by John Muir
CHAPTER 21
THE TAKEOVER
APUAO GRANDE ISLAND, SAN MIGUEL BAY, CAMARINES NORTE.
The guard was pleased the tournament finished earlier than he thought it would. Nobody had used the T.V. room to watch videos during the night, so he had just wandered around nearby, occasionally visiting his secret stash where the bottle of Tanduay rum was hidden.
Just before 12:30A.M., the last of the guests cleared the restaurant. By 12:45A.M., the last staff member had finished cleaning up and had gone. A quick check of the nipa huts showed all guests had turned off their inside lights for the night by 1:00A.M. The beach and beer hut were deserted. As usual the table of the beer hut was so full of empty bottles it looked like a bottle collection area. He made a quick check to see if all the bottles had been opened. Unfortunately they had, and no partly filled cigarette packets had been left behind. He knew from experience the part empty bottles already contained too many night insects drinking their fill.
After a long draw on his rum as a night-cap, he turned off the lighting in the bar and restaurant. Only the security lights and the beer hut spotlight were left on as usual.
The T.V. room lounges were very comfortable in comparison to the floor mattress he had to use in Daet at his brother's shack. He had been working as security guard in a bank in Daet for two years when he was approached with the offer to become security guard for the Swagman Resort on the Island of Apuao Grande.
This job offer was a once in a lifetime chance for a man in his position. Pay was good in comparison to the bank, but the free meals and accommodation was the most attractive feature. He lost out on normal sleeping patterns as he was the only guard on the island. To make up for this he had to adjust his body clock by snatching shorter periods of sleep when he could. He grabbed a few extra hours sleep during the day at the Simpson house where the other staff slept at night.
As he settled down on the T.V. lounge he slipped his gun-belt, holster and pistol under the lounge squab. He patted one of the cushions into shape and wished he could have more than the five hours' sleep available before 6:30A.M. At that time one of the cooks would wake him before the manager arrived.
He had just dozed off when he began having a bad dream. Something was holding him down. God! It was the python from the kitchen. It had him. He could not scream. It was over his mouth and held his arms. Next it was over his eyes. His consciousness, now fully awake, came to the fore. It was not the python but human hands holding him. His mouth and his eyes had both been taped. He was rolled onto his face, arms pulled together behind him at the wrist and tape quickly wrapped around them. Next he felt his ankles being taped and his legs pulled up his back. Who was doing this? Was it a staff prank? He could not see or hear anyone. His arms and legs had been pulled back so far it was painful. Just as quickly as it had happened the attackers had gone. Who was it? The tape over his eyes was painfully pulling his eyebrows. Was it someone from the barrio getting revenge for something he had done to them? If the manager found him like this he could be dismissed instantly. He would have to get free. How? He could not move.
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Boy and Dandan arrived on the beach just before 1:30A.M. Although the others were already there it was difficult for them to see, even though the half was moon giving reasonable light. The dark loose camouflage costumes and hoods they were wearing made them invisible in the shadows.
"Everything O.K.?" whispered Heidi.
"Yes," replied Boy, "the guard slept through the whole thing. He stank of alcohol."
"Anybody else around?"
"No, we hid in the dark for thirty minutes, watching, before we tackled the guard. We watched the last guests leave the beer hut. After we tied the guard we checked the office, restaurant, kitchen, outside the nipa huts, and the beer hut again. We checked the beach on the way here. It's all clear and quiet, no sign of anyone moving around."
"Aziz has chained the storage shed for the motorised skis by the bar, so that's secure too. I hope everyone's been to the toilet; it might be a long time before the next chance. Now we can see if our friends are early and waiting offshore yet," said Heidi.
She took a small signal torch out of her loose fitting jacket ammunition pocket and attached the four colour kaleidoscope to its front. She made two long red flashes out to sea slightly north of where they were standing and waited for the hoped-for reply of two green flashes. Apprehension crossed her mind at the absence of an immediate response. Perhaps it had been called off. They had no way of knowing. That eventuality had not been covered. Even though they were in position earlier than needed, she wanted to allow extra time for unseen problems.
She tried again, still no response.
"Hell," she said to no-one in particular, "maybe they're late or waiting at the wrong island."
"Boy, are you sure the guard can't get free and raise the alarm?"
"Not in a week," he replied.
Her third and fourth attempts at signalling still did not draw any reply. As each minute passed she grew even more worried. Maybe they should not have neutralised the guard until offshore contact had been made. If the offshore party never arrived, they could have carried on their normal cover as if nothing had happened. The tying up of the guard meant they had started some actionable point of no return.
