— Chapter Ten —
The helicopter landed on a small field and four passengers disembarked. They went over to an open tour bus that had been waiting for them.
“This will be inconspicuous for the border crossing,” said Lee.
A man came up to the four men and handed Lee a small package containing three passports. Pon, travelling again under the name Chait-ead, posed as a tourist, which normally would have had Stu and Spock in fits of laughter had they not been feeling tired and as rough as badgers arses, all Spock could muster was welcome back Shithead. Lee then gave them fake passports in case of emergency. “You should use your own passports going in, but keep these if you should need them . . . Good luck,”
Lee then returned to the Helicopter, which took off heading towards Chou Doc.
Pon, Spock and Stu got on the tatty tour bus; they looked at their new passports, which they thought had been good copies considering the time that the Cambodians had to process them. Stu would be Mr Kerry Eggleton and Spock Mr William Anchor.
“They’ve named you after the Cambodian beer and our young prince, that’s smart,” noticed Stu
Spock had a different interpretation for the name:
“W. Anchor, Wanker!” said Spock indignantly “Some boneheads got a sense of humour”
“You’re not wrong, but at least they haven’t given you a bloody woman’s first name,” added an embarrassed Stu.
The old bus drove fifteen minutes to the small border crossing, with Spock and Stu both hoping never have to use their fake identities and swearing Pon to secrecy or risk increased ear clippings.
Pon agreed, not knowing what the fuss was about, it wasn’t as bad as ‘shithead’
They crossed over the border and met up with a waiting tour group. There were about eight other foreigners in the group, mainly Chinese. They took the small bus to a waiting boat for the three-hour journey down the Tonle Basak River.
The boat journey was tedious, although the craft was a speedy modern riverboat with a large air-conditioned cabin and large comfortable seats; noisy Vietnamese Karaoke screeched out from the T.V’s positioned at several locations on overhead compartments.
“Sounds like two cats with their knackers in a grinder” commented Spock who promptly fell asleep and started his own wind section of the karaoke. Stu was already asleep and Pon meditated, planned and thought about Kim, his brave wife. They missed all the beautiful rural scenery and attractions, pagodas, colourful and sweet aromas of the floating markets. They slept through the boat trip and most of the bus journey from Can Tho to Behn Dinh town, which took another three hours. This was a long, but safe route.
They arrived in Behn Dinh town near Cu Chi* and the tour leader, a small Vietnamese man who spoke English, booked them into a small guesthouse and instructed them to meet in one hour at 2pm for the tunnel tour. Spock, Stu and Pon sat in Stu’s room and went over their plan again.
The tour group met in the reception and got on the bus for the twenty-minute journey to the start of the tunnels.
Stu noticed how little traffic there was, mainly mopeds and pushbikes trundled up and down the modern quiet roads, which seemed a pleasant change from Pattaya and traffic congestion.
They arrived at the designated area and the guide took them around. A dozen Vietnamese men dressed in their renowned ‘black pyjamas’ performed demonstrations with AK47 rifles, shooting at targets. The guide then took them to one of the numerous spread out small hatches that the Vietcong used to pop out of and shoot the Americans. The guide joked how the holes were too small for the large westerners to fit through, and informed them it was the northernmost hatch. The tourists all peered separately down the small hatch then the group moved on, with one exception.
Pon entered the hatch, got quickly into the tunnel and scrambled along his planned route. He followed his GPS signal location to the target. They had already realised the satellites fixed position they had obtained went well into an unmarked section, beyond the tunnels, so they’d correctly assumed a new section to have been added to the jungle. The Commandos task was to map and survey this new section for entry and exit, number of enemy and firepower. This information would decide on whether an attack was viable.
They had also guessed on a second entry point that may be attached to a tunnel and, in order to confirm this Pon now crawled through a hot, humid, insect infected small branch of a main tunnel marked on the old charts. . Pons task was to find the entrance and if possible get inside the section, survey that entrance and its viability for a second entry and rescue attempt. Pon and the commandos would then rendezvous as scheduled, plot their strategy and if everything appeared okay, mount an early morning assault.
Pon crawled approximately half a kilometre, through the muddy tunnels on his hands and knees and stopped to check his route map, he saw that around the next narrowing bend he should come to a dead end. However, the sat phone signal that the satellite had picked up was at least another 200 yards further along.
