Thach’s breathing seemed to accelerate again. Frye watched the sweat run down his face. “Look at all I have accomplished. I have destroyed the resistance and the Voice of Freedom, I have removed the irritating Tuy Xuan. I have shown the people of Little Saigon how small and helpless they are. And I have you, Lieutenant.”
Bennett bowed his head. A moment later he looked to the suitcases, then to Thach. “I brought your money. Take it, and let us go.”
“Your money is a filthy thing, Lieutenant. I demanded it to satisfy my allies in this campaign. I have no need for it myself.”
“Then we’re finished.”
Thach picked up the pen and papers from his desk and brought them to Bennett. “Almost. What we discussed earlier is written here. Also, a statement that you are responsible for organizing a Secret Army in Vietnam. That your government financed it. A list of the accomplishments of the army is included. The bridges they have destroyed, the factories they have sabotaged, the men and women they have assassinated. You will find the information to be accurate. Read it. Sign it.”
“What for?”
“For me, Lieutenant. And to satisfy my superiors. I cannot tell you how rewarding it has been to see you confess. It is something I will want to have with me forever. Even I am tired of hatred. I am almost finished. I kept you from Li for all these days so you would know what it is like to have your love taken away, so you could know how Huong felt. And also, to give me time to convince Li that she should come home with me, confess her betrayals, and work again for the good of her people. At this I may have failed. I knew it would be difficult. But I do have another plan for her, and for you, Lieutenant.”
“Never,” Li spat out. “Never.”
“I’m not going to sign that thing.”
Thach seemed to know all along that Bennett would refuse, but for a moment, Frye thought he saw something like confusion on the colonel’s face. “Why? After all that happened, why did you continue to make war?”
Bennett looked at Thach. “For the people I knew who fought and died for something they believed in. For Li. For myself. For Huong Lam, what do you think of that?”
“And you, Li? For fifteen years you have continued to fight. Your Secret Army has brought death and destruction to the new republic. You fly from rich America to the jungles to deliver codes and instructions. I have photographs of you bearing arms over the mountains of Thailand into Kampuchea. I have watched your progress across our maps in the basement of the defense ministry, marching through the jungle with your pathetic little army. I have imagined the way you must hold the M-sixteen in your thin, beautiful arms. I have hours of tape on which you sing, then plead with my countrymen to join you. Why?”
Li struggled against her bonds. Frye saw her aiming at Thach a frightening, untethered wrath. “I did it for the same reasons I told you a thousand times in the last days. Because the Communists kill the spirit. Because they turn men like Lam into men like you. Think back to the days at the plantation and An Cat, to the young soldier you were. What made your eyes clear then, and your heart strong? What gave you your courage? The promise of freedom! Is there still a Vietnam where that can happen? All you are is a state machine now — soldiers take away the poetry of peasants before the ink is dry and see if the verses help the government.”
Thach looked at Bennett, then Li. “I am very tempted to shoot you both now. But that was not my intention.”
“Then take your victories and money, and let us go,” said Bennett.
Thach returned to his desk and set down the papers. “I now arrest you both in the name of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The charges are inciting treason, conspiracy to overthrow the government, and murder. You will return with me, through Mexico and Cuba, to be tried with the rest of your resistance force. You will confirm to us the identity of Nathan.”
Bennett hurled himself off the chair, but the guard slammed him again with the butt of his weapon. Bennett covered up, hands raised. The guard lifted his gun for another jab, but stopped, shook his head with scorn, then backed off. Frye held him in the sight of his .45.
Bennett lowered his hands. “You’re crazy, Thach. You can’t try us. Your own government will shoot you and send us back here in a week.”
“Maybe. But we have arranged for you to be apprehended in the jungle near Ben Cat. You will be identified by your own people. You will sign confessions, of course. At a time that Hanoi is releasing American soldiers, news of your capture will soon be lost. You will see how quickly the U.S. Government washes its hands of you, as they do of their CIA pilots in Nicaragua. That is their choice. You have made war on us, Lieutenant and Li, ever since the war ended. You have tried to assassinate me. While we try to handle the problem of Kampuchea, you send arms against us. While we try to feed our people, you destroy bridges and waterworks. While we try to build a peace, you bring death. My government may indeed execute me someday, Lieutenant, but my campaign will be complete. I will have ended the war. They can do with you what they believe is right. You must have known that you would someday have to answer for yourselves.”
“No. Not Li.”
“You think you were her salvation, Lieutenant. But you cannot save her now. She goes back with us, to the same fate.”
Frye kept the sight of the .45 on the guard beside Bennett, centered on the man’s chest. Three men, he thought, and Thach. Automatic weapons. Even if I’m lucky, I can only get two. It’s a mismatch. I could kill the light. I could kill the chopper. What happened to Burns?
He watched Bennett, balancing himself uneasily on his fists. “Let Li stay. I’ll go with you, sign what you want. What good can you get from her that you can’t get from me alone? I did what I did to you because I made a mistake. It was a war, Lam. See if you can do any better now. Take me. Your vengeance for my betrayal. My legs for your face. Fucking hang me in Hanoi if that’s what you want. I’m not going to beg. Just let her go.”
“I won’t stay here without you, Benny.”
“You sure as hell will.”
Thach appeared to ponder. He gazed up toward the light bulb. His distended chest was heaving. Frye saw that the two guards were standing closer together now, that he could take them both in two shots. He steadied his aim on the man nearest Bennett. Thach stepped in front of him.
Maybe, Frye thought, I should take Thach first.
“I will offer you a solution,” Thach said. “You identify Nathan to me now, with satisfactory particulars, and I will let Li go. You, Lieutenant, will still return with me.”
Li writhed against her ropes. “No, Benny!”
Bennett stood as if frozen. Frye could almost see the gears turning inside his head. Bennett looked at Li, then Thach. The colonel’s body was turned to Frye now, a full target, standing still.
“Choose, Lieutenant. Nathan for Li. Li for Nathan.”
Li tried to break from her guard, but he held her fast by the arm. “They can kill me, Benny, but not what we have done. Don’t say a word. Don’t kill what we have accomplished.”
Thach stepped forward. “You will tell when we go back and probably die in the process. Identify him now. Save your wife from the firing squad. Who do you love more, Bennett? Your wife, or the hopeless ideas she promotes? Choose.”
Thach balanced on his cane and looked down at Bennett. His face was pale, shining with sweat. Frye could hear the soft hiss of his breathing. He shook his head, motioned in Frye’s direction, and stepped toward his table. “B’o chúng vào trực thǎnga,” he said.
“Let her go!” screamed Bennett. “Lam, let her go!” Thach lifted his cane toward the helicopter and the men began to move.