Lizard's Tale

by Weng Wai Chan

  Lizard snorted. ‘Boss Man would never carry a silk handkerchief.’

  ‘So whose is it, then?’

  ‘Could it be the killer’s?’ Lizard gasped.

  ‘My father used to sell silk handkerchiefs in his shop,’ Lili said. ‘He would make a suit and shirt for someone, and then sell them a silk handkerchief to finish the look. Mr Tanaka from Tanaka’s Emporium delivered the silk.’

  ‘I know that shop,’ said Lizard. ‘It’s in Middle Road. It’s built like a fortress. Three floors of grey concrete. It’s nothing like the old shop houses next to it. It even has a lift!’

  ‘I remember Father joking that the Japanese could withstand a siege in the emporium if they needed to,’ Lili said. ‘Not so funny now. People say a lot of the Japanese in Malaya are spies.’

  They both stared at the handkerchief in Lili’s hand.

  ‘Wait a minute,’ Lizard said slowly. ‘Tanaka’s Emporium is in Middle Road, and I was there today. I followed Katsu—you know, that spy—and then I lost him in Middle Road.’

  ‘Built like a fortress…’ Lili said, staring.

  ‘A fortress can keep people out,’ said Lizard.

  ‘…or keep people in,’ finished Lili.

  ‘Georgina could be locked up in there,’ said Lizard, standing up. ‘We need to go there. Now.’

  Lili sighed. She tucked the book and the handkerchief into the front of her tunic.

  ‘Hey, you can’t keep that book. I found it,’ Lizard protested. He didn’t seem to care so much about the blood-stained handkerchief.

  ‘Stole it, you mean. I need the book, Lizard. We’re going to look for the English girl now, because that’s what you want, right?’ Lili said. ‘The book is important for stopping a war, and I need to get it to Maximum Operations. You need to trust me.’

  ‘No,’ he said flatly. ‘There’s a whole side of you I don’t know. How can I trust you?’

  Lili knew she could easily out-manoeuvre Lizard, tie him up, escape with the book and take it straight to Max Ops headquarters. She could have been halfway there already. That’s what her S-Stream training told her to do. But if she did that, Lizard would never trust her again.

  ‘Wait, let me think,’ she said. ‘Don’t talk for a minute.’

  Lizard kept silent as Lili propped her chin in her hand and stared out the window for five minutes.

  ‘Got it,’ she said at last. She went out onto the landing and came back with a lantern, which she put on the floor. She put her hand into one of her tunic pockets and took out something metal.

  ‘What is that?’ asked Lizard.

  ‘Camera,’ Lili said. It felt odd to openly use classified Maximum Ops technology in front of a civilian. She moved the book into the light and took a photo of the cover, then opened the book.

  ‘Gosh! A tiny spy camera!’ said Lizard. ‘Terrific—can I try it?’

  ‘It’s not a toy, Lizard,’ she snapped. ‘Make yourself useful and turn the pages.’

  Lizard threw her a wounded look, but Lili was too busy to notice. It took a while, but eventually they finished photographing all the pages of the book.

  ‘All right,’ said Lili, straightening up. ‘Now we can use the book to get Georgina back.’

  ‘But don’t you need the book?’ Lizard asked.

  ‘Not now. I have all the information now.’ She waved the little camera at him. ‘And we need to give it back to the Japanese anyway. It is a codebook, Lizard. What would you do if you had a code that has been broken?’

  ‘Um…not use it anymore?’

  ‘Exactly. With any luck, they’ll think we are just thieving children who don’t know what we stole,’ said Lili. ‘They will want to believe it, too. After all, who wants to be the one to tell the Japanese Navy boss that they have to make a new code system? Just imagine. I think they’d get flogged until they were dead horses.’

  Lizard shivered, thinking of the things Fatty Dim Sum had told him about Japanese soldiers. ‘So we’ll give them the book back?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Lili. ‘And we’ll tell them that Katsu dropped it!’

  ‘But he didn’t,’ said Lizard, scratching his head.

  ‘No, but we’ll tell them you followed Katsu from Fatty Dim Sum’s to Middle Road and that he dropped the book and you picked it up.’ A small grin appeared on her face. ‘Mix a little truth in with the big lie and they will believe it for sure.’

  ‘But Katsu will deny it,’ said Lizard.

  ‘Yes, he will,’ said Lili, nodding.

  ‘And they’ll think Katsu’s a dirty double-crossing rat!’ said Lizard, looking awed.

