Some truths – and some new troubles – get added to the mix.
Also, thank all that's good and holy for the internet. How did people write before they could do research via Wikipedia? Yes, I am old enough to have lived in libraries and learned to use card catalogs and all the rest, but still...
Enjoy!
A footstep outside was the only warning before the sound of a key in the lock to the door echoed loudly in the dark room. Hadji swiftly gave up his failed lock-picking and slipped the straight pins back into the folds of his turban. A moment later, all three men blinked at the sudden light from the hallway.
"All of them," said a gruff voice, and the three were each yanked to their feet by a guard. Blair twisted in the grip that held him. "If that one tries to escape again, shoot him in the foot," the leader of the guards said sharply.
"All right," Blair went limp in the grip that held him. "No shooting. But ease up, will you?"
"Our new friend reminds me of someone," Doctor Quest said softly to Hadji, whose eyes met his with a wry amusement.
"More than one someones, I believe," he replied.
"No talking!" One of the guards cuffed Hadji sharply. He hissed in surprise but made no aggressive move. Doctor Quest clenched his jaw but knew objecting would only make it worse for them both.
The three were dragged by their armed guards through a narrow hallway into an open quadrangle bordered on each side by a metal trailer. A doorway on the other side was standing open.
"It's so nice to see you again, Mister Sandburg," commented a cold voice.
"Yeah, because last time was so much fun," Blair rolled his eyes as he was shoved into a chair.
Benton took in the room in a glance. It was a strange mix of what he would have called a war-room, complete with maps and a weapons rack, but there were piles of books and papers, too; if a war-room could have been merged with a messy scholarly archive, it might look like this. There were three doors, one from which they had entered and one each on the walls to the left and right. Guards were posted at each, and the three guards who had escorted them stood behind the chairs in which they were made to sit. No real opportunity to escape yet, then.
He turned his attention to the man who was clearly in charge. Benton cataloged the immediately obvious traits – short-cropped black hair, dark eyes, medium build, tanned skin. But he held himself with the same casual rigidity that Race did, and the lines of the crew cut were familiar, too. He wore the same dark green uniform as everyone else with no particular insignia, but Benton wouldn't expect one. This wasn't an official force.
"You're a mercenary," Benton said.
"I prefer to think of it as a specialized form of private security. Security is big money these days, you know. And the more specialized the need, the more they pay." The smile was almost genial, neither predatory nor mocking.
"Is that all this is worth to you? Money?" Blair wrinkled his nose.
"I like to think so. Of course, there's the thrill of adventure as well. You'd all know something about that, wouldn't you?"
Benton kept his face neutral.
"Oh, I know who you are, Doctor Benton Quest. If you want to remain anonymous, you ought to avoid being on the cover of quite so many magazines. Though I don't believe we've had the pleasure," he leaned close to Hadji.
Benton longed to shove the man away from his adopted son but quelled the instinct. He couldn't let himself be bested in this dangerous game at all, and certainly not in the opening rounds.
"My name is Hadji Singh," he spoke up calmly, and Benton silently blessed Hadji for leaving out the rest of his name. "I am a research assistant to Doctor Quest."
"Wrong place, wrong time," the man shook his head. "Well, we do a lot of research around here, so perhaps you'll still have your chance to be helpful."
"I look forward to it, sir." The words were polite, but the tone was subtly accusing.
"If I had known the great Doctor Quest would have been joining us, I might have arranged for better accommodations. As it stands, I can't spare a great deal of space for you. However," his eyes narrowed, "your reputation precedes you. Too many times others have underestimated your legendary resourcefulness. Believe me right now that I will not make the same mistake. And if you take my resolve for granted, you will regret it."
"What do you want here?" Benton asked sharply. He could see Blair Sandburg cringing and mentally tallied the situation. Blair could not be older than thirty, which made Benton want to take a position as leader and primary antagonist to their captors to deflect attention from the younger two. However, he was also the unwelcome guest and dared not give their captors reason to decide he was too much trouble to keep alive. Blair had proven spirited enough to talk back, but Benton wondered how much he really knew about the danger they were in.
"All that time to get acquainted and you didn't mention it?" the man raised an eyebrow at Blair. "No matter. You, Doctor Quest, are not really a part of this. I can't just let you go, obviously, but I'm sure I can find a way to turn a profit from your unexpected presence." He moved to lean on the desk. "No, all I really require is the presence of Mister Sandburg."
