“No shit? My building?”
“Get out of there.”
“You finished with the download?”
“No.”
“Then what’s your hurry?”
Karr undid the clasp on the envelope. There were newspaper clippings inside, and a small key, the sort that would be used for a locker.
Karr took out his video bug and scanned the key.
“You got all this?” he asked Rockman.
“Of course we got it,” said Rockman. “Get out of there, Tommy. Out. He’s in the lobby.”
Karr put the key back in the envelope and returned it to its hiding spot.
“Done with the download?” he asked, climbing back to his feet.
“We’re done — go. Go!”
Karr turned off the computer and pulled his gear away, trotting to the door. As he was about to open it, he realized he’d forgotten to plant his bug. Necessity being the mother of invention, he decided the top of the doorjamb was a perfect place not only for an audio bug but for a video one as well.
“Pictures with the words,” he told the Art Room, starting to turn the doorknob.
“The elevator is opening on your floor,” hissed Rockman.
“It’s Thao Duong. Get out of there.”
“Great advice,” said Karr, taking his hand off the knob and stepping back into the room.
38
Once he made contact with the Vietnamese official, Dean’s job at the reception was over. He had to stay to maintain his cover, however, so he did his best to make small talk with the Vietnamese agricultural officials, bureaucrats, and other foreign salesmen at the gathering. Never good at mingling, Dean found it even more perplexing with the accented English that was used as the common tongue. The “conversations” generally consisted of vague questions answered by nods and half smiles.
He avoided Tang. It was a good bet that at least some of the Vietnamese suspected she was CIA, though he noticed that didn’t stop them from talking to her. She may not have been extraordinarily pretty, but she was one of the few women and by far the youn gest at the gathering, and that definitely worked in her favor.
“You were here during the war?” a bespectacled Vietnamese man asked Dean just as he was getting ready to leave.
“Yes,” said Dean.
“Where?”
“Quang Nam Province, mostly.”
“You were a Marine, then,” said the man. It was a reasonable guess; for much of the war the Marines had been the primary American force in Quang Nam, with a large base at Da Nang.
“Yes, I was.” Dean looked at him more closely. The man had brown splotch marks on his face and wrinkle marks at the corners of his eyes, half-hidden by the glasses. He was a few years older than Dean. Though thin, he had broad shoulders and a substantial chest; if he were a tree he would be an oak.
“I was with the Army of the Republic of Vietnam,” said the man. He made no effort to lower his voice, though he was referring to the South Vietnamese Army — in theory an enemy of the present government. “A lieutenant and then a captain.”
“I see.”
“We worked with Marines. Very good fighters. Loyal.”
“Thank you.”
Curiosity roused, Dean asked the man how he came to be part of the present government.
“I was not a spy or a traitor,” the former Army officer told Dean. “I’ve been rehabilitated. Connections help.”
“Charlie, Tommy’s in trouble,” said Rockman in his ear.
“We need you to back him up now.”
Dean made a show of glancing at his watch.
“I have to make a phone call back to one of my accounts at home,” he told the former ARVN soldier. “I’m sorry to have to leave.”
“My card,” said the man, reaching into his pocket. “If you have some free time, call me.”
“I’ll try,” said Dean, taking the card, though he knew it was doubtful he’d use it. “I’d like that.”
39
Even a man half Tommy Karr’s size could not have found a place to hide in Thao Duong’s office. So Karr found one outside the office — he opened one of the windows directly behind the desk.
The ledge was all of four inches thick, but Karr didn’t have much choice. He pushed the window down behind him, then began making his way to the next window, gripping the gaps in the bricks as firmly as he could.
The light in the office came on just as Karr reached to the window of the next room. He pulled himself across, then felt his right toe start to slip on the greasy stone ledge.
This way, this way, he told himself, trying to balance his momentum forward. He did a little slide step and pinched his fingers tighter, pushing himself close to the window. His left foot sailed out over the pavement and his hand lost its grip. Just in time he grabbed the upper part of the window, rattling the jamb but keeping himself on the ledge.
“Tommy, are you all right?” asked Rockman. “Where are you?”
“Getting some air. What do you see with that video bug I left in the office?”
“Just sitting at his desk. We’ll tell you when he’s gone.”
“What’s he doing?” Karr asked.
“Working. He went to the pile and took a report out.”
“Come on. You’re telling me he’s a dedicated bureaucrat?”
“I’m just the messenger. Wait a second — he’s reaching for that envelope you found.”
“You ID the key?”
“Looks like the type used in a firebox or trunk. Do you think you can follow him when he leaves the building?”
“If I can grow wings in the next five minutes, I’ll be happy to,” said Karr. “Where’s Dean?”
“He’s on his way. But he’s never going to get there in time. Looks like Thao’s getting ready to go — he put the envelope back.”
Karr tried opening the window, but it was locked from the inside. Breaking it would make too much noise while Thao Duon was next door, but if Karr waited until he left, it would probably be too late.
Karr glanced toward the ground and then back at the building, trying to see if it might be possible to climb down.
There was decorative brickwork at the corner that he could use as a ladder, but that meant going past three more double sets of windows. He was bound to slip sooner or later.
How about going up? There was only one floor between him and the flat roof. A row of bricks ran just above the windows, a decorative bump-out thick enough to grab on to. He wrapped his fingers around the bricks and pulled himself up as if doing a reverse chin-up. He put his right boot against the window casing for more leverage. He started to pull himself up, then realized it wasn’t going to work; the window ledge above the row of bricks was too far away to reach. But it was too late; he couldn’t get his feet down without risking a fall.
