Message from Nam (37 page)

They arrived at the base, and came through the main gate, and Ralph told them he wanted to see the new commander of the 25th, and Paxton followed him inside. He was a pleasant man, and he explained that they had recently uncovered an entire new network of tunnels. There had been an arsenal of bombs, living quarters, “offices.” They hadn’t known it, but once again the men at Cu Chi had been living over an entire subterranean village. He showed them photographs and diagrams, and then called on an aide to show them around, and he invited them to come back and see him again if they had any further questions. And he looked appreciatively at Paxton when he said it. He didn’t know who she was when they met, but he knew she was one hell of a pretty girl in combat gear or not, and he thought Ralph was pretty damn lucky.

They drove out to the back of the base after that, and Paxton felt her heart ache as she looked around at the place where Bill had lived and worked. Coming here was turning out to be very painful. And Ralph could see it on her face as they drove to the same place they had gone with Bill, and Ralph was suddenly sorry he had brought her.

“I’m sorry, Pax. I shouldn’t have done this to you. I just wasn’t thinking.”

“It’s okay.” She patted his arm, and readjusted her backpack. She kept some notes in it, and a few things, like her canteen and a first aid kit. Like the troops, she still carried her suntan cream and her insect repellent in her helmet. “I’m fine,” she said, but she was lying, as they got out of the jeep again. She was sad, and she was thinking of him as she suddenly collided with someone who almost knocked her off her feet and then caught her before she fell.

“Shit …” the voice said as she stumbled in midair, and then he caught her. And as she turned, she saw that it was Tony Campobello.

“Hi,” she said shyly, trying to regain her composure. Ralph was already talking to someone else, and the photographer was reloading his camera.

“I didn’t mean to knock you down just now … sorry …” And then, with a slow smile that lit his dark eyes like embers, “I seem to be saying that to you a lot these days. You get home okay the other night? You looked so tired, I thought you weren’t going to make it.” His New York accent was familiar to her now, and she could almost see why Bill had liked him. He was nervous and tense, but he was also smart, and quick, and sharp, and he cared intensely about the people around him, and everything that happened to them.

“I slept for about twenty hours after I left you,” she explained. “I didn’t even bother to take my clothes off.”

“That’s about how you looked.” He smiled, watching the pain in her eyes. It was rough for her coming back here and he knew it. It was hard for him too. Everywhere he went, he was reminded of the men he had loved and lost. There were ghosts everywhere for him, and for most of them if they stayed in Nam for long enough. There were good memories, too, but there were so many sad ones.

“How are the vegetables here today?” She smiled back at him, lightening the moment. A look had passed between them that said they both missed Bill, and for a crazy instant she wanted to reach out and touch him.

“Pretty fresh,” he laughed, and was surprised that she’d remembered the details of their conversation, and then he sobered again. “So are the snipers. We’ve got to look out to the east. We’ve been getting some pretty lively action. One of my boys got hit in the arm a few hours ago. Nothing much, fortunately, he was pretty lucky. We’ve been keeping down ever since then. Keep well back when you go out to look at the tunnels.” He had heard why they were there, and his CO had told him to give them every cooperation.

“I’ll watch it, thanks.” And with that, Ralph turned to her with a look of irritation. The heat was getting to him, and he wasn’t pleased to hear that the VC were so tight in that day. He hadn’t wanted to drag her out on a difficult mission. He had just wanted to start her off again with some new information.

“You with me, Delta Delta, or you gonna talk all day?”

“Keep your shirt on, I’m coming.”

“Keep your ass down. Charlie’s out there.”

“So I’ve been told.” She glanced at Tony, and then went off with Ralph. She was introduced to the lieutenant who had taken Bill’s place, and felt a tug at her heart again, but she tried to concentrate on what they were doing. Ralph explained about the shots he wanted the photographer to get, and told Paxton the angle of his story, and all around them there were men, and there was activity as people came and went, and some of them went out into the brush to tangle with the VC they knew were out there.

“Christ, you’d think when they turned the Iron Triangle into a parking lot just across the river that that would have done it,” Ralph muttered to one of the men, but the guy only shrugged. He already knew there was no way to stop them.