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Something caused T.A. to stir. It sounded like chains rattling, but he dismissed it as the sound of some mysterious tree creature of the night. Again, he and Malou had dozed off on the trampoline. The cool breeze off the sea was more effective than the bedroom fan. He tried to check the time on his watch without disturbing Malou. The combination of moonlight and a poor light in his watch was insufficient. He could faintly hear voices and presumed he could not have been dozing for long. The voices would have to be coming from the beer hut where some late drinkers were still carrying on.
After he heard them two or three times, he realised that they were not coming from the direction of the beer hut. He rolled on to his stomach and lifted his head slightly. Looking to his right from where he thought the voices were coming, he could see nothing. He continued staring into the half-light for a few minutes. Maybe they were coming from one of the private houses and blown to his earshot by a gust of wind. There were no lights on that he could see. He knew sound travelled a long way in the quiet of the night, but this was ridiculous. He could not make out words, just aware of quiet talk.
Then he saw two long red coloured flashes from a torch about fifty metres up the beach and aimed slightly out to sea.
"Oh shit!" he said hushed to himself. "Somebody's smuggling drugs."
Malou stirred. As soon as she started to speak he put his hand over her mouth. She squirmed in protest and he clamped it harder.
"Quiet, something funny's happening," he said in a low voice.
"What's going on?" she replied in a whisper.
"I don't know, but I don't think we should let anybody know that we're here. And don't talk, even a whisper will carry."
They both lay, stomachs down, on the trampoline looking into the dark. Malou saw the next two red flashes and nudged T.A.
Both of them then looked out to sea, expecting some response. Yes, there it was, two long green flashes of light from a large unlit banca that they could just make out a couple of hundred metres offshore.
Both looked back to where they first saw the red flashes. Again there were two long red flashes, then two white flashes, and two green flashes. Back out to sea they saw a response of two green, two white and two red flashes. The shore responded with three green flashes. They heard the distant motor of the banca start up.
"What's happening?" asked Malou.
"Shhhh, I don't know. It's obviously not someth'n legal. I think we'd better just keep down and not be seen. If they're doing someth'n illegal like this at night then they'd think nothing of killing witnesses."
T.A. knew that he was feeling scared and was wishing they were at home safely in bed and ignorant of what was happening. He l
ooked around and wondered if they could sneak away unseen. If he could not see who it was flashing the light, perhaps they would not see them either. Maybe he would try that later. But when he saw six darkened figures move out from under a tree only fifty metres away he was glad that he had decided not to move.
He looked to where he had seen the torch flashing out to sea and saw it was not one but three bancas moving toward the beach. They all seemed to be crowded with people carrying sticks. He put his arm over Malou partly to reassure her, but mostly to prevent her making any sudden movement that might give them away.
'God,' he thought, 'any drug operation this big they'd certainly leave no living witnesses.' He thought about hiding under the hobie-cat trampoline, but they were on the wrong side to easily slide underneath without causing the little yacht to move. Any movement would be multiplied ten times in the movement at the top of the upright mast.
The bows of the three incoming bancas nudged gently into the sand. Shadowy figures began jumping off the bows and both sides. T.A. noticed that the shadowy figures on the beach and those from the banca were all wearing full head masks and dark floppy camouflage clothes. It was not sticks they were carrying, but rifles or automatic weapons. He had mistaken the barrels for sticks.
He whispered to Malou, "While I try and keep the yacht and mast still, slide slowly and steadily over the stern end of the trampoline, that’s the sea end. Get underneath."
Thankfully, she did not stop to argue the point. She followed his instructions. He was surprised at the little amount of movement she caused. He hoped he could glide his greater weight off as smoothly. As soon as she was underneath he began his own movement and froze when a strong torchlight flashed briefly in his direction from the landing party. It played briefly on the high hobie-cat mast as it swayed slightly. He buried his face painfully into what now seemed like a hard trampoline surface to hide the white reflection of his face. He did not know if the beam was as a result of something the intruders had heard or seen.
Immediately the torch beam switched off he hurried his scramble and was quickly alongside Malou on the sand under the trampoline. Their right side vision was now partly obscured by the hobie-cat outrigger. He realised if it was difficult for him to see out it would be even more difficult for these strangers to see then in the darker area under the trampoline. It did not make him feel safe, only less exposed than he previously felt. He was hoping the dark could hide them as effectively at it had from passing guests on previous nights. This was a deadly game of hide and seek. As yet, the seek part by these strangers had not started and he was hoping it never would. The penalty of being found might be death.
