Things started to move fast after that and it wasn't just cause I suddenly noticed I ain't even close to finishing this here story.Demetria and some Thai secret service guy flew to Udon Thani that same day and drove all the way across to Mukdahan in a rental car.
Saifon met 'em in the evening. Demetria was a big, happy saddle-brown woman who'd spent most of her sixty-two years in government service, following her husband around the world. He went and got himself killed early on in the Vietnam conflict by looking the wrong way. He was a general, the type that couldn't ever find a desk to suit him. Demetria and him could of retired long before Vietnam but they wasn't the retiring type, I guess. After walking away from a thousand battles without a scratch, he walked himself under the front wheels of a number twenty-one Saigon municipal bus. He must of forgot they drove on the right over there.
The secret service guy, Sisamone, he was just too good looking to be real. He was the type they cast in movies to play the hero. You know them guys you never see in real life? Saifon never did trust guys that looked too damn good. She was always looking for reasons to hate 'em. Most made that easy.
Once they was checked into the old Hotel Muk, they listened to Saifon's story about how they'd come to the region to trace a dear aunt in Laos who had sadly passed away before she could talk to her, and how she'd misplaced Waldo. (Wilbur told her not to say about the kid smuggling if there was a Thai service guy there. He was probably the most trustworthy man you could meet, but better safe than sorry.)
Sisamone was eager to show the women how valuable he could be. He had a brainwave right there in front of 'em. He reckoned they should let the local radio station know where they was staying. That way the kidnappers would know they was in town and how to find 'em. That was a real smart move.