Martin Limon: Joy Brigade

Ernie noticed my reaction and shifted his seat a little closer, as if to intervene if I reached across the table and grabbed Strange by the neck.

“How do you know all this?” Ernie asked.

Strange mimicked lifting the edge of a “Top Secret” cover sheet and peering at the document below. “I look out for my fellow NCOs.”

Ernie sighed. “Okay, Harvey. Thanks for the information. What do you want in return?”

Strange leaned forward. “Had any strange lately?”

Ernie made up a story of erotic intrigue. As he listened, Strange’s cigarette holder bobbled.

All I knew for sure was that Doctor Yong In-ja and our son were in danger. The problem was that, other than stay away from them, I didn’t know what to do to protect them. Eighth Army had refused my deal. I had nowhere else to go.

I was sitting alone in the barracks, wishing I could see Doc Yong and Il-yong, when Ernie entered my room.

“Here,” he said, handing me a note.

It was written in Korean and I had to pull out my Korean-English dictionary to decipher it. The meaning was what I had been expecting but dreading: We are leaving, she wrote. Don’t search for us. All we will do is rip you away from your own country. We will survive. I will teach Il-yong never to forget you.

There was no signature.

I crumpled the note and looked up at Ernie.

“Where’d she go?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I don’t know. She was already gone when I got there. All her stuff was cleared out. Only this note taped to the center of the floor.”

Ernie walked with me down the hill to the NCO Club.

A Korean show band was playing that night. The Locks and Keys, I think they were called. I ordered a straight shot of Old Overwart with a beer chaser. After four of them, I didn’t hear a word they sang.

Major Bulward ordered me to report to his office. He sat at a table across from me and slid a classified document my way. The cover sheet was red. It said “Top Secret.”

“Read it,” he said.

It was a report gleaned mostly from aerial reconnaissance, concerning the area near Mount O-song. It wasn’t good. I slid the report back to him. He shoved the document into a leather briefcase and locked the metal hasp.

“The Manchurian Battalion no longer exists,” he said. “The forces of the Dear Leader overran them two days ago. There were few survivors.”

“How about Bandit Lee?”

“He died fighting.”

I felt as if an AK-47 round had slammed into my gut.

“We could’ve saved them,” I said.

Major Bulward was silent for a moment. Then he said, “That’s a decision that was made above our pay grade.”

I didn’t answer.

“Are you going to tell us about the tunnel?” he asked.

“You don’t need me. You’ll find it eventually.”

“I’m sorry about your girlfriend,” he said.

“She’s not my girlfriend,” I said. “She’s more than that.”

“Your wife?” he ventured.

“Not now.” I glared at him. “You ruined that.”

I stood and walked out of his office.

Two months later, Ernie and I were back on black-market detail. Because we hadn’t arrested enough housewives for exceeding their rationed purchases out of the commissary and PX, our statistics-as usual-were lousy. As a result, we’d drawn a nighttime security detail: escorting the Eighth Army J-2, Colonel Yancy, to a soiree at the ROK Ministry of National Defense.

We followed his sedan in Ernie’s jeep, down the brightly lit streets of Seoul and through the big iron gates. We watched as his sedan pulled up in front of the huge cement-block building and uniformed South Korean soldiers opened the back door for him. Looking sharp in his dress blue uniform, Colonel Yancy marched up the cement steps toward the main hall of the ministry. Ernie parked in a lot out back and, after flashing our badges to more uniformed soldiers, we entered through a side door.

The hall was softly lit and there was a twelve-piece military orchestra on the balcony. Officers and diplomats and South Korean dignitaries of all types were enjoying canapes and hors d’oeuvres and bubbling champagne in fluted glasses. The women, like the men, were mostly middle-aged, but a few of the younger female South Korean officers caught Ernie’s eye.

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s grab some of those crackers.”

“We’re on duty,” I said.

“They won’t miss ’em.”

We walked along the edge of the hall until we reached the double doorway leading back to the kitchen. When a white-gloved waiter came by, Ernie managed to snag some snacks off a silver platter. The man ducked away and kept moving.

“Now for some champagne,” Ernie said.

“Forget it, Ernie. You’ll get us in trouble.”

He stopped suddenly and elbowed me. “Get a load of her.”

Across the hall, wearing a tailored uniform of a short skirt and a matching tunic, stood a statuesque woman.

“She’s looking at you,” Ernie said, munching on his cracker. “Man, she could be a fashion model. What a doll.” He swiveled his head to study me. “Do you know her?”

I didn’t answer. Instead, I stared into the haunting eyes of Senior Captain Rhee Mi-sook. At first, I had the impulse to run, but I controlled it. She wasn’t wearing the uniform of a North Korean officer; she was dressed as a major in the South Korean Army. And she wasn’t trying to hide. Not at all. She seemed perfectly at home in this crowd. She held my gaze boldly, a half-smile on her lips.

Then she raised her champagne glass in a toast and sipped.