She was very careful with her emails. She deleted all private ones immediately. Now he knew a lot about Katrien, Alfie was becoming a full-time voyeur. He watched her when she was sitting at the PC. She preferred live chat. Clients didn’t have to have a webcam, messenger was fine, but she liked them to see her. It was a fetish she had: being watched, them watching her take off her clothes, performing solo sex acts.

But Alfie had realised it wasn’t always solo. Sometimes there was a man with her, other times a woman. Sometimes Katrien would even stop her lengthy sex sessions to come and chat on the messenger when someone signed in that she wanted to speak to. Then Alfie would be able to see her. She liked to wear bondage gear. She liked to wear a dildo strapped around her waist that she used to penetrate people. Not just other women—Alfie had heard a few men taking it from her up the arse. He listened to her drunken antics, her drug-fuelled, all-night sessions. Every night she partied. Alfie had quickly come to the conclusion she was out of control.

He watched her now, walking past the screen. She was constantly checking who was online. She seemed to be waiting for someone. Buzzz. Her messenger reminder alerted her that someone wanted to speak to her. She sat down, drew her chair close to the screen and began to type.

‘Hello, Big Man.’

Alfie had got used to the way she talked to different people. She had four people she liked to talk to on the webcam. He had realised there was one amongst them that she really felt affection for, the rest she was manipulating. The one she called ‘Big Man’ was a business arrangement.

‘The two million is back on. That will buy us whatever we need…Nothing’s changed…We are just expanding…We don’t just sell it, we grow it and refine it and we ship it…You will have your share…’ As Katrien signed off she saw something unfamiliar on the screen—she saw the reflection of something small, a light in the top left-hand corner; she saw the camera watching her.

35

Jake looked at Anna. She was walking just ahead of them, her head was down. He knew she was exhausted but she said nothing. Now that the mule had to carry Lucas, they all had to share out its load. It was heavy and it cut into her shoulders. Jake thought about calling to her but decided it was not a good idea; the less attention drawn to the girls the better. Saw’s men were in the woods all around, calling to one another in their growls and barks. The woods were full of the rustlings of their feet and the stench of their bodies. The night was still hours away. They had been walking since dawn and they seemed to be walking faster than usual. Jake wondered where they were headed; all he knew was that it was getting warmer as they left behind the higher mountain peaks and headed back towards the lowlands. He took out his water bottle and hurried to catch up with Lucas. The mule was plodding on, its head down, as its small hooves picked their way carefully over the difficult ground. Jake held the water bottle to Lucas’s mouth and helped him drink. Lucas’s eyes rolled in his head. Jake held on to him as he lurched forward on the steep pass. Jake looked behind.

‘Come on, Thomas, keep up,’ he shouted quietly back to a flagging Thomas. ‘We’ll be stopping soon.’

Toad and Weasel overtook Jake now as they ran ahead, their bare feet sending up showers of fine dust and stone. They were coming to the remnants of a road.

Saw appeared beside Jake and, with a wave of his hand, he ordered them all to stay where they were. Saw’s men crept forward through the forest and a shout went up, answered by others, and Toad called them on. They came cautiously out of the forest and hit what must have once been a well-used track. It was wide, fit for vehicles, but it hadn’t seen much traffic for many years now—there was a green snake of grass up its spine and the jungle was beginning to encroach across it.

For a minute Saw stood, his chest rising and falling with the exertion of the run. Then, reassured that all was well, he ran and caught up with his men, overtaking them on the road.

At the edge of the road, a wild she-dog lay panting in the shade of the overhanging vines, feeding her puppies. Her skinny ribcage rose and fell as her puppies suckled. She lifted her head as the group came up the road. Saw approached her first and she snarled. Saw kicked out as he passed. One of the puppies flew into the air and landed with its neck broken, still twitching on the side of the road. The she-dog snatched up her remaining puppies in her mouth and scampered off.

Jake and the others followed Toad along the road. Small houses began appearing, dilapidated and deserted. Then, further on, two long tall barns and several small single-storey buildings came into view and, below them, what looked like a manmade lake. Whatever had been made here, it had been a big operation, thought Jake. It wasn’t exactly easy to find. Although Jake hadn’t read the guide books, Anna had, and he remembered her telling him about the old heroin refineries. Jake was pretty sure he was looking at one now.

Jake held on to Lucas and the mule whilst they stood still and watched as the porters’ packs were laid down and they were made to walk on along the road and into the old buildings to check for booby traps and mines. Saw and his men walked afterwards into the ruins. They were trackers, hunters, more at home in the forest than in a house. Here they crawled and crept along the outside of the buildings, they felt their way around its walls. They signalled to one another with animal calls as they swept through each building.

Toad led Jake and the others down and they joined Saw under the ramshackle roof of a large open-sided barn. All around them were the remnants of the building’s former life: the vats used to distil the heroin, lengths of plastic tube, old sacks of sugar, everything lying discarded and rusted, frayed at the edges. It looked like it had been many years since it had been operational.

Saw was standing above them on a raised platform. Jake could see that Saw looked elated, his feet planted wide, hands on his hips. He seemed to be smelling the air as he looked all around and shouted to the grey, shredded, fragile leaves that made the roof. Jake watched the birds rise unsettled from the rafters, and it struck Jake that this was home for Saw. He had brought them to his home. They were going to be able to rest, which was good, but it would not be without its downside. The more Jake spent time with Saw, the more he understood what made him tick. He seemed to be able to tell when he was about to kick off, even before his deputies could. Jake felt it in the air. He saw it in Saw’s expressions. Every day Saw looked more demonic than the last.

This place felt more like a lair than a place of comfort and Saw looked empowered; he was the man in charge.

Saw stood on the platform remembering what it had been like to stand on that very spot many years before. It was where the heroin was stored ready for transportation. He had had his first taste of wealth and power and dominance on this platform, in this camp. Here he had raped his first woman on this very floor. Here in front of the others he had beaten her unconscious and left her for others to finish. This place had made Saw what he was. He had given his youth to working for the good of the Opium King. Here he made massive wealth for his master and he had been promised much. He looked across and saw Jake watching him.

Saw had been betrayed then.

He would not be betrayed again.