Captivity

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Captivity

"The Remote Control Job"

An excerpt

About eighteen months before the "Tat Offensive" during the month of September sixty seven, Nick Spree (Nicholas Spreelski is his full name) known better in his outfit as "Sitting duck", fell into an enemy's ambush. He was caught alive against all odds, and was kept so in spite of the reigning jungle laws.

It took place when he was lagging several yards behind the last soldier in his squad, on a night patrol. A habit he had adapted just recently, which had nothing to do with physical weakness or sudden fatigue; but it served him as an instinctive safety measure, which did save his life several times on such similar occasions.

Whenever a fire encounter broke out he was far off and quite safe, away from the dangerous scene's heart, and he managed to reach it right after everything was over and done with.

This state of affairs that lasted successfully up to that certain encounter, failed him this time. He fell into the hands of his captor, a young and sturdy North Vietnamese as an over ripe fruit falling off a tree. Clutching his victim's throat with his left hand, the assailant was ready to stab Nick with a ready drawn dagger, (a USN commando knife by the way.). As Nick showed no signs of resistance and hanged limply backwards on his captor's firm frame without uttering a sound, the latter changed his mind and summoned a hidden partner of his, with a low and strange whistle; imitating some jungle fowl, and shoved his dagger back into its sheath.

They dragged Nick who was shocked with fear to a nearby trench, which was camouflaged in perfect skill. There they relieved him of all his weapons, tied him and gagged his mouth; and waited patiently till the rest of the enemy's squad, Nick's comrades in fact; regrouped, and spared just a few more moments to search him in vain and vanished into the jungle's depth.

About an hour later on a narrow path through the jungle's undergrowth leading north, Nick reached the highest level of physical fitness he could have ever reached, under curses, shouts and blows of his own rifle's butt.

Within three hectic days in which he hardly slept, had very little to eat and no rest at all; they reached at last a small jungle village at about sunset, which served as one of the Viet-Cong centers in the vicinity.

Nick was thrown into a bamboo cage and fell asleep almost immediately, right after having hit the cage's floor.

There were some more cages close to his own, of the same kind and for the same purpose; from some of those cages some other captives tried to contact him in vain. The low calls, the whispers died away soon and the steady chirps of the jungle's insects, dominated again the menacing darkness.

At about midnight they came to fetch him for his first interrogation, and though he was threatened, abused, slapped and beaten, he kept dozing on his feet mumbling furiously half asleep: ‘Leave me alone, you stupid jerks...! Get off my back...! What the hell...!’ Without realizing at all where he was, and what were the actual circumstances in which he was involved.

On the next morning of course, he did not and could not recall any of the details, which took place just a few hours earlier.

A group of villagers were brought along, led by a young man clad in black. They moved his cage to a tiny clearing a couple of hundred yards away; leaving him there under the scorching sun rays to roast slowly, prey to hoards of flies at day time and to feed the mosquitoes during the night.

In a short while after having been brought there, Nick conducted a delirious parley fervently and aloud in a series of incoherent shouts, turning into pleads and wailing; calling for help, his parents, his close relatives and friends, the girl he had and left behind in the states. But most of that time, he argued vehemently with his squad leader and his comrades, particularly with those who disliked him, explaining his motives trying to justify his deeds.

At noontime on the second day, they covered Nick’s cage with palm leaves and on the third day, they had to treat him with care �" as if he were a new born babe. The harsh measures seemed to have failed and were abandoned, otherwise that certain experiment would have resulted with the captive's death.

Nick wasn't of course their first P.O.W. There were many others before him, who died or did somehow survive in captivity. His captors did not bother much whether the hated enemies of the proletariat died or went on living. But due to some rather strange and quite unexpected development that was taking place on the third day of his captivity, they moved his cage once again.

 Haim Kadman 1989 �" all rights reserved.

TRCJ Synopsis

Some eighteen months before the “Tet 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; previous detainees must have perished by torture and executions. 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 free hand with Nick, the backup she has is a thorn in their eyes. Meanwhile the war enters a further step �" the escalation, the American air force B52’s raid the North Vietnamese capital. 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 �" that she might 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 reeducation’s staff, that were 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 Min 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 at last, 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 (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 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 worshiped; the blue-eyed living myth, which was just nineteen years old when he 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 flies back home. Eight 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 ring headed by his ex lover and tormentor Lee Chen Woe.  After several days of getting to know his new surroundings, he meets Nicole and becomes her assistant and fiancée. 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 and takes Nick with her. 

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