Phosy resented hearing it from a foreigner but he couldn’t refute it. There were more secret police being trained by the Vietnamese in Laos than there were regular police officers. Even as chief of police, he wasn’t granted access to the study venue or its graduates. Half of his investigations of missing persons were stymied with an official “Confidential. Do not proceed.”

But he was proud of his country for what it had achieved, and he wasn’t about to agree with a foreigner on its shortcomings. They walked the journalists as far as their Vespa and Dtui took the key.

“So, what do you two do when you’re riding around on your bicycles?” Phosy asked.

“Observe,” said Marvin. “Talk to the ladies in the market. Meet the unexpected character acquaintance from days gone by.”

Phosy noticed a brief look from Jim that silenced his friend.

“What type of acquaintance?” asked Dtui.

“Probably one of the old girls from the White Rose,” said Jim. “That’s where he learned all about balloons and darts, if you know what I mean.”

“Not to mention how to smoke ten cigarettes at a time,” said Marvin. “And I consider this to be the perfect moment to change the subject. You two wouldn’t happen to know of a doctor here in Vientiane called Siri, by any chance?”

“He’s our—” said Dtui.

“It’s a common enough name,” said Phosy. “Why are you interested?”

“Just one of the Swedes was looking for him, is all,” said Marvin.

“Do you know why?”

“No idea.”

“I’ll keep my eyes open for him,” said Phosy.

They parted company with handshakes and the confession that the journalists probably wouldn’t be catching the following day’s 7 a.m. bus to visit the model collective. Dtui drove slowly back along the river road toward the dorm. They passed the Russian Club where the Soviet journalists failed in their attempts at Cossack dancing. They passed Daeng’s noodle shop with Ugly on duty outside. They passed the grey padlocked shop fronts and the peeling white colonial buildings. They passed Crazy Rajhid being invisible in front of the Lan Xang Hotel, and they stopped for a while to admire the stars reflected in the water.

“Do they really know more about us than we know about ourselves?” Dtui asked.

“Dtui, when the only information you have about a place comes from the mouths of people who fled that place, you aren’t going to hear many positive comments. You’ll only get bitterness and anger and misinformation. That’s why they were all invited here. To remind them we aren’t evil. That we have the same dreams as them.”

“What was all that about the darts and the balloons?” Dtui asked.

He looked at her with his eyebrows raised. “Yeah, I didn’t get that either,” he said.