than anything else.
The car wasn't really much more than a glorified golf cart. Smeby muttered a few words to Candice who stayed behind as they puttered quietly along between the various temples. They drove by a huge stone hand covered in grass and moss, easily twice the size of the vehicle that Kendrick was sitting in.
Other vague shapes, carved faces and statues could be seen almost hidden in the dense green beyond the buildings. At one point Kendrick saw a group of Buddhist monks, shaven-headed and wearing orange robes, seated in what appeared to be an outdoor class. Now he dimly recalled that Angkor Wat was a Buddhist holy site, and he wondered what the modern Buddhists of Cambodia made of Draeger's apparent appropriation of this entire complex.
Soon they came to something even more spectacular. Ahead of them rose a wide and ancient staircase, guarded by four crouching stone lions. They dismounted from the car and Smeby led Kendrick upwards. More people – many with American accents -passed them on the steps, while a group of students sat nearby, consulting eepsheets and writing on electronic tablets.
To Kendrick they were like ghosts, reminders of an America long past and now haunting the alleyways of a dead city in the middle of a jungle. It was bewildering and strangely frightening.
At the top of the steps they came to an incongruous-looking row of elevator doors. Smeby and Kendrick stepped into one and it began to descend rapidly.
'I get the impression there's a lot here that's not necessarily on show,' Kendrick commented.
'What gives you that idea?' said Smeby.
'Well, the fact that we're going down, and not up, for a start.'
Smeby nodded, conceding the point. 'There are sometimes problems due to the humidity and temperature. A lot of sensitive research goes on here that needs to be carried out in carefully regulated conditions. That's easier and more cost-effective if you're below the surface.'
There was a soft chime and the elevator door slid open. They passed along spacious pastel-coloured corridors that widened at intervals to encompass open-plan offices, with desks and curved conference couches scattered in a carefully random manner. Not a university, then, Kendrick decided; more like the century-old classic model of a software company. A moving walkway, like the kind normally found in an airport, ran along one wall. Kendrick followed Smeby onto it.
The sheer immensity of Draeger's headquarters was overwhelming, and now that they were out of the midday heat Kendrick found he was grateful for the air-conditioned breeze flowing over his skin. Another ten minutes passed before they arrived at yet another bank of elevators. This time they rode upwards.
This elevator was glass-walled. Once above the underground area of the complex they were soon rising past the treetops.
Kendrick glanced downwards to see the path leading to the great stone steps that they had climbed minutes earlier. At that point he'd caught a glimpse of a tall glass-sided building rising way above – though mostly hidden among – the ruins of this lost city in the jungle. Clearly, he was now inside it.
Finally Smeby ushered him into a room so large that it took Kendrick a second to register that it was a single office. An enormous granite mural took up the entirety of one wall. It was covered with carvings of intricate- looking Asian deities, the images telling stories that had lain hidden for centuries.
Compared with the rest of the complex's interior, air-conditioned though it was, Draeger's office was cool to the point of chilliness. A huge desk faced the door they had entered by, half a dozen seats arranged round it. Beyond it Kendrick noticed several low leather couches set close to the windows that gave a panoramic view across the Cambodian jungle.
He recognized instantly the man standing by the desk. Max Draeger was wearing slate-grey dress trousers and an open-necked salmon-coloured shirt. His face was very familiar from newspapers, eepsheets and grid docs, but particularly from the trial documents that Kendrick had once been so well acquainted with.
'Thank you, Marlin. That will be all.' Draeger's voice carried so easily across the big room that Kendrick wondered if the acoustics had been optimized in some subtle way. Smeby nodded briefly and retreated back into the elevator. Kendrick wondered if it was his imagination but it seemed as though Smeby looked rather relieved to be going.
'Mr Gallmon.' Draeger stepped towards him. When Kendrick fought back his own reticence and took the man's hand an awkward silence followed.
'You look like the heat's got the better of you,' said Draeger eventually with a practised smile. 'I have some freshly squeezed juice here.'
'Thanks, but no.'
Kendrick nevertheless followed Draeger over to a chilled drinks cabinet that stood alongside the vast mural where gods warred across the wall of Draeger's office.
For a moment Kendrick paused to study the figures that lurched and capered there. Then he turned to Draeger. 'They don't mind you taking over this… place?'
'Angkor Wat? No, we're helping to preserve it – the surrounding area as well. Strictly speaking, this is Angkor Thom. It's a little way from the main complex. My colleague Marlin brought you here by the passages that link them.'
'And you built all this new stuff?'
'Not at all,' Draeger replied. 'A substantial part of the complex was built about four decades ago as a military biochemical research facility. Without the involvement of any of my subsidiary interests, I hasten to add.'
'Really? You're saying this used to be some kind of military base?'
'Long before I was on the scene, yes. Cambodia was hit badly by the knock-on effects when the Pacific Rim wars turned nuclear. After we've left this place, as we one day will, there will be no sign at all that we've ever been here. Everything we've brought or added to Angkor Wat is based on sustainable technology. The new buildings are designed with a maximum lifespan of just forty to fifty years. After that, if for any reason we're not here to do anything about it' – Draeger smiled as if to illustrate how ridiculous such a notion was – 'the jungle will reclaim them.'
Draeger sounded like a salesman who hadn't yet got to the main pitch. Kendrick spotted a bottle of Wild Turkey nestling by the freshly squeezed fruit juices, and without asking permission he poured a finger into a tumbler. He drank it down and felt a different kind of warmth flow through him. Dutch courage, he decided, was better than none at all.
'But you didn't need to build here,' Kendrick pointed out. 'Surely a lot of the people working with you are prime targets for kidnap and extortion even in Cambodia, let alone in other nations nearby.'
'Terrorism is a fact of modern life,' Draeger replied. 'But it's not my main concern. Cambodia has made good use of our expertise and knowledge in recent years.'
Kendrick nodded. He had to keep cool, find out what Draeger wanted – what had been important enough to ferry Kendrick all the way out here.
'But working here isn't without its dangers, is it?'
Draeger's expression remained carefully noncommittal.
Kendrick continued: 'In some ways, it's more a case of circling the wagons than of genuinely integrating yourself into the local economy. Cambodia is benefiting from your presence, sure, but there're a lot of countries in this part of the world who wouldn't want anything to do with you.'
'Circling the wagons – I like that. It's a phrase you've used in quite a few of your articles, isn't it?'
Kendrick opened his mouth to speak, then closed it, caught off guard.
Draeger nodded. 'And everything you've just said is pretty much the same as you wrote in many of those articles. I know what you think of me, Mr Gallmon. It's true that since the US collapsed as a unified entity finding our way in other parts of the world has not been easy. I'm sure' – he raised an eyebrow – 'that's an experience many of us share.'
'But why here?' Kendrick insisted. 'Why the middle of a jungle? Why not choose a city?'
'It's a matter of philosophy. The beliefs of the people who originally built Angkor Wat have certain resonances with my own view of the universe. Perhaps you're familiar with some of my ideas?'
'Only a little. But then, I'm not a mathematician.'
'You don't have to be. Mathematics is just a way of expressing universal truths. You don't need to be a mathematician to understand those truths, only to prove them.'
