Bimat--A Vietnamese Adventure

by Robert A Webster

  The jungle erupted with the sound of shouting, gunfire, and explosions from thunder flash grenades.

  The Cambodian commandos, taken by complete surprise as bright beams of halogen torches shone into their faces blinding them as the mercenaries yelled at them and hit them with rifle butts.

  Inside the Control Centre, the controller smirked as the screens showed spectral images of groups leaving the site with prisoners. However, one group left the scene without taking any prisoners, but left a stationary red glow, which faded yellow.

  The man at the monitor grinned and said. “You heartless bastard Mophi, you could have taken him alive.” Grimes looked shocked as a voice came over the radio.

  “Control room… five.”

  “Go ahead five.”

  “There’s nothing at the location you gave me, over.”

  The controller replayed the recording on another monitor and saw an image for a few moments, which then disappeared.

  The mercenary thought for a moment and said. “Five, this is control, please confirm that there’s no sign of any equipment or individuals.”

  “Confirmed. We searched the area around the coordinates, but there is nothing here,” said the mercenary sounding tired.

  “Perhaps it was an animal,” said Grimes also seeing nothing.

  The controller nodded and said. “Okay five, return to base.”

  Twenty minutes later, the amphibious vehicle return with the mercenaries yelling and cheering and three bruised and bloodied commandos looking angry and afraid.

  The prisoners were dragged from the vehicle and the controller went over to join in the fun.

  While Grimes stood and watched, the mercenaries beat the commandos unconscious. Grimes trembled and put his hand over his mouth as he witnessed the violence and wanted this to be over as soon as possible.

  With no more fun to be had, the mercenaries shackled and gagged the commandos before throwing them into Tuong’s old room. Kim and Ca heard the commotion outside and then thumping in the room next-door, as the shackled unconscious commandos were thrown into the room and they trembled and glanced at one another.

  Grimes went to his office and watched TV while the mercenaries partied in the Control centre.

  The Kerfuffle went on for a few hours, with the sounds of bottles smashing and men cheering one another.

  Normality returned to the Control Room as the drunken mercenaries went to their quarters to drink and brag more.

  The squad Commander heard explosions going off and a commotion below his tree when the mercenaries attacked. He squeezed further into the tree cradle knowing the river mud would hide him temporarily from any heat sensors, which he now realised his enemy had. He saw the mercenaries below the tree shining their torches around the ground beneath him and glanced over at lights a short distance away. The burning foliage illuminated three men standing around one of his commandos laying face down on the ground with his hands behind his head. He then saw a large man take out his pistol and shoot his commando in the head before laughing and walking away.

  Trembling with rage, he heard the mercenary below calling the Control Centre and then he along with the other two mercenaries left. Several minutes later, the shouting and noise died down and the jungle went quiet. He looked around at the smouldering embers from four other locations and knew all his men were either dead or captured.

  Apart from the heat sensors, he was unsure of what other technology his foes possessed, so the Commander waited for the heat of the sun to allow him to move around freely. Dawn broke and the sun radiated its warmth. The Commander shimmied down the sun facing side of the tree, moved between warm, dense patches of vegetation to the river, and rolled in the mud. He then went to the scorched earth and foliage caused by the stun grenades.

  The Commander trembled with rage as he stood over the body of his dead commando and thought. ‘They have taken the other three captive.’ He removed the dead commando’s dog tags, put them in his pocket, and covered the body in foliage.

  He then took his satellite phone from his backpack and glared at the screen. ‘Hmm,’ he thought, ‘if I turn this on to call Brigadier Lee they will trace it.’

  Putting the phone back into his pack he crawled on all fours until he reached the entrance to the tunnel and then sliding a short way back into the jungle, watched and waited.

  Knowing Pon, Spock, and Stu would arrive later that day, he spent the day on recognisance. He knew that daytime in the jungle was his domain and he could easily smell, see and hear better than any device. He intended to rendezvous with Pon and together work out another course of action. He thought about the large man he saw execute his soldier and shook with rage.

