Empty.
He continued aft to the engine room door. When he un-dogged and pulled the insulated door open he was greeted with deathly silence and blackness. Stepping into the narrow companionway, he closed the door behind him. The darkness was complete.
Pulling the reading lamp from his pocket, he switched it on. The little bulb illuminated the top four steps of the companionway leading down into the engine room. Jenkins held the lamp in front of him and descended the steps. Moving quietly, he passed between the two large diesel engines and found the hatch leading forward. The hatch hung open and Jenkins tried to remember if Ky had closed it after he was dragged from the compartment. He supposed it had been left open and stepped through onto the grating.
The lamp threw light only a couple of metres and the far reaches of the walkway remained in darkness. With each step Jenkins could see a little more of the compartment. He found a section of grating had been lifted from the walkway and now lay against the side. Shining the lamp up and down the space, he tried to work out if this was the section where he had hidden the diamonds. It took only a moment to realise that it was.
He dropped to his knees and plunged his arm into dark bilge water, feeling desperately through the silt and slime.
The laptop was gone.
He knew of only one person who would have any reason to come down here and search.
***
Ky held the phone away from his ear as Malko’s voice screamed from the speaker.
‘Find them, Ky. Find them and kill five or six of them. The passengers’ governments are refusing to pay or to even negotiate with us. We will leave a few bodies on the steps of their embassies and see if that doesn’t soften their resolve.’
Ky wiped a hand over his face. He hadn’t slept for more than a few minutes at a time since they boarded the Mekong Dawn. His head felt fuzzy and he had trouble focusing.
‘The passengers may not matter, Colonel.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘One of them was smuggling something on the ship.’
‘Smuggling what?’
Ky subconsciously placed a hand over the ammunition pouch on his belt. ‘Diamonds, Colonel. Many, many diamonds. I cannot be sure, but I think their value may far exceed any ransom we could hope to get for the passengers.’
The phone went silent for a long time and he checked that the call was still connected. Malko’s voice came through once more, the tone softer.
‘You have these diamonds?’
‘I have them on me.’
‘Do any of the others know?’
‘I’ve told no one. I was waiting until you returned.’
‘Good man. Keep it that way.’ Another long pause. ‘This may be the turning point, Ky. If what you tell me is correct, this may be the boost in funds the cause needs. We can buy arms, machinery, even mercenaries. Cambodia will be ours.’
‘I look forward to that day, Colonel.’
‘As do I, Ky. I am already on my way back to you. When I get there we will deal with the meddlesome passengers. Then we will find someone who knows about diamonds and can help us.’
Malko disconnected the call and Ky folded the phone closed. He slipped it into his fatigues pocket then pulled the office chair into the middle of the purser’s cabin and sat in it, wondering how things had changed so rapidly. The prisoners had been docile and compliant for two days. Now they were gone and one of his men was dead, another wounded beyond the point of being useful. Including himself, he was left with eight able-bodied men to round up the prisoners.
‘It’s that policeman’s doing. When I find where the passengers are hiding, I will personally cut Sinh’s throat.’
Chapter Twenty-seven
Nancy had one arm looped under Joyce’s good shoulder. The first-aid kits banged against her side as they struggled upwards. The old woman panted heavily, but kept up a steady pace, a look of determination on her face. The fitter passengers had paired themselves off with those less capable to help with the climb. Soo-Li plodded on twenty paces ahead of the main group.
The jungle was thicker here than on the lower slopes, but every now and then a break in the canopy gave Nancy a view out across the swamps. The horizon remained hidden behind that perpetual tropical haze but here and there sunlight glinted off patches of open water.
The escapees were strung out in a long line that extended a hundred and fifty metres down the mountainside. She caught a glimpse of Scott, his stolen AK74 held at the ready as he, Ang and Fred covered the escape.
Nancy called ahead: ‘Soo-Li?’
The girl stopped and peered back, her brown face slick with sweat.
‘The slower ones are having trouble keeping up, sweetheart. We need to stop and wait for them.’
