“But they’re unable to give out information over the phone, not even to embassies. I’d need to be there in person with a signed request from my ambassador.”

Kyoko was silent.

“Hello?” said Cindy.

“So you haven’t been able to send us information about Major Hiro?”

“No, I’m sorry.”

“And you haven’t spoken to anyone else about this?”

“No.”

“Oh dear,” said Kyoko.

Chapter Twenty-one

Chapter Twenty-one

Defeat Can Be Confusing

Siri and Daeng were too early to cross the river with Beer in his rowboat so they left him a note under the rock and went over on a small barge that ferried traders back and forth. The border was officially open for business, with soldiers on either bank going through the large plastic hampers and helping themselves to fruit and vegetables at will. Siri and Daeng had picked up some empty sacks and smiled as if they’d had a successful day at the market in Nakhon Phanom. Like everyone else they had no travel papers so they handed over twenty baht to the soldiers, who were doing very nicely in graft. It was no surprise to Siri that the insurgents had targeted Thakhek for their incursions. It was so accommodating.

They hurried back to the guesthouse. They paused in front of the door and inspected it for scratch marks. Daeng looked through the window.

“Safe,” she said, but Siri turned the key gingerly. Once inside, he went straight to the bed and lifted the mattress. From beneath it he took out the diary. He thumbed through the pages until he found the folded photograph of Hiro and Satsai standing with the village children.

“Haven’t you looked at that enough?” said Daeng.

“Looked, yes,” said Siri. “But seen, no,” he said. “Come and take a good look at this picture and tell me what you see.”

Daeng perused the picture while Siri removed his sturdy Soviet magnifying glass from his shoulder bag. He always traveled with his detection equipment. He handed her the glass and she held it in front of the photo.

“Eleven, twelve children, two adults,” she said.

“Anything else?”

“The village post.”

“And can you see the hieroglyphics carved out of the concrete?”

“Barely.”

“What can you make out?”

“Animals, mostly.”

“And what’s the biggest one there?”

“This one,” she said. “An elephant.”

“Are you sure it’s an elephant?”

“Well, I’m no expert, but when I was six it’s how I would have drawn one. Perhaps the artist wasn’t so good at elephants. It has really short . . .”

She looked at her husband and he nodded.

“Do you think this is the baku?” she asked.