He bounced in his seat, his shoulders striking the cramped cockpit walls. Lan hung to handholds. The tank ran level, then started to climb nose-first, its treads clawing out of the depression.
When the tank lumbered onto the road, Remo let out his breath.
"I thought we weren't going to make it for a minute," he said.
Then he added, "Oh, crap!"
"What?" Lan asked, leaning forward.
"Look."
Lan looked past Remo's shoulder. Through the narrow slit of the port she saw a man in a ragged Vietnamese officer's uniform standing in the center of the road. He carried a Kalashnikov rifle upended like a pole. A white rag fluttered from the muzzle.
Remo stopped the tank.
"He want to surrender," Lan said quietly.
"I don't trust him."
"Then run him over."
Remo considered. "Do no good," he said at last. "He's already dead. Grab your gun."
Remo pushed open his hatch. He pointed his weapon at Captain Spook's pock-marked face. Lan covered him with the turret gun.
Captain Dai Chim Sao shouted at him in Vietnamese. "What's he saying?" Remo asked Lan.
"He say you destroy his unit."
"Tell him I noticed."
"He want to know what you want."
"I want to kill him for sure. No, don't say that."
"What I say to him?"
"Tell him," Remo said slowly, "tell him I want him to surrender. "
Lan shouted Remo's answer in Vietnamese. Captain Dai yelled back.
"He say he already surrender," Lan explained.
"Not just him. Everybody. I want Vietnam to surrender. Unconditionally."
Lan told him. Captain Dai's mean face broke in shock. His answer was brittle.
"He say he only a captain. Cannot surrender whole government."
"Then tell him to kiss his butt good-bye," Remo hissed, lifting his rifle to shoulder-firing position. Captain Dai dropped his rifle and shouted frantically. "He say he can give you better than surrender," Lan said quickly.
"There's nothing better," Remo growled.
"He say he know where American POW's are held. He will take you. You take Americans away and leave Vietnam alone."
"That sounds like surrender to me," Remo said, lowering his rifle. "Tell him it's a deal."
Chapter 19
Captain Dai Chim Sao knew he was finished. He had lost two entire tank groups to a lone American and a halfbreed girl. Before his last soldier fell, Dai knew he would be disgraced. Death was not even a concern anymore.
And because he feared death less than disgrace, Captain Dai formulated a plan. He slipped away from the Land Rover as the last tank exploded in flames. He worked his way through the trees to the ruined helicopters and found a working radio.
He radioed his position and warned the surrounding base camps of his planned route.
"We are not to be intercepted," he had said. "That is an order. Obey me. " And tying an oil rag to his rifle, he'd stepped into the path of the oncoming tank, knowing that at worst it would only crush him under its implacable treads.
But now Captain Dai was squatting under the muzzle of the smoothbore cannon, the bui doi girl holding him under the menace of the turret gun.
For hours, the tank rattled along the north road. It stopped only once to replenish its gas tank with fuel from the on-board supply.
The red sun beat down on Captain Dai's unprotected head. But his mean face was twisted in a wicked smile no one could see.
The American didn't know it, but he was riding into a trap.
Hours later, the tank was grumbling along a grass-choked jungle path. The path had obviously been knocked out of the jungle by many passing vehicles.
In the driver's bucket, Remo called up to Lan. "Ask him how long till we reach the prison camp." Lan spat out the question. She interpreted the captain's surly reply.
"He say soon, soon," Lan reported.
"He's said that before," Remo complained.
Lan said nothing. The path was narrowing. Remo had to expend most of his energy working the laterals to keep the treads from climbing the occasional too-close tree. It was work.
It was still light when Remo jockeyed the tank around a tight turn. The suddenness with which the jungle opened up around them took their breath away.
"Remo!" Lan called suddenly.
"Yeah, I see it," Remo said, craning to see through the periscope. "It's gotta be the camp."
"No," Lan said dully. "Not camp."
"Sure it is," Remo insisted.
"Yes, camp. But look to side."