Kulap

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Thailand

Just as I was finishing breakfast, Khalan and Arthit came to pick me up. That morning we had to go talk to a local d**g dealer who owed money for the last two deliveries. The goal was to get the money out of him.

We got in the car. I never drove. Driving the car around Bangkok was too stressful for me. Their driving was absurd, chaotic. On the way to our missions, I liked to be quiet, to focus on what we had to do, what I had to become. I would breathe deeply with my eyes closed and visualize what I would do when I reached the destination. That’s how I was preparing.

“Here we are” ─Arthit said.

Khalan parked the car a block from the target, and after checking our weapons and getting out of the vehicle, we watched the warehouse door from a safe distance. Every now and then someone came in, most of the time looking haggard, but came out after a few minutes. It was clear that they were junkies buying their daily fix. After spending time in the Bang Kwang prison, I could no longer see them as before. I had always thought that d**g addicts were idiots, that they didn't quit because they didn't really want to; but, after going through the same thing, and barely being able to leave them alive, I could only feel bad for them. It was hard to be hooked on something like that and not be able to leave it. I barely managed it. Perhaps, if it weren't for the fact that they locked me in solitary confinement, I would still be hooked or, even worse, dead.

“Let's see. This is the plan ─ I addressed my colleagues taking the initiative ─ Khalan will go around the building and cover the back exit. Arthit and I will take advantage of when they open for a customer to enter or exit, to sneak into the warehouse. Once there, we will first ask for our money nicely and, only if it is strictly necessary, we will take it a different way.”

“I don't think we should be that careful. He's just a small-time camel. We go through the front entrance, kick down the door, shoot everyone who moves, and demand what is ours. And that’s it!” ─Khalan asserted, arrogant and bitter as always.

“That’s it?” I asked amazed. I was still impressed by how stupid he was. “Do you really think staging a shootout in the middle of the city is a good idea? Entering without covering the exits it’s a good idea? It's clear why you're not in charge, Khalan. Cover the back and follow the plan. Let’s go!”

Khalan glared at me, assuming he had other faces, and went around the building. Arthit and I walked up to the door trying not to attract attention and stood next to it talking about inconsequential things, as if we had nothing to do with the story. Out of a sudden we heard screams and bangs from inside the warehouse. Arthit and I looked at each other not knowing what was happening. We stood still until we heard Khalan scream. As quickly as we could, we broke down the door and entered with the guns in our hands, ready for anything. The first thing we saw was a man with a shotgun standing by the door who shot Arthit point-blank in the chest, throwing him a meter back and leaving him lying on the ground with a growing pool of blood around him. I aimed at the man and fired several times in his direction, trying to cover a lot of space to make sure I hit the target. After several shots the man fell to the ground. I got him. Beside me Khalan was emptying his g*n on a man lying on the ground, already dead, and who in a few seconds I could identify as the camel we had come to visit. I didn’t see anyone else. I ran to Arthit to try to press my hands against the wound so that he wouldn't bleed out, but it was impossible. In the center of his chest was a hole the size of an apple. He was dead and no one was going to be able to do anything to save his life. I had a hard time to force myself to react with that scene. In the distance police sirens could already be heard approaching.

“The back door, Khalan!” I yelled as I picked up Arthit's g*n from the ground and ran to the back door. On the way, I grabbed a gym bag from the table, hoping it had something of value.

Khalan tucked his g*n under his shirt and ran after me. As I left, I put away Arthit's g*n and mine, put on a cap and lowered my head so that no one could see my face. We walked fast, getting away from the place, trying not to attract attention. We soon got into the crowd that gathered to see what had happened, and within minutes, we were in the car on our way home.

Once we arrived, I sat on a chair for a moment and tried to put my head in order. I had just killed a person and lost a partner. How did everything get out of hand?

“What a rush, right?” Khalan said interrupting my thoughts.

“What a rush? Really?” I was furious. “We just killed several people, Arthit is dead, and that's all you can think of?

“Well, don't get mad. The Arthit thing is a b***h, especially for him ... ─replied laughing─. He should had been more careful when entering.”

