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Chapter Two
"You absolutely ain't gonna believe this one, Woody” Jim Cooper said as he slid into the booth at the St. James Bar in Bangkok. "Check this out” he said as he handed Woody a gold ring with a jade stone as big as his fingernail. "Jesus, Jim." Woody commented as he examined the ring, "This looks like a piece of Imperial Jade. Where the hell did you buy it, and for how much?"
"Didn't buy it." replied Cooper. "I'm out for my morning run along the river, and run up on this commotion. There's six ugly little bastards giving this Buddhist Monk and a little kid a hard time. Looked like your typical street mugging. The old boy was doing pretty well holding the bastards off with his Bo, that walking stick they all carry, but one of the thugs managed to get hold of the little kid."
"And you just had to stick your two-cents worth in, right, Boss? You naturally being the pushy bastard you are." Woody rarely missed a chance to rib his Commanding Officer and best friend a little.
"Fuck you. Shut up and listen. The old Monk was trying to get to the kid and one of the Zips was behind him and pulled a knife. I just happened to be right behind that little motherfucker so I dropkicked him in the groin. That pretty much took the fight out of that one, but I think it kinda pissed the other five off, 'cause now they all want a piece of my ass. The guy holding the kid let him go and the Monk took him out with a thrust of his Bo to the bastard's temple. At the same time, I gave the son-of-a-bitch closest to me a round-house kick up side his head and came on around with a hook-kick to the chest of another one. The Monk tripped the fourth one with his Bo, and he came down on his head, then back-kicked the first one I'd kicked in the solar plexus. I laid a forward punch on the face of the last one, and I guess that took the fight out of them, since they all hauled-ass up the street."
"So what's the deal with the ring?” asked Woody. "Seems that the kid is the son of some Grand Poo-Bah here and the Monk is his teacher. The bad guys were trying to snatch the kid for a ransom. That Monk can speak better English than you do,” said Jim, who never missed a chance to get a dig in at his Second-in-Command either. "Fuck you. Finish your story", Woody retorted. "OK, the Monk takes this ring off his finger, hands it to me and tells me this is a very special gem. That as long as I have this ring, I will never die anything other than a natural death." His voice was as serious as a heart attack when he said this, but Woody knew better than to ever play poker with his Commander. "I put it on and when I looked up, him and the kid were gone, like they just vanished into thin air." "Right", said Woody, "And I'm the Crown Prince of India. Where'd you buy this thing, and how many Bahts did you pay for it?" "Fuck you, Your Majesty", Cooper fired back. "Since you must have the Royal Fortune, all the drinks this afternoon are on you."
It was always their custom, when they were on R&R, to just sign all the bar & dinner checks in the Hotel, and pay the bill when they checked out. Three days later, when the time came to head back to Da Nang, the manager of the hotel told them at check-out that their bill had already been paid, "By a very affluent man who said he is most appreciative of the aid you rendered his son and the boys teacher". As Woody's jaw dropped open, Cooper just looked at him and stuck his tongue out.
"120 Wireless Road", Woody told the cab driver as he started his engine. Since there was nothing unusual about a couple Americans going to the American Embassy, neither man was concerned about being compromised. On the way, they talked idly about the places they'd visited in Bangkok, just as if they were no more than a couple of tourists or maybe servicemen on leave. When they arrived, the sun was just going down, and Cooper paid the cabbie off and tipped him generously, as any American tourist would. The Marine Guard at the gate looked them over and checked their passports, then passed them through the gate. They walked in the door and up to the reception desk, where a female Marine Corporal, with a cafe-au-lait, flawless complexion, whose shirt was a half-size too small for her ample chest was trying very hard to look both bored and important at the same time. "Good afternoon, Gentlemen", she said in a soft voice, "How may I help you?" Woody couldn't help himself, "Would you like the list alphabetically or chronologically, Corporal?" "Woods and Cooper to see John Malloy", Cooper interjected before Woody put his other foot in his mouth. "Which is which?" she asked, beaming a smile at Woody so bright white even a blind man would have winced. "Doesn't matter", said Woody in his most velvety voice, and flashing a smile equal to hers, "We're interchangeable.” "Right.” she said as she picked up the phone on her desk, "I can see you're twins." "Fraternal, not identical", said Woody as she announced them into the mouthpiece. "Mr. Malloy says to come to his office. Do you need an escort?" Woody didn't take his eyes off the Corporal, "You go ahead, Jim. I'll be along in a minute."
