Chapter One - Richard Lewis

"You won't be able to protect her forever, Tuan Reed," he said, a mockery now
layering his anger.
Reed swung Naniek to the coconut grove and the jeep.
"Let me go," she said, struggling.
"Don't be a fool," he said harshly. He pushed her into the front seat and whipped
the jeep across the grove, bouncing over ruts. Plowing through a patch of peanuts, the
jeep emerged in a cloud of dust on a village lane. Naniek held onto the dashboard, staring
straight ahead. Reed didn't say anything until he came to a stop in front of Parwati's
house.
"That farmer's good as dead," he said.
"Were you taking your photos?" she said with a clenched voice.
"No."
"Thomas Carlyle said in a time of revolution a father can eat his own children."
"Jesus, Naniek."
She jumped out and ran into the house.
Two afternoons later, stretched out upon his verandah couch, he idly watched a
house lizard stalking across the rafter toward an unsuspecting bug and debated whether
he should go out and buy the strongest moonshine arak he could find. Alcohol never
solved anything, but it was better than nothing.
The lizard crept closer. Reed's skin began to prickle, with that sixth sense of
being watched himself. Stalked by somebody. Ompreng? Rusty? Even this mysterious
Luhde Srikandi herself, poisoned dart at the ready? He casually turned his head toward
the verandah's side steps.
Sweat lined Naniek's forehead and dampened the collar of her blouse. Her bicycle
leaned against the stair's lower post. Oil from the gear chain had stained her trousers.
She didn't speak, held Reed's gaze, her expression unreadable.
"I didn't hear you come in," he said.
"You were muttering," she said. "You look fierce. Are you angry?"
"No," he said. Then, "Yes."
She slipped out of her canvas shoes and padded across the verandah to the railing,
where she stared down into the rushing stream. "Please go home, Reed."
"This is home."
She turned to him. "That farmer. He died before they could get him to the clinic."
"Nobody could have done anything for him."
"It wasn't meant to happen." A fire in those eyes, a hard line to her jaw. "I'm
afraid he won't be the only one."
"What's happened to Desak and Parwati?"
"Released. Lack of evidence. Please, Reed, leave us to our own revolution. Go to
your own people."
"I'm not going to leave you."
She glanced at her hands. "But I am leaving you. I've been called back to
Djakarta. I go tomorrow."
Reed absorbed that, a dud bomb that sank deep and then without warning
exploded. He jumped to his feet. "Aduh, where are my manners? Let me get you
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