"You're insane if you think I'm going to help you!" Blair exploded. "No way, man!"
"You're smarter than this," he sneered. "Do I have to make it explicit? Again?"
A lightning-quick glance passed between Benton and Hadji but they held still.
"Yes." Blair raised his chin defiantly.
"You will do what you are told," the man said, almost bored, "or it'll come out of the flesh of one of your new friends. I've heard about your sympathy for victims of crime, Sandburg. Do you have less for these two?"
Blair closed his eyes. Of course he knew this would happen. There was no other real possibility. It wasn't like the guy hadn't used Doctor Stoddard against Blair before. But he couldn't allow himself to agree without that threat. He needed it to be clear to himself and the Quests that he was only acting because he had no choice.
"Blair," Doctor Quest spoke softly. "You do not have to do this, whatever it is. Not for us."
"Sure I do," he grinned recklessly and without any humor in it at all. "The only way my academic standing will get any lower is if I let anything happen to the great Doctor Quest. Can't have that." He turned to their captor with a stony expression. "You got me. I'll do whatever you ask. But I'm going to need help. Doctor Quest and Hadji can work with me. And then I'll know you aren't going back on our deal."
"You can have the boy," the mercenary offered. "Doctor Quest is worth too much to let loose in my compound."
"Doctor Quest?" Hadji asked. He didn't verbalize the rest of his question, but his adopted father heard it anyway.
"It's all right, Hadji. I'll be fine."
"He better be," Blair muttered.
"It's getting late tonight for you to return to your work," the man smiled almost kindly. "I'll make sure the three of you get something to eat. But be ready to move before first light. You will not be idle much longer, Blair Sandburg and Hadji Singh. I promise you that."
-==OOO==-
"So what's the plan?" Jim found himself asking.
Race raised an eyebrow at him but actually tipped his head to Jonny and Jessie who were huddled over a laptop. They had traded in the pair of longboats for a flat barge-like boat that sat high in the water and could be moved either with the high-class motor or by rowing and poling. Their supplies were carefully packed in several water-tight boxes. Jim was more than a little impressed not just with the preparation but with the quality of the supplies. Cascade PD couldn't have gotten anything like this without killing the year's budget. He wondered what had made Race bring such a boat along, and if he had been expecting to need it.
"Race said that Doctor Stoddard went into the water around midnight," Jessie said. "We're running simulations of the river's current and speed to see if we can backtrack where we found him to the approximate place he started from."
"You can do that?" Jim was surprised.
Jonny looked up at him and frowned sharply. "Of course we can."
"Knock off the attitude, Jonny," Race said mildly. "He's not used to kids smarter than most adults."
"The only problem is we don't know which tributary we should be looking at," Jessie said. "The Baleh River is only one of a bunch of different ones that feed into the Rajang River. If we can't narrow it down, we'll have to search all of them."
"Not necessarily," Race said. "Doctor Stoddard mentioned something that might help. He said Blair tied him to the log using his jacket."
"But there wasn't a jacket on him when we found him," Jonny said. Then his eyes brightened. "You think it came off at some point."
"It's a long-shot," Race nodded, "but it's better than nothing."
"I might be able to help," Jim offered carefully. At three curious glances, he deliberately relaxed his body, suddenly grateful for Sandburg's many lectures on the impact of body-language on perception. If he didn't look tense, they might overlook their mistrust a little.
"How?" Jessie asked.
"You know how cops get hunches, right?" he asked, deciding the "I'm a psychic" they'd pulled on Megan Connor was not his best bet.
"Sure," Jonny shrugged. "Dad says it's a combination of natural intuition plus processing sensory information differently or subconsciously. He's done a few studies of it."
"Yeah, something like that," Jim accepted the answer readily. "Whatever it is, I'm good at it. When we get to a place where we have to decide, maybe I'll get a hunch."
"I'd rather go on more than your gut, if you don't mind." Race's voice was icy. "Especially since we don't really know anything about you. You could be one of the guys who took Stoddard in the first place for all we know."
"Hey, that's my partner out there!" Jim scowled.
"Yeah, and you still haven't given us a good reason why he's out here," Race shot back. Jessie and Jonny exchanged looks. Jonny eased his way back to the motor and Jessie took over the laptop completely, leaving Race free to stand and face Jim fully.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Let's get one thing straight here, detective," Race's face was dark with anger. "I'm all for helping somebody who's in trouble. Heck, we've practically made a career out of it. But the numbers don't add up and I don't like it."
