The Cover of War (21 page)

45

D
anny was pulled from unconsciousness by the screams of a distressed
baby.

He came to, to
find his mouth hard against the bottom edge of his cell door, sucking up the
weak draft from the tunnel beyond

I have to get
out of here,
he thought.
I can't take any more.

It became
obvious that the baby's scream was a recording.

They're
torturing me,
he thought, feeling a slither of
hope; torture would lead to questioning. Then, Danny hoped, Triet would realize
he had someone of little value, and let him go.

Danny shook the
door. He knew it was locked solid and that he could not break it down.

How long
before they open it?
He thought.
How long before
I can get out?

After what felt
like an eternity, the crying stopped. The silence billowed around him, and he
lay still, trying to imagine himself in a wide open space.

He heard a
click, and a dazzling light filled the hole.

The torture
settled into an endless cycle: baby screaming; bright-light; dark; baby
screaming . . .

After time,
Danny's mind began to reproduce the baby's screaming, even when the recording
was turned off. He could get no rest. He could not escape the crushing
exhaustion. He was at his limit.

The light
flicked off and the door opened.

Danny scrambled
for the opening, desperate to reach the spacious main tunnel. A boot-heel came
down on his head. Danny kept going. Toe-caps thudded into his face. He shrank
back into the hole, looked up, and saw Triet's angular face, and the stoat like
face of his lieutenant.

Danny felt his
breath coming in gasps. 'I'll do anything,' he said. 'Just let me out.'

Triet bared his
teeth. 'Were you taking Amai to
America
?'

'What?'

Triet's knuckles
struck Danny in the temple, bursting a hail of stars behind his eyes.

Triet repeated
the question.

Danny closed his
eyes and pictured Amai's face. 'I fell in love with her,' he said. 'That was
her
plan. She played me. She's Viet Cong. What
is
this?'

Triet slowed his
speech: 'Were - you - taking - her - to -
America
?'

Danny was
exhausted. His mind lost focus. He didn't understand what Triet wanted. He
thought:
She tricked me. She said those things to keep me on the hook.

Triet kicked him
in the jaw and a reel of images un-spooled through his mind: They were all of
Amai.

When Danny came
to his senses, Triet was gone. He was alone again, locked in the hole with his
lips pressed to the bottom of the door. He would do anything to get free, but
Triet had not offered any kind of bargain.

The baby resumed
its screaming.

The airflow
beneath the door slowed, and then stopped.

Danny felt panic
take him. He knew he could not stop it.

* * *

Amai wriggled in the tight space.

Her worry for
Danny made her sick.

She knew Triet
would put Danny through the same sleep depriving torture as she. She hoped he
could take it.

He'll kill
us,
she thought.

Escape would be
their only means of survival.

She wondered if
she could overpower Triet next time he opened her door.
No,
she thought.
He's too strong. I'll have to break out.

She lay on her
back, coiled her body, and slammed her feet into the door. The door didn't even
flex. She kicked again, harder this time. But the timber was too strong.

Hope drained
from her body. She began to accept defeat.

Will Danny
get free?
She thought.
Will he rescue me?

No.

This is where
I will die.

46

D
arkness mauled
Saigon
. Anxiety mauled Chaske Thorn.

He was worried
about approaching Blue with his crazy plan.

He'll think
I'm nuts.

Chaske knew
where to find the Australian. He caught a taxi from
Cam
's, to the house of Lady Lotus, hidden in the heart of Cholon's
red-light district
.
He found Blue in a back room hot-tub, immersed in
steam and bare-breasted women.

Blue spoke with
a nipple in his mouth: 'Gidday, mate. We're going on a minge-binge.' He slurred
his words. 'Jump in, mate. Plenty-a-room.'

Blue was with
Cliff, an Australian Warrant Officer from SOG, who Chaske had met before. The
two Australians lived by the motto: work-hard-play-hard.

Chaske said:
'I've got bad news, Blue.

Cliff looked
sheepish.

Blue looked
drunk. 'Ya better get in, mate.'

Chaske stripped
to his boxers and the girls giggled. He lowered himself into the hot water and
an attractive girl handed him a beer.

Blue grinned.
'This is the life, cobber. If this stupid war ever stops I'm gunna move here.
There's no place like it.'

'I thought you
were moving to
Bangkok
?'

A girl draped an
arm around Blue's neck and he made a face at Chaske. 'Mate,' he said.
'Definitely here.'

Chaske thought
of
Cam
.

Before
Cam
had come to him, he had been thinking
about leaving Special-Activities, and going back to the Montagnard village.

Focus on the
mission.

Chaske asked the
girls for some privacy. They got out of the tub and went out through a silk
curtain.

'You're a real
party-pooper,' Blue said. 'Right'o, spill ya guts?'

Chaske eyed
Cliff.

Blue said: 'He's
right.'

Chaske was
actually pleased that Cliff was there; the SOG man would be an asset to the
mission.

Chaske filled
them in on what had happened to Danny and Amai, and his plan for their rescue.

He was met with
silence.

Chaske said:
'I'll pay each of you two thousand dollars before we go.'

Blue looked into
his beer.

Cliff looked
uneasy.

Let it sink
in
, Chaske thought.
Give them time.

* *
*

Blue fought the effects of the alcohol.

