Publisher's Synopsis
Thai Heaven - 26765 By Jacques Bailhi Book Summary Jack Hannaman is building a new airport in Bangkok when his partner attempts to grab the reins of power in Thailand and throws Jack to the jaws of ruin. The Chairman of the U.S. defense conglomerate, Pegasus, desperately needs the airport to survive his failed investment in a new jet fighter. But more dangerous than all is Khun Moo, Minister of the Interior. Jack's only hope is a long-lost boyhood friend from a primitive hilltribe, now a kingpin the opium trade. The hell-bent action and conflicting cultural attitudes challenge our conceptions of trust, faith, love, and confidence. Poor young Kasem had lost his front teeth and was struggling, half unconscious, to get his door open. Jack's head had slammed against the dashboard and was bleeding just a trickle. He reached over and turned the ignition off then jumped out into the cool, muddy water in the rice paddy. Marjorie was in the back seat screaming hysterically. Jack got the door open and looked her over but couldn't see any injury. Khun Wandee was all right, but faint. She said she could get up to the road herself and climbed out. Jack tried to calm Marjorie, but she was over the edge. She screamed horribly as he carried her up to the road and sat her down. 'Now, damn it Marjorie, you're all right! Stay here! And don't move! Wandee? Can you stay with her?' Wandee said something, but Jack didn't understand her. It was hard to hear for all the servants and people running around and yelling, particularly Marjorie who kept screaming, 'Help me! Oh God. Help me!" Jack found Father Thomas kneeling beside the hilltribe prince, Jah Tong. Father Thomas was talking to him, assuring him he wasOK, but as the world began to reappear in Jah Tong's eyes, what he saw told him he was in the world of devils. A Land Rover was sideways in the road and spouting thick white steam five meters into the air with a terrifically loud whooshing noise. Two servants were jumping around, trying to dodge the scalding water and get a hand in to get the cap off the radiator. It seemed to Jah Tong they were dancing, like crazy people do, or trying to placate the angry spirits of the car. It's rear end looked as if some great animal had chewed it open. Shirts and pants dangled from the ripped metal and waved in the wind. A table was somehow sitting right next to it in the road, waiting for someone to come for lunch. Another car, Sukreep's giant Mercedes, was completely smashed at the front and rear, but what startled Jah Tong were the buckets of blood all over the front fenders and windows. Besides all this, a sharp nosed foreign devil was talking to him in his own language, telling him that everything was just fine. He knew it wasn't. His shoulder sent massive jolts of pain through him. There were people running everywhere and yelling in panic. Jah Tong realized he must have died in the flames of the great fire. This could only be Hell. Admiral Zeigler walked over to Jack with the cool calm of a person who has experienced all manner of calamity and survived it every damn time. 'We were right up front there in Sukreep's Mercedes. A damned water buffalo just wandered out of the rice paddy. We were going too fast to stop and pow, we creamed the poor bastard." Two of the servants started yelping and running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Khun Sukreep dashed over. Among the debris ofbroken tail lights and spilled suitcases, the servants had found the small bronze Buddha head. It was spattered with the water buffalo's blood. Khun Sukreep was startled to see it, but was doing his best to calm the servants who kept shaking their heads angrily and gravely repeating, 'Bop! Oh ho. Bop!" In a second, hothing else seemed to matter and all the servants were intoning this word in the gravest possible manner. 'Did it break?" called the Admiral. Khun Sukreep looked over. 'No, it is not broken. Is it yours?" Sukreep seemed furious.. 'We bought it this morni