Jim felt with a keen lance the lack of Blair at his side – this was exactly the kind of posturing he usually interrupted with a defusing joke and a reasonable word. Jim was a fighter; it was Blair who kept the peace. Instead, Jim's anger rose to meet Race's.
"I'm not the only one keeping secrets," Jim accused. "I don't care if you trust me or not. If I say they're that way," he pointed vaguely, "either you believe me and follow or drop me off and go wherever you want. I only really need the ride. I can get Blair out without your help."
"And leave Benton and Hadji behind?" Race growled. "How heroic."
"How do I know they're not the ones behind this in the first place?" Jim grit out. He actually did know from listening to them talk at the hospital, but he was angry enough not to care.
"They're not!" Jonny shouted, suddenly standing up, his eyes flashing. "My dad is a scientist, not a kidnapper!"
Jessie dove for the motor Jonny had abandoned in his rage, keeping them more or less on course. But that didn't prevent her from looking at Jim with a suppressed ire of her own. "Whoever is behind this took your friend and you won't tell us why. Now our friends are missing, too. If it's anybody's fault, maybe it's yours!"
Her words hit so close to the truth they struck Jim like a physical blow. Blair was in danger – again – because of the Sentinel thing. Jessie was more right than she could have imagined.
"All right. That's enough," Race snapped. He let out a long, deliberate breath. "What we do know is that your friend Blair is connected to this somehow. We know they wanted him, not Stoddard. The doc told us as much. With Benton and Hadji, they were probably just caught up in it without meaning any harm. Or maybe they witnessed something – we did have a lot of observational tech out there." He levied a glare at Jim. "So that makes this a lot more in your court than ours. However, your story checks out okay, and my gut says you aren't part of whoever is behind this."
Jim lowered his chin once signaling a certain amount of agreement.
"But we're not on your turf, detective. This isn't Cascade. Jonny and Jessie and me – this isn't our first rodeo like this."
"It's not mine, either," Jim said firmly. He knew Race had seen at least part of his service record, even if Race didn't know he knew, but that won a nod anyway.
"We are going to have to work together if we're going to get anywhere. All of us," Race glared at the teens too. "No more laying blame. Unless somebody in this boat hired these guys for a kidnapping spree, which I really doubt, we're on the same side."
"And I need you to trust me," Jim said again. "Or let me off when it happens. I don't care which."
Race stared at Jim for a long moment. Then he looked to Jonny.
"What would your dad say, kid?"
"He'd say we only have so much to go on," Jonny answered slowly, "and any lead might be the right one. Dad gets hunches, too."
"Don't I know it?" Race shook his head, a small smile fighting the strong lines of his face. "All right." He met Jim's eyes. "But when we get our people back, I want a real answer to what's going on here."
"When we get Blair back, I'll let him tell you whatever you want to hear," Jim answered. He thought his partner would have been proud of that bit of obfuscation.
-==OOO==-
Back in their cell, Benton and Blair were re-handcuffed in front. While the guards remained posted, one holding a gun pointed ominously towards Hadji to dissuade any thoughts of rebellion, another soldier appeared with some basic rations. In moments, the three were alone in the dim cell once more.
"Oh, man," Blair ran his hands through his wild curls. "I'm so sorry, Doctor Quest. I never meant for any of this –"
"Recrimination will not help us now," Hadji said firmly. "The past is gone and now is a new moment. We cannot waste time on what could have been. We must focus on the path at our feet before it begins to move without us and we lose our way." He poked at the foods they had been offered, dividing the wrapped, military-type rations into thirds and passing them out.
"Hadji's right," Benton said. "So let's all work together here." He took a breath. "Blair, does all of this have anything to do with your dissertation?"
"My...what?" Blair asked weakly.
Benton held up his cuffed hands in a quelling motion. "Almost nothing happens in academics without me hearing about it, Blair. It didn't hit the national circles until about a month ago, but I am well aware of who you are and the study that resulted in a media circus."
"So you know I'm a fraud." If possible, Blair shrank even more, his shoulders curling in with defeat.
"No. I know for certain that you are no such thing."
Blair's head shot up so fast he almost banged it on the wall behind him. "What?"
