“Now, despite all this thought I was putting into the fight, I was still on the ground and he came at me with his machete raised, using his free hand to cover his delicate parts. This left him a little unbalanced. I feint right. That’s where he aims the blade. I flip to my left. The blade skims my hip and sinks into the coconut wood of the balcony. He’s totally off-balance now. I trip him with my lower legs, he lets go of the machete and falls backwards and I’m on him.”

“Like a cougar,” said Siri.

“More like . . . well, all right. Cougar’s fine. As I don’t want to damage my fingers, I beat him around the face and neck with the heels of my hands, left, right, left, right. Blood everywhere. Teeth flying. But ninja one is back on his feet. He’s staggering towards me, fist raised. He hasn’t learned anything in those thirty seconds. I roll to my right and land another kick on his groin.”

“Ooh.”

“He screams and drops like a sack of walnuts and I follow up by rearranging his face. Daddy is in the crawl position, blinded by the blood. I yank the machete from the plank and I hit him twice with the handle. He drops flat on his stomach. And that was when the guesthouse manager and his wife and some of the new guests appeared.”

“You don’t have a mark on you?” said Siri.

“I knew you wouldn’t want me to spoil my looks.”

They lay for a long time counting each other’s heartbeats, listening to the ceiling lizard politics.

“Siri,” she said at last.

“Yes, my warrior queen?”

“When the grenade went off you disappeared for a few seconds.”

“I know. It was about twenty minutes on the other side.”

“Did you see Civilai?”

“He sends his love. We won’t be hanging out together anymore.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. I have you.”

They were woken next morning by the sound of the whirring helicopter rotor. Roper had told them amid the chaos of the night before that he felt it would be best to get himself and the girls out of Thakhek as soon as possible. He’d invited Siri and Daeng to go with him but they opted to stay because things were starting to get interesting at last.

“What time is it?” Siri asked.

Daeng looked at the alarm clock.

“Seven,” she said.

“I thought we’d have time to say goodbye to the girls,” said Siri.

“Me too. Never mind. We’ll see them when we get back, and after the drama last night I’d feel more comfortable if they were in Vientiane away from the traffickers. Are you still up for another trip along the love tunnel?”

“Of course,” said Siri. “Isn’t that why we’re still here? Why would you ask?”