conversations.
These days Darcy was like so many retired government types who had learned their trades in the Cold War. Now that peace had broken out, or at least the game had changed into something nobody understood anymore, she had taken her considerable experience and talents into private enterprise. Darcy ran a small company that operated out of a stylish if aging mansion in the oldest part of Bangkok, a place she had remodeled from dilapidated elegance into a high-tech marvel. She described her business as an information gathering and analysis consultancy, which was vague enough to cover most anything. What it actually was, of course, was a private intelligence agency.
At first I had been amazed an operation of such technological sophistication existed in a backwater like Bangkok, but the more Darcy and I had become friends and the more I learned about what she was doing, the more I understood Bangkok was a perfect place for her. Bangkok was where international criminals, law enforcement personnel, intelligence agencies, terrorists, drug runners, arms peddlers, and the inevitable collection of scam artists, hangers-on and wannabes mingled in teeming streets and grimy bars under an unspoken understanding. They could let down their guard in Bangkok. They could just hang around or even party a little without taking all the usual precautions since it was understood they would all leave each other alone while they were here. Even the Thai government didn’t much care what anyone did in Bangkok, as long as it didn’t involve them. The cantina in Star Wars was a run-of-the-mill saloon compared to the bars of Bangkok.
The moment I heard the warnings about the traps the NIA had supposedly built into the disk I had been given, I decided there was no way in hell I was going to touch the thing without talking to Darcy first. I gave her a little help with her projects from time to time and she paid me back by doing me favors when I needed them. I figured I needed one now.
Darcy was very careful about her own security, probably because she had so little difficulty shredding everyone else’s. The only way to reach her was by calling and hanging up. The call went to a computer somewhere and I didn’t have a clue what happened then although I figured it was something really cool. But Darcy always called me back right away so I didn’t really care.
After hearing the one ring and hanging up, I surveyed my desk and briefly examined the pile of mail Bun had left stacked on top of
“Jack, baby,” Darcy purred when I answered. “You called?”
“You have my mobile number, don’t you?”
Darcy cut the connection without another word and a few seconds later my mobile beeped.
“Okay, baby,” Darcy said when I answered, “so what kind of shit are you in this time?”
“The usual, I guess. The brown kind.”
“You figure your phone is monitored?”
“Maybe. I don’t know.”
“Just because you’re talking on a GSM cell now, you’re not invulnerable.”
“I thought it was pretty solid,” I said.
“Depends on who you’re up against.”
“Everything always does, Darcy.”
“Uh-huh,” she said. “So, baby, enough of the happy talk, huh? Let’s have it.”
I told her about the disk Kathleeya had given me and about the security measures she claimed it contained. Darcy didn’t ask for any details of why I was riding around town chatting with the head of the National Intelligence Agency, nor did she ask me what was on the disk. Her standards of professional discretion ruled out both questions.
“So what do you think?” I asked. “About the disk.”
“Everybody underestimates the Thais when it comes to technology,” Darcy said. “Besides, stuff like that is pretty common now. You can buy off-the-shelf software that will prevent copying, printing, and emailing of any file just by pasting a transparent image over it. The part about the disk corrupting itself after a set period would be a little harder to do, but it’s probably a variation on the built-in detonation a lot of corporate users are putting into their email now.”
“You lost me.”
“It doesn’t really matter. If Kate told you your disk was rigged to corrupt itself, my guess is it’s true.”
“You call her Kate?” I asked. “So you know here pretty well?”
Darcy ignored my question.
“Just in general,” she asked me instead, “do you have any idea what type of files are on the disk?”
“Some text files, I think, or maybe PDFs. Nothing fancy that I know of. I asked the NIA for some stuff and they decided to give it to me, at least with all this security attached.”
“And you want to know if I can beat their security measures.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Something like that.”
“Why do you care, Jack? Why not just read whatever is on the disk and let it go at that? Why do you need to copy it?”
“If there’s something that I end up relying on, Darcy, I don’t want them to claim later that it never existed.”
“You think they’d do that?”
“Sure. Particularly if they have some purpose I don’t see right now for giving me tr givinghis stuff in the first place.”
Darcy made some little clucking noises with her tongue. “I imagine I can get past whatever they’ve put on your disk without too much trouble.”
“I thought you said they were good.”
“They are, baby,” she murmured. “But I’m better.”
I summoned up the required chuckle right on cue.
“You want me to bring the disk out to you?” I asked.
“Why don’t I send one of the boys over to pick it up now?” Darcy said. “Then come out for dinner tonight and I’ll tell you what we’ve got. How about that? Nata would love to see you, baby.”
Darcy didn’t have to dangle Nata as an incentive to me to come out to her place for dinner, although I guess it didn’t hurt. Nata was a stunningly beautiful Thai woman in her forties whose ex-husband had been a powerful and well-connected general until he ended up on the wrong side of some long-forgotten military coup. These days the former general was living in Copenhagen, and Nata was living in Bangkok, with Darcy. The two had been companions longer than I had known Darcy and I’d always assumed Nata had as much to do with Darcy’s choice of Bangkok for her retirement as did the relatively cheap real estate and nice people. Darcy would hardly be the first person I’d met who had upped stakes and moved to Bangkok for a woman.
“Don’t know why not,” I said. “Let me call Anita and see if she’s planned anything yet.”
There was an unmistakable beat of silence.
“Sure,” Darcy said, “bring her along if you like.”
I knew Darcy had never particularly cared for Anita. I wasn’t certain why that was and I had often wondered about it. I got a vague feeling Darcy was suspicious of Anita in some way, as if her radar had picked up something about Anita she didn’t like but didn’t think it appropriate to mention to me. Maybe it was more than that, or maybe it was less, but I hadn’t flat out asked Darcy about it and probably never would.
“Nah, probably not a good idea,” I said. “Anita would just get pissed off watching me flirt with you.”
Darcy gave a throaty chuckle and didn’t even offer the pretense of an argument.
“Okay, baby. I’ll have somebody in your office for the disk within a half hour. Why don’t you get here about seven. That okay with you?”
“Done deal,” I said.
After Darcy had hung up, I punched the speed dial for Chidlom Place, but Anita wasn’t home and the maid didn’t know where she was. I tried the speed dial for Anita’s cell phone, too, and ended up listening to her voice mail the way I had been doing a lot lately. I hung up without leaving a message.
I was a little annoyed I couldn’t reach Anita and then I was immediately annoyed with myself for being
