Chapter 42

The day finally arrived and the launchers were installed on the plane. A long line of small missiles were placed onboard and filled each of the launchers. I had a choice of explosive power and would choose which was best for each particular target. General Macalister and some of his aids came over to watch and asked if they could take some pictures. I let them take quite a few even to the launcher and the individual missiles. One missile I took out and held in my hand. It was only twenty six inches long, even shorter than air to air missiles carried by fighters. I casually tossed it to the General so he could see it for himself.

The general held it in his hands and asked, "What damage do you expect one of these little babies to do?"

"Well instead of talking, why don't you run a pass over the trail after Yaseen and I do our thing. The army has been ordered back and to prepare for my run. I am sure you have already planned this so you will see. Make sure the pilot is far back. I am going in daylight after I phone President Ho Chi Minh and tell him that I am coming."

"What?" The general yelled.

"Certainly. I want him to know what he and his men had done to deserve what will happen. Besides what I told you has already filtered to the north. There are many spies here and your office has more than one microphone in it." So saying I took out my phone and pushed one button that connected me through Japan to Hanoi and to the President's Office. I politely told the man at the switchboard who I was and asked to talk to President Ho Chi Minh. I was not believed but his immediate boss was called and I said again who I was and what I would like to do. It took ten minutes but eventually I talked to the man that lead the country.

"Hello, Who is this?"

"I really am Shawn Boz," I switched to Parisian French and continued, "My pilot and I are about to fly north and see what we can do to destroy the areas your troops are using to come south. After that I will personally parachute into your capital and have a serious talk with you about what you and your underlings have done to my family."

The reply was as quick as it was straightforward, "You are always welcome to come for a visit but you may find things not as easily accomplished as it was in the south. My people are morally strong and can resist you and all the army of ghosts you have."

"You have people of strong convictions in the north as I do in the south. There will be an end to this dispute soon and I want Vietnam to be prosper. That doesn't mean that I will lead it though."

"You take over a country then just want to step aside?"

"I believe myself to be moral and have no wish to rule a country. It is time consuming and frustrating. It is much better to make things and allow people to be guided by what they see as right."

"That is hard to believe, Sir Shawn."

"Like I told General Macalister, you will have to see for yourself. I am getting in my plane now and will start blowing large holes in the route your soldiers are using. I will try to avoid killing as much as possible but I see many thousands being killed regardless."

I was not believed but I eventually signed off. I took the missile back from the General and placed it where it belonged. Yaseen and I put on new helmets that were hooked up to a new targeting computer that I had designed. It took a bit of getting used to for we could switch from one camera to another and have the feed come to the helmet. It was the plan to use the small camera in each missile to direct it to its target as opposed to being close and accurate. We waved to the ground crew as we took off at full speed. We were almost at five hundred miles an hour as we cleared the fence around the base.

Yaseen asked, "What will the missiles really do Shawn. I have seen devices like this and they have little effect against large targets."

"I explained to you what they would do. I knew then that you would just have to see the effects with your own eyes to understand."

We headed north west into Cambodia and soon found the major troop concentrations guarding what had become to be called the 'Ho Chi Minh Trail'. Our troops were dug in and I used one of the larger yield weapons and directed it at an area that would be hard for an approaching enemy to circumvent. The same feed was sent to Yaseen. I fired the missile from sixty miles up and we watched the device rapidly descend to its target more than forty miles to the north.

It was able in the last split second to make a minute change and have the missile come down in a depression almost ten feet deep. The helmets went opaque and a large flash of light and heat were seen through the filters. Yaseen jerked the ship away but I had control instead now and said, "Relax, there is no fallout. The warhead is not radioactive."

"That was a nuclear explosion," he stammered.

"Yes it was like one but it wasn't exactly. That one was equivalent to fifty tons and was the largest I have. I told you about the yields but you refused to believe. Yaseen, we have a trail to destroy and we'd better be about it."

We made a large turn and took up where the first explosion let off. Large clouds of dirt, rock and trees took a long time to settle to the earth as I selected the best weapon to use. I came by a battalion sized group of North Vietnamese regulars and instead of shooting I told them with my mind to get far from the trail because I was going to destroy it in a an hour with them on it or not.

The soldiers fled but the officers in charge did not understand the message even if they wanted to follow the men. They did hear the thunder of the explosions coming to them from down the trail and had to take a minute to figure out what to do. I stored the information about the target in the computer and continued to destroy the area behind the advancing soldiers. It wasn't long before we left Cambodia and entered Laos and continued with the targets. Again some areas were skipped and warned. Near villages or other habitations very low yield explosives were used of only ten tons. When we were getting close to China we headed east and destroyed some of the staging areas in North Vietnam.