John Malloy looked more like a middle-aged accountant than he looked like the Station Chief for the Central Intelligence Agency in Bangkok. His looks matched his disposition, since he had all the charm and tact of an IRS Auditor, thought Cooper as he walked into the man's office. "Where the hell's Woods?" Malloy asked. "He'll be here in a minute", replied Cooper. "He's attempting to improve Navy - Marine Corps relations." "Pour yourself a drink. Here's your next job.” Malloy said as he handed Cooper a manila envelope. "You leave here at 2300hrs tomorrow. You've got tonight and all day tomorrow to set it up. You go from here back to Da Nang to collect your gear. Two days later you head for Tay Ninh to jump off to the Cambodian border. Any gear you need will be waiting for you in Tay Ninh. Leave me a list before you leave tomorrow night. You and your Team can use the three bunk rooms downstairs next to the training room." "Works for me. When will Mike and Bob get here?" asked Cooper. "They're already downstairs", said Malloy, "doing some one-on-one training with your two newbies." "Abso-fuking-lutely marvelous", snorted Cooper. "I get to take two FNGs (fucking new guys) into Cambodia." "Go get Woods and get downstairs and check them out for yourself.” said Malloy. "By the way", he added, "you know that ring on your finger is contraband, don't you?" Cooper knew as well as anyone that it was illegal for any U.S. Personnel to take Jade from Southeast Asia back to "The World". "You'll be in deep do-do if you get caught with it." "What the fuck are they gonna do to me if they do?” said Cooper with a grin as he went out the door, "Send me to Vietnam?"
"ATTENTION ON DECK!!!” yelled Mike as Jim walked into the training room in the first sub-level of the Embassy, and two of the four occupants leapt to their feet in the ramrod stiff position. "As you were.” said Cooper, "Goddamnit Mike, you know better that that shit." He then directed his attention to the two new members of the Team, "That's the last time I ever want to see you at attention unless we're all back in "The World" and in full dress uniform. Is that clear? On this side of the world, you call me 'Jim', or 'Boss'. My rank, if I have one, is not on your list of things you 'need-to-know'. I know you made it through your stateside training and through the crash courses in Panama, or else you wouldn't be here. Just give me your orders, and get back to what you were doing when I walked in."
Cooper took the manila envelope from each of the men and walked to the far end of the 40-foot long conference table and laid them down, along with the one he got from John Malloy upstairs. He walked over to the smaller table in the corner of the room, poured himself a cup of black coffee, then walked back to the head of the conference table and sat down. He opened the top manila envelope and made sure that the documents were correct and in order, then looked at the file on SSgt Gerald Weintraub, U.S. Army Special Forces, specialty, Explosive Ordinance and Hand-to-Hand Combat Instructor with a Black Belt in Tai Kwan Do. According to the dossier, Jerry was a tough street kid from the lower East Side of New York who was given the choice of the Army or Juvenile Hall when he was seventeen. Cooper reached in his shirt pocket, took out a cigarette, put the flame from his Zippo lighter to the end of it, and reached out and slid the glass ashtray with the Great Seal of The United States in the bottom over to him. "Incoming!" he yelled as he threw the ashtray the length of the table, aiming at the side of Weintraub's head. Weintraub didn't even flinch. He just reached up with his left hand and caught the missile in mid-flight and set it on the table. "Geeze, Boss", Weintraub said as he turned his steel-gray eyes on Cooper, "If you want my attention, all you gotta do is say, 'Hey Jerry'. I'm listening." As he slid the ashtray back up the table, he said, "Here, I don't smoke, I'm Orthodox."
