“Okay. Here we go.”
“Nice and slow.”
“The only way I know.” He lowered his arms, knelt to scoop up the cuffs, and stood, holding them out so she could see them.
“Night vision. Of course. Should have known,” he muttered to himself, then slid a cuff open and secured it around his wrist.
“Now the other one.”
“I hope I get points for courtesy and cooperation.” He locked the cuff in place, then waggled his fingers. “There. I’m no longer a menace to society.”
She inched closer to him. “Now turn around.”
He complied, peering through the gloom at her. “Holy shit. Is it just you? You did all this?”
“How many did you think it would take?”
He shook his head. “Unbelievable. You want a job?”
“Very funny. Now we’re going to head over to the horses. Think you can manage that?”
“Sure. But why? Am I going to give them a eulogy?”
She looked past him to the creek. Both animals were down. The wild shots from the two frantic guards had hit them.
“Damn. Looks like we’re walking out, then.”
His eyes moved, and he looked over her shoulder, past her. She didn’t fall for it.
“Don’t bother. That’s the oldest trick in the world,” she said, her gun pointing steadily at him.
“I think you should reconsider your perspective of old dogs and their tricks,” he said, and this time he did smile.
“Not a chance. Now before we go any further, where are the diamonds?”
“You think I’d have them in a hut in the middle of nowhere?”
“Where are they?”
“Well, two of them are right behind you,” he said.
“I told you. Stop screwing around, wasting my time. It won’t work.”
“Oh, I think this time it will. Don’t you, Matt?” Lap Pu’s voice purred softly from behind her.
Chapter 24
“Drop the gun. Now,” Pu ordered.
Jet did as he instructed.
“Now turn around.”
Pu was holding a small pistol — it looked like a Walther PPK.
“Take the night vision off.”
She slowly reached up, flipped the goggles out of her field of vision, then lifted them off her head.
Pu’s eyes widened. “Well, well. If it isn’t a pretty face from my past.”
“What the hell’s going on here, Pu?” Matt demanded.
His eyes swiveled to Matt. “I honestly have no idea.”
“Where are the diamonds?” Jet repeated, her tone even.
“Why, my dear, around his neck, of course,” Pu said. She looked over her shoulder to where Matt stood and saw a small leather pouch dangling from a leather lash circling his neck. “At least some of them are. Isn’t that right, Matt?”
“Pu, cut the shit. Get the key from her and un-cuff me. You. Whatever your name is. Give me the key,” Matt said.
“Ah, not so fast,” Pu warned.
“Pu. What the hell are you doing?” Matt asked, his voice somewhat diminished.
“Thinking. I was wondering how much I see helping you sell them, versus what’s around your neck. That’s all.” Pu’s English seemed to improve markedly as his greedy eyes considered the predicament.
“You’re kidding me, right? After all we’ve been through? You would screw me over this?”
“No hard feelings. What you got in there, anyway? Twenty of them? Fifty?” Pu asked.
“None of your business.”
“Oh, I think so, my friend. Very much so. You answer now.”
A blinding flash of lightning seared across the sky, and the trees shivered from the boom of thunder. Pu flinched involuntarily, and for a brief second, took his eyes off Jet.
That was all she needed.
The throwing knife flew at him in a blur, stabbing through his esophagus with a wet thwack. His pupils dilated as he gasped a protest, groped for the knife handle, and pulled it free. Blood spurted from the gash as he dropped the gun. Jet leveled a roundhouse kick and knocked him to the ground, his palsied fingers still clutching the knife, staring at it in fascinated awe, holding his free hand to his neck in an effort to stop the life from streaming out of him.
“That’s for all the children you’ve ruined,” she hissed, then kicked him in the groin. “And that’s for me, you piece of shit.”
He rolled into a fetal position and convulsed, once, twice, and then shuddered and lay still.
She leaned over, picked up her Beretta, and trained it on Matt again.
“I’m going to ask one more time, nicely, and then I’ll start shooting pieces off you. Where are the diamonds?”
He hesitated. “I have some in the bag around my neck. Five million worth. The rest are in a safe place.”
“Not good enough. Where are they?”
“In a bank vault in Bangkok.”
She nodded. “Then it sounds like we’re going to Bangkok. Walking, for the most part. Hope you’re in better shape than you look.”
Jet stepped closer to him and pulled the leather thong from around his neck, weighing the heft of the diamonds in the pouch before sliding it over her own head. Matt watched her with a stony countenance, his five-day growth of beard dripping beads of water.
“Then it’s really just you? Nobody else?”
“I’d say that was enough, wouldn’t you?” She picked up the night vision goggles and put them on again, then walked over to the P90 and retrieved it, pausing briefly before also grabbing the bow and arrows. She slid them over her shoulders and adjusted her backpack and then turned to face him.
“Come on. Let’s get going.”
“You realize that trying to walk out of here in the dead of night in a rainstorm is going to be pretty close to impossible, right? These hills are teeming with drug smugglers who would kill you just as soon as look at you. I didn’t have all this protection for no reason.”
“Did you a lot of good, didn’t it? Come on. Move it.”
He sighed. “You want me in front or in back? I can’t see anything, so it might be better if I followed you.”
“That works for me. But a word of advice. I just killed twenty of your men and didn’t break a sweat. If you try anything, and I do mean anything, I’ll cut your ears off and then work my way south. Nothing that will kill you or keep you from walking, but you’ll wish you were dead. Is that clear?”
“I understand. I try anything, you filet me.”
“Good. I’d say there’s the basis of a relationship here.”
Without another word, she set off into the jungle, Matt trailing her by three yards.
As they moved up the mountain trail, the rain slowed to a drizzle and then eventually stopped altogether. Soon they hit a rhythm, his boots trudging behind her, occasionally stumbling over a root or a rock. She figured that they could make it twelve to fifteen miles by dawn if they kept up a decent pace, although parts of the terrain would slow them, and they needed to be on guard for unfriendlies sharing the jungle paths.
Matt tried engaging her several times, but she shushed him, preferring to keep her ears tuned for threats rather than idle banter. She hadn’t captured him because she wanted a new friend. He was a dead man, and as soon as she had all the diamonds, she’d formalize it with a bullet.
When the first light peeped through the tree tops, they stopped to rest near a creek. She performed a brief reconnaissance of the surrounding area to ensure they were alone, then sat down cross-legged by the water and pulled two breakfast bars from her backpack.
“You hungry?” she asked, after wolfing hers down.
“And thirsty. I could use some water.”
“Is the water in the stream safe to drink?”
“Depends on how brave you’re feeling. I boil it. Lot of parasites around here. I don’t fancy having my organs burrowed through or used as a nest…”
She rooted around in her pack and retrieved two empty liter water bottles, then dropped a tablet in each before filling them from the stream. It took a few minutes for the pills to dissolve, and when she shook the bottles, the water looked milky. She took a sniff and chugged hers before moving to where Matt was leaning against a tree trunk.