Page 41 of Wired Strong

“Thank you. I wish there was more I could do, or say. I will find a way, as soon as I can, to do what must be done.”

“Three drops in each drink was what I gave Pim Wat’s plastic surgeons.” Kupa said. “More than that, and the poison might be detectable. Less than that, they could just be paralyzed, and not die.”

Connor nodded. “This is going to work.”

Kupa shrugged. “It will be what it will be.” There was a fatalistic note in her voice; she was prepared for death.

“Stay positive,” Connor said. “We’re going to get through this. Together.”

Kupa’s plump, collagen-filled lips formed a mirthless smile. “I know you will do your best.” She turned and slipped out the door.

Connor looked down at the bottle. Brown plastic, with a screw top—the type that aspirin came in before the label was applied.

He had asked the Master for a chess game tonight. Perhaps the chance to administer the poison would present itself, but in any case, he needed to find a way to remove the poison from the bottle, and carry it in to doctor their drinks or food less obviously than a palm-sized bottle half-full of clear liquid.

Connor went into the rustic bathroom, searching through the cabinet there for anything he could use to carry the poison in a more concealed way.Nothing.Being in the stone outhouse was like returning to the twelfth century. Perhaps Nam could find something appropriate in the kitchen. He rang for Nam; Kupa’s husband might as well know that the plan was a go.

* * *

Nam arrived more quicklythan Connor had anticipated, his normally calm face crinkled with worry. “She brought it to you?”

“She did. But I need to transfer it to something less obvious.” Connor frowned down at the bottle in his hand. “I wish we could test it, first, too.”

“I have been catching rats near the kitchen. We could administer it to one of them.”

“Good idea. Why don’t you find me some sort of spice jar or other container, and bring up a rat when you return.” The ghost of a smile tugged at Connor’s mouth. “Though I don’t know how you’re going to explain that.”

“We trap the rats and put them outside,” Nam said with dignity. “We only kill humans in this compound.”

Connor smiled at the black humor. “I will wait for our test subject,” he said.

An hour or so later, Nam, Nine, and Connor were looking at a large, brownish gray rat in a wire trap. The creature wasn’t frightened; it sat on its haunches and cleaned its whiskers. “It’s downright fat,” Connor said.

“The cooks put scraps outside the kitchen door for the animals,” Nine said. “They all deserve to live; they are moving up the wheel of reincarnation.”

“I wonder where on the wheel the rat is.” Connor had transferred the poison to a small bottle of ear wax dissolver that Nine had found in the community medicine cabinet. He’d refilled the original bottle to the same height with water, and handed it to Nam. “Get this back to Kupa. See if she can replace it before tonight.”

“I will.” The man whisked the bottle into his garments.

Connor used the eyedropper to draw up the poison, and administered one droplet carefully to a lump of natural cane sugar. He put the lump into the cage through the entry hole at the top. The rat picked up the lump of sugar in its front paws, and ate it quickly.

A moment later, the animal keeled over without a sigh or a spasm. Nam, Connor, and Nine stared at it. “Seems dead.”

Nam lifted the rodent by the tail and waggled it back and forth. “The poison’s a paralytic,” he said. “I can’t tell if it’s still alive.”

“Check for a pulse,” Connor said.

Nam felt the fur under the animal’s jaw for a long moment. “Nothing.”

The three men look at each other. “I will find a way to serve them tea as soon as I can,” Connor said.

Chapter Thirty-One

Pim Wat

Day 7

Pim Wat lookedout the window of the Yam Khûmk?n’s helicopter as it circled over her sister Malee’s adjoining properties on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand. As always, old memories rose up as she looked at the run-down family compound where Sophie had been born. Pim Wat and Frank had raised her for her first twelve years of life, living in close quarters with Malee and her family, until their divorce and Sophie’s departure for boarding school.

---