rice.
'When can I see it?' Herman asked.
'When we meet with the kidnappers. Have they called again?'
'Not yet.'
'They will. Tonight's the full moon. When you talk to them, set up the meeting. Tell them we have the antique. Tell them we're ready to make the exchange for Mi-ja.'
'They better call soon. Nam's going nuts. She knows the full moon is tonight and she can't hold still. Been clawing at me all morning. Where you staying?'
'At the yoguan behind the Dungeon Club.'
I wondered why he asked. Before I could inquire, the wind picked up, ruffling the awning. Ernie had purchased his gum and stood leaning against a pole, staring up at the sky, which had suddenly darkened. He turned back to me. 'We'd better bali, George.'
The first splats of rain hit the muddy pavement.
'Okay, Herman, I have to go. Call me at the CID Detachment if something breaks.'
As if the monsoon sky had been holding off beyond endurance, lightning flashed, thunder rolled, and the clouds opened up with a pelting deluge.
Ernie and I ran to the compound.
The First Sergeant stomped back and forth in the CID office, his hairy arms waving in the air.
'Where in the hell have you two guys been?'
Ernie hung up his soaked jacket, smiled at the secretary Miss Kim, flashed a thumbs-up to Admin Sergeant Riley, and flopped into a padded vinyl chair.
'We told you, Top,' he said. 'We went down to Taejon to pick up that antique.'
I draped my jacket over a chair and plucked at my dripping wet shirt in an attempt to unglue it from my body. I started pouring the wet rice from the burlap sack into a metal trash can.
'Five days it took you? Five days? Just to pick up some damn old piece of jade?'
The First Sergeant looked sharp in a neady pressed Class B uniform shirt and slacks. Riley wore his usual fa- tigues starched to a cardboard consistency. Miss Kim wore a tight skirt and blouse that accented her delectable figure.
They were all dry, which is what made me jealous. Ernie and I were wet and scratched and bruised and looked like a couple of stray tomcats. Outside, thunder boomed.
The First Sergeant turned his gray eyebrows on me.
'Sueno, what's the story? You don't usually goof off on me. Not this much, anyway.'
'We didn't goof off.' I held the jade skull up to the fluorescent light.
Miss Kim swiveled on her typing chair and gaped at the shimmering green glow. Even Riley stopped scratching at his pile of paperwork and adjusted his horn-rimmed glasses to take a better look.
'It wasn't easy getting ahold of this jewel,' I told them. 'Not exactly on sale in your usual five-and- dime.'
Miss Kim rose from her seat and clicked over in her high heels. She stood in front of the jade and held out her manicured fingers. 'May I see it?'
I handed it to her. She fondled it. Slowly. Sensually.
The First Sergeant propped his butt on the edge of Riley's desk and crossed his arms. 'So you have the exchange set up for the girl?'
'We're working on that. When the kidnappers call Herman, he'll set it up.'
Miss Kim examined the intricate carving. Tiny pearls of drool bubbled on her red lips.
Ernie bounded out of his chair, walked over to the counter, and drew himself a cup of coffee from the stainless steel urn. It was boiled as black as ink so he poured about a half a cup of sugar and cream into it. As he stirred the concoction, I knew he was working up some mischief.
I was right.
'Seems like the rioting outside the gate has made the head shed a little nervous, eh, Top?' he asked.
The First Sergeant's fingers tightened beneath his biceps. 'We've been through this shit before. In 'Nam. We know how to handle it.'
'How's that?'
'Bust some heads. That's how.'
Ernie and I were both thinking the same thing. Busting heads wouldn't stop the nun from burning herself to death. In fact, it would ensure that she'd go through with it. There was only one way to stop her: Find the man who had attacked her in Itaewon.
'What about the mugger of the little nun?' I asked.
The First Sergeant's fingers clenched the flesh of his arms more tightly. 'What the hell do you think I been waiting for you two guys for? The information you gave us before you left was for shit.'
Ernie sloshed coffee when he swiveled. 'You mean you haven't caught him yet?'
'That's right, Bascom. We haven't caught him yet.'
'We gave you a complete description before we left. You have six other CID agents besides me and George. All any investigator would have to do is bust some heads and ask some questions out in Samgakji. Pick up the mugger in no time.'
Samgakji was the Korean nightclub district that catered to black GIs.
'What the hell do you think we've been doing, Bascom? We identified the guy the first day. All it took was gathering some information and checking some old blotter reports. His name is Hatcher, Ignatius Q., Private First Class.'
'Ignatius Q?' Ernie asked.
'That's right. Ignatius Q. But all the bloods out in Samgakji call him Bro Hatch.'
Ernie sipped on his coffee. 'Beats the shit out of Ignatius Q.'
'The problem with picking him up,' the First Sergeant said, 'is that as soon as he got wind that we were looking for him, Hatcher went AWOL.'
'Of course he went AWOL, Top,' Ernie said. 'He's probably hiding out in Samgakji. Didn't you send anybody out there?'
'Do you think we've had our thumbs up our butts, Bascom? I've had agents in Samgakji day and night. They've come up with zilch.'
'White agents or black agents?'
The First Sergeant glared at Ernie. We all knew the answer to that. The Eighth Army CID Detachment didn't have any black agents.
Admin Sergeant Riley buried his nose deeper into his paperwork, worried that Ernie might go too far. Riley was a bureaucrat and a lifer. He wasn't going to take a no-power lowlife staff sergeant's side against the First Sergeant, the top noncom in the CID Detachment.
Miss Kim paid attention only to the jade skull. She was used to GIs arguing over things that couldn't be changed. Since English wasn't her first language, it was easy enough to tune us out.
Not easy for me. I figured I'd better back Ernie off or the First Sergeant was going to grind his teeth so hard his molars would pop out. Top hated admitting that he couldn't get a job done without me and Ernie to help.
'Who'd you send out there?' I asked.
'Burrows and Slabem,' he replied.
Ernie groaned. 'Not those two dorks!'
The First Sergeant's face reddened. 'They're good investigators.'
'They're two white nerds,' Ernie said. 'The soul brothers out there in Samgakji aren't going to have shit to do with them. And the Korean business girls, less.'
'And you two can do better?'
'You know we can do better. We speak the language of the night. That's why you been waiting for us to get back. So somebody can go out to Samgakji and collar this mugger once and for all.'
Ernie was right. All the other CID agents in the Detachment prided themselves on staying away from the drunks in the bars and the dopers dealing drugs and the Korean prostitutes who swarmed through the GI villages.
