Hwang Sok-Yong - The Shadow of Arms

“Right. We’ll go together.”

They went back out to the parked vehicles. The police chief radioed to his headquarters. A short while later, two trucks arrived with backup police power.

“Divide up the forces and send some to Nguyen Cuong Company in old Le Loi market,” said Yong Kyu. “Have them also search the car repair shop behind the store. Now, follow us with the rest of your men.”

After crossing the smokestack bridge, they sped toward Bai Bang. The rain was pouring down on the windshields.

“You should have filled me in before you went off duty,” said the captain to Yong Kyu, looking straight ahead.

His hands locked on the steering wheel, Yong Kyu was peering at the shafts of rain frozen in mid-air by the Jeep’s headlights.

“I didn’t want to take the responsibility. .”

“But now, have you changed your mind?”

“Toi was my partner, sir.”

What Yong Kyu was feeling then was entirely different from what he had felt at Stapley’s death. He had no way to identify with Stapley’s behavior. There had been no choice for him. Toi’s death, however, was a disgrace, like the ends of Korean soldiers whose limbs had been lopped off, or whose remains were carried off as heaps of ashes. Yong Kyu seemed angry with himself for feeling self-pity. Something hot was running down his face. I’m exhausted, Yong Kyu murmured to himself. His throat was throbbing.

Yong Kyu had only been to that alley once, but he remembered it well. He parked the car on the edge of the market on a street lined by small shops. As he got out the Jeep, the police chief came up to him.

“Their base is in the Banh Hao store.”

“Where is it?”

“In the middle of these shops. In back of the store there’s a warehouse and a residence.”

They crept up stealthily. The police chief led his men around to the house in the rear, and Yong Kyu and the captain, with a few policemen, gathered out front by the shuttered windows of the store. There was a wooden door in front, reinforced with tin sheets. Realizing there was no other way inside, they began to crack the shutters with their boots and rifle butts. The wood splintered noisily and the glass behind the shutters broke into pieces.

When they started trying to climb through, a spray of bullets came from automatic weapons on the inside. One of the policemen was hit and went down. Yong Kyu and the captain dashed inside and took cover behind some rice bushels, then returned fire towards the interior. Judging from the shooting noises, a fight was also raging at the house out back. As in the jungle, Yong Kyu kept on firing as he rushed over to the warehouse door. A policeman came up beside him, stuck his gun into the warehouse and fired. Another policeman meanwhile had pulled the ring on a grenade and lobbed it inside the storage area. There was an explosion and from inside, flames and smoke rushed out.

The first to enter the warehouse was a police lieutenant. Yong Kyu rushed right behind him, instinctively firing a burst of rounds at a spot from which he heard something. A mountain of flour sacks piled almost to the ceiling tumbled down, a man’s dark figure falling with it. A shaded light hanging from the ceiling was swaying back and forth. Yong Kyu’s shadow stretched onto the wall and then shrank again. Quickly he took aim at the form of the fallen man. The air was full of white dust raised by the torn flour sacks. The man stared up at Yong Kyu, who saw that it was the younger brother of Major Pham. An AK47 was lying on the floor near his bent arm. He stretched out his arm to try to grasp the rifle. Yong Kyu fired again. The man’s body twitched from the shock of taking close fire, and soon stopped moving. The flour bags beside him gradually turned red.

“Sergeant Ahn, are you all right?” came the captain’s voice behind him.

The police lieutenant was down by the door, gasping desperately. Another policeman who had followed Yong Kyu in was lying at the side door and firing into the inner quarters of the house. The captain and Yong Kyu carried the moaning lieutenant outside. After a while the gunfire ceased.

Two visitors arrived at the general’s villa in Bai Bang. They came in a khaki sedan for VIP use, dispatched from the American forces. It being early in the morning, the general was still in his bedroom. A staff sergeant with the security detail stopped them to check if they were armed. One of the two men wore a uniform without any rank insignia, and the other was in a white half-sleeve shirt and a pair of black pants. The man in uniform was holding up a black umbrella for the civilian and himself.

“I have to confirm your identities, sir,” said the staff sergeant.

The uniform took out a badge of the security forces from his back pocket and showed it to the staff sergeant. But the latter would not step back.

“The general is commander-in-chief of Quang Nam Province, sir. Whatever your unit affiliation may be, you should observe the proper security protocol, sir.”

“This gentleman is from Independence Palace. Get out of the way.”

As the uniform spoke thus, the civilian intervened in a gentlemanly tone, “Ah, leave him be. I’m from the military council.”

He took out an ID and handed it over to the staff sergeant. Freezing at attention, the staff sergeant still managed to salute with propriety. The civilian put his ID away and asked in a gentle voice, “May I see General Liam now, please?”

“Yes, sir, let me show you the way, sir.”

The staff sergeant walked like a robot to the front hall and pulled the rope. There came a low and heavy sound of a bell, and a butler dressed in a traditional cotton shirt opened the door.

“These gentlemen just came from Saigon,” said the staff sergeant. “They are here to see the general.”

The butler bowed politely and stepped aside. The civilian took a long look at the luxurious interior decor, then walked over to a sofa and sat down. The uniform stood in one corner in a posture of parade rest. The general came down the stairs in his bathrobe. The civilian got up slowly and spoke with a smile on his face.

“It’s been a long time since we last met, sir.”

They shook hands.

“And what brings you here?”

At the general’s question, the civilian scanned the living room once more. “A very nice place you’re living in, sir.”

Noticing that the general’s glance was riveted on the uniformed man standing in the corner, the civilian spoke to the uniform.

“Why don’t you come over here and have a seat?”

Only then did the uniform salute the general.

“As I understand it, Colonel, your unit is in Hoi An, isn’t it?”

“Yes, sir. But I’ve been assigned to escort the Cabinet member here.”

The butler brought in morning coffee.

“Has some emergency arisen?” asked the general, raising his cup.

“We have a big problem. Recently the National Liberation Front issued a statement, and its content appeared in a few newspapers in Saigon. The statement, issued in the name of Immi Allero, chairman of the People’s Autonomy Movement in the highlands of Quang Nam Province, criticizes the recent operations in the districts of Ha Thanh and An Hoa.”

The general began to raise his voice. “That’s no more than typical enemy propaganda, isn’t it?”

“The problem is, sir, that the commanding officers in the area gave out arbitrary orders to massacre the Katu, one of the highland tribes.”

At those words from the civilian, the general finally got to his feet and started pacing about the room.

“You mean to tell me you’ve come here with a local problem like that? Does the military council have a shortage of work to do?”

“Sir, no need to get excited, please. The military council had discussed this problem in the presence of His Excellency, the President, as well as the vice-president. We’ve reached the conclusion that this is something that must be handled quietly within the council. The reason I came here is to take care of that problem, sir. Independence Palace had received several different kinds of grievances concerning the enterprises conducted by the government office of Quang Nam Province. His Excellency the President himself understands you, sir.