Read Chimera for Free Online

your mount, or invested in some equally profitable ventures, your choice.”
    Hateley remained silent as Wallis re-secured the night-vision goggles over his eyes, started up the jeep, and continued driving toward the main road.
    When they reached the paved roadway, Wallis pulled off to the side of the dirt road, got out, quickly removed the infrared filters from the Land Rover’s headlights, got back into the vehicle, turned on the headlights, pulled into the flow of traffic, and headed east.
     
    *     *     *
     
    Fifteen minutes later, at a remote clearing far from the originally planned pick-up site, Wallis secured Hateley and his rifle case in the back seats of a helicopter with the words ‘Pauley Air Transport’ painted on the side in bold letters, and then quickly scrambled into the front co-pilot seat.
    Wallis and Hateley had both donned microphone-mounted head-sets that enabled them to communicate with the pilot and each other; but neither spoke as the helicopter road up in to the sky and then began to follow a pre-planned route to the Phuket International Airport.
    Both men started out at the distant, brightly-lit coastline of Thailand; each aware, in their own way, that they might never see this sight again.
      At the helipad near the tarmac area reserved for private charter planes, Wallis helped Hateley out of the helicopter, handed him the rifle case and then walked with him over to the gleaming forty-million-dollar Gulfstream-Four that stood waiting like an about-to-be released falcon.   At the base of the stairs, Hateley turned and extended his hand.
    “This turned out to be quite an exhilarating day, Marcus,” he said with a smile.   “I’d hate to think my hunting days in Thailand are over because of an unfortunate incident.”
    “We’ll do everything we can to make sure that is not the case,” Wallis promised.
    “Good, I was hoping you’d say that; but, in any case, I’m a patient man.   So what do you have in mind for my next hunt?”
    “Something interesting, Mr. Hateley,” Wallis answered as he shook his client’s hand.   “You can be sure of that.”
    “Fair enough.   I’ll see you in a couple of weeks,” Hateley said, and then climbed up into the cabin of the chartered plane.
    The wealthy businessman settled himself into one of the four luxurious seats and motioned for the uniformed steward to fix him a drink.   Then, as the sleek Gulfstream jet began to taxi out to the runway, Hateley looked out the window at the nearby helipad; but the helicopter and Wallis were already gone.
     
    *     *     *
     
    Wearing the night-vision goggles again to cope with the almost total darkness, Wallis worked the four-wheel-drive Land Rover through the deep muddy ruts of a tree-lined dirt road leading into the western section of the Khlong Saeng Wildlife Preserve.
    As he did so, he periodically checked his odometer.
    At the 5.8 kilometer mark, Wallis slowed down, turned left onto a very narrow mud trail just barely wide enough for the Land Rover, and followed a set of recently-made tire tracks for another thirty seconds until he came to small, chain-sawed clearing where the park maintenance staff had built a storage shed for an old back-hoe and even older tractor.
    There was another Land Rover parked next to the shed, illuminated — at least for night-vision goggles — by an exterior shed light that had been temporarily covered with an infra-red filter gel, and then turned on.
    Wallis parked next to the Land Rover, flashed his infra-red-filtered headlights twice, shut off the engine, then stepped out of the vehicle and walked around to the rear.
    As he did so, Quince Lanyard stepped out of the surrounding forest and opened the rear door of Wallis’ Land Rover.   Working quickly, the two men unloaded three back-packs, three scoped hunting rifles in waterproof cases, two tied plastic bags filled with shredded paper and a pair of walking sticks.   Lanyard started to remove a