Читать книгу One Man's War - Lindsay McKenna - Страница 6

Da Nang, Vietnam

April 1, 1965

Hunting time! Captain Pete Mallory savored the thought as he drove the Marine Corps jeep down the heavily potholed red dirt road. Mentally, he rubbed his hands together as he savored his next target: Tess Ramsey, the younger sister of his commanding officer, Major Gib Ramsey.

The village of Le My drew into view as the jeep bumped along. A huge patchwork quilt of rice paddies and dikes paralleled the road, with the village spreading out to his right. Pete ignored the hundred or so thatched huts and the Vietnamese families who lived in them. He was on a mission, his target a woman he’d never even seen. Of course, he had to remind himself, she was the sister of his CO, so he’d have to watch his step.

He grinned. Hell, with a little fancy footwork, his famous smile and a few clever lines, he’d have Tess Ramsey in his arms—and bed—in no time. And that’s exactly where he wanted this mysterious woman whom he’d been hearing about off and on since he’d been assigned to Da Nang six months ago.

He’d already tired of chasing the local Vietnamese women, who, in Pete’s opinion, were lovely but offered no satisfaction to his hunter’s instincts. He hungered for a challenge—a woman who was less willing, more of a moving target. And from what he’d heard about the independent Tess, who worked in the field as an agricultural advisor, she might be just what he was looking for. Pete braked the jeep in a cloud of reddish dust and got out. His black flight boots were covered with dirt, he noticed, scowling momentarily. When he got back to his barracks in Marble Mountain, he’d have to have the Vietnamese boy spit shine them all over again.

Then, remembering his mission, he began to hum to himself. Thrusting his hands into the pockets of his one-piece green flight suit, his utility cap drawn so low that the bill nearly touched his nose, Pete sauntered into the village. He had the perfect excuse: Gib Ramsey had sent him to find Tess and bring her back to a small officers’ party at the Marine Air Group squadron’s headquarters, Marble Mountain, tonight.

Pete had made it a point to learn enough Vietnamese to be able to swap and haggle with the natives. He entered the village, situated on a flat piece of real estate surrounded by trees and lush jungle growth that created a sort of protective wall. He stopped and scratched his head. Who to ask?

Children, naked or wearing only tattered shorts, played throughout the village. Cooking pots hung over small, smoky fires here and there with mamasans, clothed in black and wearing pointed bamboo hats, laboring at them. The men were out in the rice paddies plowing behind their harnessed water buffalo. He didn’t see many young or middle-aged women. They must be in the rice paddies, too, he surmised.

An old man, his face pinched and weathered, hobbled up to Pete and gazed at him with assessing brown eyes.

Pete hadn’t gotten over the fact that the Vietnamese were such a small, slender people. The old man, his chest sunken, his ribs showing clearly beneath several shell necklaces, tilted his head in birdlike fashion. A bright red cotton skirt covered him to his knees, and his large, callused feet stuck out below. The whole pictured seemed comical, and Pete grinned. The old man would never know he was laughing at him, he thought.

“Hey, papa san, where’s Tess Ramsey? I’m looking for Tess. Where’s she at?”

The man blinked.

Pete rolled his eyes and threw his hands on his hips. “You don’t understand a damned word I’m saying, do you? Why can’t you people learn English as a second language like the rest of the world?”

“Tess?”

Pete opened his mouth, wanting to take back what he’d just said. Obviously the old codger did understand him. Heat nettled Pete’s cheeks. Then he shrugged off his guilty conscience. “Yeah, papa san. Tess Ramsey. I’m looking for her.”

Lifting his branchlike arm, his flesh dark from decades under the tropical sun, the old man pointed toward a rice paddy in the distance. “Missy Tess is with our women out there. You go find her. She like a tall bamboo reed. You will know which one she is.”

“Yeah...I will.” Inwardly fuming because the old man hadn’t seemed to take offense at his insulting words, Pete turned on his heel and aimed himself toward the paddies. If anything, he’d seen laughter in the old man’s eyes. Pete couldn’t bear to be caught off guard by anyone or anything. Irritated, he lengthened his long stride. Then he forced himself to focus on his hunting instincts, pushing away the incident with the Vietnamese man. He couldn’t waste his time worrying about some peasant’s opinion—now was the time to make a damn good impression on Tess Ramsey.