Our stores of munitions were getting low but had been accurately calculated. Yaseen flew toward Hanoi and I prepared to leave again. Before I did so I reiterated my orders. "Do not go back with any missiles. If you do it will be stolen no matter what security you put on it. This weapon's construction has to remain a secret or the whole world will be endangered." Finally is said, "Destroy the areas I put in the computer."

Yaseen slowed down and I was ejected out the back of the plane and began my long descent. I could still see the long cloud of dust in the air as Yaseen climbed to our operational altitude.

Instead of landing I stayed in the air floating in broad daylight. My only companion was some dust that I formed close to me to represent my ghost legion that had come north for vengeance. A larger cloud of dust above me kept me from being seen by my own surveillance. There were many men with guns on the streets below but none shot at me.

Many thousands of people saw me carrying only two swords and my small group of insubstantial and ghostly shapes. I followed the streets around the capital and slowly closed my circle until I came to the government buildings where the war was being run from. This too was circled till I settled to the ground in front of it.

Immediately bullets from many windows flew at me while I just waited with my fingers open to deflect all of them. I used dust to travel to each of the men firing and used my power to take the weapons from them. In ten minutes I walked inside and directly to where Ho Chi Minh was making last minute orders to have me removed. The hallway rang with fire but the dust took more and more weapons.

The door was locked and barricaded so I pushed through the wall and entered. Now the generals and Ho Chi Minh himself fired until their guns went dry. I dropped all the guns I was carrying in my insubstantial fingers and picked up the men in their place. I had to protect them from the bullets that still flew from behind me till I got to a large meeting room. I opened the door and put all the men inside.

To a general I said, "Tell your men to stop before someone gets hurt. My army has had to protect all of you from your own men." One man talked to the soldiers in the hall. They had seen that bullets were futile.

The government officials' eyes constantly followed the dust that floated in human shapes about the room and were so frightened that they had soiled themselves.

I talked quietly with one of the many aides and asked him politely by name to get some water and many glasses. Before he left the room I called out who was leaving so the man would not be shot. I began the conversation with the remaining men on a casual basis asking them about their wives, mistresses and children by name. I inferred that my ghostly cohort was giving me all this information. When the aide knocked on the door I called for him to enter. In all this time all I was able to get from the men were some head movements and some gasps.

I served the men some water and bade them drink. After another three minutes of my monologue I said, "Let's talk outside. Go to your quarters and change and have a shower. I will meet you all out front for a simple meeting. Please go now."

I had to pick some of the men up but they did leave. The last aid I stopped and said, "Please get some chairs set up on the grass and bring some refreshments. There will be an important meeting after your leaders have had a chance to recover."

I got a simple, "Yes sir," in response.

The hour went quickly as I searched the building I was in for any data that might be useful. There were names of the many people in the south that had collaborated so I saved that information for later. There was no need now to punish them but it would be good to find out why each had turned.

There was time for a few phone calls and I talked to General Quang and Macalister at the same time, telling them where I was and also about the forthcoming meeting. Quang knew of my orders concerning capturing their enemy. He had not understood when I said that soon they would be brothers not enemy. My wives and Morie were happy to find me both alive and confident of what the future might bring.

The gunfire had stopped but still rifles were trained on me. The best I thought I could do now was to put the snipers to sleep. One after another they fell to the floor except in one case where he fell out the window. This one was caught and laid peacefully on the grass beside his firearm.

Some lower ranking officers came out and were heartened that they had not been killed. Their superiors came out later and all found seats. Twenty minutes late the President, some of his cabinet and the military took the remaining chairs.

Instead of lecturing them I sat on my own chair facing them and talked of what I wanted for all of Vietnam. This took a few minutes because I was talking generalities. I attacked both Communism and Capitalism for their inherent wrongs. Socialism sounded great I told them but it just will not work well because the people will think that the country owes them a good living. Big and small businesses were faulted for having little or no social consciousness.

I let the dust drop long ago and started asking individuals what they thought about some of my points. Usually I got back dogma published from the party newspaper or from speeches they heard. I tripped them up in many places where the party was weak and showed them a better way if possible.