“What the hell happened, Khalan? ─I interrupted him─. Why were you inside the warehouse if you had to watch the back door?”

“I'm not going to talk about this, David. Whatever I say, you are gonna find it wrong and you are gonna criticize me. Like always. I'm going to drink all the beer we have in the fridge and get a good buzz. Do whatever you want.”

He grabbed all the beer he could from the fridge and locked himself in his room. I was confused by his behavior. As many explanations I tried to find, only one seemed the right one: Khalan had done what he wanted and entered the warehouse against my instructions. Because of him, Arthit was dead. Not that I cared much about him, but at least he was bearable. Instead, Khalan was unbearable.

Now came the worst. Make the call to the unknown person in charge and give them the bad news. Not wanting to bear Khalan's death, I omitted that it was all because of his stubborn disobedience. The man on the other end of the phone told us not to leave the house at all and that he would speak to his contacts in the police to see what they knew.

While we waited for instructions, I searched the gym bag that I had brought with me. Inside, apart from Arthit's g*n and mine, were hundreds of sachets with drugs ready to be sold, a switchblade and a wad of bills. I counted the money and did a mental calculation with the sachets. It didn't cover a third of what he owed us. And since he was dead, we would never get it back. It was my first failure within Trakaul, and I didn't know how they were going to take it. Being dedicated to this type of matters, surely events like today’s would have happened many other times. Shootings, deaths, losses ... At least they could use it as a warning for others that if they didn't pay, they would die.

An hour later I got the call from the supervisor.

“He’s not dead.”

“Arthit is not dead?” I asked surprised.

“Arthit? He has a hole the size of a plate in his chest. He's just as dead as the dealer. The other man is not dead. The one you shot.”

“Ah, that one!” I exclaimed, not quite sure what to say.

“Where did you learn to shoot? Did you shoot him with your eyes closed or what? A bullet grazed his head, and he was knocked unconscious, but he made a full recovery. Now he could identify you.”

“That really is a b***h ─I said out loud without thinking─. What are the instructions?” I asked, fearing the answer.

“Stay in the house. We will assign you a new partner and we will tell you what to do.”

“And the witness?”

“We have already taken care of it. We couldn't let you screw it up again.”

“Uh ... I'm sorry I failed.”

“They say that true leaders are forged after great failures, right? Think about what has gone wrong and why you haven't told me everything. Or did you think we wouldn't find out the full story?”

And he hung up, leaving me wondering if I would come out well off this one.

We were locked up for two days, without speaking to each other, eating the leftovers that we had in the fridge, until the third day there was a knock on the door. As I approached, I noticed a strong cigarette smell that was familiar. I was shocked. Kulap was waiting to enter, his eternal cigarette in his mouth. After so much time with the late Arthit and the i***t Khalan, I had to make an effort not to throw myself into his arms. Not only was he a familiar face, but he had helped me a lot from the beginning: he kept me company, taught me some Thai when we were locked in the first house when I got out of jail, he accompanied me on my first mission and raised a little my spirit by showing his more human side.

He greeted me with a laconic smile and a less forceful handshake than I expected, reluctant, and walked into the house, addressing Khalan and introducing himself.

“Nice to meet you. I have been sent to replace your partner who died in the last operation. The bosses want someone with more experience with you.”

“More experience than me?” Khalan asked sarcastically.

Kulap stared at him for a couple of seconds and turned to me without saying anything.

“David, which is my room?”

This will be fun, I thought to myself.

In the afternoon I made several attempts to get closer to Kulap. I tried to surprise him with my improved Thai and also gave him a demonstration of the Muay Thai techniques that I had learned, but he did not seem to be very impressed. He seemed indifferent to everything. I did not know what could have happened. After insisting and asking him many times, he told me that he had been going from one place to another doing missions and that he had also spent a week training with Thai army specialists. Nothing too specific; We both knew that everything we did for the organization was secret… Otherwise, we would pay the consequences. The only thing he told me in more detail was that his last mission had been to end very slowly the life of a Trakaul member who had been taken prisoner, and that had given information to his captors. In Trakaul it was better to let them kill you than to loosen your tongue. Apart from that, I noticed him more distant than I had expected. He might not have had as good of a memory of me as I did of him.

