by John Muir
CHAPTER 41
NIGHT NUMBER TWO
APUAO GRANDE
Boy sat in the stern of the banca, manning the tiller on the way back from Canton. The body language of his passenger showed it was pointless to try any further attempts at conversation. Helmut had not responded to any questions from the moment he had waded out to the banca, merely sitting silently in the bow looking forward.
Boy off-loaded Helmut at the beach-front directly outside Heidi's selected headquarters.
When the masked Helmut entered, Heidi quickly rose from her chair. She could see the blood marks on his camouflage shirt and trousers and quickly checked his clothes. The absence of any tears or holes seemed to confirm that the blood was not his and no other injury had been sustained.
She nodded at Domingo, who quickly and correctly took as an order to boil the jug. Heidi had requisitioned coffee, milk, sugar and a jug from the resort.
Helmut, still silent, collapsed into the armchair formerly occupied by Heidi. The airstream of the electric fan blew directly on him drying his sweat-soaked clothing.
Heidi let Helmut set his own timetable to talk, despite her impatience to know about the transmitter. It was already 11:30P.M., only an hour before their scheduled transmission time.
She gave Helmut his coffee which he took with a single nod of the head, then, crouched cross-legged at his feet like a child waiting for story time. She sat and waited until he was ready to start.
In a surprisingly undisciplined move for Helmut, he pulled off his mask. His eyes continued to look at the floor. Slowly, as if it was taking an enormous amount of strength, he slowly raised his head and looked at Heidi.
"They're both dead."
Heidi waited for him to continue, as did the others in the room even though the German language was unintelligible to them. He sipped at the coffee. Heidi noticed from his reaction that it was too hot. He rubbed his lips at the burning sensation it had caused.
"I forgot to look for the radio."
Heidi was surprised at the comment. It was not like Helmut to leave an assignment incomplete. He was always a fanatic for detail, just as he had always been totally convinced of his invincibility. While Heidi waited for further disclosures, thoughts of some of Helmut's previous missions came flooding back.
She pictured him waiting on the footpath outside the German Reichstag Parliament. When an outspoken critic of terrorism, with a history of heart problems emerged, Helmut walked past him like any other pedestrian. He fired one single shot from a silenced pistol into the politician's ailing heart. Then walking on, without a backward glance, Helmut joined an organised tour group being shown through the lower house. Meanwhile the victim's associates were left frantically searching the politician's pockets for heart pills, until they noticed the blood coming through his shirt.
Heidi remembered Helmut's reaction to another Reichstag member's call to have all incarcerated terrorists sterilised. The Parliamentarian argued that the heinous acts of terrorism forfeited any rights of terrorists to have children. Helmut researched and found that the member had three children, all girls, attending an exclusive private school. He considered all politicians as closet terrorists, legitimised only by their position and ability to lie without conscience. If terrorists were not allowed children, then let him help the politician lead by example.
Riding a motor scooter, Helmut had followed the children's chauffeur-driven car delivering them to school. He tossed two hand grenades through the open back window of the car as it stopped at traffic lights. As he sped through the red light, he did not even look back at the shattering explosion.
Heidi knew Helmut was a ruthless and unfeeling killer. Tonight perhaps he had narrowly missed being killed himself. That might have shattered his self-confidence and made him realise he was only a mortal.
Her patience at an end, Heidi could not wait any longer. She needed the information now if she was to meet the transmission deadline. She felt Helmut had taken more than enough time to recover from his thoughts.
"Where is the radio?" she snapped at him in an effort to draw him back from his thoughts. She waited a few seconds.
Helmut began to look at her directly, his eyes suddenly clearing of the trance he had been in.
"Probably somewhere near a clearing on the south of Canton. I've marked the path where the clearing is," Helmut replied.
"What about the bodies? Where are they?"
Heidi watched Helmut's eyes. Though they were looking directly at her he seemed to have drifted away and back into his sub-conscious. His eyes were unseeing and looking straight past her, only blinking occasionally.
"Valhalla."
"What?"
"Sailing to Valhalla," he slowly repeated.
Heidi stood. Though afraid of Helmut's possible violent reaction, she slapped him hard on each cheek with an open hand to bring him out of his dream. Helmut's head turned with each slap.
