Fortunate Sons

Chapter 17: The Hunt Begins

The patrol boats cruised up and along the river, the many pairs of eyes belonging to its pilots searching for noticeable signs that the enemy was near. The motors hummed with a low buzz and a wake of white water splayed out from the sides. The American flag whipped in the wind while mists of water jumped up from the wake and landed on the faces and hands of the soldiers aboard. A small radio beneath the wheel played "Sympathy for the Devil" as they cruised between the two lands and kept their eyes peeled.

Their faces were painted with a thick coating of green and black grease paint while their sage green uniforms were soaked with sweat from the jungle heat. All of them stunk of sweat, b.o and humidity, each one desperate for a cool shower.

The boat slowed to a near stop, the noticeable hum of the motors dying down to near silence. Mitch switched off the radio, listening to the chirp of the frogs that made their home along the riverbanks. The overcast skies threatened rain, but Mitch vowed to put a stop to it if his powers would let him.

"What've we got?" Ma Ahn asked him.

"We need to head a bit further south along the river," Mitch concluded. "I'd say six miles more."

"Six?" Ma Ahn questioned. "Jeez."

"These guys keep themselves hidden and they do it well," Mitch said. "They'll hide anywhere, in the trees, in the river itself.....hell, they hid under the ground last I remember."

Nobody had forgotten the tunnel discovery, least of all Ma Ahn. The memories of that claustrophobic space would always be fresh in his mind no matter how much time had passed.

"Ya'll think this is a good idea though?" Mitch wondered. "Sneakin' up the crick the way we're doing?"

"It's the only way we can go that'll provide an easy escape," Ma Ahn replied. "I know that sounds bad but you'd be amazed how fast you can travel on water."

The boat continued to float up the brown, murky waters of the river through the grey daylight. The soldiers aboard didn't have to look far to see that Cambodia was barely six feet away. The cruelties that went on there were nightmarish, possibly worse than what was happening in Vietnam.

"So what's the deal with this book?" Ma Ahn asked. "The one we found in the tunnel?"

"It's a bit hard to explain," Mitch replied. "There's things that go on at home that we don't really talk about."

"What do you mean?"

"Just stuff that nobody really understands," Mitch said with a shrug.

"You can tell us," Ma Ahn replied. "Thom and I can keep a secret."

Mitch still felt ill at ease telling one of his battle buddies about the goings on back in the states. He wasn't completely sure if Ma Ahn would understand if he explained it to him. He'll probably look at me like I've got two extra heads growing out of my shoulders....Mitch thought.

"You got a bible on you?" Mitch asked.

"In my pocket," Ma Ahn answered.

"Turn to Genesis."

Ma Ahn hauled out the pocket bible he kept in his shirt pocket, its cover battered and the binding fixed with duct tape from so many years of use. He turned to Genesis, searching for the section that Mitch had told him about and his eyebrows scrunching together when he read the passages that told of rebel angels who had been cast out of heaven for their deeds.

"What?" Ma Ahn chuckled halfheartedly. "Your family is some kind of witch coven or something?"

"Look I know it sounds crazy but..."

"No, no," Ma Ahn said. "This deserves an explanation....shoot."

"Well," Mitch sighed, running his fingers through his short, ash blonde hair. "A long time ago mine, Taylor and Dix's ancestors were afraid of the angels that fell from heaven. They were afraid of what they would do to the people of earth and because of that fear and the love they had for humanity, they sacrificed everything to come and protect mankind. They didn't lose their powers....but they lost their immortality."

Ma Ahn was a bit skeptical of Mitch's claim, but because of his curiosity he wanted to know more. "You got anything to prove it?" he asked. "Like a mark or something?"

"Tattooed on my back," Mitch replied. "We all have one."

Mitch loosed his shirt from his back and revealed the tattoo, a pair of black angel wings coated in a glossy sheen of sweat. They looked so real and so intricately detailed that Ma Ahn's eyes went wide at the sight of them.

"Wait a minute," he said. "That night when we raided the tunnels......the fireball....that was....."

"That was Dix's doing," Mitch told him, slipping his shirt and glasses back on. "Pyrokinesis."

"Holy shit!" Ma Ahn exclaimed rather nervously. "So all three of you have these powers?"

"All three of us," Mitch replied.

"What's yours?"

"Weather manipulation mostly," Mitch replied. "You don't even want to know what Taylor can do."

Taylor suddenly ordered the two to hush up. When all noise had ceased, he listened intently to the silence. Though it was far away, his mind was full of voices that were a jumbled heap of indiscernible words. He couldn't understand them, but he knew they were close.

"Tay?" Mitch asked. "What is it? What'cha hearin'?"

"Six miles due north......grassy field.....middle of Sangha Chhet.....Paulsson was right. They're right across the river."

"Cao's men?"

"Yes," Taylor replied. "There's a village on the trail that goes from Chau Doc all the way to Sangha Chhet. That's what Cao and his men have been using to get from one place to another."

"They're using the Ho Chi Minh trail?" Mitch asked him.

Taylor nodded. "Sangha Chhet's a small place," he explained. "Probably no more than three hundred people living there. But it's a safe haven for guys like Cao. Easy to get to and from. That's why he uses it."

"Making it all the easier for them to hit Than Ahn during Tet."

"Exactly," Taylor pointed out. "That's why people didn't see it coming. They had no idea that it was so easy for these guys to get in and out."

"So ya'll think we'll find Cao in Sangha Chhet?"

"If I'm lying, I'm dying my friend."

Mitch nodded and started up the boat once more, abruptly turning around and heading north. If they had any hope of catching Cao at an opportune moment, it had to be now or never.