There was quite a bit of opposition from the Chinese contingent about my plans to have the state abandon Communism for my own managed capitalist plan. These men were indeed worried for I attacked the basis of their beliefs. The state was a parent to them and saw to all their needs much as the military did. It was as hard for them to see the people on the lowest rungs of society as it was hard for a successful businessman to do the same.

During a break I talked privately with the President and asked him to order a meal be set up in a large hall so the debate could continue. He agreed and called over one of his own aides with the orders.

Just before I was going to start again my phone rang and I picked it up. One of Quang's men said, "Sir Shawn there are many tanks and men coming from Haiphong and Yen Bai. They are going to trap you between both forces. They should be at your location in an hour."

"Thank you for the information Lieutenant. I will take care of them."

I walked over to the President and said, "Some of your officers have decided to evict me from your city. You and a dozen more men will go for a ride through the air to Haiphong and stop the troops coming from the harbour. The reason you are going is to show you how easy it is to defeat an army of the living. Since the men coming are some of the descendants of my army there will be little or no deaths.

The generals and party functionaries unwillingly came with me as we rose into the air and travelled east. Dust acted as my escort and to also keep the drones from seeing us fly. Soldiers, merchants, farmers and peasants thronged the roads and many accidents came about as they saw us flying easily forward. Each man stood as if on the ground and no wind touched them as we travelled a little over a hundred miles an hour.

Just east of Haiphong, the first contingent of the relieving force was found. Our simple presence brought the line to a stop and I put everybody to sleep as we passed. Within ten minutes was all it took before everybody was snoozing and I searched for the commanding officer.

When he woke up he saw me first and went for his gun. He couldn't get it from his holster so I waited until he saw the futility of resistance. This took a while because he went for all the weapons of the men beside him. Finally he jumped at me and tried his own hands and feet to accomplish what nothing else could.

I said to Ho Chi Minh, "This man is certainly brave. Will you tell him to stop his attack before he damages himself?"

It only took a few moments then the president ordered the man to cease and even return his men and equipment back to their barracks. There didn't seem to be any immediate danger. I awoke other officers and their own subordinates relayed their president's orders.

When all this was done I just looked up and waved to the sky. Nobody asked but they wondered what I was doing. I got on the phone and as the soldiers all around us awoke a faint droning sound got louder and louder. Soon it was flying only a hundred feet overhead.

"That gentlemen is a small drone that can fly almost forty miles overhead." This was not believed but I ignored it. "It has a small camera that can see even a mouse on the ground even at night." This too was just bluster they thought. "They are controlled from Saigon and through the satellites I put into orbit in the last few years."

The drone rose at my order and circled the city as it gained and even better view of what was below. I used verbal commands to the phone and its small screen showed the area around Viet Tri that was north west of Hanoi. The soldiers from Yen Bai would be close to that city in their approach to Hanoi. I handed the president the phone and told him what he was seeing. Some verbal commands showed a closer view till he and his associates were sure that the city we were looking at was the one I said it was.

The armoured column was sending up smoke and a little dust for the area was slightly damp. I panned out and brought the camera over Hanoi and zoomed in on the front of the building where we had been holding our meeting. The chairs were still there and only a few men. It was easy to see that this was real-time or very close to it. I zoomed in so close that we could almost read the words on a scrap piece of paper blowing in the wind and momentarily caught by a chair leg.

Soon after this, my party took to the air again, travelling to meet the other column which we had just been viewing, stopping it as easily as we had the first. The general this time told his people to leave because we were having a meeting and didn't want to be disturbed.

When we got back to Hanoi we went immediately to the meeting again and the generals told the rest of the audience what had transpired. His talk of the drone's capabilities were spoken with derision but I could see the audience wanting to believe anything I said. Another general's talk of seeing the paper outside though was taken as gospel.

Soon after we all went to a large hall and were met by even more people. Some had guns and grenades while other had planted high explosives where I was supposed to sit even if the President was close. I simply cut the wires to the detonator and waited to see if the other weapons were to be used. The food was not poisoned and tasted reasonably good.

Ho was coming to the fact that I was not going to kill indiscriminately and tried to take me to task on many points. He was an old hand at trapping people with his arguments but I could see all the traps coming and avoid or sidestep them. My own attacks worked much better. After a while we debated while the audience listened to our rebuttals and accusations. In a half hour he saw that I was acting as a gentleman and as he followed suit our conversation became more conciliatory.

I agreed to some of his assertions and he did the same for me. We did agree to talk tomorrow. We shook hands and then I did the same with the generals and even the representative from China.

