Handsome began tormenting the woman. The farmer stepped in to defend her and Weasel hit him across the head with a piece of wood. The farmer fell unconscious, blood pouring from his head. The woman cried. Weasel mimicked her and pulled at her sarong until it came off and he wrapped himself in it. He started dancing. He touched his own breasts and teased the men as they reached out to touch him and he danced between them seductively. Saw began laughing. Thomas started crying louder. Anna and Jake tried to comfort him, make him hush, but Thomas wouldn’t stop. Weasel looked at them and danced his way into the hut with cheers from the men. He started tormenting Thomas by trying to touch him. Thomas curled into a ball. He tried kicking out at Weasel but Weasel just danced around him. Anna screamed at him and Jake lashed out with his feet but they could do nothing to stop Weasel from dragging Thomas outside by his hair, still sobbing. Anna turned away and sobbed into Jake’s chest as outside Thomas was made to crawl around whilst Weasel raped him, to the grunting and howling of the men.

When Weasel finished and momentarily lost his grip, Thomas managed to get away and crawled as fast as he could back towards Jake and Anna.

‘Come on, Thomas, quick…’ Anna held out her bound hands to him.

Jake wriggled forward to try and block Weasel from coming back into the hut, but it wasn’t Weasel that entered, it was Saw.

He stamped his foot on Thomas’s back and held him pinned down whilst he leant down and squeezed Thomas’s bare rump with his gnarled, brown hands. Thomas’s fear shook his whole body as he wriggled on the floor and whimpered and then began squealing in terror as Saw pressed him into the floor and he couldn’t breathe. For a moment, Jake thought Saw would rape Thomas too but instead Saw wheeled around to his men and said something, gesturing in Thomas’s direction. One by one they started to howl.

‘The woman say her pig is gone…’ Saw turned to Jake. ‘Run away to the hills and we cannot eat it. I say, her pig has just returned and here he is…!’

He slapped Thomas on the rump. Thomas looked at Jake, horror following confusion. Saw started snorting like a pig and soon all his men joined in.

‘I say we will have pig to eat tonight.’

79

Ng and Split-lip moved on from the coffee shop into the casinos. The Golden Beach casino was a giant, luxurious, noisy aircraft hangar. From its central gaming floor it climbed four more balconied floors up to the private rooms at the top, where mass orgies were going on between triads and prostitutes, fuelled with methamphetamine from refineries in the Golden Triangle.

‘You always bet on number two?’ asked Ng, as they sat down at the Fan Tan table. On the stage behind them, two girls took off their clothes to the strains of Britney Spears. Fan Tan was a simple game traditional in Asia. On the table in front of them was a square, its sides marked one to four. Players placed their bets on any of the four numbers, after which the banker emptied a double handful of small golden beads onto the table and covered them with a metal bowl. Ng slipped a hundred-dollar chip to the croupier to place next to the number four, opposite Split-lip’s bet.

‘Four is a bad number. Death is something I don’t want to take bets on and three always loses,’ said Split-lip. The croupier segregated about half with a smaller cup, then removed the remaining beads with a small bamboo stick, four at a time, until four or fewer were left. The number of beads left was the winner.

‘Number three wins.’ The croupier smiled at Ng and Split-lip, as if her smile would somehow compensate for the loss of their money.

‘I prefer horses,’ said Ng. ‘At least your money lasts a bit longer before you lose it.’

Split-lip didn’t answer. He got off his stool and Ng followed.

‘Let’s eat,’ he said as he led the way up the escalator and into a self-service restaurant on the first floor. It was a semi-circular group of ten concessions each serving Oriental fast food. Ng and Split-lip took their card from the cashier and chose the Japanese hotplate.

‘Well?’ They sipped miso soup as they waited for the lobster to be cooked in front of them.

Split-lip looked all of his seventy years as he sat and sucked on a toothpick, an old habit of his. He tutted and sighed.

‘I was double-crossed; I told you, we all were. Someone sold his share on, gave it away, I don’t know…but all I know is, I don’t see a penny of the money it makes any more. He was the one with the controlling share of the company.’

‘Who was that someone?’

‘Forgive me if I seem reticent, but some things I fear more than prison.’

‘Okay, let me give you a hand. Does the name Deming mean anything to you?’

Split-lip stared coldly back at Ng.

‘I was hoping never to hear that name again. He was the greediest of us all.’

80

As they prepared to set off the next morning, Mann knew he was getting ill. He shook and shivered as they walked on through the day in what felt like torturous heat and humidity. Every step became difficult for him as his body temperature soared and his energy level plummeted. He walked as if in a dream, not seeing anything through his fog of delirium. His face was red and blotchy. Gee turned to look at him and said simply:

‘You have malaria, my friend.’

That night they stopped to camp early. Mann heard his sat phone ring in his bag.

‘Inspector Mann?’

‘Yes.’

‘It’s Katrien. You and you alone must deliver the money and you will get your brother.’

‘Where is he? Is he with you now?’

‘No. But I know where he is. I will bring him to Mae Sot. Hurry or you will be too late.’ She hung up.

Mann looked at his phone. The battery was down to one bar. He called Ng.

‘What is it, Genghis, you sound rough?’

‘I have malaria. Tell Alfie that Katrien has made contact.’

‘What did she say?’

‘She says to go back to Mae Sot. She doesn’t have Jake yet, but she will get him. We need to try and find him first, but I am not sure how I am going to do that right now. I feel sicker than I’ve ever done in my life. Listen, Ng, If I don’t make it out of here, keep an eye on my mother for me.’

There was silence.

‘Yes. I promise.’

‘Tell me, Ng, did you find out anything about my father? What did you find out about Deming?’

‘Not now, Genghis.’

‘Yes, now more than ever.’

Mann’s sat phone beeped for the last time and then it went dead.

Mann lay back against a rock and stared up at the sky, watching the stars, and he felt the last ounce of energy drain away.

The next two hours saw him deteriorate. He thrashed so much he could not stay in his hammock. Run Run made him a bed on the ground.

‘How is he?’ asked Alak. Mann heard their voices as if from some faraway place.

‘There is little hope for him.’ Gee shook his head. ‘It will kill him,’ he said, matter of factly.

Mann saw Helen. He saw her smiling at him. Her face freckled, her blonde hair streaked from the sun. She was laughing. They were on a beach somewhere. The sun was hot on his face.

‘His fever grows worse. It will kill him.’

‘He needs medicine,’ answered Run Run, as she lifted Mann’s head and rested it on her lap. She dripped water into his mouth.

Helen’s arm was around his neck. She was kissing him, her mouth on his.

In the distance they heard gunfire. In the darkness they looked at one another.

‘We need to make progress,’ said Alak. ‘There is no sign of Rangsan and his men. But we are some way off the agreed rendezvous point—we are south of Gee’s village.’ He took out his radio and tried to find a signal. ‘We will make a new rendezvous point with Captain Rangsan. He will find us there.’