The operation's sum up

An excerpt of my book "THE REMOTE CONTROL JOB".

 

'We'll have an official meeting as soon as your second in command will report before us. Comrade Lee-Chen...' He turned to her. 'Go to your room and pack your things up, including every piece of paper concerning our operation; and have a ready pad and a handy pen with you, when you return. You'll act as the meeting's secretary, to back up any mechanical or electrical failures.'

The jail commander coughed and turned his eyes to the window, as if the dark purple clouds of the setting dusk caught his sudden interest.

Lee-Chen-Woe very troubled still rose to her feet and set off, to carry out the head commissar's orders.

'Won't it be much more advisable to have this meeting after I've seen my men and questioned them first?' The jail commander remarked with much ado.

The old scorpion may rush to his own grave, whether he's aware of it or not, but that's none of my business. After all he's bound to retire every day now. In any case I’ve no intention to participate in this meeting, before preparing my own notes, see my men and have a word with Diam. The jail commander decided without any hesitation.

'We shall have a conclusive meeting in two weeks time, comrade Neguien you have no reason to worry.' The head commissar assured him rather dryly, he was already used to the jail commander's suspicions and fears.

Coming out of her room, Lee-Chen-Woe had a glimpse of comrade Diam heading for the jail commander's office. Three guards climbed out of the cellar stairs in his wake, whispering between themselves excitedly. They stopped their hushed conversation the moment they saw her, and let her pass saluting her with obedience. But she could perceive a flicker of disdain in their eyes, or was it sheer spite.

She was too upset herself to decide what it could be and anyhow, the whole affair was over. So, whatever it was did not bother her at all. She knew quite well that she did a fine job out of it, and no one could deny it.

The door to the jail commander's office was left ajar. He might have seen me emerging out of my room, comrade Diam... He isn't it seems a man one would underestimate; but I hardly know him and I may never see him again. She thought reassuring herself.

When she entered comrade Diam was already half way in his oral report, relating proudly Nick's recapture. She went back to her seat, under the jail commander's scrutinizing gaze; put the pad she brought with her on the desk, while she listened attentively to the end of comrade Diam's report.

'All in all it was an easy task, he didn't have any chance to resist, and that's why he wasn't hurt. But above all, I was present there when he was put back in his cell.'

'He should be subjected to a strict solitary confinement, no more strolls in the yard and no more visits!' His chief interrupted him, glancing menacingly at Lee-Chen-Woe.

'Your attention comrades, I'm presiding this meeting and I'm still present in this office!' the head commissar cut in, he did not have to raise his voice they were all silent.

'Comrade Neguien brief your second in command!'

Though a bit shaken the jail commander cleared his throat, and told his second in command, what was expected of him.

While comrade Diam was on his way to the control room, his chief sent his hand forth, and pulled aside a wooden panel �" exposing a rectangular opening that linked the control room with his own office; enabling a visual contact with the control room's crew.

As the actual moment of the meeting's opening drew near, Lee-Chen-Woe grew more and more restless. "The loathsome useless enemy has to die!" These were more or less the jail commander's conclusions, which were quite clear �" and the head commissar agreed with him...

The short lived operation, in which she had invested so many hopes, has failed and is practically over.

Whose fault is it then? Who would have to pay for its failure then? Who is going to be charged with the responsibility for the operation's failure? Wasn't it one of the main reasons behind my assignment to that job, to fit in as a probable scapegoat in exactly such circumstances? Could I trust the head commissar at all, would he support me...?

She did not have the slightest doubt, what would be the jail commander's views on the matter. She could discern them on his ugly face. The head commissar's views on the other hand, were unknown to her yet and his personality was an unfathomed void…

I'd better realize, she thought with her back to the wall, weighing coldly her odds. I hardly know the head commissar... Would he retreat and abandon me? There was nothing she could do, but wait for the imminent consequences and fight back if necessary.

