A matter of time

'We never give up. We just put it away for a while. Getting sorry we came back. Oh. Don't tell anybody about it. Hank told me not to tell you.'

'Okay.' She twisted free, commenced setting the table. 'What do you want to wear?'

'You going through with it?'

'All the way. A little buck fever, that's all.'

He was not sure she understood the relationship of Michael to refugee in her own mind, but asked no questions. He never would. It was hers to work out.

'When's this guy supposed to show up?'

'Around eight. They were real nice when I told them about your job.'

'Sure.'

'What's that supposed to mean?'

'Just that they're having trouble finding people. You know me. Always the cynic. Bureaucrats don't make things convenient to be nice. They got a Moses somewhere who brought down a tablet telling them to be horse's asses.'

'You're right. You are a cynic. Don't get going tonight.'

The bell rang a minute after eight.

'That's them already!' Annie exploded in a frenzy of last second seam-straightening and hair-patting. 'They're early.'

'It's eight.' He went to the door. Startled, he said, 'Yes?' to the man he found there.

'Jornall Strangefellow. From the Relocation Office.'

'Oh. We've been expecting you.' Someone, anyway. But not a six-foot-four-inch, roly-poly black man with a bizarre name. Cash tried to cover his reaction. 'Come in.' He led the way to the living room. 'Annie, this's Mr. Strangefellow. From the Board. My wife, Ann.'

She did a less competent job of concealing her surprise. Strangefellow stirred uneasily while pretending not to notice.

'Well, sit down. Let's see what we have. Can we get you anything? Coffee?' Cash flashed Annie a look. What will the neighbors think was all over her face. This, probably, was part of the testing pattern.

'Tea. If I may. Plain.'

Miss Groloch flashed across Cash's mind.

'What we have,' Strangefellow said, after making small talk till Annie, composed once more, brought coffee and tea, 'is a family of four. A major of police from Saigon, Tran Van Tran, is interested in your offer. Our backgrounding suggests you'd be compatible.'

'Uh?…'

'Mr. Cash?'

'Well, to be honest, I'd be a little worried about his record. You know, the Fonda people were always talking about the police over there. If they were on our side, they were concentration-camp guard types.'

'I see. Understandable. Some probably were. You needn't worry, though. This guy's as straight as Jack Armstrong. Educated here and in France. He was liaison between the Saigon police and our MPs for two years. He had no connection with the secret police. Oriental politics operating the way they do, though, he probably did have some political responsibility on paper.'

'No, that wouldn't bother me. Even here we've got trouble keeping City Hall from using us. I just didn't want any SS-types.'

'None of that. Tran's a genuine Audie Murphy, Vietnamese-style. Squeaky clean war hero. Remember the Tet Offensive in sixty-eight? He won their equivalent of the Medal of Honor during that one.'

'Oh?' Cash was beginning to grow distracted. Strangefellow was so thoroughly educated and bureaucratized that he seemed like a white man in blackface. His failure to conform to any racial stereotype was flatly disconcerting.

'Seems that, even with a bullet through his liver, he single-handedly stopped a Viet Cong suicide squad from reaching a packed ARVN hospital with their satchel charges. And later, when the end came, he stuck it out till the last minute. He was one of the last people they brought out.'

'Have you met him?' Annie asked.

'No. I'm sorry. Not yet. Except through the paperwork. The book on him is this: he's thirty-eight, his wife, Le Quyen, is thirty-four, his sons, That Dinh and Don Quang, are fifteen and twelve. There aren't any extended family complications. This is Tran's second time on the run. Just after he got married, he and five brothers had to scoot out of North Vietnam. They were Catholic, and Ho had just given the French the boot. Their parents and most of their relatives still live in the Haiphong region, they think.'

'It sounds good to me,' said Cash. 'Annie?'

She nodded. 'Go ahead.'

'We can handle our part, then. Might have some trouble finding him a job, though. Things are tight here. But we're ready to go to the next step.'

Annie nodded again. She did not trust her mouth much tonight.

'No hurry on decisions,' said Strangefellow. 'This is just a preliminary interview. We won't get started on the details till the Board reviews my field report.'