Rules of Engagement by Brian Freemantle

Author:Brian Freemantle
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Open Road Media

Chapter Nineteen

Nicole Tiné pulled her hair back from her face and knotted it tightly into a bun, a style Hawkins hadn’t seen her use before. She avoided any make-up and wore a formally tailored, grey check suit from the hurried purchase at Garfinkels in the time they had between their arrival in Washington and the beginning of the enquiry. It took the same form as before, Katzback gently leading. Nicole responded to the politeness, demure and small but speaking in a firm, even voice, making a much better initial impression than had Ninh: Hawkins hoped the concluding impression would be the same. To Katzback’s considerate prompting Nicole said that she had fled Saigon before the actual moment of communist occupation, going after Edward Hawkins’ departure to Dalat to be with her mother. She remained there for six months, almost seven, gradually coming to believe she was going to be ignored by the authorities. It was in November, the first week, when the cadres began their identity checks, working from lists that had apparently been created in the capital. There were twenty arrested with her, although she was the only one of mixed parentage. There had been a further three months in a detention camp, awaiting a hearing, and then the session itself. By remaining in the country she had surrendered her right to French nationality, she had been told; she was Vietnamese and had been corrupted by her association with Westerners. Her first camp was in the north, beyond Hanoi. She’d remained there the longest, almost four years. They’d had to work in the fields but also attend the lectures. She’d also been used for some translation work, propaganda material, Vietnamese into French and French into Vietnamese. After Hanoi there was a move slightly south, to Huê. Here her use of French had been utilised more fully. The Vietnamese appeared to have a great deal of written French material, some of which she recognised from her earlier employment as being from French embassy or consular sources. Her function was to translate them into Vietnamese. She had been there two years after which came the transfer to Can Tho. It was here she encountered the Americans for the first time, although like Ninh she had heard rumours of prisoners during her movement throughout the country.

‘This is important,’ said Katzback, coming forward over the table. ‘We want as detailed a description of this camp as you can give us.’

‘It is quite large,’ said Nicole, head bent in recollection. ‘I would suppose two, maybe three hundred people. A large staff, too. Guards and political cadres. Probably fifty. There is the river, which is the supply route. Two jetties. It is constructed …’ She hesitated, searching for the word, rotating her hand in a circular motion in front of her. ‘It is round,’ she said. ‘In the very centre there is the political compound, where the Americans are. The hall is there also, where the lectures are given. And the other building, where the indoctrination is conducted.

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