"Snap out of it," screamed Heidi.
Helmut's eyes remained glazed. He continued to stare unseeing at the floor.
Heidi gave up any further attempts and turned to Domingo.
"Get both Boy and Dandan for me. I need them both, now!"
As Domingo began his calls, Heidi closed her eyes and with both hands grabbed her own short brown hair and tugged sharply.
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DAET, CAMARINES NORTE
Captain de Mesa had been ordered to make ready with his platoon at Mercedes. That it was his platoon ordered on a reconnaissance mission was not unusual. His promotion to Captain from Sergeant was well publicised as a reward for his part in the raid which "destroyed" the NPA. in Daet, several months before. Since then, he had been ordered on every potential life-threatening operation the army had to offer in the area. His three companions, who survived the Daet raid with him, also received well publicised promotions in recognition of their contribution to that raid.
The promotions were for public and newspaper consumption. His senior officers were well aware of the true purpose behind that headline attracting "mission". His living presence was a too frequent reminder to other senior officers of the extent they had to go to cover up other areas of corruption.
Since then, de Mesa's platoon, which included his three compatriots, had been sent on dozens of dangerous missions into the jungles of Camarines Norte. The actions they had fought had already seen one of the four survivors of Daet killed. It was the young driver he was going to castigate for lighting a cigarette. He had struck a match once too often on a night jungle patrol. Incoming enemy rounds from an NPA ambush virtually cut him in two, but it alerted the rest of the patrol to the ambush and they escaped. Now, the surviving three fought to protect each other.
One benefit that had accrued to them was that constant action had honed their personal jungle survivorship skills to a degree unmatched by any other personnel at the garrison. They all knew that eventually they would probably receive a bullet in the back, fired from cover during an engagement. Until then, they would all watch each other's back.
The current orders were to investigate the lack of response to radio calls to the Swagman tourist resort at Apuao Grande from its Manila Head Office. They were worried that the resort might have been taken over by the NPA as others had been.
Captain de Mesa pored over the available maps of the area with his three companions. He hated the thought of sea action as he could not swim. A sea action would mean exposed fighting with no jungle to cover him. He started to get a bad feeling about this operation.
The maps revealed the target had two very close islands nearby. Canton to the south and Little Apuao to the north. A note written on the map said that Little Apuao was currently joined to Apuao Grande by a narrow sand-spit. De Mesa realised that Little Apuao was probably defended, but if it was not, then the sand-spit definitely would be. At least on Little Apuao he would have his feet on dry ground.
He would organise his bancas to approach from the north of Little Apuao. That would hide their approach from the l
arger island. Any fire at his bancas would then be limited to the firepower of presumably a smaller force protecting the north side of Little Apuao. His experiences had taught him to minimise the enemy firepower whenever possible, while maximising his own. His N.C.O.s agreed with the tactics. Now he had to arrange transport for his 32 men and himself to get from Daet to the port of Mercedes.
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APUAO GRANDE
After Dandan's rounds of the Island, the non-regulars began to gather on the beach near the tree where they had disembarked 24 hours earlier. Rico transferred to the reduced group at the spit. Lorna was left at the barrio. The Iranian, Raji, was transferring the staff hostages from the Simpson house to the restaurant. Once there they were to take over control from the Libyans, Ali and Moamar. All four remaining Libyans were told to report to Heidi. No mention had been made to them of the latest incident involving Abdul on Canton being killed. Boy had been sent to Canton with two others to find the transmitter.
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MT. KANLAON, NEGROS
Warvic's mood had grown darker as more reports of missing equipment and demands for payment were reported. It was now obvious to her that the non-response from some resorts was a result of missing radio equipment. She had circled areas on her private map where equipment had not been delivered. Her thoughts turned to which groups she could trust to carry out missions to eliminate all those who had jeopardised her plans through their greed. It would not take long, maybe three weeks, and the organisation would be rid of most of the leeches.
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APUAO GRANDE
T.A. was feeling hungry, dirty, smelly and tired. Sitting had made his muscles cramp. The aches from the two blows across his back and the stomach blow were nagging reminders of the incidents leading up to the present. Thankfully the mosquitos had respected the repellent he had been regularly applying.
