Operation Malacca

by Joe Poyer

  A muffled Òhh . . sounded from the door leading into the bedroom. The three men looked around to see a lovely Chinese girl clutch a short kimono to herself and stare at them with wide eyes. She saw the guns and tried to step back out of the doorway. A sharp word in Chinese stopped her, and she came slowly out of the bedroom.

  Keilty rolled his eyes up in supplication and sat down on the edge of a bookcase. The girl was his date from the night before. He watched her cross the room hesitatingly, long legs shown to good advantage beneath the kimono which did nothing to hide a beautiful figure. Her hair, hanging shoulder length and cut evenly across the back, matched almost perfectly the muted brown of her almond-shaped eyes.

  She stared at him in fright and he spread his hands in helplessness.

  'A complication, a very bad complication,' the Eurasian rasped. The Chinese gunman fired a question at her in Chinese and she answered slowly, then bit off a single word. He was across the room in two steps and slapped her hard on the face. The blow cracked like a pistol shot. Keilty lunged off the bookcase and caught the Eurasian's gun butt behind the ear before he had taken a step. He went down hard, his head a mass of exploding lights.

  Through the haze that swirled in his head, he could hear questions being put to the girl in Chinese. He tried to get to his knees, but the blow on the head seemed to have drained his strength completely. There were more slaps and muffled screams. Then he felt hands go under his arms, lifting him into a chair.

  His head was beginning to clear somewhat. He opened his eyes and the room swam sickeningly for a moment. Keilty finally managed to focus his eyes on the figure of the Eurasian, perched on the arm of the couch. Keilty noticed that the Eurasian had attached a silencer to his .38 S&W Police Special.

  He heard a slap and turned to see the Chinese girl lying on the floor, face cradled in her arms.

  `Tell your bully boy,' Keilty said dangerously, 'that if he touches her once more, I'll break his back.'

  `Your heroics are a bit late,' the other laughed. 'We are already quite finished with her.'

  Keilty did not like the emphasis on the 'quite finished'.

  `Who is she?' the Eurasian asked.

  Keilty put a hand to the side of his head, gingerly massaging the spot where the gun had struck him. 'She's a friend.' `Her name, please?'

  'Why?'

  `Curiosity, more than anything else. She is a complication as I said before. I would like to know her name.

  Keilty glanced at her, still lying on the rug. She raised her head 'to look at him, and he could see the red marks of the slaps and a darkening bruise at the outer edge of her left eye. There were no traces of tears. She was frightened but trying desperately not to show it. He smiled at her, then shifted his glance to the Chinese with the Walther. The man said nothing, but his eyes said it for him. The Chinese smiled and rubbed his hand along the stubby barrel.

  `Her name is Tina,' he said, turning back to the Eurasian. `Her last name, please.'

  Ì don't know,' Keilty answered. 'We only met last night.'

  Ì see,' thoughtfully. He brought the gun to bear directly on Keilty's face.

  `Her last name,' he said harshly.

  Keilty stared at the muzzle and burst into laughter. 'You stupid jerk. You kidnap me in an elevator, haul me in here, find her, then threaten to shoot me if I don't tell you the last name of a girl I only met last night. You don't expect me to believe that, do you?'

  The Eurasian grinned sheepishly. I don't. You are more intelligent than you appear, Dr.

  Keilty, in spite of the Ph.D. following your name.'

  `So, you know my name.

  `Yes we do. We know quite a bit about you, in fact . . .' The telephone buzzed softly and he picked it up, listened for a moment, then said, 'Five minutes,' and hung up.

  'Get her clothes,' he said to the Chinese. Then to Keilty, 'We are going to take a short taxi ride. I am sure that you will find yourself treated as an honored guest when we arrive ...

  if you co-operate.'

  The Chinese came back into the room and dumped an armload of feminine clothing on the floor next to the girl. He spoke harshly in Chinese and stepped back as she got gracefully to her feet and began to slip into the clothes. He turned away, grimacing, to cover Keilty while the Eurasian quietly watched the girl dress. Keilty laughed shortly at the Chinese and laughed louder when he stepped forward, face an angry red.

