by Jack Higgins
Hagen produced the automatic. 'That's a pity,' he said, 'because you've got about ten seconds to change your mind before I start wiping this across your face.'
He chucked the man under the chin with the barrel by way of encouragement and the clerk cried out suddenly. 'I talk! I talk!' His voice was cracked and high-pitched like an old woman's and he was sweating with fear. 'Just after you and lady leave, two men come in. Very nasty, very rough. They ask about you. One have knife. He say I not talk, they cut my throat. What I do? I tell what they want to know and they leave.'
The sing-song voice finished mangling the English language and he stood shaking like a frightened little bird looking for some place to hide. Hagen thought for a moment and said, 'Were these men white men?'
'No! They Chinese.'
Hagen nodded. 'Do you know them? Have you ever seen them around here before?'
The night-clerk's eyes dropped and he looked more afraid than ever. 'Not from Macao. Me think they from mainland.'
Hagen left him there, frightened and whimpering, and went slowly upstairs. He took all the time in the world to enter his room. He kicked open the door and went in at ground level with the automatic at the ready, but there was no one there. He poured himself a drink and lay on the bed in the dark, smoking and thinking about the whole affair. Men from the mainland. So the Commies were mixed up in this thing, were they? He felt sorry for Rose Graham. It didn't pay to cross those people. He'd had dealings with them before. Anyway, why was he worrying about the girl so much? He had his own worries. Getting his boat back was the only thing that mattered at the moment. To hell with her. He'd saved her life. That was enough.
He stubbed out his cigarette and lay back and as sleep pulled its dark cloak over him, he chuckled quietly, because he knew damned well that he would keep the appointment at noon. He seemed to feel her lips pressed against his and his last conscious thought was of her face glowing in the darkness and she was smiling at him.
2
Noon of that day found Hagen entering the swing door of her hotel. He was immaculately dressed in a white shark-skin suit, specially pressed for the occasion. He crossed the spacious lounge to the desk and the receptionist, an aristocratic-looking White Russian, glanced up from a letter he was reading. His eyes flickered over the expensive suit and a smile appeared on his mouth. 'Good morning, sir. What can I do for you?'
Hagen asked for the girl and there was an immediate drop in the temperature. The smile was replaced by a slight frown and the Russian told him coldly that she was in, but that it was a rule of the hotel that visitors must first be announced on the internal telephone before proceeding upstairs. He lifted the receiver and asked to be put through to her room. Anger and instinctive dislike stirred in Hagen. He waited until the man had Rose Graham on the phone and then reached across and twisted the receiver from his grasp. The Russian stalked away, an outraged expression on his face. Hagen turned his back and said: 'Hello, angel! Did you sleep well?'
Her voice sounded clear and sweet as a ship's bell across water. 'Captain Hagen! But I've only just awakened.'
He laughed pleasantly. 'As you've obviously missed breakfast, how about having lunch with me?' He fingered the few notes he had in his pocket, his final reserve, and she asked him to give her twenty minutes to shower and dress.
Hagen sat in one of the numerous easy chairs and leafed through a month-old American magazine. He was only half-interested, however, and most of the time he found himself thinking about the girl and waiting with anticipation for the moment when she would join him. It was a new feeling. A disturbing feeling. He hadn't been so interested in a woman for a long time. There was something ingenuous and refreshing about her. She had accepted his lunch invitation with a delight that she had not attempted to conceal and he wondered, suddenly, if he was getting involved in something serious. He dismissed the idea from his mind with a shrug. This would be their last meeting. Lunch for two to round the whole affair off. He beckoned to a passing waiter and ordered a gin-sling. As the drink was brought to him he noticed the Russian receptionist sneering at him from the desk and instinctively Hagen tossed the waiter a large tip. The Russian's sneer vanished rapidly. He must have imagined he was now on bad terms with a tipping customer. Hagen sipped his drink and sighed. A few more grand gestures and he really would be broke.
He glanced idly across at the lift doors as they opened and the girl stepped out. He stood up and walked towards her and she looked eagerly around and then she saw him and a warm smile appeared on her face. She came towards him and as she passed the reception desk a voice said: 'Oh, Miss Graham. Have you a moment?'
