See You in Saigon (17 page)

“You are both my
brave little monkeys,” said Quang before reverting to English. “Jonathan, I
can’t thank you enough for finding my grandsons.”

“It’s actually
them who found us,” Jonathan corrected, “But regardless, our reason for coming
down here was to find your family and our wives so we’re on the right track. I
think it’s time you headed up here to join us.”

“The helicopter is
waiting at the airport,” said Quang, “So I’ll be with you shortly. We will meet
at the resort?”

“Yes, I’m almost
there now,” Jonathan confirmed. “I wanted to get your grandsons to safety as
quickly as possible.”

“I will call Huynh
and let him know,” Quanq replied, referring to his cousin who owned and
operated the Paradise Resort. “His wife will be happy to get my grandsons out
of your hair.”

“Thank you, Ty,”
said Jonathan.

“No, thank
you
,
Jon,” Quang countered. “You have already made my day much brighter. I have much
confidence all will end as it should because of you and your team and I am on
my way to do my share.”

* * * *

Vũng Tàu,
Vietnam, late morning

Sa’ng approached
the others on the patio by the pool, a purpose in his stride, satisfied he had
performed his requested patrol round efficiently. Though, mainly out of
frustration, he had taken the start of the property tour lightly, but seeing
those two young boys, no older than five and seven or so, had alerted him of
the importance of the task.

Immediately, he
had realized the disaster which could ensue with anything attracting attention
to the property. If the police became involved, he could end up in prison for
the crime he was participating in. He had quickly intervened and, with the help
of some unknown, unseen foreigners beyond the wall in the park, the potential
problem had dissipated.

With renewed vigor
and an increased awareness for security, he had continued on with his tour of
the property around its perimeter, ensuring all was in order. He had even
walked the length of the rear yard and strolled along the wrought iron fence
which separated the beginning of the beach’s sand with the end of the estate’s
luxurious lawn. His superiors had nothing to worry about.

“All good?” asked
Thao as Sa’ng joined them on the patio.

“Nothing wrong
that I could see,” Sa’ng replied, grabbing a beer from the cooler.

“Where’d you look?”
asked Thao then added as he saw Sa’ng’s expression darken, “Because Scorpion’s
going to ask. I’m only trying to cover our asses here.”

Sa’ng took a swig
of beer then recited, “I walked the wall all around, checked the gardens out
front behind trees and bushes, went to the fence by the beach and checked the
gate. It’s locked. It’s all good.”

Thao gazed at him
and replied, “Excellent. Like I said, I’m making sure there were no problems.”

“Nothing I
couldn’t handle, boss,” said Sa’ng before taking another swig.

* * * *

Vũng Tàu,
Vietnam, early afternoon

Lieutenant Nguyen
Chinh sat in moody silence next to General Quang, lost in his troubled thoughts
as the driver who had met them at the airport drove them to the Paradise
Resort. Already uneasy with the events of recent days, what had transpired over
the last two hours had done little to ease his worries.

Late in the
morning, he had been summoned to the general’s office. Upon his arrival, Quang
had greeted him then put his finger to his lips before handing him a note.

‘We are going on a
special assignment. Do not ask questions. I will explain at the appropriate
time.’

Intrigued, and
wary, he had nodded and returned the note to the general who had promptly run
it through the paper shredder behind his desk before saying, “I didn’t feel
like breakfast this morning but I should eat something. Let’s go for lunch,”
indicating it was time to leave.

On the street, the
general had waved down a taxi, requesting they be taken to the airport. Due to
the driver’s presence, Quang had remained silent during the ride but once at
the airport, he had quickly related that they were on their way to Vũng
Tàu. The general had gone on, recounting the progress the North Americans had
made to date and how he and Nguyen were going to join them to end this sordid
affair.

Further
conversation had ceased at that point when they had been whisked away in an awaiting
helicopter. Discussion of the matter had been non-existent during the half-hour
flight and a car and driver had been waiting for them upon landing resulting in
more silence on their way to the resort – silence which left the lieutenant
ample opportunity to try to deal with the living nightmare he found himself
engulfed in.

Had Nguyen been
familiar with the expression, ‘between a rock and a hard place,’ he would have
found it to be quite fitting to his predicament. In retrospect, he likely would
have considered, ‘too good to be true,’ to be applicable as well.

A proud man who
did not accept failure well, he had worked hard to move his way up in the
police force and had been pleased to reach a level where he dealt with the top
brass on a daily basis. Like many, however, he also had a greedy streak which
was what had led him to his shadier sideline of assisting Scorpion and his
organization.

The compensation
received from Scorpion had been enough to make rationalizing his actions easy –
if he didn’t accept the payouts, someone else would and the illicit activities
would go on whether he participated or not. It certainly wasn’t like corruption
within the country was something new brought about by Scorpion. Cao had been
paying the top cops handsomely for years.

Hoang’s murder had
been a shock but Nguyen had been too entrenched to back away by then. However,
after a day or two, he had realized the colonel’s death had been inevitable and
had not resulted in any consequences – quite the contrary, it had led to Nguyen’s
transfer to the general’s team.

The lieutenant had
been uneasy when Scorpion had brought up his kidnapping plans but, once again,
refusing had not been an option. He certainly had feared doubt would be cast
his way following the abductions. After all, he had been the one to drive the
general’s family to Mui Ne and had also been with the Canadian women when they
had been kidnapped.

