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.I passed a vendor selling knives, and took the opportunity to arm myself with a knockoff Emerson folder with a wooden handle and a four-inch, partially serrated blade.For a long time I had gotten by without carrying a weapon, and I had liked it this way.For one thing, you tend to comport yourself differently when you’re armed, and there are people who can spot the signs.Also, my lawsey, lawsey civilian cover would have been compromised somewhat if I’d been picked up carrying, say, a folding karambit or other concealed cutlery.And then there’s the matter of blood, which can get all over you and severely compromise your attempts to blend with the crowd after a close encounter.But I sensed that the balance of costs and benefits was changing now.I wasn’t as fast as I once was, for one thing.Or as durable, for another.I wondered whether what had happened to me in that restroom with Manny, also, was in part the consequence of age.I had needed Dox to bail me out there, as he had at Kwai Chung a year earlier.On top of all this, being back in Sukhumvit was itself a reminder that I had aged in the intervening years, and that things I had once ably done with my hands might now be accomplished more effectively with tools.I caught a tuk-tuk for the final leg over to Sukhumvit 23.Dox and I were supposed to meet at the restaurant at noon, but I arrived early to scope the area out, as I always do on those rare occasions when I agree to a face-to-face meeting.A sneak preview tends to prevent surprises.In this case, though, the surprise was already waiting for me, in the form of Dox.Resplendent in a cream-colored silk shirt, he was sitting in one of the cushioned teak chairs at the back corner of the main room sipping some tropical concoction from a tall glass through a long straw, and looking, I had to admit, utterly at ease and at home in his surroundings.“I knew you’d get here early,” he said, grinning.He put down the drink and got up from the table.“Didn’t want to be rude, keeping you waiting.”I walked over, looking around the restaurant as I moved.The clientele was about half local, half foreign, and all seemingly more interested in the Baan Khanitha’s excellent traditional Thai food than in whatever might be going on around them.I realized, though, that I was doing my security check out of habit, not because I thought Dox would have brought trouble.And then I was surprised, almost stunned, to realize that I trusted someone this way.I looked at him, and my discomfort must have showed, because he raised his eyebrows and said, “You all right, man?”I gave him a nod that was half exasperation, half pleasure at seeing him after our scrape in Manila.“Fine.I’m fine.”I reached for his hand, but he ignored it, instead clapping his arms around me and pulling me in for a hug.Jesus, I thought.I patted his back awkwardly.He stepped back from me, looked at my face, and laughed.“Hey, man, you’re blushing! You don’t have a crush on me or something, do you?”I ignored him.“Any problems on the way over?”He laughed again.“No problems.Hey, it’s good to see you, man, even if you’re starting to have unnatural feelings for me.You want to eat here, or should we go somewhere else? I recommend we stay.The poo nim pad gra pow is the best in the city.”I looked around again.Dox might have known his poo nim, whatever that was, but his tradecraft wasn’t always up to my standards.Although in fairness, I don’t know whose would be.“You’re leaving your cell phone off, right?” I asked.“Yeah, Mom, I’m leaving it off.Disappointing all the ladies who want to reach me.”“You sure you weren’t followed?”He rolled his eyes.“C’mon now, you’ve got to get over this lone-wolf, international-man-of-mystery shit.You can’t live like that twenty-four-seven.It’ll bum you out, man, I’ve seen it happen.”“Does that mean you weren’t followed?”He frowned.“Yeah, that’s what it means.You know, I might not be quite the urban ghost you can be, but I do know how to be careful.I’ve made my way doing this fucked-up thing of ours for a long time on my lonesome, and I’m still breathing even though there are plenty of people who’d rather I wasn’t.”“Weren’t.”He clasped his hands to his head and said, “Somebody save me, my partner’s a schoolmarm!”I raised my hands in surrender.“All right, all right.”“ ‘John Rain, killer and grammarian.’ You ought to put it on a business card.”“All right,” I said.“ ‘Use the subjunctive correctly or he’ll take your life.’ ”Jesus, I thought, looking around.“Look, let’s just eat here,” I said.“Well, thank God.I’m starving.”We sat down at his table.The waiter came over and Dox ordered the food.He knew what he was doing—even his Thai seemed passable.We also asked for a couple of iced coffees.It had been a long few days.“Okay, what’s the status?” Dox asked, when the waiter had departed.“I hope the Israelites aren’t pissed.”I had told him who the client was.They, of course, didn’t know about Dox.They didn’t need to.“I’m not entirely sure,” I said.“Meaning?”“Meaning as soon as I was out of Manila, I contacted my friends Boaz and Gil.I told them what had happened.They seemed to take it in stride.They were disappointed that Manny got away, and concerned that he would harden his defenses now.But they were reassured that I had made it out of there without further incident.”“You mean without being caught and implicating them.”“Yes.”“They’re probably a little despondent that you weren’t just killed in the fracas.”“It’s just business.”“Wishing it is just business.Trying to bring it about is different.”“I don’t think we need to worry about that.It wouldn’t be worth it to them.It looks like I’m clear of it, so they are, too.”“Yeah? Whatever happened to the professional paranoid we all know and love?”“I’m being careful [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]