the people who set us up.
“I began to make inquiries. I wanted to see if I could find any of those who might still be alive. I hired a lawyer in Ho Chi Minh City, using a false identity. He came highly recommended by a couple of the executives in a company I’d recently acquired. They’d been involved in some infrastructure projects in Vietnam and had used this guy.”
“What was his name? The lawyer in Ho Chi Minh City.”
“Tuan Nguyen.”
“What did you tell him?”
“Just that I was aware of a massacre that had taken place at Ban Touk and I wanted to see if any of the people were still alive.”
“And?”
“This lawyer had some sources in the Vietnamese intelligence agency. He found some of the records concerning the massacre. They didn’t say that it’d been set up by the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong, only that some Americans had killed all the women and children. Many of the men from Ban Touk were still alive, and Nguyen found some of them still living in the same area where the village had been. They had rebuilt and started new families. A few of the women and children of the village had survived, those who were somewhere else when the men were moved into Laos. None of these people knew that their families had been staked out like goats for the slaughter. They just knew the Americans killed their families.”
“Why did you want to remain anonymous? You were doing a good thing.”
“The only reason I would even know about the massacre was if I was there. It was never made public. I didn’t want anyone to tie me to it, so I set up the foundation with a couple of layers of insulation. I’m surprised you figured it out.”
“Jock can do wonders.”
“I guess.”
“You’ve been putting two hundred thousand dollars a year into the foundation until this year, when you didn’t pay into it until after Jim was killed. Then you put in an extra hundred thousand. Why?”
Doc massaged his forehead, taking a minute to think. “I just didn’t have the money in the spring. I had bought two more engineering concerns and it took all my cash. I knew a big influx of money was only a couple of months away, so I e-mailed Nguyen and told him the foundation would not be able to make the donation in April as usual, but that a larger donation would be sent during the summer.”
“What does Nguyen use the money for?”
“He gets a small percentage as a fee, but the rest of the money is doled out for all kinds of things the villagers need. Generators for electricity, wells for running water, sewage disposal, and scholarships for the village kids. Just enough to help out, but not enough to sap their work ethic.”
“Are you sure Nguyen is using the money like you want?”
“Yes. The foundation gets copies of all checks and I have an accountant in Ho Chi Minh City who follows up and makes sure the money is being used properly.”
“Doc, I hope this is on the up-and-up,” I said.
“It is. My way of giving back something to those I took so much from.”
A low buzzing sound filled the room. The men were instantly alert, all movement stopped. “We’ve got visitors,” said Doc. “That’s the perimeter alarm. Grab your weapons.”
CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE
The men moved quickly, their age not slowing their soldier reflexes by much. They picked up rifles that were stacked in a corner of the great room. I hadn’t noticed them before because a tapestry was draped over them, giving the appearance of just another piece of furniture. I unzipped the duffel and passed the M4s and Glocks to Jock and Logan.
The men and J.D. moved to prearranged positions. Apparently they’d planned for this before we got to the island.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
Doc picked up the TV remote control and pointed at the large flat-screen monitor hanging on the wall at the end of the room. Pictures came up, greenish looking squares covering the screen. “Those are the security cameras operating with night-vision technology,” Doc said. “Each screen covers a quadrant of our little island. They overlap so we don’t have any blind spots. If the intruders get closer, they’ll cross the next line of defense and a siren will go off and floodlights will come up.”
“What do you want us to do?” Jock asked.
“Sit tight for now. We’ve got all the lines of fire covered. If we need to shoot, we’re