The Madness Continues
From the Short Story Collection at Virtual Mirage
An Encounter in Zamboanga (non-fiction)
The Monkeys have no tails in Zamboanga – Sea Shanty
“Pulling the trigger would damage or destroy the Rolls Royce of dicks, I assure you, causing women to mourn throughout Indochina.” Kennedy’s hand was frozen inside of his flashy suit. “I need a lighter for my cigarette.” He winked behind wireframe glasses, but it wasn’t an, I-know-something-you-don’t wink. It was more of a nervous, you don’t have anything to worry about – honest – sort of wink.
I laughed, pulled the .45 Colt out from under the tablecloth, and sat it on the table next to my mug of hot tea. “I prefer a cigar.”
Patrons seated around us glanced at the handgun, now in plain sight on the tablecloth. None of them appeared to find that action in any way unusual. It was a mobbed-up dim sum restaurant in Zamboanga.
There wasn’t much in Zamboanga worth seeing. The dim sum joint just off Valderosa Street was a gathering place for the underworld, which included people like me, Kennedy, and a host of others who were up to no good. The drinks were watered down, the Chinese dumplings were tolerable but nobody asked any questions and that was more important than cheap whiskey and mediocre food.
“Dunhills.” Kennedy pulled out a gold-plated cigarette lighter and torched the end of his cigarette. “They blend the tobacco to my specifications and charge me a king’s ransom. They’re not bad. Try one.” I held up a cigar declining in the process. “Suit yourself.” He lifted the cigarette case gently from the table and it disappeared in an outside pocket of his silk safari-style jacket.
He drew deeply on the smoke and relaxed in his chair. “I needed a smoke,” he confessed.
“What happened to your wife?” I asked, lighting my cigar carefully with a Lucifer match.
Kennedy looked confused. “Which one?”
“The Vietnamese lady that was with you the last time I saw you.”
“Oh, her. That was my fifth wife, Ngoc. She went crazy.” Kennedy said sadly. “I think I have that effect on women.”
We didn’t speak for some minutes.
Kennedy broke the silence. “I’ve got a dirty mind, so I still think some details have been kept from me, to spare a blood bath. It was last year or maybe the year before in Ho Chi Minh City and she was with me when the Security Police made a big round-up. I bought my way out but didn’t have enough for her, uh, bail.”
“She was in heavy custody, getting the shit slapped out of her accused of being an anti-communist, but it wasn’t too serious by our standards. It was your typical heavy Vietnamese treatment with women—tie their ass up all elaborately for a few days, fuck up the shoulders and the arms, slap the face, talk smart, threaten rape but settle for denying shampoo and soap. It’s strange about Oriental sensibilities when they set out to insult a lady as distinct from torturing a whore. I swear the fuckers are almost polite.”
He motioned the waiter to the table. “It must be respected. Anyway, I had a hot asset working in the Defense Ministry. This guy had a world-class stroke, but considering the time and circumstances, I had a communication problem that was beyond belief. Finally, I tasked him with a vengeance and Ngoc was freed.”
“So she takes about a month to calm down, and then she dolls herself all up and goes back to this Vietnamese Senior Colonel that had control of the situation. She tells him, ‘I couldn’t say anything because of what was happening. I didn’t want to cause any problems in your job or your family, but I really admired the way you handled things and I’m sorry if I caused you any problems.’ So naturally, this asshole is interested right away, but Ngoc excuses herself and dances away. Well, now he is really interested, and this thing goes back and forth for a while, with Ngoc all timidly concerned for the implications to his career like a fluttering dove.”
“Anyway, this Senior Colonel is shortly found dead and the cause of death is found to be that he was buried alive in his dress uniform in a vacant lot in Thanh Binh District. I guess he thought he was going on an important date, eh?”
“And God forgive me but I smacked her upside the head, and I asked her, ‘Did you have to fuck that bastard to kill him?’ She just smiled that Mona Lisa smile and said, ‘Don’t judge me by what you will do, judge me by what I won’t do.’”
“Did she do it by herself?” I asked casually.
“No, I don’t think so,” Kennedy replied. “My old driver was in on the scam and probably buried the asshole. He took me aside a few months later and told me, ‘That woman has honor you still can’t see.’”
“You love her?”
“Ngoc? Damned straight I love her.”
“Is she here?”
For a moment he looked helpless and panicked. The waiter broke his mood and he ordered Bushmills. I stuck with tea. Then he smiled. “As you might expect, she went through considerable stress being married to me.”
“That has to be the understatement of the year.” I drank my tea, still piping hot in the white china mug that held it.
“I took her back to the Land of flushing toilets. This Agency psychiatrist was assigned her case because she was having problems because of everything she had been through with me.”
“Ngoc went everywhere with two stuffed rabbits back then. She named them Barbara and Elizabeth. She took them to the doctor’s office down in Reston, not far from headquarters. Naturally, the doctor asked about them and she said, ‘Why don’t you ask them yourself, and I’ll be your interpreter.’ The Agency doctor asked why they couldn’t speak for themselves, and she said, ‘They can, but they only speak Vietnamese, and you don’t, so I guess I will have to interpret, won’t I?’”
