Naked in Saigon (23 page)

Bear raised both hands, fingers extended, twice. Twenty minutes. Twenty minutes too long.

When he got back Connor was staring at the cargo. “That’s fucking opium, isn’t it? Right here on a CIA chartered flight.”

“Looks like molasses to me.”

“Man, where’s my camera?”

“Sorry,” Reyes said. “It spilled out when we were banking over the river.”

“What?”

Reyes shrugged. Connor sat up and tried to grab him, then screamed and clutched at his leg. “You’re not serious?”

“You’re alive, man, what else do you want?”

“That was the front cover of
Time
!”

“It’s like any magazine, Connor. You have to get your material through editorial first.”

He threw a punch with his good hand. Reyes swayed backwards out of the way. “Take it easy, fella.”

“That was my fucking future! I nearly died for that!”

“So did I!” Reyes yelled back at him.

Bear twisted around in his seat. “Everything okay back there?”

“Everything’s fine,” Reyes said. He grabbed Connor’s wrist and pulled his face up close. “Now you listen. There’s a few people did me some big favours to get you out of there. No matter what you think of these guys, no matter what I think of them, screwing them over is not part of the deal. Don’t look at me like that. You’re the big winner here.”

All the fight seemed to go out of him.

“You see that?” Bear shouted at him.

Reyes straightened up. “What was that?”

“I thought I saw something down in the trees.”

“I didn’t see anything,” Reyes shouted back, but when he looked down there was a bullet hole between his feet. He looked up. There was another hole in the roof of the chopper.

He stumbled to the cockpit. “They’re shooting at us!”

Bear pulled back on the stick and climbed hard to port. The pitch of the engine rose to an agonising scream. He twisted around in the seat trying to see where the shooting had come from.

“Did you see that?”

“I didn’t see nothing, man. Must have been some commie with a rifle.”

Bear looked up at the bullet hole in the roof. “I told you, it happens all the time.”

He levelled out again, pointed at the hills in the near distance. “That’s Sam Hong, ten minutes.”

Connor was asleep again; the opium had kicked in once more. Reyes squatted down beside him, staring at the bullet hole. A few inches the other way it would have gone right through him.

It wasn’t until they landed at Sam Thong that he saw the blood. There wasn’t much of it, it had pooled under Connor’s body and run along the metal gutters as the Piper rocked on landing. He rolled Connor onto his side and saw a single neat bullet hole just between the shoulder blades. He wasn’t asleep; he was dead.

Bear crouched over him, he seemed more curious than horrified. It was nothing to him, this was Laos, and people died all the time.

He seemed more worried about getting into the air again before anyone saw the cargo.

“Well lookee that,” he said. “The Magic Bullet. What was I telling you, man? That is just shit bad luck. After everything you went through to get him out.”

The medics had been alerted and were waiting with a gurney. A doctor leaned in and started examining the ankle. “There’s no circulation to the foot,” he said. “Looks bad.”

Then he looked down and saw the blood. “Where’s the bleed? They told me this was a broken ankle.”

Reyes didn’t know what to say. He jumped down onto the apron and walked away. He didn’t know how to feel about this, he didn’t know how to feel about this at all.

Chapter 37

MAGDALENA

“You must be Magdalena.”

I looked up. A scruffy, overweight man in a loud shirt leaned over my breakfast table with his hand outstretched. I took it, cautiously.

“Walt Winstone, I’m with the Embassy. I’m a friend of Reyes”. He asked me to let you know when I had news, so that’s what I’m doing.”

He sat down without invitation, beckoned to the waiter and ordered himself coffee. He took one of her croissants from the basket in the middle of the table.

“Are they all right?”

“I don’t have the details. I just got a call from the Embassy this morning to say the plane had arrived at Sam Thong and they were both on board.” I must have stared at him for a long time because he leaned forward and tapped on the table with his knuckles. “Magdalena?”

“Both of them?”

“That’s what they said.”

“Can you talk to Reyes?”

“I don’t know, ma’am. He may be on his way back to Saigon right now, I’m only relaying second-hand news.”

“Because I think he may be in danger if he comes here. They both will be.”

Walt pushed another piece of croissant into his mouth and grinned. “If you haven’t noticed,” he said spitting out crumbs, “we’re all in danger here.”

“There’s some people looking for him, they think he has something of theirs.”

He wiped his mouth with a napkin and nodded. “I knew he was lying to me.”

“You know about this?”

“Just instinct. Who are these people? Are we talking about the Salvatore family?”

I nodded.

“Well I’ll give him the heads up if I can. But don’t worry too much about Reyes, he can usually look after himself.”

His coffee arrived. Walt reached into his pocket and fortified it with a dash of bourbon from a hip flask. He dabbed at his face with a handkerchief. It was an overcast, humid morning and his shirt was already sweat-stained. “I should ask for a posting to Russia. I’ve never liked the heat.”

“I suppose I’m more accustomed to it.”

“Yes,” Walt said. “I guess you are.” I assumed from that that Reyes had already told him everything about me.

“Anyway, it was kind of you to bring me this news in person.”

“Not really. I was curious.”

“Curious?”

“About you.”

“Do go on.”

“I’ve known Reyes a long time; never seen him torn up over a woman before. I had to see it for myself.”

“Well, as you can see, I’m just an ordinary woman.”

“Oh, I think we both know that’s not true. Still, I don’t understand why he stuck out his neck like this. It’s something I never expected from a guy like Reyes.” He finished his coffee. He left a plain white card on the table with his name and his telephone number. “Please get in touch with me if I can be of any further assistance.”

“Have you ever been in love, Mister Winstone?”

He paused halfway out of his chair. “I can’t say that I have.”

“So have you ever done anything stupid, something so monumentally reckless that it made no sense?”

“Well, all appearances to the contrary, I’m what you might call a very practical guy.”

“So you have a logical reason for everything you do?”

“I guess so.”

“Then I don’t think I could explain to you why Reyes did what he did.”

“I guess I’m the lucky one, then.”

“No, Mister Winstone, I don’t think you are.”

After breakfast I picked my way through the coils of barbed wire on Lam Son Square, ignoring the imprecations of the bootblacks and the urchins selling cigarettes. Two ARVN marines patrolled the square, clutching M-16s.

I made my way back up the Tu Do to the cathedral, a hideous monstrosity built from red brick. I spared a few coins for the
bui doi
who flocked around outside.

I felt so small inside the vast basilica. I remembered a day like this in Havana many years ago when I came to pray for my father. Had the Virgin answered the prayer? Hard to say. She had saved his life but prolonged his suffering.

I sat in one of the pews at the back and closed my eyes.

What was I going to do? I couldn’t stay with Connor. But how could I hurt him after all he had been through these last weeks?

If I left him, how could he possibly understand?

I couldn’t tell him I was leaving, it would break his heart; but if I didn’t it would break mine. But I knew I would have to tell him, if not tomorrow, then soon. In my soul, I knew I couldn’t let Reyes go again. There was only one life to live and if I let my last chance slip away again I’d regret it forever.

But what could I do about Angel? Even if Reyes and Connor got out of Saigon, he would track them down. I knew enough about the Salvatore family to know nowhere was safe.

I covered my face with my hands. “Mother Mary, for pity’s sake, help us, help us all.”

There was no answering lightning bolt. I just didn’t see any way that this could come out well, not for Connor, not for Reyes and not for me.

Perhaps Reyes would know what to do.

I went back into the bright sunshine, head down, my thoughts turned inside. I didn’t see the two men waiting under the trees until it was too late.

Chapter 38