The second floor was far less busy at that time of the night and many of the shops in the outside area were closed. Ma?l headed right toward one end of the floor, Kaori in tow and stopped in front of a door that said “Police.” She gasped, but he walked in confidently, holding the door for her. She stepped in, looking at Ma?l. What the hell were they doing at a police station?

  Ma?l turned around.

  Whaaap!

  The impact was brutal, bone-jarring, the sound of two baseball bats colliding at high velocity.

  Oé!

  Ma?l had just blocked a massive kick to the ribs with his shin, but his uniformed opponent didn’t give him any chance to recover and fired another roundhouse kick, to the head this time.

  Ma?l bent backward, barely dodging. The momentum carried through and it landed on the back of a chair. The chair buckled, the backrest breaking and the base of the chair rebounding over the table in a spray of paperwork.

  Oé!

  Recovering his posture, Ma?l tackled his opponent. They tore through the room, and the man managed to spin out, barely recovering. No such luck. Ma?l dove under his arm and lifted him up above his shoulder.

  “Oié! Tam arai ha?”

  Ma?l lowered the man back to the ground.

  Dumbfounded police officers were scrambling to draw their guns, but stopped as Ma?l and his aggressor burst out in laughter.

  “Dee, dee. Sabai dee mai?” the officer said, slapping Ma?l’s shoulder. The slap resonated like a gunshot.

  “Jai yen yen, Lum Pi! Mi pooyin doué”

  “Jing? Mai Tcheuak.”

  Cool down, uncle, I’ve got a girl with me.

  Really? I don’t believe you!

  The officer looked around and finally spotted Kaori. He let out a low whistle. “Suay Chang!”

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  Ma?l turned to a petrified Kaori with a large grin.

  “This crazy man is Ajarn Saphan Noi. He was my Muay Thai senpai when I first arrived in Thailand. Saphan Noi, this is my girl, Megumi Aiko.”

  Officer Noi, meaning “small,” was a giant by Thai standards, taller than Ma?l. A muscular gentleman in his early forties, he looked to be in fantastic fighting shape.

  He bowed to Kaori, the Japanese way.

  “Is this man bothering you, madam? Come with me, you deserve better than this lout!” He cackled with laughter looking at Ma?l’s face.

  “She’s beautiful, come on, I’ll fight you for her.”

  “Then you will die.” Ma?l demeanor turned killer cold, piercing eyes boring into Noi’s. It was not a threat, just a statement of fact.

  For an instant, they looked like two predators facing each other over a kill and none of the policemen present dared to make a move. This wasn’t something they wanted to get involved in, they knew they’d just be collateral damage.

  “Lo len, lo len! I kidding. Since when do you take things so seriously? It’s good to see you, Ma?l.”

  Ma?l relaxed and smiled. It was a joke, sure, but Noi was the worst kind of womanizer. The successful kind. His victories in the ring and his easy banter made him a favorite with the ladies, and in camp, he always had the prettiest girl. And often, the second prettiest girl too!

  Still, one hell of a guy, and one he could count on in case of trouble—as long as that trouble didn’t involve girls or booze. How stupid am I, really, to bring the most amazing girl ever to see Saphan noi? Ma?l kicked himself mentally much the same way Noi had done physically. But if he was getting in the spy business, a contact like Noi was too good to pass on.

  “Kin krao le yan?” Noi asked.

  Have you eaten yet? A staple of conversational Thai. When in doubt, talk about food.

  “No, Kaori and I just arrived, so aside of plane food, we haven’t had a chance to get anything yet.”

  “All right, you guys, come with me.”

  Without looking back, he headed to the backdoor of the police station. Ma?l turned to the other officers and gave them a Wai, a Thai bow, apologizing briefly before following Noi.

  Kaori had recovered and was walking right behind him. Half an hour in Thailand and she was already discovering a completely different Ma?l. That version seemed kind of fun too. Unexpected, but fun.

  She didn’t actually know a whole lot about him, his introduction on the boat had been a bit bland and she had imagined him somewhat shy and introspective. Turns out he had another side to him. And lord, those kicks were murder. An ordinary man would have been sent to the hospital with broken bones, but to Ma?l and Noi, they were just “Hello.”

  She expected them to stop in some kind of cafeteria at the back of the police station, but instead, they strolled a long way through the corridors inside the airport and finally exited on the tarmac.

  Noi walked briskly past the police cars and headed to a police helicopter.

  “Where are we going?” asked Ma?l

  “Why, a party of course! Come, we have to celebrate, they are waiting for me!”