business in a big way. It had taken them almost two years to work out the ocean transport through a shipper based in Singapore.
“I was told there’d been a problem,” Tran said.
Victor knew the man meant he’d heard about the arrest. “It’s taken care of. I negotiated my way out of it.”
“How?”
Victor grinned a little. After all these years, Tran didn’t completely trust him when the pressure started to mount. But that was okay. He didn’t completely trust Tran either.
But it made Victor wonder who among his group was selling him out to Tran.
“I’m going to give them something,” Victor said, answering Tran’s question. “Our southern competition.”
“Do you think that’s wise?”
“Are you questioning my decision?”
Tran didn’t respond right away. “What happened?”
“A business negotiation with one of their men went south. His people were taking more of an interest than I thought, and they chose to make everything personal.”
“Couldn’t you have negated that?”
“The guy I had to deal with wasn’t local. He was based in Virginia. The domestic arm.” Meaning the FBI in Quantico, Virginia, and not the CIA at Langley, Virginia.
“I’m sure you did what was best.”
“I did. In fact, I streamlined the pitch I was giving the associate of the Virginia team.”
“And they went for it?”
“I didn’t give them a choice.”
“I see.”
Victor drained the beer bottle and dropped it into the wastepaper basket. It shattered with a brittle pop.
“I didn’t have a choice, either,” Victor went on, his voice tightening till it was edged steel. “The business I’m taking care of at this end isn’t easy. Sometimes deals have to be cut to preserve what we’ve got going on.”
“I realize that. But you have them off of you?”
“Till next time. Unfortunately the reality is that this business of ours is established. People are going to talk. Customers as well as rivals. When that happens, we’ll have to stand prepared to take care of it.”
“What about this man? The one who cost you so much?”
“I’m going to cost him.”
Tran was silent for a moment. “I could take care of him for you.”
Victor took a moment to think about that. The offer came with subtext, but he wasn’t sure exactly what it was. For Tran to offer to reach across the Pacific Ocean to whack the Marine meant that he’d come into more muscle than he’d had before.
The offer also served to put Victor on notice that he wasn’t as insulated as he had been.
“No need,” Victor said. “I’m going to take care of this. I’m going to take the time I need to do it right.”
“I know you see this as a personal challenge,” Tran said. “But you can’t allow any harm to come to what we’ve got going on. We’ve worked too long and too hard to get what we have.”
“You just worry about your end. I’m going to take care of things here. You’ll see.”
“It would be better for you-and for what we’re doing-if you put this behind you.”
Victor couldn’t believe the suggestion had been made. “Put the murder of my son behind me?” His voice was cold and hard.
Tran hesitated for only a moment, then-showing that their relationship had changed over the years-said, “It wasn’t murder. I saw the news footage. He killed a man and tried to kill that Marine. I’m sorry for your loss, my friend, but he’d been given every chance to come out of that encounter alive.”
“He was my flesh and blood,” Victor snarled. “My family.”
“I know.”
“Do you?” Victor tried to control the anger that threatened to break loose inside him. “Do you remember what happened when your family was killed?”
Tran’s voice was soft, but a hard edge rang in his words. “I do.”
“Me and you,” Victor said, “we found out who the soldiers were that killed your family. And they were American soldiers.”
It had been one of those incidents that didn’t come out of Vietnam until years later. The military and the media had worked together for a time to shut down all the atrocities that young American soldiers committed while they were overseas.
Everybody back home was so interested in the John Wayne image of the American soldiers, they didn’t think of what it had really been like to be there. There wasn’t a day most of those young men hadn’t been afraid. Never a day passed that sudden, harsh death hadn’t dogged their footsteps through that hellish jungle.
As a result of that fear, the quickness that death could reach out, and the merciless nature of the enemy they’d faced, a lot of soldiers had gone feral and become pitiless killers who saw only enemies in everyone outside their own group.
Chaplains and officers had tried to keep those young soldiers from becoming barbarians. Their efforts had broken down and failed on several occasions. Sometimes those chaplains and green second lieutenants got fragged by the very men they were trying to save.
“We buried your family, me and you,” Victor said. “We dug those graves with our hands and laid your family to rest. Then we found out who those men were… and we killed every last one of them.”
That had been a bloody business. They’d hunted the men down and ambushed them in the jungle. Some of them had gotten loose. It had taken four days to find the last one. Under Tran’s cruel skills, it had taken the man two days to die.
For just a moment, the smell of burned flesh filled Victor’s nostrils at the memory. He didn’t remember any good times from his tours in Nam. But he just hadn’t been able to escape the jungle till Uncle Sam had finally called him home. Even then, the jungle still lived inside him today. It was only a heartbeat away.
“I remember,” Tran said.
“You’d better remember.”
“But in the end, killing those men didn’t bring my family back.”
“I know that. But the idea of the man who killed Bobby Lee walking around breathing the same air that I do offends me.”
“Vengeance is for the young,” Tran said quietly. “We are older now. We know the things that matter. This business we’re doing matters. You’ve got a good life. You shouldn’t be thinking about throwing it away. I’m asking you, as your friend, to let this be.”
Irritation filled Victor. In the beginning, Tran had been the low man on the totem pole regarding the operation. He hadn’t had any contacts. Victor had provided everything.
Now that he had control over the product and thought he could easily pick up another distributor in the United States, Tran wasn’t quite as closemouthed about how the operation was conducted as he had been.
The thing was, Tran also knew what Victor was about. If Tran tried to freeze Victor out, Victor would go over to Vietnam and finish a final piece of the war.
“I can’t,” Victor said.
Tran sighed. “I was afraid that would be your answer.”
“Was there anything else?” Victor asked.
“No.”
“Then I’ve got a few things to do around here.”
“Of course. I just wanted to express my condolences and to check on you.”
“You just take care of your end of things.”
“If you need anything, you’ll call?”
“Of course,” Victor replied.
“Get some rest. You sound exhausted.”
Victor broke the connection and tossed the phone onto the desk. Then his eyes roved over the security monitors showing the street outside.