He had never
seen Chaske so unsettled, but fully understood his desperation to find Danny
and Amai. Blue however, could not go with Chaske, and he felt heavy with guilt.

Crickey
, Blue thought.
He's forked-out for a chopper - and I'm gunna let
him down.

Blue looked
Chaske in the eye. 'Mate. I can't come on this one. I'm meetin' me folks in
Hawaii
tomorrow. I haven't seen em for
twelve years. They didn't even know I was alive till three days ago . . . 
You understand . . . Right?'

In his youth,
Blue had unwittingly gotten on the wrong side of a
Melbourne
crime family, unaware of his fiancée's latent connection with the
mobsters. She and her entire family had been murdered because a gangster
decided that he owned her. Blue had been lucky to escape
Australia
with his life. He fled to
America
and enlisted in the Army. He had
met Chaske in Special-Forces, where they had become like brothers. The CIA
recruited both of them into their Special Activities Division, together.

Blue felt
ashamed. He had never let Chaske down before.

I've got no
option,
Blue thought.
I'll never let him down
again.

Blue's mind
turned to his parents. Up until a few days ago, he had cut all contact with
them, for fear of endangering their lives. The reunion would be emotional. He
could
not
miss it.

Chaske was
nodding, but Blue could see the big Native American's disappointment bleeding
through like an oil stain.  

Chaske said: 'I
understand, Blue.'

Blue felt low.

Cliff said:
'Sorry Chaske. This ones way outta my depth.'

Chaske hid his
emotions well. Blue sipped his beer. It was flat. He said: 'You'll have Golota.
Piece-a-piss.

The look in
Chaske's eye suggested that he didn't agree. Chaske climbed out of the tub and
toweled off.

Blue said: 'Hey,
mate.'

'Yeah?'

'Good luck.'

* * *

Chaske walked onto the wharf, wondering if
he could pull-off the op without Blue.

I'd go alone
if I had to
.

Over his left
shoulder, Chaske could see
Cam
's
form, watching him from her living-room window; over his right shoulder, a tug
was pulling Jim Hurley's freighter out into the brownish channel.

Golota came up
to him. 'What's this about, Thorn?'

'I'll be as
straight as I can.'

'Sounds like
you're bull-shitting me already.'

'I need you to
pilot an OH-6 for me.'

Golota arched
his eyebrows. 'Where?'

'
Laos-
'

'Use the
system?' Golota turned.

'There's
three-grand in it for you.'

Golota stopped.
'What's the mission?'

'Two civilians
are being held at a camp near Saravane. I'll snatch them - you drive the
get-away-car.'

'Where's the Intel
from? Is it sound?'

Chaske tensed.
'I'm using a psychic-'

Golota started
to laugh. 'I'm out. What the fuck's wrong with you, Thorn?'

'Make it
five-grand. Humor me for the money.'

'You got it on
you?'

Chaske handed
Golota one-thousand dollars cash. 'I'll pay the rest on completion - successful
or not.'

'Don't trust me,
aye?' Golota smiled. 'I wouldn't either.'

'LZ-40. Zero-five-hundred.'

'You're crazy,
Thorn. But I'll take your money.' Golota turned and walked back down the wharf.

Using Golota
concerned Chaske deeply.
He's a psychopath and a drug user
, Chaske
thought.
Can I rely on him?
Chaske didn't think so; but some of Golota's
criticism stuck, strengthening his doubt in
Cam
's ability, and his own sense of judgment.

Are they
really alive?
He thought.
Is this all a mistake?

Chaske walked
back to
Cam
's, climbed her
stairs, and opened her door.
Cam
wore black satin pants and blouse. She put a bunch of maroon
colored sticks into a vase on the coffee table, and lit their tops. The smoke
curled unhurriedly upward.

Cam
said: 'I keep seeing numbers.'

Chaske heard
Golota's voice:
You're crazy, Thorn. But I'll take your money.

'The same
numbers,'
Cam
went on. 'Everywhere.'
She pointed out through the window to the Civil Air Transport freighter. 'The
serial number. 106.' She took a pencil and scribbled numbers onto a piece of
paper. 'These numbers are guiding me.' She looked into his eyes. 'They're
guiding us.'

Chaske's doubt
peaked.

Her look was
intense. 'I know you don't believe, but numbers are important to me. Start to
look for re-occurring numbers in your life, Chaske - they are there to guide
you.'

Chaske was
staring at her scribble: the number 106 stood out - his authenticator code was:
Lima
1067.

I'm as crazy
as she is,
he thought.

Chaske unfolded
a topographical map on the floor. 'Where are they being held?'

Cam
put her slender finger on the map. 'Here.'

He knew some of
the area from previous missions: the region was not garden-variety jungle, but
a steep, inhospitable expanse of rain-forest, through which, dangerous threads
of the Ho Chi Minh Trail passed.

He pointed to a
spot a few miles south of
Cam
's
fingertip. 'We fly to here,' he said. 'We can't land - it's too dense. We rope
down.' He felt the rush that comes with planning a mission into enemy
territory.

Cam
nodded.

'Golota will
land the chopper here.' He pointed to a remote riverbed a few miles west. Once
we have Amai and Danny, we get them back to the chopper, and fly out.'

He looked into
her face.

She said: 'I
don't feel it will happen that way.'

Neither did he.