‘There were only twelve or so that boarded us. It’s a big boat. I could sneak aboard easily.’ He must have seen the doubtful look on her face. ‘Look, I don’t like the idea of getting close to those gun freaks either, but we can’t hide in the jungle forever. If I can slip aboard and get to the wheelhouse, then maybe I can radio someone. I can get the police here. The army. Anyone. I feel responsible for what has happened to you today. I need to do whatever I can to get you home.’
Home!
She turned her face up the mountain to where she knew the ancient ruins sat shrouded in jungle growth. She would be safe there, hidden away from the world until she figured out what she was going to do without her father. She had no relatives left alive. Maybe one of the other Vietnamese families in the floating village would take her in. Though most of them barely scraped through on their meagre earnings. Would anyone want an extra mouth to feed? She looked back at Todd, at the eager expectation on his face. Maybe he was right. Maybe boarding the boat was their best chance at getting out of here.
‘Okay.’ She could hardly believe she was agreeing to this madness.
‘It will be dark soon. I can try and get aboard then,’ Todd said.
Chapter Twenty-three
Scott came awake and peered through a chink in the camouflage netting at the growing darkness. His mouth felt dry and gritty so he reached for the plastic bottle of water someone, probably Nancy, had placed beside him. The thought brought a deep, gnawing guilt sliding into the pit of his stomach. She was so good to him and looked after him despite his faults and failings. They were in this situation together and he knew he had no right to hide himself in the cocoon of his medication and leave her to deal with the real world.
He undid the flap on his shirt pocket and took out the foil strip. There was only one tablet left in its little silver blister. The guilt of a few moments ago gave way to dread at the realisation he might have to get through the night without his demons in check. Without his medication they would be free to roam the corridors of his mind, to create havoc with his thoughts and dreams.
But Nancy had another box of tablets.
One box was supposed to have enough tablets for a month, but at his current rate of consumption he would be lucky to get a week out of it. And that was his last box.
The sense of dread coalesced into real fear. If this hostage situation wasn’t resolved soon, he’d be in real trouble.
Most of the passengers had settled onto the floor and were making themselves as comfortable as possible. Without power it was too dark for Fred and the other card players to continue and they had split up into little groups, scattered around the walls so that Tamko and the catering staff could set the tables for dinner. Here and there he could hear the low buzz of voices. The smell of cooking permeated from the galley where the harsh white glow of a gas lantern threw a square of light through the doorway. Soon the cooks would offer up the evening meal.
‘Welcome back.’
Nancy leant against the wall beside him. She studied him through narrow eyes and pointed at the foil in his hand.
‘You have a severe problem, Scotty.’
He couldn’t meet her eyes. ‘I know.’
‘When all this is over you are going to get help. The right kind of help. You are going to get through this. Hell — we’re going to get through this. We are going to get our lives back on track, Scotty.’
He looked down at his lap. ‘Uh-huh.’
‘Because if you can’t get over this. If you can’t put the past behind you, then I don’t think I can be around you anymore.’ Her words were strained, as if she spoke through clenched teeth, but Scott didn’t dare look up at her. It felt as if his heart was tearing in two.
He risked a quick glance and saw the tears in her eyes and the pain on her face. Without thinking, his arm came up and wrapped around her shoulders, pulling her to him and holding her tight against his side.
‘Oh, Nance. You’ve been the strength for both of us for so long. I can’t do this without you.’
‘That’s the trouble, Scotty. You’re not even trying to help yourself. You’re relying on those damned tablets. Well, I don’t have them anymore. I can’t trust you with them.’
The horror returned in a cresting wave, looming large and dark.
‘You didn’t throw them away? I need them. I know I’ve been overdoing it, but I need them, Nance.’
He felt her head shake against his side. ‘No. I didn’t throw them away. I gave them to someone; someone who will make sure you don’t overdo it while I’m busy.’ She pointed across the floor to where Collette sat with Fred.
