Up Country Part 73

"Okay."

I asked her, "Is all your exposed film accounted for, including the roll Colonel Mang confiscated?"

She nodded. "I never had the film out of my sight."

"Good." I asked her, "You have that snow globe?"

She didn't reply for a second, then said, "No. It's missing again."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"What difference does it make?" She forced a smile and said, "I can pick it up at the Metropole in Hanoi."

I replied, "You can be sure that we're not going to the Metropole when we get to Hanoi."

She informed me, "It's impossible to find a no-questions-asked place to stay in Hanoi. They report every guest to the police. It's not South Vietnam."

"We'll deal with that when we get there. Ready?"

"Ready."

We carried everything down to the lobby and walked to the front desk. We checked out, and I noticed on my bill a hundred-dollar charge for the Vidotour car and driver, which wouldn't have been unreasonable, except that the driver was a secret policeman, who'd left us stranded in the next province. But I didn't want to quibble over this with the clerk.

Susan asked the clerk, a young man named Mr. Tin, "Can you check to see if we have any messages?"

I said to him, "I'm also expecting a small parcel, a book, which someone was to deliver this morning."

"Let me look." He went to the key box and took out a few notes, then went into the back room.

Susan asked, "What book?"

"My Lonely Planet Guide." I explained it to her and she didn't comment.

Mr. Tin returned with a fax message, and a manila envelope that was not thick enough to be a book. He said to me, "Here is a fax for you, Mr. Brenner, and this envelope is for the lady."

I asked, "And no book?"

"Sorry, sir."

I moved away from the desk and looked at my watch. It was only 5:35 and still dark outside the lobby doors. I asked Susan, "What's the latest we can leave here?"

"Now."

I thought a moment. I had no way of knowing if Mr. Anh had been picked up by the police after our rendezvous. Therefore, I had no idea if Colonel Mang had already applied electric shocks to Mr. Anh and learned of my destination.

Susan said, "Sorry about the early departure, but I had no choice. Let's be optimistic that the book would have been here in a few hours."

"Yeah... okay. We'll try to call here later." I opened my fax envelope and read the short message: Dear Paul, Just a quick note to say have a good journey to Hanoi. Heard from friends in Saigon that all went well in Hue. C is looking forward to seeing you in Honolulu. G.o.d bless. Love, Kay. P.S. Please reply. Dear Paul, Just a quick note to say have a good journey to Hanoi. Heard from friends in Saigon that all went well in Hue. C is looking forward to seeing you in Honolulu. G.o.d bless. Love, Kay. P.S. Please reply.

I handed the fax to Susan, who read it and handed it back without comment. I said, "It would seem that my contact here in Hue did contact Saigon, and said the rendezvous came off okay. But I still don't know if this man got picked up later."

I went to the desk, got a fax form, and wrote: Karl, replying to your fax- meeting in Hue was successful, as you know. Went to A Shau, Khe Sanh, and Quang Tri City Monday. Very moving. You need to come back, Colonel. Leaving now by private transportation to find T-V-V. Ms. W will accompany me. She has been an invaluable a.s.set, translator, guide, and companion. Remember that, whatever happens. Ran into Colonel M in Quang Tri. He seems to suspect I'm here to start a Montagnard insurrection. Look up FULRO, if you don't know about it. Mang to meet me in Hanoi, or sooner, so Metropole is out. I'll try to contact Mr. E in USEmb in Hanoi on my arrival. I'm still visualizing success. My love to C. Karl, replying to your fax- meeting in Hue was successful, as you know. Went to A Shau, Khe Sanh, and Quang Tri City Monday. Very moving. You need to come back, Colonel. Leaving now by private transportation to find T-V-V. Ms. W will accompany me. She has been an invaluable a.s.set, translator, guide, and companion. Remember that, whatever happens. Ran into Colonel M in Quang Tri. He seems to suspect I'm here to start a Montagnard insurrection. Look up FULRO, if you don't know about it. Mang to meet me in Hanoi, or sooner, so Metropole is out. I'll try to contact Mr. E in USEmb in Hanoi on my arrival. I'm still visualizing success. My love to C. I hesitated, then wrote: I hesitated, then wrote: For a variety of reasons, not the least of which is my possible extended stay here, do not have C make journey to Hawaii. I'll see her in the States. See you wherever and whenever. For a variety of reasons, not the least of which is my possible extended stay here, do not have C make journey to Hawaii. I'll see her in the States. See you wherever and whenever. I added: I added: I gave this my best shot, Karl, but I feel somewhat used. Biet? I gave this my best shot, Karl, but I feel somewhat used. Biet? I signed it I signed it Paul Brenner, Chief Warrant Officer, retired. Paul Brenner, Chief Warrant Officer, retired.

