The yard

An excerpt of the thriller THE REMOTE CONTROL JOB.

The yard

The Remote Control Job

An excerpt

‘I’ve promised you a few things, haven't I? Well, I've brought you good tidings!’ She laughed contentedly, with good humor; putting down the pencil, envelopes and the sheets of paper she brought with her on the table.  Funny, She thought. How both of us are pleased to see each other again. I've enough reasons to be pleased with. The fact I've breached the regulations last night was not even mentioned! He likes me and approves of every step I take; the head commissar there is no doubt about it. The authority he has! The jail commander doesn't count much in this game; I've an absolutely free hand! I roam the jail's passages just like the tiger roams the jungle's underbrush. No one dares to affront me! Well, he brought me good luck the American, and just for that I might even like him a little bit.

‘What's the good news then?’ Nick reminded her. He was tranquil and quite at ease, to his own surprise.

‘I’ve submitted your request to the authorities.’ She said choosing her words very carefully. ‘The answer was given straight away, it’s positive.” Watching his face very intently she made an emphatic pause, enabling him to grasp the full meaning of the generous gesture made for his sake alone. No other P.O.W could have enjoyed such incredibly favorable conditions and he knew it well enough.

‘You're aware of the difficulties that we have to overcome, I hope?  There are special measures to be taken, and there is the matter of censorship of course. So, there might be some delay. You do understand that, don't you?’

‘Yes I see, thanks a lot, I do appreciate it very much!’  He answered with much gratitude, his blood rushing to his face.

‘All right then.’ She smiled sweetly to him. ‘Now about that issue of censorship, it isn't as bad as it sounds, all you have to keep in mind is to avoid mentioning your surroundings and not a single word about us. To put it down clearly do not describe in your letters our base, neither anyone you've met in it, nor the circumstances that led to your captivity. Oh, let's forget the whole thing it’s so unpleasant.’ She added vehemently.

‘I'll keep it in mind, thanks comrade Nicole!’ He muttered deeply moved by her efforts to promote his interests, and her display of sincerity.

‘There is one more thing I've arranged for you.’ She told him, adding fuel to the fire, at the right time. ‘I'll take you out for a stroll under the sky, right after lunch. It’s time you should leave your room once a day for a short break, and stretch your big frame a bit.’

Meanwhile lunch was brought in, and they sat to eat together just like a happily married couple, although they knew each other no more than a couple of days. She was awfully sweet to him during their meal. She even left her seat once to stand by his side, while showing him the right way to use his chopsticks. All that while she kept a very close watch on him to detect the tiniest changes in his face or behavior, while she brushed her lithe body against his or while their fingers met in a light and delicate touch.

When the meal was over, as soon as the guards returned to clean up, they left the cell both of them this time; she led the way and he was moving freely behind her, as if he himself was one of the staff, leaving the guards behind to clean after them.

Oh boy, what a feeling! To come out of this hole in such a style! An exceptional sensation that what it really was, to be in the open air again, and above all, to have Nicole by his side! He had to curb the urge to rush to her and pick her in his arms, to climb the cellar's steps running up to the lighted entrance. Anyway he did run the few steps that descended to the yard waiting for her at their feet, fighting back his tears of joy nearly shouting aloud, challenging the dense jungle growth towering over the yard's walls �" the low hanging clouds that filtered the sun rays above their heads. He could have swept her off her feet as she came smiling towards him down the stairs, and dance with her in his arms across the empty yard. Agitated and breathing heavily, he kept throwing furtive glances in every direction turning always back to her, hardly seeing anything but her pretty face.

An armed guard stood on top of the villa's flat roof, but seemed to pay his attention somewhere else. Another one appeared at the far entrance once, popping his head outside curiously, but disappeared right away in the interior shadows. Out of the five wide windows that overlooked the yard, only one was open.  Someone was watching their steps, no doubt.

The strange fit of mute enthusiasm, that gripped comrade Spree amused and worried Lee Chen Woe at the same time; she had never met with such forms of uncontrolled behavior before. He was walking beside her as if he was stepping on red hot embers with bare feet. Checking and rechecking his long strides, slowing his pace to stay at her side and not leave her behind him. At first she had to bite her lips to prevent herself from laughing, such a pitiful sight he was. But it was no laughing matter. He was in the right state of mind to swallow anything; whatever she would want him to. In about an hour's time without consulting her watch, she led the way back, while he followed her as if he was a stray lamb, finding his way back to the herd at last.

© Haim Kadman 1989 �" all rights reserved.

 

The Remote Control Job

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's 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 B52s 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 loses his consciousness in the brawl 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 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 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 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 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 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.

This thriller includes 180 pages and 81,655 wodes.

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