‘No need, Miss Nancy. We are here.’ She pointed across the slope at what looked to be just another jumble of mountain boulders. But then Nancy saw that the stones were neatly squared and mated together to form a wall some four metres high.
Nancy and Joyce followed Soo-Li along the base of the wall to an opening that faced down the slope. A mass of vine and jungle growth blocked the ancient gateway which had partly collapsed, littering the ground with stone blocks. The girl found a passage near the left-hand wall and led them through.
Nancy exited the undergrowth to find herself standing in a large, paved courtyard. The inner side of the wall had a two-metre wide roof, like a veranda, running around three sides. The roof protected a stone fresco cut into the wall. There were thousands of images.
‘It looks like a piece of Angkor Wat.’ Joyce’s voice was breathless as she stared about in wonder.
Nancy nodded and led the older woman to one of the stone stairways leading up to the fresco. She helped her to sit in the shade. ‘Probably built by the same people.’
Near the back of the courtyard a large statue, five metres high, faced the opening. The statue depicted an oriental woman wearing a pointed hat. She had her hands together in front of her chin and a serene smile on her face.
Joyce saw the statue. ‘I hope she’s a deity for good luck.’
‘Me too.’
Nancy watched the passengers file through the gateway. Tamko and his staff arrived and began distributing bottles of water. She wondered at the dedication of the man, always looking after his charges, and vowed that if she survived this, she would write a glowing recommendation to the purser’s employers.
Tamko came over and thrust a water bottle into Nancy’s hand. ‘We made it, Mrs Morris.’
‘So far. At least we’re out of their clutches for a while.’
‘And that is good.’
Tamko had been forced to watch as the ship’s officers were executed, leaving him the senior person on the Mekong Dawn. Nancy knew if the killing started again, the purser would probably be the next to face Malko’s evil angel. ‘That is very good. Have you seen my husband?’
Tamko pointed back through the gateway. ‘He and the other armed men are taking up positions just beyond the opening.’
Nancy thanked the man and took three bottles of water from him. She found Scott and Ang moving a fallen log into position by the gateway. Fred lay in the undergrowth with his weapon at his shoulder, watching the approach. She gave each of them a water bottle and then stood near Scott.
‘What happens now, Scotty? We can’t stay here for ever. We’ve got water, but no food.’
‘There can’t be more than eight of them left, Honey. If we can hold them off, show them we won’t be recaptured without a major fire fight, we may just force them to give up and go away.’
‘And if they don’t? What if they decide to starve us out? They can do that, you know.’
‘Ang has a plan for that.’
‘Oh?’ She turned to the policeman who was busy counting the rounds in his magazine. ‘What’s this new plan?’
Ang pointed up the hill. ‘Once we get ourselves fixed here, we send a couple of people up the mountain to break something on the antennas
. The communications company will send people out to fix them, and hopefully find and rescue us.’
Nancy looked up to where the tips of the antennas showed on the skyline. It seemed a good plan, but she worried about the timing. ‘That might take days. Some of the elderly passengers will find it hard waiting for that long.’
Scott pointed down the mountain with his water bottle. ‘You think they’d be better off back on the Mekong Dawn?’
‘Well … no. I’m just concerned about them.’
‘They’ll get through this, honey. We’ll all get through this if we work together.’
Nancy glared at him. Fine words from a man who escapes into his own drug-induced world when the going gets tough. But she held her tongue. At least Scott was rational and functional. They would not have made it this far without him. It felt good to have the real Scott back.
***
As far as Jenkins could tell, Ky’s men were all up on the sundeck watching the shore for any sign of the passengers.
He moved quietly along the port companionway and stopped against the wall beside the door to the purser’s office. With a flick of his head he stole a quick glance through the window. Ky sat at a desk, his back to the door. He had his head resting in his hands and looked to be asleep.
Jenkins slipped the safety catch on his AK74 to ‘fire,’ opened the door and stepped through. He pressed the flash suppressor into the back of Ky’s neck. The head came up but Jenkins pushed it back down with a savage thrust.
