The Dark Root

29

Twenty minutes later we switched helicopters in a field north of the border, the landing zone marked off by a wide circle of police cars, all with their headlights pointing toward the center. Spinney, Frazier, and I left our unloaded weapons on the National Guard unit, and with them our authority. As we ran, crouching, from one thundering aircraft to the other, we became mere privileged observers, as vulnerable as our case to whatever vagaries the Canadian officials might decree. It was at that moment that my adrenaline for the chase-which at its height was no doubt as powerful as Truong’s-underwent a sudden and sobering nose dive. I began fervently hoping that Lucas was all I’d privately made him out to be.

Certainly the influence of the Mounties seemed to live up to their reputation. Between the time we’d decided to let Truong return to Canada, and when we took off again in an official RCMP chopper, the quiet, diminutive Lucas had coordinated an impressively large operation.

As the helicopter gained altitude, Lucas informed us. “Truong abandoned the ATV outside of Rock Island about five minutes after we saw him cross the border. He was followed on foot into town, where he picked up a delivery van not far from the Customs building. He then took Autoroute 55 North toward Sherbrooke. We are expecting that he will take Autoroute 10 West into Montreal. The van is white, with the name of a Chinese catering service in Montreal on its side. It has not been reported missing or stolen, so we are assuming it is being used with permission. We will be tracking his progress most of the way in this,” he patted the wall of the helicopter, “with the aid of several ground units.”

The junction of Autoroutes 10 and 55 appeared in the darkness below us as the confluence of two sporadically dotted lines-each line being an irregular stream of vehicles. Given the hour, there wasn’t much to see.

Lucas pointed to one set of lights in particular “That’s him. All we have to do is now keep our eyes on him until we approach Montreal.”

An hour later, the traffic just outside Montreal thickened enough to make our vantage point unreliable. We handed the surveillance back to the ground units, and landed among a spider web of railroad tracks, just east of downtown, on the river’s north shore. There, Lucas led the three of us to an unmarked van.

Once underway, he gave us another update. “He’s been followed to the Chinatown area-rue de la Gauchetière. He’s in his vehicle, parked on St-Laurent.”

“Just sitting there?” Spinney repeated, grabbing the seat ahead of him as the van took a fast corner. “Isn’t that where Da Wang hangs out?”

Lucas agreed. “Yes. That is the problem. You know Jean-Paul Lacoste, correct? He is going there with his team. There is much activity apparently. We are thinking the affair at the border has caused the need for a meeting, but Truong’s presence worries us.”

I felt a sudden coldness settle in my chest, sensing at last the potential carnage I’d set in motion-the very bloodbath Frazier had cautioned against, and that Nguyen had said Truong was capable of creating. I realized then the significance of those two shots Truong had fired at Boucher and me. They’d been the mile markers of a man whose despair had hit bottom, whose last option was to offer himself up in the name of his cause. Just as my argument in the helicopter had reflected my own obsession, and had been used to browbeat others into an enthusiasm they weren’t sure they shared, so Truong had now dispensed with the niceties of any carefully thought-out plan, and had yielded at last to the despair and pure rage that had launched his vendetta at the edge of his brother’s open grave.

I gave in to a moment of self-doubt and guilt. “Let’s grab him now. Get it over with before we lose control.”

There was a moment’s startled pause at my abrupt turnaround. Spinney murmured, “Little late for that,” as Lucas shook his head. “We do not have enough men in place yet. Besides, I think it would be premature.”

Suddenly distracted by a message on his radio, Lucas spoke rapidly to the driver. The van’s hidden siren burst to life, and the red and blue lights behind the grille pulsated off the dark buildings nearby, as other traffic made way for us.

Lucas explained, his arm thrown over the back of his seat. “He was seen leaving the van with a small bag, heading up La Gauchetière. He entered Da Wang’s building, and now there are reports of multiple gunshots. All our surveillance units are changing to tactical mode, but our special-support teams are still not there. It is all happening too fast.”