Collette held up the box of tablets. ‘I’ll be administering your meds from now on. Next one is due at seven tomorrow morning. Not a minute before. Oh, and if you’re thinking of stealing them back off me…’ She stuffed the box inside her blouse and made a show of readjusting her undergarments. ‘…I’ll be keeping them in a really safe place.’
‘Nance, I can’t survive on one a day. I just—’
‘If I feel you need an extra dose, then I’ll okay it with Collette.’
‘Is this the right time to be making adjustments to my meds? In this of all places?’ He heard the desperation in his own voice and felt ashamed that it had come down to this.
‘There’s no time like the present, Scotty. I’m not having you slip away into a drug-induced catatonic state and leaving me here in the real world to do battle on my own.’
It was pointless to argue further. Nancy had made her mind up and that was that.
Putting his head back against the wall, Scott stared at the far wall and thought about what his life had become. The crash hadn’t been his fault, but he bore the burden of it every day – every waking moment.
He shook his head and tried to clear it, and became aware of a man sitting near Fred that he hadn’t seen before. The Asian man had a bandage around his head and was watching him with curious eyes. The newcomer climbed to his feet and crossed the saloon, squatting in front of him.
‘You are Scott Morris?’
‘Yes. Yes I am.’
‘You are the one who telephoned the Australian Embassy in Phnom Penh.’ The man appeared to be wearing some sort of uniform, but it was too dark to make out the markings.
‘Yes.’
The man put out his right hand and Scott shook it.
‘I am Ang. I am with the Cambodian National Police.’
‘Major Sinh came looking for us earlier today.’ Nancy’s voice in the darkness. ‘Ky killed his men and brought him here while you were… indisposed. I treated his wounds as best I could.’
Scott ran his gaze over the bandage. A little bloodstain showed above the right temple. ‘I thought that looked like your handiwork.’
‘Your wife is an excellent nurse.’ Ang offered Nancy a polite bow of his head.
‘So you got my message? From the embassy I mean. When does the cavalry arrive?’
Ang shook his head. ‘Malko has vowed to kill passengers if there is any attempt at a rescue. I have a team of men in a boat, searching the swamps, but they are on the wrong side of the lake.’
‘Yes. But you found us. They might have the same luck.’
‘And I am all that is left of my little expedition. The only reason I am still alive is that Ky wants to make a gift of me to his superior. Malko and I have – what do you Westerners call it? – history?’
‘No rescue?’ Scott tried to make it sound like a statement, but he couldn’t keep the disappointment out of his voice.
‘For now, no. The team in the boat will be alerted to the fact that we didn’t return to Kampong Chhnang for fuel. But I do not know what Klim will do. Even if he risks the passengers’ lives and launches a full-scale search and rescue mission, our information wrongly places the Mekong Dawn to the south of Tonle Sap. They will search the wrong area. It is only by a fluke of chance that we came to the north.’
Collette stepped up beside Ang. ‘Dinner is served,
you lot. It’s noodles again. What a surprise. But then, I suppose it’s the only stuff left after the refrigeration was shut down.’
Two of the catering staff wheeled a trolley from the galley and ladled out bowls of steaming noodles. Those passengers sitting on the floor returned to the tables for the evening meal. Despite the strange situation, Tamko still had his people working to the comfort of the passengers as best they could. The wait staff had set the tables and stood by with plastic bottles of water in place of wine. To Scott, the whole image had a surreal look to it. They were all hostages to a madman, but they sat down to dinner as if it were any normal night on the cruise.
***
Emerging from the jungle, Todd found they were about three hundred metres astern of the Mekong Dawn. Soo-Li had led him unerringly through the darkness. The girl seemed to have gotten over her first apprehension at sneaking aboard and appeared eager to get on with their little mission.
‘Let’s wait here.’ Todd pulled her into the shadows of the undergrowth. ‘We’ll watch the ship for a while and make a plan.’
