At once, the soldiers started into the woods in a calm but hasty retreat. Toby looked at the hit man and nodded. “Mr. Siang, you know what to do.”
Siang shoved Willy forward. Guy caught her in his arms; together, they dropped to their knees. There was no time left for last words, for farewells. Guy wrapped himself around her in a futile attempt to shield her from the bullets.
“Finish it,” said Toby.
Guy looked up at him. “I’ll see you in hell.”
Siang raised the pistol. The barrel was aimed squarely at Guy’s head. Still cradling Willy, Guy waited for the explosion. The darkness.
The blast of the pistol made them both flinch.
In wonderment, Guy realized he was still kneeling, still breathing. What the hell? Am I still alive? Are we both still alive?
He looked up in time to see Siang, shirt bloodied, crumple to the ground.
“There! She’s there!” Toby shouted, pointing at the trees.
In the shadow of the forest they saw her, clutching the ancient pistol in both hands. Lan stood very still, as though shocked by what she’d just done.
One of the soldiers took aim at her.
“No!” screamed Maitland, flinging himself at the gunman.
The shot went wild; Maitland and the soldier thudded to the ground, locked in combat.
From the cliff above came shouts; Guy and Willy hit the dirt as arrows rained down. Toby cried out and fell. What remained of his army scattered in confusion.
In the melee, Guy and Willy managed to crawl to cover. But as they rolled behind a boulder, Willy suddenly realized her father hadn’t followed them.
“Dad!” she screamed.
A dozen yards away, Maitland lay bloodied. Willy turned to go to him, but Guy dragged her back down.
“Are you nuts?” he yelled.
“I can’t leave him there!”
“Wait till we’re clear!”
“He’s hurt!”
“There’s nothing you can do!”
She was sobbing now, trying to wrench free, but her protests were drowned out by the whomp-whomp of the helicopters moving in. An army chopper hovered just above them. The pilot lowered the craft through a slot in the trees. Gently, the skids settled to the ground.
The instant it touched down, a half-dozen Vietnamese soldiers jumped out, followed by their commanding officer. He pointed at Maitland and barked out orders. Two soldiers hurried to the wounded man.
“Let me go,” Willy said and she broke free of Guy’s grasp.
He watched her run to her father’s side. The soldiers had already opened their medical field kit, and a stretcher was on the way. Guy’s gaze shifted back to the chopper as one last passenger stepped slowly to the ground. Head bowed beneath the spinning blades, the old man made his way toward Guy.
For a long time, they stood together, both of them silent as they regarded the rising cloud of smoke. The flames seemed to engulf the mountain itself as the last of the village men scrambled down the cliff path to safety.
“A most impressive signal fire,” said Minister Tranh. He looked at Guy. “You are unhurt?”
Guy nodded. “We lost some people...up on the mountain. And the children—I don’t know if they’re all right. But I guess... I think...”
He turned and watched as Willy followed her father’s stretcher toward the chopper. At the doorway, she stopped and looked back at Guy.
He started toward her, his arms aching to embrace her. He wanted to tell her all the things he’d been afraid to say, the things he’d never said to any woman. He had to tell her now, while he still had the chance, while she was still there for him to touch, to hold.
A soldier suddenly blocked Guy’s way and commanded, “Stay back!”
Dust stung Guy’s eyes as the chopper’s rotor began to spin. Through the tornado-like wash of whirling leaves and branches, Guy saw a soldier in the chopper shout at Willy to climb aboard. With one last backward glance, she obeyed. Time had run out.
Through the open doorway, Guy could still see her face gazing out at him. With a sense of desolation, he watched the helicopter rise into the sky, taking with it the woman he loved. Long after the roar of the blades had faded to silence, he was staring up at that cloudless field of blue.
Sighing, he turned back to Minister Tranh. That’s when he noticed that someone else, just as desolate, had watched the chopper’s departure. At the forest edge stood Lan, her gaze turned to the sky. At least she, too, had survived.
