“I agree with you.”
Thura laughed. “I will tell my children that. You agree with me.”
“Wait, you have children?”
“No, man, but maybe someday. If I live long enough to find a good woman.”
Nash wondered if Amrita might have been a good woman for Thura.
Thura’s eyes narrowed. “Good women are hard to come by, for men like me.”
“That’s something else you can tell your children that I agree with you on.”
Nash left him there, drove the Jeep to a gas station, and filled its tank and then half filled a five-gallon metal canister that he’d had Thura procure. He then drove back to where they were staying. He woke up his boss and explained his plan to him.
Temple said, “It sounds crazy as hell. In fact, crazy enough to work.”
“Let’s hope so, because there ain’t no Plan B.”
CHAPTER
23
ON THE THIRD DAY THEtwo men and the two women rose from their beds. However, the young woman left her companions at the hotel, and the two men and the older woman later drove out of Bhamo in the 4Runner. It was now evening, and Nash, Temple, and Thura, who was driving, followed.
Nash said, “What else, if anything, do you know about the prison?”
“It was built maybe twenty years ago by the old regime. Then, about ten years ago, it was sold to a private company.”
“Do you know to who?” asked Temple from the back seat.
“No. But whoever it is must be very rich. Prisons, even here, do not come cheap.”
“You said your cousin used to work there. What sorts of prisoners are kept at the place?” asked Nash.
“I can tell you that when the prison was sold, all the prisoners there at that time were sent to other places within Myanmar.”
“But why buy a prison with no prisoners?” said Nash. “As a private company you make your money by charging per prisoner, don’t you?”
“Oh, they have prisoners now. But where they come from?” Thura shook his head. “Nobody knows. They’re not from Burma. It is wild, man. My cousin told me that while he was there after it was sold, private jets came and private jets went. And on those jets prisoners come and prisoners stay, and the jets go back to where they came from.”
“Private jets?” said Nash.
“There’s an airstrip nearby. It is only for those who have permission. You do not have permission, man, they shoot your ass out the sky. Boom! My cousin finally quit last year because he said it was too stressful.”
“He must have seen the prisoners?”
“Yeah, but he was told to never talk about it. They were serious about that, real serious.”
“I suppose whoever owns the prison wants to keep all that a secret?” said Nash.
“Oh yeah. He can do what he wants, I guess. It is his place.”
“You know it to be a man?” said Nash sharply.
“No. I never tried to find out. It would not be good for me.”
“And yet here you are helping us,” said Temple.
