The noise of the river was swallowed up by the dense vegetation, and they walked in a soundscape of insects and birds, of things moving in the bush, of the jungle inhaling and letting its breath go slowly in a subsonic hum of growth and decay. Maier hadn’t been this far from a city in a while.
A narrow trail, almost invisible, led east and upwards. There were no views from which the detective might have been able to orient himself, though he guessed they were walking roughly in the right direction, towards Muang Khua and the Vietnamese. The group’s leader was ahead and made no attempt to communicate again. The rest of his gang also remained silent.
The sun stood high in the sky and tried to find its way through the canopy into the jungle twilight below.
The Teacher of the Free State of
