by Ron McGee
Ryan grinned. “Thought you said it wasn’t safe to get in touch with your contact until ten this morning? Sounds like I’m not the only one who breaks the rules.”
Tasha could see that some food, a few hours of sleep, and a real lead to follow had done Ryan a world of good. He was less anxious this morning, more sure of himself.
She was actually starting to like this kid. Which was a shame.
It made her real mission that much harder.
CHAPTER
26
PANAI,
ANDAKAR
The Panai Teaching College was in the midst of a celebration of some kind. Ryan could see over a hundred students gathered in the sprawling courtyard of the main building. Some were dancing to traditional music, while others waved banners and twirled paper umbrellas. The plaza was boisterous and busy, a riot of color and noise.
“That’s where Ashin Myek lives,” Tasha said, pointing to a plain, two-story building at the edge of campus. Students were leaving and walking toward the festival. She held up her cell phone and showed him a photo. Ashin was in his mid-20s with a gaunt face, high forehead, and bushy hair.
“We have to be careful,” Ryan said. “The prisoners at the Kali Thawar told me the ASI was rounding up anyone they suspected of being connected to Myat Kaw.”
They found a bench that afforded a view of the building and sat, watching students make their way to the plaza. Ryan was having trouble getting used to the sarong, which was wrapped around his waist and knotted in front. He shifted his legs, uncomfortable and not knowing how to sit so it didn’t fall open. After fifteen minutes, Ryan’s patience was wearing thin. “Maybe we should just go inside and see if he’s home?”
Tasha suddenly stood. “There.”
Ryan joined her, slinging the cloth bag with his clothes, shoes, and phone over his shoulder. Following Tasha, he spotted Ashin walking with a couple of friends toward the festival. They laughed together over some private joke.
As they closed in, Ryan noticed a man in a dark suit strolling several feet behind Ashin. The cut of the suit and the way the man carried himself reminded Ryan of Aung Win back in New York. He grabbed Tasha’s elbow, holding her back.
“What? We’re gonna lose him.”
“He’s not alone.” Ryan nodded subtly toward the man in the suit and Tasha followed his gaze. The moment she saw him, she understood.
Her eyes expertly swept the area. “Another over there.”
And Ryan had just noticed a third, this one dressed more casually, but as laser focused on Ashin as the guy in the suit. “At least three of them.”
“Come on.” Tasha started moving again, keeping pace with Ashin and the men trailing him, but holding back so they weren’t seen.
Ryan tried to keep the desperation out of his voice but didn’t quite succeed. “We have to talk to him. He’s the only person who may know where my dad is.”
“We will,” Tasha said.
Ashin and his friends made it to the festival, standing together. Revelers in traditional costumes of richly embroidered silk danced to the beat of drums. Huge papier-mâché elephants dotted the crowd. Neon green and psychedelic pink, they bounced and boogied beside others outfitted with more ceremonial Asian decorations. It took Ryan a moment to realize that there were people inside the giant elephants. At least two or three students were hidden under each costume.
Tasha positioned them in the middle of a small crowd of onlookers who were cheering on the dancing elephants. “They’re not moving in, just keeping him under surveillance.” She looked from Ashin to the ASI agents, calculating a strategy. “If they stay in the crowd, maybe I can get close enough to talk to him.”
“But if the ASI suspects anything, they’ll pull him in. Probably torture him like that guy I saw. You, too.”
Tasha’s uncertainty was apparent; she knew this wasn’t a good plan. “Like you said, we don’t have any other leads and we’re running out of time.”
She began to move closer to Ashin, when Ryan stopped her. “Wait, I’ve got a better idea.” Before Tasha could protest, he grabbed her hand and pulled her in the opposite direction. Annoyed, she had no choice but to follow.
Just behind the crowd, Ryan had spotted another of the beautiful elephant costumes—only this one was sitting on two wood tables, supporting it from head to tail. Ryan scanned the area, but everyone’s attention was focused on the parade. Nobody was paying any attention to the elephant costume.
