by Lee Weeks
‘Come on, Thomas, keep up,’ he shouted quietly back to a flagging Thomas. ‘We’ll be stopping soon.’
Toad and Weasel overtook Jake now as they ran ahead, their bare feet sending up showers of fine dust and stone. They were coming to the remnants of a road.
Saw appeared beside Jake and, with a wave of his hand, he ordered them all to stay where they were. Saw’s men crept forward through the forest and a shout went up, answered by others, and Toad called them on. They came cautiously out of the forest and hit what must have once been a well-used track. It was wide, fit for vehicles, but it hadn’t seen much traffic for many years now—there was a green snake of grass up its spine and the jungle was beginning to encroach across it.
For a minute Saw stood, his chest rising and falling with the exertion of the run. Then, reassured that all was well, he ran and caught up with his men, overtaking them on the road.
At the edge of the road, a wild she-dog lay panting in the shade of the overhanging vines, feeding her puppies. Her skinny ribcage rose and fell as her puppies suckled. She lifted her head as the group came up the road. Saw approached her first and she snarled. Saw kicked out as he passed. One of the puppies flew into the air and landed with its neck broken, still twitching on the side of the road. The she-dog snatched up her remaining puppies in her mouth and scampered off.
Jake and the others followed Toad along the road. Small houses began appearing, dilapidated and deserted. Then, further on, two long tall barns and several small single-storey buildings came into view and, below them, what looked like a manmade lake. Whatever had been made here, it had been a big operation, thought Jake. It wasn’t exactly easy to find. Although Jake hadn’t read the guide books, Anna had, and he remembered her telling him about the old heroin refineries. Jake was pretty sure he was looking at one now.
Jake held on to Lucas and the mule whilst they stood still and watched as the porters’ packs were laid down and they were made to walk on along the road and into the old buildings to check for booby traps and mines. Saw and his men walked afterwards into the ruins. They were trackers, hunters, more at home in the forest than in a house. Here they crawled and crept along the outside of the buildings, they felt their way around its walls. They signalled to one another with animal calls as they swept through each building.
Toad led Jake and the others down and they joined Saw under the ramshackle roof of a large open-sided barn. All around them were the remnants of the building’s former life: the vats used to distil the heroin, lengths of plastic tube, old sacks of sugar, everything lying discarded and rusted, frayed at the edges. It looked like it had been many years since it had been operational.
Saw was standing above them on a raised platform. Jake could see that Saw looked elated, his feet planted wide, hands on his hips. He seemed to be smelling the air as he looked all around and shouted to the grey, shredded, fragile leaves that made the roof. Jake watched the birds rise unsettled from the rafters, and it struck Jake that this was home for Saw. He had brought them to his home. They were going to be able to rest, which was good, but it would not be without its downside. The more Jake spent time with Saw, the more he understood what made him tick. He seemed to be able to tell when he was about to kick off, even before his deputies could. Jake felt it in the air. He saw it in Saw’s expressions. Every day Saw looked more demonic than the last.
This place felt more like a lair than a place of comfort and Saw looked empowered; he was the man in charge.
Saw stood on the platform remembering what it had been like to stand on that very spot many years before. It was where the heroin was stored ready for transportation. He had had his first taste of wealth and power and dominance on this platform, in this camp. Here he had raped his first woman on this very floor. Here in front of the others he had beaten her unconscious and left her for others to finish. This place had made Saw what he was. He had given his youth to working for the good of the Opium King. Here he made massive wealth for his master and he had been promised much. He looked across and saw Jake watching him.
Saw had been betrayed then.
He would not be betrayed again.
36
Mann waited at the front of the hotel. He looked at his watch. Bang on five, a black Nissan Navara grunted up to the front of the hotel and a small dark-skinned man in his early sixties, wearing a red Nike baseball cap and a gold chain around his neck, hopped out of the driver’s seat and came around to shake Mann’s hand. Outside the hotel, some anti-government protesters were setting up a blockade.
‘Welcome to Thailand.’
‘You must be Gee.’
‘Please…’ He held the passenger door open. Mann stashed his bag behind his seat.
‘I appreciate the lift.’
‘It is no problem for me. I have business there. Louis is an old friend.’
They turned out of the hotel, took a right past the night markets now quiet and deserted, and onto the highway heading south.
‘What kind of business?’
‘Import, export.’
‘Right.’ Mann left it there. It seemed like import, export was the profession of everyone and anyone in Asia.
‘And you, sir?’ Mann could see he was being scrutin ised.
‘I am here about the missing volunteers.’
‘The five young people?’
‘Yes, that’s right. I am going to try and find them if I can.’
‘Ah ha…I see. That is why you go to Mae Sot? Ah ha…I see. It is a very important thing you do. The world is watching. Thailand depends on the world to make economic growth, you understand?’
‘I understand.’
‘You been to Burma, Mr Mann? Beautiful place. But so many troubles.’
‘No, I haven’t been, not yet.’
‘Ah ha…Maybe you will see Burma when you look for the five?’