“There’s no way you can get rid of these guys. You can burn ’em, you can dig ’em out, you can kill the little fuckers, but Charlie keeps on coming. They just got bokoo boys to send down here to see us.”

“Yeah.” Ralph nodded, and Paxton crouched as she followed Bertie into some tall grass beyond the clearing. He wanted to get some shots of the exchange with the sniper before he went back to look at the tunnel, and for some reason, Paxton followed him, sensing that she was hot on the tail of a story. Ralph was doing something else by then, and there were half a dozen troops all around them, and a point man out front trying to see what he could find. And as Paxton knelt in the brush, a radio man came up behind her.

“Lady, you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“You sure you’re supposed to be out here?”

“I didn’t know they had special seats for the press.” But as she said the words, a burst of fire whistled past her. Without saying another word, she and the radio operator dropped flat on the ground, his arms covering hers, their helmets touching as they ate the dust they lay in. “Come to think of it,” she said softly as they waited, “maybe they should have special seats. That was close.”

It reminded her of the time Bill had saved her from the grenade in almost the same location. But the bullets had been closer than they knew. As they got to their knees again, the RTO saw that Bertie had been shot clean through the heart and was lying beside them. “Oh fuck …” He checked for a pulse and there was none, as fresh fire erupted nearby, and a dozen GIs ran past them waving their M-16’s and opening fire at what they thought were two more snipers. “Get your ass out of here,” the RTO shouted at Paxton, “go back.” But as she moved, they opened fire on them again from a different angle, and he lay on top of her as he frantically called for help. There were more than two snipers out there. “Mother Goose … Mother Goose … this is Peter Pan … come in … we’re out in the clearing and they’re taking pot shots at us, I’ve got one visitor down, and a Delta Delta on my hands out here … draw them off and I’ll bring her in.…”

“We read you, Peter Pan … this is Mother Goose.…” It was the operator at the base, and they would instruct some of the troops to try to draw off the snipers, but it wasn’t going to be easy.

“We’ve got two choices,” the RTO explained as he almost smothered Paxton. “We can run like hell, back the way we came, or we can go ahead into the trees, which is shorter.” But it was also where the snipers were, and a lot more dangerous for them, and he didn’t know what the hell to do with Paxton. He was a boy about her own age, from Maine, and the last thing he wanted was to get her killed and have to bear the blame for making the wrong move in the heat of the moment.

“I vote for the trees,” she said calmly as another round exploded near her knees. “In fact”—she pulled away from him and rolled over—“I think we ought to move fast.” And as she said it, she lunged ahead, and he followed and as they ran, the spot where they had been lying took a direct hit from a grenade. The VC were definitely not kidding. She didn’t even think as she ran. And as they approached the trees, she dove into them and lay on the ground, panting, as the RTO slid in beside her, and at that exact moment the M-60 opened fire, and beyond it there was a huge explosion.

“There goes the pig,” the RTO explained, and then made contact with the base again.

“This is Mother Goose,” the base answered. “Peter Pan, where the hell is your Delta Delta?”

“I got her.” He smiled at Paxton, and she wanted to laugh. It was crazy. The VC were trying to kill her, and her own people were still calling her a Doughnut Dollie.

“Any injuries?” The voice at the other end sounded worried.

“She looks fine.” As best he could, the RTO looked her over and confirmed it. “Can you get us out of here?”

“We’re trying. There are more of them than we thought.” There always were, and at Cu Chi they always seemed to infiltrate in numbers. They knew the old tunnel system too well, and the recent discovery of the new network proved that there were always more. Somehow, no matter what you did, Charlie was always one step ahead, and he always seemed to be winning. “We should have you out of there in a few minutes, Peter Pan. Just sit tight.” There was another round of fire, and Mother Goose announced that one of the snipers was wounded and had been captured. The RTO told Paxton to stay where she was, he was going to go up front and see if he could help them.