“You’re the butt,” he whispered. She glared at him and he realized what he’d said. “I mean, you’re in the butt—no, that’s not—just take the back, okay?” She rolled her eyes, then nodded.
Keeping low so they didn’t attract attention, Ryan pulled back the decorative panels that formed the elephant’s body. Tasha dipped underneath, disappearing inside the elephant’s torso and Ryan followed. Inside the papier-mâché elephant, it was hot and humid. Ryan discovered that sections of the costume, which had appeared solid from the outside, were actually made of a mesh material that he could see through. It was kind of like looking through a window screen.
Two wooden handles came down from the top of the elephant’s head. Ryan grabbed them, glancing over his shoulder to see that Tasha had hold of another handle in the back that held up the tail end. He gave her the signal and they carefully lifted the elephant.
“Who’s the thief now?” she said.
Ryan guided them around and into the crowd. Seeing through the mesh made walking challenging, and he bumped into a couple of students as he figured it out. One of them spun around in anger at being hit, but broke into a grin as he saw the elephant head looming over him.
“Dance, rahu, dance!” he yelled. The student began to bob and weave, leaving Ryan no choice but to dance with him, moving the handles up-and-down, then side-to-side, creating a rhythmic motion.
“Really?” Tasha whispered.
“All the other elephants are dancing. You want me to blend in, don’t you?” Ryan moved forward once more, feeling uncoordinated as he walked and controlled the elephant at the same time. Up ahead, he caught sight of Ashin and his friends and maneuvered in his direction. Festivalgoers parted for the elephant, giving Ryan a straight shot at their target.
“We won’t have much time,” Tasha advised. “Get close and I’ll grab him. Work your way deeper into the crowd—the busier, the better.”
“Got it.” Ryan spotted one of the ASI agents several feet behind Ashin. He navigated so that the elephant’s body was between the agent and Ashin, blocking his view, then spat out, “Now!”
Holding the tail handle with one hand, Tasha timed her movements perfectly, reaching out and grabbing Ashin as they passed. Ashin stumbled but managed to stay on his feet, shocked to find himself suddenly inside the elephant. Panic filled his eyes until Tasha whispered, “We’re friends of Myat Kaw—keep walking!”
Ryan slowed his pace, giving Ashin an opportunity to get in step with them. “You can’t be here,” Ashin warned. “I’m being followed!”
Tasha tried to sound comforting. “We know. We just need information. We’re trying to find John Quinn—do you know where he is?”
Ryan glanced to his left and suddenly saw the looming figure of one of the ASI agents right beside them. He was searching the crowd and talking into a handheld radio. The man seemed to look right at Ryan, who held his breath as he swerved away. Ryan knew the agent couldn’t see inside the costume, but he was unsettled anyway.
Ashin spoke urgently. “I don’t know where John is now. I left my car for him several days ago and gave him directions to the village of Thanlin. That was the last I heard of him.”
“How far is Thanlin?” Ryan asked, making a wide circle through the crowd.
“Four or five hours depending on how many times the bus breaks down. In the mountains.” Ashin looked through the mesh as his friends came back into view, Ryan’s circle having brought them around once more. “Good luck!”
As they passed close to his f
riends, Ashin ducked back out, laughing joyously as if it had all been a lark. His friends laughed with him, making a convincing show of it. Ryan saw one of the ASI agents look at the elephant, then glance down toward Ryan’s feet. Ryan could only hope that seeing his sandals and sarong would be enough to convince the agent that nothing was wrong.
Ryan steered the elephant back to where they found it. Two students saw them approaching and were furious, gesticulating wildly and cursing at them. For once, Ryan was happy he didn’t speak the language as the owners continued to scold them. Ryan and Tasha placed the costume back on the wood tables and hurried off as the students railed at them.
Moving away from the crowd, Ryan couldn’t help smiling at Tasha. “We make a pretty good team, huh?”
She didn’t even glance his direction. “I don’t do teams.”
