"All right, everyone. We've been planning this for weeks. Chan, are the teams ready?" Tankhun's voice echoes loudly through the garden by the pond, where thirty men are gathered. They can hear him through their in-ear systems as well as the loudspeaker Tankhun has installed for this purpose.
"Yes, Khun Tankhun," Chan replies over the intercom, while all the others involved choose to ignore him.
"Team One, Khun Kimhan, Chan and Arm are you there?" Tankhun asks unnecessarily, as he can see them on the CCTV running in the house and adjacent gardens.
Kim doesn't answer with words. Instead, he simply raises one eyebrow pointedly as he looks directly into the camera.
"I can't hear you!" Khun prods anyway, and Kim is tempted to just shoot the cameras nearby and cut the speaker wires.
"Yes, Khun Noo, we're here," Arm gives in before Tankhun can get any louder and drive Kim crazy.
"Have you got your intercom ready, your equipment on? Kim, Chan, I can't see the helmets I bought especially for you."
It's true, only Arm is wearing the full gear that Tankhun provided Team One with: a helmet and full body armour that is fireproof and is supposed to save them even in case of an explosion.
Kim and Chan exchange glances, and Kim knows that he is the one who will have to answer, or else Tankhun will simply order Chan to wear it.
"Khun, this fucking armour makes it impossible for us to move. The police bomb squad might want to sweat to death before they get blown up, but I prefer to do it in comfort. No armour!" Kim orders, ripping the helmet off Arm's head. Arm looks grateful and immediately takes off his vest, body armour and knee and shoulder pads.
"Fine, have yourself blown to bits so small that even my carp won't eat you!" Khun snarls from where he sits in the basement of the compound, in front of a large screen that shows twelve camera feeds at once and from which he can zoom in and out at will.
"Team two, are you there?" Tankhun apparently decides to just ignore Kim now.
"Yes, Khun Tankhun," several of the men report. They are the guys who will dismantle the building after Team One's clearance and then take everything to Kinn and Porsche, from books and files to tiles, floors and wall panelling. They've chosen the strongest of the guards, along with some of the repair crew, handymen and cleaning staff from both the main and minor families.
"Team three, are you there?"
"Yes Khun we're here," Porsche nods from where he is standing next to Kinn. He is bouncing on his feet, barely able to contain his excitement. Porsche had originally wanted to go in with the first team, but finding and disarming traps is not his speciality. So he is with Kinn in team 3. They'll look at everything that's taken from the house and decide whether it's worth keeping, throwing away or donating. They will also sort through files, furniture, art, weapons and whatever else they might find in their father's house.
"Team 4, the back office... are we ready?" Tankhun asks and a second later Porchay's voice can be heard.
"Ready, Khun Noo."
Despite his best efforts not to, Kim has to smile. Porsche, however, looks a little annoyed. When they started planning the operation, Porsche didn't want Porchay anywhere near it. But Porchay wanted in, and as long as Porchay is safe, Kim doesn't mind. It will make Porchay feel part of the family and the organisation and he can also learn how these things are done. But Kim agrees with Porsche that there is no way Porchay is ready to join them in or around the house. So it was a good idea to leave him with Tankhun in the operations centre. They would keep an eye on everything through the cameras, give them updates over the intercom and also keep an eye out for things in the house that they might miss.
At least in theory. Kim is sure that Tankhun sees this more as a show he gets to host with Porchay as his co-host, commenting on everything and getting on their nerves.
"Shall we go?" Kim looks at Chan, then at Arm.
"Yes," Chan nods and takes a bag with the equipment they actually need.
"Hey, stop! I haven't given you the signal yet!" Tankhun shouts in their ears. A second later there is a bang and glitter flies across the garden. "Go, go, go," Tankhun cheers as Kim closes his eyes and prays for patience. This is not the day for his older brother's nonsense.
"Kim?" Kinn stops him just as he takes a step forward.
"Hm?" He turns around again, daring his other older brother to come up with more stupid shit. He might punch him in the face if he does, because unlike Tankhun, he's right here, so it's possible.
"You be careful in there."
Kim just nods, but holds his brother's eyes for a second. Not used to his brother worrying about him, he is surprised.
Today they will tackle the ground floor and see how far they can get. They will slowly work their way up the floors to Namphueng's rooms, giving Porsche more time to prepare her for her impending freedom. They have already done tests on the structure of the house and were all surprised at what a fortified fort Korn's house is. Not even several huge bombs exploding downstairs could bring down the rest of the building.
