“Yes, my family, Manh. I am remembering my family. I am trying to take care of my family, which now stands together in our luxury home in District Four as it watches over the dead body of my baby. He is properly attended to, all decked out with the appropriate linens. The egg has been cooked. Are you surprised we had the money to buy it? We have lit the candles and the joss sticks. His soul has passed to join the ancestors. Yes. And I am remembering my family.”

“I am sorry,” Manh finally said, stubbing out his cigarette as he dropped his eyes. “I am truly sorry.”

“I need your help,” said Dzung, his chest still heaving. “It is a simple thing, but you are the only one who can do it.”

“What do you want?”

“You are using me, Manh. You are going to use me for something evil. Evil but very important to you. And so if it is important to you, this means I am somehow valuable. To the revolution.”

Manh watched him carefully, rocking back in his chair and taking out another cigarette. It was clear to him that, despite Dzung’s deep grief, he was opening up a new negotiation. “Perhaps,” he said.

“You know my weakness.”

Manh lit the cigarette, holding it far down between his fingers like his old gangster heroes as he pulled it away from his mouth. “We know everything about you.”

“Then you know I keep my word.”

“Yes.”

“Then I will give you my word.” Dzung’s face had become deeply lined over the past two hours, as if someone had drawn cobwebs around his eyes and along his cheeks. He stepped toward Manh. “Give me a cigarette.”

Manh took a cigarette from his pack and gave it to Dzung, then held out his lighter while Dzung lit it. Dzung inhaled deeply, calming himself. He took off his cap and waved a hand through his hair.

“My family is more important to me than my life. They are dying, Manh. They have no future.” Manh said nothing. He already knew that, remembered Dzung. It was in the files. “If that is how you control me, then that is how you must reward me.”

“What do you want?”

“I want my baby to be buried in Bien Hoa, with my wife’s family, not alone in District Four. I want you to help me take my family there, for the burial ceremony.”

“We can do that,” said Manh. “But you should think clearly, Dzung. You don’t want the others to know you are working with us. It could be dangerous to you.”

“Or maybe to you?” answered Dzung immediately. “After I have served your purposes and am disposed of, or perhaps killed, will they know you were behind my actions?”