“Lars, how long have I been under you? You know I’m grateful, but story after story gets passed over my head. I know, I know, you owe this chap a favour, that other chap has first dibs, there’s always a reason. So here’s something that’s actually up my alley. You know I can do it. Have I ever turned in substandard copy? I have at least as good a shot at getting this right as the next person, probably better, and you know I won’t succumb to malaria in my first hour there.”

He looked like he might be swayed. “I’d really be sticking my neck out for you—”

“That’s what I love about you, Lars. You’re the sort of visionary who knows when to take a risk. Can you imagine the sort of story I’ll bring home? My Lai is now Our Lai.”

“Good thing you don’t write the headlines,” he laughed, but she knew she had him. Still chuckling, he thought a little more, scribbled down some notes to himself, and let fly with a string of instructions—all conditional on approval from above, of course. Head down to the morgue and get the coverage from Doris, all the way back to 1948; go talk to accounts about the plane ticket and so forth, they had a travel agent on retainer; he hoped to god her passport was up to date; he must be mad letting her do this, but after all people deserve a chance now and then, and her work was good, but dammit she’d better not let him down or they’d both be out on the street.

She listened very carefully, scarcely able to believe she’d pulled it off. This could be—but best not to imagine what this would do for her career if she nailed it. First she had to get it right, and something told her that she would only get one shot at this. Deep breath. She imagined Jim Carrington’s triumphant grin if she failed, and knew this had to be on the front page.

•

One of the other girls at the boarding house was happy to lend her a suitcase. “Just take care of it, would you? It’s a good one: Peter Jones.” Revathi smiled and said of course she would, the tropics could be hard on luggage but she’d keep it away from monsoons and so forth.

“And send us a postcard, if they have those where
you’re going.”

“There are postcards in Malaysia, Lucy. It’s not a war zone.”

“Isn’t that why your parents left?”

“It was rough for a while. It’s not like that now.”