She was in another world.
Cole had little sympathy, but he did have a begrudging respect. This woman had all the qualities Cole knew well. Especially that hollow, blank expression. He’d seen it a hundred times before and knew where it led. Nowhere.
“Can we get anything in the air to intercept?” Cole asked Besson, though he anticipated the answer.
“Not in this weather. My chopper will be here in a few minutes, but they’re in Laos by now and I obviously can’t ask for any air assist from Vientiane.”
“I thought you had a general who runs one of the provinces on your friend list.”
“Yes. But he won’t have any air assets we can use other than my chopper. He’ll allow us to use his outposts, but it’ll cost.”
Besson spoke with the woman. She said nothing, as if not hearing him.
One of Besson’s men put a gun to her forehead.
“Tell your man to back off,” Cole said. “It’s unlikely she’s knows anything we can use at this point, even if she did know anything. Which I doubt.”
The woman looked at Cole, and without warning, as if believing he was the one really in charge, she spoke. “He never tell me where he fly to. He think he bird. I think he fool. He go, maybe he come back. Maybe he not come back. He die, he die. I die, I die.”
Cole, surprised at her being so forthright, turned to Besson. “We’re done here.”
Outside on the porch, Cole said, “I don’t care what you have to do. How much it costs. You have strong contacts in Laos. Get them on this.”
They left the house and walked through the trees to the empty hangar where McKean had kept his plane to wait for Besson’s chopper to arrive.
“Finding Kiera Hunter has metastasized into a major goddamn problem,” Cole said angrily. He bummed a cigarette from the colonel. He never smoked much anymore except under extreme stress and he was definitely feeling the stress.
Besson got a cell call and Cole figured it was from his chopper pilot. But when he hung up without have said much of anything to whoever it was, he turned to Cole. “A small plane crashed in the rice paddies twenty kilometers north of here. A village leader is saying that everyone survived.”
Cole was stunned and elated. “He know if it’s them?”
“Looks that way.”
“Where the hell is that damn chopper?”
“He’s five minutes out.”
PART THREE
LAND OF A MILLION ELEPHANTS
19
Porter and Kiera walked along the river and into the fishing village where they were to meet the monk.
Ahead she saw a cluster of thatched houses tucked in a stretch of palms near the river.
They moved into the village.
“Will we be able to get far on the river?”
“Not too far. But once we leave the river it’ll be a long trek into the mountains. We’ll hook up with some of Narith’s associates up there in the lowlands. They’ll help us get into the higher mountains. They’ve been smuggling people around this world for a long time.”
“He has friends in all these countries?”
“Common cause. The Buddhist underground stretches from Burma, through Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam.”
“The communist governments can’t stop them?”
They crossed a small foot bridge. A dog barked and then another.
“No,” he answered. They headed to the first thatched houses on the outskirts of the village. “When the Vietnamese authorities tried to stop members of the Viet Young Buddhist movement from making a pilgrimage from Vietnam to India to take part in the World Movement of Vietnamese Buddhist Youth a few years back, the man you’re going to meet was one of the people who helped smuggle dozens out of Vietnam so they could make the pilgrimage. The sect that’s most interested in getting that statue back is from Vietnam.”
Kiera was feeling more and more comfortable with Porter and his connections to the underground. She realized how naïve she’d been thinking she could just come over here, get a guide, take a little hike and find the plane.
As dawn
Cole had little sympathy, but he did have a begrudging respect. This woman had all the qualities Cole knew well. Especially that hollow, blank expression. He’d seen it a hundred times before and knew where it led. Nowhere.
“Can we get anything in the air to intercept?” Cole asked Besson, though he anticipated the answer.
“Not in this weather. My chopper will be here in a few minutes, but they’re in Laos by now and I obviously can’t ask for any air assist from Vientiane.”
“I thought you had a general who runs one of the provinces on your friend list.”
“Yes. But he won’t have any air assets we can use other than my chopper. He’ll allow us to use his outposts, but it’ll cost.”
Besson spoke with the woman. She said nothing, as if not hearing him.
One of Besson’s men put a gun to her forehead.
“Tell your man to back off,” Cole said. “It’s unlikely she’s knows anything we can use at this point, even if she did know anything. Which I doubt.”
The woman looked at Cole, and without warning, as if believing he was the one really in charge, she spoke. “He never tell me where he fly to. He think he bird. I think he fool. He go, maybe he come back. Maybe he not come back. He die, he die. I die, I die.”
Cole, surprised at her being so forthright, turned to Besson. “We’re done here.”
Outside on the porch, Cole said, “I don’t care what you have to do. How much it costs. You have strong contacts in Laos. Get them on this.”
They left the house and walked through the trees to the empty hangar where McKean had kept his plane to wait for Besson’s chopper to arrive.
“Finding Kiera Hunter has metastasized into a major goddamn problem,” Cole said angrily. He bummed a cigarette from the colonel. He never smoked much anymore except under extreme stress and he was definitely feeling the stress.
Besson got a cell call and Cole figured it was from his chopper pilot. But when he hung up without have said much of anything to whoever it was, he turned to Cole. “A small plane crashed in the rice paddies twenty kilometers north of here. A village leader is saying that everyone survived.”
Cole was stunned and elated. “He know if it’s them?”
“Looks that way.”
“Where the hell is that damn chopper?”
“He’s five minutes out.”
PART THREE
LAND OF A MILLION ELEPHANTS
19
Porter and Kiera walked along the river and into the fishing village where they were to meet the monk.
Ahead she saw a cluster of thatched houses tucked in a stretch of palms near the river.
They moved into the village.
“Will we be able to get far on the river?”
“Not too far. But once we leave the river it’ll be a long trek into the mountains. We’ll hook up with some of Narith’s associates up there in the lowlands. They’ll help us get into the higher mountains. They’ve been smuggling people around this world for a long time.”
“He has friends in all these countries?”
“Common cause. The Buddhist underground stretches from Burma, through Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam.”
“The communist governments can’t stop them?”
They crossed a small foot bridge. A dog barked and then another.
“No,” he answered. They headed to the first thatched houses on the outskirts of the village. “When the Vietnamese authorities tried to stop members of the Viet Young Buddhist movement from making a pilgrimage from Vietnam to India to take part in the World Movement of Vietnamese Buddhist Youth a few years back, the man you’re going to meet was one of the people who helped smuggle dozens out of Vietnam so they could make the pilgrimage. The sect that’s most interested in getting that statue back is from Vietnam.”
Kiera was feeling more and more comfortable with Porter and his connections to the underground. She realized how naïve she’d been thinking she could just come over here, get a guide, take a little hike and find the plane.
As dawn
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