The daily ration of hill thunder and lightning had been increasing and Heng Hou, used to his creature comforts, was on edge. Josef stood with his hands half raised in a pacifying gesture as Heng Hou’s bodyguards kept him covered. ‘I thought she’d make for Rinsey, but the journey was bad from the camp. She would never have made it, Heng Hou, the river was already too swollen and there was her mother — she would not have left her mother.’ At the back of his mind he momentarily remembered she was his mother, too — but this was serious trouble he was in. He had seen that malcontented look on the communist leader’s face many times before he maimed or injured someone Malay, English, Chinese, Tamil — anyone who crossed him or even merely glanced his way at the wrong moment. ‘She must have gone to the Hammonds’ friends, the Wildons, they have the Kose estate. Yes! I should have thought of that before, it would be an easier journey,’ he gabbled on, desperate not to leave pause for any decision until he had presented a new course of action.