* * *

Tess smiled warmly at the four Vietnamese women standing respectfully around her.

She stood four feet from a huge dry dirt dike, up to her ankles in murky brown water, as she talked to them, slender rice shots surrounding her.

The overhead sun was bright, as always, but Tess’s bamboo hat effectively shaded not only her face, but her shoulders and upper back as well. It was, in her opinion, one of the most brilliant designs the people of the Far East had created.

She’d just finished explaining some rice fertilization techniques when she heard her name being called from a distance. Tess looked in the direction of the sound. The four women also lifted their heads.

Coming along the paddy complex’s western dike wall was a marine in a dark green flight suit. Tess knew from the uniform that he was a pilot. But she could tell, even at a distance, that it wasn’t her brother, Gib. Tess heard a noise behind her and looked over her shoulder. A ten-man squad of marines, heavily ladened with packs, M-14 rifles and protective helmets, was slowly making its way across the southern dike. She frowned. If only the marines didn’t have to run patrols around her village of Le My. If only... Tess gave a whispered sound of frustration. The marines had landed in force at Da Nang a month ago, and already their presence was being felt and dreaded. It could only escalate the conflict, she feared.

She excused herself from the women and walked forward through the muddy water toward the approaching pilot. Tess vaguely recognized him. Most of the men in Gib’s helicopter squadron were stationed at Marble Mountain, and she had met some of them on various visits to her brother. Although she was sure she’d seen him around, she knew she’d never met this officer. Almost against her will, she noted how handsome he was.

Pete Mallory’s heart was doing funny things in his chest. Unconsciously, he rubbed that area as he approached the woman who obviously was Tess Ramsey. He ignored the fact that her dark green cotton slacks, resembling baggy pajamas, were haphazardly rolled above her nicely shaped knees, and the fact that she stood in rank, murky brown water. Her heart-shaped face, wide, intelligent green eyes and full mouth held his fascination. Lord, what a mouth she had. The urge to taste her exquisite lips was nearly overwhelming.

Just as Pete raised a hand, mustering his charm to casually introduce himself, sporadic rifle fire sounded nearby. His gaze snapped to the south, where a marine squad had been slowly making its way across the dike. The men all dived for the earth, flat on their bellies. At a sharp order from the officer they prepared to return fire.

Damn it! Pete’s gaze snapped back to Tess and her group of women. They were standing there as if nothing were happening! The idiots! Didn’t they hear the sniper fire? The shots probably were aimed at the marine squad, but the women could be in the line of fire!

“Get down!” Pete shouted. He made a sharp gesture for Tess to hit the deck—or, in this case, the flooded rice paddy. “I said, get down!” he roared, beginning to run toward her. How stupid could she be? All five women had curious looks on their faces as he yelled at them. Typical women, Pete decided.

More shots sounded, and the squad of marines began returning fire at a jungle wall half a mile away.

The paddy dike sloped steeply down into the water. Pete didn’t give a damn about the four Vietnamese women standing around looking nonplussed as he hurtled toward them. But he did care about Tess Ramsey. She was an American and she could be killed. Pete leaped off the dike and made a lunge for her.

Tess gasped as the pilot jumped directly at her. What was the fool doing? But even as the thought formed, his hands connected with her shoulders and Tess was flung backward. They both landed in the rice paddy with a tremendous splash, sheets of chocolate-colored water flying up in veils around them.

Water flowed up into her nose and choked her as Tess fought the pilot’s grip, knocking his hand away so she could struggle out of the two feet of water.

“Let go!” she sputtered as she staggered to her knees, and then her feet. She glowered at the pilot, who was still on his hands and knees in the paddy, sopping wet. “What do you think you’re doing?” Tess croaked. She coughed violently, her fingers pressed against her throat.

Scrambling to his feet, Pete could still hear the marines returning fire. He charged Tess. “Get down!”

Dodging his flailing attack, Tess leaped backward out of reach. “What for?” she yelled angrily.

Water streamed from Pete as his jaw dropped in utter disbelief. “What for?” he bellowed. “Lady, there’s sniper fire right over there.” He jabbed his finger angrily toward the trees. “Now get your butt down in this paddy and stop fighting me! You want to get killed?”

