Temple of Gold

by A. J. Stewart

“The United States won’t enter a sovereign nation without a request for assistance from the recognized government.”

  “We both know that’s not true. I’m here now. I’ve been here before. The CIA is here all the time.”

  “I can’t speak to what the spooks do. I’m just telling you the State Department won’t send in the cavalry, and the Justice Department won’t negotiate a release if you get caught.”

  “So we leave these folks here to die?”

  “I’m not saying that.”

  “Help me out, Alice. What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying we can’t officially go into Kampuchea. But if these people were to somehow make it to Thailand . . .”

  “Then what?”

  “We have aid programs, Len. We’ll get them looked after. We can offer resettlement here in Thailand or even grant them asylum in the US.”

  “We can do that?”

  “Of course we can do that. It’s what great nations do. We’ve won more favor in the past century through offering assistance than we have through going to war.”

  “That’s the diplomat talking.”

  “Of course it is. But it works. When we’ve gone to war to defend ourselves we’ve been unmatched and unbeatable. When our motives for war have been questionable, we’ve rarely escaped with our skins. But when we’ve offered assistance, we’ve made allies and controlled the agenda.”

  “You should run for office.”

  “It’s not a political distinction, it’s a moral one.”

  “All right, Joan of Arc, what do we do?”

  Lenny heard the rustling of paper and in his mind saw a naked Alice looking over her map.

  “There’s a small Thai naval base south of Trat. It can’t be more than forty or fifty miles from your position.”

  “If I can get them there?”

  “Then Auntie Sam can take care of the rest.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Lenny and Lucas slept in the chopper, laid out like wounded soldiers. The floor was hard steel, not in any way comfortable, so they both lay on their backs and stared up at the utilitarian fuselage until they drifted off.

  They woke before the sun. The Pilot returned from his position on the bank and offered them bread and butter, which was unexpected, and despite the bread being slightly stale, was one of the best meals Lucas had ever eaten. They checked their weapons, filled their canteens, and collected the metal detector and Geiger counter, just in case. The Pilot waved them goodbye and said he would be waiting, and then he returned to the riverbank as Lenny and Lucas made for the hills.

  They saw the fire burning in the pit from the other side of the rice paddies. The sun was just breaking the horizon to the east when they reached the village, but the mountains still shrouded them in shadow.

  Jarani looked up as they reached her. She shook her head as if a stray dog had returned despite being previously kicked.

  Lucas dropped to the dirt beside her. “How are you?”

  “I good.”

  “Your face looks swollen.”

  “It no problem.”

  She shuffled away to collect some water and returned with the pot. It was the same process, the same meal, every time. Lucas watched her move and decided that she was still hurting but had suffered no permanent damage.

  “I need feed people,” she said. “You go now.”

  “We’re leaving today,” said Lucas.

  Jarani glanced at Lenny and then back at Lucas. “Okay.”

  “We’re all leaving. You included.”

  “No. I stay. I help people.”

  “They’re all coming.”

  Jarani’s eyes widened. For a moment Lucas thought he saw hope, but just as quickly the look disappeared.

  “These people sick. No go.”

  “Yes, they will. We’ll get them out. All of them.”

  She slowly shook her head, as if what she was hearing was too good to be true: that eight years of enslavement could be coming to an end. But this had become her life, and she seemed to have trouble conceiving that there was anything else. Crossing General Tan was not something she appeared keen to do.

  “The children,” she whispered.

  “Them, too. We’re going to the camp today, and we’re going to get them out.”

  “Many soldier, too many.”

  “No, not enough,” said Lucas. “Nowhere near enough.”

  He told Jarani that as soon as the truck left, they would follow, and then he and Lenny slipped back into the trees. Jarani carried on with her morning routine, carrying bowls of rice to the huts, and then as the sun broke over the mountains, the people slipped like shadows from their huts and lined up, ready and waiting.

