a week later, thuy's soldiers find the engineer somewhere up north. for the communist party, he goes by the name "tran van dinh" and has spent the past three years working in the rice fields. the engineer takes thuy to where kim has been hiding. kim refuses thuy's renewed offer of marriage, unaware that his men are waiting outside the door. furious, thuy calls them in and they begin tying up kim and the engineer, threatening to put them into a re-education camp. kim introduces him to tam, her three-year-old son from chris. thuy calls kim a traitor and tam an enemy, and tries to kill tam with a knife, but kim pulls out a gun and kills thuy ("you will not touch him"). she flees with tam ("this is the hour") and tells the engineer what she has done ("if you want to die in bed"). the engineer refuses to help her until he learns that tam's father is american ("let me see his western nose") – thinking the boy is his chance to emigrate to the united states. he tells kim that now he is the boy's uncle, and he will lead them to bangkok. the three set out on a ship with other refugees ("i'd give my life for you").