Zee, the possums, and the T-Rex made it back to the bone boat.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Easy now." Zee tried to calm down the dinosaur."Just get your strength back, Mama T. Orson's taking Buck and the two humans back to the watering hole. Meet us there."
The T-Rex understood and left.
Zee then saw Buck's tooth sword. She grabbed it and went to the bone boat.
The raptors and Vietnamese soldiers took Fury, Castle, and Buck to where Orson was.
When they got there, Fury saw him.
Letrong Giap.
"It has been a long time, Colonel Fury. You look well." Giap looked closer at him."Although...hmh. Alive and undamaged was the order I gave my men. Those responsible will be criticized severely." He told him.
"All the same, you are strong. Your face will soon heal. Please, get some rest. There is much to discuss, much to be done, and it will be easier with clearer heads."
Giap left them.
Zee saw smoke in the distance as their bone boat was on the water.
"This is all our fault, Eddie." Said Crash."Buck said it was a bad time for us to visit."
"Yeah. If he didn't have to look out for us, maybe this never would have happened." Eddie agreed with his brother.
"I wish we could've done something to help him." Crash said.
"Like what?" Eddie asked him.
"I don't know. Something cool. Like master the power of lightning."
"Whoa! How awesome would that be? Crash and Eddie: Lightning Masters!"
"Yeah, we'd be all zap this and zap that. And zap the first thing again." Said Crash.
Eddie sighed."Ah, face it, bro. We're never gonna be lightning masters or make our mark. Or pretty much do anything. Ellie was right about us. We're not ready to be on our own."
Zee threw Buck's sword near them.
"Is this what Buck would do? Give up? Sulk?" She asked them.
"But we let him down." Said Eddie.
"Which means it's time to buck up." Zee said.
"You mean rush in without thinking?" Said Crash.
Zee laughed a little."Yeah, well, he would do that. I, however, wouldn't have left without a plan to rescue him. But I'm gonna need your help."
"We could if we had a superpower." Eddie told her.
"Remember what Buck taught you. It's not powers that make you a superhero."
Eddie smiled."It's courage."
"And resourcefulness." Said Crash.
Zee nodded, smiling.
"Maybe that's our problem, Crash." Eddie said to his brother."Whenever we're in trouble, all we do is play dead."
"Well, it is our go-to move." Said Crash.
"Yeah, but it's kinda the opposite of courage." He told him.
"Yeah, I see that." Crash said."But where can we get courage?"
"You already have it." Said Zee."Right here." She pointed at where their hearts were.
"In our chest fur?" Asked Eddie.
"She means our spleens." Said Crash.
"Yeah!" Said Eddie."If we can harness the power of our spleens, we can master lightning."
Zee groaned.
Zee put down the map."We're here on Raptor River. Orson's got Buck and the two humans here at the watering hole. We'll launch a surprise attack."
"Like a surprise party with weapons." Said Crash.
"Mmm...I dunno, Zee, or whatever your real name is. The three of us against Orson's whole army, including those humans with the loud weapons?"
"Hey!" Said Zee."You would be surprised what we're capable of. I just wish we knew how Orson controls the raptors."
"Maybe he gives them treats. I know I'd do anything for a marshmallow." Crash said.
"Would you marry a frog?" Eddie asked him.
"What kind of frog?"
"Focus, guys." Zee said."It's time to train for the mission."
Zee grabbed a bamboo stick and cut it. She handed pieces of it to Crash and Eddie.
Eddie accidentally dropped his piece into the water.
Zee sighed.
She then tried to train them to use the bamboo as blow darts. She held up a fruit for a target and threw it, hoping they would hit it.
Instead, they played with bamboo sticks.
She facepalmed.
Zee ran up the sail and did a backflip and landed.
Crash and Eddie failed to do this.
Zee then scared them with a dinosaur skull. They then used the bamboo blow darts to take the skull off the bone.
"An extraordinary feeling. To meet one's own assassins." Giap said to Castle and Fury, holding Castle's sniper rifle.
"Colonel Fury, I imagine you were sent to positively identify me, and you, sir, would have done the shooting. Our comrades in Quang Nam province have been reporting heavy casualties to sniper fire. In the last two months, they say, an American marksman has killed nearly forty of their people. Thirteen in a single afternoon."
Giap looked at Castle."Quang Nam is patrolled by United States Marines. If you are who I think you are, sir: Bravo. Cochran and Brent chose very well. I knew they would. I have been expecting you for some time."
