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 7×60
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 didn’t explain the Soviet
equipment.
Thunder boomed in the north.
“Those aren’t That soldiers,” Batman said. “I don’t understand.”
“Neither do we,” Htai said. “But it is not good.”
As if on cue, an incoming jet aircraft dropped beneath the clouds half a
mile north of the runway. Batman did not need to turn his binoculars on
the sleek, delta-winged jet as it descended toward the base, its wheels
unfolding for a landing. He’d seen plenty of airplanes like that one
… though usually the sightings had been made from the cockpit of his
Tomcat.
A MiG-21. Through the binoculars, he could make out the silver-gray
paint scheme, with red accents on rudders and control surfaces.
Strangely, though, the usual red stars or other national emblems were
missing. The plane touched down on the runway and slowed, its tiny,
circular drogue chute popping and fluttering behind the tail. He had
several long seconds to study the aircraft through his binoculars. Yes
… he could see a spot on the tail where something had been painted
out. Someone had covered up the markings, making the aircraft
anonymous.
Just like the MiGs that had attacked them over the border two days
earlier.
Whose were they? MiG-21s were common enough in this part of the world.
Vietnam had one hundred fifty of them in her air force, while India flew
over seven hundred. Little Bangladesh operated perhaps twelve. The