Lizard scuttled out of the wardrobe and grabbed his satchel off the floor. ‘Who’s that? Lili? Is that you?’ he whispered in astonishment. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘No time for that—we have to go!’ she whispered. She saw the book on the floor. ‘Hey, what’s that?’
‘Missy Georgina must have dropped it,’ said Lizard. ‘Where is she? Is she all right?’ He started to climb out of the window.
Lili shoved him back. ‘Get that book! I need it!’
‘But—’
‘Now!’ she said, giving his arm a tight slap.
‘Ow!’ he said. ‘What was that for?’
‘Tch!’ Lili said in disgust. She pushed him aside and dived in through the window, rolling and snatching up the book as she landed. She looked up just in time to see Georgina’s maid standing in the doorway staring at her.
Lili turned, clutching the book, and leapt back through the window, dragging Lizard out with her.
‘Aieeee!’ The maid shrieked, like the five-fifteen arriving at Singapore Railway Station.
‘Follow me,’ Lili gasped. She shoved the book into the front of her tunic, shinnied up a stone pillar and onto the roof. Lizard was right behind her.
‘This way,’ she said, as uproar broke out below them.
Lizard followed her over the rooftops until they reached Bras Basah Road, where they dropped lightly down and were swallowed up in the crowd.
‘So, what happened, Lili? One minute the missy was there, the next gone,’ said Lizard, as they strode past a sugarcane-juice vendor.
‘Shhh!’ Lili said fiercely. ‘We’ll talk about it later.’
‘And what were you doing there?’
‘I said shut up!’ Lili hissed in Cantonese.
‘Well, that’s rude,’ Lizard said, offended.
They walked until they reached the Singapore River. Lili waved a rickshaw down. ‘Can I at least ask where we are going?’ Lizard tried again.
‘You’ll see,’ said Lili. ‘Sit back. Hide your face.’
Lizard hadn’t ridden in a rickshaw since he was little. He listened with an uncomfortable feeling in his chest to the scrawny man’s deep, ragged puffing and his feet slapping the road. He was surprised when the rickshaw turned into Tanjong Pagar Road. He was about to ask Lili if they were going home, but the fierce look she gave him closed his mouth right up. As they passed Mak’s Tailor Shop, he turned to look at its closed metal grills. Lili sat with her head down.
A few shop houses further down, the rickshaw pulled over and they got out. Lili paid the man, then glanced briefly around the crowded road and vanished up the stairs next to a provisions shop.
‘What are we doing here?’ asked Lizard, following right behind her.
‘Ting Ha lives here,’ Lili said. ‘That’s her family’s shop downstairs.’ Ting Ha’s family was quite well off by Chinatown standards. The upstairs part, from what Lizard could see from the landing, was tidy and there were no partitioned cubicles. The family altar was on a small wooden table by the wall. Above it hung a photograph of a stern old lady with her hair scraped back. She looked like everybody’s grandmother.
‘Hey, Ting Ju,’ Lili said to a girl who looked about seven years old. ‘Go get Ting Ha for me, all right?’
Ting Ju disappeared inside, and a moment later Ting Ha appeared.
‘Hey, Lili, Lizard.’ Ting Ha looked surprised but pleased to see them. ‘Lizard, did Brylcreem ask you to help him?’
‘Oh, yes,’ said Lizard, who had forgotten all about it until now.
‘Ting Ha, Lizard and I need somewhere quiet,’ said Lili.
Ting Ha showed them to the room where she and her two sisters slept. Then she left through the beaded curtain.
Lizard and Lili stared at each other for a moment, neither knowing what to say. Lizard glanced around the room. It had an elevated sleeping platform with room underneath for storage and a window that overlooked the road. Lizard was envious of all the space and especially of the window.
‘All right, Lizard. What were you doing there, and how did you get the codebook?’ Lili demanded as she sat down on the wooden floor.
‘Codebook?’ asked Lizard as he sat down too.
‘This book!’ Lili took it out of her tunic and put it on the floor.
‘Is that what it is? A codebook?’ asked Lizard.
‘Yes. Luckily it fell out of the box when the man kidnapped the girl, and he didn’t see it. I distracted him with—’ She shut her mouth with a snap.
‘The missy got kidnapped? What happened? One moment she was there, the next she was gone,’ said Lizard.
