The Hijacked Torpedo: The Curtis Adventures, #1

By V.J. MANSFIELD

The Hijacked Torpedo is the first book in the Curtis Adventures.

 

Yupah, a young Thai girl, is delivered to some fishermen in part payment for her father's debts. She is repeatedly raped and abused by the Skipper and his two sons who are deeply involved in the drug trade. It is clear that Yupah's life means nothing to them and that, once she no longer satisfies them, they will kill her or sell her to a brothel. She lives only for the hope of revenge.

 

On the other side of the world, a Russian naval exercise off Murmansk has gone horribly wrong and the Kursk lies broken on the seabed, after an apparent torpedo malfunction. RN and USN submarines observe the frantic but ineffective rescue attempts, as does a Chinese submarine in the area. But then the Chinese decide to play a more active role. A deadly underwater battle ensues as the USN decides to get involved.

 

A report of the proceedings is prepared by a most unlikely participant, one who decides to pass the report to the British SIS but only via Jason Curtis, an individual selected at random. Jason, along with his wife, Pornthip, is about to take a tour of Morocco and several European Countries.

 

Jason collects the report in Morocco and delivers it to Vauxhall Cross but then finds that plans are in hand to eliminate him and Pornthip, apparently at the behest of the CIA. The danger increases when Jason receives a second report. He sends it to a friend in Bangkok and then uses it as a bargaining chip to persuade the SIS to assist with their escape from the UK. Initially, they take refuge in Hong Kong where they split up. Jason to return to Thailand by junk, Pornthip to follow him using a false passport. Before she can, she is abducted and faced with rape and torture unless she divulges information that she does not have.

 

Unaware of Pornthip's plight, Jason is having his own problems, he had transferred to a Thai fishing boat and discoveredthat  the crew intend to kill him but only after they have enjoyed a lengthy interrogation.

 

Having been locked in her cabin overnight whilst the drugs are exchanged for cash, Yupah emerges to discover that there is a new passenger on the boat, a farang. Is it possible that she, at last, has an ally to aid in her revenge?

 

Eventually, Jason and Pornthip are reunited and arrive in Bangkok where Jason recovers the second report and passes it on to the SIS. Their little adventure is over until Jason discovers a third report waiting for him. It is now very clear why several governments would be prepared to kill to safeguard the contents of the reports.

 

But the major threat, when it comes, comes from an individual, not from a government. Jason and Pornthip are once more facing a most unpleasant death once more. They are saved by the intervention of their German Shepherd and the timely arrival of the CIA.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: V.J. MANSFIELD
• Release date: Feb 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215834732

V.J. MANSFIELD

Val Mansfield was born in, New Zealand but left in 1968 after graduating as a Civil Engineer and never returned, except on holiday. He spent three years in Australia, twenty-two years in Hong Kong and thirty years in Thailand. Before retiring, in 1998, he was the Project Director for the Bangkok Transit System. His retirement didn't last, his skills were in demand and he worked as an Independent Consultant in Malaysia, India, the Middle East, Pakistan, South Korea, Mongolia and Vietnam. Covid brought an end to his consulting work. Professionally he had written extensively and had also produced many books of his travels to over eighty countries, so he decided to try fiction, utilizing his love of history. He now lives in Chiang Mai, in Northern Thailand with his stepdaughter. Another of his daughters is currently working in China and two are in New Zealand, his son is in London.

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Author’s Note

In early 2002, two years after the sinking of the Kursk, Jason related the events recorded here to Chris and me as we shared a few pints at The Pub.  At the time Jason swore us to secrecy.  However, after Chris died in 2003, Jason relented and agreed that I could make a written record provided that it was kept securely.

As it is now over 20 years since the Kursk was sunk, he recently agreed that the record could be published in fictional form, provided that names were changed and some details omitted.

Jason never knew the names of any of the submarines involved, so for simplicity, I have invented names for them.  As far as I know, there is not and has never been a PLAN Mao or a USS Texas.