We squealed around a corner I recognized from our last visit, one block shy of the Chinatown Holiday Inn, and came to a shuddering stop opposite the rue de la Gauchetière’s ornate Oriental gateway. All around us, emergency lights from dozens of haphazardly parked and rapidly converging vehicles shimmered in the night sky.

We followed Lucas up the street at a run. Ahead, we could hear the sharp, staccato beat of automatic gunfire.

At the end of the block, we came to a group of plainclothes officers, Lacoste’s tall, thin form prominent among them.

Spinney pointed to the East Wind Trade Association building we’d visited earlier, another half block farther on. On the sidewalk opposite, we could see three lifeless bodies. Beyond it, under a safely distant streetlight, stood another group of officers, among whom I recognized Antoine Schmitt, the MUC liaison officer we’d met during our first trip to the city.

In just the few minutes we’d been waiting, the entire neighborhood had filled with cops-plainclothes, uniformed, and combat-ready.

Things were obviously quickly getting organized, and we were obviously not to be a part of it.

A young woman split away from the group Lacoste and Lucas were in and approached us with an apologetic smile. “I am sorry, gentlemen. Monsieur Lucas has asked me if you would be so kind as to return to the car? He does not want you hurt in this situation.”

Frazier, as our senior representative, acknowledged the message, thanked the young woman, and led the way back. As we reached the first corner, however, I glanced over my shoulder, and saw Schmitt and his group still loitering where they had been. Unable to envision sitting out this drama’s conclusion, I yielded to my growing anxiety and cut away unobserved, intent on circling the block and coming up behind our erstwhile liaison. I didn’t know why Schmitt was here, but I was hoping that, given his diplomatic assignment, he might be more amenable to my being closer to the action.

Frazier and Spinney, distracted by the activity at the staging area just ahead of them, didn’t notice my departure. It was just as well-running around in flagrant disregard of an order by the RCMP didn’t strike me as something Frazier in particular would condone, especially since my last decision had been the direct cause of this mess.

The street I took, a block shy of St-Laurent, led to a broad avenue named Viger, where I turned right again. As I approached the Holiday Inn, with its distinctive pagoda roof, I noticed that across the street-and connected to my side by an enclosed overhead walkway-was a Metro stop, housed within a long, low, ugly concrete office building. There was very little traffic and no sign whatsoever of the drama unfolding just one block to the north.

I did a slow jog along Viger, past the hotel, and turned up a short dead-end street that led back to La Gauchetière, my eyes on the reflected glow of the revolving lights. About halfway up the empty street, however, something made me stop-a slight noise, a sense of movement. I wasn’t sure. Instinctively, I slid into a doorway and looked back at a narrow alleyway I’d just passed. Emerging from it, and walking quickly away toward Viger and the Metro station on its far side, was the dim silhouette of a thin, quick-moving, energetic man.

From the back, it looked just like Truong Van Loc.

I whirled around, but there was no one to call to at the end of the street. I could still hear sporadic gunfire from deep inside the block of buildings next to me, presumably from the police assault. I faced Viger again. The man I’d seen was halfway across the street already, his goal now utterly clear-along with my responsibility. Ruing my decision not to have enlisted at least Spinney in my impulsive side trip, I ran across a small plaza that led to the enclosed overhead bridge I’d seen earlier, and headed for the Metro station by the high road, thereby avoiding the chance that Truong might see me.

Not that I was all that confident I was following Truong. The continuing gunfire threw me off, not to mention that this man had appeared out of nowhere, and at a considerable distance from the action.

My route led me to a broad set of stairs leading down to a large, empty lobby, to the left of which were the doors to the Place d’Armes Metro Station. I waited a moment while “Truong” negotiated his way through the electronic turnstile and disappeared down the right staircase, under an orange sign reading Henri Bourassa.

I then pushed through the station’s double doors and ran up to the attendant in his booth. Beneath my feet, I could feel the slight trembling of an arriving train. Fearing it might be the one Truong was waiting for, I silently thrust a five-dollar bill at the man behind the glass, rather than trying to get him to call the police on my behalf, on the dubious strength of an American badge and a weird story about chasing Asian gangsters. He gave me several paper tickets.