  The truck appeared on time. There was the usual shouting, and the workers helped each other up into the truck bed. Jarani stood to the side, watching them. Then one of the soldiers yelled at her, rapid fire. She recoiled, but he continued ranting. She shook her head at him, and then he grabbed her arm and dragged her to the truck, and flung her at the tailgate. Two people leaned over to help her up. Then the soldiers closed the tailgate, got in the cab, and the truck drove off.

  Lenny and Lucas waited until the sound of the engine died away before leaving their hiding place. The village was quiet. They went from hut to hut, checking for anyone left behind. Lucas found one woman lying in her cot. She must have died in her sleep. Perhaps Jarani’s task that day would have been to bury her, but Jarani had been taken.

  Lucas returned to the space where the truck had parked. The village was ghostly, a gentle warm breeze wafting the leaves, teasing whispers from the branches.

  “Why did they take her?” asked Lucas, although he knew the answer.

  “They’re not coming back,” said Lenny. “None of those people are coming back.”

  “Then we’d better move.”

  “It’s gonna take a while.”

  “We know where they’ll be.”

  They headed into the trees with the metal detector at the ready. There was a chance that General Tan had placed an ambush somewhere along the track, and although the compulsion to chase the truck was strong, staying hidden and alive was the smart play. They weren’t going to save Jarani or anyone else if they ran into an ambush, and they agreed that Tan wasn’t likely to be so forgiving the second time around.

  It was afternoon already when they got to within a hundred yards of the camp. Lenny turned off the metal detector, and they edged close to the perimeter, where they surveyed the scene.

  The pit mine was in full swing. The children were walking down with empty buckets and returning with full ones, dropping their load into the hopper, and then repeating. They counted four soldiers at the top of the pit, two on the far side and two more near the shed that held the sodium chlorate.

  They left the metal detector in the grass and snuck around the camp to get a better view of the interior. They saw two more guards near the mess area. There was no sign of Tan or Professor Rangsay. They saw none of the people from the village. Lenny and Lucas dropped back into the trees to take on water and make a plan.

  “Time to thin the herd,” said Lucas.

  “I wish I knew where Tan was.”

  “Keep your eyes open.”

  They moved out into the camp. First, they checked that the supply shed and the armory were locked up. Then they moved into the tents. These were all empty. Even Rangsay’s tent. Books still stood in pillars. Lenny crossed to the desk and shuffled through Rangsay’s papers until he found the map he had seen before. He tapped it with his finger.

  “Alice was right. They’ve got a track going through the mountains to the south.”

  “And?” asked Lucas, standing guard.

  “And there’s a circle here, north and west of the pit mine.”

  “What’s there?”

  “Nothing visible.”

  They slipped from the tent and jogged over to the motor pool. The second motorcycle had been returned from the tiger trap, but it didn�
��t look to be in very good shape. Lucas jumped up to the cab of the first truck and slipped the keys from the ignition. Lenny did the same to the second truck, and then dropped gently down and hurried back to Rangsay’s tent.

  Lenny and Lucas stopped to watch the two guards near the mess area. They weren’t smoking or talking. They held their rifles easy but ready, as if something had changed, as if Tan had told them to sharpen up.

  Lucas smiled. “For us?”

  Lenny winked, and then moved fast.

  Within seconds, and as quietly as a butterfly, he was across the space between the tent and the mess. He didn’t hesitate. He had done his thinking the previous night, just as Lucas had, and Lucas knew where he stood. He understood that the men under Tan’s command could be considered victims of circumstance, almost as much as those being forced to work the mines. But he also knew they had made their choice. They had taken up arms for Tan, for the Khmer Rouge, not against it. That was their choice to make, and now that made them the enemy.

  Lenny slipped his hunting knife from its sheath. The first of the soldiers turned at the sound of the breeze Lenny was making. The second man never moved. Neither ever really knew what happened. They surely felt the sting of steel on their throats, but they hit the ground in succession, two muffled thuds into dirt that had already heard too many such sounds.