“So the doctor agreed and he asked Barbara, ‘How are you feeling today?’ Barbara said, ‘I don’t feel well at all.’ The doctor asked why, and Barbara said, ‘Because that bitch Elizabeth is on my nerves and I want to kill her.’ So the doctor asked Elizabeth, ‘How do you feel about what Barbara said?’ Elizabeth said, ‘Let her try.’”
“So the Agency doctor said to Ngoc, ‘You must be feeling some conflicts.’”
“Ngoc said, ‘No, I’m sitting here interpreting for a doctor who can be persuaded that stuffed animals talk, so the only thing I’m feeling is disgusted.’”
“That’s pretty funny,” I said.
“To tell you the truth, it’s pretty fucked up. She’s in a mental hospital even though she’s just as sane as you and me. Ok, not me. Not me—as sane as you are. Maybe she’s there because she knows I can’t get to her there and persuade her to come back here running and gunning.”
This might be the most San Francisco story I’ve ever heard in my entire life
A convicted child molester set up a tent across from a SF school offering “free fentanyl for new users”
He has been doing this for 2 years
SFPD Captain Chris Canning: "I was told he is in compliance… pic.twitter.com/MbQQussSSu
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) October 20, 2023
Bullet Points:
** The Daily Caller reported, “The Supreme Court on Friday took up Missouri v. Biden, the free speech case challenging the Biden administration’s efforts to censor content on social media, while issuing a pause on a preliminary injunction granted by a lower court.”
The case will decide if the government can get around the Constitution by paying or otherwise coercing companies to censor citizens. Mussolini called his version of this form of governance fascism.
** Mr. Government man, if you can just print money with USGOV buying up USGOV debt/bonds (a snake feeding on its tail), then why do I have to pay taxes?
** I’m so old that I can remember when being on unemployment was treated by people as an embarassing necessity while looking for another job rather than a goal.
** Jules brings Tex into the mix with Scratchy.
** When Islam first infests a society they “play dead” while weak, but the moment they sense they have the upper hand in the power structure they reveal themselves for who their religion openly declares they are – totalitarian zealots whose explicit purpose is the forced conversion of the infidel.
The rallies you saw in favor of rape and murder of Jews in Israel indicates that they think – with their fellow travelers at BLM, DSA and the traitorous Democrat party – they have gained the upperhand.
** “House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said his panel has uncovered evidence that Joe Biden, in 2018, received a “$200,000 direct payment” from his brother James Biden and sister-in-law Sara Biden, and is demanding the president answer questions about “financial arrangements” with members of his family.”
Did the Big Guy take more than 10%? Say it isn’t so.
** Quantum mechanics always grabs me. As the pursuit continues, the proton’s secrets keep tumbling out. Most recently, a monumental data analysis published in August found that the proton contains traces of particles called charm quarks that are heavier than the proton itself. Generating equations that describe this (that are accurate) take up the time of very smart people.
**
ID the aircraft
ID the Aircraft:
Pfalz D.III
Yes, the Early Bird got the worm.
A. I. Never sleeps.
Some kind of an Albatros, maybe?
I like the “dragon” very much.
– Kle.
Looks like it could be a tatzelwurm.
Could be!
Something else I had forgotten.
– Kle.
Matt 18:6 “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. ”
Even Jesus understood that no tolerance should be given to those harming children. This POS Predator – obviously taunting law enforcement and getting away with it because…California – needs to have the air let out of him. Problem solved.
The Husk Varnished didn’t get 10% of the $200K, that was the 10%, effectively laundered. Nothing will come of it. The R’s are useless despite having a massive pile of stink to impeach not only Joe, but toss the entire family in prison for criminal acts against the USA. But, as we suspect, half of Congress does the same, hence no real action other than spouting off as if something will happen.
Said this before (with extended family there it is verified at a local level as well as their Tourism Minister)- Denmark shut down immigration when Muslims decided “freebies” of the Danish free-market economy coupled to a heavy social welfare system (24% VAT) was good for the taking; they did not assimilate into the culture but instead became a massive drain on the system effectively watering down traditions. The Muslim attitude is akin to locusts on a farmers field.
Was it Churchill who said that the musselmen were either at your feet or at your throat?
Yes it was Churchill.
He was a man with some experience in the matter.
Just a little bit. I forgot that he also coined the acronym, “P.O.T.U.S.”
Or in the present case, POTatUS.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MvQnw_DCJxg&pp=ygURc2FtIGdhbWdlZSBwb3RhdG8%3D
IDA:
1. Pfalz D.III
Is that a Dragon or a Scorpion Kle?
Could be that, too.
I think Rel has the right of it, and it’s probably a Tatzelwurm.
In any case, I like it.
– Kle.
Is that Felix’s tarantula?
An approximation of the same. Some people just aren’t comfortable around spiders.
That’s a good story.
…and non-fiction, apparently.
I can attest that my life is seriously less…shall we say…risky and intriguing. That’s some seriously fascinating Spy Games stuff.