‘Didn’t you see? A man dragged her out the window and took her away.’
‘I was in the wardrobe!’ exclaimed Lizard. He couldn’t believe it. ‘How are we going to get her back?’
‘What? Never mind about her!’ Lili said. She picked up the book out and flipped through the pages. ‘We have the book. The girl and the box are not important.’
‘I think it’s your turn to tell me something. What were you doing at Raffles Hotel?’ asked Lizard firmly. He was getting a bit fed up with being pushed around by Lili.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Maximum Operations Enterprise
‘All right,’ said Lili. She had to think about what she could tell him. ‘Um…’
‘Don’t even think about lying,’ said Lizard.
‘I haven’t said anything yet!’
‘You always rub your nose when you lie. That’s why I win when we play cards. Right now you’re rubbing like you have a mosquito bite, and you haven’t even started.’ He folded his arms. ‘So try again. Why were you there? Were you following me?’
‘No!’ She was outraged. ‘It had nothing to do with you at all!’
‘Were you trying to steal the box?’
‘No! I was trying to get it back.’ As soon as she said this, Lili realised that she shouldn’t have. Now Lizard’s questions were going to get awkward.
‘What?’ He looked puzzled. ‘How did you even know about it? I only took it yesterday, and you’ve been at school all day, haven’t you?’
‘What?’ Lili’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Wait a minute. Are you telling me you stole the box?’
Lizard nodded.
Lili figured that Mr Whitford Jones was off the hook then. She would have to tell Miss Adelia as soon as possible. It occurred to her that her report for Maximum Ops would have to include Lizard’s role in it. ‘Have you any idea what you’ve done?’ she said.
‘Well, obviously not, or I wouldn’t have done it, a hundred dollars or not!’ Lizard gripped his hair in frustration. ‘Okay, Lili, I’ll tell you. Boss Man Beng promised me one hundred dollars to steal this box yesterday. I think, yes, I need a hundred dollars,’ Lizard said. ‘Then I can give up the stealing for good. Just make money letter writing. When I went to give it to the Boss, he’d been stabbed, and then he died! Under the clock at the railway station! So I ran. I went back to Raffles tonight because I wanted to put the box back. It is bad luck.’
‘You have no idea.’ Lili shook her head.
‘So tell me.’
‘I have to get it for…someone,’ said Lili. ‘I can’t tell you who, so don’t ask me, all right?’
‘Hmm.’ Lizard frowned.
Lili could tell it wasn’t all right, but that he was going to see what else she would willingly say before challenging her further.
‘Who took Georgina?’ Lizard asked.
‘I think it was a Japanese spy,’ said Lili. ‘He wanted the book—he mustn’t have noticed the book fell out of the box when he took her.’
Lizard’s eyes became big circles.
‘I bet it was the spy who chased me! And I bet he killed Boss Man Beng!’ he gasped.
‘Chased you? What do you mean?’ said Lili, startled.
‘There was a Japanese spy hanging around in Fatty Dim Sum’s coffee shop all day today asking questions about Boss Man Beng. Fatty says his name is Katsu. He chased me but I lost
him.’ Lizard shuddered. ‘Fatty warned me to be careful.’
Lizard and Lili stared at each other.
‘I need to take this book and put it somewhere safe,’ said Lili.
Quick as a frog’s tongue, Lizard’s hand darted out and swept the book from beneath Lili’s hand.
‘What about Georgina?’ he said. He sat up straight, holding the book tight, and folded his arms again.
‘Forget about her.’ Lili scowled. ‘Don’t you understand? It’s more important than her.’
‘But she’s in real danger,’ said Lizard. ‘Fatty told me the Japanese soldiers are very cruel. It’s my fault they’ve got her, and I have to get her back.’
Lili stared at Lizard. She banished the thought of dead women and children piled up in the streets of a Chinese city. ‘That book is really important. I need to get it to—’ She stopped.
‘To who?’ Lizard’s green eyes bored into her. ‘Secrets! You always have secrets. You know all about me, but you are always hiding stuff. Ever since I’ve known you, there’s been something. Odd injuries, lying about where you’ve been, sneaking around strange places. What aren’t you telling me?’
Lili thought she had always managed to hide her Max Ops life from Lizard. Obviously she was wrong. She dropped her gaze, and shrugged.
