The Glass Palace Chronicle

201 Austin sighed deeply. \"We'll just ask Miss Niagara Falls here what she wants to do with you.\" Paul looked across at her. \"Liebling, do stop crying. Did you come up here for the tapestry too?\" \"I can't. Of course I didn't. I came for you.\" \"Then why did you write that note?\" \"What note? Oh God, not the one in Rangoon? How do you know about that?\" \"I called Rebecca just now.\" \"The bitch!\" She began to sob in earnest. \"I wrote that note for them, not for you. They were all determined to stop me seeing you again. I didn't think you'd ever read it. The bitch! I suppose she told you about Adrian too?\" Paul didn't answer. He closed his eyes again and his face tightened with pain. \"Lay him down flat,\" said Tom. \"Put his head on your knees, right, like that. He'll be more comfortable that way. Less conspicuous too.\" \"Don't cry, little one,\" said Paul. His voice was barely above a whisper, and she had to bend forward to hear him. \"It doesn't matter about Adrian. I'll be fine. Give me your hand.\" The car turned out of the airport and accelerated away down the road. Behind them, the plane to Bangkok lifted off the runway and rose gracefully into the air. The argument in the airport forecourt came to a sullen end, someone handed over a couple of extra bahts, the onlookers straggled away. People wandered into the parking lot, there was a yell of surprise, a chorus of cries and questions, and then they began to drift across the car park to stand in a silent, curious semi-circle looking down at the corpse. *

202 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The following works were useful in preparing this book: Burma: Insurgency and the Politics of Ethnicity, Martin Smith, Zed Books, London and New Jersey, 1991; Land of Jade, Bertil Lintner, Kiscadale Publications, Edinburgh, 1990; Birmanie, E. Guillon and C. Delachet, Editions du Seuil, Paris, 1975; Pagan: L'Univers Bouddhique: Chronique du Palais de Cristal, P.H. Cerre and F. Thomas, Editions Findakly, 1987. Thanks are also due to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and the Observatoire Géopolitique des Drogues; to S. Aung, Claude Delachet-Guillon and, in particular, Nicolas Le Petit Prince, who were kind enough to put their considerable expertise on Burma at my disposal. Finally, I would like to thank my husband, whose interest in Burma initially kindled mine, and who was a source of unflagging encouragement and moral support before, during, and after the writing of this book.