  Lucas didn’t stop to survey Lenny’s handiwork. He overlapped Lenny’s position, moving quickly toward the pit mine. Lenny broke west into the trees as Lucas dashed behind the storage shed that held the sodium chlorate. Then Lucas waited, tensed and ready. He knew there were two soldiers on the other side of the shed, but his eyes were not on them. Instead, his focus was on the far side of the pit, where two more soldiers were standing over the mine, watching the children haul rocks out of the earth. Lucas waited, looking around, assessing the camp like a chessboard, deciding on the move he would make after his next one.

  Then he saw her.

  Jarani was east of his position, out beyond where they had seen the concrete slab. Where the Chinese pipes sat waiting for trenches to be dug. Jarani was digging those trenches. She and three others were swinging picks into the ground in a line that led off toward the hole that would become the reservoir. Not a swimming pool, not a mass grave. Not even a tiger trap. Jarani labored to lift the pick above her head, and then dropped it down into the dirt. Like the others, she didn’t have the muscle or the energy to make much of an impact. It was going to take forever to dig the trench. At this rate, they could never live to see it finished.

  Lucas tore his gaze away. He wanted to run to her, to save her. But he knew better. They had a plan, and they needed to stick to it—at least until it went to hell, which he knew it would. He needed to leave her there for the moment, so she would have any chance at all.

  He turned back toward the pit, where the two guards were wandering now along the rim. One headed toward the trees, while the other went toward the machinery that ground the rocks and sent them down the hill toward the secret road. The soldier near the trees stopped for a moment, as if he heard something. Perhaps an animal scurrying through the scrub. He moved toward the tree line, lifting his rifle as he went. Then he stepped into the trees.

  He didn’t step out. Minutes passed, and there was no sign of him. The soldier on the other side had turned and lazily wandered back to the middle, where they were supposed to meet. When he failed to see his compatriot, the second soldier moved to investigate. Perhaps he called his buddy’s name. Lucas didn’t know. He couldn’t hear the man from his position, but saw the man disappear into the trees. Then, Lucas moved around the shed.

  The nearest soldier dropped hard as Lucas kicked out the back of his knee, but Lucas took two fast strides and took out the second man, whose mouth had dropped open. It was his last surprise. Lucas slashed and fell him where he stood, and then in one swift move, swiveled back to the first soldier, who was attempting to angle his rifle while lying on top of it. It was clumsy and slow, and Lucas was on him before the soldier could even shout for help. He drove his knee into the man’s back and knocked the wind out of him, and then wrapped his arm around the man’s neck, cutting off his air.

  The soldier struggled in futility, Lucas’s full weight keeping him pinned, his arm depriving him of air.

  “It’s okay, pal,” said Lucas. “It’s okay.”

  When the man stopped struggling, Lucas gently placed his head on the dirt. The man’s eyes were bulging from his head, the strain of attempting to survive writ across his face. Lucas closed the man’s eyes, and then he dashed away.

  He met Lenny back at their initial vantage point west of the camp.

  “I found Tan,” said Lenny. “He’s down the hill, by the track. I think some new equipment has arrived.”

  “Time to get the kids out.”

  “I don’t know how,” said Lenny. “Why would they even come with us? We’re just more guys with guns.”

  “They’re not coming with us.”

  Lucas led Lenny back through the camp, and then pointed out toward Jarani. There was only one soldier watching the workers, and he was dropped before he even turned around. Jarani and the others stopped digging and stared at the fallen soldier. There was no sound, no surprise. They didn’t scream or run. They had seen too much death for any one lifetime, and so the sight of it now failed to shock.

  Lucas stepped to Jarani. “We need to go,” he said.

  She looked at him like he was some kind of curiosity. In a land that had seen too much killing, he had joined the list of killers. He didn’t know if she was deciding whether to trust him, or confirming that she no longer could.

  “The children,” he said. “We need to get the children.”

  She blinked, once, then twice. Then she nodded.

