Free The Bangkok Asset: A novel by John Burdett Page B

thousands of square miles. That’s all over. How to deal with asymmetrical threats from dispossessed young men and women half-crazed with frustration in one’s own country—that is the military/law-and-order problem of the present and future. Everyone knows it can only get worse.”
    “Why should it get worse?”
    “Because the development of a semi-slave class is the only way our species can survive. You see it all over the world, even in the U.S. Some would say
especially
in the U.S. And even in liberal Europe. Social security costs too much, makes the country uncompetitive, leads to more unemployment. France is the example not to follow. But without it, you end up with slaves by another name.” He paused. “Why d’you think the U.K. boasts one CCTV camera for every twenty-five citizens? Why have they suspended due process in the United States? I mix with the movers and shakers. They know what’s coming next. To be a young or youngish person in a secret service these days is to see Armageddon as a
logical
likelihood within your lifetime. Now take Western Europe and America and multiply by two—you get China.” He paused. “You control sheep with dogs and dogs with humans. Who controls the humans? Transhumans, perhaps.”
    “That’s what Goldman is looking at? That’s the future he’s selling into?”
    “That’s my interpretation, from a distance. He doesn’t share.”
    I thought from Vikorn’s body language that he would end the interview there. So did Sakagorn. We were both surprised when in a fumbling motion that looked almost absentminded the Colonel switched the screen on again. There was our illustrious lawyer with his hand on the young aristocrat’s backside. Sakagorn groaned.
    “So what did he need from you?”
    Sakagorn wrestled with his professional conscience; it didn’t take long. “To my surprise, he became interested in the lower ranks of the underworld. I finally realized he wanted some low-life thugs. I thought at first for some dirty stuff. Typical CIA, in other words.”
    “You
thought
? But you don’t think that now?”
    He pushed his hair back in extreme irritation. “I’m not a monster. I love life, beautiful things, beautiful women. It’s the way I’m made, the way I was brought up. My father had three minor wives and five mistresses, but he paid his way. He was a man, whole. He never hurt anyone unless he had to. He’s been my role model all my life. I’m not as good as him and I never will be, but I try—” He had to break off to stifle a sob.
    Vikorn and I stared in fascination at this sudden undressing of a baron. He seemed almost to have forgotten us and continued as if talking to himself.
    “But when it comes to this sort of thing, this damned hellish new
farang
thing they’re springing on the world.” He stopped and stared at me, as if I at least retained sufficient innocence to understand where he was going. “Making that boy kill his own mother! Sweet Buddha, if I’d known he was going to do that, I would have stopped him. Even if I’d had to shoot him myself, I would have stopped him, I tell you!” he shouted at me.
    “Stopped who?” Vikorn asked.
    “Goldman’s Asset, of course!”
    A pause. “You knew—those two young men?” the Colonel asked.
    “Not really. I used an assistant to find them for Goldman. I never met them.”
    The lawyer’s anguish was palpable. Vikorn gave me a nod, which I took as permission to pounce. “So, Lord Sakagorn, may we now return to that lunch at the French restaurant in the Oriental—where the
three
of you HiSo men downed two and a half bottles of Cheval Blanc. You did say there was someone else at that lunch, didn’t you? You don’t have to tell us who, the nationality alone will do.”
    Sakagorn stared at me. I guess he was not expecting a murder squad detective to be so sharp in matters of international espionage. He opened his hands as if to say,
Okay, you win.
“Chinese, of course. Very senior in one of