Bangkok Whispers (NJA Club Novels Book 2) by Stephen Shaiken

Author:Stephen Shaiken [Shaiken, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crosswinds Press
Published: 2020-08-20T12:00:00+00:00

18

LEK’S COUSIN DROPPED us off in front of the restaurant on Soi 26. It was far enough off of Sukhumvit so that there weren’t crowds of tourists or locals passing by. We looked like two foreigners hopping out of a cab for a fun evening.

Sleepy Joe and I walked toward the door. As we approached, three Korean women came out, dressed in what I took to be traditional Korean dress: long skirt, frilly, high-buttoned blouse, small bonnets in their hair. They were smiling and looked nothing like the fierce, humorless North Koreans we see on television. One of them addressed us in heavily accented English.

“Welcome,” she said. “Is this your first time here?”

We nodded yes.

“Then we will make sure you leave feeling very good about us,” she said. She turned to the entrance and we followed.

Inside, the lighting was soft but sufficient. There were about two dozen tables spread about a large room. Half were occupied, all by Asians.

“Mostly South Koreans,” Joe whispered to me. “And probably all of them are spies.”

The young lady led us to a table, and as soon as we were seated, she turned and walked away. We couldn’t see her in the room, or figure out where she had gone. While we were pondering this, another woman came to our table. I recognized her as also one of the three who had greeted us outside, but she had changed into a western-style business dress and held a pad in one hand and a pen in the other. She introduced herself as our server.

“Since this is your first time here, allow me to make some suggestions,” she said. Her English was nearly perfect, with only the slightest trace of an accent. We followed her advice and ordered North Korean kimchi, a noodle dish, and a spicy barbecued beef, all to share. Joe ordered a large North Korean beer.

“See how it stacks up to Foster’s or Singha,” he said as the server walked to the other end of the room and faded from sight.

“Must be some space along the wall where they can just slip in,” he said. “Maybe a curtain.”

“Looks like they leave this room unattended at times,” I said. “Wouldn’t expect that from a bunch of paranoid nuts.”

Joe laughed.

“Whoever these ladies’ bosses are, rest assured they are watching all the time. And you can bet they are heavily armed, just in case.”

I scanned the room, spending a few moments watching each table. There were no women present, and the men seemed to be like businessmen everywhere, talking, eating, drinking, and laughing.

“You say they’re South Koreans,” I said to Joe. “What’s the big attraction for them?”

“Not a hundred percent sure,” he replied. “I get the idea that to a lot of Koreans, politics aside, it’s still their people up North, and they’re curious about them. This is about as close as most South Koreans are ever going to get to the North. Some may be hoping to make some business connections for the future. Wouldn’t be shocked if one or two were South Korean agents.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.