by John Muir
CHAPTER 19
CALLING UP FAVOURS
Paradise Plantation, east of Iligan - Day 3
Yamada was angry. The bulldozer and grader that had arrived at 7:30 A.M. was less than half the equipment he had ordered and paid for. His self control was being tested to the full. He wanted to storm out of the house and berate the drivers that had arrived, but he could not. He was supposedly dead or kidnapped and being held elsewhere. Not even his own workers knew he was on the property.
He diverted his frustration and yelled at Ueda to get things moving. Ueda bowed correctly and left the house to instruct the drivers where to begin.
The plantations own six trucks and twenty or so workers followed the grader and bulldozer to where the clearing work was to begin. Ueda watched them depart and reluctantly returned to the nipa hut. Perhaps after Yamada left for Japan he would return to the Aikido school as an instructor.
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Manila - Day 3
Pater sat in the breakfast lounge, facing the entry door, and waited for Marivic to return. His calls to the VIP Hotel, and Nilo both had the same result. Nobody had heard from T.A.. His calls to the canning factory to speak with Daniello Seville had received the same rebuff. The reporter in Cagayan de Oro was a little more helpful. A ransom demand had been delivered to his newspapers office in Iligan.
Pater made two telephone calls to friends in Malaysia and a few calls to other friends around the Philippines. His plan was beginning to crystallise.
He still had to call the Australian and New Zealand embassies to report a missing person, but there was no physical search they could undertake. They had to use official channels and request the Philippine Government to begin their 'missing person' procedures.
Pater was checking the local morning papers for any later information on the kidnapping when Marivic entered. She handed him the only photo she possessed of T.A. before she even said 'good morning'. She put her small suitcase down by the table and sat down and accepted the menu passed to her by Pater.
Pater looked at the photo. "Where was this taken?"
"Red Storm Karaoke Bar."
Pater signalled to a reception staff member who had been watching them. Pater handed him the photo and within seconds the clerk had left the hotel.
Including Ben, the Swagman manager, there were only four people in this part of the world, including himself, who knew T.A. well enough to recognise him if they saw him. Pater had to consider where they should start looking.
Marivic's order arrived and Pater watched her eat in silence. He could not understand the need for the locals to have rice with everything they ate at every meal.
Marivic finished her meal and Pater ordered coffees for both of them. When he saw a man he had been expecting enter the front door, Pater excused himself, leaving Marivic putting way too much sugar for his taste into her coffee.
When he returned to the table he put down a very full foolscap envelope. Marivic looked at it with curiosity but without asking what it contained.
"I thought I should get some background on our Mr Yamada's business and other interests, as well as some information about and good maps of the areas we might have to visit."
Marivic simply nodded her response.
"I don't suppose you have some good walking gear among the things you have in the bag."
Again she only nodded, again in the positive.
"Because there might be quite a bit of walking."
"I know what to bring," she snapped back.
Pater was quite surprised at the reaction.
"O.K. then. I need to make some more telephone calls but I still need to buy some things. Would you mind doing my shopping for me?"
Marivic nodded positively.
Pater stopped a passing waitress and tore a sheet off her order pad and borrowed her pen. Reversing the sheet he wrote his list and handed it to her with some money.
She looked at the list and nodded again. "I don't need this much money."
"Fine, bring me back the change. I will also have to be here to meet some friends who will be arriving this afternoon. They are going to help too. So if I'm not here, just ask Ben, and he'll let you into my room to wait."
Marivic pocketed the list and put the money into her small purse. When she stood up to leave she clutched the purse firmly across her chest and left the hotel.
Pater sipped the last of his coffee and made his way to Ben's office.
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West of Linamon - Day 3,
Salim Hassan's desires to taunt the Japanese were still being frustrated by the Japanese still being in a coma. Salim's temper was also not helped by his feeling very tired. His cousins were still visiting regularly to keep guard on the Hapona when Salim had to temporarily be absent. While the Hapona remained unconscious there was little to do. The Hapona's body was now covered with the large welts of mosquito bites he had received during the night.
His daughters, Siti and Zahra, had dripped water between the Hapona's lips to try and reduce dehydration, but not too much to cause drowning. Salim left the room for a nap and instructed his girls to continue with the cold water treatment, and also to apply ointment to the bites. He hoped the Japanese would get malaria, but he didn't want him die from infected bites. Not yet anyway.
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Manila - Day 3
Pater had read the background on Yamada, and was surprised at the long association the Yamada family had with the Philippines. The other notes and comments about the local guerilla groups active in the area only expanded slightly on what he already knew. There seemed to be nothing concrete on which he could begin the search. The newspapers reported that the army, police and air force were searching between Iligan and Marawi. But the search would have been an excuse for the armed forces to settle some old scores against the Muslims rather than conduct a proper search.