Just as we were going to sleep, he received a short phone call. After he hung up, he thought for a moment and said:

“Tomorrow I will inform you of your next task. Be ready for the worst.”

And he walked away with the clear intention of not telling me anything else. I mulled over the phrase all night without being able to sleep.

In the morning Kulap brought us together to inform us of our next mission. I was very concerned about what he had told me the day before. We sat around the table in the living room. And Kulap began to speak.

“No half measures. We have to kill a traitor. They tried to trick Trakaul by posing as dead and fled to Vietnam to hide from us.”

A chill ran down my spine. I feared the worst.

“Her name is Sumalee Sintawichai, although she lives under a false name, and she is Thai ─Kulap continued─. We can't allow her to hang around longer as if nothing happened.”

That was it. It was over. They had discovered us.

“What do we know about her?” ─Khalan asked.

“She is hiding in Vietnam, on an island called Phu Quoc. She doesn't seem to have contact with anyone related to us, so once we're done with her, the problem will be over. This is a recent photo of her.” ─Kulap said as he put the photo on the table.

I looked at the photo carefully and my heart skipped a beat. She was as pretty as I remembered her. Her hair was a little different, but the same jet-black color. Nothing chestnut like in my dreams. Her face appeared in the foreground where you could hardly see a beach just behind.

”Stunned! ─Khalan said at the same time he gave me a slap to get me out of my reverie─. I would also f**k her before killing her ... Or after.”

I gripped the edges of the table tightly until my knuckles turned white, trying hard not to jump on the jerk and kill him right there and then. Kulap interrupted us.

“Focus! The instructions I have are that the three of us go there, but it has to be the savvy David who directs the operation and kills her. If he succeeds, he will be appointed permanent leader of our team. If not, I'll finish him myself.”

“Savvy why? ─Khalan was outraged─ And have our bosses gone crazy? David leader of what ...? I'll kill her with pleasure, but I won't let this i***t order me anything. Overall, it's just shooting a fifty-pound b***h. No way to fail.”

“Well ─Kulap continued very calm─. If you want, I'll call John, who was the one who gave me the instructions, and you tell him that you think he's crazy and he's wrong. What do you think?”

Khalan glared at him but said nothing. He turned and went to the kitchen. A moment later he appeared with a bottle of Sangsom rum and slammed the door to his room. That i***t fixed everything by getting drunk.

“Do you have any questions about the mission? How is it to kill someone who should have already been dead, David?” ─Kulap asked, pronouncing my name very slowly.

I closed my eyes for a few seconds trying to compose myself.

“I... I don't understand how she can be alive. I ... I killed her on the dock in Singapore ...” ─I stuttered, I needed time to think.

“We leave for Vietnam first thing in the morning. We will go on a direct flight. Tell your friend so that he is prepared ─He said with a dismissive nod in the direction of Khalan's room─. And let's see if you do it better this time.”

And he left the house leaving me alone.

I tried to reflect on what had happened. Lying on the bed, I analyzed what had happened hours before. There were some things that caught my attention: How had they discovered Sumalee? Was it true that they did not know that we maintained contact on occasion through false profiles on social networks? In Trakaul they knew perfectly well my relationship with Sumalee and that I was supposed to have killed her. Why hadn't Kulap mentioned it? Hadn't they told him or was there a plan behind all of this? From the tone of his voice, it seemed that he did know. Why had he waited for the two of us to be alone to ask me? Is that why he had such a dry attitude towards me? What was clear was that the senior officials wanted me to prove once and for all my loyalty to the organization. That's why I had to be the one to kill her. The final test. Or maybe a punishment for the mistake of the previous mission. Most likely they believed that I tried to kill her, but unfortunately, she had somehow survived. Yes, it had to be like that. If they had the slightest doubt that it was a prepared plan, I would have already been dead. Now, I just had to finish the job I started. How was I going to get out of this? I couldn't kill her, but there didn't seem to be many ways out either. Either I did it, or they would surely kill me. Her or me… That was the decision.

I had to think of a plan, and I had to do it fast. The problem was, I couldn't think of any.