Logan glanced over at Daeng, and gave him a single nod. It was time to make their move.
“You know what the problem is, it’s all so beautiful you begin taking it for granted, and start saying ‘just another Buddha statue.’” Saoirse had walked up beside him. She smiled. “Find your friend?”
“He’s on the other side,” Logan said quickly.
“Ah, good.”
He tried to listen to what was going on behind him, but Saoirse’s voice drowned it out.
“Me and the boys found a great pub down by the wall in town. You’ve seen it, haven’t you? The wall. The guidebook says it used to go all the way around the old part of the city. Anyway, thought maybe you and your friend might want to join us for a drink this evening. They’ve got some pool tables. Might get in a few games. What do you say?”
“Uh, maybe. Why not?”
He saw movement out the corner of his eye, and turned. Daeng was looking directly at him, waving an arm. Once he saw he had Logan’s attention, he held up one finger, then collapsed it into his fist so that none were showing.
Sein had arrived, and the clenched fist meant she was with Daeng’s people.
“The place is called The Hitch,” Saoirse said. “Near the east wall, on the old town side. Don’t know the name of the street, though.”
“It’s okay,” Logan said. “I’ll find it.” Having no choice, he looked over his shoulder at Bell.
The man was smiling and definitely looking confident. Logan locked eyes with Daeng, and gave him a second nod.
“It would be great if you can make it. I love Barry, and Brian’s a lot of fun, but we’ve been traveling together for about a month now, and sometimes it’s nice to talk—”
“I’m sorry. You’ll have to excuse me.”
He didn’t wait for a reply.
41
Logan tried to make it look like he was just another tourist taking in all the sights as he walked casually toward Elyse and Bell. But as he took another step, a hand suddenly grabbed his shoulder from behind.
“Hey. I think you need to apologize.”
It was Barry, and he didn’t look happy.
Why, Logan had no idea, but he didn’t have time to care. “Sure. Sorry.” He glanced back at Bell.
The guy was now holding a phone to his ear, but was leaning down and saying something to the secret policeman.
Barry suddenly moved in front of Logan. “Really? That’s pretty damn rude, don’t you think?”
Logan took a breath. “Look, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I’m sorry, okay? I’ve gotta go.”
“I’m not the one you need to apologize to. It’s Saoirse.” Barry looked past Logan’s shoulder.
Logan followed his gaze, and could see Barry’s girlfriend standing pretty much where Logan had left her. He wasn’t sure if she was feeling hurt, or just embarrassed that her boyfriend was making a scene. But he couldn’t care. “I apologize,” he said to her. “I didn’t mean to be rude. I’m just in a hurry.” He turned back around, but Barry was still standing there. “You need to get out of my way.”
He could see something was happening ahead. Bell, with Elyse still under his arm, and the Myanmar man next to him were heading toward the exit, Bell’s men loosely surrounding them.
As Logan started to weave around Barry, the Irishman reached out and grabbed Logan’s arm. “Who the hell do you think—”
Before he could finish Logan grabbed his arm, then swept his feet out from under him, and lowered the Irishman quickly to the ground. The anger that had been in Barry’s face disappeared. There was nothing but surprise in his eyes.
“I said I’m sorry,” Logan told him.
“Yeah, sure. No problem.”
When he looked back up, the others were more than halfway to the exit. They were going to get away if he didn’t move fast. He started dodging through the crowd, trying to convince himself he hadn’t missed his chance.
Then everything turned chaotic.
Monks started appearing through doorways, up through the main entrance, and seemingly even materializing out of the crowd.
This was Daeng’s doing, the extra help he had enlisted. Only the plan had been that the sudden influx of monks would confuse Bell, and create movement problems for his men, allowing Logan to grab Elyse.
But Logan was nowhere near Elyse. And while the tactic was definitely slowing the others’ escape, the flash mob created by the monks was also blocking Logan from getting closer to Tooney’s granddaughter.
He continued to push his way into the crowd, trying to squeeze through any seam that he could find.
“We have a problem.”
Logan looked over. Daeng had somehow caught up with him.
“Yeah. I noticed,” Logan said as he kept shoving his way forward.
“It’s the mother,” Daeng told him. “The monks tried to detain her, but she wouldn’t stay. Then some of your farang friends grabbed her as she was about to start up the stairs.”
Bell’s other men, Logan thought. The ones that were missing.
Daeng must have read Logan’s silence as displeasure, because he said, “The monks did all they could, but they weren’t going to hold her by force.”
“I know,” Logan told him. “It’s okay.”
It wasn’t okay, but it wasn’t their fault, either. He should have given Daeng the signal as soon as Bell had stepped onto the temple grounds. They would have had Elyse by now, and they could have communicated that down to the monks who’d been with Sein. But he’d wanted to make sure he had accounted for everyone, and had gotten in as close as he could first.
Once more his delayed action had caused a mistake.
Get the girl. Carl’s voice whispered in his mind.
As they got closer to the exit, Logan could see that some of Bell’s men had been forced off to the side, and were being surrounded by monks. One of them stared at Logan across the crowd. It was the guy who had the beers on the train. Logan could see the light blub go on as he suddenly realized Logan must have something to do with all this.
The man shoved one of the monks out of his way. Only he didn’t get very far. Laying a violent hand on a monk was unheard of. Several Thais had seen the shove and were pulling the man back. More quickly joined in.
Logan craned his neck, looking ahead and hoping other monks had been able to corner Bell and Elyse, too, but no such luck. Bell was leading her and the Myanmar man down the short steps to the courtyard, with one of his men still with him.
“Excuse me!” Logan said loudly. “Excuse me!”
Daeng was shouting something in Thai next to him that he assumed was the equivalent.
It was working, at least a little. Some of the monks would look at them, then step out of the way once they saw Daeng. The biggest problem was the tourists. The sudden appearance of all the monks confused them, and they didn’t seem to know what to do, so they just stood in the way, taking pictures.
Finally, Logan and Daeng reached the exit steps. They raced down into the courtyard, not even worrying about grabbing their shoes.
“What about the generals’ men?” Logan asked. “One of them’s with Bell, but the others are going to get away.”
“No,” Daeng said. “They’ve been taken care of.”
“What do you mean?”
“The monks.”
“I thought you said they wouldn’t hold anyone by force.”
“I said they wouldn’t hold her by force. Elyse’s mother has done nothing wrong.”
Logan had a quick vision of the temple in Rangoon, and monks being beaten by the secret police. There would be no love lost here for those associated with that inhumane act.
They reached the top of the long, dragon-lined staircase. Logan took two seconds to pull off his socks so he wouldn’t slip, then kept moving. The others were about two-thirds of the way down, and he could see they’d taken a moment to put on their shoes. Bell’s man was carrying Elyse over his shoulder. It would have been nice if that had slowed him down, but he was moving as quickly as the others.