They sat together in the darkness and watched the Mekong Dawn. No lights showed anywhere, but every ten minutes or so torch beams swept around the walkways and companionways, their light filtered by the overhanging camouflage nets.
‘Guards doing their rounds,’ Todd whispered.
Soo-Li nodded and gripped his arm. She pointed to the shore where an aluminium gangway spanned the gap to the ship. ‘Two more there.’
Todd could see nothing. But then he became aware of two pinpricks of light on the bank near the gangway. The glowing tips of cigarettes.
‘Good girl. Well spotted.’
He had planned on using the gangway to sneak aboard between the guards’ patrols, but the presence of at least two men on the bank thwarted that idea. He had already discarded any thought of swimming to the far side of the ship and climbing aboard. The Mekong Dawn was so quiet that the water dripping from his body would alert anyone within earshot.
That left only two other options.
The Mekong Dawn had been moored to the island using hawser lines as thick as a man’s wrist, secured to trees on the shore, one fore and one aft. The ship’s rail was about three metres above the shore and, from what he could see, the mooring lines only ran about five metres across open space, an easy traverse for a reasonably fit person. Knowing the radios would be up forward in the wheelhouse, he discounted the aft line, for that would mean sneaking down the whole length of the ship.
That left the fore line.
He leant close to Soo-Li’s ear. ‘We need to get around to the front of the ship. I’ll use the line to get aboard.’
The girl nodded and moved back into the jungle. She cut left once they were well out of sight of anyone on the boat. Todd followed her slow pace, being careful where he placed his feet, feeling for anything on the ground that might make a noise and alert the gunmen. Soo-li seemed to have cat-like vision. She picked out a path relatively free of obstruction and, fifteen minutes later, Todd squinted in the darkness and made out the mooring line snaking around a tree. He gave the girl a thumbs-up signal and smiled.
‘I’ll sneak aboard and find a radio. You wait here. No sense in us both being caught.’
The girl nodded and Todd moved towards the shore. He placed a hand on the line and tested it. The rope hung slack in a lazy arc that disappeared through a hawser hole. The camouflage net was draped over it, almost hanging to the waterline at either side.
He turned his head towards the gangway, three quarters of the way back down the ship. He was close enough to make out the silhouettes of the two guards there. One of them threw something to the ground and mashed at it with his foot. Then the other one repeated the action. They shouldered their weapons and moved away along the shoreline towards the stern.
Smoke break was over.
Todd waited until the two shadowy figures had faded into the gloom then ran his gaze along the length of the ship. Nothing else moved. Somewhere amidships a faint light showed, but there was no sign of any guards doing their rounds. He stepped out of the shadows and moved as close to the side of the boat as he could without entering the water. The line ran up past his shoulder. Grasping it in both hands, he placed his weight on it as slowly as possible. He doubted his seventy-eight kilograms would have any effect on a vessel the size of the Mekong Dawn, but he took no chances, waiting until the rope was tight under his weight. The Mekong Dawn didn’t budge an inch and he climbed hand over hand to the camouflage net, shimmied underneath it and slipped over the rail onto the forward deck area where he waited and listened.
Nothing moved.
From where he lay he could see past the wheelhouse door and along the walkway. Faint light spilled out onto the deck about fifteen metres away. Beyond that, the vessel was in darkness. Todd rolled to his feet and crept to the port side. This walkway was in total blackness so he decided to approach the wheelhouse from this side. The deck was littered with ropes and broken glass from the smashed windscreen. He picked his way carefully, avoiding the larger pieces of glass that might snap or crunch and alert any nearby guards. The port wheelhouse door was ajar, the glass window of its upper-half shattered. Gently, he pulled it open. The door slid silently and Todd looked inside.
The captain’s body still lay along the aft wall of the wheelhouse, his white uniform a mess of blood-stained holes. Todd felt his bile rise at the stench of death and fought hard to prevent himself dry-retching. He turned his attention to the rest of the wheelhouse. Even in the dim light he could see bullet holes in the woodwork of the instrument panel. The radios were in an overhead console, the spiral microphone cords dangling in little loops above the smashed windscreen.
