For the first time Ortega felt like his life was finally getting back to normal and at least he’d found a lifestyle which somewhat suited him.
Even Helen replied to his letters now and again.
Although the thought of having to do another mission as crazy as Black Spot was ever-present, like a hatchet hanging over their heads at the guillotine, their training continued.
The lives they lead were lonely ones but at least short spanned.
No one expected you to risk your life like that for too long maybe a year but not more. After that, they’d all have gone back to the U.S. In the meantime however, how many suicide missions could they possibly assign in a year?
Surely not more than six or seven – Ortega thought.
One’s already out of the way.
The next time he’d be back in the U.S. for good, he’d look for a regular job and finally settle down.
He would sort his life out once and for all and maybe, just maybe, even start a family.
Some days later, an officer came into their tent by surprise, and it was then that the Baker team found out Jorgenson was on the road to recovery. It would take a while but he was going to make it.
Those were happy days, they were.
Being on leave in a place like Dak To or Saigon was a lot better than the ones they did in Fort Bragg.
Vietnam was a sort of a playground for them and chock-full of temptations like alcohol, sex and drugs. Everything there was dirt-cheap including someone’s life.
Occasionally they’d all get absolutely wasted or go to hoar houses together.
Rambo had met 'a girl', which is what he actually called her.
It was the same girl he’d slept with a few weeks earlier when they’d done away with Alvarez.
Occasionally Ortega suspected that Rambo may be falling for her but in any case, he knew Rambo was no fool.
He was fully aware that a hooker could chop your balls off from one minute to the next if she turned out to be a Vietcong.
Four years earlier, in 1965, an eighteen year guy named Bobby Garwood, had disappeared under those exact circumstances and no one had heard from him since.
He certainly hadn’t been the first nor would he be the last to end up like that.
It was highly unlikely though that the girl Rambo had met was a Vietcong because she seemed to truly adore both the U.S. and Americans on the whole, asking anyone and everyone, not only Rambo, to bring her there.
He knew, but it didn’t matter at all.
He certainly wasn’t naive and he seemed genuinely happy, which was more than enough for Ortega.