He rounded the corner and saw a sudden bright light illuminate the small tunnel for a few seconds and then it went dark again as a door closed. He then shielded his eyes against a large bright torch beam being shone into his face. An irate Vietnamese man came face to face with Pon and pointed a pistol at him. Pon understood little Vietnamese, but knew enough to know the man was serious and unsheathed his Glave.
The irritated man kept the torch on Pon but his voice changed as the man realised what must have happened and now being given instructions from another person lurking behind him in the shadows. The man replaced his pistol and shouted at Pon
“Stupid tourist you got lost again” said the man in English
The speaker and his mysterious shadow knew if this man was a tourist and went missing, they would instigate a search, which they couldn’t risk.
Pon responding to the situation, pleaded.
“Please can you help me, I have been going around in circles, for what seems like hours, I only stopped for a few minutes to take photos” and he showed the man his GPS which he hoped he would mistake for a camera. The man in the shadows gave an instruction, and as Pon sheathed his Glave, the first man gave him directions on how to exit the tunnel.
Pon squeezed himself around and crawled along his way back. Knowing that he had stumbled onto the entrance he felt around the wet muddy floor of the damp tunnel and found two pressure pad detectors buried under the surface.
‘This entry will be difficult but not impossible,’ he thought, as the tunnel behind him illuminated again briefly as the Vietnamese men disappeared back from whence they came. Pon crawled along until he’d rejoined a main tourist tunnel, he came upon a tourist station and, then after a lot of apologising to some angry tour guides, he was escorted to rejoin his tour group.
Stu and Spock knew that Pon would be gone for a while and had a cover story if asked any questions. Therefore, they went on a merry tour to find useful tourist attractions and some cold beer. The hair of the dog.
They along with the tour group ate some Naime, Vietnamese soft spring rolls and then went along with the guide, who, after showing them the small hatches, took them to a larger section of the tunnels. The main tunnels had been enlarged to accommodate large, western tourist’s, however there are large, and extra large and Spock fitted in the ‘not a bloody hope in hell category’. The big lad went as far as the entrance, peered inside the tunnels, turned around, informed the tour guide that they stank, and had bats, and Spock hated bats.
Therefore he and Stu would just potter around topside and wait for the group. Besides, Happy tuk-tuk’s denture fix had been chaffing his tongue and he needed some ice.
The guide just smiled as if it happened all the time, which it generally did, zero to claustrophobic in one foot of being inside the tunnel had been a regular occurrence. Tourists became scared once inside the tunnel system some parts were dimly they were unable to turn around and, as Spock had pointed out it stank, although no bats.
Spock and Stu went over to a bullet riddled tank, and a guide instructed them about the old booby-traps and they fired off a few rounds of an AK47 with the black pyjama clad tour guides. They ambled around for a while watching the T.V monitors of the tunnels and films about the American conflict.
They quickly became bored with all the war stuff and didn’t fancy eating any more food from the annoying yappy food vendors, due to their past experiences with buying from street vendors in Thailand, which hadn’t been pleasant and they had spent most of their first holiday with arse sphincters like blood oranges.
They strolled around a small souvenir shop and bought a 7.62mm bullet with the gunpowder removed and turned into a cigarette lighters’. The lads decided that it was now well past beer time and decided to search out a source of the amber nectar.
They came across a small shack with a Hesky, cold box full of cold Saigon beer, so they decided to wait there for Pon or the rest of the tour to return.
Pon had left his cloth bag with Stu, only taking his Glave and GPS with him and, as the lads guzzled their well-deserved beer, the bag started to ring.
“There’s a phone in Pons bag” said Stu as he fished in amongst some papers, small bottles, various coloured bags of powder, his neatly parcelled light monks cassock with red and gold sash, the small package from Bangkok and, a ringing mobile phone”
“Who’s calling?” asked Spock
“Doesn’t say,” said Stu looking at the screen “only call 1, but no number”
“Must be from outside Vietnam,” commented Spock
“Answer it,” instructed Spock,
“It may be from the kidnappers,” said Stu “we’d better not.”
“Could be important,” said an inquisitive Spock.
The phone continued to ring, the lads ignored it and drank their beer.
After thirty minutes of steady drinking, their tour group emerged from one of the tunnel exits. The tourist consisted of awestruck Japanese and Chinese people and one embarrassed looking Thai at the head of the pack being bollocked by the guide.
The lads went over to the group and the tour guide told them Pon had gotten lost, but luckily, some other tour guides found him and brought him back.