CHAPTER
27
NANSANG PROVINCE,
ANDAKAR
Ryan pulled the paper bag to his mouth, puking for the third time as the rickety bus careened around yet another hairpin turn. By this point, though, he didn’t have anything left to heave. The combination of noxious fumes and erratic motion had kept him nauseated since they first started their ascent into the mountains.
The bus was in terrible shape, rattling and spewing gray-black exhaust as it struggled up the incline, gears grinding in complaint at every turn. Ryan couldn’t stop glancing out the window, his stomach churning every time he saw the steep drop from the road’s edge. He could see straight down to the bottom of a watery chasm hundreds of feet below.
“Why do they go so fast?” he asked Tasha. She barely seemed to notice the wild ride, eyes closed as she tried to nap. “If the bus goes over the cliff, they’re gonna die, too.”
“They’re Buddhists. They believe in karma and rebirth. The drivers figure if we go over, they’ll just come back in their next life as something better.”
“Great.”
They had been traveling for hours. The farther they got from the city, the more rural the area became. Factories were replaced by vast fields of sugarcane and rice paddies. Ryan couldn’t help but notice the extreme poverty in which most of the citizens of Andakar lived. Their homes were simple, with wood walls and rusted-out, corrugated metal roofs. Oxen mingled freely with villagers, and barefoot children in threadbare clothes ran alongside the bus, waving. Ryan smiled and waved back. No matter how tough things were, kids always found ways to play.
But as the bus lumbered through the mountains, Ryan had little to smile about. Two hours of twisting and turning made him a wreck. He tried distracting himself with the deck of cards, practicing his sleight-of-hand techniques, but even that didn’t work.
“Where are we now?” he asked Tasha.
“Nansang Province. It continues over the mountain range and down to Andakar’s border with Thailand.”
Ryan remembered the CIA agents in New York showing his mom those photos of his dad. They said he met with smugglers in Muang Tak, Thailand. So maybe his father had used the smugglers to sneak him into Andakar from Thailand? It made sense that he’d return by the same route once he had Myat Kaw. But things must have gone wrong somewhere along the way.
A short while later, Tasha sat up, looking out the window. “We’re here—this is Thanlin. Ashin gave your dad directions to this village, which means it probably wasn’t part of his original plan.”
“Are there any friends of ours here?” The bus jerked to a stop, engine clattering as it died. Ryan, Tasha, and a couple of locals stood, making their way to the front.
“None that I know of,” Tasha said. “Don’t talk to anyone. I’ll take a look around, see if there’s anyone I trust enough to ask a few discreet questions.”
“What am I supposed to do?”
“Nothing. Got it?” There was no room for argument.
“Got it,” Ryan agreed.
Getting off the bus, Ryan quickly tossed his puke-filled bag into the trash. He took a gulp from his water bottle, rinsing out his mouth, then finished the rest. Tasha took off down the street, doing her best imitation of a tourist.
Ryan wandered through the center of the village. It was mostly comprised of little houses with walls made from tightly woven strands of bamboo and thatched roofs. The scenery surrounding it was breathtaking, though. Thanlin was perched on a hillside with sweeping views of the jungle in every direction.
He sat on a ledge and opened his knapsack. Digging to the bottom, Ryan found his last thin box of chocolate treats. The chocolate was probably soft and squishy from the heat, but he didn’t care. As he brought the box out, his hand grazed the folded photo of his family.
He wasn’t sure if looking at it would give him renewed determination or just make him depressed, but he took it out anyway. As he opened it, he realized that he was being watched.
Trying to act casual, Ryan looked up. A few feet away stood a cute little girl in a Hello Kitty T-shirt, with long black hair and smudges across her nose. She was very curious and pointed at the box of candy in his hand. Ryan held it up.
“This? Yeah, they’re really good.” He opened the box and pulled out a long stick that was actually a cookie, most of it covered with delicious chocolate. “It’s called a pocky stick. It’s from Japan. The chocolate’s yummy.”
