19: Business
Any lingering doubts at ASIS over whether Zach was planning to move into the drugs trade were squashed on the first of February when dock workers flooded into the travel agency to send their pay packets home. It was the busiest day of the month for Katie and this was no exception. She had found it difficult to keep track of everything that she heard, but the summary was that someone was leaning on the dockers to stop them from bringing drugs from certain suppliers into the country. Katie was sure it was the Syndicate and the documents from Zach's hard drive backed this up.
"By restricting the supply of drugs from other gangs, he'll push their prices up and make it easier to compete," she explained to George once she got home that evening. "It's basic economics, but it'll have a huge effect if he pulls it off."
George thought that his side of the mission was effectively over and he'd decided against visiting Riley after school in favour of making a couple of drug deliveries to pick up extra cash. "I suppose, but it's only a matter of time until ASIS move in and arrest him, so it probably won't happen."
Katie, as the senior agent on the mission, had much more experience than George and didn't mind reminding him of it. "You should be focusing on Riley still, you never know what you'll find out."
"What's the point? I've been seeing the guy nearly every day since September and the most I've heard from him about his dad's business is the occasional moan about him being away on a trip," George replied, lying full-stretch on the sofa. "I doubt if he even knows that Zach's a criminal."
Before he could lift an arm to defend himself Katie had grabbed him by the ear and hauled him to his feet.
"You listen to me, Brian," she hissed, releasing his ear. "If you don't want to do your job, I have no problem letting ASIS know so they can send you home. You're not here to make money and sit on your arse, you're here to infiltrate the Syndicate."
George angrily rubbed his ear and blinked back some rogue tears. "You didn't have to pull so bloody hard," he moaned. "I just don't see what else there is for me to do."
"You said yourself that Riley occasionally complains about his dad being away. Why not probe a little and see if he's got any big upcoming trips or whether Riley knows where he's always going to?" Katie said, tutting and shaking her head. "I've worked a double shift today listening to hairy blokes complaining about women and cracking sexist gags, so you can damn well do what you're told on your side of the mission."
Stunned, George wondered how his peaceful evening had turned into an argument, but he knew Katie had a violent temper when she was pushed too far so he just sulked and said nothing.
To avoid her wrath, he got himself invited to Riley's after school the next day, although he expected to be in for an afternoon of getting beaten on the PlayStation without any interesting information about the mission. He knew he was supposed to steer the conversation towards Zach's business trips, but he was still angry at Katie for shouting at him and he decided to prove himself right by not finding out anything important.
It was a hot day so they bunked off afternoon lessons and decided to cool off in the garden and make use of a couple of high-powered water pistols. George was much fitter than Riley so he found it easier to carry them with a full tank and took advantage, blasting his friend from long range until Riley ran out of water, then moving in for a short range soaking. The water pistols were seriously cool and could fire straight from more than forty feet, which meant that instead of getting bored after fifteen minutes like kids usually did in water fights, they only dried off and went back inside after an hour of running around.
Riley went off to find his mum so he could ask for a towel and change of clothes for George. Having not spent very much time outside Riley's bedroom, George found the large ground floor of the house difficult to navigate. When he found the kitchen, he made a mental note of some of the stuff pinned to the fridge, but it was mostly rubbish like old shopping lists.
"My mum's too busy to find a towel, but she said I could just give you one from the bathroom," Riley said, sounding annoyed. George followed him, wondering what a stay-at-home parent like Riley's mum could possibly be busy with.
"Plus, she moaned at me for skipping school, so I'll probably be grounded for a week once Dad gets home," Riley said sourly, sounding every inch a spoilt brat throwing a tantrum as he led George to the downstairs bathroom.
George stripped down to his boxer shorts and did his best to dry himself, but it was a lost cause without some dry clothes to change into. When someone knocked on the door he expected it to be Riley and opened straight away, but instead found himself getting his first good look at Riley's mum, Maria.
"Here, you can use these, but please return them once you've washed them," she said severely, handing him a folded pile of clothing.
"Thanks," George replied, taking in her surgically-enhanced face which made her look like she was half her real age.
"Mum? Is it okay if Brian stays for dinner?" Riley asked, doing his best to sound like an innocent twelve-year-old.
Maria shook her head. "Not tonight."
Riley began to protest and Maria closed the bathroom door firmly before replying, which only made George want to listen more. He pressed his ear to the door and held his breath so he could hear better.
"Your father's going on another trip tonight so we've got to take him to the airport," Maria explained, sounding irritated. "Just send Brian home on the train as usual."
"Where's he going this time?" Riley asked hopefully. Probably in expectation of presents, George thought.
"Some jungle hell-hole. I've spent the past two hours battling on the phone with Southeast Asian trying to get a seat in business class. Why he doesn't have his secretary or someone do this for him, I don't know."
Riley seemed satisfied by this and changed the subject to what they'd be eating for dinner, so George changed into his borrowed clothes as quickly as possible, putting his wet ones into a plastic bag so they wouldn't make his schoolbag wet. He wasn't sure if what he'd heard was important or not, so he typed everything he could remember into his phone before stepping out of the bathroom and heading for Riley's room to retrieve his schoolbag.
