“What’s that? The dream flower?”
“Today you should try one, too.”
“What if it snatches me by the ankle?”
“Smoking is no problem. More than half the old people in your country smoke.”
“Because it’s a country where death is all too common.”
“Death doesn’t bring you back, but this stuff does. You come back fresher.”
Hae Jong nimbly picked up the burning lumps of opium with bamboo chopsticks and pushed them into the bowls of the pipes. She gave one to Pham and put the other pipe in her mouth.
“Lie down comfortably on the bed. Take a deep puff and repeat it several times to make it spread quickly all through your body.”
They lay side by side, drawing on their pipes. The sound of sucking was like the squeaking of mice and the opium bubbled under the flame.
“I can feel myself relaxing.”
“Yes, and your eyes are getting dimmer. You said you liked the seaside. Come closer, this is no place for us to live.”
“You’re right. Now let’s fly together.”
The spent pipes slipped out of their hands. Lazily they rolled onto their sides and Hae Jong parted her gown, revealing her nakedness. Lifting one arm, she pulled the string to switch off the lamp above her head. The streetlights seeped into the room and fell diagonally across the walls and floor. Slithering like a spineless creature, Pham Quyen fumbled with Hae Jong’s body. The two intertwined.
13
Ahn Yong Kyu was sitting at a dark corner table. It was too early for the band to be playing, and jazz was flowing from a record player behind the bar. A profusion of orchids and other broad-leafed greenery had been placed between the tables, and a couple of potted banana trees stood in the center of the room. To the rear were two more rows of tables and out of sight through an arched corridor, a number of private rooms seemed to offer seclusion to customers in search of it. Near the entrance was a long bar, where the two bartenders in white dress shirts and bowties were making cocktails.
It was ten thirty in the morning. The only other patrons were two people sitting facing each other on the opposite side of the room. Yong Kyu had just been to the office to report to the captain on yesterday’s duty. But the report had been doctored at Toi’s recommendation to omit a few parts. He had made no mention of Oh Hae Jong, the navy PX employee who had been fired for possession of narcotics.
“Soon we’ll be able to pinpoint identities. We already have very reliable information that it’s a certain Vietnamese officer working in the provincial administration.”
“How does the Korean woman fit in? She was a key in yesterday’s report, wasn’t she?”
“Yes, sir. But we have confirmation that the woman we want is Vietnamese. It appears the Korean just happened to be in the same vehicle.”
“All right. We won’t be able to arrest or interrogate the Vietnamese officer. But since we have orders from the boss, investigate in detail and we’ll send a report up to him.”
Immediately Yong Kyu regretted what he had done. Now the case had become his responsibility. From then on, all he did would have to be based on his own judgment. Suddenly, he felt Toi was to blame for his predicament. The bastard, he’s the one who got me knee-deep in this shit, Yong Kyu said to himself.
Upon leaving the office he telephoned Toi, and the latter asked him to come to the Sports Club in Da Nang. Yong Kyu had been there with Kang a few times. The Sports Club was, in fact, an ideal location for black marketeers to conduct secret meetings. There was absolutely no way of discovering what went on in the secluded rooms hidden deep in the back of that place. There was probably a separate exit out back, too.
“Sorry, I’m running a little late.” Toi, still wearing his sunglasses in the dark, plopped down in front of Yong Kyu.
“I left out the part about Miss Oh in my report to Pointer because of you,” grumbled Yong Kyu.
“Good. You can always fill him in on the details later, can’t you? I found out who her boyfriend is.”
“That was fast.”
“Well, it was easy enough. It was no secret among the girls she worked with at the PX. They said the Dai Han woman — you know the Vietnamese call Koreans “Dai Han”—rented a room in the house of a Vietnamese girl named Chin. Lots of Americans frequented the place, but only one Vietnamese, a Major Pham, was a regular caller.”
“Who’s he?”
“Pham Quyen, the chief aide-de-camp to the top regional commander, General Liam. In other words, he’s the chief secretary to the military governor of Quang Nam Province.”
“Let’s summon him to CID right away.”
Toi laughed out loud, as if he could not believe what he was hearing.
“Don’t even think of that. You see, all the foreign forces in Quang Nam are under his command, at least in effect, even though a US Marine division commander has actual say in operations decisions. But General Liam’s approval is necessary for everything. It’s just a formality, of course, but even so, you want to try and call in his chief aide to be interrogated about a couple of cartons of C-rations? You tell Krapensky about Pham, and that’ll be the end of this case for sure. Understand?”
“Then we’d be through with this case, too.”
Toi shook his head violently.
“We’ve got hold of a line into the most lucrative dealings in Da Nang.”
“I don’t make deals.”
“Listen, even if you don’t jump into it yourself, deals are being made everyday, everywhere, by someone or other. The same goes for Krapensky. If you’re not involved yourself in the market, you get no valuable information about the black marketeers. Plunge in first, then you can come up with information much more valuable than your own involvement. By that information, and only by that, your work performance will be evaluated.”
“I get it. As for the captain. .”
“I’ll leave that to you. Dealing and intelligence are like body and shadow.”
“Okay, where do we start?”
“You can’t fall on Major Pham directly, but pull that Dai Han woman and the major’ll come dangling along like a potato on the end of a string, you’ll see.”
Toi explained what he had in mind, and Yong Kyu asked, “What do we do after that?”
“You and Pham will shake hands. He probably knows nothing about the Liberation Front. If we dig deep enough, we’ll also be able to catch the goings on related to that.”
“By that time I’ll be headed home.”
“The war’s alive and moving, like an elephant. Anything alive eats, sleeps, and breathes. Even if you yourself end up going home, as long as Dai Hans are going to stay here you should understand that. You and I, Ahn, we’re both gooks, slopeheads.”
“In the eyes of the Americans, I suppose so.”
“In our own eyes, too. It’s nothing to feel bad about. I have to agree with them. I’m Vietnamese. In times like these, if you’re Vietnamese you go reeling around dizzy to the brink of madness. Your position is bound to be complicated whether you’re on the side of the government or of the NLF.”
“And how about you?”
“You’re my friend, so I’ll tell you. I’ll be honest. Ask me what I think of Ho Chi Minh, that’ll be the fastest way.”
“All right, what do you think of him?”
“Honestly,” Toi said, pressing his fingers to his temples. “I think he has mediocre ideas.” Then Toi pounded on his chest and added, “But he has excellent qualities as a man.”