overcast had begun to break up, allowing intermittent shafts of light to
illuminate the green-clad face of the mountain rising above them. The
Karens halted at a point where jungle gave way to open ground and a dirt
road winding along the face of the mountain.
Htai walked up to Batman. “It is time we parted,” he said. “We have
brought you as far as we can.”
“Now wait a minute,” Batman said. “What you’re just going to drop us
off in the middle of nowhere?”
Htai gestured. “Follow that road. You will be able to find
transportation there.”
Batman looked up the road. More jeep trail than road, it looked as
though it rarely saw traffic. If Htai was expecting the two of them to
hitchhike back to civilization …!
He turned to argue with Htai, and stopped. The jungle was a green wall
along the road, leaves and fronds stirring with the breeze. The Karens
were gone, vanished.
“Htai!” Batman yelled. “Son of a bitch … Htai!”
Malibu leaned against his makeshift crutch and eyed the jungle. “Shit,
buddy,” he said. “I get the feeling they don’t care for our company
anymore!”
“Looks that way.” The way the Karens had disappeared into the forest
was eerie. What was it they were afraid of? “C’mon. We can’t stay
here all day.”
Batman was tempted to walk down the road–the going would have been a
lot easier–but Htai had pointed in the other direction. Batman didn’t
know what the Karen colonel’s game was, but it would be better to do
things his way, at least until this scenario played itself out. They
followed the curve of the road along the mountain’s flank for perhaps
another hundred yards, as Batman’s legs threatened to buckle with the
unaccustomed strain and Malibu limped along with a grim and stoic
silence which said something about his own pain and exhaustion.
The cave opened in front of the two Americans like an unfolding dream.
More grotto than cave, it was visible in the side of the mountain like a
slash between house-sized limestone boulders. Inside, the afternoon
light filtered through a hole in the cavern’s roof illuminating the
alabaster face of a gigantic, carved stone Buddha.
Other carvings emerged from the dim recesses of the cavern, but Batman
was momentarily spellbound by the sight of that largest figure. He took
a clumsy step forward. The scene was so remote, so otherworldly it
might have been a dream. Already, the light was changing, the carvings
receding once more into shadow as the magic of that single shaft of
illumination faded.
“Yoot!” The voice carried the whip-crack of authority. “Yah klihun
vahee!”
They turned slowly and saw the That Rangers behind them, M-16s leveled.
“Lieutenants Wayne and Blake, sir,” Batman said automatically. If these
people didn’t speak English, the two of them could be in a lot of
trouble.
“United States Navy.”
One of the Rangers looked puzzled, and then his face creased in a broad
smile. “Navy! You long way from ocean!”
The place, it turned out, was Chiang Dao Cave, normally a busy tourist
site but deserted since the insurrection began. The only people in the
area now were a detachment of That Rangers.
Batman looked past the man at the cavern, where the shadows were
swallowing the stone Buddha. Nearby, the spires of a chedi, or temple,
gleamed white against the sky. After days of mud, insects, and nagging
uncertainty, the breeze-swept peace of the shrine, of civilization,
seemed like a breath of heaven.
Within an hour, Batman and Malibu were in the back of a jeep, bouncing
down the dirt road toward the town of Chiang Dao, where a government
station had been established to assist the hill tribes living on the
slopes of the surrounding mountains. An hour after that they were in a
Royal That Army truck, jolting down Highway 107 toward Chiang Mai.
A telephone call from the government station had already been placed
through to Sattahip and the Jefferson. By the time they reached the
airport west of Thailand’s second-largest city several hours after dark,
a Navy helicopter was already there, waiting for them with rotors
turning.
In another two hours they were back on the ship, and Batman had sworn