Bimat--A Vietnamese Adventure

by Robert A Webster

  After being shown the small hatches, the tour group were taken to a larger section of the tunnels enlarged to accommodate the large Western tourists. However, there was large and extra-large, and Spock fitted, ‘the not a bloody hope in hell category’. The big lad went as far as the entrance, peered inside the tunnels, turned around and informed the tour guide that they stank and had bats, and Spock hated bats.

  The guide just smiled as if it happened all the time, which it generally did. Zero to claustrophobic within one foot of being inside the tunnel was a regular occurrence and most tourists became scared once inside the tunnel system. With dark narrow sections, they were unable to turn around and, as Spock had pointed out, it stank, although there were no bats.

  The guide then took them to a bullet-riddled tank and told them about the old booby-traps. They let the tourist’s fire off a few rounds from an AK47 with the black pyjama clad tour guides. They then ambled around for a while watching the TV monitors of the tunnels and films about the American conflict.

  Bored with all the war stuff, but not wanting to eat food from the food vendors after their experiences with buying from street vendors in Thailand that made their arse sphincters look like blood oranges, they strolled around a small souvenir shop. They bought a 7.62mm bullet with the gunpowder removed and turned into a cigarette lighter. The lads, thinking it was now well past beer time, decided to search out a source of the amber nectar.

  They sat outside a small shack with a Heskey full of cold cans of Saigon beer and waited for Pon, knowing he would be a while.

  Pon had left his cloth bag with Stu, only taking his Juglave, headlight, and GPS with him. The lads sat at a table underneath an umbrella guzzling their well-deserved cold beer when the bag rang.

  “There’s a phone in Pon’s bag,” said Stu and rummaged through the bag until he found the ringing mobile phone.

  “Whose calling?” asked Spock taking a slurp of Saigon beer and fanning himself with his daft hat.

  “It doesn’t say,” said Stu looking at the screen. “Only call 1, but no number.”

  “It must be from outside Vietnam,” said Spock. “Answer it.”

  “It may be from the kidnappers,” said Stu frowning, “so we’d better not.”

  “Could be important,” said Spock smiling and raising his eyebrows looking curious.

  “Nah,” said Stu, “if it’s important they will call back. Let’s wait and tell Shithead when he comes.”

  The phone continued ringing but the lads ignored it and drank their beer.

  As they sat drinking, they saw a tour guide approaching with Pon being bollocked.

  The tour leader bought Pon over to Spock and Stu and told them their friend had got lost.

  “Bad dog, naughty Shithead,” said Spock who smiled as he chastised Pon and gave him a sharp clip around the ear, which made the tour guide chuckle before walking away.

  The three sat underneath the shade of the umbrella at the beer stand and Spock asked. “So what’s happening Shithead?”

  “I have found one entry for their kidnappers’ hideout from the tunnel. I am due to rendezvous with the commandos in the rain-forest later today and find out what they know,” said Pon. “So now we just wait.”

  “Your phone rang a few times but we didn’t answer it just in case,” said Stu as the phone rang again.

  Pon looked concerned, took the phone off the table, and answered. He then looked relieved and said. “Hello Khun Taksin.”

  The conversation went on in Thai, but by the tone of Pons voice, the lads knew something was wrong...Very wrong.

  Pon finished the call looking shaken and with his voice quivering, said. “My friends we have a big problem. Taksin told me the commandos were captured earlier and probably dead. The kidnappers called Taksin and told him, and then they threatened to kill Kim immediately.”

  Spock and Stu’s jaws dropped, as Pon looked angry and said, “Damn, I should have acted in the tunnel and got inside the hideout.”

  “Mate, you don’t know who or what was in there. You could have easily been killed,” said Stu looking concerned.

  Spock could see Pon trembling and looking distraught and enraged. Spock sounded calm as he said. “Matey, I can’t see them killing Kim, they don’t have us or the Holy Relic, and that was what they wanted, not Kim.”

  Pon looked at Spock, furrowed his brow, and smiled. “You are right Spock.”

  “So what’s happening?” asked Stu putting his hand on Pon’s shoulder.

