“I’m going through the gate first. You all”-he focuses on Da again-“
“Yes,” Da says, for all of them. “You’re not supposed to go in. Rafferty said we were just supposed to watch.”
“And that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to watch. And if I see anything I don’t like, I’ll come back out and we’ll wait.”
“You will not,” Da says. “You’ll show off, do something brave. And stupid.”
“You know,” Boo says, “I was doing just fine until you came along.” He turns and faces the road, a dark ribbon in the moonlight. “We’ve got some brush on this side of the road. Stay close to it, and duck in if you hear a car.” Without waiting for a response, he starts toward the factory.
“IT’S THE CELL network guy,” Ren says, holding out the cordless phone to Ton.
“Give me the phone number for Rafferty’s woman,” Ton says. Into the phone he says, “Hi, Poy. Thanks for calling. I’m sorry to interrupt your evening, but this’ll just take a minute. Listen, I’ve had a theft from one of my businesses… No, nothing serious, but you can’t let these things go. Got to make an example, or other people start to get ambitious, you know what I mean?” He laughs, extending a hand for the slip of paper on which Ren has written Rose’s phone number. He opens and closes the hand quickly several times to hurry Ren. “She’s got her cell phone on,” he says into the telephone, “and I need a location.” He takes the slip of paper from Ren, glances at it, listens for a moment, and says, “Wait.” To Ren he says, “How long since you checked to see whether she’s still got the phone?”
“Kai called a few hours back.”
“Call again, now.”
“But we already-”
“Do it. I’m not going through all this and then sending out a bunch of people to find a phone that’s in a trash can somewhere.”
“Fine.” With a glance at the paper from which he copied the number, Ren dials. He closes his eyes as he waits and then opens them, listens, and disconnects. “The little girl answered,” he says.
“Fine. They’ll be together.” Into the phone Ton says, “Here’s the number. How close can you get?” He goes to the big desk, sits down, and powers up a computer. “No,” he says. “I doubt she’s got a GPS phone. Probably just some junk she bought used. Does it matter?” He clicks a mouse to bring up Google Earth and positions the cursor over Bangkok. “Really,” he says. “Within fifty meters? That’s amazing. Listen, give it to me in coordinates if you can. I want to try to locate it on the computer.”
Kai comes into the room and looks first at Ton and then at Ren.
“It’s the guy at the phone company,” Ren says quietly. “Tracking down the woman and the girl.”
“I’m ready,” Ton says, with a pencil in his free hand. “Just read it to me.” He writes some numbers on the pad and says, “As close as fifty meters, huh? Well, I owe you. And I’m sorry about the bother. Go back to your party.” He drops the phone on the desk and starts to punch numbers into the computer. “Where are you?” he asks out loud. “Let’s just zoom in a little bit-” The sentence ends in a surprised puff of air. He sits perfectly still, staring at the screen. Both Kai and Ren are looking at him.
Finally Ton tears his eyes from the computer. “Get me four guys right now,” he says. “Guys who don’t much care what they have to do and don’t have any idea who you work for. You won’t believe where you’re going to take them.”
“WHOEVER IT WAS,” Da says, looking at the phone, “they hung up.”
“Where did you get that?” Boo says, taking the phone out of her hand.
“It was on the floor at the shack.”
“And you picked it up.”
She reaches for it, but he puts it behind his back. “Nobody wanted it,” she protests. “Everybody else had one.”
“And you left it on.”
“Well,” she says, “what good is it if it’s off? Oh, come on, I never had one before.”
“And you haven’t got one now,” Boo says. He powers the phone off, brings his arm back, and throws it over the nearest fence.
“Hey,” Da says.
He steps toward her, showing her a face that’s all muscle. “Suppose it had rung while we were inside? Suppose we’re watching something we’re not supposed to see, and your damn phone rings. Has anybody else got one that’s on?”
One of the boys holds one up. “It’s on silent.”
“Turn it off.”
“Okay, okay.”
“Anything else stupid?” Boo asks. “Any alarm clocks? Talking dolls? Anybody got squeakies in their tennis shoes?”
Nobody answers him.
