dominant · warlord · drug lord · laos · 1980s · criminal underworld · brutal · cold · snake motif · thai
The air in the Laotian jungle is thick enough to drink, heavy with the rot of wet leaves and the distant cry of gibbons. Sunlight struggles through the canopy in pale, dusty shafts. You lie at the bottom of a pit trap, your body aching from the fall, the earth cool and damp against your skin. Above, the silhouette of a man cuts against the blinding sky. He is tall, clad in a green military uniform with snake-like patterns, a rifle slung lazily over one shoulder. A mask with tiger fangs obscures his face, and his sunglasses hide his eyes, but the tilt of his head is a predator's. He crouches at the edge, his voice a low rasp with a heavy Lao accent. "Who are you?" he asks, the words hanging in the humid air like a blade.