Woody walked in, got himself a cup of coffee and sat down just as Cooper was opening the second manila envelope. "The one on the right", he said as he slid Weintraub's folder to Woody, and opened the second manila envelope. Lieutenant Steven Holman, United States Marine Corps, according to the pages in front of Cooper, was from Findlay, Ohio and a graduate of Ohio State University. He was recruited by ONI while still in College, where he was Captain of the wrestling team and middle linebacker of the football squad. He also is a crack shot with any firearm handed to him, Cooper read, and a true artist in the use of the K-Bar knife and wire garrote, a skill he developed while leading long-range recon patrols with the 3rd Marine Division. He also is fluent in Chinese, Vietnamese, and Russian. He closed the folder, slid it over to Woody, and turned his attention to the last envelope. He took out the five pages that were inside, got up, and walked over to the copy machine on the other side of the room. While the machine was spitting out five copies of the documents, he re-filled his coffee cup and lit another "hump".
As he distributed the copies to the other five men in the room he said, "Seems pretty simple. III Corps HQ thinks that 'Charlie' is building a big supply depot just outside Svay Reing, Cambodia. If he is, it could mean that he's gearing up for a push at Saigon, Cu Chi, or Di An from the west. If he is, that means they gotta beef up the 1st and 25th Infantry Divisions, and the 173rd airborne. Could also mean that they're getting ready to mount a campaign against IV Corp in the Delta. All they want us to do is get in there, find out what kind of stuff Charlie is collecting, and get out without anybody knowing we were there, hopefully." "And if we do get caught, nobody on this side of the war ever heard of us." Said Mike. It was a statement, not a question.
"O.K.", said Cooper, "This is pretty much a milk-run, which is just as well since we got two pieces of fresh meat along. When we get back from this one, we'll take a couple weeks and go back to 'The World' so Steve and Jerry can go to Chicago and get their tattoos." They all were well aware that once you joined a Pathfinder Team, you were a member of that Unit until you got discharged, killed, or the war ended, whichever came first. That's why they all wore the Mariner's Cross tattoo on their left bicep. "Mike and Jerry, you two work on a plan for insertion from Tay Ninh. Bob and Steve will work on insertion from Vinh Long, by boat up the Mekong, then heading east along the border. Woody and I will work on extraction. Make sure you have a thorough list of ordnance and equipment we'll need for each of your ideas. We'll meet back here at 1000hrs tomorrow and have a final Op Plan by 1600 at the latest. We leave for Da Nang at 2300hrs tomorrow. Nobody leaves the Embassy grounds until then. Page five is the topography map of the area around the target. Page four is the detail map of where Intelligence 'thinks' the target might be." "How sure is anybody that this 'junkyard' even exists?” Steve asked "We wouldn't get the job unless the probability factor was 80% or better,” replied Woody. Three hours later, Jim and Woody had established an extraction point south of Svay Reing along the South Vietnam - Cambodia border, along with what they thought would be a secure route to get there.
"If you will now excuse me, Commander, Sir", said Woody, "I have a prior commitment to share an extremely fine bottle of wine with a 'friend'." "Wouldn't just happen to be a certain Marine Corporal we just met, would it?” asked Jim. "Could be." was the reply "Last I heard, 'fraternization' between Officers and Enlisted persons was a crime in the United States Armed Forces,” warned Cooper. "She don't know I'm a Naval Officer, and I sure as hell ain't gonna tell her", retorted Woody. "Besides, if I get caught, what they gonna do to me? Send me to Vietnam?" "You know I wouldn't let them do that to you", said Jim with the corners of his eyes crinkling. "I'd recommend that they send you to Diego Garcia." "Fuck you. You're just pissed that a certain Army Nurse Major ain't here to keep you company while I'm gone." While Cooper was trying to think of a comeback, Woody opened the door and left, chuckling to himself all the way upstairs.
At 1000hrs the next morning, the six men met in the training room, and by 1600hrs had a workable game plan for the job ahead. It was six days until the next night with no moon, and that was when they would be dropped by chopper 15 klicks (kilometers) southwest of Tay Ninh, Vietnam, just inside the Cambodian border, where they had about the same chance as a snowball in hell if they got caught.
