothing after that.

  Then it came back, the hut, torches, men, the blow on the head. I heard some voices, they must have seen me move. I stayed still and tried to regulate my breathing evenly. A hand grabbed me under the chin and my head snapped back. Involuntarily I opened my eyes. A torch shone straight in them and again, involuntarily, I shut them. My head was allowed to fall forward and ripples of pain echoed out through my body. But not so bad this time. They couldn't have hit me that hard. There were more voices and the shuffle of steps on an earth floor, moving away.

  It went silent and I kept my head down, opened my eyes again to try and find out more about where I was. I blinked a few times in the harsh flickering light of a florescent tube. I flexed my arms and discovered that they were tied behind my back. Out of the periphery of my vision I could just see a couple of pairs of booted feet and a dusty floor, blue edged shadows on the dirt. That was it. Then there were more voices, and one I recognised. Now I understood.

  ‘I'm terribly sorry you've been treated so badly.’ The voice was heavy with sarcasm. I looked up to find Janac standing squarely in front of me, hands on hips, a concerned, but mocking, expression on his face. He spoke some words in Thai and hands reached behind my back and loosened the bonds. I struggled free and rubbed my chafed wrists, glancing round the room; grey concrete walls, crumbling plaster ceiling, no window and the single door. All coldly lit by the humming, sputtering tube above. A pile of clothes came flying towards me, I caught them. Not mine and not clean, but I wasn't in a position to be picky. I dressed quickly, while Janac watched silently.

  ‘Sit. Please,’ he ordered when I was finished, and I slumped back into the bamboo chair, staring at the floor. Everyone else had left the room.

  There was a couple of seconds of silence before I said, ‘I suppose this is your doing?’

  There was another pause, I watched him walk over to close the door. He kicked it shut with a flurry of dust, then leaned back against it and tapped a heel into the floor.

  ‘What do you want?’ I said, dully.

  ‘What do I want?’ Janac repeated the question lightly, then smiled. ‘What I've wanted all along, Martin.’ He pushed himself off the door and moved towards me before continuing. ‘As I said before, you interest me. From that moment when you wanted to play spoof for a thousand dollars - you wanted to up the stakes on me!’ his tone was incredulous, ‘I thought then that here was a player, a man after my own heart. Someone I could mix business and pleasure with. Since then you have been, although not altogether cooperative, at least entertaining company. I was disappointed at your decision not to participate further. So it is fortunate that the opportunity now appears to have arisen where I can apply pressure to encourage you to play on. As I know that you want to Martin, deep down.’ he laughed and the grey eyes flickered, ‘Someone tipped the police off and they found a considerable quantity of drugs in your room. Considerable, the sort of amount you get executed for in fact.’

  I was motionless. ‘Why don't you just cut the crap and tell me what you want.’

  Janac smiled, good humoured now he had complete control. ‘Well, it is true that I carry a lot of influence with the police in these parts, model citizen and all that. I'm sure I could have a word, but of course, that would mean you'd have to help me.’ He stepped back and leant against the opposite wall again. Pulling a packet of Gauloises out of a top pocket, he slowly lit one before offering them over.

  I shook my head, ‘I gave them up.’

  ‘Sensible, a concern for your health, that could be important to you in the next few days.’ he drew heavily on the cigarette and then slowly puffed a smoke ring from his mouth. We both watched it twist and swirl, blue smoke in the blue light, until it finally evaporated in the silence.

  It was clear what was coming next. ‘The drugs?’ I said, flatly.

  ‘Yes, the drugs. Unfortunately your rather enforced involvement in this game means that we will have to change the rules from those I had originally envisaged. It won't be quite the same, but still, I feel that the range of options open to you will make for some excitement.’

  I shook my head, I couldn't believe this, but it throbbed painfully at the motion to remind me it was all real.

  ‘You will be transporting a package to Australia for me. The package will contain processed, uncut heroin, and it is worth a great deal of money. It will be your job to bring it safely through customs before posting it to an address I will give you.’

  ‘Posting it!’ I looked up at him, surprised.

  He drew on the cigarette, ‘By hand of course, to an address I will give you. There's no reason why you should meet anyone else, and I'm safe from tedious western law here, I can assure you.’

  I raised my eyes to the crumbling ceiling and breathed deeply, before looking directly at him. ‘What if I don't?’

  Janac smiled with a yellow-toothed grimace. ‘I was hoping you would ask that, because I didn't want to miss the opportunity to explain your choices. Choice after all, is the essence of life, and death, as we have discovered in our games so far.’ He paused to stub out the cigarette before going on. ‘Firstly you could just refuse to take the package, in which case you will remain here and be prosecuted to, how does it go, 'the full extent of the law.' Of course you can weep and bleat and write letters to the Consul, and then the Prime Minister and the Telegraph and have your friends start a campaign but,’ there was heavy emphasis on the last word, ‘I think you will find that Thai law in this part of the world is remarkably resilient to outside pressure, and that in due course justice will prevail.’

  The sneering, sarcastic delivery as much as the words finally tipped me over the edge, ‘You're so full of shit!’ I spat out.

  Janac stepped forward in front of me with a speed that was frightening. I didn't even see his hand move, but I certainly felt it as it lashed across my face. I swore, just once, and gently dabbed at the blood now oozing from my lip.

  Janac hissed quietly in my ear. His breath smelt of decay, rotted humanity, ‘I'll only take so much backchat my friend, and you just crossed the line. You would be well advised to show me a little more respect.’

  There was a long silence as he stepped away and strode once around the room. I watched him, head still, the pulse in my temple pounding out the pace of his steps. Unable to stop a tremor as he disappeared out of my vision behind me. Finally he spoke again. ‘Nevertheless, it is a choice you could take. I'm sure the whole thing would take a year or two to work its course, and you never know, a miracle might happen. My people down here could be overthrown, I could be ru
n over by a bus, anything could happen. But really Martin, I will be disappointed if this occurs. It's not the player's choice.’ He paused slightly, shifted, hands back on his hips, the sneer returning after the flash of temper, ‘Alternatively, you could just deliver the drugs safely as ordered. Of course if you do that, you will be personally responsible for about two kilos of pure heroin entering the market. I want you to think about that too. The misery that will cause, the families that will be hurt when those drugs enter people's lives. We will be having a special push outside schools with those drugs in fact, get 'em young, like the cigarette companies eh? Not good. So you may feel, in a burst of public spiritedness that has been rather lacking in your behaviour until now, that you do not wish these people to suffer.’

  He remained frighteningly still as he continued, ‘Which brings me rather neatly to your final choice. You could take the parcel, apparently in good faith, but then run to the authorities in Australia. Now obviously such selfless behaviour must have a personal price - this is the nature of our games. And, much as I would like to make this choice attractive to you, it would be expensive to me. Very, in fact. So I am forced to load it rather heavily to discourage you. You will be followed all the way to the delivery point and for some unknown time beyond it by one of my men. If he feels that you are about to deliver up the drugs to the authorities or in any other way compromise my operation in Australia he will kill you.’

  I was breathing fast and hard now, my mind tumbling over his words. I swallowed and wiped the sweat from my forehead. Now he squatted down and I met the soulless grey eyes on a level. I stared into them and saw nothing, not a flicker of life. When he spoke it was slowly. I can't convey the nature of that voice. It was beyond bad, beyond threatening, beyond evil. It was certain and the words were final. He said, ‘Now you may feel your miserable little life is a worthy trade for all that unhappiness and rush to the authorities at the first opportunity - at the acknowledged penalty of your life. I must confess I'll be proud of you if you do. Quite a bit poorer and the possessor of a rather dented theory on human nature, but proud.’