Mann studied her curiously.

‘But weren’t you all NGOs in the beginning?’

She smiled. ‘Yes, of course. We are a necessary evil.’ She grinned. ‘But some of us care more than that. For me, this is an obsession, it’s my reason for living. I found such kindness here—I’d never seen that before. I would die for these people. They have endured hell and worse.’

‘You support the KNLA?’

‘Of course.’

‘You know that the world is blaming the KNLA for the kidnap of the five?’

She stared at him, amazed.

‘How can that possibly be?’

‘The Thai government has issued a statement supporting the Burmese junta’s accusations that a group of renegade KNLA is responsible.’

‘Why would the Karen want to risk losing the only help they get—the NGOs?’

‘They are saying that it is a way of drawing attention to the conflict and getting funding. They are claiming that ransom demands have been made by a group claiming to be supported by the KNLA.’

She shook her head, despondent. ‘Sometimes I think everyone is against us and what we are trying to do here.’

‘A commander called Alak was mentioned. You know him?’ Sue nodded. ‘Could he have gone bad?’

‘Maybe.’ She looked pensive. ‘In a world like this one, everyone has a price.’

45

The young porter girl was frantically trying to find her clothes and cover herself. Her back was bleeding, her body shaking so violently that her hands could not tie her sarong. Saw’s men were banging their fists on the platform and shouting for Saw to rape the woman. Saw pulled Anna up by her arm. There was no stopping him now. He had reached the point of no return. He was like a wounded animal and wanted to hurt others.

‘NO!’ Jake kicked out at Saw as he dragged Anna up to her feet. ‘Let her GO!’

Jake’s voice came out so deep that it sounded strange to his own ears and Saw turned to look at him, almost as if he had never seen him before. Then he turned back to Anna. Anna looked him in the eye and spat. Saw closed his eyes and, when he reopened them, Jake thought that he would kill her—but instead he smiled and savoured her phlegm as if it were a flurry of snow on his face on a hot summer’s day. Laughing, he pushed her to the floor and walked back across to the young porter who was sobbing as she saw him coming. She had nowhere left to run. Saw held her down and ripped her sarong away. He held her face to the ground as he pressed his weight on her and raped her. The girl’s screams turned to deep guttural sobs as she endured the agony of her first sexual encounter and her last. After Saw was finished she lay where she was, her body shaking from the attack, her face still squashed into the ground, her legs open. Blood seeped into the floor beneath her narrow hips. He looked at his men and nodded towards the other female porters and the fight for them began.

But Saw’s disappointment and his anger were unappeased. The porter girl had been just an appetiser for him and now his eyes and his thoughts turned back to Anna and Silke. Saw looked over and Jake could see his eyes searching and finding what he wanted as he pushed his way through his men. He strode over to the five and stood panting, his eyes rabid, his body sweating. He looked first at Anna, grinned and then he reached down and cut Silke’s bonds and dragged her out from where she hid behind Thomas. He pulled her, screaming, across to where the men were fighting over the porters as if they were scraps of meat. He threw her down with the other women. The men ceased their squabbling for a few seconds as they twisted their heads this way and that and watched who would claim Silke—the best prize. Handsome stepped forward and the rest of the men stepped back. Handsome ran his hand over Silke’s blonde hair and then he twisted his fingers in it and dragged her to her feet. Saw moved to stand beside him. His eyes were alight with madness. Handsome waited for Saw’s decision. Would he be allowed to claim the prize? Would he be shown the favour he craved?

Saw laughed. A grin spread across Handsome’s face, but not for long.

‘Tie her up,’ Saw ordered and Silke was dragged away to the far end of the platform where she was stripped and tied to one of the roof struts. She stood naked, her head bowed, shaking with the fear as she pleaded for her life. Across from her, Thomas screamed and frantic ally tried to untie his bonds but his wrists and ankles were bleeding and all he could do was sink to his knees and scream at the men to stop. All he could do was cry for his sister. He could not help her, none of them could. Silke looked over to him.

‘Be brave, Thomas,’ she mouthed. ‘I love you, little brother.’

46

By the time Shrimp came back the next afternoon, there was nothing left of Summer’s bar: bottles, mirrorballs and plastic palms lay broken in piles on the pavement. Summer was sweeping up the worst of the mess.

‘Summer?’ Shrimp stood at the entrance.

‘Yes, honey?’ Summer stopped and looked up.

‘What happened?’

‘Two men from the Thai boxing stadium showed up after you left. Big ugly types, one was the main fighter down there, the other is his coach. They trashed my bar and said I shouldn’t be mixing with trouble makers.’

‘I’m so sorry, Summer.’

Summer shrugged and smiled kindly at him as she resumed her sweeping.

‘You didn’t do it, honey. It was those two animals.’

‘Yes, but I should have known they’d be watching. Did they hurt you?’

‘Just a little.’ She turned her face to one side and Shrimp could see that, underneath all the makeup, her face was swollen. ‘It’s the end for me now, honey.’ She stopped and looked around at the remnants of her bar and then she looked at the pile of debris. ‘I have no money and no way of doing it all over again. Those thugs have finished me this time. They won, I lost.’

‘You haven’t lost yet, Summer. Get around all those who have been cheated out of their livelihood. One of them must have some record of it all. I need to know who is behind this and who was responsible for swindling you and the others out of your businesses. It isn’t right. When people give to charities they expect it to go to the people who need it, not to local bullies and corrupt police.’

Shrimp was mad angry when he left Summer and headed down towards Patong Beach. People all over the world had given money towards the tsunami relief—the last thing they wanted was for it to end up destroying lives rather than rebuilding them. The beach was straight ahead, at the end of the road. For a few seconds Shrimp’s anger vanished as he spied the rectangle of heaven: white sand, blue sky and turquoise sea, sandwiched between the buildings. He pushed his sporty Ray Bans up on top of his head where they rested on the stiff peaks of hair gel. The beach was just beginning to empty a little. The sun loungers were being dusted off and moved back into orderly rows.

He was about to cross Thaweewong Road, the main road that ran alongside Patong Beach, when he was almost trampled by the entourage of promoters and trainers who were handing out leaflets advertising an upcoming Thai boxing bout. On the top of the brightly decorated van that was accompanying them down the road was a tough-looking boxer sparring with an imaginary opponent, ‘El Supremo’ written on his bright blue shiny shirt. A man whose T-shirt proclaimed him to be the coach and who was holding a loudhailer was announcing, in his none too perfect English, ‘Thursday, six o’clock, ten thousand dollars to win. Anyone win. Come, be lucky…’