“We are glad to find you alive,” Minister Tranh said.
“How did you find us?” Guy asked.
“One of the men from the village reached Na Khoang early this morning. We’d been concerned about you. And when you vanished...” Minister Tranh shook his head. “You have a talent for making things difficult, Mr. Barnard. For us, at least.”
“I had to. I didn’t know who to trust.” Guy looked at the other man. “I still don’t know who to trust.”
Minister Tranh considered this statement for a moment. Then he said quietly, “Do we ever really know?”
* * *
“A toast,” said Dodge Hamilton, leaning against the hotel bar. “To the good fight!”
Guy stared down moodily at his whiskey glass and said, “There’s no such thing as a good fight, Hamilton. There are only fights you can’t avoid.”
“Well—” grinning, Hamilton raised his drink “—then let’s drink to the unavoidable.”
That made Guy laugh, though it was the last thing he felt like doing. He supposed he ought to be celebrating. The ordeal was over, and for the first time in days, he felt human again. After a good night’s sleep, a shower and a shave, he could once again stand the sight of his own face in the mirror. For all the difference it makes, he thought bleakly. She’s not here to notice.
He was having a hell of a time adjusting to Willy’s absence. Over and over he replayed that last image of her sad backward glance as she’d climbed into the chopper. No last words, no goodbyes, just that look. He wished he could erase the image from his memory.
No, no, that wasn’t what he wanted.
What he wanted was another chance.
He set the whiskey glass down and forced a smile to his lips. “Anyway, Hamilton,” he said, “looks like you got your story, after all.”
“Not quite the one I expected.”
“Think it’s front-page material?”
“Indeed! It has everything. Old war ghosts come to life. Ex-enemies joining sides. And a happy ending! A story that ought to be heard. But...” He sighed. “It’ll probably get shoved to the back page to make room for some juicy royal scandal. As if the fate of the world depends on who does what to whom in Buckingham.”
Guy shook his head and chuckled. Some things, it seemed, never changed.
“He’ll be all right, won’t he? Maitland?”
Guy looked up. “I think so. Willy called me from Bangkok a few hours ago. Maitland’s stable enough to be transferred.”
“They’re flying him to the States?”
“Tonight.”
Hamilton cocked his head. “Aren’t you joining them?”
“I don’t know. I’ve got a job to wrap up, a few last minute details. And she’ll be busy with other things....”
He looked down at his whiskey and thought of that last phone conversation. They’d had a lousy connection, lots of static on the line, and they’d both been forced to shout. She’d been standing at a hospital telephone; he’d been on his way out to meet Vietnamese officials. It had hardly been the time for romantic conversation. Yet he’d been ready to say anything, if only she’d given him some hint that she wanted to hear it. But there’d been only awkward how-are-yous and is-your-arm-all-right and yes-it’s-fine-I’m-all-patched-up-now and then, in the end, a hasty goodbye.
When he’
d hung up the receiver, he’d known she was gone. Maybe it’s for the best, he thought. Every idiot knew wartime romances never lasted. When you were huddled together in the trenches and the bullets were whizzing overhead, it was easy to fall in love.
But now they were back in the real world. She didn’t need him any longer, and he liked to think he didn’t need her either. After all, he’d never needed anyone before.
He drained his whiskey glass. “Anyway, Hamilton,” he said, “I guess I’ll have a hell of a story to tell the guys back home. How I fought in Nam all over again—this time with the other side.”
“No one’ll believe you.”
“Probably not.” Guy looked off at a painting on the wall—Ho Chi Minh smiling like someone’s merry uncle. “You know, I have a confession to make.” He looked back at his drinking partner. “At one point, I was so paranoid that I thought you were the CIA.”
Hamilton burst out laughing.
“Can you believe it?” Guy said, laughing as well. “You of all people!”
