December 23, 1966
Titi giggled with pleasure as Khoi caressed her left breast, rolling the nipple gently between finger and thumb. The moon was still young, but it hung very low in the sky, illuminating their nocturnal pleasures in a soft, silver glow.
"Little, little," Khoi murmured. He moved in for a swift, aggressive kiss, one hand gripping the back of her head, and the other stroking her flank.
"How long do we have?" Titi breathed, quivering with pleasure.
"Not long enough," Khoi admitted ruefully, pulling back and edging towards their clothing. "You seem to endure the trail with more grace each day," he commented.
Titi flushed with pride. "I sleep better at night now," she explained, brushing seductively against him as she reached for her tunic. "Though not so long."
Khoi laughed and smacked her rump playfully "Beware the lewd virgin!" he chuckled.
"I am not a virgin any longer," Titi said. As she realized what had come out of her mouth, her face began to burn with discomfiture.
Khoi laughed at her. "No, you are not." He stood up, pausing to kiss the crown of her head as he did so. "And I am glad."
Titi donned her clothes swiftly, disappointed in spite of herself that their time together was over for another night. She had her feet in her sandals before Khoi was finished with his trousers, and it was she who led the way back to the encampment.
The others were fast asleep: Thanh was stretched out to her full length, the puckered scars of her right side casting strange shadows on her face and torso. Cadeo and Trieu were sleeping back-to-back. Diep had one hand curled around the barrel of his riffle. Titi looked towards the thicket near which the prisoner had been laid. In keeping with Thanh's predictions, he had shown no signs of dying. Neither, however, did he seem to be getting any stronger. He was now able to take small portions of food and water again, and sometimes Titi thought she saw him move upon the bier while he was being carried, but he did not look able to walk.
That was why Titi could not quite believe that he was not lying where he should be.
She cried out in alarm, running forward to the soiled blanket and bamboo poles. Khoi followed her, demanding in a terse whisper what was wrong.
"He is gone!" she exclaimed. "The Air Pirate is gone!"
Khoi cursed aloud, and then drew in a deep breath. "He could not crawl into the woods to relieve himself this morning," he said tersely. "He cannot have gone far."
"I will go east," Titi said. "And you—"
Khoi shook his head. "We might pass within ten feet, and we would not see him in the shadows. Te sun will rise in two hours. We will wait."
Titi stared at him in amazement. "But if he is running…"
He snorted in exasperation. "I tell you, he cannot run. He is hiding, hoping that we will be unable to find him. Hoping that we will give up the hunt. We will find him."
"We should wake Thanh," Titi ventured, shivering a little. Her sister would be so angry.
"Why?" Khoi spat. "There is nothing we can do until the sun rises."
Titi stared in bewilderment at the place where the prisoner should have been. How did he do it?
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"How could he escape?" Thanh cried. "He could not walk!"
"Apparently he could," Khoi sniped. "Had you not unbound his hands—"
"He could not even lift his head!" she shouted in response. "He could not run. He must have had help."
"Help?" Khoi mocked. "We are miles from any village: how would a traitor find him?"
"You have not been careful to cover our tracks!" accused Thanh. "Anyone could have followed us!"
"Followed us to free an Air Pirate?" Titi breathed. "Why would anyone do such a thing?"
"There are evil men and fools everywhere," Thanh snapped, glaring pointedly at the lieutenant. "Where were you when you should have been watching the camp?"
Titi felt her stomach lurch with nausea, and she moved away from the arguing guerillas as quickly as she could without rousing suspicion. What would Thanh say when she learned who had lured Khoi away from his post?
"Never mind how it happened," Khoi snapped. "If he had help, he could be miles from here—"
"Because you did not wake us to begin a search at once!" shrieked Thanh. "If he escapes, it is your head I shall bring back to placate Major Quon!"
They divided into pairs: Thanh and Trieu to search back in the direction that they had come, and Khoi and Cadeo to scout ahead, in case the Air Pirate and his conspirators were headed for the sea. Titi and Diep were told to stay in the immediate area of the camp, radiating outwards slowly, searching for some concrete sign of tracks through the underbrush. They decided that they would cover more area if they each took a half-circle, and soon Titi was alone in the jungle.
She knew from listening to Bian what signs to seek. Bian was an expert tracker—one of Major Quon's best. She had described many times the tiny clues that you could find: bent branches, and leaves disturbed to cover footprints. Titi knew that a barefoot man was harder to track than a booted one, and that the branches at eye level could yield as much information as those near the ground. She thought, too, that where the Air Pirate went, he would likely leave a trail of blood, especially if Thanh was wrong, and he was trying to move on his own power.
Titi hoped that Bian was wrong. She had heard stories of traitors before: villagers who sold their own people to the Americans. They were untrue to Vietnam, betrayers of the cause of Ho Chi Minh. She knew that there were such people, but she hoped never to meet one. Nothing, Titi thought, could be more frightening than someone willing to turn against their own people. Even the Americans were not a threat if the people of Vietnam united. As long as there was division, there could not be trust. Titi did not wish to see treachery in familiar faces. She did not want to have to question the motives of her own folk. She hoped that the American had run away without aid.
A thought occurred to her. Perhaps he had left the camp to die.
Many animals did that. Wild dogs would leave their pack when they were about to expire, finding some private place to draw their last breaths. Titi knew that she would rather die alone in the underbrush, but free, than perish in captivity, lying on a filthy blanket in the camp of an enemy.