  Pon sighed. “Taksin is still negotiating with the kidnappers and is now waiting for them to call back.

  He looked at his phone willing it to ring with good news as their Vietnamese tour guide came over and told them to get on the bus.

  The bus drove them to the guesthouse where the three sat in Stu’s room planning their next course of action. Spock and Stu could see Pon’s thoughts were elsewhere and they all jumped when his phone rang fifteen minutes later.

  Spock and Stu, unable to understand what was being said in Thai, watched Pon’s expression changing from concern to anger and then relief.

  Pon finished the call and although his voice trembled he gave a wry smile and said. “Taksin said that he’d convinced the abductors that it was a Cambodian action taken by Kim’s uncle Lee, so he alone must be held responsible for this unforeseen attack. However, because of this attempted infiltration, the kidnappers moved up the schedule. They have now given us until tomorrow to get to Hanoi and meet with their agent with the relic. Taksin told me he had demanded to speak with Kim to make sure that she was still alive. He said he called their bluff by telling them that if he did not speak with her, he would assume they had murdered her and threatened to hunt them down. Taksin then told me he had just spoken to Thran who had spoken to Kim and she was alive and unhurt.”

  Pon looked distressed, but said. “Taksin agreed with you Spock and said they won’t harm Kim as she’s only the bait. He booked flights for us from Ho Chi Mihn city to Hanoi tomorrow, which coincides with an incoming Thai airways flight, so it will appear as if we have arrived from Thailand. Taksin also said that he’d put an article in the Bangkok Post newspaper, to convince the kidnappers that I had stolen the relic.”

  Pon puckered his brow and said. “Taksin told me that he called Lee, who said that he had already put a contingency in place should the commandos fail. He said he also told the kidnappers that the Holy Relic would be destroyed if they didn’t keep to their word and release Kim. When I told him about the tunnel and how the signal went inside their headquarters, Taksin said now that was confirmed, he could take further action. He also said that the kidnappers were bound to bring us back here.”

  Spock and Stu looked at him and smiled. “Great,” said Spock, “now they know where they are, once they bring us back here they can send in the cavalry.”

  Pon nodded and smiled although knew it would not be that simple.

  They sat in Stu’s room while Pon gave them the flight details and who they would meet at Hanoi Airport.

  Spock and Stu didn’t feel concerned, but both noticed Pon fidgeting and knew something troubled him.

  “What’s up matey?” asked Spock. “Tail itching.”

  “Don’t worry everything will be fine,” said Stu throwing the sniggering Spock a curt look.

  Pon, knowing they could all be killed when they came back here and into the underground hideout, rubbed his head, and said. “I still have time to rescue Kim. I can go back through the tunnels and…”

  “Hold on bald Eagle, didn’t you listen to what Lee said. They caught highly trained commandos, so what chance does a little fellow like you have… No… we stick together and follow this through,” said Spock who went to the fridge and took out three cans of beer.

  Stu nodded. “We are family. Besides, if anything happened to you, Spock would have to find someone else’s ears to clip and he has just got used to yours. Let’s do what Taksin said and get out of here tomorrow. This town looks like a one hor
se, beer depleted, fun-less little place and the Vietnamese people don’t seem friendly.”

  Spock handed Pon and Stu a beer and then looked at Stu and grinned. Stu knew the bloody fish story was about to be told again just to annoy him.

  Fortunately, the story never came as Lee phoned Pon sounding angry and told him how he had received the news of his dead commandos from Taksin earlier. He told Pon that he had not been able to contact his men since they had arrived at the target site early morning.

  Pon heard the rage in Lee’s voice as he said. “I ordered a communication blackout with them unless there was an emergency, so they must have been taken out quickly.”

  The three felt shocked and stayed in Stu’s room planning. They went to bed early so they could be fresh and ready for the next day but had a sleepless night thinking about Lee’s dead men.

  Pon’s thoughts turned to Kim and the danger that he was putting Spock and Stu in, now knowing his enemy were not only astute, but a combatant force.