There was a long silence. Finally, she looked up at him. It was like looking at a jade wall. His jaw was clenched, and his eyes had a defensive wariness that she hadn’t seen since the first time she met him.
‘I knew this would happen one day,’ said Lizard. ‘People always let you down sooner or later. I’ve always wondered why you bothered with me. That’s another secret I’ll never know.’ He shoved the book into his satchel and stood up. ‘I’ll do this myself. I don’t need you.’ He strode through the beaded curtain in the doorway and left.
Lili looked at his rigid back, but said nothing. For three years she had told no one about her Maximum Ops training. Nobody really cared what she did anyway, no one other than Lizard.
Lizard’s footsteps thumped angrily all the way down the steps.
Lili knew she had to choose—her friendship with Lizard, or her loyalty to Maximum Operations Enterprise. She went to the window and leaned out. Lizard was down below, kicking the concrete pillar outside the shop.
‘Wei,’ she called out.
Lizard stopped kicking.
‘Well, come on, then!’ she said and she went back inside and waited.
Lizard’s fingers appeared a moment later, gripping the faded green windowsill. He pulled himself up and on to it. He squatted there, glowering like a gargoyle.
Lili stuck her head out through the beaded curtain and checked that there was no one on the landing outside the room. She came back in and sat down on the floor.
‘Promise you won’t tell anyone,’ said Lili.
Still scowling, he nodded.
‘Maximum Operations Enterprise,’ she said.
‘What?’ Lizard came off the sill and sat down in front of her. And Lili told him everything about her mission and the importance of the codebook.
‘Gosh,’ said Lizard when she stopped talking. She was relieved to see the defensiveness gone from his face. He scratched his head. ‘Maybe you shouldn’t have told me everything.’
She rolled her eyes. ‘Stupid boy,’ she said in Cantonese.
Lizard grinned, but his grin faded, as he digested Lili’s story. ‘So, what are we going to do? We can’t abandon Georgina. She really is in danger. They might ransom her for the codebook.’
‘She’s British, the daughter of an important British man. They won’t hurt her,’ Lili said dismissively.
‘Are you sure?’ asked Lizard.
Lili thought back to what Miss Neha and Miss Adelia had said. She thought about jealous, ambitious Japan and the smugly superior British and found she wasn’t sure at all. It was her fault that Georgina had been kidnapped. If she had been focused on her mission and not distracted by Lizard, then she would have seen the man sneaking up and she could have stopped him. That Japanese spy wasn’t the only one with poisoned darts.
Lizard’s face was troubled. ‘We have to rescue her,’ he said.
‘I suppose so,’ Lili said, reluctantly. ‘And the book. You understand that’s crucial for all of us, right? I have to get the book to Maximum Ops.’
Lizard nodded. ‘After we rescue Georgina,’ he said stubbornly.
‘All right,’ said Lili. She would complete her task and return the codebook—it would just take a little longer than ideal.
Without knowing it, Lizard had interfered in an important covert mission. Maximum Ops might think he was stealing the codebook for the enemy. Lizard could end up in prison or worse, and Lili wasn’t sure the authorities would listen to her—a girl, non-British, on her first mission. She made her mind up: her report would not mention Lizard. The important thing was getting the codebook—there was no need to drag Lizard into something that was likely to end badly for him.
‘How are we going to find Georgina—and the book?’ asked Lizard.
Just then, Ting Ha came in with Brylcreem.
‘Hey, you two.’ Ting Ha beamed. ‘You know Brylcreem?’
‘Uh,’ Lizard said, rubbing his lip. ‘Yes.’
Brylcreem sat down next to Lizard, giving him a gentle nudge in the arm.
‘Sure, this my good friend, Lizard.’ His eyes beseeched Lizard not to mention how he’d got his cut lip.
Lizard grinned. ‘Yeah, we’re great buddies,’ he said. ‘And this is Lili.’
‘Hey, Ting Ha’s cousin!’ said Brylcreem with a big smile.
Lizard had an idea. ‘Brylcreem, we’ve got a problem,’ he said. ‘Do you think you could help us?’
Lili shot him a ferocious glare.
