THE HONOURABLE ASSASSIN

Short Summary

Victor Cavalier, a newspaper journalist with a mysterious double life, is propelled into a most dangerous mission in Thailand and Cambodia when his Thai daughter goes missing, believed murdered by a Mexican Drug Lord. Cavalier extracts revenge but is pursued by assassin Jose Cortez down the Mekong River to Vietnam.

SUMMARY

Victor Cavalier is a crime reporter on the verge of being sacked when he is ordered to report on the murder of a Mexican drug boss, Virgillo Labasta, who is in Australia to link with local mobsters. Labasta is number two in the world’s biggest drug Cartel run by the notorious Leonardo Mendez.

 Cavalier’s young female editor says that if he doesn’t accept this investigation he will be fired. He is already on 3 days a week and knows he must do as instructed to keep even his part-time job.

He has a problem with alcohol and is clinging to his employment by reputation alone. Cavalier takes the assignment that sees him in contact with a mysterious and stunning Thai, Jacinta Cin Lai, who works temporarily with the Australian Federal Police to investigate the illegal drug trade and people trafficking in the Pacific region. They have different aims. Jacinta is employed by the Thai Police’s Special Investigation Unit [SIU] to monitor foreign drug bosses, who have set-up in Thailand to build their illegal activities and distribute drugs throughout the South East Asian region. On the other hand, Cavalier wants to expose these operations.

Both have other motives that propel them further into extreme danger. Jacinta has a conflict of interest. As part of Thailand’s SIU, she must help protect Mendez, who has been driven out of Mexico and is setting up a base in Thailand. He promises to invest billions in the Kingdom. He pays off Jacinta’s Police Chief boss, Aind Azelaporn, to achieve his aims. But Jacinta witnessed the hideous murder in Mexico of her two closest friends at the hands of Mendez and his henchmen. Before she was a cop, Jacinta spent some years in the Thai military as a sniper. She has the capacity and willingness to deal justice to Mendez.

Cavalier’s motivations are also a mix of the personal and professional. He believes that Mendez and his deputy Labasta were most likely responsible for the murder of his only child, Pon, who disappeared while back-backing in Mexico. The disappearance caused the break-up of Cavalier’s marriage to a Thai woman. The terrible experience drove him into crime reporting, specialising in the illegal drug trade, where he built strong contacts with the Australian Federal Police and ASIO.

*

Cavalier’s initial reports on the Labasta assassination upset local crime figures in Australia. One gang sends four thugs to beat him up. But he is with Jacinta who proves to be a Muay Thai fighter of extraordinary skill. She saves Cavalier from a bashing or worse. Yet they are suspicious of each other because of their separate pasts, parts of which are covered up.

After filing a report to her Police Chief boss on Labasta’s demise, Jacinta returns to Thailand. Soon afterwards, Cavalier is given information he believes confirms that Mendez and Labasta murdered his daughter. He decides to visit Thailand to investigate Mendez’s new operational base for his drug distribution throughout Asia and the Pacific. Cavalier’s cover is a cricket tournament played annually in Thailand.

The Australian Federal Police (‘Feds’), with whom he has had a connection all through his journalism career, suggest a more substantial cover of a story about the building of the notorious Thai-Burma Railway by Australian POWs in WW2. This allows Cavalier to visit the Thai-Burma border where Mendez has constructed a large drug manufacturing factory inside Burma. It supplies the region, including India, Burma, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Cambodia, Australia and New Zealand, with unlimited amounts of heroin, methamphetamines, cocaine and a variety of new designer drugs. There is an ever-expanding market as the affluent middle classes grow in every country in the region.

The Feds begin to suspect that Jacinta may well be the assassin who disposed by Labasta. They caution Cavalier that if she plans to also murder Mendez, he (Cavalier) may become a target for elimination if he uncovers information implicating her.

Cavalier’s mission is complicated when he flies straight into a military coup in Thailand. The nation is in shut-down. The Generals now have absolute power as they throw out the Government and the judiciary, and rearrange the entire Thai ruling apparatus so that the Junta can control the country unchallenged.

Only one figure, a maverick General, Thanongsak Gaez, threatens the Junta’s power. He claims he has 30,000 soldiers loyal to him and that he intends to become Thailand’s sole ruler. His rebellion worsens an already unstable situation as the Junta moves to fortify its position.

Cavalier keeps in contact with the enigmatic Jacinta with her mysterious connections (one with a criminal Monk), partly for self-preservation, and partly because they have similar, deeper aims in relation to the murderous Mendez. He learns that all is not what it appears with the beautiful Jacinta. Cavalier finds that she is a transsexual, former Muay Thai boxing champion, who now fights an annual big money bout at the behest of her boss, and the delight of her huge following. Cavalier also uncovers that Police Chief Azelaporn and Mendez have a close illegal and legal business associations. Azelaporn is protecting the Mexican while he sets up and carries out his illegal/legal activities in the region.

In turn, Jacinta uncovers some aspects of Cavalier’s past that reveal he has motives beyond journalism for his delving into Mendez’s operations.

The new ruling Junta has a shoot-to kill policy for people who violate their new laws, such as the strict street curfew. One night, a fortnight after the coup, there are two assassinations within 75 minutes of each other that push Thailand into a further state of turmoil. First, rebel General Gaez is shot while addressing a rally of supporters in Bangkok’s Lumphini Park. This had been secretly set up by Azelaporn because of a personal vendetta against Gaez. The killing is carried out on behalf of Azelaporn by Mendez’s top hit man, Jose Manuel Cortez, who is wanted in the USA for 80 killings.

But soon after Gaez’s death, Mendez himself is assassinated in the centre of Bangkok’s notorious prostitution centre, Nana Plaza.

Azelaporn wants speedy retribution for Mendez’s murder. He attempts to ‘fit’ suspects with the crime. He places Cavalier at the top of his list and orders his arrest. Cavalier escapes the country. Jacinta, and three Mexicans, led by their number one hit man, Jose Manuel Cortez, pursue Cavalier, who attempts to escape through Cambodia, and into Vietnam via the Mekong River. The question now is, where does Jacinta’s true allegiance lie: with her job and her boss, or her growing affinity with Cavalier? The answer may decide his fate.

In this story of deadly charades, no one can be sure who is the hunter and who is the hunted; not even Jose Cortez the professional killer, as he pursues Cavalier into the wilds of the Mekong Delta.