Page 43 of Cry Havoc (Tom Reece #1)
Tan Son Nhut Air Base
Saigon, Vietnam
“I KNOW WHAT YOU’RE thinking,” Quinn said.
“Yeah? What?” Tom responded.
“You’re thinking about the girl.”
“What girl?”
Tom and Quinn walked through the oppressive heat toward the Volpar twin-engine Beech 18 aircraft that sat just outside one of the CIA hangars on Tan Son Nhut Air Base.
The aluminum fuselage gleamed in the early-morning sun, and though the plane lacked any distinguishing paint or military markings, its tail number would eventually lead to an entity known as Air America.
“You know what girl.”
“Oh, that girl,” Tom said. “I’ve already forgotten about her.”
“I’m sure.”
Quinn was in khaki pants and a blue button-up short-sleeve shirt, untucked and covering his 1911.
Tom wore jeans and a long-sleeve green button-up shirt with epaulettes that he had liberated from the safe house.
His sleeves were rolled up, and it too was untucked to conceal his Browning Hi-Power and EK blade.
Quinn pulled open the door just behind the wing on the aircraft’s left side and looked inside.
“Two seats in the cargo area behind the cockpit. The other seats are removed like we requested,” he reported.
Four of the passenger seats had been taken out to make room for a body.
Quinn tossed his duffel inside. Tom did the same.
“Well, let’s go do this,” Quinn said.
Neither of them were looking forward to what was coming.
Tan Son Nhut Air Base was home to one of two mortuary facilities for U.S. service members in Vietnam. The other was in Da Nang. Amiuh’s body had been stored at a temporary morgue before being transferred to the mortuary at Tan Son Nhut, where it was prepared for burial.
True to his word, Serrano had worked with MACV-SOG headquarters and arranged for Amiuh to be transported to his village outside of Kontum.
The Air America Twin Beech aircraft would fly them to an American air base in the Central Highlands near the borders of Laos and Cambodia, where they would transfer to an Agency helo for the hop to Amiuh’s village.
Tom and Quinn would accompany their dead teammate, locate the Catholic priest living in Amiuh’s village for support, and then make notification to Amiuh’s wife and family.
Tet had delayed their departure by nine days, as all military and CIA assets shifted focus to the country-wide NVA and Viet Cong assault.
Tom and Quinn had heard that an estimated thirty-four provincial capitals and seventy district towns had been hit along with Saigon.
Those numbers were based on initial reporting and had been increasing all week.
With intelligence and battlefield reports still coming in, the full scope of the Tet attacks was unknown.
Because they were already in Saigon, MACV-SOG had assigned them to the embassy, which had been a high-profile target of the offensive.
VC sappers had blown a hole in the embassy wall and attempted to take it over just after midnight.
In the ensuing battle, eighteen of the nineteen guerrillas were killed, and one was taken prisoner.
The security force had the compound secured by 0900, but four U.S.
Army MPs and one Marine had been killed.
Tom and Quinn were assigned to augment embassy security in the event of follow-on attacks.
They had spent the next week on the embassy roof with a Stoner 63 machine gun and an M40 7.
62 x 51mm Remington 700 bolt-action Marine Corps sniper rifle with a Redfield 3–9x Accu-range scope.
Now, with most of Saigon back under the control of the South, the CIA had arranged for the two MACV-SOG operators to accompany their fallen teammate back to his village.
As they walked toward the hangar between a Curtiss C-46 Commando and Pilatus PC-6 Porter, they stopped and turned toward the sound of an approaching vehicle. The car was familiar to them. A midnight blue four-door 1962 Ford Mark III Zephyr 6 sedan pulled to a stop with Nick Serrano at the wheel.
He exited and shook both men’s hands.
“Thank you again for arranging all of this,” Quinn said. “Means a lot to us.”
“Least I could do. We are all in the same fight,” the CIA man responded.
“Any leads on why Quinn and I were targeted during Tet?”
“Not yet. We’re working on it. We’ll find the leak.”
“Thanks for coming to see us off.”
“I wanted to make sure there were not any issues with Amiuh or the aircraft. And, Tom, I am also here to ask a favor.”
“What is it?”
“I know you want to accompany Amiuh home, but as you know, Gaston DuBois is important to the Agency’s mission in Vietnam. He has also been courted by the Soviets. He is a businessman, so playing both sides comes naturally to him. We have an opportunity to use that to our advantage.”
“We?”
“Yes, he feels a strong obligation to both of you for saving his life. Something like this could sway his loyalties toward us. We think this debt of gratitude could lead to a long-term relationship extremely beneficial to the U.S.”
“We think?”
“Okay, I think.”
“And Amiuh?”
“I’m sorry, Tom. DuBois has asked that you and Quinn join him as his guests tonight at his plantation.
We can get away with one of you being pulled away, but not both.
That would be seen as a sign of disrespect by someone of Gaston DuBois’s standing.
Timing is critical, especially after the events of Tet. ”
Tom looked at Quinn.
“I recruited Amiuh. It’s only right that I take him home. He would not have been in that convoy were it not for me,” Quinn said.
“Quinn…”
“Remember what Lieutenant Colonel Backhaus said: we have a war to fight. Right now, that is your mission. This is mine.”
“That an order from my One-Zero?”
“If it has to be.”
“It doesn’t feel right. I want to get back to Phu Bai.”
Quinn put his hand on Tom’s shoulder.
“Mission first. I got this. I’ll see you at Phu Bai when you are done down here.”
Tom looked at Serrano.
“How long will I be here?”
“I can’t answer that. We’ll put you up at the Continental.
It’s filled with journalists and photographers.
After the good press the NVA and VC got on Tet, it’s probably the safest place in the city.
I’m sorry, Tom, but we need you.” The CIA man was either sincere or an incredible actor. Perhaps he was both.
“Looks like you got me,” Tom said.
“It’s okay, Tom. Mission comes first,” Quinn reminded him. “I’ll see you at Phu Bai. Don’t get in any trouble down here without me.”
“Now what fun would that be?”
Tom accepted his fate and reached into his pocket to remove the Seiko watch that Amiuh had been so proud of just days earlier. He handed it to Quinn.
“Give this to his boy, would you.”
Quinn took the watch and nodded.
“I will.”
“And this,” Tom said, reaching for the tiger claw necklace.
Quinn placed his hand on Tom’s arm.
“Why don’t you hold on to that and give it to him when you can. We’ll be able to get another bird in there when you are done in Saigon.”
“Okay,” Tom said. “Now, let’s go get Amiuh. I’ll help you carry him to the plane and say my goodbyes.”
With that, the men turned back to the hangar where a jeep waited to take them to the mortuary, to their friend and teammate Amiuh, for his final journey home.