  ‘Yes, they will,’ Lili said grimly.

  ‘Crumbs, I hope I’m never not on your side.’

  ‘They’ll think Katsu was going to sell it to the British, but he never got the chance,’ said Lili. ‘Then some no-brain street brat—that’s you—picked it up, and they’ll be happy that the British did not get it back. Now, you have to do exactly what I say, understand?’

  ‘Who made you the boss?’

  ‘Three years of Maximum Ops training,’ she said, and she breezed out through the beaded curtain.

  Just outside, they met Ting Ha coming towards them with a pile of curry puffs.

  ‘Eh, you two. You like Nonya curry puff? I got you some…’ she started.

  ‘Nonya, Malay, Chinese, Indian—I’ve never met a curry puff I didn’t like,’ Lizard said with a grin.

  ‘Thanks, Ting Ha,’ Lili said, and took two as she went past.

  ‘Marvellous,’ said Lizard, as he grabbed two in each hand. ‘Toodle pip!’ He took a bite of one, and as always thought of Uncle Archie and wondered if they’d ever have curry puffs together again.

  ‘Whaat?’ Ting Ha said, turning to look at their backs. ‘What you say? Where you going?’

  ‘Out,’ said Lizard in a muffled, crumbly voice and, in a flurry of thumping footsteps, they were gone.

  ‘Those two crazy,’ muttered Ting Ha. She took a bite out of the last curry puff and crumpled up the greasy paper wrapper.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Tanaka’s Emporium

  Lili and Lizard stepped out into the night-time hustle of Tanjong Pagar Road. Tanaka’s Emporium was only a mile or two away, and the walk would give them time to work out a plan.

  ‘Just a minute. I have to go back in,’ said Lili.

  ‘What for?’ asked Lizard.

  ‘To “spend the penny”.’ She waggled her eyebrows meaningfully.

  ‘Oh. Hurry up, then,’ he said and turned away.

  Lili ran, not back up the stairs but into the shop and called to Ting Ha’s ten-year-old brother, who was stacking tins in an aisle.

  She checked that Lizard couldn’t see her. ‘Hey, Ah Di,’ Lili said in Cantonese. She grabbed a pencil and a piece of paper from her pocket and wrote a message in a quick, simple code that she had learnt in an S-Stream codes and ciphers class. She gave Ting Ha’s brother the message and a coin. ‘Five cents to take this to Miss Neha at the Girls’ Mission School. You know where that is, right?’

  ‘Sure,’ said the boy. ‘Sophia Road. But so far, and uphill too…’

  Lili dropped another coin into the boy’s hand. ‘All right, but make sure you hurry all the way. Tell Miss Neha I said you will get another five cents when she gets the message.’

  The boy gave a grin that split his cheerful face in half and he ducked outside.

  Lili watched him go with a few misgivings. She knew she was breaching Lizard’s trust already, but rescuing the English girl would be dangerous—she wanted Maximum Ops back-up. She hurried back onto the street. ‘All done. Let’s go,’ she said to Lizard.

  Lizard, who had noted Ting Ha’s little brother speeding past him a second ago, looked at Lili suspiciously.

  ‘Where is Ting Ha’s brother going in such a rush?’ he asked.

  ‘Hurry up,’ Lili called over her shoulder as she strode past him and up the road. ‘I think you should provide a distraction so that I can sneak
in and find out if the English girl is really there.’

  ‘And I’ll ask for Mr Tanaka, give him the book and get Katsu into a whole lot of trouble,’ said Lizard.

  ‘Perfect,’ said Lili.

  When they got to Tanaka’s Emporium, they were relieved to see that it was still open.

  Lizard nodded at Lili, took a deep breath and opened the door. He saw Mr Tanaka frown as he went in.

  ‘Excuse me, Mr Shinozaki,’ Mr Tanaka said to the only other person Lizard could see in the shop. ‘I will just close up, then we can talk.’

  Lizard looked carefully at the other man and was relieved that he looked official, but not soldierly. The man had thick wire-rimmed spectacles and a little moustache.

  ‘Sorry, shop closed now,’ Mr Tanaka said to Lizard. ‘Come back tomorrow.’

  The shop had high ceilings and was surprisingly airy and elegant, despite its solid concrete exterior. Full-length glass cabinets filled with silks lined the walls. Lizard fixed his gaze above the cabinets in the back corner of the shop.