Arm, Chan and Kim enter through the main entrance. The atmosphere is gloomy, as they had closed all the blinds beforehand. It also smells a bit dusty and stale. Afraid of what might happen, Kinn has had the cleaning and domestic staff do only the most necessary tasks around the house, except upstairs on Namphueng's floor. The house is no longer used except for her and the staff who attend to her needs. His father always had a penchant for dark wood and leather, which adds to the atmosphere now.
There are stairs leading upstairs, a lift to the left and glass doors to the right. They stop just inside the front door and Chan and Kim put on their infrared specs, while Arm stays back, tapping away on his iPad.
"Ok, lights out in 3, 2, 1," he counts, and then all the lights in the room go out. The blinds and shutters have already been closed, so the room is in darkness. "4 CCTV cameras in the room, all still active," Arm reports what he knows of the official security installed in the room.
"Yes, we can see you from four different angles," Tankhun confirms, and Kim is surprised at how serious he sounds. He was expecting a lot of bullshit right from the start.
"Infrared negative," Chan reports as he looks around the room.
"'Activating alarm system," Arm replies, and a second later they see the red lights of the alarm system sweep through the room. A second after that, he turns it off again before the sirens start.
"Official transmission off," Kim orders, and Arm turns off the cameras and the alarm system in the room.
"Aow, Kim! We can't see anything anymore," Tankhun's sulky voice echoes over the intercom. "Everything's black and grey."
"They have to turn off the cameras, otherwise they can't use the scanners to look for other things," Porchay can be heard explaining what Tankhun should know, and Kim smiles. It's dark and no one will see it anyway. Porchay has learned so much in the last two weeks and has never missed a training session. He listened when Kim spoke and asked questions at the right moments. They've talked about bugs, cameras and trackers, and he's learned how to identify different alarm systems, even though Kim hasn't shown him how to defeat them yet. Porchay is still learning how to open doors with a card or a picklock. He has managed to do so with simpler locks, but not yet with security locks. He's also gotten pretty good at identifying gang tattoos and deciding if they're friends or enemies.
Kim walks slowly around the room, checking for transmission signals where there shouldn't be any.
"Negative, lights back on," Kim orders when he has made his rounds and nothing has gone off.
Arm and Kim wait while Chan checks the paintings and plants for traps and triggers.
"Clear."
There is not much in this room apart from a few paintings and plants, so they can move on to the next room. The second team will take care of whatever might be behind the walls and under the floorboards.
"Team two can come in. Take care of the paintings, they're originals," Kim tells the others as the three of them walk through the glass doors into the next room.
It's his father's piano room, which doesn't contain much more than the instrument, a sofa, decorations and plants. The chaos, with too much useless stuff crammed into cupboards and shelves, begins in the next room.
"Lights out in 3, 2, 1," Arm counts again and once more the room is shrouded in darkness as they search for traces of infrared lights.
This time, when they are done with the initial checks, Kim sits down at the piano and plays, stops and plays a few more notes.
"There is something in the piano. And it really needs to be tuned again." He says as he stands up.
He feels strange playing the piano again. The last time he did was when he was five, and his father discovered that there was nothing left to teach him about playing the piano. Kim had become too good for him and an outside teacher had to be brought in. That was the last one-on-one contact Kim had with his father as a child. Playing piano together is one of the few good memories Kim has of Korn. He was always a patient teacher and never once scolded Kim while they played. The spanking began shortly afterwards, when he beat Korn for the first time in a game of chess. For a long time as a child, Kim thought his father was being mean to him and was beating him to punish him for winning the game. Now, as an adult and with more understanding of how his father's mind works, he knows that in Korn's world it was a compliment of sorts. He saw the potential in his youngest son and decided to make him tougher and stronger so that he could one day become Kinn's opponent. Rivalry strengthens the family organisation and all that.
What his grandfather, father and uncle always lacked was the understanding that mistreating your children, torturing them and neglecting them emotionally could also backfire and make them hate you. Korn and Gun hated each other, that much was true, but Macau and Kim both hated their fathers with a passion and are glad they are dead.
Chan quickly clears the top of the piano of the angel statues standing there. He also uses a flashlight to check the opening for wires or other traps. "I don't see anything," he tells Kim, who just opens the piano and looks inside, taking the flashlight from Chan. He hands Chan the small pistol he finds inside and takes out the picture that's taped to the side of the piano. It's a framed photograph, and when Kim turns it over, he sees himself as a baby in his father's arms.
"I guess he knew I'd find this one," Kim comments dryly as he looks at a younger Korn holding his youngest son. Korn looks proud and happy, a look Kim has never seen on his father, at least not that he can remember.
"Oh, you were the sweetest baby. Look at those little fingers and those rosebud lips," Khun coos in his ear.
