‘That’s right. I figured if anybody could find Cody I could.’
‘And you accepted those terms, right?’
‘I had to make a choice: stay with the mission and try to find Cody, or take a walk, in which case Sloan would have brought in some cold-blooded bastard to do the job.’
‘What makes you different? You once killed for him on a daily basis.’
‘Just like you did in CRIP, right?’ said Hatcher angrily. ‘I was a soldier just like you were. I did what I was ordered to do.’
The remark shut Earp up for a moment. He looked away.
‘You know I’m not stupid,’ Hatcher said, sweeping his arm around the room. ‘If I wanted to kill Cody, I sure as hell wouldn’t do it when I’m outnumbered ten to one.’
‘You seem pretty convinced that Cody and this baby-killing dope smuggler are one and the same.’
‘I’m not sure what I believe about Thai Horse,’ Hatcher said. ‘What I do believe is that Wol Pot, or Taisung as you call him, knew Cody was alive.’
‘Anything else?’
‘The rest is all conjecture. What I call the equation.’
‘The equation?’ said Gallagher.
‘Like a mathematical equation, except that you use information instead of numbers.
He looked around the room at the rest of the regulars.
‘For instance, I know Wol Pot was really a Vietnamese prison commandant named Taisung. I know Wol Pot claimed that Murph Cody is alive in Bangkok. And I also know that Wol Pot was probably telling the truth.’
‘Why?’ asked Early.
‘Another part of the equation. Eventually Wol Pot would have had to produce Cody to get his visa. To reveal himself was risky because the U.S. could have found out about his past. But he was on the run, and his only chance was to produce Cody. Without him, he didn’t have anything. It would have been like offering to produce — Elvis Presley.’
‘Anything else?’ Riker asked skeptically.
‘Yeah, there is something else. I also know that Johnny Prophett’s real name is Paget, and that he and Gallagher, and Benny Potter, Riker, and Max Early were all reported missing in action at about the same time in roughly the same area of Vietnam. I’m not sure, but probably Wonderboy and Corkscrew could be included on that list.
‘So, the equation tells me that it’s possible all of them were captured by the VC and were in Wol Pot’s prison camp. And since Wol Pot knew Cody, I assume he was there, too.’
Riker snorted. ‘You got a lot of guts,’ he said.
‘Any more to that equation?’ Corkscrew asked.
‘One more thing. Wol Pot also claims that Cody is a killer and a dope smuggler who calls himself Thai Horse. I also heard from a source in the government that there’s a rumor on the street this Thai Horse is a drug dealer.’
‘And what’s the old equation tell you about that one?’ Riker asked.
‘Perhaps I should take you off the spot, Mr. Hatcher,’ said Namtaan, tapping her breast. I am the one known as Thai Horse.’
Hatcher’s surprise was genuine, so much so that Namtaan broke into a smile for the first time since they had entered the house.
‘I did not mean to shock you,’ she said.
Hatcher quickly recovered his composure. He started to laugh. ‘I don’t believe a word of that,’ he said.
‘Nevertheless, it is true,’ she said.
‘I gave her the name, Hatcher,’ Johnny Prophett said.
‘Yeah, everybody knows that,’ said Gallagher.
‘I don’t know it,’ Hatcher said hoarsely.
‘You don’t know a helluva lot, soldier, but you sure do a lot of guessing,’ Earp said.
Hatcher stared down at Pai. His recognition of her had come gradually. At first he had thought she was someone he had met before, someone from the past. He wanted to see her without the facial makeup — unlike Wonderboy, whose painted face was his reality.
‘Okay, I’ll try one more,’ Hatcher said, staring at Namtaan. ‘I’m guessing your name is Pai.’
‘My name is Namtaan.’
‘Sure. But it was once Pai. Fifteen years ago in Vietnam. You were Cody’s lady fair.’
‘That is a nice way of saying it.’
‘I have a picture of you taken in 1972. It was obvious you were devoted to him, and I’m sure you still are.’
‘Why are you looking for him, Mr. Hatcher?’ she said, quite earnestly.
