MILES TO VIETNAM 05.VOL-INDEF by William Peter Grasso

Author:William Peter Grasso [William Peter Grasso]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Unknown
Published: 2023-10-08T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Sylvie Bergerac—now known as Jeni Claes—was certain the four men at a corner table of the dingy, half-full restaurant in Tay Ninh City weren’t locals. During quieter moments, she’d been able to overhear their hushed conversation; the dialect they spoke wasn’t from this part of Vietnam. They’re from the north, she thought, probably out-of-uniform NVA…and officers, no doubt, because I don’t think they’ve mentioned women once. If they were rank-and-file soldiers free to roam the city, procuring women would be the first thing on their minds. The NVA is no different than any other army on the planet in that regard.

I wish I could piece their entire conversation together, but I can’t hear enough of it and the northern dialect is a little strange to me. But I know they’ve mentioned traveling between Cambodia, An Loc, and Tay Ninh.

They’ve already glanced my way several times. Not friendly glances, either. I think my camera sitting here on the table might be making them nervous. I’d better not make any moves that might look like I’m taking pictures. Just leave the camera alone and finish your supper.

That wouldn’t take long; she’d been hungry from the long, steamy day of traveling Tay Ninh province on her motorbike, a spy pretending to be a photojournalist. But the company in which she now found herself had killed her appetite. After swigging down the rest of her beer, she gathered her notebook, camera, and rucksack, and then headed to settle the bill. She’d become friendly with the cashier, a young girl who called herself Joi, pronounced zhu-wah, a French affectation she’d adopted over her tongue-twisting Vietnamese given name. It made communication much easier with the johns she serviced when working in the brothel next door. Despite her youth, Joi spoke fairly good French. That was surprising, considering she couldn’t have been more than four or five when the French were evicted from the country. Their light-hearted chats in that language had helped to build a relationship, one that had yielded Sylvie a good bit of helpful information about the goings-on in Tay Ninh…

And that relationship will continue to thrive as long as I hold out the promise of putting her picture in my piece. She’s convinced it’ll end up in Life Magazine and make her an international star. After all, I am a photojournalist, am I not?

I’m sure that most of her customers at the brothel come from Tay Ninh West, the US combat base just outside the city. The rest are VC…and perhaps visiting NVA, like those gentlemen in the corner.

She seems to be acquainted to some degree with those men. But I can’t ask her about them…not here, not even in French. They’d probably understand my inquiries. They’re certainly old enough to have a working knowledge of the language. In the three weeks I’ve been here, I’ve managed to stay out of trouble. I’ve got to keep that lucky streak going a little longer because I haven’t fulfilled my mission yet.

But I might be close.

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