It seemed that nobody at Yamada's business office had released any information at this stage about the finance for the ransom demand.
He called the Cagayan de Oro reporter again and asked what evidence had been sent to prove anyone was holding the Japanese. He advised there was none.
Yamada's Finance Director had asked the Iligan newspaper to respond to the kidnappers demand for a communication link through the paper by the kidnappers. The reporter was going to shift from his Cagayan de Oro office to Iligan to prepare a response. As far as radio and TV networks were concerned, he was the one they had immediately accepted as the conduit and source of information. By default it seemed that he had been put in charge of reporting on this incident.
Pater advised him that he would be heading to Cagayan de Oro later today and to leave his contact details with the VIP Hotel wherever he was.
He contacted Yamada's Paradise Canning factory and pretending to be a reporter asked to speak to the person handling the ransom demand. After a few minutes the receptionist was back on the line.
"Putting you through to someone who might be able to help."
Pater waited and listened. After a brief pause and a few rings on the line, the voice of an effeminate sounding male answered.
"Daniello Seville, Finance Director speaking."
Using a slightly southern US accent, Pater replied. "Mr Seville, thanks for taking my call. This is Kurt Ramses of United Press International."
"I am not giving any interviews or information to the press at the moment."
"The VIP hotel staff said Mr Yamada had two bodyguards with him as well as the driver."
"One of Mr Yamada's assistants didn't go all the way."
The undisguised homosexuality in the Finance Director's voice made Pater pause to wonder what angle he should take to obtain information.
"Have you heard from him?"
"Yes, Mr. Ueda did phone."
Pater detected a sense of annoyance in the speaker's voice. He wondered if it was in respect of his questions or the mention of Ueda's name.
Any further questions Pater then asked were met with a stubborn "I cann
ot comment further."
He would let it go for now while he thought further about it, then follow up as necessary once he had flown to the area.
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Paradise Plantation, east of Iligan - Day 3
Ueda reported to Yamada that a second grader and bulldozer had arrived after lunch and now all the equipment was being used, His trucks were barely coping with the removal of the uprooted trees and scrub. Each truck being quickly filled and transporting the vegetation to another site, and immediately after emptying the crushed cover as broken up rain forest filling into a gully, the trucks returned for another load.
Yamada felt frustrated that he had to keep up the sham that he was expanding the plantable area. He would have preferred to have simply got the trucks to drop their loads away from the area he wanted to search.
Tonight, both he and Ueda would begin search patterns with the metal detectors over the area already exposed.
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near Linamon, west of Iligan - Day 3
The girls had listened to the snores of their Father as they treated the bites of the Hapona. The older girl, Siti, had begun to apply the cold rag to the swollen face. She noticed some twitching of the eye lids, then the eyebrows and cheek muscles moving in small spasms. She pointed this out to her younger sister Zahra. They decided this was not enough reason to wake their Father.
Neither of them wanted to feel the back of his hand as punishment for waking him too soon, the Hapona was still unconscious.
They continued placing cold water dampened rags on the worst bruises and swollen areas for the next hour, and giggled quietly as they did their work. Siti could not resist the temptation any longer and lifted the band around the Hapona's underwear for a quick peak. She giggled again and Zahra too sneaked a quick peak. After all, the Hapona would never know.
They became scared at the thought of what their Father would do to them if he caught them looking. For a while any further temptation to look again was tempered by that paternal temper, and was suppressed.
During the next hour, Siti noticed the Hapona's lips begin to move. She dripped some cool water between them, and the lips moved again as though seeking more. She continued with the small amounts of moisture while Zahra watched on.
Over the next 30 minutes Siti heard quiet moaning sounds emanating from the Hapona. It was not any words, simply sounds similar to those made as they breathed out. She put her ear to his chest to confirm that it was not words. It was not, but the hairs on the Hapona's chest tickled her cheek and ears. Hearing the loud snores from where her Father was deeply asleep, she was again tempted to peak under the elastic band.
This time she did not giggle as she looked, but felt disappointment that what she was looking at was soft and small. Zahra also looked again. They both screwed up their noses and went on with the cold water bathing.
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Manila - Day 3
Pater and Marivic were waiting in Pater's room. Marivic silently watched Pater studying maps and reading the notes that he had sprawled over the bed.
Marivic looked at him differently now from the way she had done so earlier and on their first meeting. At some stage while she was out, Pater had shaved off his beard and had his hair trimmed. Somehow, though she could not see why, maybe it was in the way he moved or his mannerisms, he reminded her of T.A.
Pater looked at his watch again. He had been doing that frequently over the past 45 minutes.
"Soon be time for dinner if you want. Just let me know if you're hungry."
"No thanks, not yet," Marivic replied.