He whispered to Malou, "If any lights come our way, put you face in the sand, or turn it away to avoid reflected light." He felt she understood this and chose silence rather than replying. Soon there were several strong torch-lights playing up and down the beach. In tandem and like ostriches, they both buried there heads in the sand hoping it would all pass by without them being seen.
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The tension in Heidi heightened in one area and diminished in another as the three bancas pulled in to the shore. She stood on the sand watching as the armed and hooded men jumped off the bows and forward sides of the bancas. For most it was a jump into the shallows. Some few took their jump too close to the stern and discovered too late that the water was over their heads.
The sight of men going into seawater with their weapons and ammunition going underwater with them made Heidi wonder what other stupid things could go wrong. The drenched weapons would have to be thoroughly cleaned and the ammunition individually dried to prevent jamming in the magazine. Thankfully the more precious cargo of missiles, flares, heavy machine guns and night binoculars were rapidly being off-loaded from the bows of the bancas.
Some of the small pre-organised groups were ready. Heidi assigned the first two to Helmut.
"Go Helmut, you've got the manager's house, the scuba diver and disable the boats. Quickly. No shooting. Prisoners to the restaurant, mouths gagged and hands tied. Check they can breathe through their noses though."
She knew the instructions were unnecessary for Helmut. It was to remind the other group leaders to think of their tasks.
Helmut signalled his group to follow him. They began their run north along the beach in the half moonlight, past the first of the hobie-cats. They had about four hundred metres to cover to the first of their house targets.
She grabbed Dandan, "Your group, take them to the barrio and leave them with Rico and Lorna. Then come straight back and join me along the tractor trail."
She noticed with satisfaction that he had already taken a pair of the night-binoculars from one of the new arrivals and was adjusting the straps as she spoke.
"We're gone," he answered, and started jogging southward down the beach to the barrio.
"Raji, change of plans. Instead of going to the restaurant, I want you to take a group and surround the staff in the Simpson house. Don't move in until we start on the other houses. Tape all mouths and hands once you move in. Remember to check they can breathe." She pushed him to the next group of five. "Now go!"
She looked anxiously around for the two Libyans, expecting them to have been vocal before now.
"Mohammed, Ali, where are you?"
"Behind you."
Heidi turned quickly to see the tall black hooded shapes. She had been unaware of their closeness and it made her feel uneasy. Worse, their being behind her raised her hackles.
"O.K. Go with Aziz, and set up positions inside and outside the restaurant to guard the hostages when they're brought in. As soon as each group arrives, take control of their prisoners and let the group get on with their second assignments. When the last hostages arrive take the tape from their mouths and their hands. If there are any troublesome ones, re-tape their hands. If they're talkative re-tape their mouths as well.
"Boy, split your four groups, one group for each set of huts. Give me five minutes from now to get to the furthest house then start entering the huts. Gather them in as quietly and quickly as you can. It'll take a couple of minutes to show your groups where they start. Now, go!"
Boy ran off followed by his large group.
Heidi turned to the remaining people on the beach. She waved her finger at four of them.
"Stay here and guard the bancas, the rest of you follow me." Suddenly she realised that they might not understand and she swung around. As if in answer to her problem, one of the two answered.
"We understand. We'll guard the bancas."
Relieved, she turned back to the rest of the group.
"Follow me!"
She headed off back past the overhanging tree where they had been waiting for the bancas to arrive. In less than a minute they were outside the furthest house, Pater's. She pointed to two men and motioned for them to take that one. Two others went to the house opposite where the missionary couple and their two children were holidaying. Taking the rest of the group a few yards, she pointed two more guerillas at another house.
Heidi realised that she was not going to have enough to cover the houses if she sent two into each of the ten occupied houses. It also dawned on her that she still had five men left in her group when she should have had only three. She had assigned four to guard the bancas. It was too late now to go back to the bancas. She could cover six of the ten houses anyway and it would only take seconds to have the hostages out of the first houses.
She pointed to two more houses and pushed two men toward each of them. Then running toward the Simpson staff house she called out quietly as she arrived at the front of the house.
"Raji."
A voice came from behind a tree only a metre away.
"I'm here."
"I need three or four of your men to cover two more houses."
"Psst," went Raji, and two others suddenly appeared less than five metres from where she stood.
