The surviving fighters of the 14K forgot their oaths of initiation and dived into the bushes and rocks, watching as the two black dinghies moved out from the shore to the launch. They heard the roar of engines and saw the launch head South-East, leaving nothing but the triangle of a white-topped wake.
Chapter 66
They listened to the last transmission between Creasy and Jens Jensen. The MV Tempest had just crossed the twelve-mile territorial line on its way to Manila.
The Commissioner turned to Inspector Lau and murmured, ‘So, he took casualties.’
‘I’m sure they expected to,’ Lau said. ‘But one dead and two wounded is not bad.’
The Commissioner held up his hand and they both looked at the speaker and listened.
Creasy was saying: ‘We definitely got our target and many others. Are Mrs Manners and Rene copying this conversation?’
The voices came through the speaker: ‘We are.’
‘OK. Listen carefully. Our ETA in Manila is about twelve hundred hours tomorrow. We need doctors and ambulances waiting, and three private rooms booked in the American hospital. It would also be useful to have an official from the US Embassy on hand, to help with any formalities. Mrs Manners — call Jim Grainger. I’m sure he can arrange that.’
‘Understood,’ Gloria said. ‘Don’t worry about anything in Manila. I’ll be waiting for you.’
Jens’s voice cut in: ‘Ten minutes ago, I phoned and booked us into the Manila Hotel. The phone number is 482.738. We’ll be in that hotel from three o’clock this afternoon, if you need anything else, get a phone patch through your VHP.’
‘Will do.’
The speaker went dead and as Inspector Lau turned to the Commissioner, one of the phones on his desk rang. He picked it up, listened for a moment and then passed it to the Commissioner, saying, ‘It’s the situation room.’
‘About time,’ the Commissioner said. He put the phone to his ear and at the end of three minutes said, ‘Have Sai Kung station fax me a preliminary report within the hour, and I want a full report on my desk by the middle of the afternoon. Send a full team, including forensics.’ He listened again and then said, ‘You may be right. I’ll wait for the full report.’ He put the phone down and said to the Inspector, ‘A Marine Police launch noticed smoke coming from the Ninepins area. They found a large burnt-out junk, and two dead bodies with gunshot wounds floating nearby. There were other dead bodies on board, but they don’t yet know how many, because the wreck’s still smouldering and in danger of sinking. They’re trying to beach it right now. Meanwhile, the Sai Kung station reported heavy gunfire from the direction of the 14K villa compound. The first radio reports are coming in now. There are bodies everywhere. Apparently, your friends used mortar bombs and rockets to breach the walls.’
‘Tommy Mo?’ Lau asked.
Both he and the constable watched the Commissioner’s face closely. They saw a slight smile.
‘Tommy Mo is very dead. So is the entire top strata of the 14K and at least twenty of their fighters. They found one dead gweilo. They are still searching the place. The helicopter passed over the area fifteen minutes ago, and reported seeing a string of dead bodies near the coast.’
The Commissioner stood up and stretched his tired frame. He looked first at Inspector Lau and then at Constable Ho and said, ‘You both did well. Obviously the 14K will now fracture into many pieces and be much easier to deal with.’
The other men stood too, and Lau asked, ‘How will you handle it, Sir?’
‘Handle what?’
The Inspector gestured out the window in the direction of the New Territories.
‘Well, what happened out at Sai Kung this morning and at the Ninepins?’
Very seriously, the Commissioner answered, ‘I think my report to the Governor will show that we had a larger than normal, inter-Triad war.’
‘What about the dead gweilo? the constable asked. ‘By the time I’ve made two phonecalls from my office, there will not be a dead gweilo. Just a bunch of dead Triads.’ He walked out of the office with a jaunty step.
Chapter 67
For the first twenty-five miles, Tony Cope had driven the MV Tempest on full throttle. Fortunately, the wind had only been Force One from the North West, and the vessel rode smoothly through negligible swell. The autopilot was on, and he sat watching the radar screen. For the last fifteen minutes he had noted several blips moving rapidly in the direction of the Ninepins, to their rear. They would be Marine Police launches. Damon Broad was below in the fo’c’sle. In four hours, he would take over the watch. Creasy came up the companion way.
