Chapter 31
December 25th, 2004. Patong Beach, Phuket
Mina woke up in Jack’s arms. She kissed his lips and watched him wake slowly from his sleep. He opened his eyes to the sight of Mina’s dark eyes looking down at him from under her long lashes.
‘Mornin’ you,’ he said, ‘what time is it?’
‘About eight-thirty.’
He frowned, suddenly deep in thought. Mina looked at his furrowed brow and smiled.
‘You should eat something before you run out the door to do whatever you’re thinking about right now’ she said.
‘Am I that predictable?’
‘Sometimes. I’m starting to know you Jack. So what’s the magic plan you’ve concocted overnight?’
‘I need to buy a laptop and I’d rather you came with me. I don’t want you to be alone if they find out we’re staying here.’
‘They can’t know we’re staying in a bungalow belonging to the hotel manager’s own brother, can they?’
‘I’m not taking any chances. I promised your mum I’d bring you home in one piece. Come on, let’s get some breakfast.’
They returned an hour later. Mina rested on the sand a few feet away from the porch, hidden from watchful eyes by a dense row of palm trees. Meanwhile, Jack was busy setting up his laptop, downloading and installing special software he needed for a secure communication. Luckily, the hotel manager’s brother had a good broadband connection in this bungalow. He dialled a number on the laptop to start a secure call with someone he had not spoken to in a very long time.
‘Hi Specs,’ said Jack.
‘Jack! My god! I haven’t heard from you in ages!’ said the crackly voice coming out of the speakers.
‘D’you ever sleep?’ asked Jack.
‘You know me. I only sleep when my computer goes to sleep.’
‘You haven’t changed one bit.’
‘Yeah. What’s up?’
‘I’m in trouble,’ said Jack.
‘What’s new?’
‘I need to track a mobile phone number, a number in Thailand.’
‘Lucky bastard. Are you on the beach right now?’
‘I can see it from here. I might go for a swim in a while, if I don’t get killed before then.’
‘OK. I’ll instant message you a website address. You type ‘C++’ when a second pop-up page appears, type ‘jacko’ and password ‘lolita,’ all lower-case.’
‘Lolita?’ asked Jack with a chuckle.
‘Shut up. It’s a great book by Nabokov.’
‘Yeah, it’s also the name of that gorgeous boss of yours, isn’t it?’ Jack mused.
‘D’you want my help or not?’
‘Yes, sorry,’ he said grinning. It felt good speaking to an old pal.
‘Right. When you’ve done that, another window opens. Just type in the mobile phone number, and you should be able to track it, if it’s turned on of course. If the person is in motion, it might be more difficult to localise.’
‘Will it leave any traces on the owner’s phone?’ asked Jack.
‘No Jack. Unless you called me to obtain the commercial version of the software?’
‘Why? How does the commercial one work?’ asked Jack.
‘It simply asks the owner of the phone if he agrees to be tracked.’
‘That’s sort of stupid isn’t it?’ said Jack.
‘It’s to avoid being tracked by your wife or girlfriend without your knowledge.’
‘Come on Specs, that’s even more stupid! She could just borrow your phone for five minutes, accept the tracking software then delete the text messages. You’d never know you were being tracked.’
‘Jack. I hope your girlfriend isn’t anything like you!’
‘I wish. How do I localise the phone?’
‘Once you’ve typed in the number, a map software will start running and if the person’s in town, you should be able to pinpoint the phone within a few yards.’
‘You’re a life saver, Specs. I owe you one,’ said Jack.
‘No you don’t, just keep in touch mate’ said Specs and ended the call.
Within a few seconds, Jack received an instant message with a web address. ‘Specs, you’re my cyber god,’ thought Jack.
He stepped off the porch, onto the beach. He loved the warm and gritty feeling of sand scrunching between his toes. He approached Mina, lying half asleep on a colourful towel.
‘Mina?’
‘Hmm. I’m sorry,’ she answered, ‘I fell asleep. So tired. Found out anything?’ she asked, groggily.
‘No but I’ve sorted what we’re going to do now. I’m calling Wheatley. You coming?’
‘Of course,’ she said, jumping up from her towel.
He explained carefully what she needed to do while he spoke to Oberon. She was to keep her eyes on the phone location and jot down the exact coordinates when he gave her the go-ahead. He plugged his phone into the laptop, started a GPS scrambling software, and dialled Wheatley’s number.
‘Welcome to Phuket,’ said Oberon. ‘I expected your phone call last night.’
‘Where are my mother and sister, Wheatley?’
‘You’re a trifle direct, aren’t you, Major?’
‘You’ve made a big mistake attacking my family.’
‘Don’t fret. They’re perfectly well, alive and kicking. Well, not kicking that much, as I had to have them restrained, you understand I’m sure.’
‘Just you wait.’
‘Threats? Now, now Major.’
‘What do you want? Money?’
‘Money? You know exactly what I want. Where is it?’ asked Oberon, icily.
‘It’s safely tucked away, in London,’ said Jack.
‘Now that’s too bad for Miss and Mrs Hillcliff. Don’t you think?’
Jack looked at Mina, who confirmed she had pinpointed the location of Oberon’s phone.
‘Why do you need it so badly? Don’t you have a copy of it already?’
‘Don’t provoke me unnecessarily, my boy. We both know exactly what happened to those photographs.’
Jack put his hand over the phone and turned to Mina with a quizzical look, ‘You were right, he thinks we have it, and that we stole the photos of it.’
‘Tell him we have a picture with us,’ she whispered.
He was about to ask why, but she seemed so resolute, ‘OK. We don’t have the tablet here, but we have a photograph of the inscription with us.’
Wheatley didn’t answer. Jack waited for a few moments, then blurted out, ‘Listen man, that’s the best I can do for the moment. When my family is safe, and we’ve all returned to the US, you’ll get the real tablet.’
Oberon still didn’t answer.
‘I want,’ said Jack, ‘
Wheatley broke his silence, ‘Tomorrow morning, nine o’clock. Bring the photograph in person.’
‘Where will we meet?’
