boulevards Steele sat in the back of the taxi looking at the shops with their designer clothes.

Restaurants offered exotic menu's serving five-star foods, while his men on Eliane at cold meals out of tins. A well-dressed woman walked with her daughter on the pavement. Did they have any idea of the suffering going on a few hundred miles away? How would their lives be affected if Dien Bien Phu fell? Possibly the woman's husband or lover was fighting for some blood-drenched hill right at this very moment. Images of deaths he had witnessed flashed before his eyes.

### He took a swig of Bourbon straight from the bottle. He offered it to the taxi driver who politely smiled then shook his head.

"I heard from a friend who heard frompilot grimaced in pain, his face a bloody mask. Beside him, his co-pilot slumped forward lifeless in his seat. Another shell burst in front of the aircraft hitting the port side engine. It trailed smoke then burst into flames. He kept up with the stick rushing through the door. Turning around a final time, he saw the pilot struggling to hold on until the last man jumped. Steele suddenly felt the slipstream buffeting his body. He slid for a moment on the slipstream before his parachute opened pulling the harness tight. Under normal conditions, the silence experienced while slowly drifting to earth after the noise in the plane is a soothing relief. Here there was no relief.

### The sounds of bullets cracking past and shells exploding were louder