The Genesis Illusion

Chapter 9

Golden Triangle, Northern Myanmar

The red dirt road through the hilly terrain made dusty driving. Several look-outs armed with Chinese automatic weapons scanned the brush on both sides, in front and to the rear of the large four-wheel-drive truck partially covered with an old green canvas tarp. A young shirtless Burmese man drove too fast for the rutted path that wasn't wide enough for even a car. Yeo Oo uncomfortably occupied the passenger seat where he fought to keep from hitting his head on the cab ceiling when the truck hit one of the deep holes filled with water.

Crates of 'Magic' pills manufactured at the super laboratory near a small village they had left a short time earlier filled the truck bed. The trip to the Chinese border would only take a few hours more but government militias were roaming the area. These corrupt armies were the only law within hundreds of miles. It wasn't always clear if they were supporting the government crackdown or working for the powerful drug lords that controlled much of the region. I may need to offer them some of our cargo for a bribe.

Massive quantities of methamphetamine (meth) produced in Myanmar traveled this same road to reach China for distribution regionally and worldwide. The primary ingredient for the production process was the inexpensive common pharmaceutical chemical: pseudoephedrine. Tons of this chemical arrived in Myanmar each year from China and nearby India. Meth is highly profitable and preferred by drug lords since large numbers of farmers are unnecessary to tend crops like heroin. Easily shipped anywhere in the world, enormous profits attract the most ruthless distributors.

A relatively new drug, Magic, became the preferred illegal drug in only five short years. It was cheap like meth and used the same main ingredient. A secret process limited production to a single super laboratory in northern Myanmar. Drug users preferred it because of its amazing 'high' and low cost.

Magic and Meth competed for the same customers creating a war among the thousands involved in the lucrative trade, each group defending its part of the billion dollar pie. Drug traffickers in the Golden Triangle, a lawless region of northern Myanmar-Laos-Thailand, fought with each other and government authorities making the area one of the most dangerous in the world.

One of the truck look-outs said in the local tribal language, "I see something over there. In the trees on the right side."

Yeo said, "Be ready. Watch all around." Yeo lived in the village near the super lab. He hadn't any formal education, but he was street smart. He spoke both Myanmar and the local tongues. His dependability had given the bosses reason to make him the foreman of the delivery trucks.

Up ahead a tree lay across the road. "Stop," Yeo yelled. The driver jerked the truck to a sliding stop. Everyone was alert and held their weapons ready. "I think we can get around the tree on the left side. Go for it."

The driver put the truck in gear and lurched it forward creating a cloud of dust. Out of the trees a pickup truck with a machine gun mounted on the bed roared into view. Yeo saw at least two others in the jungle behind the fallen tree blocking the road.

"When we get to the tree everyone get down. That means you to." Yeo looked intensely at the driver. He nodded that he understood.

The machine gun on the pickup truck fired a continuous burst. The uneven road made the shots fly in all directions. A hit under these conditions would be pure luck. They were close to the fallen tree, and the driver swerved to the left while ducking down behind the dash. Yeo was on the floor and the others were firing toward the pickup truck and into the jungle ahead.

Bullets hit the windshield and one of the look-outs. He slumped over onto the back of the truck cab. A red river of blood pulsed from a wound on his cheek. The other forward look-out kept firing his weapon blindly into the jungle ahead. The truck cleared the left side of the tree barrier but it was traveling too fast to return to the road and went off into the jungle instead. Luckily the bushes and trees ahead were small, and the truck smashed through them rejoining the road again after a few hundred harrowing yards. Shots hitting the side of the truck made a dull sound like the claw end of a hammer striking sheet metal.

The truck sped down the narrow road toward the Chinese border. Yeo peaked up from his floor refuge to see the driver still in control. The look-out shot in the cheek had fallen on the truck bed and was not moving except for motion caused by the rough truck ride. The rear guards seemed relaxed now sitting and smoking with their guns lying next to them on the floor. Yeo could see the pickup truck gaining on them in the distance. He shouted, "They're still coming. Get ready."

The three remaining look-outs grabbed and loaded their weapons. The machine gun mounted in the pickup fired again. Wild shots struck the side of the truck and flew into the jungle. Yeo grabbed his backpack and pulled out a Chinese grenade. Throwing it back to one of the rear look-outs he said, "If they get close give them this present." The large round from the machine gun ripped through the truck tailgate and shredded the leg flesh of the look-out with the grenade. Screaming in pain he pulled the safety and tossed his 'gift' into the pickup as it neared the back of the truck. The explosion knocked both the rear guards back into the truck bed and shook the driver so he almost lost control.

Yeo looked back to see the pickup crash off the road. His look-outs checked each other for injuries. The cheek wound was fatal, and another lookout had a ghastly leg gash. Yeo said, "We can take care of that when we get back to the lab. Tear that shirt and wrap it around your leg for now to stop the bleeding." Their cargo, worth millions, made it the rest of the way to the Chinese distributors, its evil ready to inflict horrendous misery on thousands caught in its terrible grasp.