"Go and get one of your friends from the back, quickly," said Raji.<
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One of the shadows ran around the back of the Simpson house and in seconds was back with a compatriot. Heidi pointed two of them at Bob's house and the remaining two at Ronny's. She accepted that there would still be two houses not covered. One was occupied by the Maddigan couple and the other by T.A. and his woman. But that could not be avoided; they would take them as soon as the first houses were emptied.
She was just about to yell 'go' when she heard screams and yelling in the distance from the guest nipa huts close to the restaurant. It had started. Instead of waiting for her yell, her assigned group immediately began crashing in doors. She thought of tackling the Maddigan house singly then remembered her accent would show her as being a non-Filipino.
Women's screams and men's yelling started behind her in the Simpson staff house. There had been no crashing of doors, simply walking in and waking the staff. Within seconds, the first of the hostages were pushed out of the front door, mouths and hands taped. Heidi tried to keep her eyes on the two uncovered houses to see if there was any reaction like lights being switched on. She could not resist quickly glancing in the direction of the hostages emerging from the Simpson house.
Automatically she started counting them and realised that several were totally nude, others only wearing a T-shirt. It was something she had not considered. She always went to bed clothed and the thought that others did not had not been part of her plans.
Although there was yelling coming from the other houses on the trail, Heidi noticed that there seemed to be more crashing than yelling coming from Pater's house. She ran toward it. She could clearly hear the booming sound of Pater's voice over the crashing noises from within.
As she prepared to jump up on the porch, a hooded figure crashed part way out through the now broken window stopping with his neck impaled and cut by the jagged glass still in the frame. The jugular vein spurted blood in her direction like an uncontrolled water-hose. She decided the close proximity called for her to use her pistol. She slung the M16 over her shoulder. Before charging in to the unknown, she glanced in through the door to see the massive nude frame of Pater trying to wrestle an M16 from the grip of one of her men being held on the ground from behind by Ness.
She stepped through the door and fired two shots into the ceiling. The struggling stopped immediately. She pointed the pistol directly into Pater's face. Heidi was a little startled at the hate emanating back from Pater's eyes. Her initial thoughts a few days ago about Pater being a possibly dangerous adversary were proving correct. She stepped back out of his possible reach.
"Freeze!" she screamed, hoping her monosyllable would not reveal any accent.
Pater's look quickly changed to one of surprise and then submission.
The looks on both Pater's and Ness's faces told Heidi that there would be no further resistance and they immediately released their holds on the prone guerilla who sprang to his feet. From his drenched clothing, he had obviously been one of those who had jumped from the wrong end of the banca.
"Down!" she screamed and instantly Pater and Ness dropped to the floor. It looked almost comical to see the two nude bums, one muscly white and the other small and very dark brown, side by side on the floor. Both bodies were square shouldered and muscular.
Another hooded Filipino came running in the door, startling Heidi.
"Take over," she ordered. Turning to leave she paused briefly at the form slumped through the window. Avoiding the blood still spurting from the jugular vein, she decided not to check for a pulse judging that he was dead, or too close to it to try and save.
Jumping off the porch, she ran to the Simpson house passing some restrained and subdued hostages being escorted to the restaurant. She hoped the few words she had used had not given her accent away as not being Filipino.
At the Simpson house she looked at the two un-allocated houses. There was now a light on in the Maddigan occupied home. Sounds of a crying child came from within but there was no obvious attempt by those within to see what was going on outside. The Brooke house where T.A. was staying only displayed the same outside lighting as before.
She grabbed two of the guards that were escorting the passing hostages and pointed to the Maddigans' house. As they ran toward the house, Heidi called out to them.
"Let them get dressed!" Then she ran to the leading group of escorted hostages and held up her hand for them all to stop. She pulled two of the guards aside to speak to them out of hearing of the others.
"Get a large selection of clothes and sheets. Let them all cover themselves with something before they get to the restaurant."
Running back to the Maddigan house again she passed a tightly bound and still nude Pater and Ness being escorted toward the rest of the hostages.
It began to worry her that there was still no reaction from the Brooke house. Perhaps they had escaped out the back door into the jungle when they saw what was going on from their brightly lit porch. Surely no-one could sleep through all the noise.
Doug Maddigan and Alona now emerged escorted from their house. Thankfully the guard had enough sense not to bind their hands. Doug was carrying the sleeping daughter cradled into his shoulder and Alona appeared to be carrying some supplies. While he looked rather calm, Alona was sobbing and Heidi heard her repeating, "What's happening? What's happening?" Doug put his spare arm over her shoulder.
