On December 17, I arrived in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, and together with another search coordinator, “Mary” (a pseudonym), set up at a local café — with wireless Internet and bottomless coffee — to coordinate information from the field teams and the two committees in the United States. Somewhat enviously, we watched news footage of the search on Mount Hood, which swarmed with aircraft and professional rescuers. We had three laptops, four cell phones, and five carloads of Chinese nationals.

On the recommendations of locals, Mary and I offered a $4,000 reward for information, with each search team posting flyers in their town of operations. Violent crime against tourists, both foreign and Chinese, is not uncommon in these remote, destitute regions. In 2000, a British tourist was murdered while hiking alone in Sichuan. More recently, in 2006, a French woman was stabbed (she survived) in a small town, and a Kiwi couple had their belongings stolen and their local guide beaten up in the Genyen valley. If Fowler and Boskoff fell victims of crime, the police very well could have covered it up — for fear of bad publicity and blame. Only money would get people to talk.

Since most of the proposed search areas lay within a couple days’ drive of Litang, I set up a second operations center there and began making logistical preparations for a mountain search. Mary would stay in Chengdu and liaise between the consulate, the Chinese authorities, and the search committees in the United States.