Tess burst out laughing. She couldn’t help herself. The marine pilot looked like a drowned rat, his military short black hair plastered to his skull, the flight suit clinging to his lean frame, his intense blue eyes flashing with anger and frustration.

“Captain, it’s okay. Really it is. That isn’t sniper fire!”

Disgruntled, Pete turned toward the marines hunkered against the southern paddy dike. They’d stopped firing their M-14s and no further gunshots were heard from the jungle.

“What the hell are you talking about?” he snarled, returning his attention to Tess.

The four Vietnamese women covered their mouths with their hands and began giggling. Tess grinned as she pushed her wet hair off her face.

Pete glared at the women. “What the hell’s so funny?” He couldn’t help but notice that Tess was indeed like a tall piece of bamboo next to the four tiny Vietnamese women. She must be at least five foot eight or nine, Pete guessed, but she was dressed like the other women in every respect. Why? he wondered, when she could have worn her khaki US AID uniform, instead.

Tess ruefully rescued her bamboo hat from the water and tipped it to empty out the contents. “That firing you heard, Captain, was Nguyen Oanh, this woman’s son. They own an old rifle—about thirty years old. He was going into the jungle just now to hunt for wild pig.” With a shrug, Tess placed the bamboo hat back on her head, her smile widening. “Oanh is only ten years old, and we all know he can’t hit the broad side of a barn, but his father’s with him to teach him how to shoot properly.” Then she added, “I just hope they’re okay.”

Chastened, Pete looked down at himself. He’d paid the Vietnamese maid extra piasters to starch his flight suit so he’d look good for Tess. The odor drifting upward stung his nostrils, and his lips drew away from his gritted teeth.

“What the hell is this smell?”

Giggling, Tess said, “Water buffalo dung, Captain. It’s a great fertilizer, didn’t you know?” She looked down at herself and then over at her women friends whose faces were wreathed with shy smiles of amusement. Tess loved the Vietnamese earthy sense of humor because it matched hers. “I’m afraid we both look like drowned sewer rats,” she said, laughing. “Would you like to follow me to a nearby stream and wash off some of that fertilizer you’re wearing?”

Disgustedly, Pete flipped off several chunks that had lodged in the folds of his flight suit. “I hate this place,” he muttered. “Yeah, let’s get the hell out of this sewage pit.”

Laughing fully, Tess ignored the pilot’s angry statement. She told the women in Vietnamese to tell the marines on the dike about Oanh and his father, and to make sure they were allowed to return safely from the jungle where they’d been practicing their marksmanship. She didn’t want the marines to injure one of the villagers by mistake. The women realized the seriousness of the situation and quickly made their way toward the confused marines still kneeling on the south dike. Tess gazed after them for a moment. She could tell when the marines understood what had taken place, and she watched them sheepishly get to their feet, dust off their clothes and continue their patrol. Satisfied, she began slogging through the paddy toward the dike.

“Here, let me help you,” Pete said as he hurriedly tried to catch up to Tess and help her negotiate the steep dike.

Tess turned and halted. She watched the pilot flail around in the muddy paddy, in danger of losing his precarious balance at any moment. “Captain, take your time. That mud will suck the boots off your feet if you try to go too fast.”

“But you should have help climbing that dike.”

Tess’s smile broadened. The pilot continued laboring in the sucking mud for a moment—then promptly lost his balance, falling back into the water. She tried to stop from laughing, but couldn’t help herself. His handsome features had gone thundercloud black with disgust and fury as he dragged himself upright again. Tess held out her hand to him.

“Come on, Captain, grip my hand. I’ll help you out of this paddy before you drown yourself.” His attitude might be surly, but there was nothing not to like about the way he looked, Tess thought. He was more than six feet tall, with a lean, tigerlike body. Tess had to stop and laugh at herself. Some men had interested her, but most of them, upon realizing her independent nature, quickly fled. Still, she told herself as she stood waiting for him, it didn’t hurt to appreciate someone of this pilot’s bearing.