During all this time I was narrowing down the best general I could find in the room and the choice came to General Wei. He had a similar temperament to Quang and I could see them eventually becoming friends if they could stay alive long enough. I crawled under the platform that we were on to show the General all the explosives and the sheared wires. When we got out I gave him seven names and said, "Those men were trying to rid your country of a person they saw as a threat even if all of you had to die with me. Please take that into consideration. They would make good aides for me. You can be readily sure that they are not sympathisers, at least not yet."

President Ho offered me a room at his house. It was not luxurious as he would like but frugal as he tried to impress his people with his piousness. Many people called him Uncle Ho and I knew he would make a much better leader of a united Vietnam than any other person I could think of.

His wife was very worried about me when I arrived and would like to have fled. Ho took her aside and explained things as well as he could in the short time and told her to get my bed ready. Before turning in I found a hand bound book of Ho's poems and I read them all. I asked for a pen and paper and made a longer poem of what I was trying to accomplish today. I emphasized force on the trail, strength at our meeting, forgiveness at the approaching forces, cooperation in the final meeting and finally rest at a friend's home.

Ho read the poem four or five times and carefully put it away in a French provincial desk.

At breakfast next morning, Ho asked, "Did you sleep well Sir Shawn?"

"Very well thank you Mr President. I contemplated for a long time about me coming here. Originally, I wanted to kill some of the people who decided to kill me. Now that I have met them and found that they are not wholly bad perhaps I should let them live. Others when I find them will have to be assessed and they may be found wanting."

"I can understand your desire for vengeance, for many of my friends and family were treated badly by the French and the Americans. The British too seemed to revel in the idea of turning one country against another for their own ends. I too have enemies and would like to see them die. It does things to me though that are difficult to say. I hurt inside and it is not from the tuberculosis or any other of the maladies that I suffer from."

"I feel the same way Mr. President but I also feel cleansed when I can remove something evil from the earth."

After eating, the two of us drove to the local university and we walked to the technical department. I requested a student assembly and was given one right away, with the President and myself both scheduled to speak. The students came in very cautiously but when they saw their President moving around freely and apparently happy they too felt much better.

When the room was more than filled to capacity I went into lecturing mode and explained why I came north and what I extended to do. Japan was called into play and I mentioned what I had done and how the country had benefited, even as I had. With coloured chalk I gave them modern cement plants and very efficient steel mills. All this was erased though as I started my next drawing. It showed an elevated monorail going all over a united Vietnam and beyond into Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma and Malaysia. The motor was explained in detail and the way to get the best out of the steel and concrete making the machine move even faster that the trains I made in Japan.

"This is some of the things I will give to you. The socialist among you will think me out for the money but if you take the time to look; I spend my money on helping the disadvantaged, not simply giving money that they would not know what to do with." The students could not quite believe the specifications I put on the train and the system but knew I made the fastest train in Japan and had done many other things that nobody else could do.

We stayed a few more hours, but on the way out I could feel some people waiting with anticipation. A bomb had been placed near the entrance with a large truck that was carrying gasoline. My arrival at the door would see the school set afire and if I wasn't killed, the death of Uncle Ho would make people hate me even more.

I put one hand on the President's shoulder and one on the dean of the university. "We have to stop for a moment as I am told that a bomb will go off and both of you will be killed. It is hoped that the people will raise up in arms even more and continue the fight with the south. The school will be badly damaged and many students will also die."

"I will call the police," came from an indignant Ho.

"Better I go out a different way and put the troublemakers to sleep and disconnect the detonators."

"Then do so. I will still get the police involved."

I went back the way I had come and went out a window on a second floor and flew above the school obscured by my dust. The wires were easy to cut in two places then I put all the conspirators to sleep. A short walk to the front doors again brought out the two men and some very interested spectators. I gave the name of each person and what they were really like. Some had even been students once, while others had been so taken with the communist cause that they could not see reason anymore. This reminded me very much of religion in many ways, especially those that accepted a new faith after the loss of somebody very important to them.

The police did come and as the people were taken away they were awoken. Some managed to shout slogans at us and even called the president a traitor.

We left the car and walked through the streets until we came to a small eatery and stepped in to have some midday meal. The proprietor was very shocked but did bring a good meal to us. Our fellow diners gawked at us and even people in the streets stared. When we finished our simple dish of noodles and fish I said, "A ship from Ethiopia will be docking later today. It has the same things on it as the south has been given. When you and your generals call back the troops I will help you make the drones you saw yesterday."