She was on her way back to Mukdahan. Of course she hadn't met the boss. He was busy in the barn with half a dozen other shady looking guys. But she did talk to the kids. They was in a barred room at the back of the house. There was four of 'em including the two latest. All girls. All scared out of their minds. She talked to them through the bars and found out where three of 'em come from. The other one was too freaked out to speak. One of 'em heard the guard say they'd be taking 'em to Bangkok on Friday. This was Wednesday. She had a day to do something, whatever that was. She wondered if Wilbur had lost interest now his war was going bad. She wondered what she'd do if one of them mortars landed on him.
There wasn't nothing familiar about the house. This wasn't where they'd brought her to when she was smuggled. And she didn’t recognize the boss. By the look of his place and the cars in the yard, smuggling kids was a boom industry. He must of took it over.
She almost missed her CIA bike in the shadows. It looked like the guy she'd done the deal with didn't have no gas neither. She switched back and the borrowed gas was just enough to get her to a little gas station. They had a phone there. She rang Wilbur's number so long it croaked. You'd think a spy would have a goddam answer machine wouldn't you.
But she had more luck calling Mrs. Porn. She ate up everything Saifon had to say. She took down details of the place, the names and the connection from Savannakheth, and told her to call back the next day to see what they got.
Saifon was excited and anxious at the same time. The acids was flowing in her veins. This was all stimulating stuff. She couldn't wait to tell Waldo all about her day. But it looked like she'd have to. When she got back to the apartment, the door was open and he was gone.
She went down to ask the old landlady if she'd seen him. In his state, he shouldn't of been out. The old lady had gotten into a rogue batch of betel nut and been high as a crow all day. Her eyes was still going round. She couldn't remember nothing.
So Saifon sat upstairs and waited. It was weird. There weren't that much you could do in Mukdahan. Half an hour and you would of seen everything there was to see. But she sat for an hour and there was still no sign of him. And why did he leave the frigging door open? That wasn't like him. And how come the refrigerator and the cupboards was bare?
She went down and tried Wilbur again. There was still no answer. Then she wondered if the cops had heard about the shooting at Ma Marlon's and dragged Waldo in to help them with their inquiries. So she went to the police station, and the hospital, and the doctor's surgery, but no one had seen him.
The mystery was solved when she got home. There was a note pinned to the door. It was in Thai. She couldn't read it. She thought the landlady had left it so she went back down. The woman was o-d'ing. She had so many betel nuts crammed in her mouth she couldn't talk. She was belly up on the floor choking and giggling. A betel nut o-d would be a horrible way to go. Saifon had never seen nothing like it.
"Where did you get the nuts, mother?"
"Gurgle. Gurgle."
Saifon helped get the nuts out of her mouth so she could speak and flushed her out with tea before she could get any sense out of her. If she didn’t know any better, she'd say them nuts was spiked.
"I just found 'em on the doorstep this morning. Don't know where they come from. Delicious but."
"Can you read this for me?"
It took her some time to focus cause the letters was running around the paper. But when they settled down they give up a terrible secret.
"We've got the American. Give us one million dollars and stop bombing Laos or we'll kill him."
Saifon was shocked. How the hell do you kidnap a 300 pound guy?