Free INTERZONE 253 JUL-AUG 2014 by Andy Cox Page B

pouch on his belt. “They send…”
    His voice faded.
    “Where there’s no water, nobody repairs the roads.” Narong returned to the knot. “Where the roads are bad, there are no maintenance trucks. Where there are no maintenance trucks, there is no signal.”
    The rope was so new it was slippery. Whoever tied it knew nothing about knots and had tried to compensate by tying several of them. Narong’s fingers weren’t as nimble as they once were.
    “Narong. I know your name.” Gehng returned to Thai. “So if you ever speak of what is in the truck, it will not be good for you and your village.”
    Narong tugged the last knot apart. He stepped back and looked at Gehng. He was more irked by Gehng’s omission of the respectful pee , the right of an older man, than by his empty threats. If whatever was under the tarpaulin was that important, Gehng wouldn’t admit he’d allowed Narong to see it. If Gehng reported to anyone who cared who said what in Ubon Ratchathani, he’d leave Narong out of the report.
    He looked at Angela with the secret surname, letting Gehng know it was obvious who was in charge here.
    “Go ahead,” she said.
    Narong allowed himself a trace of a smirk when he looked back at Gehng. A look that said if he was trying to impress Angela into giving him a bonus, he wasn’t doing very well so he could stop acting the phoo yai big man. Gehng’s eyes replied that he read the message and hated Narong for it, but realised his mouth would serve him best by staying shut.
    Narong glanced at Angela, whose expression hadn’t changed. She had seen nothing that passed between him and Gehng.
    Narong couldn’t resist a flourish when he threw back the tarpaulin, revealing the load to the children. The rock on the truck’s bed was matt grey. Its surface was bubbled as though it had been almost melted and then solidified. He touched one of the bubbles. It was as hard as stone. Some sort of polymer, he guessed. He looked up to the holes bored into the top of the rock and understood Gehng’s unease.
    Angela gave him a smile that didn’t quite touch her eyes. She obviously hoped an old man pushing a water barrow wouldn’t know what he was looking at.
    “Pity we can’t see it without the heat shield,” he said. “The children would appreciate the sparkle of enriched platinum ore. From an M-type asteroid.”
    Angela said nothing. Even though asteroid mining had produced enough metal to drop prices, he was looking at no less than five million dollars.
    “So that’s a crane in the trailer, and the parachute that was bolted to it?” he asked.
    Angela’s nod was minute. If she was trying to hide her thoughts, she wasn’t very good at it. She was wondering how an old peasant understood so much and wished he didn’t. She wouldn’t know Ubon Ratchathani had been a wealthy province twenty years ago. If the world had retreated from Ubon Ratchathani with the water, Ubon Ratchathani had not forgotten the world.
    The curved edge of the asteroid didn’t cover the toolbox panel, so they wouldn’t need to unload it. Still, some temptations couldn’t be resisted.
    “I’m not as young as I used to be,” he said to Angela. “Perhaps you could have your driver get the toolbox out?”
    Angela nodded. “Gehng.”
    The look on Gehng’s face gave Narong a memory to treasure.
    He turned back to Angela. “Your company sent you to recover it?”
    For a moment, her face showed the need to avoid the question battling the need to ingratiate herself with a possible rescuer. He waited until she nodded uneasily. “It was supposed to go into the Gobi Desert. That’s…”
    She waved a hand, wondering how to explain the geography.
    “In Mongolia,” he said.
    “Yes. Um. Well, something went wrong and it ended up in Thailand, so they sent us to get it.”
    “And take it to Cambodia,” said Narong.
    “Uh, no, I mean…”
    “You’re going the wrong way for Bangkok.” Narong was enjoying himself a little too much. “No