When Cooper delivered the supplies & equipment list to John Malloy that evening, he said, "By the way, I want to talk to you about Sam Waterson............and one of his Nurses".
"Didn't buy it." replied Cooper. "I'm out for my morning run along the river, and run up on this commotion. There's six ugly little bastards giving this Buddhist Monk and a little kid a hard time. Looked like your typical street mugging. The old boy was doing pretty well holding the bastards off with his Bo, that walking stick they all carry, but one of the thugs managed to get hold of the little kid."
"And you just had to stick your two-cents worth in, right, Boss? You naturally being the pushy bastard you are." Woody rarely missed a chance to rib his Commanding Officer and best friend a little.
"Fuck you. Shut up and listen. The old Monk was trying to get to the kid and one of the Zips was behind him and pulled a knife. I just happened to be right behind that little motherfucker so I dropkicked him in the groin. That pretty much took the fight out of that one, but I think it kinda pissed the other five off, 'cause now they all want a piece of my ass. The guy holding the kid let him go and the Monk took him out with a thrust of his Bo to the bastard's temple. At the same time, I gave the son-of-a-bitch closest to me a round-house kick up side his head and came on around with a hook-kick to the chest of another one. The Monk tripped the fourth one with his Bo, and he came down on his head, then back-kicked the first one I'd kicked in the solar plexus. I laid a forward punch on the face of the last one, and I guess that took the fight out of them, since they all hauled-ass up the street."
"So what's the deal with the ring?” asked Woody. "Seems that the kid is the son of some Grand Poo-Bah here and the Monk is his teacher. The bad guys were trying to snatch the kid for a ransom. That Monk can speak better English than you do,” said Jim, who never missed a chance to get a dig in at his Second-in-Command either. "Fuck you. Finish your story", Woody retorted. "OK, the Monk takes this ring off his finger, hands it to me and tells me this is a very special gem. That as long as I have this ring, I will never die anything other than a natural death." His voice was as serious as a heart attack when he said this, but Woody knew better than to ever play poker with his Commander. "I put it on and when I looked up, him and the kid were gone, like they just vanished into thin air." "Right", said Woody, "And I'm the Crown Prince of India. Where'd you buy this thing, and how many Bahts did you pay for it?" "Fuck you, Your Majesty", Cooper fired back. "Since you must have the Royal Fortune, all the drinks this afternoon are on you."
It was always their custom, when they were on R&R, to just sign all the bar & dinner checks in the Hotel, and pay the bill when they checked out. Three days later, when the time came to head back to Da Nang, the manager of the hotel told them at check-out that their bill had already been paid, "By a very affluent man who said he is most appreciative of the aid you rendered his son and the boys teacher". As Woody's jaw dropped open, Cooper just looked at him and stuck his tongue out.
"120 Wireless Road", Woody told the cab driver as he started his engine. Since there was nothing unusual about a couple Americans going to the American Embassy, neither man was concerned about being compromised. On the way, they talked idly about the places they'd visited in Bangkok, just as if they were no more than a couple of tourists or maybe servicemen on leave. When they arrived, the sun was just going down, and Cooper paid the cabbie off and tipped him generously, as any American tourist would. The Marine Guard at the gate looked them over and checked their passports, then passed them through the gate. They walked in the door and up to the reception desk, where a female Marine Corporal, with a cafe-au-lait, flawless complexion, whose shirt was a half-size too small for her ample chest was trying very hard to look both bored and important at the same time. "Good afternoon, Gentlemen", she said in a soft voice, "How may I help you?" Woody couldn't help himself, "Would you like the list alphabetically or chronologically, Corporal?" "Woods and Cooper to see John Malloy", Cooper interjected before Woody put his other foot in his mouth. "Which is which?" she asked, beaming a smile at Woody so bright white even a blind man would have winced. "Doesn't matter", said Woody in his most velvety voice, and flashing a smile equal to hers, "We're interchangeable.” "Right.” she said as she picked up the phone on her desk, "I can see you're twins." "Fraternal, not identical", said Woody as she announced them into the mouthpiece. "Mr. Malloy says to come to his office. Do you need an escort?" Woody didn't take his eyes off the Corporal, "You go ahead, Jim. I'll be along in a minute."
