The Son
Page 25
‘You mean Bach?’
‘Yes. And his offsider Binh, the one you think killed Quang.’
‘What have you heard?’
‘Seems they made it up to Queensland. Among Vietnamese fishermen there. There’s quite a few who’ve resettled there, running deep-sea fishing boats. They were trying to arrange a passage to Vanuatu.’
‘Did they get there?’
‘They got part of the way. They went out alright, and when the boat came back they weren’t on it.’
He paused.
‘You’re sure of this?’ I asked.
‘My source seemed to be. I have a couple of contacts up there. Ex-Vietnamese Special Forces. I passed the word along, as you suggested … Seems they put some burley out first, to attract the sharks. He said they made a funny noise as they went over the side …’
We stayed silent for a while, with him standing next to my chair, thinking about it. It was a chilling picture, but a fitting end, I thought grimly, and only wished it could have been made public.
‘You haven’t heard any of this.’
‘Of course. But thanks … and thanks for telling me.’
‘Anything for a friend.’
I didn’t tell Considine. Or Hao or Eric either, much as I would have liked to. I couldn’t run the risk of incriminating Jack or his friends. Brian had quit the police, taking early retirement after a gruelling inquiry which had left him with little option and dashed any hopes he might have had of running security for the Sydney Olympics, as he had once hoped. Once a cop, I thought, always on the side of the law, and he might not have condoned such rough justice, however well-deserved. He had taken his fate philosophically and looked much happier than when I’d last seen him.
‘It was that or an office job for the rest of my days,’ he said. ‘They offered me Human Resources, would you believe? I took the package. Human Resources indeed!’
‘Nothing wrong with Human Resources,’ I said mildly.
He snorted. ‘For you maybe. Interviewing young women all day. I didn’t fancy redrafting leave application forms for the rest of my life. Rather become a civilian.’
‘What are you going to do?’
‘Take a holiday, first. I’m taking Barbara and the girls overseas for a couple of months. God knows they deserve it, after putting up with me and my job for so long.’
‘Where are you going?’
‘Ireland, UK, France, Germany … stopping over in Vietnam on the way. See what the fuss was all about.’ He paused. ‘When we get back I’d like to start my own security agency. Would you be interested?’
I half laughed.
‘Are you offering me a job? In my condition?’
‘I was thinking more of a partnership, actually. Why not? I could use someone with a brain. You could look after the Human Resources side. Seriously. Why don’t you think about it?’
‘Thanks. I will. But not right now.’
‘We won’t be back until September.’ He looked at Hao, who turned at that moment to smile at me. There was a querying concern in her eye. I smiled back and shook my head gently. She wore a red áo dài she’d had specially made, over white trousers, with a flat red turban framing her head like a tiara. She looked ravishingly beautiful, like an exotic butterfly.
‘Now I can see why you made such a fuss,’ he said quietly.
The ceremony was short and simple. A retired woman judge acted as marriage celebrant. We stuck in the main to traditional wording, with a few amendments. No mention of obeying, but much of cherishing. And until death do us part stayed in. When it came to the operative part I reached up and seized Eric’s shoulder.
‘I need your strength,’ I muttered.
With his help I stood up between him and Hao, with Nhan on her left. Nhan in loco parentis, but Eric very much in loco filii, standing in for the young son she’d never had, lavishing her maternal love on him instead. I thought that they stood for others as well, who in an ideal world would also have been there, and perhaps were in a sense, hovering somewhere at the back: her father, and Hien, David, the father he’d never known. Even Khiem perhaps was also there, giving his ghostly assent to our union. I hoped so. I wished him no harm, wherever he was.
My back was on fire, but I kept my face still. I’d learnt a number of things over the past weeks. I’d learnt a new kind of love, passionate, demanding, but also generous, rich and complex and fulfilling, and endlessly exciting. I’d found someone I’d be proud to claim as a son. I’d lost one friend but found another, and possibly would have found one in Quang as well if he’d been allowed to live.
I’d also learnt something valuable about myself. I didn’t think I was especially brave. What I had done in that corridor had been an act of desperation rather than courage. But now I knew that if I’d been on that boat I wouldn’t have stood back. I would have tried to defend her and Hien, whatever the cost, even if it had killed me. I hadn’t told her that, but I knew she knew it too. And that, I thought, was worth all the pain in my back.
I stood beside Hao, holding her hand and leaning on Eric, listening to the words of the retired judge.
‘Do you, Paul, accept this woman as your lawful wedded wife?’
‘Do you, Hao …’
Do you, Hao Tran, née Hòang thị Minh-Hảo in the Year of the Horse, accept me, Paul Quinn, somewhat bedraggled Tiger, as your awful wedded husband?
I do. I do.
As we exchanged vows I made another promise, silently, to her and to myself. I will walk again, I said to myself. I will. I will!
APPENDIX
A BRIEF NOTE ON VIETNAM AND THE VIETNAM WAR
Vietnam, which lies just below China, facing the South China Sea (see map at front), has a long history, stretching back over two thousand years when a distinct Vietnamese people first emerged in the Red River delta around present-day Hanoi. For most of its early history Vietnam was ruled directly by China, from which it inherited much of its culture, but from the start the Vietnamese possessed a strong sense of their identity, and Chinese rule was marked by numerous revolts.
After finally shaking off Chinese domination in 938 AD, Vietnam expanded southward along the narrow coastal strip in what is now central Vietnam (present-day Hue and Danang), and then into the fertile Mekong delta, which was then part of the Khmer empire of Angkor. Saigon, later renamed Ho Chi Minh City by the communists, was founded in 1698.
French interest in the region developed slowly at first, but culminated from the 1850s with the colonial conquest of the three regions of Vietnam – Tonkin in the north, Annam in the centre, and Cochin-China in the south. These, plus Laos and Cambodia, became known as French Indochina.
French rule ended with World War II. After the war France attempted to reassert its rule but was confronted by a communist-dominated independence movement, the Vietminh, led by Ho Chi Minh. An eight-year war followed, ending with the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 and the partition of Vietnam into communist North and non-communist South.
Partition was meant to be followed by general elections, leading to reunification, but the South, with US support, rejected these, fearing that they would be dominated by the more populous communist North. Communist subversion in the south resumed in the late 1950s, and by the mid-sixties had evolved into full-scale warfare, with the southern communist guerrillas, the Viet Cong, increasingly supplemented by North Vietnamese troops, which later on came to dominate the fighting. US military involvement had started with advisers, but from 1965 included growing numbers of combat troops, reaching over 500,000 by 1969. Australia and other US allies also sent troops. The Australian Task Force at its peak numbered over 7500. Following the withdrawal of US and allied forces after 1972 the south continued to resist alone, until Saigon fell to North Vietnamese invasion in April 1975.
Over one and half million people fled from Vietnam by boat in the years following the communist victory. Of these, it is estimated that between 200,000 and 400,000 died at sea. Some 137,000 were resettled in
Australia.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I wish to thank K, and M, without whose advice, encouragement and unflagging support this book could never have been written; Dr Jack Dempsey, USA, whose professional editing and dialogue helped so much to make it readable; the writers Denis Miller and Paul Stirling for their insights and contribution; Graham Rendoth and Ingrid Urh of Reno Design for their professionalism and patient understanding; and Simon Hart for his enthusiastic and expert contribution in designing the author’s website.
Any remaining flaws are entirely my own.