Death Trip

Toad picked Lucas up as if he weighed nothing, although Lucas was a foot taller than him, and he dumped him onto the animal’s back. It stood patiently waiting, taking the opportunity to eat the young shoots that sprung from the forest floor.

Saw was coming up behind them. Jake felt his fingers tingle with adrenalin and his guts twist. Saw stopped at A

Silke flinched away from him and Saw’s eyes rested on Jake. For a minute Jake thought he knew everything. He knew about the failed escape attempt.

Saw spoke to Toad before turning to Jake.

‘Friend?’ Saw gave his men a sidelong glance as he sneered and pointed towards Lucas. ‘Friend?’ He repeated it and pointed again towards Lucas as if the word conjured up a ridiculous image.

Jake nodded. Saw turned to Weasel and gri

‘Friend sick—maybe fall from mule, huh?’ Jake didn’t answer. He knew that it was best to keep quiet. Saw wasn’t looking for conversation. Saw jabbed him to make Jake look at him again. ‘Soon, come Steep Pass—only room for one person.’ Saw looked back at his men; he was speaking to the audience, not to Jake. ‘Your friend fall, I think?’ He called to Handsome to pass him some rope. As the mule looked at him incuriously, Saw tied the rope around Jake’s waist and looped the other end around Lucas; pi

‘He fall—you fall. He friend? You keep him alive.’

Saw laughed and his men whooped and seemed to walk with a new energy as they dragged their captives onward.

Saw stopped by A

19

Ma

‘Thanks for meeting me, Ng.’

‘What is it you need, Genghis?’ Ng and Ma

‘I’m all right. I went away for a couple of days. I’ve got jetlag, that’s all.’

‘No, it isn’t. You haven’t been all right for a long time now, Genghis. It is five years since I saw you happy. You need to get yourself a woman. Did you ever get back in contact with that Eurasian girl?’

‘Georgina?’

‘Yes! That’s the girl. She was just right for you.’

‘She went back to England, as you know. She wanted to go home; she’d been through a lot.’

‘You could have stopped her.’

‘Wrong time, wrong place, Ng. Anyway…’ Ma

‘Huh…I thought being single was supposed to be fun. You don’t look like you’re having fun. You haven’t taken any time off since that investigation in the Philippines, that’s over a year now. Take some time off, go lie in the sun, go wave riding—what’s it called, surfing?’

‘Yeah, maybe you’re right…’ Ma

Ng lifted the tops from the dim sum baskets and began piling dumplings onto Ma

‘Eat,’ Ng said, as he filled his own plate. ‘Where are you going? Back to the Philippines?’

‘Thailand.’

Ng looked at him and almost choked. ‘You mad? No one is going to Thailand at the moment. Those kids were kidnapped, they haven’t been released. It’s not safe.’

‘Those kids are why I’m going. I found out something about my father. I got an email from a Dutch woman, Magda. She told me she and my father were…lovers. Not just lovers, they had kids together. One of them is one of the kids who’s been kidnapped. I am telling you this, Ng, because I trust you to keep it to yourself. Mum would hate the whole world knowing.’

Ng looked confused. ‘Did your mother know all this?’

Ma

Ng stopped eating, placed his chopsticks on their holder and thought for a few minutes.

‘That’s very sad, Genghis. Sad for everyone. But what does the Dutch woman expect you to do, exactly? Things are kicking off in Thailand and Burma. It’s not a safe place to go right now.’

‘If I go soon, I will be okay. I will always be able to get out overland and by boat.’

‘I read the latest on the kids—they say they are almost certain to have crossed into Laos. It’s a mess out there.’

‘I can at least investigate what actually happened. The parents are being told nothing. I am going to take a day here to get all I need and then I fly to Chiang Mai tomorrow and follow their footsteps until I get to the jungle and then we’ll see.’

‘What do you know about tracking kids through jungles?’ Ng stuffed a dumpling into his mouth.

‘Thanks for the vote of confidence, Ng.’ Ma

Ng gulped down some water.

‘I am just concerned, that’s all.’

‘I know, and you’re right; it’s new territory for me—all of it—but I am hoping to buy myself some help along the way.’ Ma