Going After Cacciato

They fall and fall down the hole. Paul holds Sarkin’s hand, and she is smiling. The men fall past them—the lieutenant spread-eagled, Stink laughing, Doc waving, Oscar posing like a diver, Eddie yodeling. Paul wets his pants as he falls. Sarkin tells him, “I knew you’d find a way!” (83). They finally land softly in a narrow tunnel of red stone that’s lit by torches. Paul can’t stop laughing.

They walk single file down the tunnel. The old women, cart, and buffalo have vanished. The tunnel eventually empties into a chamber where a man in a green uniform and a pith hat sits with his back to them, looking into a large periscope. The lieutenant puts his rifle against the man’s neck and tells him not to move, but the man turns around and welcomes them.

The man is Li Van Hgoc—Van—a major in the Vietcong Battalion. Van ignores the rifle and leads them into the next room where a banquet is laid out. Paul feels like he’s falling and like he’s still on watch in the tower. This is the first time he’s seen an enemy soldier alive and the first time he’s been in the tunnels—he might have gone in the tunnel instead of Bernie Lynn, but he didn’t.