A Culpable Innocence
Chapter 13: Honor and Dishonor (pg. 190)
“Then tell me why the hell you
think we should close this case!”
“It’s politics, sir.
Specialist Fallen has been put up for promotion and a Silver Star.”
“Stratcom has to have their
collective heads up their asses. He’s not even a combat soldier. They don’t
give out Silver Stars to rear echelon mother fuckers, not in this war and not
ever.”
“RCG is all up in arms about
that policy, sir. They’ve gone to Westmoreland himself. They think they have a
genuine war hero on their hands. He allegedly fought off an entire battalion
single-handed until relieved by an air assault. He even killed four sappers in
close combat all by himself according to the report that was submitted.”
“The way I read what happened
is that three sappers were blown up when incidental fire detonated their
claymores and one was shot in the back. The one shot in the back was Tam’s
brother. Doesn’t it seem convenient to you that the only witness besides Thanh herself that can speak against Fallen was eliminated
by our hero?”
“Yes, sir, but MACV is
listening to RCG’s case. They even have a Signal Corps Major General at the
Pentagon touting their cause. Unless we have some solid evidence against
Fallen, we really have nothing to counter with. If we had the book and could
actually identify it with this ‘death list’ you speak of, then we could state
our case.”
“What about this Janus idiot?
Does he have any other information we can use?”
“No, sir, he has been shut
down. Out last communication was on an open line. The Lieutenant Commander of
the Pleiku Detachment reported what he heard to the
Battalion CO who was irate. He ordered PFC Diggs to cease his contacts with
me.”
“For chrissakes,
Karnow, this was supposed to be an undercover operation.
Why did you use an open line?”
“Apparently, Fallen got the
Operations Officer to issue an order restricting all use of the SCCN to
authorized personnel only. The ONLY enlisted man he authorized was Fallen.”
“That mother fucker! You were
right about him from the beginning. We have to get him, Karnow.
We have to!”
“Damn the politics! I’m about
doing what is right. If we have a traitor in our midst, it’s our sworn duty to
bring him in. I’m a man of action, Karnow. I don’t
sit around debating politics when I know what has to be done. We’ve got to find
a way to get this kid in the brig where he belongs. Silver
Star my ass!”
“Sir, there might be another
way.” Billings glared at Karnow, not so much because
he wanted to hear what he had to say, but because Karnow
had thought of something before he had. “Maybe we should go to the source, to
Nguyen Thi Thanh herself .
. .”
“Yes! Let’s bring spider woman
in for questioning.”
“We could turn her over to the
Koreans. The Vietnamese fear them even more than their own ARVN interrogators.”
“Yes! That’s what we need to
do. How soon can you get on this?”
“I’m on it. But there are a
couple of problems. Lieutenant Colonel Franklin is likely to speak against us
at MACV. And Missy Thanh has gone underground since Tet.”
“I can handle MACV.
Officially, I’ll declare the case against Fallen closed. That doesn’t stop us
from going after spider woman. She’s a suspected enemy combatant and has been
under surveillance for some time. This Tet offensive
is the perfect cover to bring her in for questioning. You find her, Karnow. Hear me . . . find her!”
Other Links:
Return to publishing corner Return to introduction