"Burn it, Team 2," Kim speaks into his microphone.
"Don't you dare! Give it to me when you have it." Kinn surprises his brother when he speaks. He thought Khun would protest, not Kinn.
"If you hang it anywhere in the house, I'll blow it up," Kim threatens, handing the frame to one of the men from team two who comes over to take it from him.
"The house or the picture?" Porsche asks back.
"Both," Kim tells him. He closes the top of the piano again and puts the frame on top.
"The plant pots are clear," continues Chan.
"So are the knick-knacks on the shelves," Arm adds.
Kim looks up at the wall behind the piano. "Khun, can you check if these van Gogh paintings were stolen by any chance? Because these paintings look damn real and there were no official documents for the purchase."
"Arm, can you zoom in?" Khun asks in reply and Arm raises his iPad and appears to take a picture.
"All right, next room?" Kim asks as Arm finishes.
They are now on their way to his father's downstairs living room with the clock that opens drawers. But first they have to tackle the hallway, which is full of shelves and cupboards. This is where his father keeps part of his whisky collection, which Kim always thought was an odd place to keep it as there's no sofa nearby to drink on.
"Lights out in 3, 2, 1," Arm counts once more and then the hallway is plunged into darkness.
"O-kay," Chan exclaims as the corridor bursts into a firework of lights through their special glasses.
"Kinn, we need more men with scanners or we'll be here till morning," Kim demands as he looks around. The corridor looks like a scene from Mission Impossible, with red lasers constantly scanning every movement. They don't seem to trigger any alarms or security measures as long as you're just walking through, and are probably just there to warn of intruders. It would explain why his father was so quick to get to his living room the last time Kim visited him.
Many people have walked through here since his father's death and nothing has ever happened. And yet they have to find them and turn them off, to prevent a possible catastrophe if they activate something unknown to them yet...
An hour later, after painstakingly disabling the laser scanners in the hallway, they finally reach his father's downstairs living room without finding anything of importance in the hallways. The other four men leave to help with the work in the first three rooms and to start dismantling the house: The floor is removed as well as the ceiling and the wall panelling. The brothers weren't kidding when they vowed to take the house apart brick by brick.
The living room itself is less secure. They find a few hidden cameras and microphones, but nothing too fancy. Once the initial checks are done, Kim goes straight to the clock on the wall and opens the first drawer on the right. Inside are the same things he's seen before, including the strange notebook.
"I guess you've been snooping around here before?" Chan smirks, then goes to the cupboard above the drawers and slowly turns the glass bowl inside. The two drawers on the left fly open.
Kim grins back at Chan. "If he let you see how to open them, there's nothing too important in there." And he is right. There are just a couple of guns, a knife and a mobile phone. One drawer remains unopened. Kim and Chan share a quick glance and know it's game on: they make it a competition to see who can open it faster under Arm's watchful eye. More than once he has to intervene with "slowly" or "careful" when they are just twisting and turning bottles, pulling paintings off the walls or grabbing books from the shelf on the left. They both come up empty and the last drawer remains closed.
"Are you done?" Tankhun's shrill question comes as they stand there, both panting heavily while Arm wears an unnerved expression.
"Yes," Kim grumbles.
"Then Arm, go back to the paneling. Behind the sofa to the right of the nonsensical glass doors is a strange discrepancy in the ornate design of the wood panelling." Arm does as he is told and finds a button hidden in the wall. When he presses it, the drawer opens.
"I win!" The bodyguard cheers, raising his arms in victory.
"You mean I won," Tankhun says haughtily. Meanwhile, Chan and Kim each take a pile of papers out of the drawer and leaf through them.
"Kinn, we just found your lost shipments, a money trail and payments to minor family heads," Kim tells his brother.
"I've got orders for a lot of cameras and monitors, a reservation for a cruise in Kinn's and Porsche's names and contact lists for the drug cartels in South America. Chan adds.
"Ah fuck, more paper!" Porsche groans as they have found folders and folders full of account transactions on the shelves in the hallway.
"And we're not even in his office yet," Kinn seems to agree with Porsche, judging by the tone of his voice.
"Don't whine. He booked you a cruise in a month!" Kim teases.
"Yeah, probably to blow us up," Porsche knows and may not be too far off.
"Kim, do you want to keep the piano?" Kinn asks when the guards have probably taken the instrument away.
"No. But it's a good instrument. Porchay might want it?" Kim suggests.
"Okay, I'll get it tuned," Kinn agrees.
"Hey hey, Chay hasn't said anything about wanting it yet. He doesn't even know how to play the piano," Porsche protests.
