Killing Rain

“You’re thinking about seeing her.”
    I nodded.
    “Are you going to do this because you think she might have some operational intel, or because you just want to?”
    For a guy who liked to play the hick, Dox had a way of going straight to the heart of the matter. I could have equivocated, but I decided to play it straight with him. He deserved that.
    “I just want to see her.”
    He nodded for a moment, then said, “I’m glad you said so. I could tell it was that from how you just talked about her, and I would have been awfully concerned if you’d tried to bullshit me. I would have wondered if you were bullshitting yourself, too.”
    “I don’t know if I’m bullshitting myself or not.”
    “Partner, that in itself is a profound species of honesty.”
    I sipped my cappuccino. “She might still have something operational for us. I doubt that the timing of the meeting is just a coincidence.”
    “If it’s not a coincidence, and she told you she was calling just because she missed your charming personality, she wasn’t playing straight with you. There might be something nefarious at work.”
    “ ‘Nefarious’?”
    “Yeah, you know, it means ‘immoral’ or ‘wicked.’ ”
    I frowned. “I know what it means.”
    He smiled. “Well, if you know what it means, what do you think?”
    “You might be right.”
    “But you want to meet her anyway.”
    “Yeah.”
    He pursed his lips and exhaled forcefully. “Sounds like unsafe sex to me, partner. And I’m not sure I want to be the condom.”
    I nodded. “When you put it that way, I’m not so sure, either.”
    He gave me a medium-wattage grin. “Well, tell me what you want, anyway.”
    “She’s coming to Bangkok. I told her I would meet her outside of customs. If she puts people there to anticipate me, you can spot them.”
    “Okay . . .”
    “We’ll take a taxi from the international terminal to the domestic. You’ll be tailing us, so you should have some opportunities to tell if we’re followed. If I’m clean, we’ll go through security on the domestic side. I’ll have two tickets for Phuket, which is where Delilah and I are going, and you’ll have a ticket for somewhere else. That way you’ll be able to get through security, too, and you’ll have another chance in the boarding area to confirm that we’re alone.”
    “Phuket, huh? Hope you talked to your travel agent. There are still a few places that aren’t back on line after the tsunami.”
    “I know.”
    “Or you could go to Ko Chang, it’s in the Gulf of Thailand and they didn’t get hit at all. Plus it’s less built up and only about a four-hour drive from Bangkok.”
    “I know. I want to fly. We’ll be harder to follow that way.”
    “Ah, that’s a good point. Well, Phuket sure is nice, anyway. Where are you planning on staying?”
    I balked for a second out of habit, then said, “Amanpuri.”
    “Hoo-ah! Paradise on earth! Stayed there once and saw Mick Jagger. My kind of place, although I believe I do slightly prefer the beach at the Chedi next door. I won’t need one of the villas or anything like that. Just a pavilion ought to be fine. With an ocean view, of course. No sense being in paradise if you can’t see the water.”
    “No, I don’t think . . .”
    “Hey, how am I going to watch your back if I’m not there? She could call her people once you arrive, and you’d be all on your own.”
    “I can take care of myself.”
    “Then why are you asking me for my help?”
    “Look, I don’t know if I can get another room there. I was lucky to get the one on such short notice.”
    “Come on, man, you know their bookings are off because tourists think the tsunami damage is worse than it really is. All on account of them CNN camera crews going in and asking the locals, ‘Can you take us to a scene of appropriately picturesque destruction that’ll increase our ratings back home?’ And then their viewers think, ‘Shit, that’s the whole island, I better just go to Hawaii instead.’ But you and me, we know better, don’t we?”
    I didn’t see any room for negotiation in his expression. I sighed. “All right. But this woman is sharp, understand? She notices what goes on around her and she remembers faces. If you stay in sniper mode, you’ll be fine. But if you slip, she’ll make you in a heartbeat. And that could multiply our problems.”
    He grinned. “I promise to behave.”
    I looked at him. A part of me was shaking its head, thinking, Nothing