There have, however, been several ships named HMS Audacious.  The first was a 74 gun third rate that saw service from 1785 to 1815.  The second was a battleship launched in 1869 and the third, also a battleship, was launched in 1911 but was sunk by a mine in 1914, amongst the first of the casualties of WWI.  There was to have been a WWII Audacious, an aircraft carrier but the name was changed shortly before she was completed and she was launched as HMS Eagle.  In 2005, when I was looking for a name for Jason's submarine, I decided to risk the wrath of the ghosts of the older Audacious and name a submarine for them.  Imagine my surprise when, in 2007, I learnt that there was to be a new HMS Audacious, an Astute Class submarine.  May she be a fitting successor to Jason's submarine.

Although the names are fictional, the descriptions of the three submarines are true to their class.  Jason had spent some time researching them and I have checked his research.

The various Press reports quoted are also authentic.  Jason had a considerable file on the Kursk which he lent to me and I have also checked independently.

Of course, I have embellished Jason's tale somewhat, invented a few characters and attempted to add a bit of spice to the story.

Fact or fiction?  You will have to ask Jason that, all I can add is that his Passport, which I managed to have a quick look at, shows him to have been in Switzerland, Morocco and the UK at the pertinent times.  In late 2000 he was wearing his left arm in a sling.

One final thing, if you have any thoughts of avoiding Thai Immigration as Pornthip did or slipping out of Thailand without showing a Passport, as Jason intended to do, you can forget them, those loopholes have been closed, all international passengers arriving in Bangkok are now processed in Bangkok and international passengers departing from Chiang Mai are processed in Chiang Mai, even if they are changing planes in Bangkok.

V J Mansfield

Thailand

(February 2020)

CHAPTER 1

Yupah,

May

Yupah was on her way home, she had started work at eight that morning and it was now after nine in the evening but she was still reluctant to return to the three-room shack that she once called home.  Instead, she wandered through the narrow streets lined with makeshift stalls selling a variety of goods, ranging from cheap clothes to shoddy copies of fashion goods.  The stale smell of vegetables remained, a reminder that in the morning it was a vegetable market.  She paused to look at some of the stalls but never for long, she had no money to purchase anything, what little she earned was given to her mother, unless her father intercepted her first and took it off her.  Slowly, unwillingly, she turned down the Soi where their shack was.

There had been a time when she had looked forward to going home but that was years ago when she was first at school.  Those days were long gone, now she hated the thought of going home.  Her father had changed and with him had changed their life.

They had always been poor but they had had enough to eat and a little money for clothes and she had never thought of them as being poor, not really where would the next meal come from poor.  Certainly, they had been no poorer than their neighbours.  Now they seemed to have nothing, her father no longer worked on a trawler but instead did odd jobs, if he could find any.  There weren't many jobs and he didn't look very hard, so the family was dependent on what her mother could earn.  That and the fifty Baht a day Yupah earned packing cheap plastic toys.

There were two other children in the family, her sister a pretty little thing who was almost twelve and would soon be leaving school to work with Yupah and a brother who was only six.

Yupah didn't want to go home, because she knew that her father would be there and she didn't know what sort of a mood he would be in.  Once he had been a good-natured jolly man who used to toss her in the air and sit her on his shoulder when he came home from three weeks or more at sea.  She had loved him, even though he smelt strongly of fish.  Then he had lost his job because the Skipper's youngest son had been old enough to take his place on the trawler.  After that, her father had been very subdued whilst he looked for work and then suddenly he was happy again.  But it was not like the old days, it was a false brittle gaiety and his mood would suddenly change.  From being jovial and playful he would become morose and violent.  At those times he would yell at the children and sometimes strike them so that eventually they all became afraid of him.  It had been months before Yupah realised that the change in her father occurred when he discovered heroin and the temporary relief from his hopelessness that it could give him.

Her mother had changed too.  From being a happy woman who laughed often and sang as she worked, she had become old and embittered.  She cried a lot and often during the night, when they were meant to be asleep, the children would hear her whimpering as their father beat her.  The next day she would try to hide the bruises from them.

