Page 147 of Cry Havoc
Instead, Tom hobbled to a map on the wall.
“Platz,” Backhaus ordered. The dog went immediately to the side of his desk and lay down.
“Sir, did my helo make it back?”
“It did.”
Tom let out an audible sigh. He swallowed.
“And Sau? Did he survive?”
“He made it, son. Mang and Tuan too. Sau’s out for a spell, but he’ll make a full recovery.”
Tom managed a slight smile.
“We went in the next day,” Backhaus continued. “We found the chopper and recovered the bodies of the pilots and crew chief along with Phe and Hoahn. Tell me what happened.”
“They knew we were there, sir. It wasn’t a random compromise.”
“How can you be sure?”
“It was too large of a force. Now, it’s possible to run into an element that size, but they were set up to flank our primary extract locationbeforethey found our wiretap on the Trail.”
“I see.”
“Mang and Tuan must have debriefed you.”
“They did. They have been sitting in the dirt outside the radio hooch waiting for word on you since their return.”
“We were on strings,” Tom continued. “Sau was wounded. I looked for Quinn’s Kingbee and saw that it had gone down, so I cut myself free.”
“You did what?”
“Couldn’t leave them behind, sir.”
Backhaus took another pull on his pipe.
“Must have gotten knocked out, because when I came to, it was dark. When it was light enough to move, I made my way to the crash site. I found the bodies. I also found tracks with two sets of bare feet that I assumed to be Quinn and Hiep, so I made the decision to follow them.”
Backhaus remained silent as Tom relayed the events of the past few days, of the Trail, the camp, of Quinn’s death. Tom pulled out his map and aligned it with the map on the wall, tracing his route.
When he was done, Backhaus said, “I’m proud of you, son. Let’s get you over to medical.”
“Negative, sir. We need to get in there after Hiep and the three other Americans.”
Backhaus took a moment to study the SEAL.
“I’m going to request a Black Shield mission over Laos,” he said.
“What’s that?” Tom asked.
“CIA A-12 OXCARTs out of Okinawa. A spy plane.”
“Like the U-2?”
“Yes, but it flies faster and higher. Out of range of SA-2s,” he said, referring to the Soviet surface-to-air missile that had brought down Gary Powers.
“How long will that take?”
