Hwang Sok-Yong - The Shadow of Arms

“I’m aware of that, sir.”

“Soon with the rainy season there’ll be an offensive all over the country. We must fill those requisitions by then, without fail.”

“Comrade Nguyen is doing his best, sir. As you know, the supplies to the militias only include small arms. Heavier weapons are only released to the regular ARVN forces.”

“They come in every now and then,” said Le Muong Panh, “but it’s too irregular. We’ve got to open a supply source in the regular army.”

They had some tea together, then, out of the blue, Banh Hao asked, “The fourth company across the river will mount the attack on the air base, right?”

“I beg your pardon, sir?”

Because Pham Minh seemed puzzled, Le intervened, “Uncle, Comrade Pham is an undercover administrative agent, so he has not been participating in combat operations.”

“Oh, is that right?”

There was a brief silence. Pham Minh got to his feet. “I’d better be going now.”

“Say hello to Comrade Nguyen Thach for me.”

Pham Minh went over to the Hoitim Cafe in order to work up his daily calculations. He spotted Lieutenant Kiem sitting back in one corner.

As soon as Pham Minh sat down, Kiem lowered his voice and quickly said, “We’ve got to suspend things for the time being.” He peered around nervously and then continued, “A security officer and an unfamiliar civilian came in to the adjutant’s office. They said they wanted to see Major Pham and the governor. When I told them that both were away, they said they wanted to have a look around the warehouses, so I showed them the storage at the provincial office. Then they left, saying they would be coming back.”

“Maybe they were conducting an audit?”

“This is not the time of year for audits, you know that. They didn’t say a lot, but they sure acted high and mighty.”

“Where’s my brother?”

“He’s gone back up to Ha Thanh.”

“The cinnamon harvest is not done yet?”

“It’ll soon be finished, I heard.”

“What about the general?”

“He’s gone to Hue. He’ll probably be back tomorrow.”

Pham Minh thought for a while before speaking.

“Very well. We’ll stop everything for a few days. But I don’t think it’s anything so big. You know, the general is a direct relative of the president himself. Nobody can challenge his authority.”

He handed over a fat envelope to Lieutenant Kiem. “This is for yesterday’s.”

Kiem snatched the envelope and left the café in a rush. Without touching his coffee, no longer hot by this time, Minh was absorbed in thought for a while. He needed to put some distance between himself and Kiem. It was then that he heard the rustle of silk, and a white ahozai dress approached his table and then stopped. He looked up.

“Ah. . you’re. .”

“You don’t recognize me?”

The girl in the ahozai was Tran Van Phuoc. Pham Minh had met her a few times in the company of Chan Te Shoan.

“Mind if I sit down with you for a little while?”

Pham Minh straightened his posture and gestured with an open palm to the chair facing him.

“Mr. Pham Minh, what on earth happened to you, anyway? Do you know what the students behind you in school are calling you? A coward, a government army dog. Things like that.”

Pham Minh quietly said, “Did you sit down here just to say that?”

Phuoc smiled and then shook her head. “No, there’s more. Is it true that your leaving the NLF has something to do with your change of heart toward Shoan?”

“Nothing at all. You’ll have to excuse me.”

As he indignantly got up to leave, she quickly continued, “Shoan’s getting engaged today. I’m going to the ceremony right now. Any message for her?”

Pham Minh paused for a second, then just walked past the counter and out the front door of the café. From the violet interior, he had walked out into streets that seemed all grey. The humidity was getting worse and worse. The monsoon season with its daily downpours and hot, humid blasts of jungle air was just around the corner.

Pham Minh revved the accelerator of his motorbike all the way up and for a long time just flew down the school road with trees racing past on both sides. The loud whine of his engine bounced from muffler to the surface of the road, echoing far and wide. Recklessly, he whizzed around a last corner and skidded into Nguyen Thach’s maintenance shop. All the vehicles in the yard were gone, and in their place cement, fertilizer, slate, and other materials from the provincial office were stacked everywhere. The warehouse where Pham Minh had his office was now filled to the rafters with cinnamon, and they had just rented another additional warehouse over by the bus terminal. The current situation offered a ready excuse for Pham Minh to share office space with Nguyen Thach.

Thach was sitting inside with a puzzled expression on his face. Without speaking, he watched closely as Minh came in the office and plopped down on the sofa. Then Thach said, “Everyone in Da Nang must have been notified by now that Mr. Pham Minh is in a bad mood, eh?”

Pham Minh said nothing in reply. Thach picked up a newspaper and moved over to the armchair in the middle of the office. As he sat down, he asked, “Anything new?”

Pham Minh mentioned the meeting with Kiem. Then, unable to restrain himself any longer, he spat out more. “Sir, do you not trust me?”

Nguyen Thach was wide-eyed and at a loss.

“What do you mean, do I distrust you? You and I make a good team. We are one and the same.”

“Then why didn’t you let me know about the offensive to commence with the rainy season, or the assault on the air base in Da Nang by the reinforcement troops. The members across the river had the information before I did.”

A cold look returned to Thach’s face. “Ah, that was because Comrade Pham has a crucial mission to carry out.”

“I, too, will join the offensive. I cannot loiter in the markets any longer.”

“That mission is in fact to take part in the operation.”

“Sir?”

“It will not be the Fourth Reinforcement Company which will attack the air base. The main force is a regular army commando unit coming down out of the mountains. Our fourth company will be conducting a diversionary operation elsewhere near the air base. Comrade Pham, you will have to guide the commando unit as it infiltrates through Dong Dao to an advantageous spot for the attack. You should know that area better than anybody else, since you, Comrade, are in the air force, are you not?”

“I am to guide them, sir?”

“The route and point of attack will soon be fixed. This is an important mission. We may suffer annihilation.”

“The target?”

“Enemy Phantom jets. While the Paris talks drag on, we must keep up military pressure on the enemy. And now you, a cell member, are angry because you had no explanation from above?”

“Ah… I was wrong, sir.”

Pham Minh hung his head very low, then suddenly, as if he had just remembered something, he looked up and said, “I know a safe house very close to the air base, sir. We can make it inside the house without anybody noticing and wait there for nightfall.”

“Good idea. What’s its location, roughly?”

“In Son Dinh village.”

“That’s. .”

“Right. It’s the residence of our teacher, Trinh.”

Nguyen Thach evaded Pham Minh’s glance.

“No, not there.”

“Do you know him, sir?”

“He was the principal of our grammar school in the old days. I was a member of his Buddhist Students Association.”

“But, why not? Don’t you trust him?”

“It’s not that. Many of the senior officers in the NLF also greatly respect him.”