To a passer-by, Yupah looked much like any other Thai girl nearing fifteen, maybe a little darker than most from the days that she had spent in the sun, although her tan was fading fast, since she had started work she only saw the sun on Sundays.  She stood a little over five foot, with a slight figure with only a hint of femininity but with a promise of things to come.  Her face was heart-shaped and some would think her beautiful but it was a beauty that she would only retain if her life improved.  If her life continued along the road it was presently following she would be old by twenty and a hag by thirty.

What a passer-by would not know was that Yupah had a dream.  Her dream was to go to Bangkok and work in a Bar.  There she would make lots of money and would be able to help her mother.  She knew that this dream could come true, because Sansanee, a girl from her village, had gone to Bangkok and had come back on holiday, wearing smart clothes, a gold necklace and jewelled rings.  To Yupah just the idea of having a holiday was marvellous, she had never had a holiday and she didn't know anyone, except Sansanee, who had.  She knew other girls who had gone off to the Bars and the nightlife but mostly they had gone to nearby Hat Yai, where they catered to Malaysian tourists escaping from the restrictions of their own country and the tenets of Islam.  In Hat Yai, the tourists forgot that they were Muslims and debauched themselves in riotous living before returning to their staid uninteresting lives in Malaysia.  Compared to the westerners who visited Bangkok and the better known holiday beaches, the Malaysians didn't pay much and none of the girls who had gone to Hat Yai had returned for a holiday wearing smart clothes and jewellery.

Although Sansanee was only a few years older than her, Yupah had respectfully addressed her as older sister and had eagerly asked her about her life.  Sansanee had described how she worked in a bar where she danced and entertained the customers and slept upstairs in a dormitory.  She said that it was important to work in a bar that was frequented by Farangs because they paid the most and tipped well.  She worked in a place called Soi Cowboy where, she said, many Farangs went, particularly those who lived in Bangkok.

At first, Yupah couldn't understand how anyone could entertain Farangs, she had seen some when she had been in Hat Yai but she could understand very little of what they said.  The only Farang she knew was Mr Grace, he was what was called a missionary and when he spoke Thai he sounded very funny.  Sansanee laughed and said that she didn't think Mr Grace would come to the bar where she worked.  She explained that she was paid 1,700 Baht a month to work at the bar.  She got 1,700 Baht because when she danced she took off all of her clothes, girls who would only show their tits were paid 1,500 Baht.  She danced for twenty minutes every hour, the rest of the time she tried to get the customers to buy her drinks.  The drinks cost a hundred Baht each and she got twenty Baht from each drink.  She said that men bought her more drinks if she sat on their knee and let them play with her tits or put their hand into her panties.  Sometimes she stood by them and rubbed their cocks through their trousers.  In the course of a night, she might have ten drinks.

Yupah had been very excited, she was very good at sums and she had quickly worked out that if she took off all her clothes and drank ten drinks a night she could earn 7,700 Baht a month, an unheard-of sum in her village.

Sansanee had laughed at her.  That wasn't where the money was, she explained, the money was in going with a Farang to a hotel or somewhere and fucking him.  For that, they paid eight hundred Baht to the Bar as a bar fine and fifteen hundred to the girl for a short time or three thousand Baht to stay all night.  Once, Sansanee said, she had had a Farang who had taken her away to Pattaya for ten days and paid her three thousand Baht every day and bought her presents.  One day she hoped to find a Farang who would marry her and then she would live in a big apartment with servants until he took her back to his own country.

Yupah knew what fucking was but she hadn't done it.  Once a boy in the village had pulled her into some bushes and tried to do something to her but she had become scared and had run away.  However, for fifteen hundred Baht she wouldn't be scared.  She had begged Sansanee to take her back to Bangkok with her but Sansanee had only laughed again and told her to come to Bangkok when she grew some tits.

After that Yupah checked her tits every day, she thought that they were growing.

In the meantime, she had to go home.

