A Not-So Fond Farwell
Chapter 37
That idiot Dick Avery forgot to confiscate Albert’s computer and he continued to correspond with Kris Amar to stay in his good graces or at least not get killed for his efforts. He told him that the Friendship Bridge was being closely watched around the clock for monks of Indian origin. He also identified everyone on the opposing team right down to guesstimated heights, weights and other descriptive data he could think of. Most importantly, he informed Kris of the hotel where Avery was staying. He wondered if his nom de guerre of Benedict Arnold still applied to him since he’d turned his coat inside out again. It was all too damn complicated and meaningless for him to figure out.
He’d prearranged his mode of transport out of Nong Khai. It was to be an enterprising one, a rental car from a national leasing company with a local branch office in town. He hadn’t had much luck with the Thai bus system lately so he immediately passed on the idea. Albert had the car delivered to a private parking spot located close to the mortuary. He’d also booked a couple of airline flights to Bangkok for different dates using his true name and hoped the cops would dunce across them on the manifests. It was solely a diversion to sow a little confusion and buy him some time to escape. Albert Wu was ready to hit the road even though his middle name wasn’t Jack or even close to it. Given Albert’s current state of mind, he really didn’t know Jack about much of anything.
His one-way road trip would take him southeast to the Cambodian border where he’d cross through a small border checkpoint and proceed directly to Siem Reap, the ancient capital of the Khmer Empire. The Thais and Cambodians didn’t get along very well so even if the cops sent out an alert, it wouldn’t likely reach a remote check point in time or if it did, it would be ignored by the authorities. After he toured Angkor Wat, one of the seven wonders of the modern world, he’d drop the car off and head to China by bus. Then it was off to Szechwan province and a new home and wonderful life, believing it would be an eighth wonder of this world in his confused mind.
But there was still the little matter of ditching the bitch, or bastard, as the case might be. He simply didn’t know how to reference him or her and it bothered him. Once again, Albert found the whole situation too befuddling for words.