"He could take lessons," Kinn doesn't care.
"Chay?" Porsche puts his brother on the spot.
"Um... I could?" He replies, sounding uncertain.
"Ok, keep it," Porsche finally allows.
"Next room?" Chan interrupts. The next room is Korn's living quarters, his living room, bathroom and bedroom.
"I draw the line at going through his underwear drawers, just so you know," Kim tells them when they've done the first check.
"Don't be so sensitive, Kimmy. It's just clothes," Khun teases from his seat, far away from his father's things.
"It's not the fabric that scares me, but what might be hidden underneath."
"When you lived here, your box of shame, meaning porn, was not in your underwear drawer," Khun shoots back.
"Neither was yours," Kim knows.
"How would you hide porn in a box?" Porchay asks aloud, completely clueless, and then seems embarrassed because he squeaks. Kim knows that he has just put both hands over his mouth without seeing him. He is relieved that Porchay is blurting things out again instead of keeping everything inside.
"DVDs, thumb drives and the like, my sweet Gen Z child. If you know your father is spying on your internet browser history, you are old school when it comes to porn," Khun tells Chay as they all listen.
"Pa was spying on our browser and porn history?" Kinn asks, sounding shocked. Kim and Tankhun groan at the same time, having just had enough of their idiotic brother. How could he not know? They just ignore him and go back to work, while they can hear Porsche cracking up over the intercom. He must be rolling in the grass laughing.
"Um, I just checked the paintings," Chay speaks up five minutes later, while Chan is going through his father's closet, Arm is looking for hidden compartments in the walls and around the bed, and Kim is busy with the right side of the room, where an armchair and a large bookshelf stand next to the door.
"And?" Kim encourages him to continue. He doesn't know why Tankhun gave Porchay the job, but he's proud that Porchay is actually given useful tasks.
"It says that both paintings were lost or stolen during the Second World War. One is called 'Still Life with Oleander', the other 'The Artist on the Road to Tarascon'. The second is said to have burned in a fire in a salt mine in Germany just as the Americans were liberating the town. They found traces of arson on the side, but no trace of the painting".
"Anyone want it? Otherwise I'll send it back anonymously. I have no interest in anyone coming to get it because pa decided to store stolen art here," Kinn can be heard saying, sounding more than a little angry. "We may be able to bribe the police here, but not some international anti-Nazi art hunters. And we can't kill them all."
"You could just burn them," Kim advises.
"Kim!" Now both his older brothers turn on him.
"What?"
"Would you burn Hendrix's old guitar?"
"Of course not! I'd just steal it and hang it up in my living room."
"That's how important these paintings are to people more cultured than you," Tankhun lectures him.
"Fine. Then don't burn them," Kim shrugs. It's not like it's his problem.
A second later, a loud bang echoes through the house and Kim feels the ground shake beneath his feet. Arm, Chan and he throw themselves on the floor and cover their heads.
"Kim!" Porchay's voice is in his ear as dust rains down on them from the hallway. It smells like plaster and there's no heat coming from it, so it can't be a bomb, Kim concludes.
"P'Kim!" Porchay sounds downright panicked now as he calls his name again, and his shrill cry snaps Kim out of his analysis of the situation and into the realisation that Porchay seems to be worried about him. He must be worried about him. Kim lies on the floor, covered in white dust, but he can't remember the last time he was so happy. Porchay worrying about him means he must feel something for him, something positive. Porchay cares about him so much that he hasn't called out Chan's name or Arm's name, both of whom he's become close to in training over the past weeks. No, Porchay just called out for him, for Kim, out of fear that something might have happened to him. Kim feels wave after wave of warmth running through his body and the tears that sting his eyes have nothing to do with the dust and everything to do with the happiness he feels.
"Don't worry little duckling, the one you seem to have imprinted on will be fine;" Tankhun tries to calm Porchay down and snaps Kim out of his happiness induced bliss that has him lying motionless on the dirty floor, his hands still on his head and a big smile on his face. "Guys, we've lost the video signal, but I can still hear you breathing."
"I'm fine, Chay," Kim finally manages to get his voice and brain to work, but starts to cough as the dust scratches his throat. "Fuck, what is that?"
He slowly gets up from the floor, tries to beat the dust out of his clothes and runs his hand over his face and hair to wipe it off a bit. Then he follows Chan into the hallway outside his father's bedroom. Chan and Arm are just as white and grey, covered in whatever was set off. But they've already checked these rooms. There is no way a trap or bomb could have been set by anyone. As they reach the corridor and turn the corner, Kim's eyes widen at what he sees.
"What the fuck?"