“Fascinating” when it happens to someone else. :)
Indeed.
Good point.
I was going to be polite and not comment, but it got to me. Person X immediately came to mind.
Yes indeed. Person X and Ahn…
Yes, I thought it was Ahn but did not want to besmirch her if it wasn’t. With Person X one never jumps to conclusions.
The adventures of Person X, some of which you and I shared, make for interesting reading.
Obviously Ngoc was her father’s name – which can also be a female name – and that’s why it was used here.
MikeW, in your book, at one point you are driving jeeps that contain 50 cal MGs. How would they have been mounted, hidden, used?
I’m having a hard time imagining that.
I can’t speak for Mike, but I’ve driven from base to base in Southern California in a Jeep (pre-Humvee) with a loaded M-2 mounted. Technically (it was a “technical” haha), there may have been a rule against it, but we ignored those rules then. They were a common sight in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos once you left the cities, Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and elsewhere. I can imagine that they’re a common sight in Israel at the moment.
Larry. Yes, Ngoc can be either a male or female name. As with most names and words in Vietnamese, depending upon where the diacritical mark or marks are, the tone and meaning can change. From memory Ngoc as a girls name means Jade. I must also apologies for spelling Anh’s name wrong in the above post where I spelt it with the n and the h back to front.
Ed. Reference your question regarding the .50 calibre. They were mounted openly on a solid pedestal, which was strengthed by three angled braces, just behind and between the driver and front passenger seats. Our Jeeps, apparently, came from USMC holdings as USMC was stamped in various places on them. As I understood it they came to us with the pedestals already installed. Whether this was done by the manufacturer or by the Marines I do not know. My team never had to fire the .50 calibre in action so I cannot say what it was like to fire one from the Jeep. We only ever fired them, and then infrequently, on the range, although we frequently practiced vehicle counter ambush drills.
The only ones I recall ever actually firing one from a Jeep in action was one of our pseudo Armed Propaganda Teams. As she told it, the team leader said her team, mounted on Jeeps, was waiting for two bullock drawn high sided wagons to cross the ford on a small river just to the south of the Plain of Reeds when they took fire from one of the small, raised, wooden, huts/covered platforms, you saw dotted around the rice paddies. The peasants used these to store their tools and other stuff, and to sit in to eat and to escape the hottest part of the day, when working in that particular area. She said her gunner spotted the muzzle flashes and she (the gunner) fired three or four short bursts, which completely destroyed the hut/shelter, its contents, and the persons therein. She added that firing it from the stationary Jeep was nothing out of the ordinary, all it did was to cause the Jeep to rock a bit.
What the team was doing, in Jeeps, on a rough rural road/track, on the fringes of the Plain of Reeds, in broad daylight she did not say and I did not ask her.
@ Paul M
I was very interested in your comment “Even Jesus…”
as it might apply to the Gazan troops (please don’t call them “Palestinians”).
I was having dinner with a very anti-Israel Israeli last night. He lost a girl cousin who’d been at that anti-Bibi “peace rave” just outside the fence; y’d think that might have altered his attitude?!
@LL
TNX. I’ve been following this very closely at Quantum!; I’m Oh so glad they didn’t put in the math for the masochists (those who are highly/deeply interested in math).
“Gazan troops (please don’t call them “Palestinians”).”
That’s a phrase that needs to get traction.
Special place in the Lake of Fire for the Hamas evil-doers and their supporters, for eternity. Righteous anger and retribution towards them is not a sin.
“…hurl electrons more forcefully….”
And all this time I thought they were waves.
O my poor Heisenberg, see how much ham radio can lead a young mind astray.
Just quarks, arguing among themselves.
40th Anniversary of Marine Barracks bombing in Beruit…
https://www.marines.mil/News/Marines-TV/videoid/634642/dvpTag/Beirut/
Never forget…
My best friend and his wife lost close friends there.
And the San-Fran sex offender is set up across from the Stella Maris Academy. Cormac McCarthy’s last novel was titled Stella Maris and involved a loony bin with the same name. Truth really is stranger than fiction.
Al beat me to it. 40 years on, still a sore point with the Marines. And yes, very believable story, heard similar from Weird Neil there literally were NO rules over there back then.
As someone who scored a solid C- in Algebra, I leave higher mathematics to my betters. My middle son can do all kinds of math in his head. His grandfather was the same. Guess the skill skips a generation.
Several years ago I worked for MITRE, and the shop lead had previously been a theoretical physicist at CERN. The office had several interesting lunchtime discussions about Heisenberg’s Principal, absolute zero and other subatomic topics. I was the dummy on the team, just a BS in computer technology.
Before I left for another MITRE team, he was asked to join JASON.
Bunch of interesting folks. One team member had maintained Navy nuclear power plants. Another had been dual-qualified SR-71 and TR-1/U-2 pilot. My job interview included a cybersecurity and anti-tamper analysis of the UD-4L Cheyenne.
Fun times.
Wandering Neurons
We may need to change your moniker to Wandering Quarks.
Quarks, leptons, gluons, and anti-particles. Oh my