John Malloy looked more like a middle-aged accountant than he looked like the Station Chief for the Central Intelligence Agency in Bangkok. His looks matched his disposition, since he had all the charm and tact of an IRS Auditor, thought Cooper as he walked into the man's office. "Where the hell's Woods?" Malloy asked. "He'll be here in a minute", replied Cooper. "He's attempting to improve Navy - Marine Corps relations." "Pour yourself a drink. Here's your next job.” Malloy said as he handed Cooper a manila envelope. "You leave here at 2300hrs tomorrow. You've got tonight and all day tomorrow to set it up. You go from here back to Da Nang to collect your gear. Two days later you head for Tay Ninh to jump off to the Cambodian border. Any gear you need will be waiting for you in Tay Ninh. Leave me a list before you leave tomorrow night. You and your Team can use the three bunk rooms downstairs next to the training room." "Works for me. When will Mike and Bob get here?" asked Cooper. "They're already downstairs", said Malloy, "doing some one-on-one training with your two newbies." "Abso-fuking-lutely marvelous", snorted Cooper. "I get to take two FNGs (fucking new guys) into Cambodia." "Go get Woods and get downstairs and check them out for yourself.” said Malloy. "By the way", he added, "you know that ring on your finger is contraband, don't you?" Cooper knew as well as anyone that it was illegal for any U.S. Personnel to take Jade from Southeast Asia back to "The World". "You'll be in deep do-do if you get caught with it." "What the fuck are they gonna do to me if they do?” said Cooper with a grin as he went out the door, "Send me to Vietnam?"
"ATTENTION ON DECK!!!” yelled Mike as Jim walked into the training room in the first sub-level of the Embassy, and two of the four occupants leapt to their feet in the ramrod stiff position. "As you were.” said Cooper, "Goddamnit Mike, you know better that that shit." He then directed his attention to the two new members of the Team, "That's the last time I ever want to see you at attention unless we're all back in "The World" and in full dress uniform. Is that clear? On this side of the world, you call me 'Jim', or 'Boss'. My rank, if I have one, is not on your list of things you 'need-to-know'. I know you made it through your stateside training and through the crash courses in Panama, or else you wouldn't be here. Just give me your orders, and get back to what you were doing when I walked in."
Cooper took the manila envelope from each of the men and walked to the far end of the 40-foot long conference table and laid them down, along with the one he got from John Malloy upstairs. He walked over to the smaller table in the corner of the room, poured himself a cup of black coffee, then walked back to the head of the conference table and sat down. He opened the top manila envelope and made sure that the documents were correct and in order, then looked at the file on SSgt Gerald Weintraub, U.S. Army Special Forces, specialty, Explosive Ordinance and Hand-to-Hand Combat Instructor with a Black Belt in Tai Kwan Do. According to the dossier, Jerry was a tough street kid from the lower East Side of New York who was given the choice of the Army or Juvenile Hall when he was seventeen. Cooper reached in his shirt pocket, took out a cigarette, put the flame from his Zippo lighter to the end of it, and reached out and slid the glass ashtray with the Great Seal of The United States in the bottom over to him. "Incoming!" he yelled as he threw the ashtray the length of the table, aiming at the side of Weintraub's head. Weintraub didn't even flinch. He just reached up with his left hand and caught the missile in mid-flight and set it on the table. "Geeze, Boss", Weintraub said as he turned his steel-gray eyes on Cooper, "If you want my attention, all you gotta do is say, 'Hey Jerry'. I'm listening." As he slid the ashtray back up the table, he said, "Here, I don't smoke, I'm Orthodox."
