Magruder, nephew or no nephew.
And the pain he'd been feeling that evening was due at least as much to the fact that Malibu and Batman were missing as to Bayerly or anything else.
If it had just been Bayerly's accusations, well… Tombstone could live with those.
But Batman and Malibu had gone down while flying his mission… while he had been assigned to look pretty for the camera and answer Pamela Drake's questions. He'd never been one to claim that the universe was fair, but this put a new twist to the way God seemed to be running things that left a distinctly bitter taste in his mouth.
Part of the change in his relationship with Pamela was a new desire to tell her about his friends, about his feelings at their loss. It would have made facing that loss… easier somehow.
But the secret would have to remain secret.
Swearing under his breath, Tombstone rose from the bed and padded naked across plush carpeting to the bathroom. When he returned, he stopped, staring at the still form of Pamela, masked by shadows. There was something…
different.
A new smell, a presence which hadn't been there before…
Before he could piece together his impressions, shadows moved in the darkness. 'Who's there…!'
Something hit Tombstone a glancing blow across the side of his head. He went down, groping for a shoe, a chair, anything he could use as a weapon.
'Rah vang!' a harsh voice barked to his left. Tombstone pivoted in that direction.
Then the room exploded in light.
As his vision cleared, Tombstone was engulfed in a swirl of rapid-fire impressions. There were three men in the bedroom, wearing close-fitting black clothing and carrying silenced automatic pistols. Pamela, sitting up naked in bed, still had one hand on the bedside light switch as she opened her mouth to scream.
A hard, metallic something collided with the back of Tombstone's head and he pitched forward to his hands and knees, the room whirling around him. He tried to rise, to get his legs beneath him.
He was struck again, much harder, from behind. His face ground into the carpet as his vision dimmed in blood and blackness. Desperately, Tombstone fought back against the waves of pain-shot darkness that threatened to engulf him. He fought… fought…
And failed.
CHAPTER 16
The camp had awakened at four in the morning and begun moving south, traveling through night-shrouded jungle with a confident certainty that Batman found astonishing. It was so dark that he could barely make out the shape of Phya walking a few feet in front of him. Somehow the Karens at the head of the long, snakelike column picked their way along forest trails that were all but invisible, and the rest trailed after, walking in touching distance of the person ahead.
Eventually, the sky grew lighter, but there was no true dawn. By the time Batman could clearly see his surroundings it was raining, a misty, intermittent drizzle that turned the ground to soup and soaked the Americans through to the skin in minutes.
By Batman's calculations, they'd been traveling south long enough that they must be in Thailand by now, but there was no sign of a border, no challenge by either That or Burmese patrols. For some time he'd been aware of the sounds of jet aircraft overhead, though the planes were hidden by the low overcast. They were passing on what might have been a regular schedule, one following another at intervals of three or four minutes. No doubt the Royal That Air Force was up in force searching for the two of them. The engine sounds weren't right for Tomcats or Hornets. Possibly, he decided, they were That F-5 Freedom Fighters.
At last, the column halted. Batman crouched at Malibu's side just off the trail, as Karen tribesmen moved silently through the thick vegetation on all sides.
Suddenly, all were gone.
Malibu, still lying on his stretcher, propped himself up on his elbows.
'What's going' on, buddy?'
'Beats me,' Batman replied. 'No one's told me anything.' Even Phya had vanished into the bush, and for several long minutes it felt as though the two Americans were completely alone. Insects Reeked and chirped among the branches as rain continued to drizzle through the leaf canopies overhead and drip to the wet ground. Once more, the wilderness seclusion was shattered by the jet-thunder noise of an airplane flying low overhead, traveling north to south.
Two camo-fatigued shapes materialized at his side so suddenly Batman started. He wasn't yet used to how silently these people could move in the forest and how well they made themselves blend in.
'Phya!' he hissed, recognizing the girl. 'What in the hell is-'
She laid one slim hand across his mouth. 'No talk,' she said, her voice scarcely above a whisper. 'Leave friend. You come.'
Batman's mouth tightened. 'Look, lady. I don't know what the hell your game is. But I'm not going anywhere until you' tell me what the score is.
And I'm not leaving my RIO.'
Phya shook her head, though whether in exasperation or because she didn't understand, Batman couldn't tell. She plucked at his sleeve. 'Come! Colonel Htai want!' She indicated her companion, a heavyset Karen warrior with an M-16. 'Van stay friend! You come!'
Impasse. Batman patted Malibu's shoulder. 'I'll be back.'
'Hey, take your time, dude. I'll just, like, commune with nature…'
'Silence, please!' Phya's eyes were on the surrounding jungle.
Leaving Malibu and the soldier called Van, Batman allowed the girl to lead him farther along the path. He followed her up a slope, winding back and forth until they approached a clearing at the top of a broad, flat hill.
Other Karens were there, crouched motionless and nearly invisible among the leaves.
Htai acknowledged his arrival with a curt nod. 'We've arrived,' the Karen leader said.
'But?' Batman said. He'd heard the warning… and the uncertainty in Htai's voice, heard the urgency and worry in Phya's. Something was wrong.
For answer, Htai passed Batman a pair of travel-worn German 7x60 binoculars. The American lay on his belly at the edge of the forest and looked into the clearing.
U Feng! They'd made it after all! The relief was palpable as Batman steadied the binoculars in his hands and swept the compound. He could see the tower easily, as well as the rows of low barracks and storage buildings beyond the airstrip. Barbed wire was strung along the perimeter twenty yards from the treeline.
'What's the problem?' Batman asked Htai. 'You did it! This is U Feng!'
'Soldiers wrong,' Phya said. She was studying the compound without the aid of binoculars. What had she seen…
Batman brought the field of the binoculars onto a group of men and held it steady. There were twenty or thirty men, more a mob than a military unit, making their way through the drizzle among the barracks buildings.
And then the reality hit Batman like a blow between the eyes. Soldiers wrong indeed! In the whole time he'd been in Thailand, never once had he seen a sloppily dressed or slovenly-looking That soldier. The Thais seemed to be universally fastidious about their uniform and equipment. But these troops…
Their uniforms were as mismatched as those worn by the Karens. A few wore helmets, others straw hats or ball caps, while most preferred boonie hats or berets. Their weapons too were an unlikely mix from various countries, but the AK-47 predominated. Even across five hundred yards, Batman could recognize the Soviet bloc weapon with its curved, thirty-round banana magazine.
Batman blinked as he lowered the binoculars. 'Civilians?' he said, half to himself. 'Some kind of militia?' That