“Bad dog, naughty shit head” Spock chastised him and gave him a sharp clip around the ear, which gave made the guide smile.
The group where herded onto the bus for the journey back to the hotels
“What’s happening now?” Spock asked Pon
“I am due to rendezvous with the commandos near the rain-forest later,” said Pon “now we just wait”
The phone in Pons bag started to ring again and Stu handed it to Pon who answered.
“Hello Taksin” Pon said
The conversation went on in Thai for a while and by the tone of Pons voice, the lads knew something was wrong, very wrong.
Pon finished the call, looked shaken and spoke. .
“My friends we have a big problem. Taksin just informed me the commandos had been captured this morning and are probably now dead. The kidnappers called Taksin and threatened to kill Kim immediately.”
Pon cursed himself for not acting in the tunnel, and getting inside the hide-out.
Pon told them that Taksin hoped that he’d managed to convince the abductors that it was a Cambodian action, which must have been Kim’s uncle Lee, and he alone must be responsible for this unforeseen attack and Taksin hoped the kidnappers would accepted this excuse.
However, because of this attempted infiltration, the kidnappers had moved up the schedule. They have now given you until tomorrow to get to Hanoi and meet with their agent at the rendezvous with the relic.
Taksin had told Pon that he thought he had managed to diffuse the situation by demanding to talk to Kim and make sure that she was still alive, then angrily called their bluff, if no call was received, he would assume she was dead and threatened to hunt them down.
Taksin then reassured Pon by telling him that Thran called an hour later confirming he had spoken to Kim and that she was still alive and unhurt and he knew that they wouldn’t harm Kim yet, she was only the bait, and their target was them and the holy relic. .
Pon looked distressed as he relayed Taksin’s next instructions
Taksin had booked a flight for them from Ho Chi Mihn to Hanoi in the morning that would co-inside with an incoming Thai airways flight, so it would appear as if they’d arrived from Thailand.
Taksin also said that he’d had the Bangkok Post newspaper put in an article to convince the kidnappers that you, Spock and Stu had stolen the relic. The back-up plan would now have to be put into effect, and they had no more time for a rescue.
Pon on the other hand had another plan, and once he’d relayed Taksin’s news to Spock and Stu. He told them about another option, which was for him to go back through the tunnels, enter that way and attempt a solo rescue. Spock and Stu could carry on with the tour and return to Cambodia.
The lads however, wouldn’t agree to that option
“We stay together,” said Spock, now starting to realise the full danger they were in.
“We are family” added Stu and joked
“Besides Spock would have to find someone else’s ears to clip and he has just got used to yours, so let’s utilise Taksin’s proposal, besides the town looked like a one horse, beer depleted, fun-less little place and the Vietnamese people don’t seem that friendly.”
Spock looked at Stu and smiled, he knew the bloody fish story was about to be told again just to annoy him.
Fortunately the story never came as Pon phoned Taksin to confirm they would fly to Hanoi.
All three stayed in Stus room planning, they all went to bed early so they could be fresh and ready for the next day.
They all had a sleepless night, Pon with his thoughts of Kim and the danger that he could be putting his brothers into. He knew Kim was still alive, he just hoped she was unharmed and safe. Stu’s thoughts had been on Dao and what had happened to his wife, he was confused.
Spock couldn’t get that bloody, long digested and now barracuda shit, fish, out of his head and imaginary tunnel bats.
The following morning they caught a taxi for the 40km journey to Ho Chi Minh international airport and the two-hour flight to Hanoi.
They had figured out a plan, which would involve Spock’s unique talents and, as usual it was a stupid plan and doomed for failure.
****
*The Chu Chi tunnels are an amazing collection of tunnels just outside Saigon [Ho Chi Minh City] stretching about 75 miles long that were part of a network of tunnels that went all over Vietnam Cu chi district is well-known nationwide as the base where the Vietnamese mounted their operations of the Tet Offensive in 1968.The tunnels are between 0.4 to 1m wide, just enough for a person to walk along by bending or dragging. However, parts of the tunnels have been modified to accommodate visitors. The upper soil layer is between 3 to 5m thick and can support the weight of a 60-ton tank and the damage of light cannons and bombs. The underground network provided meeting rooms, sleeping quarters, commanding rooms, hospitals, and other social rooms. By visiting the Cu Chi tunnels provides a better understanding of the prolonged resistance war of the Vietnamese people and of the persistent and clever character of the Vietnamese nation.