He watched Pater's face take on a quiet and thoughtful mood. Fred had come and gone three times since his evening meal. Each time taking a quick drink from the water filled tin Pater had recessed into the earth for him. Neither Pater nor T.A. had heard any movement along the nearby path for a couple of hours. It was close to midnight.
"Probably a good time to catch up on some sleep," said Pater.
"I'm not really sleepy yet," T.A lied. "Do you want me to take a watch while you kip?"
"Don't worry about me. I might take a bit of a look around. Maybe see if anything much has changed."
"You want me to come?" asked T.A. in the hope Pater would not accept.
"No, I'll move quicker and quieter by myself."
T.A. hoped he hid his relief.
"No offence," Pater went on. "It's just that I know my way around this bush better than you."
"Are you going near the restaurant?" asked T.A.
"Are you worried about your lady?"
"Guess I am."
"How sure about her are you?"
"What do you mean?"
"What I said. How sure are you about her?"
"That's why I came here this time. I need to find out how I really feel about her. She's said she wants to come away with me."
"Do you know how she really feels about you?"
"No. She's evasive. I get bloody confused."
"I don't stick my nose into other peoples' business, but if I was you I'd be bloody careful with her."
T.A. wondered what the normally non personal Pater was inferring.
"Pater, I'd respect your opinion, you know that."
"Yeah. No good if you don't want to hear it."
"Go on," requested T.A. He realized that sub-conciously he had gritted his teeth.
"She's got a bit of a roving eye."
"I know, but she always denies it."
"Ness thinks you're an all right guy. So she's worried about you. She wanted me to tell you what she's seen, but I told her it wasn't our business."
T.A. nodded and waited for Pater to continue. Pater lowered his eyes not wanting to see T.A.'s reactions.
"Well, between what the two of us have heard and seen, I don't think I'd trust her a helluva lot. If she got the chance and didn't think you'd find out, I think she'd play around. Not with anybody, but with someone that gave her a buzz. Then again that might be with anyone."
T.A. felt his gut tighten, but it was also confirming the warning his intuition had been trying to give him.
"Yes, I feel it sometimes," offered T.A. "I've even accused her of giving one of the Filipino guests the eye."
"If you mean the tall well-spoken one, you're right. His nickname's Boy. At the start she was asking the staff about him, you know the usual stuff, his name, where he's from, where he lives."
"I thought so."
"He was asking the staff about her too and what your connection was with her. The long term staff hadn't told him much but the newer staff, who knows? What Ness saw and heard was quite bizarre. Whenever she was near the kitchen and Boy was nearby, she pretended to be speaking to one of the cooks. The cook didn't know what was going on. Not many locals around here speak Visayan. The cook doesn't speak it either, but he understands it because his mother speaks it sometimes. Your lady was talking to Boy in Visayan. The cook said Malou would tell Boy when you were going off to golf or archery and he'd tell her where he'd be."
T.A. felt his heart jump. "Yes, I used to wonder what she was doing while I was away."
Pater sat up suddenly and raised his hand for silence. T.A. heard it too. Voices, and the sounds of several people seemingly not concerned about the noise they were making. It came from the direction of the main path. People were walking from the hilltop toward the general direction of the restaurant.
T.A. looked at Pater. "Is it over?" T.A. asked.
"I doubt it. Something's happening though," Pater replied.
Though the noise subsided quickly, Pater remained unmoved. After checking his watch he lay back down on the dirty sheet he had covering the bed of leaves.
"I'll have a look around in 30 minutes. You stay here after I go, just don't hit me when I sneak back," Pater grinned.
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With four masked Libyans inside her H.Q, Heidi felt uncomfortable. The tension also made Heidi's diminished personal group of two regular NPA and Domingo go to the corners of the house, weapons ready and watching the Libyans.
Helmut was sitting in the same easy chair, but still in the same dream state as when he had arrived. Heidi had re-masked him and placed an M16A2 across the arms of the easy chair as a potent threat. She doubted, in his state if he would react to anything. But with his back to the Libyans' he appeared to be looking out through the window, or maybe watching their reflection. They could not see his face and would not know his state of mind.
Dandan came in alone, and sought Heidi out.
"Well?" she asked.