'Everything is ready comrade commissar.' The jail commander addressed him after a very unpleasant period of silence, in a rather cheerful manner.

'We shall have a preliminary hearing now; a conclusive sum-up of that issue shall take place at the end of the month, when all the parties concerned shall have their conclusive reports ready.'

Having declared his intentions clearly the head commissar made a short pause, to let Lee-Chen-Woe catch up and went on with his dictation much slower this time; 'a preliminary hearing on experiment number EC-J001.'

After another short pause, he added: 'Top secret, date, March the eleventh, nineteen sixty eight.'

'Must we use these foreign terms of date?' The jail commander objected.

‘Yes we must comrade Neguien!' The head commissar retorted. 'There are some foreign parties involved in this operation, who share our interest in its results.'

There was no need for more explicit explanation he thought and a quick glance at comrade Neguien's surprised face, assured his assumption.

'Subject matter,' he went on dictating in his steady and monotonous voice: 'Test operation “New Horizons”, experiment number EC-J001 U.S. Marine Nicholas Spree �" enemy's prisoner of war. Attending the meeting are the following personalities: the Defense Committee special envoy, known as The Head Commissar acting as the meeting's chairman. Comrade Neguien Vong Hue, commander of the Ho Chi Minh reeducation center. The Defense Committee’s special envoy's assistant: comrade Lee Chen Woe, acting as the meeting's secretary. Comrade Neguien Vong Hue's second in command, comrade Diam Voe Tieh, operating the reeducation center control room, and its facilities. This same assembly shall gather again for a conclusive meeting, not later than the end of this month. The exact place and date of the next meeting shall be forwarded to its participants in due time, during the next week not earlier.'

Things are looking much better! Lee-Chen-Woe thought with much relief. If the whole thing was just an experiment, well then, it may fail without causing any harm to its participants.

The head commissar passed a long look around the desk and went on:

'As you may all understand experiment number EC-J001 has failed. Its subject should have resisted the temptation to flee, and should have denounced comrade Lee Chen Woe; be it to one of the guards or through the electronic devices installed in his cell, which he is aware to their existence. Anyhow the poor results of the experiment do not concern us. We were asked to conduct this experiment at the request of a certain ally of ours, some kind of a package deal or call it a barter deal; there isn't much difference between the terms, that's the whole lot.' He seemed reluctant to release some more details, and indeed decided thus, not to extend the matter anymore.

'Well, that's the first experiment of its kind that we had ever conducted, particularly its bizarre methods, and we might be asked to carry on with such experiments. Although we don't know yet if that ally of ours, would wish us to carry their bizarre ideas on. We must provide that ally with all the facts and all the conclusions of that experiment. On the other hand, there is our own defense committee, which might overrule the whole issue entirely. These are the facts in general. In my opinion and I would repeat that opinion of mine to the Central Committee, future experiments under such an operation should be canceled. A war has been declared on us just recently, by the most powerful capitalistic state in the world; and this war escalates from day to day! We are not able to spare neither the means nor the time for such experiments and we'll have to ask our ally to relieve us from tasks of that sort. Furthermore, I still find our own old methods as much better measures, in comparison with the methods we were instructed to employ in this experiment. My first conclusion is that we don't have to change our old methods, as long as we're able to crush a subject matter down to the right required terms, within two up to six weeks time. I'm quite sure that a poor specimen like the subject matter of our first experiment would have become a loyal party member in a matter of days, if we had treated him with our old methods alone. Don't you agree comrade Neguien?'

‘I've no other experience but our old methods, comrade commissar.'

'I thought so comrade Neguien is there anything you wish to add?'

'No, not yet,' the jail commander answered resolutely.

'In that case this hearing is closed,' the head commissar declared, and rose to his feet. 'Comrade Lee-Chen pass me the protocol, we have to sign it.'

