“Not my first time,” he shot back flatly. “Besides — it’s simple. First gear up, then down for the others, and brake operated by your foot.”
Selena looked impressed. “That easy, eh?”
“Uh-huh. It’s so easy even you could… nah, scratch that.”
“And what is that supposed to mean?”
“How many attempts did it take until you passed your driving test again?”
“Look out,” Selena said with a sideways a glance. “He’s slipping out of sight.”
Riley laughed. “Don’t change the subject…”
“All right, all right,” she sighed. “I passed on my ninth attempt.”
“I knew it!”
“Can we focus on the job?” Decker said flatly.
“He really does make a good point,” Selena said to Riley.
The Australian twisted the accelerator even more and speeded up the tuk-tuk to the max, swerving out into the Thai night and racing toward Kunchai and the stolen journal.
8
Selena gripped the dashboard as Riley Carr swung around a tight corner and pulled the tuk-tuk level again. They were thundering along behind Kunchai now, and Decker was leaning over their shoulders from the back. “You two do this for a living then, huh?”
Riley allowed his focus on the road to hide his hesitancy, but Selena replied almost before the American had finished asking the question. “Of course — why do you ask?”
“No reason,” Decker drawled, and lowered his voice. “You just don’t seem very good at it, is all.”
Selena turned in the front seat and prepared to berate Mitch Decker. “Now, look here…” before she could go further, Riley launched the tuk-tuk onto the sidewalk at the side of the road in a bid to avoid a long line of stationary cabs in heavy traffic. As men and women flung themselves out of their way he pulled the wheel back and sent the tuk-tuk piling across the road again and into a street market.
“Bloody hell, Riley!” Selena snapped. “You could have told me you were about to do that.”
“He’s getting away!” the Australian replied, still focusing on the road as he weaved deeper into the marketplace. Pedestrians milled around and browsed through endless seas of plastic Chinese phone cases and Indian textiles. Tourists strolled along under parasols as they watched a man frying chicken on the sidewalk.
And then Selena honked the tuk-tuk’s horn and the scene changed from lively to chaos.
Riley turned and stared at her. “Hey! I’m driving.”
Selena huffed. “Like a girl.”
“And how do you drive?” Decker said from the rear.
“Like a lady, of course,” she said, lifting her chin to underline the statement.
Riley laughed, but then Decker ended the moment. “Guys, we got company!”
“Where?” Riley said.
“Another tuk-tuk right behind us, and they look pissed!”
Selena raised an eyebrow. “They’ve been drinking?”
“Huh?”
“He means pissed off,” Riley said. “Poms…”
Selena sighed, “Americans…”
“Aussies…” Decker said.
The other tuk-tuk raced up behind them and then swerved to get alongside. They pulled in tight and hit them, knocking them to the left and forcing Riley to swing the handlebars hard to the right to correct their trajectory through the market. They turned the next corner and burst out of the busy market and now found themselves screeching along the road beside the river once again.
“There’s Kunchai!” Selena cried out. “He’s just up ahead by that bridge!”
“Here — take the handlebars, Lena!”
“Eh?”
“You have the con!” The Australian said, and swung in his seat to face the enemy tuk-tuk. He lashed out with his right leg, booting the driver’s hand as he gripped the handlebars. The man responded fast, pushing the handlebars back hard to counter the Australian’s attempts to knock him off course.
The goon hit the brakes and fell behind them for a few seconds as they regrouped. When they accelerated the next time it was to go to the left of them, and this time the man in the rear had a surprise for them — a compact M79 single-shot grenade launcher. The other man passed his associate a grenade and gave the driver some instructions.
“You have to be kidding!” Riley said as he leaned out the tuk-tuk and prepared to jump over and take the fight to them.
“This is a God-damned nightmare!” Decker said.
“We can’t lose Kunchai, Riley!” Selena said, desperately trying to keep them on the road. “He’s gone under the bridge now — can you see him from out there?”
He swung to face her again. “Er — trying to stay alive here!”
As the other man deftly weaved their vehicle in and out of the Thai traffic, the man in the rear with the launcher grinned at Riley and shook his head. “No kidding,” he said, and then fired the break-action launcher at him.
The 40mm grenade burst from the launcher with a bright muzzle flash and ripped toward Riley at two hundred and fifty feet a second. The speed and range meant the Australian had no chance to dodge the projectile but luckily the tuk-tuk’s dodgy suspension meant the grenade went high.
“Holy Lord Jesus on a scooter!” Riley yelled as the grenade scorched through the air a foot above their heads. It tore across the Chao Phraya only inches above the tourist boats and water taxis and then smashed into an apartment block spraying chunks of white brickwork and bent steel balustrades all over the busy waterfront.
“Riley!” Selena yelled, her eyes still fixed on the road. “Whatever the hell you’re doing it’s not bloody helping!”
“Just keep this thing on the road!” he called back.
The street flashed past them in a blur of terrified faces and angry fist-waving, and now the man was reloading the M79. He fumbled it and dropped the grenade. Cursing as he stooped down to pick it back up, Selena now swung the wheel hard to the right and powered along Rachini Alley.
“Where the hell are you going?” Riley said.
Selena made no reply but now spun the wheel hard to the left and drove the tuk-tuk up onto Phra Pin Klao Bridge.
Behind them, the other tuk-tuk gained speed and smashed into the back of them. Despite Selena’s best efforts to keep things steady the impact was too hard and it sent them all over the road. The tires squealed as the unstable rickshaw swerved and skidded across the asphalt and smashed into the kerb, almost flinging Riley off the tuk-tuk. He fell forward and only saved himself by grabbing onto the mudguard.
The hubcap was grinding against the concrete kerb now and sending up a shower of sparks into Riley’s face. “Not today thanks, mate,” he said, and heaved himself up, clambering into the back again. He collapsed down into a cooler box beside the American, smashing down through the polystyrene lid until his face was submerged in a pile of cold slime. “Jesus!” he said, leaping back in disgust.
“What is it?” Decker said, sharing his disgust.
Riley leaned forward and peered inside the box and smiled. “Looks like we have some ammo after all!”
A second later, the Australian spun around and began to hurl marinated Thai squid at the man in the tuk-tuk. The first one was a direct hit, slapping him dead-center in the face. He reacted in horror, dropping the grenade launcher into the road and stumbling back into the vehicle as he clawed wildly at his face to find out what Riley had thrown at him.
“Riley,” Selena called out from the front. “Why does everything suddenly smell of coriander?”
“Don’t ask me, mate,” he said, and reached into the box for another squid.
“I’m surrounded by lunatics,” Decker said.
The tuk-tuk tipped again as they reached the north end of the bridge and Selena made a hard left and turned onto a road running parallel to the river. The relative freedom of the enormous river meant that Kunchai was slowly widening the gap on them