We have all the guards and staff hide inside one of the bedrooms as we go past the border station. Andrea works her magic and now the door to the room from the cabin of the cat looks exactly like a wall. The border agents don’t look at it twice. Once we’re through, we find a nice enough looking town in Myanmar. With their payoff, and a little petty cash that we pulled together, they should be able to get anywhere they want within a few days.

“So the rest of the trip is scrapped, right?” Evan observes.

“Obviously,” Louise replies.

“Maybe we can reschedule it for a few years from now,” he says hopefully.

“Sure,” she says. “If the Chinese buy our story and don’t think we’re terrorists or enemies of the state or whatever.”

“It’s OK,” I interject. “With the filters in the river, we got most of the work we needed done. Whatever gets dumped upstream won’t cause anywhere near the damage it used to. Let’s just get back home as fast as we can.”

Nobody objects. Evan and the guides get all the boats moving downstream at top speed.

I get on my tablet and start making arrangements. Cindy will get the family jet to the nearest airport that can handle it, the Hauy Xai airport in Laos. Even at our fastest, it’ll be a couple of days until we get there. Sheryl will contact the media and the Chinese government and get our official story out there before any other news about it can break. We’ll use Chad's heroic accidental death as the excuse for cutting the trip short.

I put the tablet down and go to check on Keeya and Lucie. I have to walk past Chad’s coffin on their deck to get to them. They’re in their room with Andrea, the door halfway open. Keeya waves me in when I step near the threshold.

“How are you two holding up?” I ask. I never know what to say in situations like this, so the best I can think of is just to check up on them.

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“We have seen better days,” Keeya replies.

“Like every day of our lives before yesterday,” Lucie adds.

Keeya barks out a half-laugh, half-sob. “Yes, like all of those.”

“We’re going straight back to the Butler Institute campus once we get to the Hauy Xai airport,” I tell them. “Would you like to come along? You’re welcome to stay as long as you like. Unless you have things you need to deal with back in Africa...”

I trail off, not knowing what else to say.

“We should get back and close out the work that Chad was scheduled to do,” Keeya says. “Your offer is kind, though. We would like to visit once things have settled down.”

“We’ll be happy to see you again,” I say.

I sit with them for a while after that, none of us saying anything.

“How is Lin doing?” Lucie finally asks.

“I wish I knew,” I answer. “She was having a tough time this morning, and hasn’t felt like talking much today.”

“You should go be with her,” Keeya says. “We will be fine here. We have Andrea to entertain us.”

Andrea nods and flicks her fingers. A cartoonishly young and skinny Chad in a tank top appears in the air. A set of dumbbells appears and the figure struggles to lift one of them. After a few tries, his arms visibly swell and he starts lifting them easily.

“So that’s when he started weight training,” Lucie says. “Did he ever say why?”

A wall materializes behind the Chad cartoon. A poster of a ridiculously proportioned woman in a bikini appears on it.

Lucie barks out a laugh. A few tears stream down her cheek. “That is so very much our Chad.”

Keeya nods.

As much as I’d like to stay and watch Andrea’s animated version of Chad’s life, Keeya is right. I should go check on Lin. I leave the three of them and make my way to Louise’s boat.

I pass Yang Song who is sitting at a shaded table on the deck, staring into the distance. If she notices me, she doesn’t give any indication of it. I find Lin inside the cabin, sitting on the floor with her back to the wall.

“You mind some company?” I ask her. She looks up at me and nods. I sit down next to her. She puts her hand on mind and grips it firmly.

“Want to talk about any of it?”

She shakes her head. “Not yet. Just stay here with me,” is all she says. So I do. I stay there the rest of the day.