Spitting and coughing, Pete dodged Tess’s long, slender hand. Less than two feet separated them now and he glared at her. Laughter made her eyes sparkle like emeralds struck by sunlight, her red lashes making long curved frames around them. There was such a freshness and sense of joy around her that Pete momentarily forgot some of his own awkwardness at the embarrassing situation.

“Naw, you go on up first,” Pete muttered. Wrinkling his nose at the smell emanating from his wet clothes, he followed her up to the top of the dike.

Tess turned and waited for the lumbering pilot as he slipped and slid his way up the dike wall. She smiled benignly at him and extended her hand. “Put a chopper pilot on the ground and he’s like a big, fat goose that’s too heavy to fly. I’m Tess Ramsey. Hell of a way to meet, isn’t it? Who are you?”

Taken aback by her aura of confidence and her easygoing manner toward him, Pete stared at her proffered hand for a moment. It was reddened and chapped, the nails cut short. Her slender fingers were covered with many small, white scars. Hesitantly, he gripped her hand.

“I’m Captain Pete Mallory. Your brother, Major Ramsey, sent me down here to get you.” He was shocked again by the strength of her returning grip as they shook hands. Tess Ramsey was tall and rawboned, just like her older brother, but it took nothing away from her obvious femininity despite her bedraggled, foul-smelling clothes and her slender, almost boyish figure.

Releasing his hand, Tess nodded. “Rats. That’s right, there’s a small party at Marble Mountain tonight, isn’t there? I’d forgotten all about it.” She saw conflicting emotions in Pete’s penetrating blue eyes, and she suddenly had the feeling that he was assessing her as a tiger would its next quarry. More than used to appraisal by the military advisors with whom she worked, Tess didn’t take his perusal as an insult. She merely ignored it.

Pete stared at Tess. “You forgot?” Normally, Pete didn’t care for women with freckles. And Tess had her share: large copper sprinklings across her high cheekbones and well-defined nose. But on her, they looked like delicious raindrops, merely serving to emphasize her gorgeous eyes and patrician nose. Because she was a redhead, her skin was a pale ivory, and Pete wondered how on earth she managed not to be sunburned by Vietnam’s blisteringly hot sun. Maybe that was why she wore that ugly bamboo hat.

With a shrug, Tess turned. “Yes. Tell Gib I can’t make it, that I’m sorry. I’ve got a sick child I’m taking care of right now.”

Flabbergasted, Pete quickly caught up with her. “You can’t make it? After all I just went through to get here to pick you up, you can’t make it?”

Tess slanted him a glance, more than a little aware of his height compared with her own. Despite his current bedraggled appearance, Pete Mallory was a heart stopper. Perhaps it was those cobalt eyes that sparkled with devilry, or the shape of his mouth. With a shrug, Tess tried to shake off the effect the pilot had on her. “That’s right. I can’t make it, Captain. Gib will understand. He always does.”

Gripping her arm and bringing her to a halt, Pete muttered, “Hey, look, lady, I don’t understand. I mean, it’s not exactly a lot of fun bumping over a ten-mile dirt road to reach this miserable place and then get covered with water buffalo dung to find you. I think you damn well ought to show up after all I’ve been through.”

A flicker of anger went through Tess. She pulled her arm from his grip. “Captain, I’m staying. Is that clear enough for you?” She turned and continued off the dike onto a well-beaten path that led back to Le My, less than a quarter of a mile away.

Angrily, Pete caught up with her. It was on the tip of his tongue to tell her how bullheaded she was. He’d never met a woman like her before—so damned independent and confident! Her red hair was plastered against her neck and shoulders, and she stank no less than he, yet she carried herself proudly, as if it didn’t matter. “You’re something else,” he groused. “No girl in her right mind would miss a party.” He gestured to her clothes, which looked like castoffs from the Salvation Army. “And how can you feel good about yourself as a woman running around in these things? I thought US AID advisors had a one-piece khaki uniform they were supposed to wear.”

Tess glanced at him and continued toward the village. “First of all, I don’t like being referred to as a girl, Captain. I’m a full-grown woman. Secondly, clothes do not make a person what they are.” She grinned slightly, her lips curving into a teasing angle. “Look at you.”

“What do you mean, look at me? What’s wrong with the way I’m dressed?” he snapped irritably.

