John Burdett - The Bangkok Asset

Sakagorn shrugged. “That’s all I can tell you. It came out once only when he was drunk, and he never mentioned it again. I thought it was merely the ranting of a man who had spent too much time in the jungle. Perhaps it was. But something must have sunk in, because there’s no way I could bring myself to visit Angkor again. No way. I started to see the whole place in a different light. That huge dark rotting Wat the size of a city block, those hideous stone pyramids like Aztec architecture, that sinister little shrine right in the middle, the whole atmosphere of the thing…” He shuddered.

“When you say it worked, what worked?”

“Unclear.”

Vikorn and I both grunted. “What else?”

“Nothing. That’s all he let slip. They only had a few years, then Pol Pot turned up with his gang of brutes and Goldman had to get out. They went up to Laos.” He stared into our eyes, one after another, then shrugged.

I changed tack. “You have spent much time alone with the Asset, Lord Sakagorn?”

“No. Never. Goldman is always there.”

“So how are they together? Do they lounge around on sofas watching football and drinking beer?”

Sakagorn shook his head. “No. Not at all. The Asset cannot be without his toy for long.”

“What toy?”

“A gaming headset with a screen. Goldman takes it away for the demonstrations. It’s like depriving a hunting animal of food-it makes him fierce.” He paused again, too lost in his own dread to lie, or to help much either. “You would go round to Goldman’s luxury condo off Sukhumvit, and Goldman would be there scheming and brooding, and the Asset would be there in a corner like a troubled teenager totally absorbed in whatever he was playing on the headset.”

“Why was that so weird?”

“Because you knew what he could do with that amazing body, that enhanced cognition-all the stuff they’d done to him to make him superhuman-and there he was, like a dumb teen with emotional problems and no social skills.”

“But you said he had charm?”

The barrister lost patience. “We’re not talking about a human,” he grumbled. “Change one strand of DNA in a fruit fly, and you get a different-color fruit fly.” He let a couple of beats pass. “But this is not simple genetic engineering. That Asset has received accelerated learning enhancements: ALE in the jargon. Everything I’m telling you now relates to the last time I was with them at Goldman’s apartment. That was two weeks ago. Two weeks is a long time in the evolution of a transhuman. His personality is probably quite changed by now.”

“But these changes are at Goldman’s command?” I was not trying to be provocative. Only now I realized from the lawyer’s face what a hot topic that was. Sakagorn stared at me, looked away.

“That’s the question, isn’t it?”

I decided to pounce. “You said Goldman seems terrified.” His hooded eyes conveyed the response: So? “Are you saying that Frankenstein has broken free-or knows how to? That sometimes Goldman is the slave and his Asset the master?”

The lawyer recovered and bounced back; it was part of his professional bag of tricks. “I never spent much time with them, how do I know? I simply gave you a passing impression to help-under coercion, I might add. Can I go now, or am I still under threat of blackmail?”

He pronounced the B word heavily, giving it full emotional and forensic dignity. I looked at Vikorn for an answer.

“Why has all this come up now, Lord Sakagorn?”

“Because everything has changed. There aren’t going to be any more big, expensive, symmetrical wars with tank battles that take place over thousands of square miles. That’s all over. How to deal with asymmetrical threats from dispossessed young men and women half-crazed with frustration in one’s own country-that is the military/law-and-order problem of the present and future. Everyone knows it can only get worse.”

“Why should it get worse?”

“Because the development of a semi-slave class is the only way our species can survive. You see it all over the world, even in the U.S. Some would say especially in the U.S. And even in liberal Europe. Social security costs too much, makes the country uncompetitive, leads to more unemployment. France is the example not to follow. But without it, you end up with slaves by another name.” He paused. “Why d’you think the U.K. boasts one CCTV camera for every twenty-five citizens? Why have they suspended due process in the United States? I mix with the movers and shakers. They know what’s coming next. To be a young or youngish person in a secret service these days is to see Armageddon as a logical likelihood within your lifetime. Now take Western Europe and America and multiply by two-you get China.” He paused. “You control sheep with dogs and dogs with humans. Who controls the humans? Transhumans, perhaps.”

“That’s what Goldman is looking at? That’s the future he’s selling into?”

“That’s my interpretation, from a distance. He doesn’t share.”

I thought from Vikorn’s body language that he would end the interview there. So did Sakagorn. We were both surprised when in a fumbling motion that looked almost absentminded the Colonel switched the screen on again. There was our illustrious lawyer with his hand on the young aristocrat’s backside. Sakagorn groaned.

“So what did he need from you?”

Sakagorn wrestled with his professional conscience; it didn’t take long. “To my surprise, he became interested in the lower ranks of the underworld. I finally realized he wanted some low-life thugs. I thought at first for some dirty stuff. Typical CIA, in other words.”

“You thought ? But you don’t think that now?”

He pushed his hair back in extreme irritation. “I’m not a monster. I love life, beautiful things, beautiful women. It’s the way I’m made, the way I was brought up. My father had three minor wives and five mistresses, but he paid his way. He was a man, whole. He never hurt anyone unless he had to. He’s been my role model all my life. I’m not as good as him and I never will be, but I try-” He had to break off to stifle a sob.

Vikorn and I stared in fascination at this sudden undressing of a baron. He seemed almost to have forgotten us and continued as if talking to himself.

“But when it comes to this sort of thing, this damned hellish new farang thing they’re springing on the world.” He stopped and stared at me, as if I at least retained sufficient innocence to understand where he was going. “Making that boy kill his own mother! Sweet Buddha, if I’d known he was going to do that, I would have stopped him. Even if I’d had to shoot him myself, I would have stopped him, I tell you!” he shouted at me.

“Stopped who?” Vikorn asked.

“Goldman’s Asset, of course!”

A pause. “You knew-those two young men?” the Colonel asked.

“Not really. I used an assistant to find them for Goldman. I never met them.”

The lawyer’s anguish was palpable. Vikorn gave me a nod, which I took as permission to pounce. “So, Lord Sakagorn, may we now return to that lunch at the French restaurant in the Oriental-where the three of you HiSo men downed two and a half bottles of Cheval Blanc. You did say there was someone else at that lunch, didn’t you? You don’t have to tell us who, the nationality alone will do.”

Sakagorn stared at me. I guess he was not expecting a murder squad detective to be so sharp in matters of international espionage. He opened his hands as if to say, Okay, you win. “Chinese, of course. Very senior in one of the main ministries. Accredited diplomat here in Bangkok.” He sighed. “Okay, I was recruited to spy for China, but at the request of the government of Thailand. It happens a lot. Their intelligence services do us favors, and vice versa. I was serving my country by serving the PRC-what’s wrong with that?”