Minefield by Andy Maslen

Author:Andy Maslen [Maslen, Andy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Thriller
ISBN: 1983115266
Google: pfDhuAEACAAJ
Goodreads: 40493467
Publisher: Tyton Press
Published: 2018-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

19

Pretty as a Fallen Mango

They bantered their way along the path, falling into a clumsy but serviceable rhythm: step, grip-and-lift, swing, brace, grip, step. Gabriel could feel Eli’s hot skin under her shirt but it was more the heat from the sun than an internal fire. Her face was red with the exertion but her eyes were clear and the spots of dangerously high colour on her cheeks had disappeared.

Coming round a curve in the track, Eli stiffened, bringing Gabriel to a stop.

“What the fuck’s that?” she asked pointing at a bloody hunk of flesh wedged into a forked branch ten feet above their heads.

“That’s the remains of the cow I used to feed the leopard. I startled it off the path and it stepped on a landmine.”

“Better it than you, I suppose.”

“Yeah, or a kid.”

“How many mines did you say there were in Cambodia?”

Gabriel thought back to his conversations with Lina Ly, a Cambodian journalist, and Visna Chey, the hardworking director of the charity Tom Boh – Big Brother. Both had helped Gabriel in his quest to avenge the murder of his friend, Vinnie Calder. They had patiently explained to Gabriel the horrific legacy of three decades of war.

“According to the people I spoke to there are five or six million still buried here. Nobody made any maps, even though that’s part of the Law of War—”

“Because obviously they were all massively concerned about observing the Geneva Conventions.”

“So there’s one landmine for every three people in Cambodia. Then you’ve got the unexploded ordnance. Anywhere from two to six million UXOs lying around like fallen mangoes, waiting for a kid to pick one up or an adult to stand on one or disturb it with a plough. All courtesy of those fine upstanding humanitarians and cluster bombing fans, Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon.”

“You sound bitter.”

“Me? No, not bitter. But Eli, when we were fighting in uniform, we had to follow the rules, didn’t we? We didn’t go around shooting civilians, or prisoners. And if there was even a whiff of suspicion, well, just look at Iraq and Afghanistan. Scarcely a day goes by without some poor sod being hauled up before the judge on a charge dug up by a bloody lawyer. But all the time, the politicians are doing whatever the fuck they like. They –”

“Kissinger and Nixon?”

“Yes. Nixon wanted to cut off the North Vietnamese Army’s supply lines down the Ho Chi Minh Trail. He practically soaked the whole of Vietnam with Agent Orange and it wasn’t working so he asked Kissinger. And Kissinger said, ‘OK, Mr President, sir, what I propose is this. We’ll just carpet-bomb Cambodia with cluster munitions, even though it’s neutral. That ought to do it. Hey! We should mine it too. We could even paint some in pretty colours so kids pick them up to play with’.”

Eli held her hands out in front of her, clearly willing to risk a fall if she could turn off Gabriel’s rant.

“OK, OK, whoa there, soldier. I get it.

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