The pick-up truck arrived dead on time. The driver jumped from the cabin and said the password, and they each responded correctly. Piled into the back as it sped off, they could have been itinerant workers being ferried to a construction site. Hunched against the sides, knees drawn up to their chins, they knew they ought to sleep, but their eyes remained bright and open. Small bundles of possessions rattled by their feet, now and then jolted into the air by the bumpy road.

After five hours along dirt tracks, the driver pulled up. “Rest,” he said. They were to start thinking of what their new names would be. This was why they hadn’t shared their old names—as long as they told no one here, there’d be nothing to betray, and their families would be safe. As brothers of the same batch, they would share the same first character.

Without much thought, going by instinct, they settled on Xiong, and Nam Teck became Xiongmin, a hero of the people. They spoke Mandarin, not their hometown dialects, and managed to make themselves understood to each other. In the jungle they would speak only Putonghua, the common tongue, just as in China. Each camp would have former teachers to drill them in the language, and anyone too old or stupid to learn would have to be a cook or builder, not a fighter.

They slept fitfully as the full moon spilled pallid light over the uncovered truck, until the grunt of the engine starting woke them. Treetops flew by overhead, glints of sun beginning to peek through. When they stopped again, the driver grinned, “Welcome to Perak.” They’d crossed the state line, using small roads to avoid police checkpoints. He tossed them a bag with their breakfast in it: rice and a small piece of fish, individual portions wrapped in leaves.

Not twelve hours after leaving Kuala Lumpur, there they were in the jungle. The next part of their journey would be on foot. A faint dawn haze rose from the ground, clammy and unwelcome. Nam Teck, now Xiongmin, felt an apprehensive sweat form down his back, and soon was uncomfortably damp. He worried about wild animals, but for all the crackling noises in the distant undergrowth, saw no other living creatures. They left the road behind, and the canopy overhead grew thicker, shading the air dark green.