A BAS LES VIET-CONG! HO CHI MINH, LE DIABLE COMMUNISTE!
_Qu'est-ce que c'est, toute cette merde?_
The limo crawled. They hit Tu Do Street-the Gook Sunset Strip.
Big trees and big shops. Big hotels and big traffic. Big noise en gook.
Pete yawned. Pete stretched. They flew nineteen hours in. Stanton set their rooms up. Hotel Catinat upcoming-sleep most ricky-tick.
The driver rode his horn. The driver clipped a rickshaw. Mesplиde sniffed the air and nailed scents.
_Nuoc mam_-fish sauce-goat bar-b-que. Machine-gun oil/frangipani blossoms/goat shit.
Stanton said, "You'll lay up for two days, then fly to Dak Sut. You'll cross into Laos and meet Tran Lao Dinh. An ARVN rifle squad will walk point for you. Two Hueys will meet you and fly you to a dope camp near Saravan. You'll negotiate right there."
Buddhist monks jaywalked. Traffic stalled up. Pete yawned. Pete stretched. Pete elbowed more room.
Milt C. ran Tiger now. Milt ran liaison gigs. Milt ran adjunct ops:
Ward Littell to bug hotel suites. Milt to bribe hotel clerks. Milt to schmooze them. Milt to tell them: place state legislators within.
Pete's bigggg decree:
Restrict the Tiger crew. Restrict all pill ops. Rat rival pill crews. Rat said crews to Agent Dwight Holly.
Trash the Vegas pill trade. Dry up West Vegas. Deprive hopheads. Tempt taste buds. Prepare hopheads for Big "H."
Chaffee waved his ditty bag. Chaffee offered gifts. Shrunken heads-_certified_-all VC _trиs bien_.
Wayne tossed his out. Flash kissed his. Guйry named his "Fidel."
Pete yawned. Pete popped Dramamine. The Arden bit bugged him. It bugged him incessant. It bugged him nonstop.
He factored Carlos in. 3/56: Carlos bails Arden/Arden splits K.C.
New Orleans-'59-Mesplиde sees Arden. Arden has a date. He's a Carlos man/he's a wop. 11/63: Arden visits the safe house. Carlos thus orders her clipped.
He factored Carlos in. He held back. He never told Ward. He called Fred Otash. He said call around.
Run Arden. Call your contacts. Glom me some leads. Check Arden out. Check out her ex-one Danny Bruvick.
Flash kissed his shrunken head. Flash applied some tongue. Chaffee laughed. Mesplиde named his head "de Gaulle."
Chuck waved his head. Wayne grabbed it. Wayne threw it out.
Chuck said, "There's times I think we hired the wrong Tedrow."
o o o
No sleep-his head wouldn't stop.
The room was okay-_comme ci/comme зa_-likewise the Tu Do Street view.
The bed sagged. The grenade-screen creaked. The AC sputtered. Fumes cut through-_nuoc mam_ sauce-_ce n 'est pus bon_.
Street noise carried up. Choppers buzzed the roof.
Pete gave up. Pete oiled his piece. Pete put out his bedside pix. Barb/the cat snarling/Barb with the cat.
Stanton set up an outing-1900 hours-Saigon by night. We'll check out the natives. We'll dig the night view.
Pete sat on the terrace. Pete dug the _now_ view. Pete saw ARVN cliques. Pete saw gook cops.
Chaffee called them "White Mice." Mesplиde called GIs "Con Van My."
The skyline clashed-tin roofs and spires-M-60 machine guns.
He loved war zones. He saw Pearl Harbor. He saw Okinawa. He saw Saipan. He saw Pigs. He avenged Pigs. He scalped Reds _beaucoup_.
Dusk hit. The roof crews rejoiced. They arced their guns. They shot tracer rounds. They made fireworks.
The new cadre was goooood. The new cadre was #1. Cadre with a "K" now.
Stanton liked the guys. Stanton said Bob Relyea was a "Head Man." He killed VC. He chopped their heads off. He sold them to clinics.
