Chapters (48)
- COVER PAGE
- TITLE PAGE
- EPIGRAPH
- PRAISE
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- MAP
- PROLOGUE
- CHAPTER ONE
- CHAPTER TWO
- CHAPTER THREE
- CHAPTER FOUR
- CHAPTER FIVE
- CHAPTER SIX
- CHAPTER SEVEN
- CHAPTER EIGHT
- CHAPTER NINE
- CHAPTER TEN
- CHAPTER ELEVEN
- CHAPTER TWELVE
- CHAPTER THIRTEEN
- CHAPTER FOURTEEN
- CHAPTER FIFTEEN
- CHAPTER SIXTEEN
- CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
- CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
- CHAPTER NINETEEN
- CHAPTER TWENTY
- CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
- CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
- CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
- CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
- CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
- CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
- CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
- CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
- CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
- CHAPTER THIRTY
- CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
- CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
- CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
- CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
- CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
- CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
- CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
- CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- COPYRIGHT PAGE
- What’s next onyour reading list?
“Yes,” said Condley, shaking his head and forcing himself out of bed. “But you’ll have to move quickly. Be the first person in line at your friend’s office. The flight leaves at three o’clock this afternoon.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Dzung pedaled slowly in the early-morning traffic, wiping the sleep out of his eyes. He was following the new routine created by Manh, a daily journey past the Interior Ministry building before he headed to the Rex Hotel. If Manh was standing at his window in Room 212, looking down at the street, it meant that Dzung was needed on that day for further training, and so he would stop and go inside. If Manh was not in the window, Dzung would continue on to the Rex.
Nearing the building, Dzung felt a small relief when he saw that the window in Room 212 was empty. But as he pedaled past, he saw Manh waiting for him on the curb just outside. “So, Dzung!” called Manh. “Over here, over here!”
Manh seemed electric, his eyes filled with excitement. A cigarette dangled from the corner of his mouth. His head was cocked to one side, just as he always imagined the gangsters in the old movies held theirs. His arms were folded across his chest. He was leaning against a white, unmarked van. And now he put both arms up into the air, as if the force of this gesture was itself stopping Dzung’s cyclo.
Dzung slowed his cyclo and then halted next to Manh. Watching the Interior Ministry agent with an intuition honed by decades of subservience, he felt suddenly breathless. Manh was bouncing on the toes of his pretty leather shoes, as if ready to spring into action. A line was being crossed. A time had come. A moment had arrived. Something was going to happen.
“Get into the van,” said Manh, sliding open the side door.
“What about my cyclo?”
“We will take care of your cyclo. Get inside. Hurry up!”
Dzung climbed from his cyclo and crawled into the van, moving to a rear seat. Manh followed immediately, sliding the door closed behind him and taking the seat just in front of him. By the time the driver had put the van into gear, a young man had run from the Interior Ministry building and jumped onto the seat of Dzung’s cyclo, then pedaled it away. Dzung watched forlornly as the van pulled out into the traffic and the young man disappeared with his cyclo. The young man was wearing well-pressed slacks and leather shoes. He was not a cyclo driver.
“Where is he going with my cyclo?” he asked quietly.
“I told you, don’t worry about the cyclo,” said Manh, leaning back in the seat and peering out the window. “Would you rather that we left it on the street?”
“No. But where are you taking me?”
“Calm down, mister big-time soldier. I thought you had nerves of steel.”