  Stu thought about Dao, and felt annoyed about being unable to contact her and wondered what she was up to.

  Spock, along with the sadness he felt for the commandos, could not get that long digested and now barracuda shit sprat out of his head, along with imaginary tunnel bats.

  The following morning, they caught a taxi for the 40-kilometre journey to Ho Chi Minh International Airport, and the two-hour flight to Hanoi.

  En route, they came up with another plan should the opportunity arise that would involve one of Spock’s unique talents. However, it was a stupid plan and doomed to fail.

  — Chapter Twelve —

  Although Kim’s short journey to the Control Centre was confusing and arduous, her confinement room felt comfortable, even with no windows or natural light.

  She sat on the bed with Ca knelt in front of her between her legs. Kim gazed upon the sad and perplexed face of Ca and stroked his brow. She had no way of knowing how long she had been captive having had her personal items removed and her phone stolen at the airport. She could only guess times and it seemed a long time since she had made the phone call to her father.

  ****

  When Kim arrived in Hanoi mid-morning, her father met her at the airport and they went to the hospital. Although Nga looked ashen as she lay in bed connected to monitors, she smiled when she saw her daughter who rushed over to her bedside and sounding concerned asked. “What happened Mother? Father said you’d had a heart attack on the phone.”

  Nga nodded and smiled. “It was only a minor one, but I feel fine,” she said with her voice sounding weak. “Has your father told you his good news?”

  Thran smirked and shook his head. “Not yet,” he said sounding aloof, “I will show her tonight when we go home.”

  That evening, he told Kim he was now a British Doctorate and showed her his certificate, ceremonial robes, and gold gilded framed portrait hung in the living room. “They have another one hanging in Buckingham Palace in London,” he said sounding proud.

  He then told her about his good friend who arranged everything, Duke Philip of Southerby. Thran joked that Kim should now call him Doctor and not Father.

  Kim felt proud of her father as he pranced around the living room in his regalia. She giggled and thought. ‘I will tell Spock and Stu we are now English Royalty.’

  Kim and Thran visited the hospital regularly over the next few days, but felt anxious because Nga’s condition wasn’t improving.

  A week later, when they went again, Kim noticed her mother’s intravenous infusions now included a bag of blue fluid.

  A Doctor came into the room looking concerned. He bowed, checked Nga’s monitors and seeing Kim sitting at her mother’s bedside and Thran standing alongside her, he asked. “Can I speak with you privately Minister Tangh?” Thran and the Doctor left the room while Kim sat and held her feeble mother’s hand.

  Thran came back to the room thirty minutes later looking pale.

  “What’s the matter Thran?” asked Nga sounding hoarse as she and Kim looked at Thran, who smiled and shook his head.

  “Nothing,” he said, “I will take Kim home, and we will come and see you later.”

  Kim knew by the way her father acted that something was bothering him, but when she asked, he kept repeating that nothing was wrong.

  Over the next few days Nga’s condition improved much to Kim and Thran’s relief.

  One afternoon, while Thran was out of the room, Kim asked a nurse about the blue solution.

  The nurse looked puzzled and said. “It’s Prussian blue; didn’t the doctor tell you… your mother had been poisoned?”

  Kim looked aghast and the nurse looked worried as she left the room, realising Kim didn’t know.

  That evening when Kim and Thran drove home, Kim looked infuriated and glared at her father. “Why didn’t you tell me mother was poisoned? Why did you lie to me?”

  Thran looked ashamed and sighed. “I’m sorry Hern, but I didn’t want to alarm you or your mother. But yes, the Doctors found traces of a toxic substance in her blood, but don’t worry they are treating it and she now looks a lot better.”

  Kim’s voice trembled with rage and she screamed. “Who poisoned my mother and why?”

  Thran shrugged, “I don’t know Hern, that is what I am trying to find out. I can’t understand how someone poisoned her, we always eat the same food, and I am fine.”

  “Who else has been to the house and could have done this?” said Kim, furrowing her brow and glaring at Thran.