It was still early—the earth had a pink post-dawn blush to it. Mann dozed. They stopped for fuel and for Gee to stretch his legs. There was an air of suspicion and suspense on the troubled streets. Anti-government protesters gathered in packs and lurked in shadows as the government troops passed in displays of authority.
Three hours down the highway, Mann opened his eyes as the car slowed then stopped at a police checkpoint. One of the two officers looked first at Gee, then peered in at Mann. Armoured vehicles were nose to tail waiting for deployment as soldiers smoked cheroots and sipped coffee. The men stared in at Mann, as did their commander, leaning on his vehicle, arms crossed. One of the policemen ordered Gee out of the car. Gee did as he was told, nodding and smiling in the direction of the commander. They walked a few feet away from the car with one of the officers whilst the other came around to the passenger side to talk to Mann.
‘What is your business here?’
Mann smiled. ‘Tourist. I’ll be going home soon.’
The officer continued staring at Mann but he had no idea how good Mann was at staring back and eventually he gave up. The military commander was still watching Mann. Mann watched the police officer saunter back to his colleague who was shaking Gee’s hand. Money passed between them.
‘What are they looking for?’ asked Mann as Gee got back into the car, started it up and drove away, leaving the policemen standing in the middle of the road watching them go.
‘They look for refugees from camps. They look for people with drugs and now they are looking for trouble-makers. Sometimes they just want money, otherwise they will put something in your car for the next road block to find and then it will cost you double. Better pay when they ask. Less trouble.’
‘Why did he want you out of the car?’
‘You’re a foreigner. It made him nervous.’
‘Nervous, but still greedy.’
‘Ah ha…you understand the way things work,’ Gee laughed.
The distant mountain range grew closer. There was an ancient, Jurassic Park feel to the place The cloud settled in the depths of dense forest and the spiky mountains rose above. There
was a suffocating stillness, a claustrophobic feel. Ivy smothered the trees. As they reached the mountains, the road swallowed them and plunged like a rollercoaster ride.
Gee sounded the horn three times as they made their tricky descent of the treacherous road, wet from the morning cloud. On the other side of the road a lorry driver beeped three times back.
‘Why do you do that?’
‘Many people die here,’ he answered. ‘We must make…’ he banged his hand against the middle of the steering wheel ‘…three times. Spirits on road, dead people, we must say to get out of the way.’
Two more road blocks and another half an hour’s driving and the hills levelled as they approached the outskirts of a town. Roadside vendors appeared and without warning they were stuck in the mayhem of a spice and livestock market.
‘This is Mae Sot, sir,’ Gee laughed. ‘Always the same. Always madness here. Every colour of persons, every religion and no religion. We have every type here.’
They were stuck next to an open-air spice market where women slept, curled between the mountains of red chillies, dried fish and tamarind pods, camouflaged by the henna prints on their skin and intricate patterns on their bright sarongs and saris. They looked like part of the goods for sale. If the stories were true then perhaps they were—human trafficking was apparently big business in Mae Sot.
They inched past the tangle of tuk-tuks and crept forward with the cart pullers and the bicycles. They reached one of the main junctions in Mae Sot centre before taking a right and heading straight along a dusty pot-holed road. On one side there was a large temple, its gold shimmering in the noon sun, on the other, open-fronted shops selling replica goods alongside rubies and emeralds. They eventually pulled up outside a small guesthouse.
‘We are here, sir. Here is the hotel.’
Mann peered out of the car. The name Mary’s was hanging from a large board outside.
This was the last place the five had slept before they were taken. Maybe this place held the answers to where they were now.
37
‘Lucas, you okay?’
Lucas murmured something and tried to smile, but his mouth was parched and his lips cracked. He had not been properly conscious all day. He had only just managed to swallow some water. He shivered as if he was cold and yet he sweated at the same time, his face was blotched crimson and white with fever, and he shook violently. Jake knew whatever illness it was that Lucas had, it was getting worse. Jake pulled a piece of discarded sacking near to him and lifted Lucas’s head a little as he placed it underneath. It was all that Jake could offer to his friend for comfort. Jake touched him. He was burning up. He was obviously in pain as he brought his knees up to his stomach and groaned. There was nothing for Jake to wipe his face with, no water to cool his head. Jake knew he had to get more water for him.
Jake and the others lay on one side of the platform in the large open-sided barn. The ragged group of exhausted porters sat on the other.
Anna and Silke were curled up, lying on their sides, both of them sound asleep. Jake was resting with his back against one of the many struts that held up the old roof. He was keeping watch. There was an air of nervous excitement amongst the men tonight. They were back on familiar territory. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling for the five. They seemed to Jake to be electrically charged. They were fighting, drinking, running wild amongst the old ruins.