  Several hours later, apart from technicians, the Control Centre was quiet. Grimes looked at his watch and then called Akhim and told him about the failed rescue attempt.

  “I want to get this over with as soon as possible and this has given us the perfect excuse to move up the deadline,” said Grimes still feeling shaken.

  “I agree Julian, leave it to me,” said Akhim. “I will call Pon, threaten him, and then let him stew before I tell him we will move up the deadline.”

  Several hours later, Grimes went into Kim and Ca’s room. He handed Kim a note and smirked. “Nice try Mrs Meesilli.”

  Kim sighed as she looked at the note she’d given to the man who brought in food. She then looked at Grimes who handed her another note that she read and looked puzzled. Grimes took a sat phone and a pistol from his jacket pocket and said. “Speak with your father and say exactly what it says on that note and no more. Do you understand?”

  Kim nodded and Grimes dialled a number and spoke with Akhim, who handed the phone to Thran who answered sounding frantic.

  Grimes handed the phone to Kim and pointed the pistol at her head while she read to her father what was on the note.

  After finishing the conversation, Grimes took the phone back to his office and smirked as he put his replica pistol back in his drawer. He turned on his TV and switched from television to CCTV monitor and watched Kim and Ca’s room.

  Although the conversation had been short, it had lifted Kim’s spirits and for the first time since she had been in captivity, she smiled.

  Ca looked at Kim and as tears welled up in his eyes, he said. “I am sorry Hern. I have been a fool. That English bastard duped me and Tuong, and now he’s dead thanks to my stupidity.”

  Kim thought about how her father, who, although a well-educated man, was also taken in by Grimes.

  She walked over to Ca, took his moist tear stained face in her hands, and whispered, “I forgive you.”

  Grimes smirked as he watched the CCTV monitor in his office. “At last, this could be interesting and devastate Pon when he sees it. Mohammed will be pleased with this new development. I will work more on these lovebirds, although it will be short lived,” he said aloud and chuckled.

  He then put a song over the Control Centre music system. ‘Let me give them a little coaxing.’ he thought as the track he had selected played. He saw the couple smiling as they listened to Kids in America.

  Later that day Grimes reported to Mohammed, who seemed pleased, although it was hard to tell as his illness took a firmer grip. They had kept in daily contact with the Sheik, first in the Hanoi office and now at the Control Centre, through a scrambled audio/video live feed. Grimes assured him that he would soon have the relic and his fatwa would be carried out in front of the screen, so he could witness Allah’s revenge.

  The hours passed and Ca and Kim spoke about their current lives. Kim told Ca about her planned wedding to Colonel Tighe, who had vanished, and how she met and fell in love with Pon. Ca listened to this now distant woman and realised she only had feelings for her husband.

  They talked for hours, with the odd interruption from Grimes, who tried to persuade them to comfort each other in their time of need. Grimes told them that due to the failed rescue attempt Pon wasn’t coming, so they were now trying to decide how to
dispose of them.

  Fearful, confused, and feeling isolated, they eventually embraced. Ca told Hern that he never stopped loving her and if they were about to die, he wanted to spend what time remained with her. Kim looked at Ca and smiled. This reminded Ca of the old Hern who could always melt his heart with her smile. Through the hopelessness with all the memories flooding back, they kissed.

  They held onto each other, wrapped in one another’s soul. They then got under the bed sheets and carried on with their loving embrace.

  Grimes watched from his office CCTV monitor giggling and clapping his hands together looking elated. After cultivating and nurturing the romance by using his proficient lifelong talent as a swindler, when he saw them kiss, he yelled aloud, “Marvellous, another few hours and it would have been a waste of time. Am I the best, oh yes!” he said, and feeling pleased with himself did a little jig around his office.

  Grimes then had video technicians make a collage of pictures and clips, which he would play on the screens in his office when his other guests arrived.

  ‘That should please Pon when he and the other two get here, which should be soon.’ he thought as he glanced at his watch.

  Grinning, he went over to the technicians and insisted they checked the equipment over again for the next part of the operation.