He stood up, reached for a microphone and unhooked it, tracing the cord back to the radio. Instead of switches and dials, his fingers found a gaping hole filled with loose wires and broken circuit boards. He felt his way to the next radio, but its innards hung from the console like the entrails of a slaughtered animal.
The gunmen had destroyed all the radios. His only chance at getting out a call for help had been dashed. He looked down at the captain’s body and wondered if he might find a mobile phone. But the man’s trouser pockets had been pulled out. Someone had already gone over the corpse for anything of value.
Time to get out of here.
He moved to the port door to retrace his steps back to Soo-Li, but a noise from the other walkway stopped him. Low voices grew louder as they neared the wheelhouse. Dropping to his hands and knees, Todd crawled in under the instrument panel. The voices, speaking in Khmer, passed by the starboard wheelhouse door and moved onto the forward deck. Moments later he heard the unmistakable flick of a cigarette lighter and smelled tobacco smoke.
Broken glass pressed into Todd’s knees. The men on the foredeck smoked and talked. The agony became unbearable and he had to risk moving. As slow as possible, he lifted one knee and brushed his palm over it. Little cubes of glass fell to the floor. He used his hand to sweep a little area of floor then placed his knee back on the deck before doing the same with his other knee. Now the pain was gone and he knew he could wait out the two gunmen who chatted on, oblivious to his presence. Pressing in hard under the console, he waited in the darkness for his chance to return to Soo-Li and give her the bad news about the radios.
***
Klim tilted his watch to catch the light from the campfire.
19:06.
He had a satellite phone resting in his lap. Down at the boat, moored amongst the trees, the HF radio and marine band radio were turned up to full volume. He had not received a call on any device for four hours, not since a report had come in from headquarters in Phnom Penh to inform him that Major Sinh’s helicopter was overdue in Kampong Chhnang and all attempts to raise the aircraft had failed.
The men lay around the campfire, their weapons close at hand. It was far too hazardous to navigate the swamps in the darkness, so Klim had reluctantly agreed to bivoua
c on the nearest piece of high ground, a spit of land where a large creek flowed into the south of Tonle Sap. At first light he would have them back in the boat to continue the search.
He checked his watch again.
19:o8.
It was going to be a long night.
***
Soo-Li stood motionless in the jungle shadows watching the dark shape of the Mekong Dawn, her heart thumping with apprehension. The two guards from the gangway were walking by no more than five metres from her, conducting a shore patrol from stern to bow. They had their rifles slung and spoke softly to each other, so close the girl heard every word.
‘Another thirty minutes before we are relieved.’
‘And not a moment too soon. My stomach is growling like a tiger.’
‘I could smell the food the crew is preparing. It is well that Ky allows them to cook for us, otherwise it will be cold rations.’
They stopped near the mooring line and Soo-Li felt her panic rising at the thought of Todd suddenly shimmying down the rope into their midst.
‘Yes, it is good food. The beds are soft, too.’
‘Hah! Mine smells like an old woman used it. I might change to another cabin.’
‘Why not? There are plenty to choose from.’ They laughed and did an about-turn then started back down the shoreline.
Soo-Li watched the backs of the guards disappear into the gloom. Their voices faded and she turned her attention to the mooring line, hoping to see Todd climb back down now the guards were gone.
Where is he? He should be back by now.
She fretted alone in the darkness, her eyes flicking from the gangway to the forward mooring line. She had no watch with which to check the time. How many minutes had passed since Todd had slipped aboard? Thirty? Forty?
Nothing moved down the length of the ship and she ventured out of her hiding place, approaching the side of the ship. No noise came from anywhere near her. The high bow of the Mekong Dawn loomed overhead, a dark shape against the stars.
‘Todd?’ She hissed the name, as loud as she dared.
‘Todd?’
No response.
Soo-Li turned and looked back at the safety of the jungle then up at the railing.