  ‘Wah, very big rat up there.’ Lizard pointed somewhere to Mr Tanaka’s left.

  Mr Tanaka looked. ‘No rats here!’ he exclaimed, outraged.

  ‘There, there! Moving fast, what.’ Lizard walked towards the back corner of the shop.

  Even Mr Shinozaki followed Lizard and peered upwards.

  ‘Oh,’ Lizard said. ‘Sorry, it’s just a shadow, or something. Sorry.’

  Mr Tanaka shook his head, irritated. ‘Out now!’ he said.

  ‘But I must talk to you, Mr Tanaka,’ Lizard said nervously. ‘I found something. A Japanese book or something. It was dropped in the street.’

  ‘What?’ said Mr Tanaka, surprised.

  Lizard opened his satchel and showed Mr Tanaka a corner of the book. Mr Shinozaki craned his neck to look too.

  ‘A big Japanese man dropped it outside,’ said Lizard, gulping. He took the book out of his bag.

  ‘Oh,’ Mr Tanaka stepped back. ‘Nothing to do with me, but—I’ll show it to someone. You stay here.’

  He took the book from Lizard, and vanished through a doorway behind the counter.

  ‘Boy,’ said Mr Shinozaki. ‘If you know what’s good for you, you will leave now, and don’t come back.’ He put his hand in his pocket. ‘Here.’ He handed Lizard a note.

  Lizard looked at it. King George’s stern face glared at him from the note. One dollar.

  ‘I can’t,’ said Lizard, holding the note back out to Mr Shinozaki.

  ‘Keep it.’ The man looked at him and sighed.

  Mr Tanaka came back just as Lizard pocketed the dollar note.

  ‘You come in,’ he said to Lizard, now looking as nervous as Lizard felt. ‘Someone want to see you.’

  ‘He’s only a boy. He should go,’ said Mr Shinozaki. He lowered his voice but Lizard could still hear him. ‘He is too young to be here.’

  ‘He want to talk to the boy now.’ Mr Tanaka looked at Mr Shinozaki. ‘What can we do?’

  Mr Shinozaki said nothing for a moment. Then he straightened up. ‘Hai,’ he said. ‘I can see you will be busy. I will come back another time.’ And he left the shop.

  ‘Come, come,’ said Mr Tanaka, looking wretched. ‘Now you are here, you must come in.’

  Lizard wanted to bolt from the shop like Mr Shinozaki had told him to, but he couldn’t. Georgina had to be saved. He and Lili had a plan, and he needed to do his part. With a gulp, he followed Mr Tanaka into the back of the shop.

  Lili crouched halfway up the stairs. Lizard had done well, distracting Mr Tanaka and that other man with his absurd rat story. As if any rodent would set paw in such a hygienic, crumb-free place. She crept silently up to the next floor and peered around the corner.

  A young man stood, busy cutting some silk spread out on a big table. Fortunately, he had his back to her. He sang along to a Japanese song coming from a radio in a corner of the large room. Bolts of fabric and boxes were stacked up beyond him, and furniture was pushed against the wall. It all looked very crowded, as if the space wasn’t supposed to have this much in it—perhaps it had all been moved here to make room elsewhere.

  This was a three-storey building. Perhaps room had been made for a prisoner on the topmost floor?

  Lili had to get past the man cutting silk at the table. She sprinted as lightly as she could past him and up the stairs. As she crouched out of sight, she was horrified to hear the man stop singing.

  ‘Hai?’ he shouted.

  Lili could hear someone yelling for him from the ground floor. The man stomped downstairs, and Lili shivered at the thought of what would have happened if she had been caught.

  She looked around the landing of the topmost floor and saw a closed door to her left.

  Cautiously, she turned the handle. To her surprise, the door opened. Inside was a stockroom, with boxes and bolts of fabric stacked against the wall. Ahead of her was a cage with steel bars. A girl knelt inside it, fiddling with the padlock.

  It was Georgina Whitford Jones. She was so busy with the lock that she hadn’t even noticed Lili come in.

  Lili took in the sweaty, red, scowling face with matching gingery hair stuck in damp tendrils on her cheeks and forehead. The girl gave little grunts of concentration while she worked the lock with a hairpin.

  Take the English princess out of the lavish surroundings of a Raffles suite and a sweaty mess was what you got, thought Lili. But she felt a begrudging admiration creep over her. At least Georgina was working hard with a cleverly improvised tool, and not curled up in a corner blubbing for her father.

