89

For a minute Saw seemed dazed by the blast. He lay still on the path. Weasel rushed to his side. Saw pushed him away and got quickly to his feet as he looked around frantically. Run Run was lying beside the path. Her legs were gone, her torso soaked in blood. Saw held her to him and she turned her eyes slowly to him and then to Alak, whose head had come to rest near hers. Saw held her close.

His chest heaved and his shoulders wilted beneath the weight of sorrow.

She looked at Alak and then back to him.

‘I never loved you, Saw. Never.’

Her eyes remained open but the light in them disappeared. For a few seconds, Saw held on to her as he knelt in the dirt. His men stood around. They had come because of the blast but they stayed to see something they had never before witnessed. They saw their leader, with his broad muscly back to them, and his arms wrapped around a dead woman; they saw him as a human being, grieving. Alak’s head rested near by, his eyes staring accusingly at Saw. Saw laid Run Run gently back down on the grass beside the path and, shaking, he stood and wiped her blood from his face and turned to Handsome standing near by. Handsome instinctively edged away from him. He had seen many a murderous look before but never had he seen the pain of lost love in Saw’s face. But Saw didn’t lash out. Instead he stood, head bowed, whilst all around him went quiet except for a crying child and a whimpering dog. When, after several long minutes, he lifted it again, his face was set cold and hard. It showed the ice-burn of hatred branded on his heart. Now he had nothing left to live for except revenge.

90

‘I am coming with you, Louis.’

Sue watched Louis preparing for his journey. He was packing medical supplies into his bag.

‘No, Sue. It’s best I go alone. We’ve had contact from Mo. Run Run and Alak are dead. It has come down to just Mann and Gee and apparently Mann has malaria very badly. They had nothing to treat it with.’

‘Oh no…’ She held her head in her hands and groaned. ‘We took the quinine.’ She looked up at Louis. ‘Is he dead?’ Sue panicked. ‘Is he dead, Louis?’

Louis stopped his packing and looked at her.

‘We don’t know if any of them are still alive.’

Sue stood, a look of defiance and determination on her face.

‘I am not asking you, Louis. I am telling you. I am coming.’

‘What about Riley?’

‘Don’t tell him, he isn’t my keeper…He’s out of danger now. He will start getting tetchy soon. I’d rather not be here when that starts. I want to come, Louis.’

‘No, Sue. There’s nothing you can do now. Your job was as a medic but we will come up against Saw. And we are going to need some muscle more than anything else right now.’

‘Bullshit. I am coming whether you like it or not. If Mann is dying, I need to be there.’

91

When Mann opened his eyes he saw the world in the treetops. He saw the morning light filter and flicker through the tiniest gaps in the leaves. Something moved in the branches high above and he watched it flit from branch to branch. It was a monkey carrying her young on her back and looking down at Mann. Waking to such a morning felt like the best thing ever. Mann lay still. He could not have moved even if he had wanted. His body was all but spent. His head felt like he had been in a boxing match that he had lost, badly. His mouth was parched. The image of Daniel and the monk were still fresh in his mind. He lay there thinking of what it all meant, and before long he had drifted back to sleep. The next time he opened his eyes, the day was well established and there was the sound of something large coming his way through the jungle. Mann lay very still as the noise came straight towards him and he waited, his heart pounding, expecting at best a tiger, at worst Saw. Then he saw Gee. He didn’t look at Mann; he went straight for Mann’s backpack.

‘What’s the news from the village?’ Mann asked. Gee jumped.

‘Ah…You are back from the dead? Very good.’ He laughed. ‘You are strong. Where is your phone?’

‘The battery’s dead.’

Gee came and knelt beside Mann.

‘Tut tut.’ Gee shook his head ‘We need it now. Things have not gone well, my friend.’

Mann propped himself up onto one elbow and looked about the clearing. ‘Where are Run Run and Alak?’

Gee stood and pretended to be busy.

‘Where are they, Gee?’

‘I am sorry to tell you, but I have terrible news. I went down to my village and found there such awful things. Such terrible things. Both Run Run and Alak, all Alak’s men, they are all dead, killed by that man—that half wolf—Saw.’

‘Did you see the volunteers? Do you know what happened to them?’

Gee shook his head solemnly.

‘They were at the village. They are no longer four, now they are three. One of the boys is dead, another still very sick.’ He lifted Mann into the hammock and brushed the debris from his clothes.

‘Is the Chinese boy still alive?’

‘I asked about him. Yes, he is still alive.’ Gee lit a small fire and started boiling up some tea for Mann and himself.

‘Drink it.’ He held the cup to Mann’s mouth. ‘It taste very bad but it is very good for your fever.’ He grinned at Mann from beneath the red peak of his cap. ‘You are very strong. I thought I would be humping your dead carcass back to Mae Sot to sell in the market. Now I will sell you alive—much better.’ He laughed.

‘Ha…is that why you came back?’

Gee looked at him curiously.

‘Of course.’

Mann took a few sips of the drink and lay back exhausted.

‘Funny, I thought it was because you wanted something I had.’

‘No, no, dear friend. We only have us two now. We are the last. It is such terrible times. I hardly know what we should do.’ Gee’s eyes searched the horizon and he looked as if he expected to be killed at any moment. ‘Very bad. Many of the men are killed. The women are taken as porters for the Shwit. Only the children are left and a few old people. The rice is left to ruin and most of the elephants are dead. It is much worse than I ever thought. I left them with gem stones to buy rice and I will go back and help them rebuild the village. But we cannot stay here, it is not safe.’

‘We need to get back to Mae Sot.’

Gee looked at Mann as if he were delirious.

‘You are too sick. It is a four-day journey to the River Moei and the crossing to Thailand. We must hide further into the hills.’

Mann lay back and closed his eyes. ‘We have to go to Mae Sot now, Gee. We have no choice. I have to play the game with Katrien. Whatever it takes, I have to get Jake back.’

At first Gee did not answer, and then he jumped up.

‘Then I know what we shall do. I will be back soon.’ Before Mann could ask where he was going, Gee had scampered off into the jungle and disappeared from sight. Mann was too tired to try and make sense of it and sank back down to sleep. The monkey watched him as her young clung to her. A few hours later, he awoke to hear Gee calling out of the jungle to him.

‘Do not worry, it is just I.’ There was a strange snuffling noise accompanying him and the sound of breaking twigs.

‘I have brought an old friend with me.’ Mann could hear Gee and he could here the sound of something else, something big.

Mann sat up to see Gee riding atop a large flappyeared, soft-eyed elephant who was looking down at him and nudging him with her trunk. On top of her back was a wooden seat. ‘Her name is Brigitte. She is the only surviving elephant after the attack on my village. She was out eating when the attack came. She is very naughty and very greedy, but she is a very lucky elephant. She will carry us to the river. I was trained as a mahout—an elephant handler—when I was young. We will leave now. We are not safe here. They will find us. We need to keep moving.’