The Kingpin's Possession

67: The Irresistible Bait

Kim:When afternoon came the next day, Kim drove them to the hospital where Ben was admitted. P’First was already waiting for them at the lobby, and he led them up to the VIP room where he had Ben stay in to recover.

“Ben!” Kit ran to the side of his bed, holding his friend’s hand. “How are you? Does it still hurt? What did the doctors say?”

Ben chuckled, slowly sitting upright. He suppressed a groan so he wouldn’t worry Kit when pain flared up his side. He looked all banged up, but it didn’t seem like anything that wouldn’t heal with time. Apart from wounds he sustained from the glass shards, he only had a couple of scratches and bruises. He was lucky that the bullet didn’t hit him, or it would’ve been a lot worse.

“I’m glad to see that you’re doing just fine, Kit,” Ben said, still smiling. His voice didn’t sound weak, only a bit hoarse, like he hadn’t spoken much in the last couple hours, which was a good thing. It meant that he wasn’t hurt as badly and was recovering well.

“And it’s all thanks to you!” Kit’s eyes glistened, and anyone in the room could tell he was holding back tears. “Ben, I have no words to say just how grateful I am to you. You saved my life. You didn’t have to put yourself in harm’s way, but you did.”

Ben shook his head. “Don’t be silly. What are friends for?”

Kim’s felt himself sigh in relief upon hearing Ben. He was glad that Kit had friends in his life who were ready to save him by any means possible. It made Kim feel at ease for a bit.

Then Ben’s eyes took on a more serious look. “Besides, it’s not just you. Whoever this shooter is, they are following and targeting both you and me. They know we are involved with the Ayutthaya and the Channarong groups, so they are coming for us instead of P’Kim and P’First.”

Kim crossed his arms over his chest. “Huh,” he tilted his head to look at P’First. “Well that just confirmed our theory, didn’t it, P’First? This new threat seems to be more predictable than I thought. Instead of attacking us directly, they are going after our loved ones since we are too powerful for them to confront directly.”

P’First scoffed. “In other words, they want to take the coward’s way out instead of dealing with us face-to-face, like real men.”

Kim clicked his tongue. “No,” he disagreed. “They aren’t cowards—they’re strategists. They intend to hit us where it hurts most, and they’ve found the most effective way to deal damage.”

They went silent as they let Kim’s words sink in. P’First knew Kim had a point; on the surface, it may seem cowardly but it was in fact a smart move to go after less challenging targets that would affect their real enemies significantly.

Still… though it was objectively an effective ploy, that didn’t mean it was any less cowardly. The people behind this operation had found out about First and Kim’s weaknesses pretty soon, so it won’t be long for them to strike again.

They had“Ben,” Kim called when a thought occurred to him. “Did you manage to notice anything significant about this person? You saw them, right? When they were about to shoot at the house? You must have noticed something to help narrow down their identity.”

But Ben shook his head helplessly. “Sorry, but I only saw the person’s arm when they had their gun pointed toward us. And everything around them was dark, so it was almost impossible for me to get a good glance at him.”

“Nothing?” P’First pressed. “Any kind of ring or jewelry? Or a tattoo perhaps? Even the smallest detail can help in identifying the shooter.”

Ben made a thoughtful noise. “Actually, now that I think hard about it—I couldn’t get a clear view, so I’m not a hundred percent accurate, —but they must have been wearing some kind of jewelry since I believe I saw a light shine off something from their arm, just before they pressed the bullet. Does that help?”

“That factor isn’t nearly enough to determine who the shooter is, unfortunately, or who they work for,” Kim said bluntly. “Unless we know a pattern, a shine could’ve come off of anything, even the barrel of the gun if it had been a metal pistol.”

“By the way…did you guys plan this…meeting since morning?” P’First asked, looking at both Kit and Ben. “Did you two managed to…maybe discuss this out in the public or something?”

Kit looked at Ben for a few seconds before shaking his head. “Um, the plan to get together at Earth’s house had been a spur-of-the-moment, last minute thing. We didn’t really plan on it, which was why Prem couldn’t join as he had a prior commitment. But… there’s no way that the shooter could have known we were there beforehand.” Kit also added. “And P’Kim not taking the car with us on the day we were shot at wasn’t planned either.”

Both Kim and First exchanged a look, frowns on their faces as they tried to decide on a common factor that could link all of this together.

“That’s true, but we were in a public library when Earth called us to join the party.” Ben added, thinking it was necessary to share. “I’m honestly not sure if this could help in any way, but maybe when we got the call was when someone overheard our conversation?”

P’First nodded slowly. “The way I see it, whoever it is might just be following you two all the time,” he deduced. “Probably wearing nondescript civilian clothes so you wouldn’t notice them hiding in plain sight. And it’s not like we know who they are so they could very well be in this hospital, at this very moment and we wouldn’t be able to tell who it was.”

“What should we do?” Ben asked, his eyes going back and forth between P’Kim and P’First. It was true that he felt safer with two of the most powerful men in Bangkok standing in the same room, and uniting to fight a common enemy, however, it was also because of them that Kit and his friends were in trouble.

“We need a plan to trap the shooter in their own game,” P’First announced. “We’ll need to use his own strategy against him. But how?”

“Kit and I might be able to help with that, then,” Ben told the men.

Kit glanced at him questioningly, wondering what he was getting at. It took him a while to understand. “Oh!”

“Explain,” Kim said, pursing his lips.

“Our friends… we recently made plans to go to Chiang Mai during the summer break, at Prem’s family’s vacation house,” Ben elaborated. “We had gone to a local restaurant near our university when we made that plan and a lot people were at that place since it was peak hour. And if the assailant had indeed been following us the whole time, then no doubt they know about our plans as well.”

Kim looked thoughtful for a few moments, before he nodded. “We can use that trip to corner and catch them. We’ll lure them into following Kit and his friends to Chiang Mai.” He shrugged in a confident manner. “And then we can deal with them for good.”

“I’m a hundred percent positive that the shooter will definitely try to do something to us when we get there.” Ben mused, even though Kit didn’t like the idea where this was headed. “Two of their targets going far from your territories? What an irresistible opportunity to hit two birds with one stone without breaking a sweat.”

“My, my,” P’First grinned at Ben. “Aren’t you talking like a professional? But I like the way your brain works. What do you say, Kim?”

Kim couldn’t help but nod. “You’re right. It’s an alluring offer, one this threat can’t refuse. And I think we can take this opportunity to get rid of them.”

“So it’s settled.” P’First confirmed. “You boys should get ready to head to Chiang Mai. And we men will be waiting for them to show up, all armed and ready.”

And with that, their trip to head to Chiang Mai was all planned out, but Kit didn’t like how this fun trip had suddenly turned into a suicide mission. And if this sense of foreboding settling in the pit of his stomach was any indication…he was sure that something wasn’t right.

After all…everything seemed to fall into place really easily. A bit too easily for his liking…