Handsome jumped up onto the platform, his body swaying from the rum he held in his hand. He had come to watch the porters. He stood over them shouting at them to hurry up as they emptied the sacks, found the rice, and dragged out the pots for cooking. Jake felt so sorry for them. They had been with them a week now, no food, hardly any rest. They looked so frightened. The women were constantly goaded and harassed, their shoulders raw from carrying the heavy packs. Every day they seemed to get thinner and weaker. Every day they grew more like the walking dead. Jake looked over at Thomas. Thomas was lying on his back, knees up, feet on the floor. His eyes were wide. He looked as if he were staring at the roof but he wasn’t really looking at anything.
‘You all right, Thomas?’
Thomas didn’t answer; instead he shook his head and kept staring skyward.
‘Thomas?’ Jake repeated.
‘Today, for the first time, I feel like we are not going to get out of this,’ Thomas answered softly.
Jake looked at Thomas more closely. His eyes were red-rimmed and so dark and tired that they seemed as if they had been drawn in charcoal and then smudged.
His words hit Jake in the pit of his stomach. Thomas was the baby in the group and yet he was also the one who usually kept them all focused and gave them hope. Each of the five played a vital role for the others. Jake was the leader. If Lucas had been well, they would have made all the decisions together, the way they always did. They argued about stuff, then they laughed about it, but in the end they always agreed on a scheme. Anna was the strong one who never lost her fight. She also always knew what time it was back home. She knew exactly how many days they had travelled and she could detail the landscape in every hill they had crossed. Silke was kind and compassionate. She saw the best in people and she was always the first to offer sympathy. She was always the one who knew how the others were feeling. Silke carried the weight of everyone’s problems on her shoulders. Thomas made them laugh. He lived in a world of dragons and extra-terrestrials. He could mimic the robots from Star Wars, he could make them laugh with his impressions of Toad and Weasel. But not today. Today Thomas had turned a horrible corner and had fallen into a void of despair.
‘We will, Thomas, as long as Saw hasn’t got what he wants, we have a hope.’
‘But how long will he keep waiting? We have been moving for—what did Anna say—nineteen days?’ He looked across at Jake. ‘If anyone was going to help us, they would have done so by now. I think he will kill us soon.’
‘We have to keep strong, Thomas. We can’t give up hope now.’
Thomas turned his head and looked at his sister and Anna and at Lucas in turn. Then he turned back to stare at the ceiling.
‘Whilst you were unconscious in the poppy field, Saw tortured and executed that man and his son and shot the bodyguards. He put them in a pile, poured petrol on them and set them alight and then he raped the woman and her children and threw them onto the fire. They were running around on fire, screaming. Saw just laughed. He doesn’t care, Jake. He doesn’t care about life, about death or anything. He’s a devil. I don’t want to watch Silke being raped, killed. I don’t want to see you get murdered.’ He turned to look at Lucas. ‘Lucas is dying. I envy him. I would rather go first.’
‘Thomas, don’t say that! Don’t give up now. The girls rely on you. We all need each other, Thomas. For fuck’s sake—we all need each other.’
Lucas had started moaning again. His lips were cracked and dry. His body shook and sweated.
‘Thomas, have you got any water left?’ Jake asked him. Thomas shook his head. Anna and Silke were still sleeping. Handsome was nearest to them, harassing the porters whilst they prepared the food. As much as he didn’t want to ask Handsome for anything, Jake could see that Lucas desperately needed water.
‘He needs water,’ Jake called out. In the still of the barn, his voice sounded flat. The porters turned to stare at him, as if he were mad. ‘He needs water,’ repeated Jake, louder this time. Anna stirred.
Handsome strode towards them and stood over Jake, looking disdainfully down at him.
‘My friend is very sick. He needs water.’ Handsome looked at Lucas but his eyes wandered to Silke and Anna and stayed there.
Thomas looked from him to his sister.
‘Water! We need water.’ He added his voice to Jake’s to try and distract Handsome’s thoughts away from the girls.
Handsome answered with a grunt and he strode back over to where the porters were and began to kick the old man. The female porters screamed as they tried to get out of the way but couldn’t. The old man covered his he
ad with his hands. Handsome started shouting at the women. They scrabbled onto their knees and began frantically searching in their packs. Handsome stood over them, pulling at their clothes, laughing. The old man was the last one to empty his sack. He was obviously reeling and so exhausted and frail after seven days on the road with no food. Handsome punched him viciously.
‘Stop it,’ Jake called. Handsome ignored him. ‘Stop it, you bastard!’ Jake sat up and shouted louder. ‘He is an old man. He’s had enough.’
For a second, Handsome didn’t even seem to have heard; but then he turned sharply on his heel and charged towards Jake. Frothing at the mouth, his face contorted with rage and, without stopping to draw breath, he transferred his anger from the old man to Jake and kicked him hard in the ribs. Silke woke up and started screaming. Anna began shouting abuse and curses at Handsome. Jake could see her trying to free herself from her ties to help him.
‘No, Anna, don’t!’ He curled into a ball to try and protect his head from the blows. He knew the less they did, the better it would be. Handsome reached down and pulled Jake up by his hair. Jake’s hands were tied to Lucas and Lucas was dragged with him as Handsome held him by the throat and squeezed tightly.