I quickly went to the turnstile, fed it one of the tickets, and bolted through the gate and down the same stairs Truong had taken just a few moments earlier.

It had been his train pulling in, and as I reached the bottom step, I could hear a series of warning beeps going off overhead, telling me the doors were about to close. Choosing the risk that he might see me over the certainty that I’d lose him otherwise, I ran to slip in between the doors just before they hissed shut.

I was alone in the car.

I tried to orient myself in relation to the city above. We were heading east, and according to the Metro map mounted on the car’s wall, we were on the Orange Line, or the Côte Vertu/Henri Bourassa Line. Our next stop would be Champs Mars. Even as I figured that out, I could feel the train’s momentum ebbing, and an incomprehensible announcement in French came over the loudspeakers. I moved across the aisle and crouched next to the sliding door. As I waited, I pulled my Swiss Army knife from my pocket and unfolded one of its blades, hoping to hell no one would be standing on the platform with plans of using this particular door.

The train entered a brightly lit, totally empty station, and came to a gradual, smooth stop. The doors slid open, and I immediately poked the end of the blade out past the threshold, using its shiny surface as a mirror to watch the platform ahead of me, while I flattened my head against the car’s interior wall to obliquely watch the area to the rear of the train. No one appeared on the platform. A minute later the doors closed, and we pulled out again.

The next station was Berri-UQAM, a junction of three separate lines, heading off in different directions-and a perfect place for things to get complicated.

As we pulled in, seeing that a few predawn commuters were sprinkled along the platform, I changed tactics slightly. I stood by the door, and when it opened, I ducked my head out a couple of times as people brushed by me. As the warning beeps sounded, I saw Truong exit from two cars up and cut across the platform into a wide, arched hallway. I slipped free of the train just before the doors closed and flattened myself against the station wall. Risking a quick glance around the corner, I saw Truong’s back receding down a flight of stairs to the right.

As he disappeared from view, I moved cautiously to the top of the stairs and then waited until he’d vanished along a lower-level passageway. About halfway down the stairs after him, suddenly troubled by the sounds of my shoes, I took them off, shoving them into my jacket pockets.

Truong continued on through an intersection with another pedestrian walkway and committed himself to a passage marked Longueuil.

From my earlier reading of the Metro map, I remembered Longueuil as being on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence, a neighboring district of Brossard where, days earlier, Lacoste had shown Spinney and me the residential highlights of the Asian community. I began to imagine where Truong might be heading.

I followed him down yet another set of stairs, this one ending in a rough cement, low-ceilinged, gray station, a dingy imitation of its bright vaulted counterpart two flights up.

There I found myself in a bit of a squeeze. I could see Truong-whom I identified with certainty now-standing nervously by the edge of the platform, but I was worried that another prospective passenger might come up behind me and wonder why I was lurking in the entrance tunnel.

Predictably, I immediately heard footsteps clattering on the cement steps behind me. As an older man came into view, I crouched down and innocently began tying the laces to the shoes I’d just put back on. He walked by me without a glance.

Truong studied the man carefully and then abandoned his exposed position by the platform’s edge, opting for the safety of a bench located in one of the alcoves lining the concrete wall. This gave me a sudden double advantage-I could vacate the exposed passageway and secret myself instead in another of the alcoves, far from Truong’s.

As I moved, I noticed a bright-red sign along the station’s wall, labeled S.O.S. It was suspended over a red phone and a small fire extinguisher, both mounted inside a cabinet. I hoped our final destination would have an equally visible phone I could use to call the police-and that I’d have the opportunity to do so.

Another clean, quiet, rubber-wheeled blue train rushed into the station. Truong crossed the platform, getting on near the front. I boarded last, watching that Truong didn’t reverse himself at the last second. He didn’t.

According to the map, there were only two remaining stops ahead-Ile-Ste-Hélène, and the terminus, Longueuil. Ile-Ste-Hélène was one of the two islands in the middle of the Saint Lawrence that had been used in the Expo ’67 fair, almost thirty years earlier. The whole of Ile-Notre-Dame just beyond it, I remembered, had been created especially for the event, and now was home to the city’s highly lucrative casino-which made me wonder if that might be Truong’s destination.