‘Make a sound and I’ll blow your brains all over the desk. Do you understand?’
The head gave a nod, but Ky’s right hand moved to the knife in his belt.
‘I’ll have that.’ Jenkins pulled the knife and held it against Ky’s throat with one hand, the other pushing down hard with the rifle. Ky whimpered but remained still.
‘Where are my diamonds?’
‘I don’t know what you are talking about.’ The voice was muffled against the top of the desk.
‘The diamonds I hid in the bilge. You went back down there and found them. Where are they?’
‘I don’t—’
Jenkins slashed the knife upwards. Ky’s earlobe parted before the razor edge and a flap of skin fell onto the desk blotter, forming a little ring of blood.
‘I will cut you up piece by little piece until you tell me where my diamonds are.’ He moved the blade back to Ky’s ear and the man squirmed.
‘Tell me!’
‘I have them here.’
‘Where?’
‘In my ammunition pouch. They are all there.’
‘They had better be.’
Jenkins looked down at the pouch but he couldn’t get at it with Ky sitting down. He slipped the knife around Ky’s throat so that it rested above his Adam’s apple then let the gun drop so it hung from his shoulder by the sling.
‘Very slowly, get up. One wrong move and you’re a dead man.’
Ky used his hands to push himself up from the desk. Jenkins kept the blade hard against his throat.
Ky reached a standing position and Jenkins used his free hand to reach for the ammunition pouch. He fumbled with the clasp but managed to get the flap open. He felt the baize bag with his fingertips and lifted it from the pouch. The size and weight seemed right, but he couldn’t be sure.
‘This is all of them?’
‘Yes. Yes. I swear.’
Jenkins dropped the bag into his pants pocket then raised the AK74. ‘Sit back down.’ He released the pressure from Ky’s throat and let him sink back onto the chair.
‘You’ll never get away.’ Ky had one hand pressed to his bleeding ear. ‘You will never get out of these swamps.’
Jenkins backed towards the door. He hadn’t thought of what he would do once he got his diamonds back. He was still a long way from civilisation, and with no boat to get him there.
‘He’s right, you know.’ A voice said from behind him.
He whirled to see Malko looming over him, a pistol in his hand. The pistol moved with lightning speed and slammed into the side of Jenkins’ head. His vision swam but he managed to keep his feet. A second blow sent him crumpling onto the floor. He felt the knife being pried from his fingers. The blade pressed against his throat. His vision cleared and Ky’s face was only centimetres from his own.
‘Now I am going to cut your throat and watch you die.’
Jenkins felt the pressure increase and imagined he could already feel the skin parting beneath the razor-edged blade. Ky’s eyes were only a hand’s span from his own and filled with hatred. Malko stood behind him, smiling as he watched the sport.
Jenkins’ mind raced. He needed something – anything to stop what would happen next. He had lost the diamonds as a bargaining tool. Malko would take them from his lifeless body in just a few moments. He remembered the two Australians in the saloon and how one had saved the life of the other by playing on the hijackers’ greed.
‘There are more diamonds.’
His words came as a strained hiss and he didn’t know if they had been heard until Malko reached down and placed a restraining hand on Ky’s arm.
‘You’re lying,’ Malko said.
‘No! No! I swear it’s true. I only brought enough with me to get me out of Asia and get set up somewhere. The bulk of the diamonds are in Siem Reap. I was going to come back for them later.’
‘Where in Siem Reap?’
‘In a hotel safety deposit box. I will take you to them. Let me live and they are all yours.’
He saw the flash of uncertainty in Malko’s eyes and knew then that he had just saved his own life. Malko was driven by greed, and no one understood greed better than Liam Jenkins.
‘He is lying.’ Ky leant forward and applied more pressure against his throat. ‘There are no other diamonds. I should kill him.’
‘No. We will deal with the passengers then take the RHIB and our friend here to Siem Reap. If there are no other diamonds, then you can kill him.’
Chapter Twenty-eight
Scott unclipped the magazine from his AK74 and examined the contents.