"I'm expecting a couple of friends to arrive soon, so I've been waiting until they get here. They're always hungry."
She watched him alternately referring to maps or notes he had been given, then, making his own notes in a pad.
A knock on the door made him spring off the bed and he was already halfway there before Marivic had even begun to wonder who it might be.
Marivic watched two very tall, solid, and very fit looking Filipinos, carrying bags, enter the room.
"This is Henry and Rangi. Chaps, I'd like you to meet Marivic."
Marivic immediately started to speak to them in Tagalog.
The newcomers smiled back and nodded politely as she spoke.
"See, I told you, you looked the part," said Pater.
Marivic looked curiously at Pater.
"Sorry Marivic, these guys aren't Filipino. They're from New Zealand. Natives of New Zealand, Maori. They just look like big Filipinos don't they?"
Marivic still looked surprised.
"Don't worry, you'll get used to it. They'll fit perfectly into what I have planned. They had to either be Filipinos or look like them."
"O.K. then," Pater went on. "Sorry fellows we'll have to get straight into it. First here's the menu, I'll get them to send some food up and start telling you what it's all about, and what I think has happened. Then you give me your ideas."
After the food orders were placed, Pater contacted the airline and booked four seats on the first available flight to Cagayan de Oro. That was 5:15 a.m. tomorrow. He then contacted reception and arranged for another two rooms to be booked, and a wake up call with breakfast to be delivered, then a taxi to be waiting to take them to the airport the next morning.
"Sorry once again. Really early start tomorrow. You guys can share a room and the other is for you Marivic. I don't think it'll be worthwhile going home tonight."
They all nodded in agreement. Pater was on a roll and was all business.
"O.K., the facts first, then what I think."
Pater told them what he had read in the papers, heard from the reporter, Nilo, the VIP staff, the company man, and what he had read in the notes delivered to him earlier that day. Nobody interrupted until the knock at the door indicated the food had arrived. The waiter also delivered the keys to the two extra rooms.
After the waiter had left, the visitors helped themselves to the food. Pater went on while they were eating.
"There's quite a few different possibilities. One of my favourites at the moment is that this Yamada has faked his own disappearance. But if so he's pretty damn ruthless. He killed two of his own employees to fake it. But I just don't know how he would've got T.A. to fit into that plan."
"The reason that I am suspicious about the kidnap is that there doesn't seem to be any urgency by his company to get organised to pay the ransom."
"Next. Does someone in his company want to get him out? That would answer the lack of response. Again though, where does T.A. fit into it?"
"The possibilities just go on and on and whatever the answer is we still have to find what has happened to T.A. There are lots of possibilities and we will have to eliminate as many as possible before we can even guess where to start searching."
When the discussion about all the possibilities started, Marivic just listened. It was obvious from the way these people talked that they were close friends and had worked together before. She had wanted to interrupt and ask what sort of work they all did, but felt a little intimidated.
By the time 9:30 P.M. had come, Marivic knew she could not contribute anything to this part of the discussion. She asked Pater if it was all right to go to her own room and get to sleep early. Pater, checked his watch.
"Shit, I didn't realise how much time had gone. I think we should all hit the hay. Big day and an early start tomorrow."
The two late arrivals picked up their bags and left almost immediately. Pater escorted Marivic to her room and opened her door.
"Tomorrow," he said, "in Cagayan de Oro; that is where we will really need your help. These guy and I will really need you then."
She felt a lot better with Pater's words.
He leaned forward and kissed her on the top of the head.
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Paradise Plantation, east of Iligan - Day 3
Yamada and Ueda had waited until the last of the workmen had departed. Within minutes of arriving at the clea
red area, Yamada had set up pegs to enable them to work a grid pattern. Though he knew that the position of the pegs would be lost during the next days clearing, it might be worth the effort if they found something early in the search.
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near Linamon, west of Iligan - Day 3
The only positive that seemed to be happening was that the facial swelling on the Hapona had reduced considerably. It seemed to Siti and Zahra that they had managed to get more liquid into the unconscious figure, if the urine soaked under-blanket above the tarpaulin was any guide.
While Salim's cousins were there earlier in the day they had lifted the Hapona to remove the under-blanket to wash and dry it before replacing it.
Apart from that it was another day the Japanese had frustrated Salim. He would sit up again tonight and hope the Japanese would recover.
He had been working for this man for 18 years at the factory. His dismissal had been a shock. He wondered if his dismissal was just for theft, or did the Japanese or someone else also know that he had been sabotaging some of the equipment. Even at the time of his dismissal, it seemed the Japanese did not have the courage to dismiss him face to face.
At this moment, it was the closest he had ever been to this man, whose family had so much effect on three generations of his family. Somehow he did not look dangerous and threatening while like this. But he would eventually kill him anyway.
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