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“I figured. They’re already on it.”
“You’re a goddess, Selma.”
“Hardly.”
Sam paused. “How’s everything going with you?”
Her voice sounded serious. “I wouldn’t recommend this if you can avoid it. Hopefully, it won’t take much longer. It’s no joyride.”
When Sam disconnected, Remi was staring at him from across the room.
“Did I hear Lazlo’s name mentioned?” she asked.
“My old professor said that he’s about our best chance at decrypting the manuscript.”
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
Sam gave her a pained expression. “I wish I was.”
“What’s he doing after . . . the incident?”
“Well, he was fired. Nothing like a juicy scandal. Selma says he’s off in the Asian jungle trying to find some treasure he has a lead on.” Sam shrugged. “Why he had to pick the daughter of one of the most powerful newspaper magnates in England to . . . share his company with . . . is beyond me. Talk about bad decision making.”
Remi frowned. “I’ll say. Wasn’t she about eighteen? And what was he? Fifty?”
“I think more like late forties, but the booze, well, isn’t kind after a certain point. She was one of his freshmen students,” Sam confirmed. “And she was barely eighteen. But they both said it was consensual . . .”
“I’m sorry, Sam, but he deserved everything he got. And I’m saying that as someone who liked him.”
Sam nodded, noting her use of past tense. “And a drunk. No question. But he’s also a wiz at ancient documents, which is why George recommended him.”
Remi shook her head. “Don’t tell me we’re—”
“Going to have to find him.”
“The man’s a menace. He’s a walking disaster area. After sticking me on the ice and having me slide down a toilet chute, you’re going to ask me to go in search of some self-centered lush in . . . Where did you say he was last seen?”
“Laos.”
“As in Laos, a sweltering, dangerous hellhole on the other side of the world? That Laos?”
“I hear there are parts that are lovely,” Sam countered.
“Absolutely not. Not a chance. You are not going to sweet-talk me into going into the Golden Triangle to find him.”
“Remi . . .”
“Have you lost your mind? IT’S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. End of discussion, Fargo. I mean it.”
The G650’s tires screeched when they touched down on the scorching runway of Wattay International Airport in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. The flight from Mexico City had taken almost twenty-four hours, with a refueling stop in Hawaii. Kendra had arranged for the necessary permits for the plane to enter Laotian airspace and spend as much time as required on the ground there. The flight crew would remain in Vientiane, the nation’s capital, for as long as needed.
A car from the Salana Boutique Hotel was waiting at the terminal when they cleared customs. The room was adequate, not lavish, with marginal but functional air-conditioning. After long showers, they ate a light dinner and went to bed early, the half-day time difference between Mexico City and Vientiane hitting them both hard.
When they awoke after eleven solid hours of sleep, Sam called Kendra, who had found a guide to take them into the hills of Laos to the last place Lazlo had been seen. From what Selma had discovered, he’d arrived in Vientiane and spent a week getting outfitted, visited an acquaintance at the university there, and then gone north in search of whatever had captured his imagination. His last contact with the world had been a coll
ect call to his estranged brother, made from a pay phone in a small town on the banks of the Nam Song River, which was their ultimate destination: Vang Vieng.
The brother had reluctantly relayed the discussion to Selma. Lazlo had begged him to wire two thousand pounds to the Western Union in Vientiane a month and a half before to help fund his ongoing search and get him out of a “spot of trouble,” as Lazlo had put it. When pressed, he’d said that he’d run afoul of the law in Vang Vieng and would be escorted to Vientiane by the police so that he could pay the outstanding fine he owed. His brother had sent the two thousand with the warning that there would be no more money. Lazlo had assured him it would be more than sufficient and that he was close to a discovery which would end his ongoing financial difficulties forever and make the whole family rich.
