The Trials of Being Loved

Part 49 - Deteriorating Polar Bear

Ms. Tam stared at Mr. Vihokratana, lips pursed. "So... Tay called  you here to assist us. We don't need you." She turned, laptop in hand, ready to leave the impromptu command centre. She was pissed about not being informed prior to his arrival. Not to mention it was her hard work that her husband handed over without consent. Internally, she growled. 

Tam placed his hand gently on her shoulder, knowing all of his tiny wife's triggers. "Woman, you will listen." He turned her around to face the the special investigator and nodded. "Please, introduce yourself properly."

With a slight nod, Mr. Vihokratana sighed. "I am the special investigator to the Prime Minister. If I had all the details earlier, you would have had no need to involve the mafia. Now I have a much bigger mess to clean up."

Shaking her head, Ms. Tam's nostrils flared. "Which is better? The mob or the mafia?" She shook her head in anger. "I don't give a fuck who you are. To me,  you are just a client's father and you will get in my way." To her surprise, instead of anger, the stranger burst out laughing. 

"I like you. You want to work for me?" He offered jovially, pulling a chair out from the table and sitting down. "Oh, just sit down, relax, Ms. Tam. I have decoded the hard drive." He reached into his ever present briefcase and pulled out a file, tossing it on to the table. "This is what I do." His eyes twinkled, lips twitching, as he tapped the file. 

As her hand stretched toward the file, Ms. Tam glared at the man when his hand slapped down sharply, pinning it to the table. "Are you doing this deliberately?" 

"Of course! You haven't stated whether you're working with me, or off this case and going back to being just... what was the word Tay used  - ah! Couriers!" The smile grew on both Tam and Mr. Vihokratana's face as Ms. Tam sputtered with indignation. "You can work with a Mafia boss but not me? I'm devastated."

"Fuck you." Glaring at the interloper, her hand swiped quickly for the envelop and she stood, anger vibrating off her in waves, as she stomped out of the command centre. 

The two men sighed almost at the same time. Tam spoke first. "Well, that went better than I expected." 

"Your wife is... interesting. I looked at some of her former cases and she is damn good. I wasn't joking when I made the job offer." Mr. Vihokratana leaned back in the stiff chair and stretched. "It's not easy to find good operatives and you've got a fully formed trained team."

"You're not bringing anyone else here, are you?" A slow smile broke out and now, Tam's eye's disappeared as he also smiled. "My wife is going to kill you."

Vihokratana cocked his head and gave a small whistle back. "No sirree, she is going to come running, waving that file, screaming that YOUR men are useless as fuck. I am damn good at what I do." He gave a small nod, acknowledging that the Tam's were also good at what they did. "We need to be ready to move. On that hard drive was what Sayen found out about how the drug running worked, who they were targeting blah blah but not how high up the chain. Better yet, I know where Sayen Sangenthian probably is and your wife is following the wrong path: he's not with his family." 

~~~~~~~~~~

The backdoor doctor sighed deeply. "What the fucking hell did you do to this... this... person?" He washed his hands briskly, dried them and snapped on a pair of gloves. In the mess of dried blood and swollen flesh, tried to find the pair of eyes and met them with compassion. "It's gonna fucking hurt, ya understand? They're too fucken cheap to spring for the good stuff and they don't deal with the bad shit neither. Don't bite your tongue off." He nodded to the gangster assisting for a sturdy plastic strip, jamming it in between his molars, listening to the man moan in pain.