However, Quang’s
view of the situation had been the opposite. He obviously had attributed these
unfortunate occurrences to coincidence and bad luck. It was illogical the
lieutenant would have been so stupid as to be involved in crimes against the
very people he had been mandated to protect. The general had no doubt believed
only a fool could act so defiantly. This was likely why Nguyen currently sat in
the car next to Quang. Why else would the general have selected
him
as the
person to participate in this secret mission?

Quang had also
mentioned others had known of his family having gone to Mui Ne and had made his
opinion clear about the ease with which any number of people within the police
ranks could have tracked the Canadian women, and Nguyen, when the abduction had
occurred. Clearly, his trust in Nguyen remained unfazed.

However, thanks to
naivety, the lieutenant had never considered the day when a face to face
showdown between Quang and Scorpion might take place in his presence. There was
no doubt in his mind that today was that day and the risk of exposure for him
was extreme.

As he considered
his predicament, the inkling of an idea began forming and, the more he tinkered
with it, the more he began to believe there might be a way out. He would have
to think fast and recognized he might have no choice but to submit himself to
some exposure. However, if that was to be, he believed he would be better off
having some say and control in how this whole fiasco was brought to a close. He
had worked too hard and come too far to have his future completely marred.

* * * *

“I’m sorry to keep
you all waiting,” announced General Quang as he entered the conference room his
cousin had made available. “Is everyone here?”

“Yep,” replied
Washington. “Brian and Chuck are still at Cao’s place, keeping an eye out to
see if anyone leaves but I’ll bring them up to speed once we’re done.”

“Very well,” said
Quang as he opened the meeting. “I must start by thanking you all for your
efforts to date. Without you, I would have hardly anyone to assist me in
putting an end to this Scorpion. You have made incredible progress and my
grandsons are out of harm’s way. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,
Ty,” Jonathan replied, “But we still have some work to do before this mess is
wrapped up. We want our wives, as well as yours and your daughter, safe and
sound and we definitely want Scorpion to pay for his actions.”

“Which is why we
are here,” the general agreed. “I will start with the information my wife
included in the note she sent with my grandsons as well as what the boys had to
say. First of all, none of the hostages have been mistreated. They are being
well fed and kept in comfortable guest suites in the basement. Thanks to their
small size, my grandsons were able to escape through the ventilation ducts.

“As with your
wives and Lieutenant Nguyen, six men were also involved in the abduction of my
family, one being Scorpion himself, so assuming all the kidnappers remain
present, we are dealing with a dozen men. Once they were locked in, my wife and
daughter saw some of the men who had kidnapped them and others who were
unfamiliar. Your wives reported the same thing so it seems at least a number of
men from both teams are still present.”

“We should plan
our operation based on at least a dozen men present,” said Chris. “Some may
have left once they settled down at Cao’s place but I’d think Scorpion would
keep enough men around to hold the fort.”

“My grandson said
there were two men standing guard outside the rooms both times he looked from
down the hall,” Quang added, “Different men both times.”

“I saw as many as
five out by the pool on my flybys,” offered Washington. “With two standing
guard, we’re up to seven right there. I’m with Chris that we plan for a dozen,
minimum.”

“I am not
experienced in this type of operation,” Nguyen stepped in. “How exactly will we
do this?”

“We’ll go in after
dark,” Jonathan replied, “Late enough so that activity in the area has died
down, around ten o’clock, maybe later. The park offers the best public access
so we’d get onto the property from there although I’d like a couple of people
to come in from the other side if that’s possible.”

“There are a
number of pretty secluded spots along the wall on the resort side,” Leslie
confirmed as Chen nodded. “Should be easy to jump the wall somewhere.”

The discussion
ensued with all present participating, throwing out ideas and suggestions to
make the plan for the coming evening as foolproof as possible because the lives
of innocent loved ones were at stake. They simply could not fail.

* * * *

Vũng Tàu,
Vietnam, mid-afternoon

With each passing
moment, Scorpion’s concern was growing. Though one reason for kidnapping
Quang’s family and the three women had been to use them as bargaining chips,
the main purpose had been to rattle his adversaries’ cages, knock them off
balance and break their concentration. In the meantime, he hoped to quietly
slip away such that if and when anyone showed up, he would be long gone.

He had no
intention of bringing anyone with him. The Vietnam operation was a bust and,
with everything in shambles back in North America, his only concern was
himself. The rest of his crew, local or otherwise, could fend for themselves.
He certainly had enough money stashed in numbered accounts to keep himself in
comfort and didn’t need or want anyone tagging along and potentially
jeopardizing his plans or his future.

The problem was,
slipping away quietly was turning out to be more difficult than he had
expected. Several contacts which he had believed could easily help him out had
called back, explaining things had drastically tightened up following Quang’s
campaign to capture him. He had not heard back from a few people yet but it was
clear his options were running out.

His mobile began
vibrating in his shirt pocket and, after glancing at the call display, he
answered, gearing himself for a probable further letdown.

“I was wondering
if I’d hear from you,” he said.

“I’m not always in
a position to make calls,” Nguyen replied, “Especially with everything which is
going on in recent days. You have made some people rather angry and are keeping
them, and me, very busy.”

“My apologies,”
Scorpion replied, somewhat dryly, “But everything would have been fine if these
people had simply done what was expected of them or minded their own business.”

“I am not looking
to argue about what should have been,” Nguyen retorted. “From what I
understand, things are not going as well for you as you had hoped. If I am
calling you now, and putting myself at grave risk by doing so, it is because I
am in a position to supply you with valuable information and help you. Please
change your tone or, if you prefer, work out your problems on your own.”