"After hearing about your public statement, I took the liberty of familiarizing myself with your work to date, including the unreleased, full copy of the dissertation draft," Benton said levelly. "It made for good reading on the way down here for the both of us. And now that I have met you, I feel quite certain that the show you put on at the press conference was just that – a show. Wouldn't you say so, Hadji?"
"Yes, Doctor Quest," the Indian smiled warmly across the room at Blair. "Your academics are unsurpassed in their rigor and presentation, and it is apparent to me that you are an honest and determined individual. I believe only something more important to you than your studies could have driven you to sacrifice your career and the many riches that awaited you. And as money clearly does not motivate you, your choice to discredit yourself could only have come from your heart."
"I...you knew all along?" Blair asked, swallowing thickly.
"From the moment I saw you in the jungle, yes," Doctor Quest confirmed. "Which is why we trusted you."
"I did not recognize you as quickly, but I can recognize your spirit. A man who throws away millions of dollars and a Nobel Prize for the sake of a friend is a man I will not doubt even in the darkness of uncertainty," Hadji added.
Blair felt his face grow hot under their identical knowing, approving smiles. Three weeks in Cascade of being sneered at in the street had been healed somewhat by a month in a country that didn't know him from any other American, but the open and fully cognizant reception from one of the foremost scientists of any discipline in the world was almost too much. They had read everything, probably from his undergrad research through the dissertation itself, and they understood.
"Do I even want to know how you got your hands on my research?" he asked with a suddenly dry throat.
"No, probably not," Hadji said. He shrugged. "As with most such things, it is often easier not to ask. Particularly when it comes to sensitive information."
"What you have endured is something I have done myself a time or two, if not so dramatically," Benton said softly. "There are some files we seal not because they would not be of academic interest, but because they would be of too much interest for the wrong reasons. A scientist must keep his mind rational and objective, but a man who is a scientist can never forget that his work has applications and consequences after he walks away."
"Man, you are preaching to the choir here," Blair managed finally. "But then you know my friend Jim..."
"May we assume that Jim is a full Sentinel as you wrote?" Hadji asked.
Blair nodded. "Yes. And he's probably on his way here now. I didn't call him on time to check in. He won't just wait around."
"Good," Doctor Quest nodded. "We've got friends out there, too. Between them, I think we stand a very good chance of being rescued. Assuming we cannot free ourselves first, of course."
"Not going to happen any time soon," Blair looked meaningfully at the thick door.
"Then perhaps we can focus on the 'why' of our situation and work on the 'how' later," Hadji suggested. "Am I correct in assuming that your presence here has something to do with your research into Sentinels?"
"Yeah," Blair said heavily. "Sunshine out there is demanding that I teach him everything I know about them, from what they can do to how to disrupt their senses and shut them down. And," he licked his lips nervously, "he knows way too much about Sentinels to be getting this just from my stuff. I think he's talking about more than hypotheticals here."
"But to what purpose?" Benton wanted to know. "There just aren't that many Sentinels in the world – you wrote it yourself that you only ever found one good subject."
"Sure, but there are lots of people with one or two enhanced senses. They'll be thrown off just the same."
"So we have one mercenary, whom you have dubbed 'Sunshine,'" Hadji smiled a little wryly, "and what seems to be a fairly large contingent of loyal soldiers, all here to gain knowledge of Sentinels from you? That's an extensive operation for some relatively obscure knowledge that has been recently debunked in the public media."
"Which is what worries me," Blair nodded. "I've seen terrorist outfits before. This one is probably the best organized of them. Almost military good, if you know what I mean."
"I do. Organization like this implies resources," Benton said. "We must be very careful. Until we know who is behind Sunshine's financing and motives, we are at a disadvantage. Our first priority must be staying alive and unharmed. Our second is escape."
"And our third is keeping as much about Sentinels away from those people as possible," Blair said firmly. "And if it comes down to it, I'd rather die than betray Jim."
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that, then," Hadji said quietly.
-==OOO==-
It was deep into the night when Jim's hearing, which he'd dialed up almost as much as he could stand without zoning, twigged to something out of the ordinary. He rose to stand up on the flat deck of the boat to listen more closely.
"There's...something," he said softly. "Something ahead and to the right."
"The map says there's a tributary up there," Jonny said, flicking on a tiny pen-light.
"Look!"
At Jessie's cry, Race swept his flashlight in the direction she pointed. Where another river flowed into theirs, caught in the roots at the edge of the water was what could only be a green jacket.