It was the Russian who had spoken. Hagen stood, hat in hand, a few feet away and feigned an interest in some travel brochures. He tried to pick up as much of the conversation as he could. The gist of it seemed to be that she hadn't paid her hotel bill for three weeks and the Russian wasn't being too polite about telling her. Hagen half-turned towards them, wondering whether he should intervene, when the girl opened her handbag and took out a cheque-book. She scribbled furiously for a moment, tore out the cheque, and flung it into the Russian's face.
She turned to Hagen and cursed the man fluently in Malay, Cantonese and a dialect that was new to him. 'They think because I am a Eurasian they can treat me any way they like, these people.'
Hagen smiled. 'The cheque act was the best part of the show,' he told her.
She smiled up at him, a tight little smile, and suddenly her face seemed to crumple and she began to cry. Before they could attract any attention Hagen gripped her arm and rushed her into the American Bar. Everyone had gone to lunch and for the moment the bar was cool, dark and empty. He left her in a booth to get the crying fit over and went and sat on one of the high stools at the bar and had a whisky-and-water.
He was puzzled. The girl was well educated and her clothes were expensive. She was obviously used to the best. One didn't usually leave hotel bills unpaid for three weeks when one had a cheque-book. He began to wonder just how much was left in that bank account. He even wondered whether the cheque she had just written would bounce right back into the Russian receptionist's face. It was a pleasant thought. The girl moved on to a stool beside him. She had fixed her face so that only an unnatural brightness in the eyes indicated that she had been crying. 'Could I have a drink, please?'
'Surely! A gin-sling?' She nodded and he ordered the drink. He didn't speak until the barman had placed the drink before her and retired to the other end of the bar to polish glasses. 'Can you meet that cheque?'
She smiled wanly and sipped her drink. 'Only just. A few dollars left and then ...' She shrugged her shoulders; a hopeless gesture that seemed to say she was at the end of her tether. This was the moment for the gallant gesture, Hagen thought. It suddenly occurred to him how ironic it was that of all the people in Macao she should have met him and he laughed aloud. She flushed angrily. 'What's so funny?' she demanded.
He hastened to reassure her. 'I'm not laughing at you, angel. It's just that I'm in a pretty poor state myself at the moment. We make a nice pair.' She began to laugh herself and Hagen remembered that he still had a little money left. Suddenly he felt reckless and past caring. He grabbed her arm and propelled her firmly out of the bar. 'There's one thing we can do,' he said. 'And that's to have lunch. Things always look brighter after a decent meal.'
He kept up a running flow of conversation on the way to the dining-room and by the time they were seated at a table there was a smile on her face again. During the meal they talked little. She had a healthy appetite and he found himself covertly watching her at every opportunity. Once or twice she noticed his eyes and blushed. 'That was lovely,' she said at length. 'I couldn't eat another bite.'
Hagen suggested a drink on the terrace and ordered a couple of brandies before following her out there. She was seated at a table on the very edge of the terrace. Below them was Macao and the view stretched across the blue water to Kowloon and the Chinese mainland. 'It's beautiful,'
he said, and offered her a cigarette.
She nodded and refused the cigarette. 'It's a lovely city. Very lovely.' She paused as the waiter brought the drinks and Hagen suddenly sensed that she was on the verge of telling him about herself.
She still hesitated and he said, quickly, 'Have you been here long?'
She shook her head. 'Only the three weeks that I've been staying at the hotel.' She gazed out over the harbour. 'I should have found somewhere cheaper I suppose, but a girl on her own! It's very difficult.'
Hagen reached across the table and placed his hand gently over hers. 'Why don't you tell me about it?' he said softly. 'I know it's something to do with our Red friends across the water.'
She straightened up, fear on her face. 'How do you know?'
He explained briefly. 'So you see,' he concluded, 'I'm mixed up in this thing enough to get shot at. The least you can do is tell me what it's all about.'
For a little while she stared at the table, her fingers nervously interlacing, and then she began to speak. 'I'm from Indo-China - the North. My father was a Scot. Mother was Indo-Chinese. I went to school in India, spent the war there. Afterwards I returned to my father's plantation. He'd been on some special service during the war, in Malaya. Things were just beginning to settle down again when the trouble started between the French and the Viet Minh.'
