12 Quillers Run by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

18 MOON DROP

Dropping through the dark. ‘He’s half crazy,’ Chen had said. ‘Have you met him?’

We were talking about Colonel Cho.

Pepperidge: He could be very important. What we need to find is her exposed flank. I mean Shoda’s. And Cho might tell us.

‘I haven’t met him,’ Johnny Chen told me, ‘no.’ He’d got back late on Tuesday night. ‘Nobody ever meets that guy. He’s holed up in a burnt-out rebel radio station in the jungle in Laos and, like I say, he’s half-crazy. There were two guys who tried to get near the place earlier this year, and the dogs got them. He has killer-dogs around.’

Let’s have a snort!

Dropping through the dark.

Chen was sitting on the floor with his back against the wall and one thin leg drawn up, his arm hooked across his knee; he looked tired, drained, the fine lines in his face deepend by the light and shadow, his almond eyes strained, looking beyond their focus, seeing, I thought, his dead friend.

‘So I’d forget it,’ he said, and swung his head to watch Chu-Chu, a spark of light coming into his eyes now. She was kneeling in front of a garishly-costumed Xieng doll that he’d brought back for her; she seemed to be greeting it, formally, according to some kind of custom, giving it hardly perceptible bows, her hands - not much bigger than the doll’s - placed together, steepled.

I didn’t like disturbing the silence, their thoughts.

‘It’s necessary,’ as quietly as I could, ‘for me to see him.’

In a moment Chen swung his head in my direction. ‘Then you’re half-crazy too.’

‘How was your trip?’

‘My trip? Okay, I guess.’ He seemed to be coming back to some kind of present. ‘She look after you?’

‘Yes, very well. She’s an accomplished lady.’

‘Cooks good. Thai Suki. I taught her that. She give you Thai Suki?

‘Yes.’ I didn’t know what it was called.

He lit a black cigarette, squinting through the smoke. ‘She likes you. Said you think you’re going to die, is that right, made some kind of a crucifix?’

‘I was just doing some mime for her. Trying to tell her she’s going to die if she keeps on with that stuff.’

‘She knows that.’ He shrugged. ‘We all know where death is, out here. It’s all in the same place, in the poppy fields. Why’s it so goddamned necessary for you to see this goon?’

‘I’ve been told he might have some information I need.’

‘You have any connection? Some kind of introduction?’

‘No.’

He blew out a stream of smoke with a whistling sound. ‘Jesus, have you ever seen the front end of a war-trained Doberman that never gets anything to eat?’

‘There are ways of handling dogs.’

‘Oh, sure. You shoot their ass off and the next thing you know is your own’s gone up in smoke. Cho is real mean, but you don’t seem to be getting the message.’

Dropping through the dark, the lines hissing.

‘What else do you know about him, Johnny?’

‘Not much.’ He was watching the child again. ‘You look cute, sweetheart. Cute.’

She looked up, knowing the word sweetheart.

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