Reliable in Jakarta: An Asian Thriller (The Reliable Man Series Book 2) by Valerie Goldsilk & Julian Stagg

Author:Valerie Goldsilk & Julian Stagg [Goldsilk, Valerie & Stagg, Julian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thaumasios Publishing Ltd.
Published: 2019-04-09T23:00:00+00:00

22

After lunch I rode back on the MTR. James Houghton’s office was in Causeway Bay in a building called The Java Bank Tower. I’d found this out by myself. The address I’d been given by Jane Tan was his home.

I scouted his office building for a while then made a call from a grocery shop across the road and asked for him. The secretary put me through but when he said his name I hung up. He was back in Hong Kong and at his desk, that’s all I wanted to know.

Lurking in the shadows and watching Houghton go about his daily life wasn’t the most efficient way to find my opponent, but I couldn’t think of any other way. I’d have to put myself in the killer’s mind. It helped that a killer impersonating the Reliable Man would be using similar methods. I did not expect him to send an Anthrax parcel or cyanide-laced sweets. I’d consider all the options available and then examine the most likely.

My biggest concern was that my adversary might easily recognise me tailing Houghton. It was a risk I had to take. I could mitigate it with tradecraft, changing clothes and appearance, although as a non-Chinese I would always stand out.

After half an hour examining his office building, I moved on to his home. It was in a standard old apartment building. There was ample car parking space and lots of open ground between the car park and the front door. One could sit on any one of a thousand balconies across the road and drop the target with a silenced rifle, especially if it was night-time and the curtains were undrawn.

I considered the scale of my problem. As an assassination it was easy money. Houghton would have no idea that he was at the top of somebody’s hate list. When the bullet came that clipped his life short there’d be a look of surprise on his face. It was unlikely that I could prevent this happening unless I confronted him with the facts and offered him some close protection. Even that might not be enough, I thought grimly, given my poor record with Krismanio.

The next two things I needed were a basic disguise and a weapon for my next encounter with the impostor. For that I needed to take a trip out of town. I had prepared a cache months earlier and would not have to contact my usual supplier.

Most people have an impression of Hong Kong as a great big concrete jungle. But in reality there is a lot of greenery and rolling hills into which the cement structures have been drilled. The New Territories was all countryside which was being gradually eroded as new townships such as Shatin, Tai Po and Fanling extended themselves like multiplying amoeba.

It was rush hour this time when I took the MTR. Two middle-aged ladies wearing white gloves and luminescent jackets that said ‘staff’ yelled at us over loudhailers and shoved the last people in between the closing doors.

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