“I’ll be right back.” But as soon as he left she heard shots behind her, and she didn’t know which way to move. There seemed to be no choice, except to follow the RTO, and suddenly before she knew it she was in the midst of the fire again, and there was a boy lying on the ground beside her. His whole back had been blown open and his head was thrown back, and as Paxton looked, she saw that it was the boy from Maine, with his radio beside him. She was sure he was dead as she approached, but as she lay next to him, she saw that he was still breathing. He was unconscious, and so were two boys next to him, and then the fighting moved away again. But she could hear the grenades and the M-16’s, and the M-60. And without thinking she grabbed the radio from the boy’s hands, and did what she had seen him do before, to rouse the base.

“Come in, Mother Goose.” She spoke into the mike cautiously.

“I hear you … this is Mother Goose … who is this?”

She hesitated for only the flicker of an eyelash. “This is Delta Delta. The RTO is badly wounded. I’ve got two other boys hurt here too.”

“Where are you?” Mother Goose sounded panicked.

“I’m not sure. We’re in the bushes, and the fighting’s not too far from us. There must be more than just snipers out there. Can you get us out?” Her voice sounded strong, but as she held the radio, she could feel her hands shaking. One of the boys had stirred and let out a moan, and she kept telling herself silently not to panic.

“We’re trying to get you out, Delta Delta … have you got a flare?”

She started to say no, and then remembered that she had one in her backpack. “Yes.”

“I want to know exactly where you are, Delta Delta. Just wait a minute. Don’t do anything till I tell you.” And when he stepped away from the phone, he shouted across the room to anyone who could hear him. “Get me the lieutenant, someone. I’ve got a woman out there with three wounded guys, and we don’t know where the fuck they are, they’re out there somewhere in the bushes.” The lieutenant came running within seconds, and a few minutes later someone got Ralph, and he came back to the base and stood nervously listening to the radio with the others. They were still trying to draw the sniper fire off out in the brush, but someone had seen more VC by then, and it had become obvious that they were dealing with an NVA unit from somewhere up north.

“Great,” the lieutenant groaned. “Just what I needed. Regular army from Hanoi, and a female journalist from San Francisco.” He closed his eyes for a minute while he thought, and looked like he was praying.

“Can you get her out of there, Mack?” Ralph looked terrified.

“For chrissake, Ralph, I’m trying. I don’t know what the hell we’ve got up there, and I don’t know how she wandered into it. But it’s beginning to sound like the whole fucking North Vietnamese Army.”

“On the edge of the base like that?” It seemed hard to believe, but nonetheless it had happened. It happened everywhere, they tiptoed right through your midst while you were sleeping. And they slit your throats, or stole your rifles, or didn’t. But their presence was no secret today, and where Paxton was lying, she could see the action. They were tossing grenades at each other now, and the M-60 machine gun was in full action.

“This is Mother Goose,” the RTO at the base spoke into the phone. “Delta Delta, can you still hear me?”

“I hear you fine, Mother Goose. Could you send a cab please?”

Ralph shook his head, wishing he had never asked her to come to Cu Chi with him on the story.

“We’ll have a cab out your way any minute.” And almost as he said the words, the fighting seemed to move away from them, and deeper into the brush and away from the base. It was finally working. “How are your wounded?”

She had just checked everyone. One of them was conscious now, and the other two were still breathing.

“We’re okay,” she said to the base, “but barely. Can you make it quick?”

“Give us two more minutes and we’ll have a Dustoff out your way. You got your flare?”

“I’ve got it.”

“We’ll tell you when, Delta Delta.” And in the next five minutes, the fighting moved farther away, and almost at the same moment, she heard the whirring of a chopper, and saw the Dustoff in the distance. “Can you see the cab, Delta Delta?” The voice was calm, and she felt tears sting her eyes when she saw him. It had been quick, but it had been very, very scary. And it reminded her that she was back in Viet Nam. This was not San Francisco or Savannah. People were dying here, and going home without legs or arms, or blind, or deaf or without faces. And for a minute there she had thought they were going to get her. But she didn’t have time to think about it now, all she could think about was getting the wounded boys into the chopper.

“I see the cab, Mother Goose,” she confirmed.

“Show us your flare, Delta Delta.” There was sweat running down Ralph’s face as he listened from the control room. Dear God, don’t let those assholes kill her.…