The Shadow of Arms

by Hwang Sok-Yong

  He held up some documents and read for a while before calling out a name. The person summoned would approach the desk and answer the questions posed by Thach. At the end of the interview he returned to his seat and Thach went on to the next piece of paper. Pham Minh was the last of the five to be called.

  He walked up to Thach’s desk.

  “Pham Minh . . . so you were a medical student at Hue University?”

  “Yes, I was.”

  “Born in Da Nang and . . . just a minute, is Major Pham Quyen of the provincial command Comrade’s elder brother?”

  “Yes.”

  “The chief adjutant of General Liam at the provincial government office, that Major Pham, correct?”

  “Right, sir.”

  Nguyen Thach frowned slightly, rubbing the tip of his nose as if absorbed in thought.

  “Your brother, he must know you joined the Front. Doesn’t he?”

  “Probably . . . I expect he does.”

  Thach went on to the next page and then nodded.

  “Can you convince your brother, or hide the truth well enough, so he thinks you have no connection whatsoever with the Front and that it was just a hot-blooded youthful whim?”

  “I’m not sure . . .”

  Then Pham Minh quietly continued: “To see two brothers, or a father and son, working one for the NLF and one for the government forces is not such an unheard of reality in Vietnam today. Sometimes they may even understand each other’s position. But in most cases, even within a family, the Front used to be able to maintain an advantage. Maybe my brother pretends to be ignorant of the fact. If I were ever captured, he himself would face danger or difficulties.”

  “I can see that’s not unlikely.”

  Once more Thach buried his head in the documents and remained silent for a while. Then, without raising his head, he asked, “Can you solve the problem of the draft for yourself?”

  “I’ll discuss it with my brother.”

  “In that case . . . enlist in the air force.”

  “Enlist?”

  Completely shocked and unable to believe his ears, Pham Minh bent closer to Thach, gripping the desk with both hands, and repeated what Thach had said. Thach looked him straight in the eye.

  “Enlist,” he said. “There are hundreds of young men in Da Nang who have joined the navy or the air force and continue to live at home with their families. It’s not a difficult thing to arrange for someone in your brother’s position. The district committee sincerely welcomes your return and has assigned you a mission as assistant agent of the 434th Special Action Group of the Third Special District. Each team needs an assistant agent. The prior comrade died in action. Comrade Pham Minh’s assignment is to inform us according to action guidelines and orders from the district committee, and you will report to me whether operational orders have been executed properly.

  “In ordinary circumstances, you’ll help me to carry out supply operations. As I’ve informed the other team members already, I’m only an agent myself whose mission is to contact the teams of a company group. If a mishap occurs, this contact point will be liquidated immediately. In that case contact instructions will be given from a higher level. In the city of Da Nang there are two battalions of urban guerrillas, all acting as teams and connected on the company level only. Fighters have no knowledge of their fellow fighters.

  “Always keep in mind that any cell of an organization may at any time be eliminated for the sake of the whole. This is done by trial in the name of the people of Vietnam wherever the NLF exists. Especially you, Comrade Pham Minh, should bear this in mind, for with me you’ll be undertaking the mission of supply operations as well as the task of coordinating teams on the company level. First off, this week you’ll have to deal with the draft for yourself, and then we’ll see to it that you get a job working in the office of this warehouse.”

  Thach looked at his watch.

  “Comrade Pham Minh, you should go home tonight. We can meet here again around lunchtime on Monday. I hope you’ll be back with a good outcome.”

  “What time is the curfew?”

  “Ah, with the offensive now over, the curfew has been lifted.”

  The interviews of the team members were finished. Those with family in Da Nang were to go home. According to the orders of the committee, they were to take some sort of job if at all possible. One team member who could not return home was entrusted to another member who could take him along.

  “The team will meet every Wednesday at a suitable place to be communicated to you by Comrade Pham Minh.”

  “How about an open cafe down by the beach?”

  The other four gave their assent with nods and eye signals. They did not bother with goodbyes and they scattered from the warehouse one by one. As Pham Minh was about to leave Thach stopped him.

  “Let me see you for a second.”

  They went back inside the warehouse and this time both sat down facing each other across the desk. Thach spoke first.

  “I also attended the University of Hue. Care for a drink?”

  Thach opened a drawer and took out a bottle of whiskey. He removed the cap and took a few swigs from the bottle, then handed it to Pham Minh. He swallowed a little and felt his throat burn as it went down.

  “On Wednesdays the various teams will meet at different locations. You will only need to deliver my messages to them. Have any experience in business?”

  “No.”

  “Ah . . . that should be no problem. All you’ll have to do is deliver the goods to us from across the smokestack bridge. I’ll give you a rough list of names and you can use that to promote trading.”

  “What will I be selling?”

  “Whatever the rich of Da Nang want to buy.”

  Pham Minh tilted the bottle back again and downed a few more gulps. After a deep sigh, he spat out the words he had been trying to repress. “I didn’t join the Front to sell American goods to the rich, sir.”

  Without a hint of surprise, Thach calmly asked, “What, then, do you want to do, Comrade?”

