I said, “Tell us more, Jimmy.”
“Kapasi started runnin’ games when we was on the base, you know, bettin’ games-dice, cards, shit like that. His guys’d be up half the night, and then the next day, they’d take these long naps, make the rest of us do all the work. They started runnin’ maneuvers the same way. They’d stay up all night then sleep in the truck all day.”
“What would Vlotsky do?”
“Shit, man, I already told you, he’d be sleepin’ on the roof. Things stayed real smooth between Kapasi and the lieutenant for a long while. Kapasi wanted to run his games, and the lieutenant wanted a cheap supply of O. But that all changed when they gave us a real mission.”
“What was that?”
“The One-Seven, they’re one of the elite units; they raided a farmhouse where they was storin’ opium. They killed a bunch of enemy, torched the place, and captured six. We was ordered to meet up with them and escort the prisoners back to the base. All the sudden, Lieutenant Vlotsky is awake all day, givin’ orders-Mr. Big Shot on the job. He doesn’t do shit for two years, but now he’s in charge, orderin’ us around. We picked up the prisoners, six of them. I was expectin’ soldier types, but these guys was just farmers.” His metal eyes focused on my partner. “Before you say different, I’m tellin’ you, they was farmers. Anyway, we marched them for two days and tied them to trees at night. We took shifts guardin’ ’em.
“On the second night, me and Pardo was on guard. Kapasi came out of his tent, started the truck, then told us to go to bed. I went to my tent and watched Kapasi load the prisoners into the truck and take off. I waited to see if Lieutenant Vlotsky would get up. He never came out of his tent. He had to hear the truck; that thing is loud. I figure he must’ve been too doped up to notice. When Kapasi came back, he came back without the prisoners.”
“What happened to them?”
“Shit. I don’t know, man. You think Kapasi talks to me? I wasn’t about to ask, either. The next morning, Lieutenant Vlotsky wanted to know what happened to the prisoners, and Kapasi just said, ‘They escaped.’”
This Kapasi was getting more interesting by the minute. “What did Lieutenant Vlotsky do?”
“He told Central Command that twenty men came out of the jungle, armed to the teeth, and took the prisoners back-you believe that shit? He didn’t tell them the truth, ’cause then he’d have to explain why he didn’t get up when he heard the truck. He don’t want his superiors knowin’ he’s a hophead.”
“Was Lieutenant Vlotsky angry at Kapasi?”
“Shit yeah! The lieutenant fuckin’ came to life. He got on the radio every day volunteerin’ us for missions. He wanted to prove somethin’ to Central Command. You know, he was tryin’ to get their confidence back after he lost the prisoners. I’m tellin’ you, he was on that radio all day. It took a couple weeks, but he landed us another mission. That’s when things got real fucked up.”
“What was the mission?”
“They told us to attack a distribution center on the river. We scoped the place for an hour-counted four guards, all armed. Lieutenant Vlotsky split us into two teams of five. He told us to avoid the road and charge the place from two different angles. He sent some guys back to the truck to retrieve the weapons. They was just cheap Army-issue lase-rifles, just like the ones we learned on in basic.
“He had us sync our watches, and he told us to get into position and attack in exactly ten minutes. ‘Kill the guards and burn the place,’ is what he said. He would wait with the truck. We creeped right up to the jungle’s edge. Then when the time came, we flew out of the jungle. We was tearin’ across this open space, gettin’ real close, and the guards hadn’t spotted us.”
Jimmy was fully into the story, his ball-bearing eyes sliding back and forth between us with robotic precision. “Both our groups stopped, and we raised our weapons. We had them in a wicked crossfire. I pulled the trigger and nothin’ happened. I’m tellin’ you, nothin’ happened. I figured my gun was frozen and looked around and everybody was fiddlin’ with their guns. None of ’em worked. The guards on the dock saw us and ran for cover while we’re all tryin’ to figure out what the fuck’s wrong with our guns. Deng turned and zoom, he’s off for the jungle. I was thinkin’, shit yeah! So the rest of us dropped our guns and ran after him. I’m tellin’ you, you’ve never seen a bunch of guys run that fast in your life. The four on the dock finally figured out that we was runnin’ away, so they quit hidin’ and started firin’. You ever been shot at? Their laser fire was burnin’ the humidity out of the fuckin’ air. Shit, the steam can kill you without you even gettin’ hit. They taught us that in basic. They came close, but we hit the jungle fast. The worst that happened to us was we got our eyebrows singed. We went back to rendezvous with Lieutenant Vlotsky, but he was gone, and he took the truck with him. You believe that shit? Lieutenant Vlotsky rigged the guns. The fucker set us up.”
“He rigged the guns?” I was dumbfounded.
“He sure as shit did. Now I can understand him doin’ somethin’ like that to Kapasi for takin’ the POWs and makin’ him look bad. But sendin’ all ten of us in to die? That shit ain’t right.”
We had our killer’s motive. I asked, “When did this happen?”
“Couple weeks ago. We was left out in the middle of the fucking jungle. We marched south for half a day and got lucky meeting up with the Two-Six. We hitched a ride back to the base. The day after we got there, in came Lieutenant Vlotsky ridin’ that truck. You should’ve seen the look on his face when he saw us standin’ there. He was shocked; there was no doubt about that. Then he acted all happy to see us. He made up some story about bein’ attacked by the enemy, and he had to run for it. He even showed us the scorch marks on the truck. You believe that shit? He left us for dead and shot up the truck hisself. He told us how he came back for us when it was safe, but we was already gone. He thought we was dead.
“We was due to go back out to the jungle a week later, but Lieutenant Vlotsky got us this leave time instead. He knew he couldn’t go back out to the jungle without payin’ for what he did to us. He told Central Command how we was involved in all this heavy combat, and we needed some time off. I heard he even asked for a transfer. Central Command came through with the time off, and here I am.”
“Do you think Kapasi killed Vlotsky?”
“Kapasi might have killed him. Shit, we all wanted to kill him after what he did to us.”
“You say you were here last night. Can anybody back that up?”
“Yeah. Do you want to talk to them now?”
We headed back to the party. The music pulsed. Mudspattered dancers glistened with sweat. I lost a shoe suctioned into the mud. Maggie and I proceeded barefoot.
Jimmy took his cup and refilled, scooping up a cupful of white mash from a bucket. “You want some?”
We declined.
He took careful sips, letting only the alcohol through by using his upper lip to filter out the mash. We asked around to make sure Jimmy was telling us the truth about being here last night. Everybody we talked to backed him up-another all-nighter party last night. We cleared Jimmy Bushong off the suspect list.
I spotted two Army uniforms looking lost on the far side. They stopped to ask for directions. I pulled Jimmy aside. “You want that filing job with KOP?”
Jimmy’s metal eyes reflected the lamplight. “Shit yeah! I’m gonna need a job.”