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"Evan, are you all right?"

"I guess I got carried away," I said We were back in our roo the table My head was throbbing, and hly and systematically worked over by a crew of bully boys froht up in the sound of ood I’ve got a killer headache and I can’t catch ot into et undressed," she said "I think you should get under the blankets"

"Maybe that’s not a bad idea," I ad off my clothes "I’ the ee over what those bastards did to that poor Australian kid, and chilled at the idea that it could have happened to me"

"You were very effective, Evan They were all ained a little in the translation," I said

"You stirred their passions, Evan"

"Well, that’s what passions are for," I said "To get stirred now and then They’ll be cal," she said, "they will attack"

"How’s that? They’ll attack what?"

"But he told you," she said "You do not reue there at the end, Katya I was ranting away, and the next thing I kneas back here in the rooe stuff"

"No, I think-"

"Tellon"

"We are all to arise at daybreak, Evan And overrun the government checkpoint, and then attack the enca"

"No, Evan You do not reested it"

"I did?"

"You said they must do it or they would not be realto it, now that she ht it?"

"So Ku Min sent a shipment of neeapons with the money from the heroin, and they are anxious to try theht, but the head ht"

"The voice of reason," I said "Jesus, Katya, I must have been out of my mind And they must have been twice as crazy to listen to me"

"Tell me how you feel, Evan"

"Lousy," I said "My headache’s worse and my muscles are sore And I’m hot and cold all at once, and I swear my bones ache It must be the shwe le maw I think the daht a bottle to the roo"

"No," she said "I am not It will help you, Vanya And there is soave ave us at the , it is not the food or drink or even the exciteives you a pain in your muscles and bones Don’t you see?"

I did, but I let her say it

"Vanushka, you haveby sunup I was in the lead car, the sayi This tiues, as were the driver and the two men in the backseat

Two jeeps rolled out behind us, and a pair of canvas-topped troop carriers followed in their wake

We rode past the Shan checkpoint and pulled up a overnment roadblock Half a dozen men dismounted from one of the troop carriers and disappeared into the brush on either side of the road The commander – his name, I’d finally learned, was Ne Win – passed out cheroots, and checked his watch as the , Ne Win asked me how I felt I was ht before, I added, and I hadn’t even recognized the symptoms as malaria

"Ah," he said "You have never had it before?"

"No"