The Golden Elephant by Alex Archer

Author:Alex Archer [Archer, Alex]
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science Fiction - Adventure, Fiction - Science Fiction, Southeast Asia, General, Science fiction, Adventure, Archaeologists, Fiction, Science Fiction And Fantasy, Adventure fiction
ISBN: 9780373621323
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2008-09-07T18:00:00+00:00

18

It was the most prosaic transportation to begin a headlong plunge into the unknown Annja could imagine—Eddie Chen’s venerable Subaru, which was blue sunburned to gray and silver at various points. But it ran reliably and had all-wheel drive. Eddie claimed it had made the run before. At least, as far as they could safely take a car.

The drive from Bangkok north to Nakhon Sawan and beyond offered little by way of adventure. Except, of course, for the ever-present hazards of traffic, including unexpected vehicle-swallowing potholes in the middle of what looked like a modern superhighway, errant livestock, peasants in pursuit of errant livestock, big rigs and brightly colored Thai buses piloted by drivers with lead feet, loud horns and unshakable faith in reincarnation. All were real enough as dangers went.

The green woods and swamps of the central plains scrolled past outside the windows. These were rolled up; for a wonder, the air-conditioning worked. The cargo space was stuffed to the ceiling with supplies.

Patty Ruhle was the ringleader of a sing-along. She was to have appointed herself tour director for the voyage. She seemed able to pull it off, so Annja wasn’t complaining.

Besides, it was better than brooding. Eddie, negotiating the traffic on the modern superhighway, pounded the heel of his palm on the steering wheel. “‘The bastard king of England!’” he half sang. “How cool is that?”

“It was supposedly written by Rudyard Kipling,” Patty said. “His literary partisans deny it. Of course, they all have sticks up their butts. Like all academics.”

Annja took no offense; studious as she was, she’d always been more comfortable in the field or a collection in some exotic and remote location than safely at home on campus. Phil Kennedy stiffened. It only made Ruhle laugh.

“Don’t even bother, Phil,” she said. “You already pulled the rug out from under your own feet.”

He looked out the window. Annja suspected it was to hide something very like a grin. “You’re incorrigible,” he said.

“And you do such a good job of incorriging me,” Patty said.

Eddie laughed and pounded his hand on the wheel some more. Although in his early thirties, he had the appearance and general manner of what Annja took him for at the outset—a big schoolboy. Nonetheless, both his father and Phil vouched for his extensive experience penetrating Myanmar. He spoke several local dialects and could fill in gaps in Kennedy’s knowledge.

She presumed that all added up to smuggling. Eddie and his father both disavowed involvement with drugs. They admitted they feared the drug armies, usually ethnic based, that dominated the trade in Southeast Asia. They were too big, well armed and ruthless. And they had powerful friends. Annja figured Eddie and his father were probably involved in running goods that themselves weren’t controversial to avoid customs.

That wasn’t the sort of thing she was bound to fight. Besides, the whole point of the expedition entailed violating innumerable laws in furtherance of what was right, as opposed to merely legal. Busting the border into Myanmar was going to be a crime, as would be everything she did afterward.

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