Don’t act strange. Don’t draw attention. Don’t even look alive. Brian hid his shaking hands under his arms. He had spent the last four years waiting for a chance to escape, but now that the opportunity was here it overwhelmed him. He took a slow breath. He was in better shape than he’d been at any of his previous attempts. Which still didn’t guarantee that he could break out of his prison and make the two-week trek out of the Malaysian jungle. “We’ll be back in three days, four at the most,” Jamil, the guerilla group’s leader, said to his younger brother on the other side of the clearing, the tension obvious between the two men even from a distance. The steadily pattering rain drowned out the younger man’s reply. The mesh of banana leaves Brian had woven among the top bars of the tiger cage leaked here and there, but the makeshift roof kept the worst of the weather off him. He watched his captors from the corner of his eye, keeping his head turned toward the trees. He didn’t want them to know he was paying attention.