  Pham Minh didn’t know what to say at first. Then the weight and clatter of rifles came to mind. “I joined to fight, sir.”

  Nguyen Thach smiled. “You will, I expect, at the time of the great offensive. But you’ve been assigned here as an assistant agent because your actual circumstances are perfectly conducive for such a mission. That each person plays a fitting and proper functional role to achieve the larger goals is the basis for maximizing the operational strength of the Liberation Front. Through the long experience of the struggle against the French, the Front has been striving through pragmatic methods to secure realistically advantageous ground throughout our nation.

  “Depending on the overall advantage, at various times our men may become pilots flying enemy bombers, or high-ranking enemy officers, or even interrogators of prisoners. The real question is whether the man is unconditionally under the control of the organization. Not long ago, in fact, fighting was not such an important mission, rather it was secondary.”

  “If fighting was not such an important mission at a time when the crack divisions of the enemy and their missiles were swarming onto the beaches of Vietnam, then what was the NLF’s mission?”

  Pham Minh’s tone was one of protest. Thach’s reply was gentle.

  “What was important was that all the young people of Vietnam like you, even the small children, came to know the name of the Front as their own organization. The NLF calls it the mission of objectification. The people must know that the Front actually exists as the main power of the people, and that is more crucial than storming trenches or bombing police stations. Now, let’s drop the unnecessary talk. You and I have been given a mission, which is to figure out how to trade successfully and save money for the organization by securing better lines of supply.”

  Thach opened the desk
drawer again and took out a pack of cigarettes. He held it out, but Minh declined. Thach lit a long Pall Mall and seemed to relish it as he smoked.

  “Comrade, I kept you behind here because there is something I should tell you. You should know in advance that your older brother Major Pham Quyen, on behalf of General Liam, is making a great deal of money by engaging in all sorts of black market trading and concessions.”

  “My brother is that kind of a man.”

  “And, Major Pham is connected to me.”

  His eyes widening, Pham Minh felt himself choking as he stammered, “Do you mean . . . my brother is connected with the Front?”

  “Don’t get excited. Major Pham is not that kind of man. My own older brother is one of the top merchants in Le Loi market. Apart from money affairs, he is a very good-natured and foolish man. You could say he’s like a ghost from the days of the old Cochinchina dynasty. He’s the kind who prays for old Emperor Bao Dai to return to life and resurrect the family’s trading concessions. In a colonial city like Da Nang, that my brother and yours should become business associates is only too natural. They match each other perfectly. Their dealings seem to be getting more active and the goods they are handling will also be diversified. To get yourself a job in this office, you, Comrade, should observe the formalities of going through your brother. Say you want to be of help with his work, or that you need to earn money. Make some plea convincing enough to persuade your brother.”

  “My brother always planned for me to go to Malaysia or Thailand and open a private clinic and settle down.”

  “Then, this will do. Tell him you want to earn money so you can go study abroad. Be careful not to arouse any suspicion.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Nguyen Thach got up from his chair. “We’ve talked a lot today. I hope everything can be done by Monday. At any rate, let’s solve these things one at a time very carefully.”

  They emerged together from the warehouse. Thach pointed toward the iron gate.

  “That’s the way out.”

  Pham Minh turned around. “How should I address you?”

  “Let me see . . . I’m senior to you, it’s true, so that’ll do. And, there’s one other thing I forgot to tell you.”

  Thach put one hand on Minh’s shoulder and spoke gently. “I own a car service shop to make a living. And in my office there’s a Korean military intelligence agent. Like the Americans, they’re trying their best to gather information on black market dealings. Among other things, that Korean is sure to be nosing around trying to uncover business connections with the Front.”

  “I don’t quite understand, sir,” Pham Minh said in a perplexed tone, and Thach’s usual kind smile reappeared on his lips.

  “To know the precise location of a land mine is always safest, don’t you agree?”

  “I’ll see you on Monday, sir.”

  “Take care of yourself.”

  Pham Minh left the brick warehouse behind and walked along the blacked-out streets. Every now and then a sentry jumped out of the darkness to check his ID, then let him pass. It happened three times before he reached his house. From outside he could see that a light from the window was casting a milky white glow onto the leaves on the ground. Lei was awake, for he could see from the shadows which room the light came from. Cautiously he tiptoed in through the hedge.

  The small front yard exuded a familiar fragrance of flowers. In the dark he could make out that the wisteria was still winding its tendrils around the rails of the porch. Cold droplets of water fell on his face as he brushed past the wisteria leaves. Sister Mi must have watered it that evening. He paused for a moment and then went around the right corner of the house. Light was flooding down brightly from the last window.

  With her long hair hanging loose, Lei was sitting by the window, studying. She was wearing a white blouse and silk pants instead of ahozai. The picture of his family did not seem real to Minh. Out at Atwat along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, no scene as peaceful and silent as this was imaginable. This was a shadow of false peace built on the stage of the colonialists, just like the gorgeous gardens of Angkor Wat he had seen in a photograph.

