The Shadow of Arms (25 page)

“Do you know why I came to Vietnam?”

“No. Hell, I don't even know why I came here. Shit, OK, why did you come?”

Yong Kyu removed his sunglasses.

“I came because you people called. That's why.”

“I didn't call you. I got drunk one weekend, and when I woke up on Monday I found an enlistment notice in my mailbox. So off I go to basic training.”

“What're you going to do when you go home and get discharged?”

“Well, first I guess I'll ride my motorcycle as much as I want. Then I'll make some money.”

“Can you get out of here on off-duty days?”

“Not easy to go all the way downtown. Just outside the camp around here, sometimes.”

“Good, let's go to China Beach sometime.”

“Sure, easy to get there.”

“Leon, you got any fruit salad in here? My boss is crazy about that junk. First thing he eats in the morning. So I came over to see if I could get some.”

The corporal quickly got up, saying, “Come with me, I'll give you a couple of boxes.”

Two boxes would mean twenty-four cans. Leon walked through the maze of the warehouse until he reached a certain spot where he started lifting cartons to check their labels. The whole area was filled with cartons of various canned fruits. He lifted up one box and put it on his shoulder, pointing with his finger at another.

“There, take that one yourself.”

They each brought out a box and set them down on the desk at the entrance. Yong Kyu took out a ten-dollar military certificate and held it out to Leon, who looked confused.

“What's this?”

“Don't you recognize it? It's money. I don't have anything in exchange this time. Just take it.”

“That's a ten, isn't it?”

“Yeah, be a big spender when you go out on R & R.”

“Want some more fruit salad?”

“No, this is enough. By the way, how about coming downtown with me next weekend?”

“Downtown is off-limits for us. We get stopped at the checkpoint on the outskirts of the city.”

“That's OK, I'll come and pick you up. You just get a leave pass.”

Leon whistled again. “That's great. Downtown, huh? Who the hell are you anyway?”

“I'm Westy's old man.”

The corporal cackled until his faced turned red. Yong Kyu, the father of the commander of the American forces. Yong Kyu loaded the boxes on the truck and the driver drove out from the Turen supply warehouse. The driver laughed and said the whole thing seemed absurd.

“And for just this, two measly boxes, you asked for a truck to come all the way here?”

“I was just dipping a toe in. Let me cover your pocket money for today.”

“Don't worry about it.”

Yong Kyu had the truck stop in front of the Bamboo Club. He unloaded the boxes and left them with a vendor on the street. He said to the driver, “Tell Sergeant Yun I said thanks. I'll be dropping by next week.”

It happened to be lunch hour and inside the Bamboo he found Vietnamese civilians sitting around sipping drinks. They appeared to be merchants or bureaucrats. During the day the patrons were mostly Vietnamese, but at night it was mostly Western soldiers. Toi was at a table in the corner. Sitting beside him was an oily-haired middle-aged man in a white shirt.

“Did you cut a deal?” asked Toi.

“Who's this?” Yong Kyu asked, glancing at the other man.

“Major Pham sent him. I met him for the first time today.”

“He promised to meet me when he gets leave Saturday.”

Toi nodded. “Then we should have the goods in our hands by sometime next week.”

When Toi said something in Vietnamese to the middle-aged man, the latter bowed slightly.

“Do you speak English?” Yong Kyu asked him.

“Very little. A few words for business,” the man mumbled with a thick guttural accent.

“If Major Pham sent him, he must be in on the dealing channels on their side . . . do you know anything about this man?”

“No, not yet. Perhaps within three days I'll be able to tell you about his cousins' cousins. I talked with him a little before you came in, and it seems he's got channels to the town merchants throughout the central region, including Quang Tri, Hue, Bien Hien, Hoi An and as far south as Quang Ngai. I'd say you could count the men in Da Nang with his kind of trading network on your two hands. Looks like he's been doing business with the provincial government for a very long time.”

“Ask him if he owns a store.”

