Mei was awake. Had she ever been to sleep? When was the last time she slept properly? Not since the day of her abduction in Beijing. Was that 4 days ago? Since then she had been travelling by truck and then planes which, from signage and overheard conversations, had been on a route from Beijing via Wuhan, Hong Kong, Manila, Port Moresby, Brisbane and finally to Christchurch. A variety of thugs had accompanied her, usually two at a time, and herded her clandestinely through remote airstrips, provincial airfields and the outskirts of major airports as though she was delicate and secret cargo.

Clearly her escorts were under instruction that she must not be harmed. Her attempts to escape had been stalled with the minimum of force. They referred to her as Nan and it was apparent they had mistaken her identity to that of her friend. Fearful her treatment might change, she chose not to enlighten them.

When she was captured in Beijing she had been forced to receive an injection from a hypospray, which - her abductors had been told - would sedate her and make her compliant. It had no noticeable effect on her, but she played the role of someone who was timid and subservient. She could have taken advantage of such laxity and made a concerted and physical effort to get away, but two contrary things held her back: the fear of being stranded in a foreign country and the buzz she got from assuming the role of Nan Liang. She'd had a feeling that somehow the latter was of overriding importance to progress matters to a conclusion.

Sleep was a real problem for a variety of reasons. Her most recently assigned bodyguard in Australia - Bill - was snoring in their hotel room. Despite his state of deep slumber there was no chance to escape: he'd moved his single bed in front of the door and the windows looked out from the eighth floor. She was hungry and dirty. She'd quaffed and washed with water in toilets whenever she could, but food came mostly from random handouts from her captors. Tonight she'd been offered a shower by Bill but the thought of being naked near him, albeit in a lockable bathroom, still sickened her. So, she was stuck with her own body smell and chafing from her soiled clothes.

The noise from airport traffic hadn't helped with sleep. It had been busy most of the night and by the current sounds the daytime workers were reaching their peak of early activity. From the light outside Mei estimated it was around 9 a.m. She guessed Bill would stir soon; she had overheard an angry telephone conversation about a cancelled flight yesterday that was rescheduled for this morning. Where was she going now? She was trying to recall her knowledge of the geography of the South Island when there was an enormous room-shaking crash at the door.

CRO via these map references in the order indicated in the above extract from the Thalamorph novel.