Truong got off at Ile-Ste-Hélène, and quickly vanished into the exit tunnel.

Swearing at his sudden speed, I ran for the red S.O.S. phone and hurriedly told the operator, “This is a police emergency. Please contact Jean-Pierre Lacoste of the MUC or Jacques Lucas of the RCMP and tell them that Truong, the man they’re after, just got off the Metro at Ile-Ste-Hélène. Tell them that Joe Gunther is in pursuit and needs help fast. Got it?”

“This is who?” came the startled reply.

“Shit,” I muttered, hanging up and taking the steps two at a time, worried now that even if they did get the message, I wouldn’t be able to tell them what direction Truong had taken.

I slowed at the top of the stairs-on the chance he might be waiting in the lobby-but the place was empty. I ran to the bank of glass doors and out to a large, empty parking lot, blinking to adjust to the darkness, now just tinged with gray on the eastern horizon.

My environment was a startling transformation from where I’d disappeared underground just twenty-five minutes earlier. I was standing in the midst of a strange other world, highlighted by exotic and contrasting icons-a dark and gloomy forest to my back, just beyond an old, monastery-style building on the edge of a huge, empty, soiled swimming pool; the looming, twenty-story-tall Buckminster Fuller geodesic dome, glowing like a skinless golf ball with indirect interior lighting; and beyond it, in the far distance, the Montreal Casino on the other island-the old ’67 French Pavilion-ablaze with light, looking like some oversized geometric mobile that had been cut loose and dropped to the earth in a heap. In the darkness, the whole area seemed like a dumping ground for Montreal’s rejected monuments.

Most impressive, however, was that it was all utterly abandoned. I heard no sounds, saw no signs of life-and could see no trace of Truong.

I moved away from the Metro building, toward the huge dome, and came to a junction of pedestrian footpaths. There I heard the smallest scrape of a foot against pavement, far to the left, in the gloom skirting the edge of the monastery by the swimming pool. Again, I pulled off my shoes and began jogging in the same direction.

Beyond the building, the darkness became near absolute. Before me was a low, wooded hill, part of a park crisscrossed with paved walkways, its details discernible only against the distant, feeble glow of the city across the wide river-the flashing Molson sign, the string of lights outlining the Jacques Cartier bridge. The slight sound that had lured me here slowly lost its serendipity, and began to feel more like part of an elaborate trap. I stood absolutely still, a rabbit caught in a pair of metaphorical headlights, wondering from which direction an attack might come.

Until I heard the sound again.

It came from up ahead, across the narrow road that went by the monastery’s front entrance, deeper in the park. Running silently toward the sound, I gave chase.

I found him about halfway up the opposite hill, among the trees, walking quickly and purposefully, intent on his enigmatic goal. Following by several hundred feet, just barely keeping his shadow in view, I wracked my memory for the details of this island, which I’d last visited in 1967 during the fair. The woods, I knew, eventually yielded to the Cartier bridge, an old British-built fort, and an enormous amusement park that occupied the entire northern tip of the island. There were also several parking areas, and it was toward one of those, I began thinking, that we must be headed-a perfect meeting place-out of the way, and with instant access to a major road out of town.

I caught sight of a strange light from the top of the hill, flickering as it filtered through the leaves of the serried trees. Truong reached a fork in the path, and without hesitation headed directly for the light. I continued following, wishing for the sounds of sirens-some sign that my message had been passed along and coherently delivered.

Gradually, separating itself from the darkness of the enveloping woods, there loomed a larger, thicker, more statuesque shadow-that of a heavy stone tower marking the crown of the hill. The light we’d both been following shimmered from its top, giving the grassy, treeless area at its base some faint distinction, which was further aided by the increasing glow from the east. I hung back more, worried about being spotted.

Truong continued undaunted, leaving the trees and approaching the final, steep climb to the tower itself. I peered ahead, wondering what he knew that I didn’t, and saw a second shadow separate itself from the darkness of the tower’s mass. It was then, more instinctively than from anything I could discern of that second shadow’s intent, that I knew the other man to be Lo Yu Lung-Edward Diep-whose only option now, I was convinced-with the sudden and chaotic turn of events Truong had just precipitated in Chinatown-was to complete the destruction he’d begun so many years ago in that San Francisco restaurant.