  The Eurasian handed Tina a comb, an unexpected gesture, until Keilty realized it might attract attention if they went through the lobby with her hair awry. It would be bad enough with the swelling eye. The Eurasian stepped into the bedroom and came back with her purse. He opened it and dumped its contents on the table, and tossed her compact to her.

  'My, my, how dangerous.' He held up a black-handled tube and touched a stud. A stiletto-thin blade sprang forward with a quiet swish. He placed the tip of the blade against the coffee table glass, shoved it back into the handle, and pocketed the knife. The purse held nothing else but the usual make-up, scarf, money, etc., and he shoved the contents back into the bag and tossed it across the room to her.

  'Now listen to me, both of you,' he said, his voice harsh. 'We are going down to the lobby and into the first cab at the head of the line. My associate here will go ahead of us and wait at the front doors until we have gone through. He will follow in the second cab.

  'You, Dr. Keilty, will take, ah . . . Tina's left arm, and I, her right. You are both to smile and make small talk.

  'And, Dr. Keilty, please do not think that you are so valuable to us that we would hesitate to shoot you – and of course, first we shall kill the young lady. Do you understand?'

  Keilty nodded and the Eurasian motioned the Chinese out. He went with a backward glance of pure hatred at Keilty, and the door closed softly.

  The Eurasian noticed. 'I would not advise riding Mr. Lee, Dr. Keilty. He is a pathological killer. He obeys me only because I control his heroin supply.' He motioned Keilty to his feet and slipped the gun into his jacket pocket. With his hand in the pocket, it looked completely normal, no more bulge than his hand would normally have caused. A real professional, Keilty thought.

  He took Tina's hand and put it under his arm, giving it a brief squeeze. She smiled weakly, but the fear was still large in her eyes.

  They waited for the elevator, and when it came, the same boy was still at the controls. He paid them no more attention than he would to a normal passenger. Keilty was thoughtful all the way down.

  They walked into the spacious modem lobby, full of elegantly styled Danish furniture, and cheerily carpeted with a deep gold rug.

  Keilty caught sight of the Chinese, standing at the Pan American reservations counter, talking with a clerk and apparently paying the three no attention. Keilty paused, but the Eurasian dropped Tina's right arm and stepped away. 'Don't try anything, Dr. Keilty.

  Look over there by the cigarette counter.'

  Keilty glanced over. Two men, Chinese, were standing together, apparently deep in conversation. They were well dressed and appeared to be businessmen, but the one facing them was staring past the other's shoulder – at them.

  'In the lobby of the Hilton?'

  'Yes, Dr. Keilty. You and the young lady will both be dead, and I will be gone before you drop to the floor.'

  `Not very valuable, am I?' he said, glancing around. He felt Tina's hand tighten on his arm.

  'On the contrary, you are more valuable to us alive. But, if we have to kill you, well ...'

  'Okay, I see your point.'

  They walked forward to the doors, and the Chinese gunman, just turning away from the Pan Am counter, held open the door for them and stopped just outside and lit a cigarette as they went down the broad steps and climbed into the cab that came up to meet them.

  The cab drove off, and as they rounded the curb towards the boulevard, Keilty could see the Chinese getting into another cab. He settled back, wondering what the devil was next.

  The Eurasian had his gun
out and was sitting with his back to the door, the gun steady against the girl's side. The cab driver, peering into the rear-view mirror from time to time, held the cab to the speed limit. He headed down the

  boulevard to the main part of the city, expertly dodging other cabs, cars, and pedestrians.

  At a stoplight, Keilty had a chance to look around at the brilliantly lit main section of Singapore. The city had surprised him with its cleanliness. The streets were scrubbed down by water trucks early every morning and an army of sweepers kept the streets spotless during the day. Lining either side of the boulevard as far as he could see were Western-style shops lit with neon, making it look more like London or New York than one of the largest cities in the Orient.

  The cab started forward again and the girl huddled closer. Instinctively he put his arm around her shoulder, and the gun muzzle jammed into his ribs. He stiffened.

  `Do not do that again,' the Eurasian hissed. 'Remove your arm.'