‘Are you OK?’ Tony asked.
‘Yes, I was lucky. I just lost a few millimetres off my waist.’
‘And the others?’
‘Maxie got the bullet out of Tom Sawyer’s shoulder. He should be all right. It’s lucky we had a full-scale medical kit on board.’
‘Those were my orders,’ Tony Cope answered. ‘How’s the lady?’
‘Traumatized,’ Creasy answered. ‘She wouldn’t let me near her. Guido’s with her. He’s given her enough sedation to make her sleep, and he’ll keep her asleep until we reach Manila.’
‘Then what?’
Creasy stretched his tired body.
‘Then Mrs Gloria Manners takes over. I’ve no doubt she’ll hire the best psychologists and take a very personal interest.’
‘She sounds like a formidable woman.’
Creasy thought about that, then said, ‘I think she may be now. It’s not often that you see people change, but I think she has changed.’ He glanced at Tony and said, ‘By the way you’ll be getting a bonus.’
‘A bonus?’
‘Yes. You were hired to ferry this boat to Hong Kong and back and to pick us up from the beach, not to storm a junk with eight armed men aboard.’
‘How much?’
‘The same as the rest of the guys . . . five hundred thousand Swiss.’
For a couple of minutes the boat cruised on with only the sound of the engines in their ears. Then Tony Cope said, ‘I’ll split it with Damon.’
Creasy glanced at him and murmured, ‘I thought you’d say that.’
Tony Cope smiled, ‘It will clear both our mortgages.’
Creasy stretched again and said, ‘Yeah, I guess that’s what life is all about.’
EPILOGUE
‘He’s gone walkabout,’ Guido said.
Both Jim Grainger and Juliet looked nonplussed. Guido explained, 'It’s an Australian expression that comes from the Aboriginals. Whenever they get overstressed they go into the outback and just roam around for days or weeks or months.’
Juliet asked, ‘He left, just like that?’
Guido nodded. He had arrived in Denver after a long flight from Manila. He looked at the young woman and said, ‘He asked me to come and talk to you. To explain. It was not something he could talk about on the phone or even put into a letter. He could not do that because he would not know what to say.’
‘And you do know what to say?’ she asked.
‘Definitely. I’ve known Creasy for about twenty-five years. I know what to tell you, even though he never spoke to me about it. After we arrived in Manila and all the paperwork was sorted out, he packed an overnight bag and asked me to drive him to the airport. He stood in the departure lounge, looking at the departure board, then he turned around and shook my hand and asked me to come and talk to you and to explain. Then he went off to buy a ticket . . . to where, I don’t know.’
‘Has he done this before?’ Grainger asked.
Guido nodded, with a half-smile of recollection.
‘Yes. It’s not unusual. He holds his emotions tight inside. When he’s been badly hurt he wants nobody to see that pain, so he goes amongst strangers. Maybe he drinks a bit too much. Maybe he looks into his soul. Maybe he chases women . . . I don’t know . . . nobody knows.’
‘Was he badly hurt?’ Juliet asked.
‘No, just a flesh wound.’
The Italian looked at her for several seconds, then said, ‘He lost a son who he loved, and maybe he lost a woman who he might have loved.’
“What’s her condition?’ Grainger asked.
‘Not good. Physically she’s OK, but her mind is badly affected. Gloria Manners stayed on in Manila and is looking after her and getting her the best treatment possible. The prognosis of the psychologists is uncertain. She may come through, and if she does — who knows? She may get back with Creasy. I guess it’s just a question of waiting. Waiting to see what happens to her and waiting to see when Creasy comes back from his walkabout.’
‘Do you think he will come back?’ Juliet asked.
‘Yes,’ Guido answered.
‘When?’
‘I guess it will be on the night of a full moon. That’s the nature of a man like Creasy.’
Black Horn (A Creasy novel Book 4) Page 26