Life as a New Hire Ch. 44 - Extra

Most of the Seven Pillars' leadership thought this was a great plan. Trần Hưng Đạo was level-headed, reasonable, patriotic, not about to screw with their hierarchy, regularly destroyed Mongol armies and would be motivated to work with them because his nation had sold itself out to the Great Khan and only he could save it -- and kill a lot of Mongols in the process. The man was a freaking genius with an unbroken winning streak versus the 7P's greatest enemy. It was foolproof.

If you see the two flaws in this plan, you wouldn't be alone. Several concerned 7P leaders kept pointing out he was VIETNAMESE. Since the end of the Mongol-Chinese Yuan dynasty, the biggest problem for the Vietnamese had been ... you guessed it -- CHINA.

The Vietnamese had a bunch of rusting hulks sitting on the bottom of the South China Sea to prove it along with a few hundred thousand graves of those patriots who had died defending their country -- from CHINA. The last country to invade Vietnam wasn't Siam, Kampuchea, Japan, France, or the United States. It was the PRC -- China -- mainland China.

The second flaw? Oh yeah, Trần Hưng Đạo was in Paradise, damn it! He'd earned it by being an exemplary human being; humble and heroic in equal measure plus he was really a kick ass poet. His enemies were far too afraid of him to curse his afterlife. His people loved him -- 815 years after his death. He was a freaking saint!

No -- really -- he was a saint in Vietnam. People gave offerings to his shrines to thank him for something he did EIGHT HUNDRED YEARS AGO! He was Vietnam's male Joan of Arc, except he wasn't betrayed by his countrymen and died quietly at the age of 73.

Some Story Line thoughts

Now we go back to that transformational process which occurs when a dead soul passes through the Weave in order to be reborn. Ole Trần Hưng Đạo was about to get schooled in the last 815 years of Vietnamese history and culture along with his geopolitical, technological, strategic, and martial updates.

He would also pick up some nifty artistic skill. After all, he was truly a man who only wanted to sit in his private garden, putting choice prose to page. He loved poetry. It would have been right up top on his Facebook page, if he had one. He was a military genius because that was what his country called for him to be, not because it was his chosen profession.

His first questions after he regained consciousness would be something like this;

"What do you want me to do?"

-Destroy the resurgent Mongol Empire of Temujin.

"Nice to know. I'm interested. What is the size of the occupation army in Vietnam?"

-Your government has betrayed your people to the Khanate.

"So the traitors' army is being supported by a large Mongol contingent then."

-Not exactly. The corrupt God-less leaders of Vietnam have devoted their nation to his cause -- down the road to their utter destruction.

"Very well. Where do I begin?"

-We need to teach you to understand the tenets of modern, mobile warfare.

"Thank you. I am willing to start right now. When do you think the Mongols will attack?"

-Not until mid-winter. It is early autumn.

"Thank you for my new life. I am anxious to stop the Mongol Menace."

-A. he was interested in what the Seven Pillars wanted him to do, but not for the reason they believed. He knew he was being used. He simply wanted to know what they wanted to use him for. After all, simply defying them would have resulted in his death and he had the feeling Vietnam needed him once more.

-B. Trần Hưng Đạo didn't hate the Mongols, or the Chinese for that matter. He saved his emotional investment in the same cause he had always devoted it to -- defending his homeland from foreign domination. Their point of origin was irrelevant to him.

-C. he wanted to know how much his homeland was in danger. What did he learn? The clearest danger to Vietnam was in the room with him, not the Mongols. In one fell swoop, he was informed that Vietnam was both not under occupation and was about to go to war against his current captors.

Finding out that the current rulers of Đại Việt were Godless Communists had been a heavy blow. He was a religious man and a devote monarchist. He was also not a revolutionary -- he was a patriot. He despised the communists, but they were Vietnamese and the Seven Pillars were not. Reference the word: patriot.

Coming back to life, he had already been enlightened to the present political and military situation. He wanted to see what spin the Chinese would put on the situation to get a basis for determining when they would be attacking Vietnam. Considering the Gong Tao sorcerers were unaware that he knew what he knew, (this resurrection was something they didn't do a lot, if at all), he figured the 7P's were in some deep kimchee.

-D. he wanted to know how much time he had to make his escape. He reasoned that they wouldn't expect results from him for two months -- three if he was lucky. That was his timetable to plan his escape. The Mongols weren't the menace, the Seven Pillars were. Had they forgotten that he was a level-headed, reasonable genius? Of course he was going to pretend to go along with their scheme. If he didn't, they would kill him and resurrect contestant #2.