Woody walked in, got himself a cup of coffee and sat down just as Cooper was opening the second manila envelope. "The one on the right", he said as he slid Weintraub's folder to Woody, and opened the second manila envelope. Lieutenant Steven Holman, United States Marine Corps, according to the pages in front of Cooper, was from Findlay, Ohio and a graduate of Ohio State University. He was recruited by ONI while still in College, where he was Captain of the wrestling team and middle linebacker of the football squad. He also is a crack shot with any firearm handed to him, Cooper read, and a true artist in the use of the K-Bar knife and wire garrote, a skill he developed while leading long-range recon patrols with the 3rd Marine Division. He also is fluent in Chinese, Vietnamese, and Russian. He closed the folder, slid it over to Woody, and turned his attention to the last envelope. He took out the five pages that were inside, got up, and walked over to the copy machine on the other side of the room. While the machine was spitting out five copies of the documents, he re-filled his coffee cup and lit another "hump".
As he distributed the copies to the other five men in the room he said, "Seems pretty simple. III Corps HQ thinks that 'Charlie' is building a big supply depot just outside Svay Reing, Cambodia. If he is, it could mean that he's gearing up for a push at Saigon, Cu Chi, or Di An from the west. If he is, that means they gotta beef up the 1st and 25th Infantry Divisions, and the 173rd airborne. Could also mean that they're getting ready to mount a campaign against IV Corp in the Delta. All they want us to do is get in there, find out what kind of stuff Charlie is collecting, and get out without anybody knowing we were there, hopefully." "And if we do get caught, nobody on this side of the war ever heard of us." Said Mike. It was a statement, not a question.
"O.K.", said Cooper, "This is pretty much a milk-run, which is just as well since we got two pieces of fresh meat along. When we get back from this one, we'll take a couple weeks and go back to 'The World' so Steve and Jerry can go to Chicago and get their tattoos." They all were well aware that once you joined a Pathfinder Team, you were a member of that Unit until you got discharged, killed, or the war ended, whichever came first. That's why they all wore the Mariner's Cross tattoo on their left bicep. "Mike and Jerry, you two work on a plan for insertion from Tay Ninh. Bob and Steve will work on insertion from Vinh Long, by boat up the Mekong, then heading east along the border. Woody and I will work on extraction. Make sure you have a thorough list of ordnance and equipment we'll need for each of your ideas. We'll meet back here at 1000hrs tomorrow and have a final Op Plan by 1600 at the latest. We leave for Da Nang at 2300hrs tomorrow. Nobody leaves the Embassy grounds until then. Page five is the topography map of the area around the target. Page four is the detail map of where Intelligence 'thinks' the target might be." "How sure is anybody that this 'junkyard' even exists?” Steve asked "We wouldn't get the job unless the probability factor was 80% or better,” replied Woody. Three hours later, Jim and Woody had established an extraction point south of Svay Reing along the South Vietnam - Cambodia border, along with what they thought would be a secure route to get there.
"If you will now excuse me, Commander, Sir", said Woody, "I have a prior commitment to share an extremely fine bottle of wine with a 'friend'." "Wouldn't just happen to be a certain Marine Corporal we just met, would it?” asked Jim. "Could be." was the reply "Last I heard, 'fraternization' between Officers and Enlisted persons was a crime in the United States Armed Forces,” warned Cooper. "She don't know I'm a Naval Officer, and I sure as hell ain't gonna tell her", retorted Woody. "Besides, if I get caught, what they gonna do to me? Send me to Vietnam?" "You know I wouldn't let them do that to you", said Jim with the corners of his eyes crinkling. "I'd recommend that they send you to Diego Garcia." "Fuck you. You're just pissed that a certain Army Nurse Major ain't here to keep you company while I'm gone." While Cooper was trying to think of a comeback, Woody opened the door and left, chuckling to himself all the way upstairs.
At 1000hrs the next morning, the six men met in the training room, and by 1600hrs had a workable game plan for the job ahead. It was six days until the next night with no moon, and that was when they would be dropped by chopper 15 klicks (kilometers) southwest of Tay Ninh, Vietnam, just inside the Cambodian border, where they had about the same chance as a snowball in hell if they got caught.
When Cooper delivered the supplies & equipment list to John Malloy that evening, he said, "By the way, I want to talk to you about Sam Waterson............and one of his Nurses".
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