  ‘Hey,’ Lili whispered.

  Georgina jerked back, startled.

  ‘Shh,’ said Lili, putting her finger to her lips. She moved to the cage.

  ‘Who are you?’ Georgina whispered, her eyes wide. They really were like the sky on a cloudless day, thought Lili. She tried not to stare, but she had never seen eyes so blue.

  ‘I’m here to get you out,’ Lili said. ‘Give me that hairpin.’ Lili wished she had brought her lock-picking tool, with its choice of metal picks in several shapes and sizes.

  ‘Here,’ said Georgina, passing it over. ‘I’ve been trying for ages. It looked so easy in the Schoolgirls’ Own Annual escapology feature.’

  ‘Some locks are harder than others,’ Lili said. ‘And it’s never easy with just a hairpin.’

  Georgina watched Lili work at the lock. ‘Who are you? Did my father send you? How—’

  ‘Quiet. I need to concentrate,’ Lili said.

  The lock looked like a five-pin tumbler, possible to pick with a hairpin, but she had to get the tension just right…

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  The Cage

  Lizard followed Mr Tanaka into the back of the shop and along a passageway to a closed door. Mr Tanaka opened it and gestured for Lizard to go in.

  ‘Are you coming?’ Lizard asked. The man wasn’t a friend, but he was a familiar face.

  Mr Tanaka shook his head without meeting Lizard’s eye and shut the door gently after him. Lizard stood inside the room, heart pounding, staring at the door and willing it to open again.

  ‘Turn around, boy,’ said a gruff voice behind him.

  Lizard jumped in fright. He took a deep breath and turned. A man wearing a hood covering his head stood in the shadows. Lizard was bewildered for a moment and then relieved—the man wanted to keep his identity secret and Lizard was fine with that. It gave him hope that he might be allowed to leave later on.

  ‘Where did you get this?’ the man said, holding up the codebook. He had only a slight Japanese accent and Lizard got the feeling he was disguising his voice.

  ‘The man—tall fellow—he dropped it,’ Lizard said. He heard his voice wavering. Pull yourself together, he told himself.

  ‘Where did you see him?’

  ‘He was in Fatty Dim Sum’s coffee shop this afternoon,’ said Lizard. ‘He chased me but I got away. Then I saw him go past the market and I followed him to Middle Road right outside
this shop. He dodged to avoid a bicycle and the book fell out of his pocket.’

  ‘Why didn’t you bring it here straight away?’ asked the hooded man.

  Steady, Lizard said to himself. Stick to the story we prepared. ‘I wanted to see if I could sell it,’ he said. ‘But when I looked in it, I couldn’t understand it. Nobody I know would buy it, so I thought if I brought it back maybe I could get…a reward…’ His voice trailed off.

  Unexpectedly, the man laughed. ‘Yes, this I can believe, young man! Did you show it to anyone?’

  ‘No,’ said Lizard, feigning disgust. ‘I was going to throw it away but then I thought maybe the man might want it back. Maybe he would give me money for it.’

  ‘The man,’ said the hooded man. ‘Would you recognise him again?’

  ‘Yes. He was taller and uglier than everybody else,’ said Lizard.

  The hooded man turned and opened a door next to him. He spoke in Japanese with someone outside. Lizard heard the words ‘Katsu’ and ‘hai’ several times. He turned back to Lizard.

  ‘Now, we shall see,’ the man said grimly, folding his arms.

  Lizard stared at the floor and waited for what felt like a very long time.

  Finally the door opened again. Lizard saw Katsu being dragged in by two other men.

  ‘Is this the man who dropped the book?’ the hooded man asked.

  Lizard nodded.

  ‘He’s lying!’ Katsu shouted and he lunged at Lizard.

  Lizard stumbled back, startled, and the hooded man barked an order to his men.

  The men held Katsu tight. Katsu struggled, but then one of the men pulled out a gun and cocked it with the loudest click in the world. Lizard was horrified. He’d never seen a gun up close before. Knives, yes, plenty, but not a gun.

  ‘I didn’t do whatever this dirty animal said I did!’ Katsu said, breathing heavily.

  Lizard looked at Katsu’s face, screwed up with bitter hostility. He was stunned at the effects of his lie.

  ‘Whatever he said, it’s not true! He’s making it up! How can you believe this worthless brat over me?’ Katsu lunged at Lizard again, and the men nearly lost their hold on him. The man with the gun jammed it against Katsu’s temple.