“A merchant like him wouldn't bother with retail selling. He probably has warehouses and vehicles.”

Toi asked the man something, then interpreted the reply for Yong Kyu.

“He has eight big transport trucks. As for warehouses, he has two small ones in the Le Loi market and a bigger warehouse across the river.”

“Good. Can he rent a store in Le Loi market we can use?”

“He says we can share his younger brother's office. Of course, we should pay a little as rent.”

“What kinds of things does he need?”

Once again Toi did not relay the question and instead looked scornfully at Yong Kyu.

“Confident, are you? So, you planning to empty all of Turen yourself? This man wouldn't be here if it weren't for the order from Pham Quyen, and I can tell he doesn't have a very high opinion of us.”

“Ask him anyway.”

Toi asked the man, who looked at his watch and then curtly mumbled something.

“He says demand for salad dressing is pretty high right now.”

“I see. If he wants, I can deliver the goods this time on Monday. Price?”

“Instead of talking price, isn't it more urgent to settle the delivery procedures and the method of sale? The price can be negotiated at a suitable amount when the market is checked.”

Toi had a point. Yong Kyu sunk back into his chair.

“You're right. I don't now. Discuss it with him your way.”

Toi spoke with the middle-aged man in Vietnamese. “Have you done many deals with Major Pham?”

“I'm sorry, but I don't see what that has to do with what we're doing here.”

“My friend here says he'll bring the salad dressing you want this time next Monday. How do you want to handle it?”

“What's the quantity, exactly?”

“Well . . . about one truckload.”

“If it's only a single truck, then it won't be more than two pallets. Ordinarily a pallet is twenty cartons, so it'll be forty boxes altogether. But in case of cans, it may be different. Twelve cans make one box, and the total quantity is less. Anyway, for that amount we won't need a full container, a conex box will be fine and down at the pier terminal there are plenty that belong to the provincial administration. We'll give you a number and a key and you'll deliver the goods down there. Be sure not to forget the key. When we pay you for the goods, you just hand over the key to us. That's all.”

“You said you have your own warehouse, so why ask us to deliver the goods to storage?”

“Depending on the market situation, the goods might go to our warehouse or end up across the river. But deals of this kind are generally done with keys and drops. In case we want to resell to another party, we can just leave the goods in the conex box for them to pick up.”

“We haven't settled on a price.”

“It fluctuates quite a bit. In a business like this we have to trust each other. A dealing line is like a lifeline we both are holding onto. The going rate for salad oil has been around 2300 piasters for a large box and 1900 for a small one.”

“Can you pay in dollars?”

“You mean hard cash?”

“No, military dollars will do.”

“We can pay however our partner wants. But if you ask for military currency, there's a service commission of 20 percent. Stateside cash would cost up to 30 percent. So if payment is in military currency, the large boxes will be eighteen dollars and fifteen for the small. Depending on what the seller wants, in some cases we can also pay in gold, in money orders, or in the currency of a third country.”

“So, you're in the money-changing business too?”

“There are ways to get it done.”

“How about doing our deal in military currency?”

“We'll prepare it that way.”

“What other items would be good?”

The merchant thought for a while.

“The goods we're handling are already set, and we're not intruding on the business of others. I've mainly been dealing in rice, and it was only after getting to know Major Pham that I laid my hands on cement. Processed food is also one of our lines. There are a few others, but they only handle a bit of the military supplies.”

“Can we go and see the office now?”

“You mean, my office?”

“We'd like to see both yours and your brother's.”

The merchant grinned and showed his cautious side. “I know almost nothing about you people. Once the deal starts, you'll have to come by anyway. Well, I think I'll excuse myself now. I'll see you here on Monday same time.”

The merchant spoke to Toi, then he turned to Yong Kyu who had been sitting there like an imbecile and said in English, “See you again.”

After the man left, Toi and Yong Kyu had fried chicken and beer for lunch. Yong Kyu checked the time and reported to the captain over the phone.