When she arrived she found that her father was there with three men, she recognised them as his old Skipper and his two sons.  Her mother was sitting in a corner sniffling as though she had just been beaten.  As Yupah came in the Skipper looked at her and said, 'Is this the one?'

'Yes.' said her father in a low voice, 'This is Yupah.'

The elder son sneered at her, 'She's just a baby and she doesn't even have tits.  Come on, take your shirt off and show us.'

Yupah just stared at him, nobody had ever spoken to her like that and in front of her father and mother!  Her father spoke next, 'Go on take it off.'  She turned around and started to run towards the door but the younger son was too quick for her and catching her by the wrist, he threw her back into the centre of the room.  'Do as you're told!' yelled her father, 'Take it off.'

Trembling, she took her shirt off and stood there, her immature breasts poking out of her thin chest.  'Well, she's got something.' said the elder son.  'I guess they'll grow.  Particularly if I massage them enough.' he added with a crude chuckle.  Her mother's sobbing grew louder.

'OK.' said the Skipper.  'We'll take her, you understand that she pays the interest for six weeks.  You still owe us all of the money and in six weeks you start paying the interest again, or we'll pay you a call that you won't like.'

'I understand.' said her father.  'Thank you, I'll get the money somehow.'

'OK.' said the Skipper.  He turned to Yupah's mother, 'Get whatever she needs, we are leaving now.'

Yupah's mother threw herself to her knees, 'Please!' she pleaded, 'Please take me instead.  She is just a little girl, I know what you need, I can do anything you want.'

The elder son laughed at her, 'You stupid bitch, with three kids you must have a cunt like a railway tunnel.  We want nothing of you, get your daughter's things.'  Yupah's mother continued to yell and to scream until her father went over and backhanded her across the mouth.  Then she fell silent, apart from the sobbing and went off to the small room that the children shared.  She returned with Yupah's few belongings in a plastic bag.

She handed it to Yupah and drew her into an embrace.  As they clung to one another she whispered in Yupah's ear, 'I put some money in your bag, run away when you can.  Go to your auntie.'

The Skipper stepped forward and pulled them apart.  He dragged Yupah out the door and thrust her into the cramped rear seat of a pick-up truck and threw her bag into the back onto some fishing nets.  The younger son tried to climb in beside her but the elder son pulled him away and climbed in instead.  'Why did you do that?' asked the younger son, 'You always make me ride in the back.'

'Well, tonight you can ride in the front for a change!'  The Skipper drove off and the elder son casually reached out and pulled her head down onto his lap, so that she was looking up at him.  Then he slipped his free hand down inside her jeans and probed with a finger between her legs.  There was not much that she could do about it, except to try to cross her legs.  In the confined space in the rear of the cab that was enough and with an oath he pushed her upright.  'Just wait until I have enough room, I'll show you what it's all about.'

They drove on in silence until they arrived at the pier and stopped beside a large ocean-going trawler that she recognised as the Skipper's.  She knew then, that if she was going to escape it would have to be between the pick-up and the trawler and she was determined not only to escape but to take her money with her.

It was the money that was her downfall, as she got down from the pick-up she pretended to stumble and pushed the elder son off balance.  Then she turned and made a grab for her bag but she couldn't find it in the dark, mixed up as it was with all of the other things that were in the back of the pick-up.  Eventually, she located it and grabbing it she started to run but she had lost precious seconds.  Had she just ran she might have made it but grabbing the bag had given the younger son time to catch up with her and he jumped on her back driving her onto the concrete deck of the pier.  When she got back to her feet, bleeding from a graze on her cheek and with a hole torn in her jeans, the three of them were standing around her.  The elder son drove a fist into her stomach, low down, 'Try that again and I'll beat you half to death.' he snarled, embarrassed at having been responsible for her almost getting away and angry that it was his younger brother who had retrieved the situation.

'Enough of that.' said the Skipper.  'Get her on board, we're late already.'  The tide was out and she was thrown onto the deck of the trawler some three feet below the wharf.  Before she could get to her feet and make a try for the side they were on the deck with her and were pulling her to her feet and pushing her into a small cabin.  She heard a bolt slide home behind her and knew that she was finally trapped.

