And with that considered, Riley moved fast to his right and grabbed the Buddha paperweight off the desk. A second later it was smashing into the face of the man with the gun, breaking his nose and making him cry out in pain. The man muffled his own cry when he raised his hands to his face to check the new arrangement of his nose.
Decker and Charlie rushed the other men and a fight broke out in the small office as Riley seized the moment and charged into his opponent, elbowing him in the throat with one arm while smashing the gun out of his hand with the other. It hit the cheap vinyl tiles with a muffled smack and the Australian kicked it across the office before his assailant got any idea about picking it up again. The former SAS man had no use for it — there was no need to kill this man, and what else was a gun for?
A second later the man wrestled his way free of his grip and put the Australian in what he recognized as a shime-waza chokehold. It was a good, well-executed grappling hold that very quickly did its job and started constricting the blood supply from his head. Across the room he saw Decker and Charlie disarming the men and engaging in a brutal fistfight while Selena snatched up their weapons.
Riley kicked out against the choke, striking the side of the filing cabinet and almost sending it crashing over. Glancing at the gun he had booted across the room he felt a flash of regret, but then shrugged it off fast. Guns were the last resort in a situation like this. They were dangerous and lazy, and if a former SASR soldier with his level of experience couldn’t get out of a scrape like this with his hands, then he didn’t deserve to walk away. For Riley it was a matter of pride — much of a commando’s work was about beating the enemy silently, and there was nothing quiet about firing a nine mil pistol in an enclosed office.
Slowly, he felt the effects of the blood constriction, and he fought hard in the sweat and humidity of the small space to get a grip on the man and free the chokehold. It was then that he realized Selena had ordered the other men to raise their hands and was now pointing the guns in his opponent’s face.
“Raise ’em to heaven!” she said with a wink to Riley.
The man released the Australian and he sucked the fresh air into his lungs as he tried to regain his full consciousness. Then they all heard the men laughing.
“What’s so funny?” Decker said.
“You have lost Kunchai and the journal!” one of them said.
“What?”
They turned and saw Kunchai was gone.
“He said it was already with his boss,” Selena said.
Charlie rolled his eyes. “And I told you he was lying.”
Riley snatched one of the guns from Selena and held it in the face of the man who had choked him. “Where is he taking the journal?”
“I have no idea. He would never tell us a thing like that.”
Riley pulled back the slide and pushed the muzzle on the man’s forehead. “Where is he going? Last time I ask.”
“I don’t know who he is working for, but the quickest way out of this part of town is the river. It’s where he would go to escape. Go through the food stores on the ground floor.”
Riley pistol-whipped the man and knocked him out, and then turned to his friends. “Tie those goons up!.”
“Sure thing,” Charlie said as he tied up the two men with cables and taped up their mouths with a roll of Scotch tape from Kunchai’s desk.
“I’m going with you!” Selena said.
“Me too,” Decker said. “Until I get my cash I’m your shadow.”
“Fine, but someone’s got to stay here and look after these idiots.”
“That’s me,” Charlie said with a smile. “And I’ll go through his computer files again and see how my Thai holds up.”
When the men were secured, Riley, Selena and Decker dashed down the stairs and scanned the restaurant for an exit. To their right Riley saw a door marked ‘Kitchen’ in Thai and now they sprinted toward it.
Selena watched the Australian raise the Sig and aim it at the door. It was easy to forget about someone else’s past. Riley’s stupid jokes and easy-going manner almost completely eclipsed his former life, but when she saw how confidently he lifted the pistol into the aim and moved toward the unknown danger ahead of them, his past-life as a soldier in the Australian SAS Regiment came to the surface in no uncertain terms.
“Stay behind me,” he said, voice low and steady. “And if I say get down don’t mess about.”
“Got it.”
They entered the kitchen cautiously. It appeared to be deserted of people, but pots and pans bubbled and steamed on the hobs.
“Looks like the Mary Celeste,” Decker said.
A man emerged from behind a walk-in freezer. He wasn’t startled to see them — he’d obviously been deployed there by Kunchai, and he was holding a gun in his hand. “You’re too late,” he said. “Kunchai has gone, and so has the journal.”
“Whoever you are, you have to let us get after him!” Selena said. “You have no idea what’s at stake.”
“I work for Kunchai, not random thieves. Now, it is time for your Bangkok vacation to end.” He raised the pistol until it was pointing at Selena’s head and squinted as he brought the sights right between her eyes. “Game over,” he said, and squeezed the trigger.
7
Decker shoulder-barged Selena hard out of the way as the gun went off. The sound of the gunfire in the enclosed kitchen was deafening and they all heard the bullet ricochet off one of the woks with a sharp metallic ping.
They dived for cover as the man took a step forward and fired three more times, swinging the gun wildly in a vain attempt to hit one of the intruders.
But they had found safety for now. Decker and Selena were tucked down behind the island in the center of the kitchen and Riley was crouching behind one of the stoves opposite him.
Steam was billowing from a number of bubbling pots and several of the stir-fry woks were still on the flame. Smoke from the burning food curled up toward the ceiling and fogged the room. “I’ll turn you inside out for this, you little shit!” Riley yelled in his broad Aussie accent.
Decker peered over the island and saw the man. He was taking cover behind the freezer again and he heard him reloading the automatic pistol. It was now or never, so he scanned the kitchen for anything he could use as a weapon.
The only thing that came close to being a solution was a Thai meat cleaver resting on the top of the island a few inches from his hands. It was beside a pile of broken down chickens and still covered in blood and bone. He slipped his hand up and grabbed at it, but the man saw what he was trying to do and fired at him.
The bullet hit the island top and pinged off in a shower of sparks. The American ducked back down beside Selena. “Jesus!” he said. “Diversion please, Riley!”
“You got it!”
Riley picked up one of the bubbling woks and hurled it at the man as hard as he could. Pieces of pork and chive dumpling sauce sprayed all over the place as the wok struck the side of the freezer a few inches from the gunman’s face and forced him to pull back to avoid being burned.
The gambit had worked.
As the goon cursed loudly in Thai, Decker seized the moment and grasped the cleaver’s handle. Selena looked aghast at the chicken entrails all over the blade as the former Marine weighed in his hands.
“That’s awful!” she said.
“It’s going to get our asses out of here,” Decker said. “And that’s all I care about. Kunchai is getting away with your journal and this is our only chance.”
Before she could reply, Decker was crawling on his hands and knees through the kitchen, using the island in the center for cover as he made his way closer to the man behind the freezer.