Hagen nodded. 'That must have messed things up pretty badly. Especially as you were living in the North.'
'Yes, things couldn't have been worse. It wasn't long before we were completely surrounded by Communist territory. At first they didn't bother us, but then one day ...'
For a moment she seemed to have difficulty in finding words. She turned her head away a little and Hagen reached across again and took her hand firmly. 'Go on, angel. Get rid of it.'
She smiled tightly. 'My mother. They killed my mother. Father and I had been out for the day. We got home just as three Communist soldiers were leaving. My father had an automatic rifle. He shot them.' She gazed away out over the water, into the past. 'He did it very expertly. He must have had quite a hard war.'
'Finish your drink,' Hagen told her. 'Brandy is the best pick-me-up I know.'
She gulped the brandy too fast, choked and made a wry face. After a moment she continued. 'Dad couldn't forgive himself for not getting us out sooner. You see he'd been preparing for quite some time. He had a thirty-foot launch hidden in a nearby creek and we were going to go down-river to the coast and then south to Hanoi.'
'Why had he delayed so long?' Hagen demanded.
She traced a delicate pattern with a finger in a pool of spilled brandy. 'Because he'd promised to take something with him and it wasn't ready.'
Hagen swallowed some of his brandy and said, 'Was it all that important?'
'If you'd call a quarter of a million dollars important,' she said calmly.
Hagen finished his brandy and put the glass down very carefully. 'How much did you say?'
She smiled. 'I'm not exaggerating. A quarter of a million - in gold. There was a Buddhist monastery near the plantation. The gold was theirs. They knew that sooner or later the Communists would arrive to loot the place. They decided that they'd rather see their treasure doing good in the hands of some relief organization than swelling the war chest of Ho Chi-minh.'
'Did you say in gold, angel?' Hagen asked.
She nodded. 'Gold bars. That's what caused the delay. They melted down some statues. It was the only safe way of transporting the stuff.'
'What happened?' Hagen demanded. 'What did your father do with it?'
She fiddled with her glass for a little while. 'Oh, he had it loaded into the cabin in boxes and we set off. There were just three of us. The deck-hand was our Malayan house-boy, Tewak. We reached the coast and ran into a gunboat. There was a fight. I remember my father ramming the other boat and throwing a hand grenade. I don't know, really. It's difficult to recall these things clearly. It was confused - and besides, he was badly hit.' She brooded for a moment and then looked up suddenly. 'Do you know the Kwai Marshes, just over the border from Viet Minh into China?'
Hagen nodded. 'I know it. It's a pest hole. Hundreds of miles of channels and reeds, lagoons and swamp. Rotten with disease.'
She nodded. 'That's the place. That's where Dad took the boat. She was leaking badly. He ran her into the Kwai Marshes. She sank in a little lagoon surrounded by reeds.' Hagen waited for the end. She sat back suddenly and said briskly: 'After that it was simple. My father died the next day. It took Tewak and me three days to get out of the marshes. We went down the coast to Haiphong and from there to Saigon. Luckily I had a little money in a bank there.'
'What about the gold?' Hagen said. 'You told the French authorities, I suppose?'
'Oh, yes,' she said. 'I told the French. They weren't interested in sending an expedition into Communist China to retrieve a mere quarter of a million dollars. It wouldn't keep the war going for ten minutes.'
'I see,' Hagen said carefully. 'So the gold is still there?'
She nodded. 'Still there. I've tried to get a boat to take me back to the marshes. At first people were too scared to take the risk. Now, I've not got enough money to pay. That's why we came to Macao.'
'We?' Hagen said.
She explained. 'Tewak. He's stayed with me the whole time. He has friends in Macao. We came here because it was our last hope. He's been trying to borrow a boat for the past three weeks.'
Light suddenly dawned on Hagen. 'It was Tewak who rang you last night?'
She nodded. 'That's right. He asked me to get a taxi at once and meet him where you found me. When I got there he wasn't to be seen. After the taxi had left those two men appeared.'
Hagen said, 'It looks as though the Reds don't intend to let that gold slip through their fingers.'