I gave Mr. Tin two dollars and said, "Let's fax this now."

"Sorry, sir, the fax machine-"

"It's six o'clock in the morning, pal. The fax machine is not busy." I came around the counter and helped Mr. Tin into the back room where the fax machine was. I also helped him dial and within a few seconds, the fax was sent. I borrowed matches from Mr. Tin, emptied a trash can on the floor, and burned the fax in the can. I looked at Mr. Tin, who didn't seem happy with me in his s.p.a.ce. I said to him, "Mr. Tin, I'm going to call you later. I want to know if that book arrived for me. Biet?"

He nodded.

I patted him hard on the shoulder, and he stumbled sideways. "Don't disappear."

I left the back room, came around the counter, and walked over to where Susan was sitting on a couch. She had her envelope open, and I could see photographs on the coffee table and on her lap.

I sat next to her and said, "Okay, I got the fax off, and I told Mr. Tin I'd call later about..." I looked at the photographs lying on the coffee table. I picked one up. It was a color photograph of a beach, taken from a high elevation on the land side of the beach. It took me a second to recognize the beach at Pyramide Island, and the photo had been taken from the pyramid rocks where the bird's nest collectors had been climbing.

I picked up the photograph that had first caught my eye and saw it was a grainy image of Susan walking out of the water, obviously taken with a telephoto lens. It was a full frontal nude and there I was in the background, still in the water.

I looked at a few other photos-Susan and me embracing in the water, Susan talking to the Swedish couple, and me lying facedown in the sand while Susan sat on my b.u.t.t. I put the pictures down and looked at her. She had a faraway look on her face, staring out at nothing.

I said, "I'm going to kill that son of a b.i.t.c.h."

She didn't reply or move.

"Susan? Look at me."

She took a deep breath, then another, and said, "It's okay. I'm okay."

"All right..." I gathered up the photos and put them in the envelope. I stood. "Ready to go?"

She nodded, but didn't stand. She said softly, "That b.a.s.t.a.r.d."

"He's an a.s.shole," I agreed. "A sneaky, perverted, s.a.d.i.s.tic, sick little s.h.i.+t."

She didn't reply.

"Okay, let's go." I took her arm and lifted her up. She stood motionless for a second then said, "That b.a.s.t.a.r.d... why did he do that?"

"It doesn't matter."

She looked at me and said, "He could mail those pictures to Bill."

Actually, the pictures were already on the way, and not just to Bill.

Susan said, "And my office..."

"Let's go." I took her arm, but she wasn't moving.

She said, "And... my friends here... my family... the police have my home address in Lenox... my office in New York..."

"We'll deal with that later."

She looked at me and said, "They only have your home address... they've got a police file on me... every letter I've ever sent from here has the address recorded before it goes out..."

"But you used the company pouch to New York for mail. Correct?"

"I sent Christmas cards directly from the GPO..." She tried to smile. "I wanted a Vietnamese stamp on them... I knew knew I shouldn't have done that..." She looked at me and asked, "Do you think he'd send those photos to people in the States?" I shouldn't have done that..." She looked at me and asked, "Do you think he'd send those photos to people in the States?"

"Look, Susan, not to make light of it, but you were on a nude beach. Not a big deal. Okay? You weren't photographed in a s.e.xual act."

She gave me an angry look. "Paul, I don't want my family, friends, and co-workers to see pictures of me naked."

