Dreams of Death (A CIA Contractors Story)

SYNOPSIS
DREAMS OF DEATH
By Everett Ede
The story begins supposedly, in the jungles of Vietnam with 25 year old CHRIS CRAWFORD getting caught in an ambush and killed. This turns out to be a dream and the rest of the story relates to that dream with the ending being played out in reality
CHRIS CRAWFORD is a 25 year old ex Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) technician who has a quick wit finding humor in even the most harrowing situations. He has a wife and young daughter and a high paying civil service Job on an Air Force Reserve bomb squad. There is little actual work for him to do on this job so he is pretty bored. His father was involved with G2 during World War II and that fact together with his experience and training has put CHRIS in the crosshairs of a CIA recruiter for a CIA mission into Laos in 1969 to destroy a fuel depot. CHRIS’ thirst for adventure and the money being offered seduces him into taking the contract. So, without a word to his wife he goes off to work and a one way trip into terror.
The story is set in four segments. The first is the negotiation with the CIA recruiter and his home life, showing how his life is really going pretty well, so why would he agree to this contract. The second is the training and mockup phase where he re-establishes his friendship with a full blooded Navajo Indian SEAL named RALPH EAGLE who turns out to be the man assigned to him as his “guardian angel” or the man charged with keeping CHRIS alive long enough to reach target. The third is a short section dealing with the transport into Viet Nam and the waiting that occurs while The CIA and military intelligence is sorted out. While they wait a additional mission develops. Once that is over they continue the wait. The fourth, is the mission itself and all of the difficulties that occur during the trek in and the realization that all of the military intelligence is wrong. There is also a mystery interwoven into this part where the team discovers the real depot and how they ultimately destroy it and a secondary target. The climax involves a desperate, life-threatening race to escape, and the dream showing itself in reality and then a shocking ending.

CHAPTER ONE
A spider is crawling toward me on the top of my gun barrel. It’s making it hard for me to focus on my target. I have crouched in the same position for over an hour. With my back against a large tree and my weapon across its root I have my sights on a North Vietnamese regular. He is about fifty or so yards across a gully that separates us. There are thirteen men left in my squad and they are scattered about the ridge on this side of the gully doing the same thing that I am, staying very quiet.
The sun came up about twenty minutes ago and I can now clearly see the activity that up until now I could only hear. There appears to be about fifteen of them. With surprise on our side this should be a very short battle.
The gully is a wide ditch that has carried a fair amount of water but is now mostly dry. A narrow stream meanders through the bottom of it and there is a lot of brush and foliage mostly on my side of it. The other side is sloped more gently and is largely clear of vegetation which will give me clear shots when the enemy starts to move down their slope.
The orders are to hold our fire until they start to move toward us and then stop them before they reach the bottom. Thinking about them and their false sense of security makes me wonder if I have ever been in anyone sights before and not known it.
One of them stands up and looks back up his side of the gully and then holds up his right hand. When his hand drops the fifteen men that I have been watching also stand up. My hand tightens on the grip of my M-16, the safety hasn't been on since I got to Vietnam. When he starts to move into the gully another group comes into view and behind them another.
"Don't shoot!" A voice comes from behind me. "Let's get the fuck out of here." I don't question the wisdom of the voice as I see another group start into the gully.
Turning to get out from under the bush I have been in, I stand and start to run through the brush away from my pursuers.
Pop, pop, pop. I hear the sound of gunfire. The first sounds are M-16s which means that not everyone got the don't shoot order. Then I hear the louder sound of automatic AK-47s as the regulars return the fire.
I can hear the sound of projectiles flying through the brush around me and then the loud pop of the rifle that sent them there. I am running at full speed now and not looking behind me. I can see someone else running to my right and some movement to my left. I look and see my friend Mike on a parallel course with me and, just as I start to look back to my path, I see him go down.
"Mike!" I yell, as I turn to go to his aid. There is no answer. Just as I get to where I can see him a volley of fire hits the brush around me. I can see blood coming out of the back of Mike’s head and know that I can't help him. I turn to run again, I feel a bullet pass my head and hear the sound a split second later. I am running as fast as I can go now, so why does everything feel like it's going in slow motion? Another gully, if I go down into it I will be an easy target going up the other side. I turn and run along the top of it to my left. I see a movement and raise my weapon.
"Hey, don't shoot!" It's my partner Ralph Eagle.
"They're right behind me." I shout.
"Don't feel like the lone ranger. I have a whole squad on my ass." He says as we start breaking through the brush trying to find an opening that we can run in.
The bushes give way to a clearing and we start to run in the edge of it for speed but not far enough out to make a clear target. I am starting to get very tired. But if I stop, I die.
"Uhhh!" Ralph stumbles and then goes down. I stop to help but there is no response from him and his chest has an exit wound as big as a fist. As I start to move again I feel a burning in my side and then hear the bullet hit. It penetrates my skin and muscle above the belt but nothing else. The impact sends me off balance into the brush. I recover enough to continue running in the direction that the bullet directed. The brush is heavier here but I am not as easy a target.
I don't hear any gunfire and so I slow my pace a little. My lungs are on fire and my mouth is so dry I find it hard to swallow. Stopping against a tree I reach for my canteen. The iodized water tastes pretty good. As I put it back in its pocket, I feel something wet on the other side. Blood, my shirt and pants over my left pocket are soaked.
I am alone now. I don't hear any gunfire but I can hear distant Vietnamese. I begin to walk away from the sound. Five more minutes down the trail and I feel like I can breathe again.
Then ten yards in front of me is a V.C. He is standing right in front of me and is raising his weapon. I can see it coming up in the same slow motion as before. I feel my weapon start to move as I try to out-draw my assailant. My trigger finger closes around the curved metal that starts the weapon firing. I can see the dirt fly from the bullets as they hit the ground in a trail toward the Cong. His weapon is coming up but it isn't firing. The first of my bullets hits him in the right thigh and he turns involuntarily in that direction. The next one hits him in the lower abdomen and then one enters his stomach and the last one in the magazine locks open my bolt as I see him go down from the impact of it hitting him in the heart. I'm alive.