Death Chants (10 page)

"Just aim at me and
fire."

Doctor Death just
stared at me. I looked at Howton and nod­ded.

Howton took the
pistol, extended it two-handed until it was pointed at my head. "You get what you ask for in this
man's . . ." He pulled the trigger. Nothing happened.

Howton dropped the
pistol. "OK, you've proved your point. Where do we go from here?"

"We leave the
weapons behind. We've got a bit of a climb ahead of us. I don't know how far we've got to go or
what's waiting for us when we get there. I don't think the general knows, either. He's never been
here awake before. So most of what he knows of this place is only half remembered or very
hazy."

"I don't go nowhere
without my weapon," said Doctor Death.

"The eagle is our
only weapon, and if you don't believe in the strength of the eagle's heart, this last part of the
journey may not be for you. There is no dishonor in not going."

"Man, you have got
to be kidding. You can't kill no VC with a frigging eagle! I don't want no part of this
action!"

"Then stay with the
chopper," I said. "You can stay, too, Howton, if you want to. There's really no need for you to
go."

Howton scowled,
straightened his shoulders and looked up at the ridge ahead of us. "I'm going to see what's on
the other side."

I nodded
approvingly. Howton was a brave man. But if I were going into combat, I would rather have had
Doctor Death at my back. Howton would walk into the unknown, pretending not to be afraid. Only
Doctor Death, who believed only in his weapons,
had enough fear to be truly brave. He fought scared and there­fore more truly alive
than Howton, who tried to bury his fear.

He set off at a
brisk pace until the going got rough.

"There should be a
trail here somewhere, but the general doesn't remember where it is."

Howton looked
uneasy. "Sounds weird, but since you men­tioned it, I think the trail is to the left about a
hundred feet. Don't ask me how I know, it just seemed to pop into my head."

I turned and walked
in the direction Howton had indicated. I saw the trail.

"Glad you came
along," I said. "This will save us hours."

The general walked
up the trail ahead of us. He acted like a man in a dream, eyes nearly closed in sleep, stumbling
like a robot up the path. He had the look of a sleepwalker.

The path came to a
fork. The general stopped and looked back at us. He motioned first to the left and then pointed
his finger at his chest. He pointed to the right fork, then signaled that we were to go in that
direction.

I nodded. The
general waved slowly as if we were already far away and then turned and stumbled off to the
left.

"He's escaping!"
said Howton. "And we just let him, right?"

"Yes. But it's more
than that. Try to walk down the path he's taking."

Howton moved to the
intersection of the two paths. He eyed me strangely for a few seconds then tried to follow the
general. He seemed to freeze in midair.

"Just like the
weapons, right?"

"And the general
couldn't have gone down the path we're going to take. I knew something like this would happen.
Didn't know how or in what way, but it's what I meant when I said we had no choice but to let him
go."

"I think I can say,
with a hundred-percent accuracy, that I am scared out of my freaking gourd!" said Howton. "I'm
not that far away from the screaming—"

I interrupted. "I
feel worse than you. If it helps any, you're going to come out of this alive. You'll make it back
to the chop­per and you'll make it back to base. So will Doctor Death." I didn't tell him that I
would die here on this mountain even though I was as sure of it as I was of anything. It
surprised me
that Howton was admitting
he was afraid. Maybe he had passed his limit.

We topped a rise
and stood in a small clearing. Below us, we saw a valley, lush with vegetation. I knew we must be
nearing the end of our journey. My arms were aching with the strain of carrying the heavy cage. I
had a couple more scratches where the eagle had got at me again through the bars.

The trail led
downward.

We began our
descent.

I watched Howton
now as much as I watched my footing on the path. My blindness was growing as his own vision
grew.

He stopped
suddenly, staring at something I could not see.

"What is it?" I
asked, and stared in the direction Howton was looking. I saw nothing but trees and
vegetation.

"I see people. At
least, I think it's people. And a village, but it doesn't look like a Montagnard
camp."

"I can't see it,
but let's leave the path and walk toward the village," I said, and the Ancient of Lizards moved
in the desert of my memory, seeking a distant sun.

"What do you mean
you don't see it?"

"You knew where the
trail was and I didn't, neither did the general. Now you see the village and I can't. Like I
said, this is a strange place and things happen here I can't explain."

We left the path
and moved farther down into the valley. It was a rough descent for a while and then suddenly it
was much easier.

"We're on another
path," said Howton. "It seems to lead directly into the center of the village. Did you see
it?"

I shook my head no.
My blindness was growing. I looked back the way we had come. The trail and the mountain behind me
seemed to vanish in the distance. Perhaps I was near my own death now. I could not
tell.

We walked on,
Howton leading, me stumbling along in the growing dark behind him. Howton stopped.

"Where are
we?"

Howton turned and
looked at me. "Either I'm having the granddaddy of granddaddy hallucinations or we're standing in
the center of a village and we're surrounded by the entire tribe, it looks like."

"What do they look
like?"

"Like something out
of a bad trip. Their eyes are strange. Like they are looking at things I can't see. They don't
look like they ever laughed. This will really freak you, Chief. I think they got too many fingers
on each hand. You suppose they are cannibals? I don't like the way they're looking at
us."

"Describe how they
are dressed," I said, cursing my blind­ness.

"In all the colors
of the rainbow," said Howton, awed.

"Can you hear them
speaking? If so, how does it sound?"

"It sounds like
wild animals talking," said Howton. "You ask me, I'd say they are definitely hostile!"

