Black Country Rock

By Michael Polillo

Roy and Grant were hired for a simple job. Pick up a box in a junkyard and a couple thousand bucks would be theirs. They didn't even know what was inside it.

That doesn't matter now. Someone wants it back and is more than willing to kill for it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael Polillo
• Release date: May 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393761730

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

The jungles of Thailand are filled with monsters. Bears, leopards, and elephants can take a person out before they have the time to react. But it isn't only the four legged creatures that need to be feared. These dense forests hold something much worse; man himself. And they don't have claws or tusks. They have semi-automatic rifles instead. The trees knew that too well lately. They heard plenty of gunfire rattling off between their branches in the past few years. The once quiet forest had turned into a war zone.

Three of these men were walking together through the thick brush.

Two of the men were natives. They were born near the jungle and never left the towns bordering it. There wasn't anywhere else to go. Food? Plenty of it. Money? Even more opportunities. The market was booming in their own back yards. Plus there were enough women to fuck a new one every night and enough whiskey to get through the repeats.

The Thai man leading the pack was in a wide hat with an AK-47 hanging at his side. A couple of grenades were strapped to his belt and his hand clutched a machete. He often lived up to his name of Gan; one who is bold.

Second in line was the other native wearing aviators. Everyone he ever met called him Sud. He too had a rifle slung over his back with his hands free to look through the binoculars dangling from his neck. Not that there was much to look at. Vines and branches clouded their vision and each step through the jungle required a strong arm to clear their way. Weaker men have collapsed from exhaustion from merely clearing a spot to take a shit.

The trees seemed endless from what the men could see. They had been walking for hours since their last break and there was no sign of their target.

Hurry up farang. You're much too slow for your own expedition, said Gan.

I told you we should have left him back at the camp, said Sud.

He made his decision. Farang going to farang.

Gan paused his vine clearing to take a sip from his canteen and turned back to make sure their client was still alive. He could make out his shape between the canopy of branches.

A tall white man was following in tow. He had no gun at his side, but instead a hatchet. Gan gave a quick wave to him. A wordless gesture of hurry the fuck up you dumb farang. He wouldn't know where to piss unless I cleared it for him. Does he even piss? I've barely seen him do a god damn thing since he got here. Or say anything.

Their client hadn't spoken much. Three days of meals in silence and night camps without stories. Not that he didn't know the tongue, although he didn't, but he also didn't have much to say even if he did. The guides were clever. They picked up on his quiet nature from his lack of response upon hearing that they knew English. He had barely given a nod of acknowledgment to the fact.

This white man's name was Bolland and his mind was focused on his target. He didn't fly across the planet to chitchat with a couple of natives. He could have plenty of that in the bars when it was time to celebrate. Now it was time for business.

Gan waved again, but Bolland's pace barely picked up. He seemed to be walking on his own terms; slow and steady. Sud turned around this time and shouted.

Hurry up if you don't want to be left behind.

We've been lucky so far, but who knows when we'll run into someone else out here.

Gan and Sud could still remember a time when white men didn't come to their part of their country. Unfortunately that was also the time before their part of the country was deemed worthy to the white man. So the two Thai men decided to make the best of things by taking the white man for anything they had while they were here. They grew up hearing When the water rises, hurry to get some. They intended to do exactly that.

Farang started coming to the jungle to hunt. Gan and Sud would take them to take down a tiger so their farang wives thought they had big dicks. But more and more of them came for a new reason. They weren't interested in the animals hiding in the trees. They were interested in the forest itself.

Bolland hiked along and paused when he saw Gan stop ahead. The guide whipped his head around and yelled to Bolland.

Don't move an inch, said Gan.

That won't be hard for him, said Sud.

I mean it. You won't be able to take two steps if that thing bites you first.

Bolland looked up to see a green pit viper hanging from a branch. Its slit eyes stared back at him.

Don't you get bit on me. We cannot spare the time to bring you back. You'd be dead long before we reached anyone who could help.

Sud grabbed a stick off the ground and tossed it towards the snake. It responded with a hiss. Bolland remained as still as possible. Still its head was focused on the white man before it.

Why would you do that? said Gan.

I was trying to get its attention on me.

Don't aim for the snake. Aim for the tree its on.

Gan picked up a small rock from the ground and lobbed it at the tree end of the branch. The snake turned back to look at where the trunk was hit. Bolland jolted away in the moment and sprinted to the two men.

That's the quickest I've ever seen you move. I didn't think you could move that fast, said Sud.

Sud was covering his mouth from laughing while Gan raised his hand to resume chopping.

We're close now. I can smell it. Do you smell it Sud?

That's what that is? I thought the farang was skipping showers.

It's that sweet smell and it's coming from right over there.

Gan hacked the vines to the left of him. He tore down branches, brush, and anything else that stood in his way. What was there was a tree. It was brown and yet it appeared different from the others they had seen along the way. It was indeed giving off a pleasant odor, luring the men closer to take a look. More trees like it were scattered around their area.

I told you I would find them, said Gan.

The guide took his machete up once more and cut into the trunk of the tree. The bark tore off, revealing a crimson core beneath it.

It bleeds like we bleed, said Gan.

Bolland leaned in and smiled back at the men who guided him. He nodded with approval. Sud took a piece of bark, sniffed it deep and stuffed it into his coat pocket.

A little souvenir if you don't mind.

Bolland said nothing. He took his hatchet and carved off a chunk of the dark red wood. The guides grinned at him while he held it up to the beams of sunlight that cut through the treetops. It shined like a ruby. Bolland clutched it in his fists.

Then they heard a sound. The jungle was shaking with vibrations. The dirt was being pounded by a series of boots headed in their direction.

It's those damn rangers. How did they know we were out here? We barely left a footprint the way we were going, said Gan.

Who knows? Who cares? What I want to know is what are we going to do? said Sud.

Five men in camouflage jumped out of the woods. Two had Remington shotguns in hand while the other three aimed MP5s at the three men. Sud and Gan responded with their AK-47s ready to shoot.

The assumed leader of the rangers spoke to Gan in a language that Bolland couldn't understand. He got the basic gist of it because he knew what they were doing was illegal.

The ranger talked softly at first, but Gan responded in sarcasm. Bolland could tell sarcasm in any language and could also tell it wasn't the time for it. The ranger switched to a yelling voice and the other rangers readied their aim.

So Gan dropped a grenade.

Bullets went flying through the air from both sides while everyone tried to take cover. The explosion went off and the three men checked to see that they were still intact. Two of the rangers weren't so lucky. The tree had taken the brunt of the grenade. Pieces of wood flew through the air, landing themselves in the chest of the two unfortunate rangers. Gan, Sud, and Bolland could hear screams of pain, sadness, and suffering from the jungle.

We can't let them get away. They'll blow this whole operation, said Gan, Split up and hunt them down.

Come on farang, you're going to help me, said Sud.

Bolland picked up