'Not if I can help it,' she said, and for a moment her face was cold and hard.
'You know the position where the boat sank?' Hagen asked, casually.
'Oh, yes,' she told him. 'I memorized it. One could search for ever in those marshes without it.'
Hagen stood up and leaned on the parapet, and stared out over the water into the far distance. His eyes didn't see the ships in the bay or the ferry from Kowloon as it ploughed its way towards Macao. They saw a quiet lagoon surrounded by giant marsh reeds and a thirty-foot launch lying in clear water, and the boxes in the cabin that contained the discoloured gold bars. A quarter of a million dollars. His palms were sweating slightly and his mouth had gone dry. It could be the one stroke a man dreamed of. The big deal. No more waterfront hotels in stinking, godforsaken ports. No more smuggling and gun-running, being betrayed and twisted and double-crossed at every turn. If he could lay hands on that gold he could be set for life. He turned back to the table and she looked at him sadly. 'Cheer up, angel,' he said. 'Things have been pretty rough but they'll get better. Just wait until you've got your hands on all that loot. You'll be able to live like a princess.'
She looked puzzled for a moment and then understanding came and she hastened to correct him. 'The money for the sale of the gold is not for me.' Hagen sat bolt upright in his chair. 'I'll only get a little for expenses. The rest goes to the relief organization in Saigon just as the monks and my father wanted.'
She was absolutely sincere in what she had just said. She really meant to give all that money to some crackpot relief organization. For a moment Hagen was tempted to tell her the facts of life, but that could wait until later. 'How deep was that lagoon, angel?' he said.
She looked surprised. 'I couldn't be sure but not very deep. Perhaps twenty or twenty-five feet. Why do you ask?'
He shrugged and lit a cigarette carefully. 'I have a boat. I've done some pearling. I've also been to the Kwai Marshes.'
She gazed at him searchingly for a moment. 'You mean you would be willing to take me to the Kwai?' She frowned. 'But why?' He gazed at her steadily, hating himself, and suddenly she gave a little, breathless laugh. 'I see, I ...' She was lost in her confusion and colour flo
oded her face.
Hagen squeezed her hand and firmly pushed every other consideration from his mind. He must think only of the gold. After all, it wouldn't be too hard to pretend that he loved her. 'I'd better be honest with you from the beginning,' he said. 'And then there won't be misunderstandings or hurt. I'm known pretty well round these parts and not for the best of reasons. I'm a smuggler, gun runner, illegal pearler. In fact, anything that pays.' She nodded slowly and he went on: 'At the moment my boat is in the hands of the Portuguese Customs. The funny thing is that for once I was genuinely innocent.' For a moment he thought about 'Inter-Island Trading Incorporated' and his sleeping partner, Mr Papoudopulous. Beware of Greeks bearing gifts. Still, it was all in the game. He smiled sardonically at the girl and went on: 'They found gold under the cabin floor. I was fined rather heavily. In fact, I didn't have the money, so - they impounded the boat.'
'Can you get the money?' she said.
He nodded. 'Yes, I can borrow it from a friend, but you'll have to agree to the payment of my expenses and the loan from the proceeds of the sale of the gold.'
She nodded eagerly. 'Oh, yes. That will be fine. It will be well worth it.' A puzzled frown creased her brow and she leaned across the table. 'Mark, all those things you did. Why? I don't understand. You don't seem to be that kind of a man.'
He realized dispassionately that she had used his Christian name and that it had never sounded quite so well before. He grinned. 'It's a long and sordid story, angel. One of these days I might tell it to you, but for the moment there are more important things to consider. Tewak, for instance. I'd like to know what happened to him last night. Are you sure it was his voice on the telephone?'
She nodded emphatically. 'He had a lisp. No one could have simulated it in quite the same way.'
Hagen decided that it didn't look so good for Tewak. The story was beginning to take shape. The Commies had traced the girl all the way from the Kwai to Macao. They had agents in every Eastern city and it must have been pretty simple. It was natural they should go to so much trouble. After all, the gold was actually in their own territory. He decided that either Tewak had been forced to make that telephone call or, alternatively, had been known to make it and had been dealt with afterwards.