Bennett wiped his face, then steadied himself in the chair. He looked up at Thach. “When I saw the champagne, I went to Tony and tore apart his hootch. He had code books, maps. He was our traitor, all along. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve prayed for your soul, and prayed I could bring you back. Jesus Christ, my prayers were answered.”
Thach looked at each of them. Frye saw a strange amusement in his face. “Ah, Tony. I suspected him. I wondered if he were an idiot. I nearly shot him once, simply on instinct. Months later, when I found out what valuable work he had done for us, I was glad I didn’t. I’m sure you Americans did a good enough job of that, Lieutenant.”
Thach balanced himself on his cane and peered for a moment up into the light. Frye beheld his ruined face, then his brother’s. When Thach turned again to Bennett, his eyes were fierce. “What made you believe I would betray you? I fought for you. I nearly died, many times, for you. I brought Kieu Li to you. I led your men against my own people. What made you believe that I would not give up a woman to you?”
“Christ, Lam, you’d been with the Viet Cong once. Our intelligence was leaking worse every week, and I knew you loved her. I saw the look in your eyes when you watched us. If you could have been me that night, you would have figured it exactly the way I did. What in hell else would I think, when you strap a heavy pack on her and tell her to open it with me? Why else would you be packing up to head north when I found you?”
“You were afraid of me?”
“You’re goddamned right I was.”
Thach seemed to consider this. He finally turned to Li. “But, you. I gave you a path to follow, a channel for your passion. I let you see what was happening to our country. I treated you with respect. I protected you. I came to you in the marketplace of An Cat and walked you home at night. I loved you, and you saw it, too. Why did you ever believe I could betray you?”
Li looked down. “Because, Lam, you were fierce, more fierce than anyone I knew. When I told you that I was going to an American soldier, it wasn’t hatred I saw, it was something quieter, something far worse. Your look connected with... with a part of what I was feeling. And your voice, when you tied that thing to my back. Not for a moment did I imagine that you would let me go to Bennett.”
Frye watched as Li stood, wrists and ankles bound. She looked at Thach and held his gaze. “Deep in my heart, I didn’t want you to let me go. Deep in my heart, I felt that what I was doing was wrong. I loved you as I could never love an American. I told you that a hundred times! But didn’t you feel how impossible it all was? That was the war, Lam. There were only two sides. Some part of me wanted to stay with you, but parts of people can’t stay behind. And there was no room in my heart for that doubt, just as there was no room in yours for what I was doing. I was terrified, but I was happy that you would want to kill me. I... needed to believe it.”
“Why?”
Li breathed deeply. “Because it made me free of you.”
Thach looked at her. “You were always so simple, Kieu Li. You still are.” He drew close to her again, bringing his face close to hers. “The truth is, that when I saw the love pass between you two, it sickened me. It still does.”
Frye saw the slickness on the colonel’s face, the blotches of sweat that had soaked through his shirt. Thach’s breath was coming faster now. Frye saw one of the guards glance at the other. Then Thach reached out with his cane and poked Bennett’s chest. “In these last days, I have told Li the truth many times. But she would rather believe you. You have occupied her, Lieutenant, like your army occupied my country. You have kept her a child. I have helped reeducate thousands, and none has been so completely... shaped as Li. You should have much pride in her. And much shame.”
Li struggled against her rope, glaring at Thach. “I’ve listened to my own heart since I was seventeen years old, Lam. You have only listened to others. You are the child, not I. You surrendered in your fight for freedom because you saw yourself as a man betrayed. What of our countrymen, Lam? What of those who fought on against the greater terrors that the Communists unleashed?”
“Such words mean nothing to a man falling through space to his death.”
Frye watched now as Colonel Thach hobbled back to his table and sat down. His breath was fast, exhaled from his twisted nose with a labored hiss. For a moment he seemed lost in his papers. “I have always wanted to bring these truths into the open. Those days are still very clear in my memory. In a sense, they matter little. What are intentions and beliefs? What are reasons and motives? They are things we attach later to our actions. Only the action matters. All else is convenient falsehood.”
Bennett shifted in his chair. “How did you live through it, Lam?”
Thach looked at him. “The mam grove was high. The water was deep because of monsoon. The fall was broken first by leaves, then branches, then the swamp. The Communists took me into the tunnel to die, but I lived. The darkness became my ally. When I woke and saw my new face, I knew that Lam had died. I hated that face. I knew I would stay in the tunnels so no one would see it. So I would never see it. And with a crippled leg I could still crawl, no slower than anyone else. All I knew for certain was that you had betrayed my trust the same way I knew your country would betray mine. My faith in America was my faith in you, Bennett.” Thach stopped and shook his head. “You are right, I was more foolish even than you, Lieu Li. And almost as innocent.”
“So you turned.”
Thach smiled again. Frye could see a grim pride showing in his eyes. “Communism. Democracy. We both know by now that they are only words. They are two fat old women, fighting over a bowl of rice. I turned to my race, Lieutenant, to my people. I turned to my mirror and asked how this had happened. I turned to myself.”
“How did you do it? How did you get to this country?”
“With much planning and waiting. With help from many comrades in your country. When I first heard the songs on your Secret Radio, I was almost certain it was Li. I found later that this ‘Voice of Freedom’ was married to an American. My suspicions were correct. Much planning, Lieutenant, much waiting.”
“How long did Kim work for you?”
“Four years. She has family in Vietnam. She was easy to use. The false intelligence she sent you from Vietnam was very effective. Look how easily you were fooled. I knew the people in Little Saigon would believe I was here. But you Americans would never believe it. I used your arrogance as a weapon against you. I used the tunnels under Saigon Plaza because they are my element. Kim supplied the words.”
“And the Dark Men?”
Thach stood slowly. “They asked no questions and wanted little money. They are frightened children.”
“Why did you bring us here? Why the airstrip?”
“With Xuan gone and your network crippled, it was a secure place. Nothing is so safe as an enemy camp with no enemy left. Before coming here, we held Li in Los Angeles. We have sympathetic friends there.”
“You won, Colonel. You’ve slaughtered the resistance, haven’t you?”
Thach shook his head. “I have one hundred and twelve people from your network. They will be tried for treason. Only one remains, and you are going to reveal his identity to us. We know he is highly placed in Hanoi, and we must move with caution. One of his code names is Nathan, is it not, Lieutenant? Nathan, who guides you to our positions, describes our strength, misinforms our leaders. Nathan, for your country’s first spy? Yes, I can see already that I am correct.”