  The sat phone rang thirty minutes later and Grimes, who had been looking through more travel magazines and watching the collages of Kim and Ca on his screens, answered, “Hello Akhim, everything on schedule?”

  “Yes,” shouted Akhim through the noise of the helicopter. “We are en route and be there in about an hour with our guests.”

  Grimes then told Mophi who grinned and rounded up his mercenaries.

  Mophi, along with five mercenaries got into the amphibious vehicle and went topside to await their guests with Mophi looking anxious to meet his next opponent.

  ****

  The Commander spent the first few days scouting around the tunnel mouth. He found the discarded corpse of Tuong and decided the tunnel entrance would be the easiest and most surreptitious entry.

  He realised that the plan had been aborted when Pon did not show up for their rendezvous. However, he did not intend leaving the zone with his men captured and maybe still alive.

  During the day, he watched the tunnel entrance from his camouflaged position and planned ways to infiltrate unseen and attempt a rescue. Before nightfall, he moved deeper into the jungle closer to the river and a position he thought to be out of range of the heat sensors.

  He built a shelter with bamboo and leaves, hunted, ate, slept, and made additional weaponry.

  He went to his daytime lookout position just after dawn broke, feeling the suns warmth on his mud-caked skin and clothing.

  A few days later, the Commander saw several fuel drums brought from the tunnel and set out beneath the camouflaged canopy.

  It appeared as if they were expecting a helicopter, as he knew land vehicles could not penetrate this far into the dense jungle and there was no runway.

  While the Vietnamese fuel crew stood and waited, the amphibious vehicle exited the tunnel.

  Six men got out of the vehicle, laughing, shouting, and ordering Vietnamese workers to check the fuel.

  One voice he recognised from the raid was the man who had executed his commando in cold blood and who now terrorised the smaller Vietnamese men with his contempt.

  The Commander glared from his camouflaged position at the intimidating Arab. He gritted his teeth, clenched his fists, and sneered. “I will kill you.”

  One mercenary holding aircraft direction paddles looked skyward towards the north.

  After a few minutes, the Commander heard a helicopter in the distance and saw a man pointing to a dot in the sky.

  The sound intensified and, moments later, a helicopter hovered above the landing site where the batman directed the large M1-172, 19 seat Puma, to land.

  It touched down and rolled forward under the canopy. The batman then signalled the pilot to stop the engines.

  When the rotors idled, Mophi barked orders to the Vietnamese to refuel the aircraft with enough fuel to take them the 40-minute flight across the Vietnamese border and into Laos airspace.

  Mophi knew they needed enough fuel to fly non-stop to Wattay, Laos international airport, where they would board Mohammed’s private jet to Saudi Arabia.

  “We will soon be going home boys,” Mophi bellowed as the rotors stopped.

  The mercenaries went to the side of the helicopter as the door slid open. They readied their weapons and pointed them at the doorway.

  Akhim got out carrying Pon’s cloth bag over his shoulder and went over to speak with Mophi.

  The pilot looked back and shouted, “You three, get out.”

  Three men stepped out with their hands bound behind their backs. Three mercenaries trained their weapons at the captive’s heads, while the other three patted them up and down for concealed weapons. Mophi and Akhim stood back and watched.

  Mophi hadn’t taken his eyes off Spock. He compared him to the photographs and profile Grimes showed him and knew he would be no match. Mophi was taller by at least four inches with toned muscles on his 320lb frame, a brick shithouse in comparison to Spock… who wasn’t… and looked like a large lard arse with a daft hat.

  ‘No contest,’ thought Mophi and grinned.

  Stu, while being searched, noticed Mophi’s intense stare towards Spock, so asked. “Have you upset that Ab dab?”

  Spock saw Mophi glaring and said. “Not yet matey,” and blew him a kiss.

  This infuriated the Arab, who now looked like a raging bull. He growled and strode towards Spock.