Ryan took a bite of the pocky, showing her how tasty it was. He knew the girl probably didn’t understand a word he said, but he figured chocolate was a universal language. He pulled another stick out of the box and held it out. “You can try one, if you want.”
The girl’s eyes got big as she took it from him. She crunched into it with gusto, chomping down until it was gone. Before she finished swallowing the last bite, she was ready for another one. Ryan noticed a few more kids watching from a short distance away and handed her the whole box. “Take it all,” he said, then gestured to her friends. “But you have to share, okay?”
The girl nodded eagerly, taking the box. She paused, noticing the photo Ryan had set on the ledge next to him. Her expression clouded as she looked at it. Ryan picked it up, so she could see it better.
“Do you recognize him? This man?” He pointed to his dad and she nodded. Ryan pointed between the picture and himself. “He’s my father. Have you seen him?”
The girl took the photo, looking between it and Ryan. Abruptly, she turned and walked away. Ryan grabbed his bag and followed. “Wait—I need that.”
She kept going, not looking back. One of the other children suddenly called to the little girl, and she spun around. All of them were instantly on alert, their attention focused toward the entrance to the village. Only now did Ryan hear the sound of approaching vehicles as the kids scattered in all directions.
“Hey!” he called, as the little girl took off running.
But she didn’t slow down. Ryan was normally pretty fast, but in the sarong and sandals, he felt clumsy and uncoordinated. As he ran, he noticed villagers hurrying to their homes and disappearing inside. The girl turned the corner, and Ryan lost sight of her.
As he came around the bend, he spotted her on a rocky path along the cliff’s edge. “Please!” he called, when she looked back at him. “I need that picture!” But she took off once more along the path toward a group of trees.
Ryan kicked off his sandals and put on a burst of speed as he sprinted away from the village. It was much easier to run like this, and he closed the distance quickly. As the little girl vanished into the undergrowth, Ryan was only a few steps behind. Bursting through the trees, he stopped, looking around to see which direction she had gone.
Which is when a man’s hand reached around from behind him, covering Ryan’s mouth and jerking him backward!
CHAPTER
28
THANLIN,
ANDAKAR
Quiet!” Ryan strained to break free as the man spun him around. He was surprised to see the Hello Kitty girl right behind him. The man whispered fiercely, “If anyone sees us talking, my daughter and I will be in great danger.”
“You understand?” the man asked. Ryan nodded, relaxing enough that the man finally let go.
The girl held out the photo to the man, who studied it, and then looked at Ryan warily. “Who are you?” he demanded.
“Ryan Quinn. That’s my father. You know him?”
The man was short, but powerfully built with deeply bronzed skin. His daughter cuddled into his side, and he placed a protective arm around her. She clutched the box of pocky sticks tightly to her chest, her eyes never leaving Ryan.
“He came several days ago,” the man told Ryan, handing him back the photo. “He needed to get out of the country. I sometimes take English and European tourists on expeditions into the jungles, so he asked for my help.”
“Was he okay? Nobody’s heard from him in almost a week.” Ryan couldn’t stop the flood of questions. “Did you take him somewhere? Do you know where he is?”
“He didn’t want me to go with him. I gave him directions to the border. He was fine when he left. But others came looking for him. Soldiers from the ASI.”
“Did they find him?”
“I don’t know.” The man’s tone was grave. “There were many of them.”
Ryan’s heart sank, but he refused to believe the worst until he knew for sure. “Where did he go?”
“Up the mountain and through the jungle. At the top of Mount Bana there is a holy place—the Mae Wong Temples. There are places to hide in the temples—secret chambers known only to the villagers of Thanlin. I hoped he might be safe there.”
“Can you take me?”
“You’re just a boy—you could never make it. And if the ASI find out I helped you—or your father—they will come after my family.”
Ryan didn’t want to put anyone else at risk, but he had to do something. “If my dad made it there, then I will, too.”
They were interrupted by a shout: “Ryan!” It was Tasha, her tone urgent. Ryan hurried out of the trees and saw her searching for him along the rocky path.