Yupah had no doubts about what was going to happen to her.  Her father owed the Skipper a lot of money, money that he had probably spent on heroin.  Now, unable to pay it back, he had given her to the Skipper in place of some of the interest that he owed.  The Skipper, she was sure, would give her to his sons as a plaything.  They would take turns in raping her and in between, she would be forced to work about the boat.  Overwhelmed at her fate, she broke down in tears. 

When she stopped crying, she started to think.  She could tell from the motion of the trawler that they had left the small harbour behind and were in the open sea.  Her only hope, she thought, was to appeal to the Skipper.  He had a daughter the same age as her, they had been in the same class at school.  When Yupah had left to work in the toy factory his daughter had gone on to the senior school and had boasted that she would eventually go on to University.  Surely, if she begged, the Skipper he would take pity on her?  Feeling a little better, she began to think of what she would say to him and how she would offer to work, without pay, until her father's debt was cleared.

Gradually, with the aid of some light that spilt through a sealed porthole, she became aware of her surroundings.  The furniture consisted of a single bunk, a chair and a ventilator, nothing else except for the metal door that had been bolted behind her.  She realised that she could hear voices and moving closer to the ventilator she found that she could hear what they were saying on deck.  They were discussing the course to steer and she gathered that they were starting on what would be, even for the trawler, a long trip.  Her heart sank, would the Skipper be able to keep his sons off her for that long?  Then she heard the elder son's voice, 'OK nothing else to do, I'm off below.  I aim to enjoy myself, once I teach the slut what it's all about.'

'Why you?' protested the younger son.  'Why do you always have to be first?  If it wasn't for me she would have got away back at the wharf.'

'Because I'm the oldest, that's why!  And because if you're not careful I'll flatten you.'

'Shut up both of you.' said the Skipper.  'If that is a tight little virgin cunt down there, then I am going to be the one to bust it.  Now you take the wheel and keep the speed up, we have an appointment to keep.'

Yupah's spirits, which had been recovering, plummeted once more, far from protecting her, the Skipper was going to be the first to assault her.  Seconds later he came in; he slammed the door behind him and shot the bolt.  'Right,' he said, turning on a switch beside the door that Yupah had not noticed, 'let's get some light on the scene.'  In the centre of the cabin a dim ceiling light came on and he crossed to the bunk and switched on another light above the pillow.  'OK then, get those clothes off, let's have a look at you.'  She stared back at him, desperately afraid but trying to look defiant.  'It's up to you,' said the Skipper drawing his knife, 'you can take them off or I'll cut them off.  If I cut them off you'll go naked all the time.'  She bowed to the inevitable and looking down at the floor stripped off her few garments and stood naked in front of him.

CHAPTER 2

The Beginning

May

Although at the time only one man knew it, things started at The Pub, Chiang Mai’s oldest watering hole, in May of 2000.  Jason Curtis was in his normal seat on the side of the bar nearest the fireplace, Pornthip, his wife, was sitting beside him sipping her usual white wine.  Chris, the owner, was sitting on the other side of her being affable to the customers, or at least to those he liked and keeping a not altogether avuncular eye on his pretty female staff.  Occupying their normal places at the bar were some of the tobacco-growing fraternity, mostly ex Rhodesians, a couple of foreign students studying Thai at Chiang Mai University as part of an exchange scheme and some long term expatriates who had retired to Chiang Mai.  A few tourists occupied the other stools.  There were two couples in the Tack, or dining room and on the couch by the unlit fireplace a solitary tourist nursed his drink and took no part in the general conversation. 

In his early forties, Jason was just over six feet and weighed 200 pounds, he looked like the lock forward that he had once been.  Unlike many Rugby players, he hadn't run to fat when he had stopped playing but had kept himself in shape, mainly by regular bouts of squash and rounds of golf.  Beside him, Pornthip looked petite and graceful, five-foot two she weighed just over ninety pounds and had a trim figure that turned heads wherever she went.  Her face had a beauty that, in her