Chapter One - Richard Lewis

"I'll be at the market," she said. "I have some of that kue lapis you like." She
pinched his cheek and tottered down the road.
After fueling, the pickup zoomed past the Technical High School and turned into
an empty lot used as garbage dump, its headlights catching tattered plastic bags thick on
the ground. Nol recognized a few that he'd tossed there himself. Too bad none could be
magically transformed into cash. He rubbed his face. Fifty million.
His older sister Wayan was a well-to-do lawyer in Denpasar who handled Uncle
Dharma's land transactions, but he couldn't approach her either. She'd invested in his
submersible glass-bottom boat. The idea was sound, but unfortunately not the boat, which
on its first sea trial sank within minutes. Fortunately, Sudana, Nol's test pilot, got to the
surface of the shallow lagoon without trouble. No's sister demanded her money back.
Deeply offended, Nol explained to her that she'd only risked her money but Sudana had
risked his life.
There was the empty villa, but even if an rich Westerner handed over a full year's
lease without haggling about curtains and furniture and mosquito screens, that still
wouldn't come close.
Two more civil defense pickups pulled into the lot, as well as a police bus with
wired windows to carry away the girls they weren't going to catch. Dharma checked his
watch and gestured for his men to get ready. Their target was a mansion across the road
where the girls worked. During planning, floor plans and room diagrams had been
handed out, and men assigned to halls.
"Here goes nothing," Sudana said.
"At least we get to blow our whistles," Timon said.
"Stop yakking," Dharma snapped. "Everybody ready? Go!"
Nol raced through the gate with his squad, blowing his whistle. Dogs barked,
chickens squawked, half-naked men burst through various doors with clothes in hand and
sprinted for the walls. The screams of girls added to the cacophony. Nol ran up the side
stairs to the third floor thinking with some surprise that this raid was apparently going to
be a success. At his assigned room, he gave the locked door a solid kick, which didn't
yield. Nol hobbled in pain, cursing under his breath. Sudana kicked it open for him and
raced on. On the bed within, a girl jerked upright in shock, her eyes two big circles
above the white sheet she held up to her neck. Beside her a middle-aged tourist squinted
blearily. "What? What?" he squawked.
Why, the girl hardly looked any older than Dian, Nol thought as he limped into
the room. "How old are you?"
She coughed and whispered, "Nineteen."
"Where are you from?"
"Madura."
Her client reached for his glasses, a wedding ring glinting. He put on the glasses
and peered at Nol. "What? What?" Then a groan of "Oh, Christ."
Nol snatched the man's trousers, draped on the edge of a chair. "How long have
you been here?" he asked the girl.
"A week," she whispered.
"You should go home."
"I want to." Tears welled out of her eyes.
19