Muir laughed, his chest heaving as he drew in huge gulps of air. “Yes, I am. But only on irrelevant issues.”

“Rocks are very relevant in the mountains.”

“See? I’m not very good at it, am I?”

The two district government officials started climbing again. They followed the trail for another fifty meters until it suddenly leveled off, reaching a plateau. The two tough little men stopped for a moment, looking back with satisfaction at Colonel Pham, Condley, and Muir, who was still breathing deeply as he recovered from the climb. Then one of them pointed toward the jungle on the right side of the trail, and they disappeared into the foliage.

“They could have saved us a lot of trouble by bringing this fellow down the mountain and meeting us on the road,” sighed Muir, walking reluctantly up the trail.

Condley’s antennae were working too, but for a different reason. “Who’s going to take this guy into custody, assuming they actually deliver him to us? It’s a long way back down this mountain, and I don’t see him going quietly.”

“A scary thought,” said Professor Muir nervously. He gave Condley an uncomfortable smile. “As you know, Brandon, I get involved only after they’ve decomposed.”

They followed Colonel Pham and the others down a narrow passage that had been recently cut through an immense tangle of leaves and vines, as if just for them. The jungle swallowed them as they walked. Thick, reaching trees blocked the light above them. The vines pushed in all around them. It appeared they were moving through a clinging green tunnel, from which there was no clear entrance or exit.

“Is this what it was like during the war?” asked Muir.

“Try cutting the trail yourself,” laughed Condley. “With fifty pounds of gear on your back and somebody waiting to kill you at the other end.”

After a hundred meters the jungle just as suddenly ended, and they stepped from the vines into a wide, grassy clearing. The five men stood at the edge of the clearing for a moment, uniformly exhausted. They breathed heavily, nodding warily to one another as they rubbed the scratches on their arms and faces, having developed an odd cama-raderie through their little ordeal. And then Colonel Pham nudged Condley, pointing across the clearing as if offering him a personal gift.

“They are coming now. Prepare yourself. You will have only one opportunity to convince them.”

“Convince them of what, Colonel?”

“That this is important. And that you are sincere. These are mountain people, Cong Ly. They know nothing since the war.”