Fortunate Sons

Chapter 4: Wild Bill's Message

 At the Embassy House the heat was absolutely sweltering as Taylor, Dix and Mitch waited in the briefing room. The stink of moisture was evident everywhere, in the air, in their clothes and in every room they walked into. The humidity mixed together with the smells of cooking food wafting from the cafes and streetcorner stalls, the exhaust and two stroke from motorbikes and jeeps and the overpowering fishy odors from the docks left a terrible stench clinging to the backs of their throats. What they wouldn't have given for a swim in the ocean.

"Man this is ridiculous," Dix muttered as the three of them waited for their superiors to come in. "Here we are roasting our asses off and the higher ups are taking forever to get this meeting over with."

"Didn't Miss Etta ever teach you patience Dix?" Taylor questioned.

"Yeah but it didn't stick," Dix chuckled.

Before any of them had a chance to say anything else, the doors opened and in walked an older gentleman that neither of the three had recognized. Grey haired and with a proud bearing in his stature, he was clearly higher ranking than Colonel Swyft and therefor had commanded a greater amount of respect. Beside him was a man who was a bit smaller and younger, probably an embassy worker who had never before been out on the battlefield.

The other two were men that the trio did readily recognize, old friends they had worked with before. Thom Han Nhat and Ma Ahn Nguyen both South Vietnamese soldiers who had helped them out of a bad situation more times than any of them cared to remember. Thom was their best, a short little guy who stood at a mere five foot three inches tall but could take out a guy half his size with no problem.

"Attention!" the older man called out.

Taylor, Dix and Mitch had stood straight at attention and introduced themselves when the man who introduced himself as Colonel Paulsson finally gave them the order to be at ease. ""Glad to see you boys showed up," he remarked. "Seems like you boys never fail to be early either. "What brings you and your unit to Than Ahn?"

"We were sent here on orders sir," Taylor replied.

"Good thing too," Colonel Paulsson said. "Place is crawling with VC. You guys were the only pest control center I was able to reach within a hundred mile radius."

Dix, Taylor and Mitch did their best not to smirk or laugh but at least someone was grateful that they had come all the way out. Unlike most of the higher ups, this Colonel sounded like he appreciated everything people had done or had been doing for him.

"Now," Colonel Paulsson continued. "Might as well get down to business. You boys have some great skills and I'd like to see them put to good use. Which is why I've reviewed this with your superiors and they believe you and the rest of your unit are the best for the job."

"What sort of job sir?" Taylor enquired. "If you don't mind our asking."

"Night patrol, sneak behind enemy lines, the usual mess," Paulsson replied. "We're currently on the lookout for a high ranking Northern official who's got a body count list so long you could write a book with it. Guy's name is Hoang Xuan Cao, he's nastier than a rabid pit viper and uglier than sin."

Taylor and the others took a close look at the laminated photograph before them and couldn't have agreed more. Cao's glare was enough to turn people stone cold, those hard and menacingly dark eyes chilling their blood until it was ice cold.

"Where'd they last see this guy?" Taylor asked.

"Not far off," Paulsson replied. "Apparently he loves sneaking around the border between here and Cambodia for some reason."