| Chapter
2
THE
GPS digital panel read N 11° 28' 22.0. and E 101°?
45' 17.7.. Six small black bar graph spikes appeared
on the panel, one after another, each one indicating
a connection had been made with a satellite. Each satellite
confirmed the co-ordinates. Two hundred dollars of GPS
had plugged into a multi-billion dollar grid. Unlike
the old days, when the best sailors would get lost,
the Sunday sailor now had an instrument that made certain
he would never be lost. The fading sun touched the horizon
of the sea. Nothing but water—no pattern, no design,
and no texture—and the sea was called the Gulf
of Thailand. The trawler could be anywhere, anytime,
any place—no land-marks to judge time or place.
Water stretching as far as the eye could see. The GPS
device allowed Captain Suthan to plot his trawler’s
position with an accuracy of thirty meters. He shook
his head. It was unbelievable to hold such an instrument.
No smuggler could ever have made a better investment.
From the center of the sun-reflected surface, a fishing
boat sped across the open waters. The boat approached
from the starboard side. Shielding his eyes against
the brilliant sunlight, he raised his binoculars. Captain
Suthan slowly pulled the focus sharp and tight, until
he gradually made out the outline of three men inside
the approaching boat. Two men huddled on a bench at
the bow while the third man crouched at the stern, operating
the outboard engine. The wind had died and as evening
came, the hot air cooled. From the quarterdeck of the
trawler, the captain watched the progress of the boat.
The man working the engine also had a GPS, the glass
catch-ing the reflection of sunlight. The captain slowly
lowered his binoculars and glanced at his watch, making
note of the time. The fishing boat had appeared exactly
on time. The rendezvous had been precise in place and
time.
Considerable
care had been taken in selecting the right location
for the rendezvous. Sailing too close to sea-lanes disputed
by Thailand, Cambodia, China, Vietnam or the Philip-pines
invited the attention of patrol vessels and inspection
by naval personnel. The captain had long experience
in these waters and knew the risks of being spotted
and stopped had grown after 9/11 and exploded after
the school burnings, bombings, and killings in the southern
provinces. It was a time of turmoil and suspicion and
crackdowns and strange, terrifying diseases. Being at
sea, one felt safe, isolated from all the threats, Captain
Suthan thought. His pulse quickened. His trawler had
entered a zone of danger.
Few of the safe harbors from the old days remained.
Places where smugglers operated with the kind of liberty
that was unlikely to return in this life. Technology
had cut both ways. While it was easy never to become
lost, it was more difficult to not be found. Through
his binoculars, the captain scanned the horizon for
any other vessels. He saw nothing but the vast, open
sea. He called down to the men to prepare for the fishing
boat coming alongside. He had informed his crew only
an hour before that they would be taking on board a
man who was in need of urgent medical assistance. How
did he know this? Captain Suthan had told his crew that
he’d received an SOS call about the medical emergency.
As the captain, he had a duty as the closest ship in
the vicinity to give aid and assistance. This was a
rescue procedure and the crew would assist in doing
their job.
Questions
immediately came into the minds of some members of the
crew. No one else on board had heard the emergency call
come over the radio. How could such a call come from
such a small craft as was approaching? Small fishing
boats didn’t have such advanced electronic equipment.
The captain assured them the fishing boat had taken
the ailing man from a larger trawler. Why hadn’t
this trawler helped the man? Why had they put him on
a fishing boat? Those amongst the crew with these questions
kept them to themselves. The atmosphere on the trawler,
as they waited, grew tense; the men waited, watching
the fishing boat as it closed in.
The
captain ordered the crew to keep their distance from
the sick man. He was infected. But the captain didn’t
say what disease the man in the fishing boat carried
and was bringing onto the trawler. The captain used
the Thai word tid-rok. This was a nicely vague term.
It could have meant anything from diseases such as AIDS
or malaria, to the bird flu. Rumors had circulated that
SARS had re-emerged out of China and people were dying.
More rumors circulated that bird flu had mutated with
ordinary flu. And no one was certain if the authorities
had covered up the latest outbreak. It didn’t
take much imagination for the crew to assume the man
coming onto the trawler had something deadly, something
that might infect them.
Heaven Lake Press (2004), 305 pp.
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