The inevitability of what was about to happen welled up inside me with the white heat of frustrated certainty. Truong himself was about to be put down like an overly trusting dog by Dennis DeFlorio’s killer, who would then escape into the night while I impotently stood by.

Without thought or plan, I shouted at the top of my voice, “Stop.”

The effect was instantaneous. Truong dove off the trail, back into the woods, and Diep vanished as if by magic, reabsorbed by the tower’s shadow. I took cover as fast as I could behind the nearest tree trunk, knowing clearly but too late that I was the only one without a gun, and that the other two still believed themselves to be allies.

“Truong,” I shouted again, seizing my only weapon, “this is Joe Gunther, from the Brattleboro Police Department. Give yourself up to the Canadian authorities. We know about your brother, about how you went after his killers. We know you kept Da Wang for last. I was in the truck that chased you through the woods a couple of hours ago. I followed you from Chinatown just now. You’ve been under surveillance for a long time. You’ve got nothing left. You’ll die tonight if you don’t give up.”

My words floated off into the air, replaced by the anonymous hum of the glimmering metropolis across the water.

“Did you ever wonder how Edward Diep found you, or where he came from?” I started again. “You took Henry Lam’s word for it that he was okay. And because Henry trusted him, you trusted him. But Diep was playing you all against each other. He was the one who planted the car bomb that killed that police officer. He was the one who undermined your whole operation in Brattleboro. You know why?”

Again, I could hear only silence, and I began to fear that while I was shouting to the trees, one or both of these men was busy moving around to my back. I paused to reposition myself about forty feet away.

“Whatever happened to Lo Yu Lung?” I yelled out. “Didn’t you wonder why you couldn’t find him?” A muzzle flash and an explosion lit up the night about halfway down from the tower. The bullet smacked into a tree nearby.

I shifted position again. “He’s getting nervous, Truong. Trying to shut me up.”

Two more shots were fired, still comfortably off target, “Lo and Diep are the same man. I’ve got proof. He killed Michael Vu so Vu couldn’t tell you. He told Da Wang where you kept your bank in Newport. Your pal Nguyen knows all this. He knew you were doomed-that you’d been stabbed in the back a long time ago. You just didn’t know it.”

I moved again, hoping I’d said enough, knowing that all this shouting might well be suicidal.

The next shot, when it came, was farther off, directed at someone else. For once, it was Diep who’d had the rug pulled out from under him, and who was scrambling for cover. That last shot, coming from near the tower, revealed his new priorities. Of the three options open to him now-escape, killing me, and killing Truong-only the last held out the hope that he might survive. Left alive, Truong would be a persistent threat, even if he spent a few years in prison.

Ignored for the moment, I circled around the peak of the hill and came up behind the tower, pausing briefly to put my shoes back on. The sky was paling steadily now, and the woods below beginning to gain definition. The cat and mouse were running out of time.

Nevertheless, I didn’t actually see what happened next. There were several flashes from opposing gunfire, and suddenly a yell. Only then did I catch some movement-the flickering of a shadow on a path leading downhill, in the direction of the glowing geodesic dome beyond the woods. The echoing of footsteps on the pavement told me of a chase. In the distance, hopelessly far off, I could finally hear sirens wailing.

Cautiously, I brought up the rear, jogging along the footpath I was pretty sure they’d taken. As I cleared the woods and came into the parking lot of the fancy restaurant near the dome, I saw both of them ahead of me, Truong leading, limping, running incongruously toward the erstwhile American Pavilion.

The dome had burned several years ago, the fire gutting its contents and removing its plastic skin. Gradually being rebuilt, it had been left open to the elements, its latticework of interlocking tetra- and octahedrons a visual wonder and a magnet for pigeons. An odd, space-age structure had been erected within its cocoon-an upended, ten-story-tall concrete, steel, and glass box, almost like a diving tower, with various appendages sticking out from its sides-observation booths, staircases, balconies-the most prominent of which was a long, wide platform, free floating on thin pillars, hovering some seventy feet above the ground like an enormous diving board.

