The Lao Airlines jet banked dangerously and wobbled towards the Luang Prabang runway. The flight had been short and frightening. The plane was as ancient as the hills it had crossed and in much worse condition. The tourists on board applauded when the pilot touched down and got his machine under control as they rattled towards the ramshackle airport building.
Maier had been to Luang Prabang on an assignment covering German restoration efforts of the historic city center just after Laos had opened its doors to foreign visitors, a cover for his investigative work on the Hmong rebels who continued to fight the Laotian government in the mountain ranges to the south of the city, decades after the CIA, their erstwhile paymaster, had abandoned them.
The city itself had escaped the war unscathed