"Well, I'll be," Race felt a warm sort of anticipation in his stomach. "Looks like your hunch checks out," he glanced to Jim. The pale starlight was just enough for him to make out a tiny smile on the detective's face. "Let's go."
-==OOO==-
A banging woke the three from the light daze they had fallen into, the small metal room not being exactly conducive to comfortable sleeping. A moment later, the door opened abruptly.
"Looks like you've got one more for a little while," the guard taunted. He flung a bound form in and shut the door again.
Blair, Hadji, and Benton all moved quickly to the person curled on the floor. It was Blair who touched the bare arm and recoiled as if burned. "You're..."
"I try to save you," coughed a voice Blair had come to know a little. "It seems I fail."
"Jaga?" Blair asked. "How...? Why...?"
"More importantly," Doctor Quest interrupted. "Are you hurt anywhere?"
"No," the man sat up. There was a dim light from the crack around the door that illuminated him. He looked not much older than Hadji himself. He was dressed in the manner of the indigenous people of the area, wearing long, sturdy trousers so threadbare and stained as to be almost indistinguishable from the mud. He was bare-chested, his skin streaked with the debris of the forest floor and still wet in patches. His long, dark hair was tied back with a woven thong. His face was round but his nose was sharp like a hawk's, giving him a strong, focused air that was reinforced by his even, stoic expression.
"This is Jaga," Blair said. "He was the person I came here to meet for my research. He learned English from the missionaries, but he lives with the local peoples upriver."
"So Jaga is a Sentinel," Hadji concluded. "Then, if I may ask, sir, how did they catch you?"
"I am still without Nyineng. When I followed sound into darkness, there was none to pull me back." Jaga leaned on Hadji as he pulled himself to a sitting position.
"Nyineng?" Doctor Quest repeated the word.
"I never got all the details," Blair put in, "but as near as I can figure, he means a partner like what I do for Jim. Somebody to talk him through a zone-out and bring him back."
"No, Sang Kancil," Jaga shook his head. "You still fail to understand the Nyineng."
"All the same, why did you come here?" Doctor Quest asked. "How did you even find us?"
"I am Sentinel," Jaga answered. "When Sang Kancil taken from us, I follow. The blackness makes for slow journey, but the spirits always return me in time."
"Jaga," Blair said, dropping his tone to the same one he used when running Jim through a test. It was lower and more even, like what someone leading a guided meditation or hypnosis session might use. "What can you hear now? I will bring you back from the black if you listen to me."
"The man whose voice is firmest gives orders," Jaga said after a moment of quiet. "He says no point in waiting now. Time to signal for transport."
"They're going to move us," Doctor Quest said.
"They waiting for me," Jaga added. "Or maybe one like me. But with me, no reason to wait."
"Oh, man," Blair huffed. "They wanted Jim. They wanted a full Sentinel."
"And now they have one," Doctor Quest added lowly.
"Do not fear, Sang Kancil," Jaga said. "He will come. He will not leave his Nyineng with these men."
"No, see, that's exactly what I'm worried about," Blair scrubbed at his face.
-==OOO==-
The noise reached Jim far too soon for him to be able to do anything about it. He waited, gritting his teeth against the knowledge until at last he broke down. "I hear helicopters."
"Where?" Race asked, immediately switching off his flashlight.
"I don't hear anything," Jessie shook her head.
"Trust me," Jim said firmly. "Two of them, way up there," he pointed forward. "We've got to hurry."
Race looked at him for a long moment before he moved to the stern of the boat. "Everybody hang on." And he cranked the motor to its full speed.
As the craft skipped over the waves, Jonny stood up and moved to Jim's side. "You can really hear that far?"
"Sometimes."
"Helicopters means they're moving out, doesn't it?"
"Yes."
"And what will they do with my dad and Hadji when they do?"
"If we're lucky," Jim said honestly, "they won't get away before we get there."
"And if they do?"
"Jonny, is your dad important?" Jim asked bluntly.
"I think it's okay if you want to trust him, kid," Race offered from behind them.
"Yeah," Jonny let out a long breath. "My dad is Doctor Benton Quest. And Hadji's really my brother."
"The name doesn't mean anything to me," Jim shrugged, "but I take it it should?"
"We'll give you the whole scoop later," Jessie answered. "But he's a big deal to a lot of important people, yes."