His nation was in danger from these bastards and he, as a patriot, had to attempt to stop them. Since he had the nasty tendency of succeeding at things he attempted, he was figured his chances of escaping were pretty good. His opponents were certainly bright and powerful. They were also incredibly bigoted and expected obedience from their 'lessers'.

He planned to excel at his lessons. Remaining obedient and useful to his captors was critical to his survival. By proving his brilliance, he would be able to gather intelligence on what was really going on. They had already confessed this new Khanate was led by the resurrected Genghis Khan. That shit wasn't right and was beyond the scope of what he had gleamed from the Weave, thus not common knowledge.

Reasoned hypothesis #1: the Mongols were another secret society at war with his jailors. It would be foolish for him to assume that in the whole wide world that had been opened up to him, there were not others.

Resolution #1: he lacked enough information to formulate a wise resolution at this time.

The World was a globe. He could access any population center anywhere within 24 hours. Trần Hưng Đạo knew all about lines of communications, garnering resources and the economy of war. There was an elephant load of natural and man-made resources out there that were accessible to groups like the Seven Pillars. Since the Seven Pillars were in trouble, they didn't have access to those resources, so someone else was defying them.

Reasoned hypothesis #2: going to the Mongols wasn't an option. They would see him for the threat he was and return him to Paradise. While appealing, that wasn't helping his nation and people.

Resolution #2: find someone who could talk to the Mongols on his behalf and who couldn't, or wouldn't, imprison him. He had an obvious answer in Tibet. If he was the Seven Pillars and his captive fled for a safe haven, it would be Tibet. Going to Vietnam, while heading home, would still render him devoid of pertinent information. He was neither a super spy nor had access to the criminal underworld.

Tibetans were spiritual, so the odds were good they would accept his story. They would contact the Mongols for him. It appeared to be the logical choice of safe havens, except his goal in escaping wasn't staying alive. It was saving his homeland.

What was presented to him after some light research on known and possible elements of the Mongol array was an anomaly. The anomaly's name was Hana Sulkanen. The Seven Pillars knew of her existence and her relationship to one Cáel Nyilas ... an Amazon Prince of Magyar-Irish descent and, for undisclosed reason, spiritual blood-brother to the Great Khan. He was also a critical member of the US/UK intelligence group called JIKIT.

Amazons? He wasn't sure how promising that was' except for the fact they were sworn enemies of the Seven Pillars -- something about irradiated testicles and a battalion of dead Seven Pillars operatives who died trying to kidnap the Amazons' children. They would do nicely.

Irish? He had a vague idea they were in Western Europe -- a small island nation of not military significance. That wasn't helpful.

Magyar? He concentrated. Those were now called Hungarians and historically, the Mongols had killed their king and plundered their kingdom some time ago. He had no information to make him believe relations had improved overly much since then.

JIKIT? They were a group networked into various foreign intelligence-gathering apparatus though their mission appeared vague and ill-defined. The Seven Pillars had them all on their Hit List which was a serious plus in Trần Hưng Đạo's opinion.

Nyilas Cáel was an enigma. Why was he the spiritual blood-brother of the most dangerous human being he was aware of? Why wasn't he surrounded by a princely guard? Those questions were important, but the answers weren't crucial to his plan. Hana was. She was a humanitarian (sadly not Buddhist) and betrothed to Prince Cáel.

Hmmm ... a note.

Assassin Team #1 [one member] -- dead.

Assassin Team #2 [three members] -- dead.

Kidnap Team #1 [eight members] -- dead.

But the 7Ps had finally figured out she was protected by a group called the 'Ghost Tigers'. She also had 'Illuminati' bodyguards with no current intelligence as to why she had such guardians.

Hana was the key. She had a phone number (unlisted -- that hadn't stopped the 7P's from getting it), an address, a place of business (including the precise location of her office) and a relationship with a person who had a relationship with the people he wanted to talk to.

Not the Mongols -- the Amazons. Apparently they were becoming a serious annoyance to the Seven Pillars and, unlike the Mongols, had no immediate reason to make a reborn Vietnamese war hero dead before he made his case [not truly understanding the man-hating nature of the Amazons]. That led to ...

Reasoned hypothesis #3: he wasn't going to help the Seven Pillars. That was a given. In time, they would figure that out and kill him. He needed to escape.

Solution #3: he could read Chinese and knew how to drive a car -- it was a common skill for a man of his age and social position. Once more, his jailors appeared to be unaware of the later and didn't consider the former relevant to his escape plans. He wasn't driving to Tibet, Vietnam, or to the Khanate. The UK's embassy was much closer and much safer -- no one would expect it.