"At least they were dressed," thought Heidi.
As another two guerillas passed her, she stopped them and pointed to the Brooke house. They quickly crossed the lawn and ran round to the back. She heard the glass in the back door shatter and through the uncovered lounge windows, saw them enter through the back door then disappear into the bedrooms. They switched all the bedroom lights on. There was no noise of any surprise or struggle. The two guerillas ran out the back door and as they approached Heidi they shook their heads.
"Shit, they've got away."
She decided to check for herself and ran into the house. When she spotted the bed still made up and obviously unused she realised they had not escaped, they were simply not at home. Hopefully they had been picked up in one of the other huts or houses. She would check that at the restaurant.
She ran past the paused and dressing group under guard, and on to the restaurant. It was already crowded with hostages mostly bound at the hands and with mouths taped. It annoyed Heidi that many of the guards just stood around ogling the nude and semi-nude bodies. They were staying in the restaurant instead of getting on with their next assignment. Too many of them in the same place could reveal an accurate estimate of their numbers.
She pulled three guards out of the restaurant and gave them the same instructions regarding sheets and clothing. She quickly scanned the faces of the hostages. All were accounted for except for T.A. and his woman. But if they were not in this group, where were they?
She suddenly remembered the bancas and the four guards she thought that she had left there. She ran to the beach and south to where the guards were meant to be. As she arrived she was surprised to see only two hooded men come out from under the tree.
"Are you from the four I left here? Where are the other two?" she asked.
"We haven't moved, and we haven't seen anyone else around here either."
Heidi was now mystified as to how there were two extras in her group. Perhaps two of those she had left under the tree still joined her group and were not from one of the other groups she had sent out. She now had to make sure the assigned groups began to consolidate and dig in their initial firing positions she had selected.
When she ran back to the restaurant it was easy to see that her group of hostages had arrived, as they were the only group dressed. Though, what they were wearing was only an assortment of sheets and other ill-fitting clothes. At least they were not naked.
The idea of having an orderly series of groups had mostly fallen apart from the start of the action. Proper grouping could begin now. Firstly she would clear the unnecessary guards out of the restaurant.
She pulled a guard out of the restaurant.
"Ask around to find the group leaders and tell them I want to see them here."
The guard just looked at her through the slits in his mask and said nothing.
"Do you understand?" she asked.
He just looked at her again, but this time shrugged his shoulders.
"Scheisse," she muttered to herself when she realised that she had picked someone who did not speak English. Returning to the restaurant she grabbed another of the guards, dragging him outside, she repeated the same order.
"O.K.," came the response. "It's me, Boy. I've been looking around to try and locate you too. What do you want done with all these beautiful bodies?"
"Dammit, I didn't realise how confusing all these masks would be with so many people. Boy, try to get as many of the soldiers out of here as possible before some of the hostages start counting masks."
Another masked figure was running along the path toward the restaurant. Heidi and Boy were both still a little jumpy, and both pointed their weapons in the direction of the newcomer.
"Hey," the stranger called out, "take it easy, it's Dandan."
"Where the hell have you been?" demanded Boy.
"It took quite a while to find Rico and Lorna. We just found them when there were two gunshots. That woke up a lot of people in the village. We had to settle them down and explain what was happening."
"Any problems?" asked Heidi.
"No, there was even a cheer from some of them. We had to insist they do not try to help. So now I'm here, what now?"
"We've got to clear up the confusion. Get the groups arranged as we'd organised. Get the gear off the beach and into position, or at least under the trees. We must be set up before daybreak. Before anything else, get all the unnecessary guards out of the restaurant. Make sure all the hostages have something to cover themselves with. When you pass out the clothes cut the tapes holding their hands."
"Boy, as soon as the extras have left, announce to the hostages that they are only being untied for as long as they behave. Any sign of trouble, the offenders will be re-tied and gagged. Make as many as possible of the Europeans sit in chairs. Get their partners to stand directly behind them. It’ll help us check. Take all the staff, except the manager, the dive master and those that were staying with the ex-pats, back to the Simpson house and keep them there. I don’t expect trouble from them. In the meantime three guards for the Simpson house will do."
Boy and Dandan moved into the restaurant. As they were doing so the various guards they approached began to move away from the restaurant. Heidi stood in the shadows and watched silently as order seemed to slowly return inside the restaurant.