"Then the next best case is that they take them with them." Jim looked at the kid, dialing up his eyesight so he could read his expression more clearly. Jonny couldn't be more than eighteen years old, but his face held courage and realism well beyond his years. Jim had seen that look on experienced soldiers after two tours, not fresh recruits.
Race spoke up. "If they know Benton is worth the risk of having him, they're not going to hurt him, Jonny."
"What if they don't? And what about Hadji?"
"We'll jump off that bridge when we get there," Race answered.
They rounded a bend in the river and the sudden light after the darkness made everybody flinch, particularly Jim as he rapidly dialed down his vision. But because of that control, he was quickly able to peer through the swimming lights. Two enormous helicopters were right near the water's edge where a big area had been cleared for them under the pretense of a lumber yard. Telescoping his vision even farther, he could see four figures being shoved into one of them. The first was a local tribesman. The next was a man with Jonny's same nose and jawline. After that was a dark-skinned young man wearing a turban. The last was Blair.
"Hurry!" Jim shouted. "They're already getting ready to take off!"
"We're too late!" Race replied sharply. He turned the boat just before a sweeping searchlight hit them, and Jim didn't need Sentinel senses to know that gunfire was imminent.
"We've got to do something!" Jonny yelled. "They're taking dad and Hadji away!"
They all flattened out at the hail of bullets that ripped through the night. A sound under all that seemed to poke through the noise to Jim's ears and he focused on it.
"What is it?" Blair was asking.
"Sounds like Race," a man's voice said. "But unless he brought an army, I think we're out of luck for a rescue tonight."
"Jim, if you can hear me," Blair pitched his words a bit louder and Jim latched onto that familiar voice like a lifeline. "Stay away. They want Sentinels. Please stay away."
"He can hear you even through all this?" asked an accented younger voice.
"It's possible. I hope so." Blair sounded so disheartened it twisted in Jim's gut.
"If that's the case, if you are listening, Detective Ellison, please tell Race to back off. There will be another opportunity to free us. We are not in immediate danger. He knows how to find us, and we'll get our own chances, too. And goes double if he's got Jonny and Jessie with him." The firm calm in the man's voice reassured Jim.
"Jim, you can trust Race Bannon. Doctor Quest already knows about you. Trust them. Let them help you. Don't," Blair's voice broke off for a moment and Jim could almost feel the fear he was biting back, "don't give up but don't get hurt. Okay?"
The words cut off as the enormous helicopter launched into the sky.
"We've got to move fast!" Jonny was shouting. "They're already taking off!"
"But there's no way we can catch up now!" Jessie protested.
"Maybe we can find out who they are if we can get to whatever they leave behind, then!" Jonny pointed out.
"There's another way," Jim found himself saying, his own voice rock-solid and steady. He extended his vision fully. "Those are MI-26 choppers, and their markings are from Brunei. There aren't many like that. We can track them that way."
"Better than getting ventilated," Race nodded. "We'll hide out of sight until they leave and see what we can find." He backed off with the boat until they were well out of range of the shooting. Turning off the motor, all four silently poled it into the deep shadows of some overhanging trees while in the distance the second helicopter followed the first and the compound fell silent. Still, Race, Jessie, and Jonny couldn't help but stare after the first helicopter long past when any of them could have seen it.
Jim's sense of smell twigged. "Get down!" he roared. All four dove to flatten themselves on the deck, Race tucking each of the kids against him and covering their heads.
A moment later, the false lumber yard exploded.
"Thanks for the warning," Jessie said.
"Dad and Hadji?" Jonny asked worriedly.
"No, they were on-board the first helicopter, so they're fine," Jim assured him firmly. "Those guys were just shooting at us to cover their escape. And from the looks of things, that whole area's going to burn for hours. We won't get anything out of it now."
"So much for that lead, then." Turning back down the river, Race got the boat moving fast again. "I'll call ahead and have that pilot ready to get us from Song to Kuching. It's four or five hours for a chopper that size to get from here to Brunei. And I think I can get us a ride from Kapit to Song if I call in a favor. We won't be too far behind them."
"Detective Ellison," Jessie spoke quietly, "how did you know what kind of helicopter that was? And how could you tell they were from Brunei?"
Sandburg, Jim thought with a rush of anger and fear and something else he didn't care to identify right that moment, you better be right about these people. You just better be right.