“It’s obvious you don’t respect the Vietnamese people or me, Captain. Yet, you’re dressed impeccably well under the circumstances.”

Stung, Pete glared at her. Damn, but she had a long stride. She didn’t even walk like a woman should! He didn’t like her candor or the way she saw him, either.

Scrambling to save what little was left of the deteriorating situation, Pete tried another angle. “My friends call me Pete.”

“I’m not your friend, Captain.”

“You can be, if you want. I’d like that.”

“Oh, please! I know your type. You’d be better off chasing some poor Vietnamese bar girl who needs your money to put food in her family’s mouths. You forget: I’ve been over here for fifteen months. I’m on my second tour. There’s nothing you marines can put over on me that hasn’t been tried by the male military advisors I worked with long before you chopper jockeys landed. So, let’s put the games away. I don’t play them. Life’s too short, too important, to play games.”

“Anyone ever tell you you’re outspoken?” Pete demanded hotly.

“Plenty of times.”

“And that doesn’t bother you?” he asked, incredulous.

Tess shook her head. “Captain, I’m twenty-six years old and I’ve kicked around the Far East the last four of those years. There’s not much I haven’t seen, done or been part of. I’m not your typical American girl out of college, okay? The sooner that fact lodges in that brain of yours, the better we’ll get along.”

Pete said nothing more as they walked back to the village. Well, he’d wanted a challenge, and Tess Ramsey was certainly all of that—and more. He thought of giving up. Obviously she could see straight through his usual routine. Then he shook his head. Any woman he’d ever wanted, he’d gotten—it was that simple. He could pursue a girl better than any of his buddies. His reputation was on the line, anyway, because he’d made several bets at the O club last night that he’d bed down Tess Ramsey. Of course, her brother didn’t know it. That wouldn’t bode well for Pete’s career as a helicopter pilot. Besides, Gib Ramsey was a prude in Pete’s opinion—a man who didn’t chase the bar girls at the O club as most of the pilots did.

Tess led Pete to the back of a large thatched hut—literally, a wooden frame roofed with a blend of dried grass and woven palm leaves. Behind it ran a small stream about four feet deep and six feet wide. She gestured to the water.

“This is where you can clean up. I suggest you strip out of that flight suit, wash it out and put it back on.”

“Hey, wait! Where are you going?”

“To my hut to get cleaned up,” Tess said wryly. There was something vulnerable about Pete Mallory in that moment. It struck Tess acutely, and she mentally assimilated the discovery. For all his macho bravado, suddenly he looked helpless. “When you get washed off, come to my hut. I’ve got a comb you can use, and some soap, plus a small bowl.”

He grinned suddenly. “Sounds good.”

“That’s an invitation to clean up, Captain, not chase me. Okay?”

“Anything the lady wants,” he returned, flipping a smart salute in her direction.

Tess shook her head and turned away.

Things weren’t looking too bad despite the embarrassing situation, Pete decided as he stripped out of his smelly flight suit and threw it into the stream. Luckily, he wore a regulation olive green cotton T-shirt and boxer shorts under the suit, but those were going to have to come off, too. The stream was surrounded by tall elephant grass, a profusion of shrubbery and a few rubber trees, so he was relatively hidden from any curious eyes as he stripped naked and stood in the lukewarm water of the clear stream.

Humming to himself and plotting his next strategy, Pete knelt down and began sluicing the clean, clear water over himself. It was hell without a washcloth—more than ever he missed the amenities that Americans back in the States took for granted. Finally cleaned up, he struggled back into his wet clothes and zipped up his flight suit. Running his fingers through his dripping wet hair and pushing it off his brow, Pete turned and walked back into the village.

Damn! He came to a halt, realizing that Tess hadn’t told him which hut she was in. He grimaced, taking in the number of thatched dwellings. Just then, a young boy, thin as a proverbial rail, approached him curiously.

“Missy Tess said you come,” the boy said in pidgin English. He gripped Pete’s hand and tugged on it.

Extricating his hand from the boy’s small, thin one, Pete followed him, whistling cheerfully. Maybe the day wasn’t lost after all. Maybe, if he was diligent enough, persuasive enough, he’d talk bullheaded Tess Ramsey into coming to that party tonight—as his date.