  “Nobody, oh, apart from Duke Philip, but he never ate with us. He only stayed a short while and then left,” said Thran, who furrowed his brow. “It can’t be anything to do with him, he’s English Royalty, and Prime Minister Khiem introduced us.”

  Kim stared ahead as they pulled into the family home. ‘This sounds suspicious. I will call Pon, but I don’t want to alarm him, so I will just tell him we should visit Spock and Stu when I get home. They are English so will hopefully know about the British Royalty,’ she thought.

  Nga’s condition improved over the next few days and the hospital sent her home to recuperate. Kim booked her flight back to Thailand for a few days’ time and she, along with the Tangh’s staff took care of Nga who was now back to her normal self and pottered around the garden. Kim, concerned for her Mother’s safety while she was away, and suspicious of Duke Philip, ordered the gardener to call her immediately if he saw Duke Philip at the house. Meanwhile, she would look into him further when she returned to Thailand.

  The gardener smirked when he saw Thran taking his daughter to the airport on the morning of her departure.

  Grimes, already knowing Kim’s date of departure had called Ca to Hanoi several days earlier along with his driver, his brother-in-law Tuong. He’d felt annoyed when Ca had told him that he couldn’t drive a car, so he asked if Tuong could come along. Grimes, knowing nothing about Tuong, got his Vietnamese employee to call Pu-ed who gave him details about Ca’s brother-in-law. Mophi sat with Grimes when the Vietnamese man told him about Tuong and something piqued Mophi’s interest. He ordered Grimes to let him drive.

  Grimes, Akhim, Ca, Tuong, and the man they knew as Lang Duc, sat in Grime’s Hanoi office waiting for the gardener’s phone call.

  Ca and Tuong looked nervous as Grimes reassured them that everything was planned and told Ca that Kim said she couldn’t wait to see him again.

  The phone rang and Grimes smiled and answered. After speaking to the gardener, he said.

  “Okay, she is on her way.” He smiled at the three. “You know what to do,” he said and handed Ca an A4 sized envelope.

  Lang Duc picked up his bag with tatty clothes and the DVD with instructions, and he, Ca, and Tuong, went to the door.

  “Oh, and Ca,” said Grimes smiling. “Don’t be surprised by her reaction. This is part of the plan.”

  Grimes and Akhim smirked when the three left the office and Grimes looked at his watch. “I had better leave so I am at the Control Centre when they arriv
e. I will call you when we are ready to begin the next phase, and good luck my friend.”

  Ca and Tuong arrived at the airport and dropped off Lang Duc at departures. Lang Duc went inside, checked in his baggage, and went to sit in the departure lounge.

  Ca was excited and fidgeted as he and Tuong waited in the car park. A tingle of excitement coursed through Ca as he thought about seeing Hern after all these years.

  They didn’t wait long. A large white car with a red star painted on the side stopped outside the departures section and Kim and her father stepped out. The driver took Kim’s bags from the trunk and placed them onto a trolley. Kim and Thran said their goodbyes and Kim walked into the departures section as Thran drove off.

  Ca felt a rush of excitement when he first glimpsed Kim. With his old feelings rekindled, all he wanted now was the signal from Lang Duc, so that he could be close to her.

  Kim checked in her baggage and went into the small departure lounge on the ground floor. Airports in Southeast Asia are very informal and once checked in, people can wander around or go outside.

  Kim sat and gazed out of the glass-walled airport watching people outside walking back and forth as she thought about her mother. She looked at her watch and smiled. ‘I will soon be home, and then I can look into this further’ she thought, before taking out her phone and calling her husband to let him know she was on her way.

  The airport’s tannoy gave out flight details and boarding gates in Vietnamese, and Kim knew she still had almost an hour to wait before she boarded. She stood at the large window, gazed out over the airport’s grounds, and sighed as she thought about her mother.

  Lang Duc, after seeing Kim making her phone call and standing by the window, dialled Ca’s number, let it ring three times, turned the phone off, and then went to stand beside Kim. He smiled when he saw Ca heading towards the window waving at Kim. He noticed Kim looking as Ca got closer and she let out a gasp of surprise. “Ca!”