  “Wait!” said Akhim frowning at Mophi. “Now is not the time, wait a little longer Mophi. You need Mohammed’s instructions and then you can take care of all three of them… Here,” he said and gave Mophi Pon’s bag to take care of, and calming the situation, said, “When we get into the centre, take this to Julian, while I check everything’s ready for our journey home.”

  Spock chuckled. “Now I’ve upset him,” he said with a big toothless grin.

  The mercenaries, followed by Mophi and Akhim, led Spock, Stu, and Pon to the amphibious vehicle at gunpoint and shoved them in.

  Spock and Stu felt nervous seeing all the firepower.

  “This doesn’t look good,” said Stu with a tremble in his voice.

  “Nope,” said Spock shaking his head. He glanced at Pon. “Why are you smirking Shithead? They’ve got big guns.”

  Pon had a confident grin and thought. ‘These thugs aren’t so proficient.’

  Pon smiled at Spock and Stu who looked puzzled. Pon wriggled his partially cut binds, adjusted his tail, and then glanced into the jungle and smiled. ‘They didn’t kill them all.’ he thought.

  Pon was curious to find out what the instigator behind all this had in store for them. Knowing a greater danger lurked at the other end of the tunnel, he felt relieved knowing his odds of getting them out alive had just improved.

  The vehicle sped off down the tunnel, leaving the maintenance crew readying the Puma for the onward journey.

  The Commander, recognising the three newcomers, retreated into the undergrowth and watched. He saw Pon dressed in monk’s robes sniffing the air, stare straight at him, and smile. ‘He will be an impressive ally,’ thought the Commander, also wondering who had knocked Spock’s teeth out. ‘The big toothless foreigner also looked handy and fearless,’ he thought and smirked.

  The Commander waited for the amphibious vehicle to get a good head start down the tunnel and seeing the Vietnamese occupied with the helicopter, he left his camouflaged position and entered the tunnel unnoticed.

  — Chapter Thirteen —

  Akhim had played the most exposed part in the plot. He didn’t mind, he felt confident with his and Julian’s plan. He knew he was the only one who could accomplish this vital section, and for his fee of $2 million, it was certainly worth the risk. Akhim, an Egyptian, was one of
the world’s most accomplished forgers. The short, bearded, unobtrusive looking Arab who was commissioned by Mohammed to duplicate the original art treasures in his vault and replicate them onto the walls and ceilings of his lavish Saudi home and hospital room ceiling. Mohammed was so impressed, he permanently employed the thirty-eight-year-old Akhim.

  While Grimes was in Dulles prison, Akhim volunteered to assist in monitoring his well-being and safety. He knew of Grimes illustrious reputation from Mohammed and other individuals in the same line of business.

  Akhim forged papers to back up his claim with the US correctional department, stating that he was an Egyptian undercover police officer, who needed to be incarcerated to observe and monitor Grimes. This worked and with the contacts Akhim then made in jail, the lifers with nothing to lose, and where a few dollars that went a long way, he protected Grimes until Mohammed had further use for him, or got bored and wanted him dead. Akhim found some of Grimes’s ideas fascinating during the time they spent as inmates, so when the opportunity arose for them to work together, he leapt at the chance.

  Their plan had gone perfectly so far. Akhim, Grimes, and Mophi had surveyed the plans of Thran’s home and surrounding area. They knew that once their plans were put into action, Akhim would have to avoid snipers and other obstacles put in place by the Vietnamese. They needed to ensure Akhim had a safe escape route from the Tangh’s home. Leaving nothing to chance, the gardener, diversions, and misdirection was scrupulously prepared.

  After Grimes made the initial phone call to Thran, Akhim went to the Tangh’s house the following morning. He parked a Hyundai car in the forecourt of a house a few streets away that the group had rented. He walked the short distance with his bag of equipment.

  Thran met him at the door as instructed and, as expected he was furious, threatening him in Vietnamese and English. Akhim ignored him, walked inside, and took control, ordering the Tangh’s into the bedroom and directing them to stay there until needed. He locked them in and ordered the Tangh’s staff to cover all the windows.