"32," he replied. "Four irregulars missing. That's the one killed at Pater's and three of the four that went missing were also irregulars."
"That means that we've got 25 of the 26 regulars that we started with, plus eight of us," replied Heidi.
Boy knew she was not including any of the four surviving Libyans in the eight. He wondered how she would handle explaining the events of Canton to them. It became obvious that she was not going to when he saw and heard Heidi's opening remarks to the Libyan that had stepped forward to speak to her.
Heidi had instinctively known it was Mahmood who had stepped forward.
"I sent the message for all of you to report to H.Q! Where's your fifth member?" Heidi demanded.
The words were sharp and loud catching the Libyan off-guard with their suddenness. Mahmood had been about to launch a verbal attack on her, but her pre-emptive harangue made him take a step back.
"You have done something to Abdul. Where is he?" he demanded, having recovered from Heidi's unexpected aggression.
Heidi had not remembered the name of the Libyan left under the tree. Mahommed's statement had revealed who it was. "He was left in control
of the machine-gun under the tree. But he left his post sometime during last night."
"What have you done with him?" he demanded again.
All parties, except Helmut, lifted their weapons to the ready position.
Heidi's strong voice and bitterness came through as she continued. "Your friend deserted his post. I could have him shot for that. He then left this island on a banca stolen from the barrio. Is that part of the greater plan that you have for this mission?"
"No. He'll be coming back," Mahommed answered in a suddenly subdued and thoughtful mood. He knew he had lost his attempt to dominate Heidi in this conversation.
Ali now stepped forward trying to take up the dominance that Mahommed had failed to get.
"We won't leave here until he returns," Ali threatened.
"Then you'll be here until it snows. He wasn't thinking about you when he ran away. Scared was he? The last thing anybody knew was he was going as fast as he could heading south past Canton."
Mahommed now jumped back in.
"What were the bancas doing by Canton this afternoon? I could see them from the hill."
"Trying to find your friend. As you would have seen, they didn't find him. He had made himself very unpopular with the locals at the barrio. He stole the banca by threatening them with a gun. I was going to have him shot for desertion." Heidi thought it wiser to keep the girl's abduction secret for the moment.
The Libyans stayed silent for a few moments before beginning to talk among themselves in Arabic. Temporarily at least, the heat was off Heidi. She turned to Boy.
"We have to re-allocate the regulars and re-organise the hostages. We're spread too thin at the moment," said Heidi.
"Some of the irregulars would stay," offered Boy.
"No," she replied. "We don't want to organise for too many people to escape later. When the Libyans and the irregulars have gone we'll transfer all the hostages to the tennis court."
Mahommed stepped forward and waited for Heidi to look in his direction. She delayed looking back at him as long as she could. She was in no mood to argue. She had decided that if there was one more angry word from any of the Libyans she would draw her pistol and start killing them. She jerked her head up quickly to look at Mahommed.
"We've been talking," he said. "As you know there are separate arrangements for the Libyans to get away. I can't tell you what they are, but Abdul knows."
"Yes," responded Heidi gruffly. "What do you want from me?"
"If Abdul does come back, you must tell him that if he misses the rendezvous there won't be a second chance to collect him."
Heidi felt relieved. "Does this mean that you're leaving with the irregulars?"
"We have to; otherwise we will miss the rendezvous."
"I'll organise room for you on one of the bancas."
"No. That's no good. The irregulars are going west to the mainland. We must go south, further down the coast to meet up with other groups. We'll need a banca for ourselves."
Heidi felt frustrated and relieved at the same time. If she could get the Libyans to leave without further bitterness and trouble she would meet their demands.
"I'll get Boy to requisition a small fast motorised banca, fully fuelled, with extra petrol to get you where you want to go. Is that O.K.?" she asked.
"Perfect. Thank you."
Heidi did not like the feeling she was experiencing. The Libyan had changed his tone too quickly. He was being so nice it was almost greasy. Despite that she nodded to Dandan who had been listening to the conversation.
"I'll arrange that," Dandan jumped in, "fully fuelled with extra tanks to take them the distance."
Heidi nodded and watched Dandan leave on the assignment.
"We'll wait on the beach then," said Mahommed.
"O.K. Thanks for your help," she lied.
The Libyans simply nodded and left.