Jake led the way as he made a tactical retreat through the kiosks toward the river. But he knew to get back to the dock to pick up the boat they would have to cross about fifty yards of open grass. Not a great prospect.
Glancing out on the grounds, Jake could see flashes of dark-dressed characters finding shooting positions. Who the hell were these people? They couldn’t all be Remington’s people. No, someone had intentionally killed Remington to shut him up.
Shots echoed through the grounds back and forth, but none of that came from Jake or Alexandra. This was a three-way shoot out. They could use that to make their retreat.
“Run when they engage again,” Jake whispered to Alexandra.
She nodded approval.
They didn’t have to wait long. When gunfire rang out again, both of them ran as fast as they could across the open section. After Jake saw muzzle flashes aimed in his direction, he shot in the general direction of those firing at him. But it was too late. The two of them had found an angle of cover from a public bathroom.
They stopped to catch their wind. Jake guessed they had just twenty more yards before the shooters would not have a chance to fire at them, since they would gain more cover from a group of food stands. But if someone had flanked around the outside of those food stalls, they could be waiting for them at the dock. They had no other choice.
Jake checked his magazine. It was still half full. He jammed it back into the handle and prepared for the last run.
“Are you ready?” Jake asked.
“They could be at the dock already,” she said.
“I know. But it’s our only way out. The cops will have to make their way through the other end of the grounds. The river is our only choice.”
“Let’s hope the gunfire didn’t scare away our ginger bread boy.”
He almost laughed at her mixing up that axiom. With the deafening silence, Jake became a bit concerned. Both of the other parties knew he was stuck there and were waiting for him to make this last move from cover.
“I’m gonna lay down some cover while you run,” Jake said. “Once you get to the other side, you do the same for me.”
“Got it.”
Jake got ready to fire and he nodded for her to run.
Just as Alexandra took off, Jake fired slowly toward the other shooters. His slow fire automatically drew return shots from both positions in the darkness, which Jake used to aim better.
When Jake heard a gasp, he turned and saw Alexandra had hit the ground. Had she been hit?
He tried to fire but realized he was out. He dropped one magazine and shoved a second into the handle, cycling a round into the chamber. Then he ran toward Alexandra and fired at the same time. He reached her just as she was trying to get to her feet.
Blocking her body with his, he continued firing as the two of them rushed toward the dock.
They couldn’t have timed it any better. Their long-tail boat was pulling up just as they got to the loading area on the dock.
Jake saw the Agency man, Liam, with his gun out and aimed right at them. Had this man betrayed them?
Liam fired three times, his shots zipping past them and striking a man back by the food stands. “Get in,” Liam yelled.
Jake and Alexandra jumped aboard the boat and the pilot immediately gunned the engine, pulling them away from the dock.
The boat quickly found the middle of the wide river. Jake looked back and saw that another boat had picked up some of the gunmen, but he had no idea which faction.
“Is this as fast as this boat goes?” Jake yelled at the pilot.
The man didn’t respond.
Liam turned and confronted the pilot in Thai. When the pilot nodded, Jake had his answer. There was no way they could outrun the boat behind them. It was bigger and looked more like a power boat.
When bullets started breaking through the night air, Jake, Alexandra and Liam all hit the deck. By the time they lifted up to return fire, the boat was cutting hard to the left. The pilot was slumped over, his head wet and red with blood.
They were heading right for a stone wall on the west bank of the river. Jake shoved the pilot out of the boat and got behind the wheel long enough to crank the wheel hard around to the left, turning the boat back downstream. Now, as they quickly passed the boat chasing them, all three of them opened fire on the other boat.
With the help of the current, the boat picked up speed.
Jake turned to Liam. “You know how to drive one of these?”
Liam nodded and changed places with Jake.
“How many extra magazines do you have?” Jake asked the Agency officer.
Reaching inside his jacket, Liam pulled out two magazines and handed them to Jake. They were lucky to all be carrying the same Glocks. Jake shoved one into his pocket and handed the other to Alexandra. Then Jake looked ahead down the river and saw the police boat, its red and blue lights flashing. He turned and saw the pursuit boat had cranked around and was gaining ground on them.
“What do we do?” Liam yelled.
“Don’t stop,” Jake said. “You might have a get out of jail free card, but we don’t. I sure as hell don’t want to end up in jail trying to explain what just happened back there.”
Within seconds their boat passed the police boat. Jake turned to see the other boat catching up with them. Then the police boat turned to pick up the chase. Great.
Gunfire broke the silence. But with the roar of the engine and the wind and rain, it was not as audible as it could have been under normal conditions. Jake got low in the stern and aimed at the bow of the trailing boat. He fired three controlled shots. He hit his target, but he wasn’t sure it would do anything. Jake really needed to hit their engine or the pilot. But he didn’t have a clear shot at either of them.
Looking at both sides of the river, Jake realized they had no quick way to scuttle the boat and escape into the fabric of the city. They would have to pull up to a dock and that would take time, giving the pursuit boat time to shoot them all to hell.
Turning to Liam, Jake asked, “Can you get us down one of those canals?”
Without warning, Liam cranked the wheel to the right and nearly lost all of them over the side. But the maneuver was so quick that the boat behind them couldn’t respond. It cruised past them and would have to come around in a full circle to catch them.
In seconds they were cruising down a narrow canal faster than they should be going.
Jake saw an opportunity for them. “Stop over there.” Jake pointed at a small dock.
Liam pulled back on the throttle and turned the wheel to the right. Just when Jake thought they would smash into the wooden dock, Liam jammed the throttle to reverse and cranked the wheel hard. The boat pulled up and then hit the dock rather hard, nearly knocking Jake and Alexandra to the deck. The three of them jumped off the boat and ran toward a dark area between two buildings.
When they reached a main street, they jumped into a tuk tuk and Liam gave the driver instructions to get the hell out of there. At least that’s what Jake guessed, considering their speed getting out of there.
Jake looked back and finally breathed deep, catching his breath. They had lost them. But now came the hard realization that this operation was either over or far from it. He had to believe that Bill Remington had outlived his usefulness to the Chinese. Maybe that had been their plan all along. Or maybe Jake’s presence in Southeast Asia had somehow made that plan inevitable.
18
Jake went back to his hotel for one thing only, to pick up their bags. There was no way they could stay there. Every cop in Bangkok would be looking for them now. And Remington’s people had followed them there from the tailor.