“I don’t believe the captain could kill the monk like that,” Marissa said with a shudder. “He didn’t hesitate for a second.”

“Life is cheap in this part of the world,” Tristan said.

“I wonder if I’ll ever recover from all this,” she said. “First Wendy’s death, then Robert’s, now this shooting. And all for nothing!”

Tristan reached out and gripped her hand. “No one can ever say we didn’t try,” he said.

After the group had been resting for a half hour, they were disturbed by a distant droning noise that rapidly escalated. Having been sensitized by their recent ordeal, everyone looked at each other in puzzled consternation. The sound not only got louder, but it developed a peculiar concussive, pulsating quality.

Finally Tristan recognized it.

“It’s a helicopter,” Tristan cried. “Get under the trees!”

They had barely darted beneath the branches when a large military helicopter thundered overhead, heading directly out to sea in the direction that the patrol boat had disappeared.

Emerging from the foliage, they stared at the aircraft, which was already a mere pinprick against the pale blue sky.

“Do you think they saw us?” Marissa asked.

“Nah!” Tristan said. “But I’m surprised they didn’t see all this Hong Kong money spread out on the sand.”

When everyone felt rested from the cold swim, they started across the marshlands. Assuming Tse knew where he was going, the other three fell in behind him. At first all they had to do was traverse swampy grass, but eventually they had to ford some deeper streams.

“Any crocs around this part of the world?” Tristan asked nervously when he was up to his waist, holding his partially dried money belt over his head.

“No crocodiles,” Bentley said. “But we do have snakes.”

“What next?” Marissa asked sarcastically.

But they didn’t see any snakes. They did encounter more than a few insects. As they approached the heavily wooded higher ground, the mosquitoes came in swarms. For Marissa, this was a new fear. She asked Tse about malaria and dengue fever.

“There is always some malaria,” Tse said. “But dengue fever I’m not familiar with.”

“Never mind,” Marissa said. There were just so many things she could worry about at once. “I suppose I should look on the bright side of things. We were lucky to get off the junk. Thank God for the Communist patrol boat.”

“That’s the attitude,” Tristan said.

“And at least we still have our watches,” Marissa added.

Tristan laughed, happy to hear that in spite of all that had happened, Marissa was capable of humor.

“Did you recognize the Caucasian man in the front of the powerboat?” Marissa asked Tristan. “He was the other man throwing chum overboard when Wendy died.”

“I’d vaguely recognized him,” Tristan said. “From back when I worked for FCA.”

Reaching the edge of the marsh, they next climbed up through thick vegetation. Vines hung down from the branches of the trees. It was slow going. It took some effort just to go a hundred yards. Then the trees suddenly ended at the edge of a rice paddy.