With Jimmy following Sam Marshall, I sat to wait for O’Brian to re-emerge.
It wasn’t long before the lift door opened, and O’Brian walked out with a mobile phone clamped to his ear and a small overnight case in his other hand. He had changed not into a suit but into casual black trousers and a bright red check shirt. He went straight to reception, put his phone in his back pocket, and checked out.
I walked outside, ordered a taxi, and told the driver to wait on the road outside until the Mercedes came past.
Forty-five minutes later, I was at the airport. I had watched as O’Brian returned his Mercedes to the car rental and then followed him
as he checked in for a Vietnamese Airline flight out. But it was his destination that now bothered me. O’Brian was heading to Bangkok.
I’d hardly eaten for twenty-four hours, and suddenly, I felt exhausted.
If this had been the start or even the middle of a typical investigation, I would have called Colin to ask if we had someone in place in Bangkok who could track GOB on arrival, or should I try to get on the same plane and track him myself? That, of course, meant I could see Anna. Private thoughts were mingling with professional ones again, and they just didn’t mix. I was still wondering what to do when my phone rang.
“I’m at the airport,” Jimmy said.
“So am I,” I replied.
“I’m outside a freight forwarder’s warehouse,” he went on. “Marshall took a taxi to the Oakwood Hotel. Dominique Lunneau was there.
Marshall gave Lunneau some paperwork. Marshall then left. I stayed to watch Lunneau. He made some phone calls, and then he also left. I followed him here to Ace Logistics Africa. Lunneau is inside, and . . .
he’s now coming out.”
“Maybe he’s organising the airfreighting of those boxes,” I said. “See what you can find out.”
While I waited for Jimmy to call back, I sent Colin a short text. There was a growing list of things I needed to discuss with Colin, but for now, I merely wrote: “GOB’s heading to Bangkok. I’ll call ASAP.”
Then Jimmy rang. He’d obviously gone inside the freight forwarder’s office and somehow got information on an airfreight consignment that had just been organised by Lunneau. Listening to him, I took a deep breath. This was very high risk.
“It’s six pallets of boxes,” he said. “The paperwork says, and I’ll spell this out, s-a-l-b-u-t-a-m-o-l inhalers. They are being sent by airfreight to Shah Medicals, Singapore.”
The distribution network was getting organised I thought. Shah Medicals, Singapore and John Chua, the man I had already met and
who Caroline had described as a wiry little chap, was involved either willingly or, to grant him at least some justice, unwittingly.
“How did you get the paperwork so quickly?” I asked Jimmy
“Easy,” he said. “I said I was from Shah Medicals, and Dominique Lunneau had sent me to double-check the paperwork.”
I told him, yet again, to go careful, and of course, in his usual cheery way, he told me, yet again, not to worry.
Colin then called with news that made my mind up about what I should do next. Kevin, he said, was making progress with someone called Lord Peterson, who headed the UK government’s Science and Technology Committee. Larry was in Washington, making waves with a US senator and Charles Brady from Virex was calling every day. “We need to get our heads together,” Colin said. “Should we call it quits and call in the big guns or continue a while longer on our own?”
I wasn’t convinced by any of it, especially about calling it quits, but Colin won the argument. I returned to my hotel, packed, returned to the airport, and caught an overnight flight back to London.
I wanted to tell Jimmy but he wasn’t answering his phone, so I called Colin to tell him to keep trying his number or call Louise in his office.