"Sorry Brian, my mum says you have to go home, since we've got to go to the airport," Riley said, looking apologetic. "I'll see you at school tomorrow?"
"No problem, I think my aunt wants me back at home anyway," George said, grabbing his bag. "If I run, I'll make the next train, so I'll see you tomorrow."
He sent ASIS a text with the details as he sat on the train, but it was packed with commuters so there was enough noise for him to ring Katie and fill her in without being overheard.
"I'm looking at departures from Melbourne Airport this evening and there's only one with Southeast Asian, leaving at five for Bangkok," she told him. "There are loads of plush hotels in Thailand so he could just be going for a harmless business meeting."
"I know, but the fact that his wife was booking it and that it's last-minute makes me suspicious," George replied. "A normal business trip would've been planned well in advance, surely?"
"You're right, but the fact that the plane leaves in about two and a half hours makes us basically powerless to do anything. The Thai authorities are probably not going to waste resources chasing after some Australian criminal on ASIS's behalf."
Katie was right, but George's text had caused a stir amongst ASIS and moments after George arrived home, a black car pulled up on the driveway.
"Last minute plan," Dawn said, hopping out of the driver's side and dragging a large kit bag out of the boot. "Go inside and find Chelsea for me."
Katie was reading a magazine in the living room, so she was on her feet when Dawn stepped in and told her to sit back down.
"We at ASIS are basically sure that the Syndicate doesn't have any contacts in Thailand, and to make everything seem legal should the police come looking, he books all of his business flights through his secretary. We rang Zach's office from our tax office in Canberra and his usual secretary answered, so it's not that she's off sick or anything. All in all, we think that this trip is highly likely to be the link we need between Zach and drug producers, so it's vital that we have someone follow him and see who he's meeting."
"So is someone from ASIS going?" Katie asked.
Dawn shook her head. "This close to departure, there are no flights from any other Australian cities that will arrive before the one from Melbourne, and we've got to have somebody there when Zach arrives. It's too risky to send anyone from the Melbourne office in case someone from the Syndicate puts two and two together and tips Zach off. We don't have any agents on the ground in Thailand, but we've made an agreement with the United States and they're rushing one of their men to Bangkok as soon as possible, but he won't be there until midday tomorrow. The key thing is whether Zach boards a connecting flight."
Katie nodded. "From Bangkok he could go anywhere in China or Indochina."
"Exactly. His flight arrives just before ten and Bangkok operates all night, so there are connecting flights to anywhere from India to Korea. ASIS need to know if he gets onto one, and the only way to do that is to have someone tail him at the airport."
"Can't you hack into the airline's computers and find out where he's going?" George asked.
Dawn laughed slightly. "I wish it was that easy. A lot of airlines in southeast Asia are Chinese-owned and hacking into a Chinese company's files is just begging for a diplomatic incident, and the Chinese are aggressive enough as it is."
"So if you can't send an ASIS agent…" Katie began.
"We're sending you," Dawn finished. "Time is of the essence and Zach's seen you before, so we've got about forty minutes to give you a radical makeover."
Katie was going to be disguised as an Australian backpacker going to Thailand to meet some friends. Her biggest giveaway was her British accent, so Alice helped her rehearse an Australian accent that would pass muster for basic conversation with stewardesses while they dyed her blonde hair auburn. George pulled out a battered-looking backpack from the kit bag Dawn had brought and filled it with Katie's clothes. She was only going to be there overnight, but the luggage had to seem authentic so he stuffed toiletries and t-shirts in without much care, bulking it out. It was embarrassing to go through her underwear drawer, but George steeled himself and packed some bras, holding them at arm's length.
When Katie emerged from the bathroom after twenty minutes, George did a double-take. Alice had sliced off most of her hair before dyeing it, so instead of the long waves George was used to, her hair was cut into a bob.
"Wow," George said, grinning at her. "You look totally different."
"Hopefully different enough for Zach not to notice me," Katie said, blinking to adjust her coloured contact lenses.
Dawn had spent the time on the phone sorting out the details of the flight and seemed equally impressed by the change.
"You've got five minutes, then I'll take you to the airport in a fast car. You might want to put on heavy make-up or something just to break up your features even more," she said. "I just need a quick picture so we can rush out a passport."
While Katie posed in front of a white stretch of wall, George and Alice took her luggage downstairs and loaded it into the car. Alice gave him a big smile.
"This kind of stuff is exciting! Maybe I'll go into this kind of stuff when you two have gone home," she laughed.
"Maybe. I'm sure they'd be able to use you somehow," George replied, holding open the car door as Katie appeared.
"It's a nine hour flight and I've lost my headphones so I'm borrowing yours," Katie said to him as she jumped into the back of the car. She leant close to George and whispered in his ear: "I haven't been able to get through to campus, so ring them on the emergency line and explain what's going on."
"Roger," George said, blushing slightly as she gave him a kiss on the cheek before slamming the door. Dawn reversed quickly out of the drive and set off at speed up the road, leaving Alice and George standing there.
"Well, the bathroom's covered in dye so I'm going to go and clean that up," Alice announced once the car was out of sight. "I'll make dinner in a couple of hours if you're hungry."
"Sounds good," George replied, feeling his pockets to find his phone. "I've just got to make a quick call while you do that."