From there, his pathway was clear. Insist on talking to the MI-6's officer on station (knowledge provided by the 7P's), tell him to contact JIKIT with the code word: Seven Pillars and claim to be a defector -- from both the PRC and the 7P's. That would result in his exit from mainland China to a place theoretically beyond their reach -- either Western Europe, or North America (the HQ of JIKIT).

His English skills were weak. His French was good and he was a quick learner. Being martially proficient, Trần Hưng Đạo rated the possibility very high that he could evade his new 'guardians' relatively easily, once he was close to his destination city. He had no intention of going to JIKIT right away. He didn't understand their motivations and they were in the people-killing business.

[Again, he didn't understand the true nature of the Amazons as his information came to him through the filter of the Seven Pillars bigotry.]

Trần Hưng Đạo would use his modern lore -- had he cell phones, computers and satellites back in 1285, not a single Mongol would have returned home -- he would physically confront Hana and plead his case. His read of her? She was a generally good person seasoned by wealth, privilege and business experience ~ running her own small kingdom at the behest of her patriarch.

A critical advantage to this plan was his captors' misogyny and their preconceived notion that he shared in it. Perhaps someone should have reminded them of Vietnam's first patriots and martyrs -- the Trưng sisters who rebelled, fought and died resisting the Chinese Han Empire in the first half of the first century CE.

Or they could have chosen to recall Lady Triệu/Triệu Thị Trinh who rebelled against the Chinese state of Eastern Wu two hundred years later. Her immortal words were a guiding light to all poets who wished to inspire freedom.

"I'd like to ride storms, kill sharks in the open sea, drive out the aggressors, reconquer the country, undo the ties of serfdom, and never bend my back to be the concubine of whatever man."

Fleeing to the UK embassy, while unexpected was a reasonable action. Pinning all his hopes for life and freedom on a foreign woman? They wouldn't see that coming until it was far too late.

As an added incentive to encourage him in his work (and buy his loyalty), the Seven Pillars offered him five Vietnamese concubines/spies. Being a humble man with a busy itinerary, he selected only one. After all, getting out by himself would be hard enough.

Escaping with his countrywoman who had been brainwashed to betray him and every principle he stood for would be exponentially harder. As was mentioned earlier, he had to make the attempt and he had the nasty tendency of succeeding at things he attempted.

Two weeks in, one of his Seven Pillars instructors commented on a tune Trần Hưng Đạo had been humming. He asked about its origin.

"It is called 'Next Stop is Vietnam'," Trần answered.

"Oh, I am not familiar with it," the man commented.

"Don't worry about it. It was from before your time."

[For the curious; based on the song's lyrics as sung by Country Joe and the Fish]

Well, come on all of you, big strong men, Uncle Han {1} needs your help again.

He's got himself in a terrible jam way down yonder in Vietnam.

So put down your books and pick up a gun, we're gonna have a whole lotta fun.

And it's one, two, three, what are we fighting for?

Don't ask me, I don't give a damn, Next stop is Vietnam;

And it's five, six, seven, open up the Pearly Gates,

Well there ain't no time to wonder why,

Whoopee! We're all gonna die.

Come on Lou Jiwei {2}, don't be slow,

Why man, this is war au-go-go --

There's plenty good money to be made by supplying the Army with the tools of its trade,

But just hope and pray that if they drop the bomb, they drop it on the Viet Cong.

And it's one, two, three, what are we fighting for?

Don't ask me, I don't give a damn, Next stop is Vietnam;

And it's five, six, seven, open up the Pearly Gates,

Well there ain't no time to wonder why,

Whoopee! We're all gonna die.

Well, come on generals, let's move fast; your big chance has come at last.

Now you can go out and get those Reds --

'cause the only good commie is the one that's dead and you know that peace can only be won --

When we've blown 'em all to kingdom come.

And it's one, two, three, what are we fighting for?

Don't ask me, I don't give a damn, Next stop is Vietnam;

And it's five, six, seven, open up the Pearly Gates,

Well there ain't no time to wonder why,

Whoopee! We're all gonna die.

Come on mothers throughout the land, pack your boys off to Vietnam.

Come on fathers, and don't hesitate -- to send your sons off before it's too late.

And you can be the first ones in your block - to have your boy come home in a box.

And it's one, two, three, what are we fighting for?

Don't ask me, I don't give a damn, Next stop is Vietnam;

And it's five, six, seven, open up the pearly gates,

Well there ain't no time to wonder why,

Whoopee! We're all gonna die.

[Now imagine this song from a Vietnamese patriot imprisoned by the Chinese's point of view]

{1} sounds like 'Sam'

{2} sounds like 'Wall Street'

As a final note, I want my readers to know that I do listen to them and take their ideas and criticisms to heart. You make all the rest of this madness worthwhile.