  The cab driver leaned back to say something at the same time, and the Eurasian bent slightly forward to hear, just as the girl moved her shoulder.

  Keilty, almost without thinking, shoved the girl with his right arm, pushing the pistol forward. The gun went off and the bullet whipped through a fold of his shirt. He grabbed the gun with his left hand and twisted. The girl leaning forward on the Eurasian's arm hampered his movements long enough for Keilty to uncork a vicious short right against his ear.

  The pistol came loose. He reversed it and fired point-blank into the white face, then he jammed the gun against the driver's neck.

  `Keep driving,' he said steadily, 'or you'll lose the back of your head.' He glanced quickly at the Eurasian lying slumped almost to the floor. A thin trickle of blood gleamed from the bullet hole under his left eye. Keilty pulled Tina back into the seat with his free hand and gave her a brief grin.

  Leaning forward, `Do you speak English?'

  The driver shrugged and glanced into the mirror. Keilty took a quick look out the back window. The second cab had dropped back a bit and was now pulling around to fall in behind. The driver slowed for the stoplight ahead and Keilty rolled down the side window.

  `Tina, tell him to pull over to the outside lane and stop for the light.

  The girl leaned forward and repeated in Chinese. Keilty jammed the muzzle against his head again.

  'He will do it. I told him you would kill him quickly if he didn't.'

  'Good girl' He bent over her and found the knife in the dead man's pocket.

  The cab drew up to the left, and as Keilty had hoped, the other cab stopped beside them.

  He pressed the girl down into the seat and huddled back against the door frame. The Chinese peered over, startled at the apparently empty back seat, and pulled the door of his cab open, gun in hand.

  Keilty leaned forward and shot him twice. He was halfway out of the cab, gun partly raised. The expression of disbelief washing over his face stopped instantly. His hand opened and the gun dropped from it. He folded after it.

  'Move! ' Keilty yelled, and the driver jammed the accelerator, screaming around tl e corner, narrowly missing a large military truck. The cab shot down the street and around a second corner. Ahead, the street emptied into Raffles Square, the center of metropolitan Singapore. Keilty had the driver skirt the northern edge of the square, then drive off onto a side street and from there back onto a narrow avenue one block from the boulevard. The cab pulled up to the curb, facing the main rear entrance to a large department store.

  Keilty clubbed the driver at the base of the skull and ripped the microphone loose from the dashboard. They got out of the cab and walked into the store as if they were ordinary shoppers. As the glass doors swung shut, Keilty saw another cab pull up and the two Chinese from the hotel cigarette counter get out. They looked up and down the street, then entered the store quickly, one going to a pay phone just inside the door.

  'Trouble followeth,' Keilty grinned at the girl. 'Think you can stand a little fast walking?'

  Tina stared up at him; she barely came up to his shoulders. Her brown eyes were wide and still full of fear but she smiled tremblingly and squeezed his hand.

  `Good girl.' They hurried down the main aisle, Keilty looking for another entrance besides the front. They moved quickly between the various counters. He pulled the girl aside quietly, stepping back into a row of high bookracks. A Chinese, neatly dressed in a dark suit, stepped through the main doors and stood to one side, glancing around the store. Keilty risked a quick look behind, but couldn't spot the two following in the press of people in the store.

  From somewhere above came the soft chiming of bells, and Keilty looked at his watch –five to nine.

  'The store closes at nine o'clock,' the girl whispered. 'Perhaps we can mix with the people leaving.'

  'No,' he replied. 'That's just what they will expect us to do.' He studied the man at the door for a moment. 'Look, you start towards the door. They'll be looking for us together, and know what I look like. But they don't know you. There's a drugstore just up the street. Wait for me there.'

  Before she could protest, he pushed her out into the aisle and stepped back quickly around the bookshelf.

  Tina went slowly towards the door, pausing to examine a display of jewelry, then walked past the Chinese at the door.

  He looked at her, then made as if to step in front of her, but Keilty, head down and walking fast, came into view around the other side of the shelf. The Chinese stepped back and reached inside his jacket. The gun in Keilty's hand came up quickly from where it was hidden in back of his leg, and popped once.

