The Point Team (35 page)

“Mike, you’ve done it!” Katie Nelson’s voice finally came over the wire.

“We lost one man and two of the kids, but we’re here and in good shape. Except, I think you’ll find Eric Vanderhoven quieted
down a lot.”

“No one’s going to complain about that,” she said. “One moment, Roger is saying something.” She came back on the line. “Remember
Roger? He’s the cameraman. He wants you to delay your arrival to Bangkok till daylight tomorrow.”

“Tell Roger from me where he can stick his video camera.”

Katie laughed. “I thought that would be your reaction. What time can we expect you?”

“About one or two in the morning, if our driver doesn’t kill us.”

All of them, including the kids, were now feeling the effects of their weariness and the strong Thai beer they had drunk.
And all, except the ever-vigilant Campbell, dozed off from time to time. Mike roused them as the bus hurtled through the nearly
deserted, early-morning outskirts of Bangkok. Andre translated his instructions for the driver.

The kids, with their too-large weapons slung about their puny bodies, stepped one by one from the bus door, led by Eric, into
the incandescent white glare of Roger’s portable TV lights. A large crowd had collected to see what was going on. Katie was
interviewing them, Jake was creeping around with microphones out of the camera’s line of sight, Roger was moving this way
and that with his shoulder-held camera, old man Vanderhoven—whose presence surprised Campbell—seemed to be making some kind
of speech.

“This is where we get off,” Mike said to the other four mercs.

They piled their weapons and ammo on a double seat under the watchful eyes of the driver, who was accepting them as payment
for the hire of his bus. The mercs slipped off the bus quietly and were noticed by hardly anyone. They grinned as they heard
Eric boasting before the cameras how he alone had led his pals out of the bondage of communism into freedom.

“You coming along with us, Mike?” Nolan asked.
“We’re going back to that place I found last time here with all the pretty girls.”

Mike grinned. “Whatever you say, chief.”

A great rush of contentment passed over him. He had no more orders to give now. Mission was complete. Objective achieved.

For Mike Campbell, Special Forces veteran and top-dollar soldier for hire, the proposition is dangerous enough to spark his imagination and lucrative
enough to enlist his talents.

His mission: a suicidal rescue operation deep inside Vietnam. At stake: the lives of five hand-picked mercs and an Amerasian
boy. His reward: one million dollars.

From the plush boardrooms of New York to the bordellos of Bangkok, from a private Atlantic island to a “re-education camp”
in Vietnam—Campell and his squad of death-dealers challenge a vicious Communist enemy in their quest for the boy’s freedom.