He read it standing on his feet, while the jail commander and Lee-Chen-Woe waited in silence, standing erect and ready. Putting the brand new document on the desk, he bent over it and signed it himself, then passed it over to comrade Neguien.

Right after the protocol was signed, by all the meeting participants, the commander and his second in command escorted the head commissar and Lee-Chen-Woe out, to the waiting car in front of the villa's entrance.

'I've an apology to make, comrade commissar,' the jail commander smiled as they were ready to leave. 'My impatience must have been intolerable.'

‘We were all a bit impatient tonight comrade Neguien; it must have been that ferocious air-raid which caused it.'

© Haim Kadman 1987 �" all rights rights reserved.

 

The Remote Control Job

Synopsis

 

 

Some twelve months before the “Tat offensive”, Nick Spree a U.S. marine fell into the hands of the Viet Cong during a night patrol in the South Vietnamese jungle. He was captured in the Hue vicinity, was led by his captors northwards, across the border into North Vietnam; there he was interned as a P.O.W in a reeducation center two and a half miles south of the capital Hanoi.

He is the sole captive in that well camouflaged jungle citadel; the previous detainees if there were any, must have perished by executions or have been freed.

But instead of solitary confinement, day and night harsh interrogations and torture, he is met with bearable conditions and an unexpected treatment. A young beautiful Eurasian comrade Lee Chen Woe her name, conducts his brainwash operation in a peculiar and sophisticated process.

However, the process progress is slow, the reeducation center’s commander and staff are frustrated. The hated Eurasian's free hand with Nick, the backup she has is a thorn in their eyes.

Meanwhile the war takes a further step �" the escalation, the American air force B52’s raid the North Vietnamese capital Hanoi.

During this time Lee Chen Woe convinces Nick that she is not his enemy, he starts to believe that she has hidden ties with the South, and that she would land a chopper in a nearby jungle clearance to rescue both of them. According to her ambiguous instructions he tries to escape during one of the air raids and fails. He is caught in a deserted jungle shack where he waited for her to join him. He is caught there and loses his consciousness in the brawl with the squad of the reeducation’s staff, that was sent out to bring him back, and he loses her as well.

After a few days of solitary confinement Nick is sent southward through the Ho Chi Minh trail, to serve as a living decoy, to tempt his fighting comrades into deadly traps. In an unexpected almost miraculous escapade he manages to escape, and he is rescued by a pair of patrolling choppers.

He spends a week in an army hospital in Saigon, tormented by doubt and fears, and by a terrible longing for Lee Chen Woe, alias Nicole as she introduced herself to him in his cell). Did he stir her father’s blood in her veins? Was that the reason? Was she behind his successful escape? Or was she arrested as a traitor herself and was put under torture? He wonders desperately crushed almost by his doubts and fears. But above all, will he ever see her again? The only woman he ever adored and worshipped; the blue-eyed living myth that was but nineteen years old, when he first met her in his cell.

These thoughts kept haunting him, while he was interrogated by the army intelligence and the C.I.A branch in Saigon. 

He is dishonorably discharged according to the C.I.A Saigon branch recommendations and is sent back home.

Eighteen months later a KGB agent, contacts him in New York City, and offers him to meet Nicole again. The infatuated Nick travels to Montreal, to join the spy net headed by his ex lover and tormentor Lee Chen Woe.  After several days of getting to know his new surroundings, he meets Nicole joins her and becomes her assistant and fiancée. Nick's life takes a drastic turn, from one end to another. He is very happy to be beside his beloved Nicole again, without realizing that he serves his country's enemy.  Thus things are pretty well at the beginning but while Nick is being prepared for his next mission, there is a turn of power in Moscow; Nicole is summoned back by her new KGB boss, but instead of rotting in Lubianka’s torture dungeons she decides to flee. She takes Nick with her on her way back to Hanoi, in a devious course to mislead the pack of hit men that are sent to bump them off. 

 

20 chapters

135 pages

81615 words

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