"Report. Now." Chan addresses the seven bodyguards standing around one of Korn's huge plant pots. Or what used to be one of the man-high plant pots. They weigh at least a ton, and yet these seven men somehow managed to knock one over and smash it to pieces, the dust of it, the soil and what looks like a palm tree lying on the ground.
"We were trying to get the pot out, Khun Chan, and it suddenly wobbled and then fell as we turned it towards the door.
"Tell me, Bell, how would you have gotten that pot through that door?" Chan asks, pointing to the double door. The pot is at least one and a half times as wide and almost as high as the men trying to move it.
"Oh," the idiot who reported in says when he understands the problem.
"Khun, we need an extra guard to supervise the carrying of the things," Kim says to his brother.
"Who died?" Khun asks back without a video feed of what is going on.
"Their brains. Send in whoever has one that still works," Kim tells his brother, biting his cheeks as he hears Porchay's quiet chuckle over the line. He can't suddenly smile when he's supposed to be scowling at these idiots who look like he's going to shoot them at any moment - and he might just do it for their sheer stupidity.
"Kim, Chan, Arm? Are you okay?" Kinn comes running in, Porsche following with the guards.
"And send one for the surveillance crew as well. Looks like their brains aren't working either. Kinn just came running in here when he apparently thought a bomb had gone off."
"And Porsche followed?" Khun already knows.
"Exactly."
Kinn looks at him. "I was worried," he tells him, then stomps off again, Porsche following with a little smile in Kim's direction that Kim doesn't know how to take. He is also still not used to his brother giving a fuck about him, but doesn't have the time to ponder it at the moment.
"Two bodyguards with working brains coming right up," Khun tells Kim from the operations centre.
"Urgh, I need a shower," Kim looks down at himself.
"We can finish the bedroom alone, Khun Kim," Chan offers, but his words are followed by a coughing fit.
"Chan, get out of here, get cleaned up and get some rest." Kim does not want him to work too hard. He is still recovering and not taking it as easy as he should. Inhaling the dust now can't be good for the lungs he has left.
"Khun Kim, this is not..." Chan begins to protest.
"Go away, old man. We'll meet for dinner later." Kim's words leave no room for protest, especially with the invitation to dinner. It makes it clear to everyone that Chan is now part of the family, at least in Kim's eyes. That gives him extra power over any guard.
"Yes, see you later," he gives in.
"Khun, Arm and I will finish the bedroom and then call it a day. Everything in here is covered in white dust and we look like snowmen. Send in the cleaning crew before tomorrow so we can work without coughing up a lung," Kim orders.
"'Copy that, Kim," Tankhun replies unnecessarily, using a term that makes no sense here and that he must have heard on television.
"Come on, Arm. Let's finish this," Kim says and puts a hand on the bodyguard's shoulder. It's a rare show of camaraderie from Kim, the kind he usually only shares with his fellow musicians, but he doesn't even think about it. He's worked so closely with the guy over the last few weeks that it feels like an eternity, and he's also one of the few guys Kim can stand around here who's good at what they do. Usually the good guards are bragging assholes.
They call in the guys from the second team so they have more room to work and also know what they have already checked, as everything is taken out immediately after it has been checked. Surprisingly, or maybe not, Kim isn't so sure, they find nothing but a few more weapons in the room and the bathroom. So far they have not found out where their father is hiding his dirty secrets.
"We're done for the day in here," Arm reports as they watch the last painting being carried out and then follow. The sunlight outside hurts Kim's eyes at first, after spending all day in dimly lit rooms. He sneezes as he walks towards Kinn and Porsche, who have now been joined by Tankhun and Porchay. There are containers full of stuff behind them.
"You really look like snowmen," Porsche laughs as he sees them.
Kim just glares at him as he comes closer.
"Oh Kim, are you hurt? There's blood running down the side of your face," Kinn is the first to notice.
"Oh?" When Kim touches the spot, he is surprised to see that his fingers are indeed red. "Maybe some of the plaster got me when it flew around us," he shrugs. Nothing serious, it doesn't even hurt.
"P'Kim, you need to get that wound looked at. You're bleeding!" Porchay tells him, and surprises him by closing the gap between them, taking Kim's dirty, bloodied hand and pulling him after him across the lawn and towards the hospital wing of the house.
Kim glances back at his brothers as he is being dragged away and rolls his eyes when he sees them standing there laughing at him. Looking forward again, Kim simply wraps his fingers around Porchay's and holds on tight as he lets Porchay lead him to wherever he wants, be it the hospital, dinner or a far away island. Kim does not care, as long as he is allowed to hold Porchay's hand again.
TBC