Hamilton, still grinning, set his glass down on the counter. “Actually,” he said after a pause, “I am.”
There was a long silence. “What?” said Guy.
Hamilton gazed back, his expression blandly pleasant and utterly unrevealing. “General Kistner sends his regards. He’s happy to hear you’re alive and well.”
“Kistner sent you?”
“No, he sent you.”
Guy stiffened. “You got it wrong. I don’t work for those people. I was on my own the whole—”
“Were you, now?” Hamilton’s smile was maddening. “Quite a stroke of luck, wouldn’t you say, that meeting between you and Miss Maitland at Kistner’s villa? Damned odd about her driver vanishing like that, just as you were heading back to town.”
Guy looked down at his glass, swirled the whiskey. “I was set up,” he muttered. “That mysterious appointment with Kistner—”
“Was to get you and Miss Maitland together. She was in dangerous waters, already floundering. We knew she’d need help. But it had to be someone completely unconnected with the Company, someone the Vietnamese wouldn’t suspect. As it turned out, you were it.”
Guy’s fists tightened on the countertop. “I did your dirty work—”
“You did Uncle Sam a favor. We knew you were slated to go to Saigon. That you knew the country. A bit of the language. We also knew you had a...shall we say, vulnerable aspect to your past.” He gave Guy a significant look.
They know, Guy thought. They’ve probably always known. Slowly, he said, “That visit from the Ariel Group...”
“Ah, yes. Ariel. Lovely ring to it, don’t you think? It happens to be the name of General Kistner’s youngest granddaughter.” Hamilton smiled. “You needn’t worry, Guy. We can be discreet. Especially when we feel we’ve been well served.”
“What if you’d been wrong about me? What if I was working for Toby Wolff? I could have killed her.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“I had a ‘vulnerable’ aspect to my past, remember?”
“You’re clean, Guy. Even with your past, you’re cleaner than any flag-waving patriot in Washington.”
“How would you know?”
Hamilton shrugged. “You’d be amazed at the things we know about you. About everyone.”
“But you couldn’t predict what I’d do! What Willy would do. What if she’d told me to go to hell?”
“It was a gamble. But she’s an attractive woman. And you’re a resourceful man. We took a chance on chemistry.”
And it worked, thought Guy. Damn you, Hamilton, the chemistry worked just fine.
“At any rate,” said Hamilton, sliding a few bills onto the bar, “you’ll be rewarded with the silence you crave. I’m afraid the bounty’s out of the question, though—budget deficit and all. But you’ll have the distinct pleasure of knowing you served your country well.”
That’s when Guy burst into unstoppable laughter. He laughed so hard, tears came to his eyes; so loud, a dozen heads turned to look at him.
“Have I missed the joke?” Hamilton inquired politely.
“The joke,” said Guy, “is on me.”
He laughed all the way out the door.
Chapter 15
Her father, once again, was leaving.
Early on a rainy morning, Willy stood in the bedroom doorway and watched him pack his suitcase, the way she’d watched him pack it long ago. She’d had him home such a short time, only a few days since his release from the hospital. And he’d spent every moment pining for his family—his other family. Oh, he hadn’t complained or been unkind, but she’d seen the sadness in his gaze, heard his sighs as he’d wandered about the house. She’d known it was inevitable: that he’d be walking out of her life again.
He took one last look in the closet, then turned to the dresser.
She glanced down at a pair of brand-new loafers that he’d set aside in the closet. “Dad, aren’t you taking your shoes?” she asked.
“At home, I don’t wear shoes.”
“Oh.” This used to be your home, she thought.
She wandered into the living room, sat down by the window and stared out at the rain. It seemed as if a lifetime of sorrow had been crammed into these past two weeks she’d been home. While her father had recuperated in a military hospital, in a civilian hospital a few miles away, her mother had lain dying. It had been wrenching to drive back and forth between them, to shift from seeing her father regain his strength to seeing her mother fade. Ann’s death had come more quickly than the doctors had predicted; it was almost as if she’d held on just long enough to see her husband one last time, then had allowed herself to quietly slip away.