Fury's eye widened at this.
"I can't recall the third one's name. Or is it Severn? Two years ago, they began a business arrangement with a Cambodian called Nuon Sen. He has ties to the Khmer Rouge but really he is just a bandit. And opium farmer."
Giap showed him a picture of Cochran, Brent, and Severn, and two others."The fifth man is Major Le Duc Tra of the people's army of Vietnam. He has since been liquidated but not before providing me with every detail of his treachery.
"Nuon Sen brought processed heroin from Cambodia into Vietnam. Le Duc Tra arranged safe passage through areas where Vietcong units operated. The three C.I.A. officers organized transport to America's east coast. Tra received a cut of the profits. The rest was partially reinvested in Sen's operation. Brent, Cochran, and Severn kept the balance.
"When I first became suspicious of Tra's lifestyle, I had no idea how far the corruption reached. It was only as I built the case against him that certain possibilities began to suggest themselves. The photograph is from a significant file I have gathered on your three comrades, full of absolutely damning evidence. I intended simply to show it to the world's press. But then I decided on a tactical delay. I began by allowing mister Cochran to discover that I had the file.
"Through Tra, of course. By then he would have done anything to save himself. As I saw it, the trio would have no choice but to kill me. I would let them learn where I would be at a certain time and they would send assassins. Not being field men, they could hardly do the job themselves. I would carefully prepare, and capture whoever it was they sent, and the gentlemen of the press would get a little spice for their story. I could not have imagined that they would send a celebrity.
"You teleported near Buck's home, correct?" Giap asked."Our Russian allies have been helping us, along with their nazi scientists. We built a machine to time travel. We will use this place as base to train our soldiers. A base the Americans will never find. You and your companion will confess to the media that you were involved with narcotics in the U.S. military."
"Not a hope." Fury said.
"I believe otherwise." Giap said."I believe I have right on my side. Because I have the means to end the war."
"Come again?" Fury said.
"My reasoning is as follows. America's war on Vietnam is a devil's brew. You have devasted my country but very nearly torn the heart from your own. Your citizens have no stomach for protracted conflict. Neither do your soldiers. We watch you on your firebases and in our cities and we know it is but a matter of time. The average American comes to Vietnam, spends perhaps two months learning the lessons of survival, and, if he lives, the next ten months applying them. Then he leaves. Vietnam is nothing to him. He has no cause for which to risk his life.
"I do not envy American generals. Remember the French? Their soldiers had no tours of duty. They either won or died. They fought.
"Public opinion. Troop morale. Your war effort teeters on a knife-edge. Can it withstand a scandal such as this? An unjust war is one thing, corruption quite another. That senior figures in American intelligence can profit from the conflict...things like this can bring down governments. And mister Nixon is not a stupid man. Do you understand the importance of your confession now?"
"Figured we'd get here sooner or later." Fury said.
"Is that a rebuke? Shall we discuss the lot of prisoners of war interrogated in your agency's phoenix program? Or perhaps the broader question of the notion of moral warfare and where the use of napalm on infants figures in it." Giap said.
"You are not naive, colonel. Don't pretend that this is your old war. Your European cataclysm wherein good triumphs over evil. Be honest. You are here because for Nick Fury, any war will do."
"So what's your excuse?" Fury asked Giap.
"Why, simply that I will do anything, commit any atrocity, embrace any evil, to end the war and free Vietnam from American aggression. Because I love my people and my country. Be sensible. Confess. Help me end this pointless carnage. Then you and all your comrades can go home."
When Fury refused, Giap's soldiers beat him and Castle. Finally, Giap and his soldiers left.
"You okay?" Fury asked Castle after the beating.
"Probably piss blood in the morning." Castle said.
Fury spit blood out of his mouth."Cocksuckers. I should've known. Thirty percent rise in combat effectiveness. How the fuck do you measure that? But I wanted Giap so goddamn bad."
"You think he could do it?" Castle asked.
"Mm?" Fury said.
"You think It's enough to end the war?"
"I don't know. I don't think so but...the heroin'll really kick up some shit. Could do the agency a lot of damage. You throw us into the mix as well-let's face it, halfof congress wants us out of 'nam, and this could be exactly what they need to get it done.
"I don't know about ending the war right away but...It could sure as hell shorten it."
"Then we better not take the chance." Castle said.