  Lei was lucky. Passing through Long Long, Khetinh, and Thatra, Minh had seen countless hamlets left with horrible scars from massacres. There, girls had been trampled, torn, and murdered. The search-and-destroy patrols of the ARVN or the Allied Special Forces regarded the girls in enemy territory as spoils of war. The rapes and other atrocities had provided the most vivid sagas of gallantry at the close of nearly every battle. Ah, Lei, my baby sister. Pham Minh laughed in the dark and steaming tears fell down his cheeks. Standing before that window, Pham Minh realized anew that he had reached adulthood, with no turning back.

  “Who’s there?”

  Lei must have sensed someone’s presence, for she dropped her book and stuck her startled face out the window.

  “Lei . . . it’s me,” whispered Pham Minh. Lei was dazed, then she stretched out her hand and fumbled to feel her brother’s face.

  “Why, brother . . . .”

  “Quiet. I’ll climb in.”

  He placed his hands up on the windowsill and vaulted up into her room.

  “Where are you coming from? From Hanoi?”

  Suddenly Lei looked around and then hastened to try to close the window. Minh sat cross-legged on Lei’s bamboo bed.

  “Leave it be. Hot, isn’t it? Who’s home?”

  “Mother’s sleeping and Mi also went to bed early tonight. Big brother is . . .”

  “Not in?”

  Lei let out a short laugh. “He said he got married.”

  “Then the sister-in-law must be at home. Big Brother married? Hard to believe.”

  Lei quickly changed the subject. “I know, but I’ll tell you about it later. You haven’t eaten, have you?”

  “Yes, I have.”

  “So, why are you back? I thought I’d never see you again.”

  “How’s Mother?”

  “Same as always. So you didn’t join the Front?”

  Minh shook his head helplessly.

  “No, I couldn’t gather the courage. I’ve been to Saigon. I should continue studying, after all.”

  Lei took his hand. “You did the right thing, Brother. Shoan’s been so wretched and pitiful. Every time she sees me, she asks if there has been any news of you.”

  He suppressed the urge to ask after Shoan. “So . . . our big brother got married. Don’t they live here?”

  “No, I hear they have a place in Son Tinh. We haven’t seen it.”

  Pham Minh knew very well what kind of area Son Tinh was.

  “I have a favor to ask. Tomorrow, on the way to school, call brother Quyen for me.”

  “Where, at his office?”

  “Yes, just tell him I came back home.”

  “All right, I’ll do it. Really, aren’t you going to see Shoan tomorrow?”

  “I’ll contact her later.”

  Minh placed a finger on Lei’s lips.

  “And not a word about me to your friends, either. Promise?”

  “Sure, I promise.”

  “And what sort of woman is our new sister-in-law? How old is she?”

  Lei shut her mouth. Then, all of a sudden, with tears welling up in her eyes, she put her arms around Minh’s neck.

  “Big Brother has lost his mind. She’s a Korean woman, and they say she was a bargirl. So Mother is crying all day long.”

  “It’s all right. I’ll see him and you shouldn’t worry about it.”

  Minh patted Lei on the shoulder.

  “I’ll bring you some green tea.”

  “That’d be very nice.”

  Lei went out to boil some water. Meanwhile, Pham Minh was sitting alone in her room. On Lei’s desk stood a palm-sized frame with a discolored snapshot inside. It was a picture of the tw
o brothers and two sisters when they were children. Wasn’t it right after the Geneva Accords were announced? Sister Mi was a schoolgirl in an ahozai, Pham Quyen a young boy, and Pham Minh was holding little Lei who had on a white nightgown. Minh lifted up the picture, scrutinized it for a moment, then quickly set it back down with the image facing the wall.

  22

  “It’s for you, sir,” said Lieutenant Kiem, handing the receiver to Pham Quyen who was standing by the window, his morning cup of coffee in his hand.

  “Who is it?”

  “She said she’s your sister.”

  Pham Quyen frowned. Chances were she’d be relaying his mother’s usual complaints.

  He reluctantly took the telephone.

  “It’s me . . . what’s up?”

  There was a pause on the other end of the line. “I’m busy, speak up.”

  “Big Brother, well, I’m afraid you’ll have to come home today.”

  “I know, it’s Mother again, isn’t it? So what’s ailing her this time?”

  “Anyway, you should come.”

  “Tell her I’ll stop by on Sunday. I have no time today.”

  Lei sighed. “Little brother is back.”

  “What? When?”

  “Yesterday.”

  “Are you home now?”

  “No, on my way to school.”

  “All right.”

  Pham Quyen quickly replaced the receiver. Lieutenant Kiem held out a typed document.

  “Here’s the list of members of the Autonomous Council.”

  Quyen mechanically accepted the piece of paper.

  “It needs the boss’s approval today.”

  Quyen looked down at the roster of members of the Quang Nam Province Autonomous Council. He himself had drawn up the list along with several staff members of the Developmental Revolution Committee, a body composed mainly of soldiers.

  “The first meeting is next week, right?”

  “Yes, sir. Thirty representatives will attend.”

  “We have plenty of time. Have it approved this afternoon. I’ll be out for a while. Did the general stay at Bai Bang last night?”