Free A Weldon Family Christmas: A Southern Steam Novella (Weldon Brothers) by Jennifer Saints

was down as the NVG’s were just biding time for the US to turn tail and run so they could ride in and slaughter what was left.  To John, losing Mike Company was the final nail in the US’s coffin in Nam and made him wonder why in the hell the rest of the grunts were here.  But that’s what grunts were for.
    “What do we know about the missing heli?” John demanded as he barreled into communications.
    PFC Abe Berry swung around, still grubbing on his turkey and dressing.  “Nothing yet, LT.  Maybe it’s a radio glitch.”
    “Don’t care.  I need to know.  Where did the Huey leave from?”
    “Long Bình.”
    John sat onto a hard bench as his knees went weak.  “I’ve gotta know everything, Abe.  Who’s on search and rescue?”
    “Honestly?  Only a couple of Pedros, but they’re still thinking it may be a radio glitch.”  He lowered his voice.  “They’re holding back on the heli’s in the air for some reason.  It’s Christmas, but everyone’s so tense, you’d think they were sitting on a land mine.”
    The HH-43’s were the best air crew rescue tool in Nam.  Two of them were better than a dozen fumbling yahoos.  Still, John gleaned little reassurance from the news.  He wanted feet on the ground.  And Dear God, if Emma was on that Huey then by damn it would be his feet on the ground, too.
    “Emma Rollins is a Donut Dolly who was flying from Long Bình to Da Nang today.  I have to know if she’s there, Abe.  I’ve got to find Em.  Whatever it takes, I have to find Em.”
    Thirty minutes later, he got the grim news.  The Huey was still missing and two Donut Dollies had been on board—Emma Rollins and Margaret Shay.  Dear God!  What was he going to do?  He had to find Emma.  Fly overs sometimes didn’t mean squat.  The jungle had been known to swallow up crash sites and they weren’t found until days or weeks later.
    “LT, you didn’t hear this from me, but the Captain has Stolsky and Hootch flying some papers to Da Nang in about an hour from now.  Maybe you could talk him into letting you go—“
    John reached over and grabbed Berry, jerking him up from the radio controls and enveloping the scrawny guy into a bear hug. “You just saved my life.  If I don’t survive this tell the Captain it would have killed me to sit here anyway.”  John ran for the door.
    “Wait!” Berry called.  “You aren’t going to ask him to go?”
    “No, I’ll beg forgiveness for dereliction of duty after, but come hell or high water I’m getting dropped into Ninh Hoi tonight.  If you know any prayers, now would be the time to say them.”
    John ran for his rucksack and shoved anything he thought he might need into it then he headed for the helis.  He hoped Stolsky and Hootch would fall into his plan, because he’d damn well didn’t want to have to face armed hijacking charges at his court martial as well.

Chapter Six

    Present Day
    E mma grabbed the edge of the table.  James’s demand to know what was wrong with John echoed in the waiting room, drawing the sympathetic gazes of a family across the room.
    The nurse, who looked too young for her graying hair, widened her kind eyes in surprise.  “Forgive me.  I didn’t mean to alarm you.”  She moved closer and lowered her voice to a private level.  “Mr. Weldon remains stable and is still heavily sedated.  We have a few tests to be done yet then you can come back and see him.  Right now, though, he’s anxious about something, and I thought if you could help us understand what that was perhaps we can help him rest easier.  He keeps saying, ‘Find them Nin Hoy.’  Do you know what that means?”
    “Yes, I think I do,” Emma whispered.  She didn’t know whether to be relieved or more worried that John was reaching out to her from the past.  She’d heard that a person’s life flashes though their minds just before death.  “He’s saying Find Em Ninh Hoi.  He wants to find me.  Ninh Hoi was the area near where