As I watched, Truong leaped through the dome’s dizzying latticework and staggered up a metal staircase that led-switchback on switchback-up to that celestial platform. He paused at several points to fire in Diep’s direction to keep him sufficiently at bay. Only when he was near the top did he wait too long. Diep took advantage of that one extra split second to step clear of his barricade and squeeze off a lucky shot that caught Truong in the back.

Truong staggered on, finally gaining the protection of the winglike concrete projection.

As I watched from the shelter of an empty information booth at the edge of the parking lot, Diep moved out into the open, looking back at me, trying to gauge how best to get at Truong, as cognizant as I was of the approaching sirens. But his nemesis had chosen well. As odd at it had seemed at first, the platform was an ideal defensive position, especially for a man no longer seeking to escape. Utterly protected, approachable from one highly exposed avenue only, it forced Diep to either commit or abandon.

Perhaps responding at last to his own sense of fatalism, Diep committed. Turning his back on the reality around him, he began climbing the staircase.

I ran to the south side of the dome, where the platform jutted out without seeming function or purpose. Stepping through the veil of interlocking steel triangles, craning my neck to look up, I could see only the lip of the concrete slab and, in the distance, to its rear, the small figure of Diep, climbing.

Like a spectator at a movie in which I could not affect the outcome, I watched and waited for the inevitable.

There was a movement above me, at the railing on the platform’s edge, as far from the stairs as possible. A hand gripped one of the tubular cross pieces, and I saw Truong pull himself with grim deliberation to a sitting position and wedge himself against one of the uprights. Instinctively, I knew he must be mortally hurt. Let Diep come on, his long crawl along the platform’s length said.

But I was wrong, yet again. From high on his perch, with Diep cautiously advancing, Truong turned away and looked down at me, his gun in his hand.

Curiously, I felt no danger. I looked up at him, as if responding to some incomprehensible communication, and I spread my empty hands wide, indicating I had no weapon.

I thought I saw him smile then; he gestured with the gun, as if offering it. Although I made no response, he dropped it to me anyway. It landed in the gravel near my feet with a crunch. Reacting by reflex, I walked over and picked it up, popped out the clip, and saw it still had several rounds.

I looked back up at him, noticing that Diep was no longer visible on the staircase. He had obviously made it to the platform. Only now did I understand. Take out this man in my name, Truong had implied, in my brother’s name, perhaps in your fellow slain officer’s name. Kill the man who would kill me, for I no longer have the strength.

I stared up at him in wonder. He was right, of course. With his gun, now I had the advantage over Diep, who was cornered. But he was also wrong. While our roles might have appeared similar, our motivations couldn’t be. I didn’t share the passion, the beliefs, the cultural obligations that had brought him to this place. I wasn’t even sure I understood them-not as he did.

Looking up at him, our eyes locked, the air around us now vibrating with sirens coming from all angles, I shook my head, and dropped the gun.

There was a moment’s pause, before he turned away resignedly. Seconds later, several shots rang out, Truong’s body spasmed briefly, and one arm slipped out between the railing, dangling lifelessly in the air, its hand open.

I turned at the sound of cars squealing to a stop behind me, and saw both uniformed and plainclothes officers spreading out in tactical positions, making me doubly glad I’d dropped Truong’s weapon. I recognized Lacoste among them and then saw Frazier, Spinney, and Lucas all stepping out of their van.

Following their gaze, I looked back to the edge of the huge, floating platform. Standing next to Truong’s dead body, Lo placed both his hands on the railing’s top rung, still holding his gun. He looked down at the impressive display of vehicles and police officers fanned out below him.

I heard Lacoste’s distinctive voice, slightly blurred by a loudspeaker, demanding Lo’s surrender. But predictably, almost anticlimactically, Lo exploited his other option, bringing this cataclysm to an end. He raised his gun, took aim at the crowd beneath him, and died in a last angry outburst of bullets.