  The girl had already disappeared as Keilty ran past the falling body and pushed through the door. Once in the street, he turned left and walked fast towards the drugstore, keeping to the inside of the wall. A green American car went past him and stopped in front of the department store and several men got out.

  The drugstore was half a block up thestreet and Keilty was inside minutes later. Tina was waiting for him at the magazine rack. Keilty moved casually to the other side, carefully searching the shop. The drugstore looked better suited to a large midwestern shopping center. Highly modern, full of gleaming plastic and steel. Even the bottles and lotions in the women's make-up section were the familiar shapes and brands. Satisfied that he hadn'

  t been followed, Keilty moved around next to Tina.

  • 'So far so good. But it won't take them long to get onto us. Is there any other way out than the front?'

  'Yes,' Tina nodded almost imperceptibly. With the magazine, she indicated a narrow corridor leading back past the pharmacist's counter.

  Keilty grasped her arm and steered her to the back of the store. As they started past the counter, a Malay in a white jacket stepped out of a side door, and surprised, stopped.

  'I am very sorry, sir,' he smiled politely, 'but this area is for staff only.'

  `Fine.' Keilty stepped forward, pressing the gun into the man's stomach. 'Let's go, hurry!'

  The man gasped, his face paling at the sight of the silencer-stubbed automatic. Keilty leaned on the gun and he retreated. They passed a door leading to an alleyway and Keilty grabbed his shoulder and pushed him through. The door led to a small alley that ended at the store entrance. Along the open sides, garbage cans were stacked against a wall.

  Parked against the drugstore wall was a white Volkswagen delivery truck with the name of the drugstore painted brightly in English, Malay, and Chinese.

  Keilty glanced quickly through the doorway and clubbed the druggist with he pistol. He went down without a sound. Tina turned away as Keilty dragged him into a shadowed corner, then moved quickly to the end of the short alley. The entrance to the street was less than ten yards away and around that corner the avenue opened up, running down past the department store and ending at the square. Keilty could see two cars parked at the entrance and several men waiting outside the doors. A third car stopped opposite the store and three men got out and hurried across the almost empty street.


  Keilty beat it back to Tina and hustled her inside the unlocked delivery truck. The keys were not in the ignition, and swearing, he jumped out again and dug through the unconscious druggist's pockets. He found a set of keys, but none with the circular Volkswagen crest. The druggist was beginning to come around and he left him.

  Tina, sitting in the other seat, looked at him with a white face as he slid into the driver's seat and ducked his head under the narrow dash.

  With her knife, taken from the Eurasian's pocket, he sliced the insulation off one side of the two ignition wires.

  I hope to hell this works,' he muttered. 'I've never hot-wired a Volkswagen before.' He straightened, pressed the wires together, and the engine caught immediately.

  The VW moved down the alley and turned into the street. When they turned onto the boulevard, Keilty breathed a deep sigh of relief.

  He slid into the traffic stream, moving with it for several blocks, then pulled the truck over to the curb, into an empty parking space, and stopped.

  Ènd of the line,' he announced gaily. 'Let's dump this thing before we have the police after us as well.

  He hopped out and came around to open the door and help Tina out. They walked down the street a ways, Tina almost running to keep up with his long strides. They passed several cabs, but all seemed to be driven by Chinese.

  `For God's sake,' he complained, 'don't they have any Malay cab drivers around here?'

  `You don't think that the Communists have all the taxi drivers organized do you?' The girl laughed for the first time that evening.

  Ì don't know, but we're not going to try and find out,' he said grimly. 'We've got to get off the street pretty soon, before they find us again.'

  `Why are they after you? Are you a policeman of some kind?'

  Keilty laughed quietly, turning to peer back up the street. `That's the last thing in the world I am, pussycat. What makes you think that?'

  `Do you know who those men were who took us from your hotel room?'

  `Sure, Communists.

  `Yes, they were,' she said. Tina stopped and turned to face him. 'But they were more than that. The one who beat me told me who he was to frighten me. I was only a small child after the war, but I remember the power and the terror of the Chinese secret societies after the Japanese left. The British took a long time to stop them. The one who slapped me was a member of the Canton Tong. You have heard of it?'