‘Fifteen rounds here and one up the spout,’ he said.
Ang locked his own magazine onto his weapon. ‘I have twenty plus a fresh magazine.’
Fred looked forlorn. ‘You boys must be saving up for a rainy day. I’m down to eight rounds.’
Ang’s eyes swept the jungle downhill from the ruins. ‘It may be enough to keep them at bay for a little while, but there is no way we can engage them in a sustained firefight.’
Scott knew the policeman was right. If Malko’s men came for them, they would be out of ammunition in a very short time.
‘We stand a better chance of holding them off if we concentrate our defences,’ Ang said. ‘As limited as our firepower is.’
‘I agree with Ang.’ Fred clipped his magazine back onto his AK74. ‘I say we stay together and guard the approach. They can only come at us from one direction. If we make it through the night then we send some people up the mountain to disable the antennas and hopefully bring some help.’
Scott ran a hand over his sweaty face. ‘It’s going to be a long, hot wait in the sun. Tamko and his people only brought twelve bottles of water. That will be gone by noon. It may be days before someone comes to look at the antennas.’
Fred pointed back into the ruins with his thumb. ‘Maybe the young girl knows where we can find water near here. Hell, I’ll drink swamp water if it comes down to it. They can treat me for whatever bugs I pick up after we get out of here.’
‘We’ll survive a few days without food,’ Ang said, ‘but we do need water.’
‘I’ll go and talk to Soo-Li.’ Scott shouldered his AK74 and climbed through the debris in the gateway.
He found Soo-Li sitting with Nancy in the shade of the narrow roof. She listened intently as Scott explained their predicament. Then her face broke into a broad smile.
‘I know where there is water.’
‘Is it far? We
can’t afford to have people separated from the main group for too long,’ Scott explained.
‘Not far.’ She pointed to the right, along the cliff wall that backed the ancient temple. ‘At the bottom of the cliffs. Five minutes to get there.’
Nancy gripped the girl’s shoulder. ‘Are you sure, sweetheart?’
‘Yes, Miss Nancy. Not far.’
Scott looked in the direction Soo-Li had indicated. The cliffs were vertical and unclimbable, the jungle at the base a billowing mass of vegetation. Anyone going for water would be well hidden as they moved.
‘I’ll see if Tamko and some of his people will go and top up the empty water bottles.’
‘I’ll go with them.’ Nancy stood up. ‘We want good, clean, flowing water. If they come back with some stagnant crap then we’ll all dehydrate from vomiting and diarrhoea.’
‘I show you the way, Miss Nancy.’ Soo-Li leapt to her feet and took Nancy’s hand.
***
Malko placed Ky on point with himself and three other men strung out on the right, the other four able-bodied men likewise on the left. Apart from Van, all were ex-Khmer Rouge and experienced jungle fighters. They kept their spacing wide as they advanced stealthily through the undergrowth.
The passengers’ tracks weren’t hard to follow. The grass had been trampled flat, forming a path that led almost straight up the side of the mountain. Malko was a little surprised at this. He had thought they might try to skirt the island and maybe make their way to the helicopter and use the radio to call for help. He had questioned Ky about the aircraft and was disappointed to learn that it had not been destroyed or disabled. Ky had assured him that the pilot was dead and the helicopter useless.
Jenkins had been left bound and gagged in the purser’s office. Once they found the passengers and killed them and the meddling policeman, he would take Jenkins to Siem Reap, retrieve the rest of the diamonds, and leave Cambodia forever. He glanced at Ky’s back in the shadows. Ky still believed in the ideals. He believed the diamonds would provide the necessary funds to bring their cause to success. But Malko had long known that the cause was lost forever. He only hoped now to raise enough money to fund his escape and retirement, his original plan for the ransom money. But the Western governments had called his bluff and refused to pay. He would leave them with a few dead citizens to remind them of their folly. Hopefully, they would take some of the passengers alive so that he could have some fun with his little angel. Then he would take the diamonds and leave. And if Ky tried to stand in his way, then the young radical would become a martyr to his own cause.