Flash named his head "Khrushchev." Stanton named his head "Ho." Chuck named his head "JFK."
o o o
They rendezvoused. They grabbed a stretch limo.
Bob Relyea showed up. Chuck hugged him. They laughed. They shared spit. They talked Klan.
The limo sagged-nine riders plus weight.
The kadre packed sidearms. The driver packed grenades. Relyea packed a 30.06.
They swung off Tu Do. They hit side streets. The limo flew flags: The MACV/the ARVN/the skull bones.
Rickshaws clogged traffic. The driver rode his horn. The gooks ignored it. The driver yelled, "_Di, di!_"
Mesplиde popped the sunroof. Mesplиde popped a clip up. The noise was bad. The shells blew down. Flash caught them hot. The gooks heard the noise. The gooks pulled over. The gooks ducked low and booked.
The driver punched it. Mesplиde flexed his tattoos. Two pit bulls grew boners. Two parachutes flew.
"You must announce your intent to these people. They understand only force."
Reylea fanned playing cards-all ace-of-spades.
"They understand force and superstition. These cards, for instance. You drop one on a dead VC and scare off potential converts."
Chaffee said, "Affirmative on that. I like the Viets, but they're primitive as hell. They talk to shadows and dead chickens."
Flash chewed a shell. "Where the GIs? I only count four men so far."
Stanton said, "They tend to wear civvies. They stand out because they're white or colored, and they don't like to compound things by wearing uniforms."
Flash shrugged. _Quй pasa_ "compound"?
Pete lit a cigarette. "A six-figure troop commitment by summer. That means breathing room."
Flash shrugged. _Quй pasa_ "commitment"? Guйry shrugged. _Qu'est-ce que c'est?_
Pete laughed. Stanton laughed. Relyea cut cards. He fanned cards. He flipped cards. He pulled cards off Wayne's shirt.
"Chuck and me got distribution plans. I been sending tracts to inmates throughout the Missouri prison system, which was my pre-U.S. Army employer. I been sending them stuck inside these Voice of America pamphlets, which means the inmates get a soft version of the truth and the real thing."
Chuck lit a cigarette. "Aerial drops are the best. You fly low and bombard the troops."
Relyea shook his head. "Negative on that. You waste good tracts on the nigger EM."
Chuck winked. "Wayne's daddy's a tract man. He throws a good party, too."
Wayne stared at Chuck. Wayne cracked his thumbs.
Chuck said, "Wayne's a Martin Luther Coon fan. He's seen all his films."
Wayne stared. Chuck stared back. The stretch swerved. Chuck blinked first. Wayne blinked last.
The stretch swayed. The driver dodged a pig. Pete looked out. Pete looked up.
He saw tracer rounds. Tracers as firefly flares.
o o o
They cruised Khanh Hoi. They scoped the clubs. They hit the Duc Quynh.
It was small. It was dark. It was French. Banquettes/mood lights/jukebox. They got a booth. They ordered wine. They ate bouillabaisse.
Wayne sulked. Pete watched him.
Ward snipped his daddy cord. Hey, Wayne, dig this: Daddy bought you Dallas. Wayne took it hard. Wayne held his mud. Wayne waxed sullen resultant.
The food rocked-garlic and squid-chow _indigene_. Bar girls performed.
They peeled to pasties. They lip-synced tunes. They sang some Barb cover songs.
Chuck got drunk. Bob got drunk. They talked Klan shit resultant. Flash got drunk. Guйry got drunk. They talked patois.
Chaffee got drunk. Chaffee waved shrunken heads. Chaffee spooked the girls off resultant.
Stanton sipped martinis. Wayne sipped vichy. Mesplиde smoked a Gauloise a minute. Pete heard bombs. Pete gauged directions.
Small bombs-two clicks over-reverb off water.
Chaffee called it-White Mice and VC. Gadfly stuff-pipe bombs _pas beaucoup_.
The club filled up. Stag Gls cruised stag nurses.
They hobnobbed. They danced. They hogged the jukebox. They played Vietrock-Ricky Nelson in gook-"Herro, Maly Roo."