Read Thirty-Three Teeth for Free Online Page A

Laos.”
    “That’s right.”
    “So how did any soldiers get lost here?”
    “Perhaps they had their maps upside down.”
    “And do we actually have lost Americans here?”
    “I haven’t seen any. But you can never tell what the LPLA will get up to. The Yanks say they’ve got evidence that there are MIA’s held in camps up on the border.”
    “And they’re insisting…”
    “Yes. There’s a lot of political pressure over there to bring their heroes back home.”
    “Well, if they insist, I suppose we’ll have to cooperate.”
    “That’s right. Wouldn’t want them to start a war or anything.”
    “What do we get out of it?”
    “Aid.”
    “They’ve offered us aid?”
    “Yes.”
    “See? I told you they’d have guilty consciences.”
    By the time they’d plowed their way through the sandwiches and were enjoying some fruit, both men were in their undershirts and seriously thinking about joining Rajid in the murky water.
    “Any interesting dead people this week?”
    “Well, I’m sure you heard about the chap from Info and Culture.”
    “I read the first installment of the report. Can’t see any reason for the fellow killing himself, though.”
    “I think something happened up there that drove him to it. It’s the archive department. Do you know of anything official concerning the Royal Family?”
    “You mean, apart from stripping them of their titles, humiliating them in public, kicking them out of the palace, and stealing their money?”
    “Yeah, apart from that. Something concerning the DSIC.”
    “Why do you ask?”
    “There was a trunk up there with a royal seal. It was angry.”
    “An angry seal?”
    “No, the trunk was angry. I don’t know what was in it, but I felt an incredible force.”
    “Enough to throw a man off a roof?”
    “Could be.”
     
    It was two that afternoon when a second man found himself in a hurry to get away from the Ministry of Sport, Information and Culture. Despite falling four flights of stairs and landing on his head, Constable Nui somehow managed to cheat death. Much of him was broken, and there was some serious internal bleeding that needed emergency surgery to stem. But by five, it looked like he might make it through the night.
    Siri and Inspector Phosy stood at the end of the bed watching the constable’s wife and sisters setting up camp around him. With so few nurses available, families were encouraged to stay the night and look after their own. If they brought bedding, food, and any medicines they could lay their hands on, all the better.
    “We won’t be able to talk to him tonight,” Phosy whispered.
    “What was he doing up there?” Siri asked.
    Phosy led the doctor outside into the hall. “We’d just finished checking out the office. The only thing left was that box of yours. There wasn’t a keyhole or a catch or anything like that. There didn’t seem any way of opening it. So we sent Constable Nui off to get a crowbar.”
    “Risky.”
    “What would you have done?”
    “Left it well alone.”
    “Well, we couldn’t do that. This is a possible murder inquiry. Anyway, as we were on our way out, Nui passed us on his way in. I told him to open the chest and bring whatever was inside to the station. Next thing I hear, he’s face down on the fifth-floor landing.”
    “Did he get the chest open?”
    “No. There are splinters where he tried to force in the metal bar, but he didn’t make any impression on the lid. The trouble is, now none of our men are prepared to go anywhere near it. They say it’s jinxed. So it looks like I’ll have to do it myself.”
    “Phosy, can I ask you to leave it alone for a while? You’ll have to trust me about this. Give me some time to find out what’s in there, will you? Please?”
    “I shouldn’t.”
    “It’s really important.”
    Phosy thought about it. “I’ll give you three days. I can’t bluff beyond that. I’ll tell the boss it’s a national treasure and we have to wait for the