Dog Soldiers Read Free Page B

do with your money, John? Such a dedicated non - swinger as you are. ”
    “ I don ’ t know, ” Converse said.
    She laughed at him. Her laughter was something soft and satisfying, good to hear.
    “ Shit, you don ’ t know, do you? You know you want it though, don ’ t you? ”
    “ I desire to serve God, ” Converse said, laughing himself. “ And to grow rich, like all men. ” His laughter felt a little too loose in the jaw to suit him.
    “ Who said that? Some great hustler of the past? ”
    “ I ’ m not sure, ” Converse said. “ I think it was Cortez. Maybe it was Pizarro. ”
    “ Sounds a little like Irvine, ” Charmian said. She poured out more water and they went outside on the verandah to drink it. The rain slackened for a few mo ments, then came harder. It was a savage, not a sustaining rain. The bright fleshy pl ants in the garden folded to en dure it.
    “ How ’ s my Colonel Tho? ” Converse asked.
    “ Pretty mellow today. He ’ s got another big deal set up. He ’ s dealing cinnamon now. Hey, you know a lot about tape recorders? ”
    “ No, ” Converse said. “ Why? ”
    “ Tho wants me to tell hi m what the best kind of tape re corder is. That ’ s his big thing now. He ’ s gonna find out what all the best things in the world are and he wants one of each. ”
    Two old women in ao dais ran delicately over the mud beyond the gate, sharing a single white umbrella.
    “ What do you think he wants to tape? ” Converse asked.
    “ Who the hell knows? Me, I guess. ”
    “ I ’ m glad somebody around here knows what they want. ”
    “ Well, Tho knows all right. Then there ’ s Victor Charles. Victor Charles knows. ”
    “ Maybe, ” Converse said. “ Absolutely, ” Charmian said firmly. She had a respect
    bordering on reverence for the Viet Cong and she did not like to hear their sense of purpose questioned. “ Like even Tho is kind of an idealist. He used to be a very gung ho soldier at one time. ”
    She leaned back in her chair and stretched out her long tanned legs to rest the backs of her ankles on the porch rail ing.
    “ He ’ s always saying how all the graft and double-dealing pisses him off. He told me once that what this country needs is a Hitler .”
    “ The Vietnamese have a terrific sense of humor, ” Con verse said. “ That ’ s what keeps them going. ”
    “ He says that if somebody gave him a chance he ’ d like to serve his country like he was trained to do. He figures we corrupted him. ”
    “ Tho always says idioti c things when he talks to Ameri cans. He ’ s trying to make himself agreeable. ”
    Charmian shrugged. “ People can be corrupted. ”
    Converse got out of his chair and went back inside the house. Charmian followed him in. He picked up the brief case and measured its weight.
    “ Just don ’ t get taken off, ” Charmian said.
    He opened the case, took out his plastic anorak and got into it. “ I ’ m going. I ’ m having dinner with the Percys and I ’ ve got to get a flight down south for tomorrow. ”
    “ Tell them hello. And don ’ t look so damn scared. ” She came up to him as he stood in the doorway and affected to smooth the wrinkles on his plastic raincoat. “ When we get this cleared we ’ ll get a bunch of us together and fly over to Phnom Penh and get stoned and have a massage. ”
    “ That ’ ll be nice, ” Converse said. He had not been to bed with her for months. The last time had been after his re turn from Cambodia; bad things had ha pp ened there and he had not had it together.
    He saw to it that she did not kiss him goodbye. Walking up the alley to Nguyen Thong, he flexed his free arm to keep his back straight against the weight of the briefcase. So as not to look comical.
    Because of the rain, it was a long time before he found a taxi.
     
    “ Every day in this place, ” Sergeant Janeway said, “ we en tertain the weird, the strange, the unusual. ”
    They were sitting in the refrigerated offices of JUSPAO,