Temptation Eyes

By Angelo Victor Mercure

Gun-running; drug-smuggling; people-trafficking; Temptation Eyes is chockfull of riveting intrigue and hair-trigger suspense.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 1, 2008
• ISBN: 9781462841424

Angelo Victor Mercure

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Book preview

Copyright © 2008 by Angelo Victor Mercure.

Photographs Copyright 2008 by Angelo Victor Mercure

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in

any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,

recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission

in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the

product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance

to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

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36380

Contents

Chapter 1

Prelude

Chapter 2

Friendly Fire

Chapter 3

L’Aperitif

Chapter 4

The Asylum

Chapter 5

Menage A Trois

Chapter 6

Cash Talks

Chapter 7

Prognosis

Chapter 8

The Hunger

Chapter 9

Masturbatory Interlude

Chapter 10

Day of Decision

Chapter 11

Into The Jaws Of The Ogre

Chapter 12

Le Hotel Squalide

Chapter 13

Redneck Haven

Chapter 14

Nong

Chapter 15

Mind-Fuck

Chapter 16

Sukhumvit Road

Chapter 17

Next Evening

Chapter 18

The Opium Den

Chapter 19

Gerald Mickelwhite

Chapter 20

James Whitlow

Chapter 21

Apology?

Chapter 22

Ted Sullivan

Chapter 23

Iced Coffee

Chapter 24

Veerachai

Chapter 25

The Train

Chapter 26

Up The Ante

Chapter 27

Toom

Chapter 28

Energy Fix

Chapter 29

Deathstyle

Chapter 30

Trademark

Chapter 31

The Telephone Call

Chapter 32

They Were Expendable

Chapter 33

Easy Money

Chapter 34

All That Is Holy . . . 

Chapter 35

Mabuhay

Chapter 36

Sidewalk Tour

Chapter 37

Meouw

Chapter 38

Phra Ming

Chapter 39

House Guests

Chapter 40

Costs Of Doing Business

Chapter 41

Playing Rough

Chapter 42

Quickie

Chapter 43

Shayma

Chapter 44

All The News That’s Unfit To Print

Chapter 45

The Business Of Doing Business

Chapter 46

Darkness And Light

Chapter 47

Silhouettes

Chapter 48

Nina And Sue

Chapter 49

China White

Chapter 50

Ladyboy Whorehouse

Chapter 51

The Wonders Of Science

Chapter 52

Kidnap

Chapter 53

Dia

Chapter 54

For Love Of Money

Chapter 55

Boonchai

Chapter 56

Blind Faith

Chapter 57

Sustenance

This book is dedicated in memory of John Steinbeck IV. Yeah, we had us some times . . . 

Angelo Victor Mercure

Bangkok

2008

Also authored by Angelo Victor Mercure:

NIGHT OF THE DRAGON

BLUE TIGER/YELLOW FANG and OTHER STORIES

THE THOUSAND YARD STARE and OTHER STORIES

"And lead us not into temptation . . . ."

—Matthew 6:13

"If thine eye offends thee, pluck it out . . . ."

—Matthew 18:9

Everybody likes money.

—Chinese proverb

"All those creatures who inhabit the great swamp of the night: the thieves, the whores, the rogues, the pimps, the lesbians, the queers, and the pederasts—the human excrement, the damned and evil swarm of sourceless malice that crawled from the ratholes of the dark, living for a period in the night’s huge blaze of livid radiance and then were gone, vanished, melted away as if by an evil magic into that labyrinth from which they came . . . ."

—Thomas Wolfe

Chapter 1

Prelude

1956 Ohio

Eric Warren was a sick child. As he lay in bed this particular morning, his frail six-year-old body ached all over; his lungs hurt from coughing continuously throughout the previous long, nearly sleepless night; and he had difficulty breathing. He could hardly rest in comfort, of course—let alone sleep—but, nevertheless, his mother was following doctor’s orders to the letter with respect to keeping him in bed and ministering aid in the form of orange juice and warm soup—along with prescribed medication.

Eric Warren’s bedroom was very nice—an ideal boy’s room, his mother thought—painted such a pleasing royal blue with drapes and carpet to match. Here and there her son’s toys were strewn about the room: a large, plastic dump truck, some miniature tin soldiers, and a plastic child-size army rifle. His mother had to be careful not to trip over anything. But, oddly enough, she couldn’t make herself gather the toys and put them away—they strangely reminded her of some mythical, idealistically healthy child’s joyful pursuits—so they remained on the floor since he could not enjoy his things as much as other children—often being so very ill.

She gazed fondly at her son as he dozed fitfully. His eyes were closed, he was mumbling softly and incoherently, his breathing was still somewhat labored and he had a disturbing, intermittent cough. "Such a beautiful child," she thought.

Eric began coughing harder and his mother was instantly aroused out of her melancholia . . . 

Dr. Quentin S. Jameson, MD was of that grand old school of general medical practitioner who—in cases of true need—made house calls to sick, bedridden patients, often temporarily leaving an entire waiting room full of others at his office. Jameson never entered the medical profession for financial gain. As the sole offspring of distinguished, relatively wealthy parentage, he could always be assured of a comfortable lifetime stipend by means of familial inheritance. So, he entered medicine out of natural interest and did quite well in his small-town practice without having to worry about such a common thing as money.

Dr. Jameson was an extremely tall, lean man of fifty-five.