No. She had to stop this. Again, she was putting herself in the prisoner's place. She could not do that any longer. It led to evil thoughts. It made it difficult to do her duty. It had to stop.
She heard a sound. At first, Titi thought that it was a duck, calling to its mate on some unseen pond. Then it sounded again, muffled and rattling, and she realized that somewhere close by, someone was striving not to cough—and failing painfully.
Titi drew in a deep breath and held it, trying to listen. The stifled choking died away into a shallow wheeze, barely audible above the whispers of the jungle canopy. He was close. Very close. She looked around for anything that might conceal a man. There was a closely-knit hedge of melastoma shrubs to her left. It seemed the likeliest hiding place, certainly the one she would have chosen herself. She moved towards it warily. The Air Pirate had deceived them into thinking that he was too weak to walk. Titi was not foolish enough to approach him without caution.
She took her gun from her waistband, and in one swift motion swept aside the outer layer of leaves and berries, thrusting her right hand forward in a threatening gesture that proved purposeless. The American was not concealed by the branches.
Frowning, Titi turned. There was only one other place that he could be hiding that was near enough for such subtle sounds to be heard. She moved close to a clump of broad-fronded ferns and leveled the '45.
"Come out," she ordered, enunciating clearly. "Come out. Shoot you."
She was met only by silence.
"Come out. Shoot you," Titi repeated. "Now."
"So shoot me. Go ahead." The voice was raspy and hoarse. It belonged to the Air Pirate.
"You criminal," Titi said. "You suffer."
A hollow laugh was cut short by a wheeze of pain. "You're damned right I suffer," he said. "I don't suppose if I told you to fuck off—"
Titi couldn't follow the alien words. She raised her arm a little, and pulled the trigger. The shot rang out through the jungle, and the ferns shuddered. There was a sharp cry of alarm, and then silence.
Titi waited, her heart hammering in her chest. The long, serrated leaves rustled, and one filthy, bloodied foot slid into view. A slender, well-muscled leg followed, pulling the Air Pirate's body after it. His arms were crossed over his chest, the left hand gripping the right elbow. He tried to glare at her with bold defiance as his face came into view, his head dragging along the ground, but the terrified anguish in his brown eyes was evident even to Titi.
"You run," she said. "Bad. Very bad."
"You're a good shot," he croaked. "For a kid. How old are you, anyway?"
"Quiet!" Titi ordered. "You prisoner. You criminal. Come to Hanoi."
"Mind if I decline that kind invitation?" he asked. " 'Cause I gotta tell you, I never was too…" He stopped, coughing again. When the paroxysm passed, his whole body went limp, quivering subtly with exertion and pain.
Titi tucked her revolver back into its place and moved towards him. The prisoner screwed his eyes closed, and his jaw tightened visibly. She squatted next to him, and pressed two fingers to his cheekbone, turning his face towards him.
"Why you run?" she asked. "You weak."
He didn't answer her. He was still braced against the expected pain. Suddenly, Titi felt angry. Why did he not answer? Was he so afraid of her?
If he was afraid, then she would give him cause to fear her. She took hold of his left arm and, throwing he whole back into the motion, pulled. The Air Pirate's torso rose off the ground, drawn after his arm through the dislocated shoulder. He screamed, spittle flying from his mouth, and began to struggle instinctively. Titi struck out with her foot, and her toes bounced against his hip. There was a convulsive moan as he reigned in his voice, and then silence. The man's face contorted horribly under the filth and abrasions, but he made no further sound.
"You stand!" Titi ordered. "You walk!"
Somehow, he got his battered feet under him, and stood, bent like an old man and shaking violently. Titi released her hold on his arm. She took the rope instead, still affixed as it was to the iron collar that he wore, and drew out her gun again. She rammed the barrel against the small of his back.
"You lie and you run," she said. "Very bad."
He said nothing. Titi prodded him with the '45.
"Walk!" she commanded. "Back to camp!"
To her amazement, he obeyed, stumbling awkwardly over roots, and limping painfully where the ground was more even. As they stepped into the clearing, Titi heard the sharp snap of an AK-47 being primed. Diep relaxed marginally when he saw who was herding the Air Pirate.
"You found him!" he said, and Titi realized that he was looking at her with a new respect.
"He could not run far," she said. "Go and fetch water. We will eat while we wait for the others."
As it turned out, they did not have to wait long, for moments after Diep disappeared into the underbrush, Thanh came running through it into the clearing. "Titi!" she cried, and then stopped, taking in the scene. "I heard your gun," she said. "You found him!"
She moved forward, raising a menacing hand to strike the Air Pirate. Titi moved between the guerilla and her victim, catching Thanh's arm midair.
"I captured him," she corrected, unprecedented confidence in her voice. "I did not 'find' him. I have captured him, and now he is my prisoner."
There was a strange fire in Thanh's eyes, and for a moment, Titi thought that she would be smitten where she stood for her defiance against an elder and one of superior rank. Then, the scarred young woman curled one half of her mouth.
"He is your prisoner now," she allowed. "See that he does not escape you, little one, for if he does, it is you who will be punished."
Titi nodded tersely. He would not run. He had fooled them once, feigning weakness so that he could slowly recoup his strength and attempt an escape. His one mistake had been running too soon, before he was strong enough to flee.
Titi would see to it that he did not deceive them again.