"Look carefully.
Are you sure they are not Montagnards?"

He shook his head.
"They're like no Montagnards I ever saw. They're taller, and they've got—"

"I have to try to
see them. I want you to close your eyes and keep them closed."

"You sure that's a
good idea, Chief? They're brandishing weapons and they look downright hostile."

"They can't hurt
you," I said and I closed my eyes.

When I was a young
man climbing the lodge pole into man­hood, I sought visions of power and wisdom. I chose the road
of (he shaman, and my vision ally was the spirit of a Great Snake. I called upon the Great Snake
to make my eyes unblinking and terrible like his. I called upon him so that I might see into the
shadows of this place that is the heart of Vietnam which no white man had ever seen before. If
the Ancient of Lizards was my ally, far greater was my Nightfather, the Great Ancient of Snakes,
whose tail was wrapped around the center of the earth. In him, terrible and grim, lie all the
truths of man.

I felt the presence
of the Great Snake, and the blindness, which was the blindness of the white man, dropped from
me.

In my vision, I
stood alone on the mountain. The white man with closed eyes was gone. Then my aloneness was
pierced by the war cry of the people of Vietnam's hidden heart. They at-lacked. They were strong,
clean-limbed people, tall and golden in color. They killed me and cut my head off.

My head was on a
spear made of gold, carved in the shape of
an entwined snake. The eyes of the snake were red gems, gleam­ing in the hot
sun.

My eyes were still
open and I still saw. I saw what the white man could not see.

Beneath the shadows
and smoke lived another Vietnam. These were the unseen ones, the ancestors of the people yet to
be.

In the center of
their village was a not alive, not dead statue of the Great Cat of Death. It was the one true
symbol of this world the white man could not see.

This was a village
that had been here since the beginning of beginnings and would exist long after the white man was
gone.

An old man came and
sat beside my disembodied head. "Why have you come so far to die?"

"I have come to
play the game of Cat and Eagle," I said from my ghost mouth.

"No man has ever
played it before. Already you are dead and have nothing left to win. Would you still
play?"

"You know in your
heart why I must play. Dead I may be, but I yet clearly see."

"If the eagle wins,
I will give you back your life, your head back to its body. But know you that the Great Cat is
strong and clever. He fights in his own land, where none but he is kin and king. Does your eagle
see, heart true, so far from home, dead man, this is what I ask you?" said the old
man.

"Only by playing
the game will we know."

"Let it be so
then," said the old man. He took the cage of the eagle and held it out in front of him at eye
level, as if it weighed nothing. Carefully, he opened the cage door and reached in with one hand
and took hold of the eagle. The great bird tried to attack him but the old man seemed made of
granite, not even flinching as the bird tried to sink its talons in his arm.

The old one held
the bird aloft, firmly holding it by the legs. "Great Bird, you see before you your enemy, the
Great Cat. I make ready to send you to him."

My ghost eyes saw
the living, not living statue of the Great Cat twist and arch its back, rising up off the great
block of mountain stone. It snarled, its eyes coming open and seeing its enemy preparing to meet
it in combat.

"Go, Eagle! May you
fight well and find a good wind!" The old man released the bird.

The bird shot up
like an arrow into the sky, thrusting up on wings of death. Beneath it, the Great Cat crouched,
its eyes turned skyward, seeking the enemy.

The Great Eagle
rose up so high it was almost invisible. Then it dived down, in its long, graceful killing swoop,
claws flashing, eyes burning with great hunting wisdom.

The Great Cat
seemed to stand helplessly in its path, making no move to avert the Great Eagle's killing
plunge.

The Great Cat
screamed. The Great Eagle struck, winged lightning falling upon its intended prey.

The Great Eagle's
talons closed on air.

Unseen, the cat
came up underneath him, and in one murder­ous lunge, seized the great bird and defeated
him.

The Great Eagle's
skull was crushed in the unseen jaws of the Great Cat of Death.

"The stranger is
dead and the Great Cat has triumphed," said the old man. "So do the dreams of men die when they
are not alive in the world they belong in. You have come from a great farness to see my people
and our ways. Your people long ago walked in the same path as we once walked. The white man is
not of your way or of ours. They come upon our path, but the way is forever barred to them. So it
is with your people and ours."

I spoke from my
dead mouth. "I knew that my bones would dwell among your people. The white men sent me to find
out if they could win the war."

"They seek and we
hide," said the old man. "So shall it always be. The white man cannot defeat what he cannot see,
cannot conquer a land he cannot find. That is your answer."

"I wish to go home
and be among my people."

"Leave your body
with us and go back in the mind of the white man," said the old man. "We shall grind up your
bones and flesh and eat of them, so then shall your ancestors join us in the flesh and blood of
our children yet to be."

I closed my eyes
for the last time. I had died.

Lieutenant Colonel
J. N. Howton sat in the cockpit of his chopper. Doctor Death stared at the body of the Vietnamese
general.

His gun was still
smoking.

Howton turned in
his seat, startled by the sudden burst of gunfire. "What happened?"

"I don't rightly
know. One minute I'm watching his ass and the next minute he's charging down my gun trying to
push me out the door. He just freaked out!"

"We'll probably get
our noses ripped off for losing him," said Howton with a scowl.

"And Jesus, the
bastard must have killed the eagle! I don't know how because I had my eye on him all the time,
but this damn bird is sure dead. Ripped to shreds! How do you figure it, Hownow?" said Doctor
Death.