Slash and Burn

Your way with words. The way that the common people just naturally relate to you.”
    Peach’s eyes had rolled so many times they should technically have been on the other side of the room by now. But Civilai urged her onward.
    “It’s true,” said the senator. “I do feel a great deal of love from the little people. I guess that’s what spurred me forward when times were hard.”
    “We could have used skills like yours in this region.”
    “Oh, I was here, of course.”
    “You were?”
    “Didn’t you know?”
    “No.”
    “Goodness me, yes. I was in Vietnam during the war. If I hadn’t been so valuable at the embassy I would have enlisted. As it turned out I took over the role of my Uncle Edwin. I was in Saigon for two years. Just a small administrative position.”
    “He was in Saigon for two years,” said Dtui, reading her notes about Major Potter. “He was the military attaché there. It seems he did a lot of the hiring and firing of advisors. Pretty powerful. But it appears his drinking habit started over there too. Looks like he couldn’t handle the pressure.”
    “Wasn’t Sergeant Johnson in Saigon?” Daeng asked.
    Dtui went back over her notes on the original CVs.
    “He was there from sixty-five to sixty-eight.”
    “And Major Potter?”
    “Sixty-six to sixty-eight.”
    “If they knew each other they didn’t say,” said Daeng.
    “I imagine the place was overcrowded with men in uniform,” said Siri. “It’s possible they didn’t run into each other.”
    “Another coincidence, though,” said Phosy.
    “And if Potter was doing all the hiring and firing, and Johnson was applying for a pilot position, you’d think they’d at least have heard of each other,” Siri added.
    Auntie Bpoo emerged from the bathroom at last and Siri noticed Dr. Yamaguchi squeeze her hand as she passed. No accounting for taste.
    “That’s it for Potter,” said Dtui. “We just have a few words about Senator Bowry. It seems the war was good to him, too. He’d been struggling with a little family import business, teak furniture from Asia mostly. A lot from Thailand. Then in the late sixties I guess the teak business took off. Made a lot of money. He invested his profits in real estate and the next thing you know he’s stinking rich. He used his money to get into politics.”
    “That was certainly a meteoric rise from embassy clerk to senator in the space of ten years,” said Civilai. “How did you achieve that?”
    “Not a clerk, exactly—senior administrator, more like. I admit I had some pull. And those were war years. Crazy times.”
    “ He means all the good guys were dead ,” Peach added outside the confines of her translation. She’d learned a thing or two from Auntie Bpoo. Civilai didn’t react.
    “A man of a certain … stature could rise through the ranks back then,” Vogal continued. “It’s not so easy now. I had an excellent track record, clearly defined political goals and a respected family name.”
    “ And shit loads of money and a pretty wife ,” Peach contributed. She was losing control. It was time for Civilai to go on the offensive.
    “So, you were a senior administrator at the embassy…?”
    “I was dealing mostly with the movement of personnel.” The senator remembered his watch. It was barely eight.
    “Of course, Saigon.” Civilai nodded knowingly. “I imagine everything was open and above board there. No shady dealings whatsoever.”
    “We did our best to maintain a certain transparency, it’s true.”
    “Not like in Laos then.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I’m afraid you Americans weren’t quite as transparent over here. In fact, I’m tempted to say your money was responsible for buying and selling several coalition governments that didn’t suit your fancy.”
    A US Republican senator in a locked room. Civilai felt a warm glow. The senator’s smile was as fake as a Giaconda with blonde highlights. He took up a tone of syrupy condescension.
    “Oh, Mr. Civilai,” he said. “You have to remember that you were in an information cocoon here in the wilds of Laos. You couldn’t possibly know just how much good the US was doing for your country. It’s common knowledge to anyone outside of Red Indochina that the vast majority of our budget for Laos was spent on aid.”
    Civilai laughed, which caused the senator’s brow to rise and his wispy comb-over to flop across his field of vision.
    “The vast majority of your budget went on B-52s and