“Do you speak English?” He asked.
“I’m an American,” I said. “I’m not with whoever you found downstairs,” I added.
“The only guy downstairs isn’t speaking any language. Conveniently, I’m with the American Embassy–and you don’t look like you cuffed yourself just to impress us. Although, I’ve got to say you impress me.” He was grinning.
“Any chance you could free me–and find me some clothes?” I asked.
“Where are your clothes?”
“They got left in the limousine last seen parked downstairs. I don’t suppose it’s still there.”
“It’s still there.” The American said something to one of the uniformed Thai guys, who went downstairs. He looked around, going into the party alcove. “There are a set of clothes in here–jeans and a T-shirt. Might be your size. These aren’t yours?”
“No,” I said. “We didn’t get that far.” I shuddered at the thought of whose they might be and why he wasn’t wearing them now. Why he didn’t need them. “Umm, this is getting a little uncomfortable,” I said, as a hint.
“Oh, sorry,” he said, coming back in and working on freeing me. It took a little effort, as Dusit Thanat had done a good job of trussing me up. As he worked, the American couldn’t avoid touching me rather intimately, given that I was naked. But I got the impression that he didn’t really try to avoid that. He was a hunk and a half for his age. I couldn’t help hardening up. I’m sure he noticed.
By the time he’d freed me, the Thai guy had returned with my trousers, bikini briefs, boots, and T-shirt. As I dressed, The American Embassy guy grilled me. I wouldn’t have minded if he’d done something else with me.
“I’m Roger Allard,” he said. “I work with the American Embassy. Today it’s drugs and I’m working with the Thai police. They’ll want to know who you are and what you were doing here. I’m pretty curious about that myself. I’ll assume until I learn otherwise that you are what you say you are, an American, and I’ll be on your side here.” The looks he was giving me indicated that he wanted to be more than just on my side.
“I’m Doug McClure,” I answered, giving him my new name, which is what my wallet that he’d pulled out of my jeans before handing them over and had in his hand was telling him about me. “I’m here with an American dance troupe, working the clubs.”
“The gay clubs?” he asked. “You’re an escort too?”
“Yes, the gay clubs. This was just an informal assignment, though. I don’t do this regularly.” Well, I did do it fairly regularly, but it was all ad hoc, it wasn’t an escort agency arrangement.
“You were brought here by Dusit Thanat?” he asked. “He brought you up here to fuck you?”
“It would appear so,” I said. I gestured toward the torture alcove. “And more… more than I would have wanted. I wasn’t aware of that being part of the date. And, yes, Dusit Thanat brought me here. I just met him, though. I don’t know anything about him or what he does.” I decided not to tell him that I’d spent the night with Dusit Thanat already and I’d already let him do a whole lot with me.
“It says here you’re a doctor. You aren’t into drug running as well as dancing and prostitution, by any chance?” he said.
“Not by any chance, no,” I said, giving him a level look.
“You run along the edge like this often?” he asked.
“More often than I’d like. It appears Dusit was bringing me here for something I wouldn’t want to be here for and you found me all tied up. Does it look like I’m part of the gang? Maybe you should ask him.”
“I’d ask him if I could, but there was only one guy still in here when we got in, and he’s not talking. We’ll have to catch up with Dusit Thanat some other day. We found there’s a tunnel out of here. They cleared out before we could get in. I guess you can leave and I could just see that it wasn’t reported that you were here.”
“You’d let me just leave?”
“I could see that you get back to wherever you live. Where’s that? Of course we wouldn’t want you to leave the country without checking with me at the American Embassy.”
“I’m staying at the Babylon Bangkok.”
“That isn’t far from here. I’ll drive you there myself.”
When we went downstairs, I saw what he’d meant by one guy being left behind but not talking. A Thai guy was tied to a chair in the center of the warehouse space. There was a bullet hole in the side of his head, but he’d taken a beating before that happened. That obviously had been why Dusit Thanat had been called downstairs. There was business to be done before he would be free to give me the business. Saved by a stiff and the cavalry.
When we got to the car Allard was going to drive me in, I turned and said, “You’re not letting me go without reporting I was here just out of the goodness of your heart, are you?”
“I’ve seen your dance revue at DJ Station, I know what’s on the menu for you dancers, and I think you know you don’t want to get caught into the Thai legal system because of drugs cooking connections. If we can’t use your room at the Babylon Bangkok,” he said, “I can get one at DJ Station. I have privileges there. You OK with that?” He stood back so I could get a good look at his body. It was “another” good look, as I’d already assessed him and given him “yes” marks.
“I thought so,” I responded. “You found me naked upstairs and you did more than just look me over real good–you copped a couple of feels. I didn’t mind.”
“So, you’ll let me do you?”
“You keep me out of the police system here and I’ll let you choose top or bottom.”
“You do both?”
He muttered, “Sweet,” when I nodded a “yes.”
Panos wasn’t in our room, so Allard and I fucked there. He laid me in a missionary, embracing me close, my heels rubbing his buttocks as he took me in hard, deep, strokes. He was a player–an expert. I had a good time. So, obviously, did he.
I promised to be available to him anytime he wanted me to, but, after he left, I went directly to our manager, Tony Scarlotti. I laid out my whole dilemma.
“I didn’t set this up with the Thai drug lord,” I said. “You’ll have to check with the manager of the DJ Station, Amnot, about that. But the guy, Dusit Thanat, is out there running free still. For all I know, he’ll think I set him up for the raid. I heard him create a dead guy. He could do the same for me. And he could get to the rest of the troupe too. I need to get out of here, Tony. I need to leave today… to get back to the States.”
“The States might not be a good idea, Doug. I know you have problems there too.”
“Listen, Tony–?”
“I can get you into another troupe. I can get you flown out tonight. In a private plane. No catching up with you getting on a commercial flight.”
“How? Where?”
“We have a troupe dancing at the Grand Diamond City Casino just across the Thai border in Cambodia at the Poipet border point. They can use another dancer. Same money, your contract would hold. I know someone who’s flying there tonight–off the flight schedules. I can get you on the plane. I can call ahead on putting you in the troupe. I think it’s the quickest, cleanest fix we can put to this.”
My heart jumped up into my throat as I was walking to the small plane at the remote flight strip outside of Bangkok. Climbing out of the cockpit to greet me was Kevin Lu, the Thai-Cambodian drug dealer who Panos and I had doubled with at the BBB Inn on Rama IV Road, near Lumphini Park, and who had set me up with Dusit Thanat at the DJ Station. I was numb as he handed me into the backseat of the plane. My mood didn’t improve when we were taking off and I found I was the only passenger. What in the hell was he flying out of here tonight if I hadn’t been added at the last minute? And if that didn’t make me queasy, when we were up in the air, headed northeast toward the Cambodian border, the seat cushion next to me came loose. It slid off as I tried to put it back in place and, under it, in a large compartment in the base of the seat, I saw piles and piles of small plastic packets filled with white power.