“I've just come from Turen, sir. I also met the man sent by the Vietnamese side.”

“Let's have lunch together.”

“We already finished lunch, sir.”

“Anything you need?”

“Well . . . not over the phone.”

“All right, I'll be over in a minute.”

Yong Kyu turned to Toi and said, “Pointer said he'd come over here.”

“Should I leave the two of you alone?”

“No, that's not necessary.”

Shortly afterwards Captain Kim appeared in the doorway. Dressed in white pants and a white T-shirt, he looked like he was on his way to a tennis club. When the captain took a seat in front of them, Yong Kyu briefed him on the developments to date.

“We'll be needing about three hundred dollars, sir.”

“That much for the principal?”

“Half of the sum will go to making friends with that boy from Turen, Leon. It'll cost at least a hundred, anyway. I have about a hundred fifty on me, though.”

“Fine. The question is how fast we can track down the NLF dealing lines. Once we accomplish that, the rest of our dealings can be justified.”

“The American team probably has Vietnamese out running their investigation. On our side, Toi and I plan to run the store ourselves.”

Spreading butter lightly on his bread, the captain murmured, “Right, if the two of you are planted in Le Loi market, we'll get a line on most of the dealers in Da Nang one at a time. We've got to get a grip on all the black market channels of the Koreans, including the Hong Kong Group. Once we have them in our hands, we can squeeze them by the throat.”

“Even now we can put a squeeze on the Hong Kong Group, sir. If we blockade the PX, those guys will come begging on their own.”

“It won't be that easy thanks to our team leader. He's shown their chairman too many vulnerable spots.”

Yong Kyu thought about the staff sergeant. In three months he would be headed back home. For him, ten thousand dollars was a considerable sum. He'd once said that he would love to buy some land in the countryside, to save his family from the life of tenant farmers. Had he not said that he volunteered for the army to escape a hard life as a farmer with too many mouths to feed? His replacement with a new sergeant would not bring any major changes to the current situation. If the leader stayed, for Yong Kyu it would mean a not-so-inconvenient continuation of the status quo for another three months. Counting the time in his head, Yong Kyu plotted it out month by month.

“I have an idea, sir. I'll speak to the team leader. I'll have him move in on the scene when the Hong Kong Group makes some deal. The leader can slip away and . . . lock up that bastard they call ‘Pig.' Then, Chairman Pak will come to you, sir, with his tail between his legs. We'll get such a firm grip on their balls they won't know which way to turn. Once we catch that group, the rest will just fall into our hands.”

“Will the team leader agree to do that?”

“The sergeant will listen to me, sir. I've helped them get through the checkpoints several times. As his subordinate I had no choice, sir.”

“I already knew about that.”

“He's got to help his men get ready to return home. It's wise to have the leader in full control of the PX.”

As an afterthought, the captain said to Toi, “Looks like you and Sergeant Ahn are making a great team.”

“In Vietnam, we call men like him ‘quick as a lizard.'”

“I'll see to it that you get an allowance on top of your salary.”

“No need for an allowance, but I have a favor to ask. I've already discussed it with Sergeant Ahn. Give me an opening every now and then.”

“What kind of opening?”

“When the sergeant's goods are purchased, let me have a chance to invest a little in the buys. A couple of boxes would be enough.”

“All right, I guess that'll be more of a help to you.”

On Saturday Yong Kyu took the company Jeep and drove out to Turen supply warehouse. As Toi had said, he was quick as a lizard, for he had become a decent driver within a month after his transfer to Da Nang. He flashed his ID at the east gate and went around to the soldiers' barracks. Finished with the day's duty, some soldiers were tossing a football around. Leon was among them, soaked with sweat. He must not have expected Yong Kyu to keep his promise, and looked surprised to see him. Within a few minutes he had run inside and come back out, freshly shaven and in civilian clothes.

“Where should we go? China Beach?”

“I've been there lots of times.”