"We'll deal with it later. We need to get out of here. Out of Vietnam. Alive. Then Then you can worry about the pictures." you can worry about the pictures."

She nodded. "Okay. Let's go."

We gathered our luggage and headed for the door. I said to the doorman, "We need a taxi for Hue"Phu Bai Airport."

He motioned out at the darkness and said, "Airplane not go. No light Hue"Phu Bai. Sun. Airplane go." He smiled. "You go have breakfast."

"I don't want breakfast, sport. I want a taxi. Bay gio. Maintenant. Now."

Susan said something to him, and he smiled, nodded, and went outside.

She said to me, "I told him you were a compulsive, a.n.a.l-retentive, worrywart." She smiled.

I smiled in return. She was looking better. I said, "What's the word for a.n.a.l-retentive?"

"a.s.shole."

The doorman came back and helped us with our bags. A taxi pulled up the circular driveway, we got in, and off we went.

The rain had turned into a light drizzle, and the road glistened. The taxi headed toward Hung Vuong Street, toward Highway One and the airport. She looked out the rear window and said, "I don't see anyone behind us."

"Good. Where are we going?"

"I don't know. I thought you knew."

I put my arm around her and kissed her on the cheek. I said, "I love you."

She smiled and replied, "So will about a hundred more men in a few days."

"The mail here is slow."

She took my hand and said, "Don't you feel violated?"

"That's what Mang wants us to feel. I'm not playing into that."

"But you're a guy. It's not the same."

I didn't want to return to that subject, so I asked again, "Where are we going?"

"Close."

We kept heading south on Hung Vuong Street, through the New City and toward Highway One. Susan said something to the driver, and he slowed down and made a U-turn on the nearly deserted street. As we headed back the way we'd come, I didn't see any other vehicles doing the same thing.

We continued north, and Hung Vuong crossed the Perfume River at the Trang Tien Bridge, near the floating restaurant. I could see the Dong Ba market on the opposite bank, where Mr. Anh and I ate peanuts and talked.

The taxi stopped at a bus terminal that also said Dong Ba, and Susan and I got out, got our luggage, and I paid the driver.

I said, "Are we going by bus?"

"No. But the terminal is open now, and that's what the driver will remember. We have to walk to Dong Ba market, which is also open at this hour."

We put our backpacks on, and I wheeled my suitcase down the road. Susan carried my overnight bag. I said, "I'm going along with this because you had some training in these things at Langley, and you know this country. So of course you know what you're doing."

"I know what I'm doing."

We were in the Dong Ba market within five minutes, and it was already open in the predawn darkness; people who were probably restauranteurs were haggling over the price of strange-looking fish and slabs of meat.

A man stood under a naked light bulb hanging from a wire and said in English, "You come see number one fruit."

I ignored him, but Susan followed him around to the back of a big produce stall. I followed.

The man opened a rickety door in the back of the stall, and Susan entered. The man stood at the door and said to me, "Come. Quickly."

I went through the door and he closed it. We were in a long narrow room, lit by a few light bulbs. The room smelled of fruit and damp earth.

Susan and the man spoke in Vietnamese, then Susan said to me, "Paul, you remember Mr. Uyen from dinner at the Pham house."

Indeed I did. To show him I really remembered him, I said in Vietnamese, "Sat Cong."

He smiled and nodded enthusiastically. "Yes. Sat Cong. Sat Cong."

I said to Susan, "The kiwis look good."

She replied, "Mr. Uyen has offered to help us."

I looked at Mr. Uyen and said, "Do you understand that we are under surveillance by the Ministry of Public Security, and they may have seen us talking to you and your family after ma.s.s, and that they may have followed us to your home? Do you understand all that?"

His English wasn't so good, but he understood every last word. He nodded slowly and said to me, "I do not care if I die."

"Well, Mr. Uyen, I care if I I die." die."

"I no care."

I didn't think he understood that I I cared if cared if I I died. In any case, I said to him, "If police arrest me with motorcycle, they find you. License plate. Biet?" died. In any case, I said to him, "If police arrest me with motorcycle, they find you. License plate. Biet?"