She’d forgiven him, of course.
Just as Willy had forgiven him.
Why was it always women who had to do the forgiving? she’d wondered.
“I’m all packed,” her father said, carrying his suitcase into the living room. “I’ve called a cab.”
“Are you sure you’ve got everything? The kids’ toys? The books?”
“It’s all in here. What a delivery! They’re going to think I’m Santa Claus.” He set the suitcase down and sat on the couch. They didn’t speak for a moment.
“You won’t be coming back, will you?” she said at last.
“It may not be easy.”
“May I come see you?”
“Willy, you know you can! Both you and Guy. And next time, we’ll make it a decent visit.” He laughed. “Nice and quiet and dull. Guy’ll appreciate that.”
There was a long silence. Her father asked, “Have you spoken to him lately?”
She looked away. “It’s been two weeks.”
“That long?”
“He hasn’t called.”
“Why haven’t you called him?”
“I’ve been busy. A lot of things to take care of. But you know that.”
“He doesn’t.”
“Well, he ought to know.” Suddenly agitated, she rose and paced the room, finally returning to the window. “I’m not really surprised he hasn’t called. After all, we had our little adventure, and now it’s back to life as usual.” She glanced at her father. “Men hate that, don’t they? Life as usual.”
“Some men do. On the other hand, some of us change.”
“Oh, Dad, I’ve been around the block. I can tell when things are over.”
“Did Guy say that?”
She turned and gazed back out the window. “He didn’t have to.”
Her father didn’t comment. After a while, she heard him go back into the bedroom, but she didn’t move. She just kept staring out at the rain, thinking about Guy. Wondering for the first time if maybe she had done the running away.
No, it wasn’t running. It was facing reality. Together they’d had the time of the
ir lives, a crazy week of emotions gone wild, of terror and exhilaration, when every breath, every heartbeat had seemed like a gift from God.
Of course, it hadn’t lasted.
But whose fault was that?
She felt herself drawn almost against her will to the telephone. Even as she dialed his number, she wondered what she’d say to him. Hello, Guy. I know you don’t want to hear this, but I love you. Then she’d hang up and spare him the ordeal of admitting the feeling wasn’t mutual. She let it ring twelve times, knowing it was 4:00 a.m. in Honolulu, knowing he should be home.
There were tears in her eyes when she finally hung up. She stood staring down at the phone, wondering how that inanimate collection of wires and plastic could leave her feeling so betrayed. Damn you, she thought. You never even gave me the chance to make a fool of myself.
The sound of tires splashing across wet streets made her look out the window. Through pouring rain she saw a cab pull up at the curb.
“Dad?” she called. She went to her father’s bedroom. “Your taxi’s here.”
“Already?” He glanced around to see if he’d forgotten anything. “Okay. I guess this is it, then.”
The doorbell rang. He threw on his raincoat and strode across the living room. Willy wasn’t watching as he opened the door, but she heard him say, “I don’t believe it.” She turned.
“Hello, Maitland,” said Guy.
The two men, both wearing raincoats, both holding suitcases, grinned at each other across the threshold.
Guy shook the raindrops from his hair. “Mind if I come in?”
“Gee, I don’t know. I’d better ask the boss.” Maitland turned to his daughter. “What do you think? Can the man come in?”
Willy was too stunned to say a word.
“I guess that’s a yes,” her father said, and he motioned for Guy to enter.
Guy stepped over the threshold and set his suitcase down. Then he just stood there, looking at her. Rain had plastered his hair to his forehead, lines of exhaustion mapped his face, but no man had ever looked so wonderful. She tried to remind herself of all the reasons she didn’t want to see him, all the reasons she should throw him out into the rain. But she couldn’t seem to find her voice. She could only stare at him in wonder and remember how it had felt to be in his arms.
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