Singapore Sling Shot - Andrew Grant [74]
There were two more armed men waiting at the bottom of the stairs when the group reached the ground floor foyer. There was a third standing beside the main door. He was cradling an AK47.
The leader of the group lit a cigarette and glanced at his watch. Shortly, the boss would call for them to put the women into the van. In the meantime, there was nothing to do but wait. He stared at the blonde woman through his cigarette smoke. He had never had a Caucasian woman before, let alone a blonde. There was a terrible temptation. Should he take her to one of the offices off the foyer and have her? Would Mr Lu ever find out? Would he even care?
Yeo Soon Heng made up his mind in that instant. He would take her and have her. No matter, it would be quick, at least he would be able to say he had tasted this beautiful blonde flesh. Soon Heng tossed his cigarette into a standing sand tray and started towards the woman.
Simone had been watching the leader of the gang of Chinese thugs and she saw his intention immediately. She would fight, of course, but it would do her no good. Even so, she would do her best to hurt him.
“Wait! Look!” one of the other gunmen called. Soon Heng stopped and turned. Headlights, dulled by the growing dawn, showed through the trees as a vehicle turned into the lane that led to the hotel car park. Was this the boss, Thomas Lu, coming or someone else?
“Quickly, out of sight,” he ordered. The other gunmen grabbed the hostages and pushed them against a wall to hide them from view through the glassed rear doors.
The vehicle was a police car.
The arrival of the police car came as a shock. I told everyone to freeze, and we waited, lying or crouched in the shadows, to see what the hell was going on.
Two laughing uniformed men got out of their unit car. They produced cigarettes and lit them. One walked a few paces away from the car and proceeded to piss against a refuse drum, unaware that K was on the other side of it, an MP5 in his hands.
We held our positions and waited anxiously for the cops to finish their cigarettes. They took their time, talking and joking as they smoked. It appeared their sergeant was fucking one of the constables. They both thought it was a great joke and that he needed to get his eyes tested.
Then the car radio gave out a call. One of the officers answered it.
It appeared there had been an auto accident by Harbourfront. The pair flicked away their butts, got back into their unit and left the car park under full lights, sirens blaring.
“Damn,” I said into my mike. “That must have woken the neighbourhood.”
“Here they come.” The voice was Quong’s again. I could picture him raising his weapon and covering the first of his targets. We’d had the wake-up call from the police siren. Soon breaking glass and a hell of a lot of dull pops that weren’t some kid’s breakfast cereal were going to break the morning’s peace.
The white Mazda sedan that had fallen in behind the truck with the container onboard confirmed that Sami Somsak and the money were indeed on the ECP and were seemingly travelling alone as instructed. When Thomas Lu received this confirmation, he gave the order for the women to be put into a van and the van also driven to the same location. The van would only drive into the lay-by if the money was there and the driver received the go-ahead from him via cellphone. It was all going according to his plan.
In the Silver Sands Hotel, Soon Heng was ushering the women out into the car park. Any thoughts he’d had of raping the blonde woman had vanished. His reward for the completion of this task was ahead, and it would be in cold hard cash. He would take that cash, go to a high-rent hotel bar and buy a dozen blonde women, women younger and even more beautiful than this one.
Soon Heng led the way to the double glass doors. They hissed open and he stepped through. The designated driver followed at his heel. Behind him came the four women and