  Lucas led the way, and Jarani and the other three dropped their picks and walked after him. They didn’t seem capable of running. Lenny brought up the rear.

  They walked to the big hopper, where the children were still depositing their hauls. The first child stepped down off the plank ramp and spotted Lucas. The little boy was skin hanging from bone. He frowned. Lucas glanced to Jarani, who stepped forward.

  Jarani said something that sounded like an order, but so much of the unfamiliar language did to Lucas’s ear. The boy, however, stepped toward Jarani. Perhaps he had become used to responding to orders. Perhaps that was the only certainty in his life. Jarani spoke again and the boy stopped and frowned once more, this time uncertain. Jarani repeated her command, and the boy dropped the buckets that were strapped across his shoulders.

  Jarani looked to Lucas, who pointed toward the trees. Lenny strode over to the position and Jarani directed the boy to follow him. The other villagers moved with the boy, creating a chain between the ramp and the trees for the children to follow.

  No one went down into the pit. As each child brought their load to the top, they were ordered to drop their bucket and walk into the trees. One would come up, none would return.

  It took twenty long minutes for the last child to wander into the trees. Lucas told Jarani to follow, and then he scanned the pit. There was no one remaining. He watched for a moment longer to make sure no one was left behind, and then he ran to the trees. Jarani and the children were already gone, so he kept moving around the back of the camp, quickly catching up.

  Lenny had led the caravan of children around the perimeter of the camp to the track heading back to the village, and there he stopped. The group behind simply ceased walking, asking no questions. Lucas came up from the rear.

  “Take the kids along the track,” he said to Jarani. “Back to the village.”

  “Tan will go there,” she said. “Very bad.”

  “No,” said Lucas. “Tan’s not going anywhere. A helicopter will meet you there. The helicopter will take you and the children away to a safe place.”

  Jarani looked at Lucas once more, and for a moment he thought she might hug him. Instead, she turned back and gave more orders to the
children. One of the other adults took the lead, though slowly and with a good dose of suspicion, and led the children out onto the track. They kept to the side, ready to take cover in the trees if needed. Jarani turned back to Lucas.

  “Gotta go,” he said. “We’ll see you around.” He winked and then he and Lenny ran back into the camp.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  They ran. Through the camp and out past the concrete slab and the small potholes that Jarani and the others had dug. The pit to their left, the reservoir to the right. They headed north. Toward a circle on a map.

  Once past the area that had been cleared for the reservoir, they kept to the tree line. There was nothing to see but jungle. Both men wondered if this was the area the tiger preferred to call home, but they saw no evidence of this.

  Lenny held up a fist, drawing Lucas to a sudden stop. Then Lenny opened his fist and pointed left, allowing Lucas to follow his aim across the clearing. For a moment Lucas saw nothing. And then he saw something. Two somethings, in fact.

  Two soldiers, standing at ease, rifles at the ready but not expecting action. It took a moment longer to figure out why they were there. In the trees beyond the clearing, behind the men, was a stand of boulders, between which was a patch of darkness.

  “Is that a cave?” whispered Lucas.

  “Or a mine?” replied Lenny. He ran his hands through his red mane and then blew the sweat off his fingers.

  “Going into a cave makes me feel like a sitting duck,” said Lucas.

  “Agreed. But what’s the other option?”

  “Can’t burn them out. There’s innocents in there.”

  “So?”

  Lucas shrugged. “Death or glory, my friend.”

  “Really?”

  Lucas smiled. “I prefer glory, just so you know.”

  “What I do want to know is, you hit the latch on a tailgate once before. Can you repeat that shot?”

  “I can make this one with a boomerang.”

  Lenny shook his head. He had a feeling that Lucas was only half joking. But there was no way around it. They would have to trek for hours, maybe a whole day, to come in from behind the cave entrance and surprise the guards. And they didn’t have a day, let alone hours. Tan would come up from the bottom of the hill soon enough, and he would find half his men down. He would find the children gone and his first thought would be to head for the village. So time was more important than anything else. Even noise.