Lizard ignored her. ‘Someone’s been kidnapped by a Japanese guy,’ he said. ‘From Raffles Hotel. Do you have any idea where she might be taken?’
‘No problem for my Brylcreem, right?’ boasted Ting Ha, giving his quiff a loving pat. ‘He know all the Hokkien in Singapore. You help him pass the police exam and he help you.’ She looked at Brylcreem. ‘Right, honey?’
Instead of blushing or scowling in embarrassment at being called honey, Brylcreem grinned and said, ‘Sure, honey.’ He turned to Lizard. ‘What happen?’
‘He kidnapped a girl from Raffles Hotel this evening. She’s only a kid. Her father’s a big shot Englishman. He runs the New British East India Company,’ Lizard said. ‘She has wavy red hair and blue, blue eyes.’
‘Why he do that?’ asked Brylcreem, scratching his forehead.
‘They want to ransom her for some information,’ Lizard lied smoothly. Lili raised an eyebrow but said nothing. ‘I think it’s to do with the Japanese war in China. And I think maybe their war coming to Malaya and even Singapore.’
‘The Japanese?’ Ting Ha frowned. ‘You know Boss Man Beng got killed yesterday? My uncle in the police, he say the knife is Japanese army type.’
Brylcreem nodded. ‘And many Japanese shops are closing, because people not buying from them.’
‘Really?’ asked Lili. This was new, even though she knew that anti-Japanese feeling had been growing worse in Singapore recently.
‘Kidnapping a girl, huh? That’s bad,’ Brylcreem said, shaking his head. ‘A good fight between boys, no problem, but kidnapping girls is bad. All right, I go find out.’
‘I hear the Japanese soldiers can be very cruel,’ said Lizard.
‘Oh, Brylcreem!’ exclaimed Ting Ha. ‘You must save her!’ She wiped an angry tear away. ‘You go now! Quick!’
‘Don’t worry, I fix it!’ Brylcreem said, and he stood up with a noble squaring of his shoulders and then he swept out of the room. The effect was only slightly ruined by a crashing sound as he tripped over a stool. ‘No problem here, no problem at all,’ he called, and a faint stream of Hokkien swear words drifted down the stairs and out the door.
‘What does red hair look like, huh?’ mused Ting Ha.
/> ‘It’s wavy. Like…waves. And shiny. With little shiny gold bits,’ said Lizard.
‘Wah! Must be soft!’ said Ting Ha.
‘And clean. Smells so clean. And her eyes are blue like the sky when there are no clouds,’ said Lizard.
‘Wah, so nice, huh?’ Ting Ha elbowed Lili.
Lili rolled her eyes. ‘Got anything to eat? I’m hungry.’
Ting Ha bustled off to see what she could find.
CHAPTER NINE
The No-brain Street Brat
Lizard grinned smugly at Lili. ‘So, what do you think? Wouldn’t I make a great spy? And I didn’t even say anything about your mission.’
Lili was impressed with how Lizard had got Brylcreem, with his wide Hokkien network, to search for Georgina, but she wasn’t going to say so. ‘Let me have the book again.’ She stretched her hand out.
Lizard took it out of his satchel and gave it to her, and she studied the pages. It was obvious to Lili that it was indeed a codebook for turning messages into ciphers, or to decipher such codes.
Lizard noticed something had fallen out of the bag and onto the floor. He picked it up. It was some kind of blue, scrunched-up fabric, a little stiff. Lizard stared at it uncomprehendingly for a moment, then dropped it with a yelp.
Lili frowned at him.
‘Look at that, Lili.’ Lizard pointed to the fabric on the floor. ‘Don’t touch it. It’s got Boss Man Beng’s blood on it,’ he said.
‘What? What do you mean?’
‘He grabbed my hand when he was…you know…’
‘Dying?’ asked Lili.
Lizard nodded.
‘Boss Man Beng gave that to you when he was dying?’ said Lili.
‘I don’t know if he meant to give it to me, but it was in his hand when he clutched mine, and I didn’t even realise I had it until later,’ said Lizard.
Lili picked it up and opened the fabric out. It was blue, with a hand-painted pattern of green bamboo on it. Dark brown blotches spoilt the beautiful pattern. ‘It’s a handkerchief. Look, you can see where it was folded.’ She rubbed a stain-free corner between her fingers. ‘It’s silk.’
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