The Dead Alone (Empires Lost Book 3)

by Charles S. Jackson

  They came for Lloyd perhaps half an hour after the overflight of the F-35E, Lieutenant Nagakawa accompanied by four soldiers carrying their almost ubiquitous Type-100 submachine guns. He hadn’t moved from his seating position near the window, watching and listening carefully to everything going on around him, but he leaped to his feet the moment the officer appeared in the doorway at the opposite end of the schoolhouse.

  “You…!” He barked gruffly, pointing an accusatory finger at Lloyd as the troopers fanned out around him, their weapons held ready at their waists. “Interrogation…! You come now…!”

  “Fuck that and fuck you too…!” Evan snarled in return, all too aware of what was really going on and unable to keep the quaver of fear out of his tone in that moment. “Major, it’s starting!” He called pleadingly to Newbury, standing nearby. “For Christ’s sake, sir; it’s starting…!”

  “Where are you taking this man?” Newbury demanded immediately, still reluctant to believe such horrific claims but deeply concerned now nevertheless.

  “You shut your mouth!” Nagakawa shot back sharply, pushing prisoners aside as he advanced down the centre of the room with one hand on the sword at his belt, two of his escort moving quickly with him. “Orders are orders: this man comes for interrogation… then all of you after him.”

  “You keep your filthy, Jap hands off of my men!” Newbury growled, taking a step of his own toward the officer.

  There was a single, barked word of command in Japanese and the nearest of the guards lunged forward, backhanding the folded, steel butt of his weapon across Newbury’s face, drawing a cry of pain and surprise from the major as he crashed into a group of wounded lying on the floor beside him.

  “You are prisoners… failures…!” The lieutenant snarled, several of the wounded cowering back as the guards sent a few well-aimed kicks at those lying within reach. “You not humans anymore: lower than dogs now! Follow orders or you die! You…!” He shouted angrily, singling out Lloyd once again. “You come with me… now… or all of them die…!”

  As if to illustrate his threat was anything but an idle, Nagakawa drew the sword at his belt and stepped forward, laying it flat against Newbury’s shoulder as the man still lay sprawled on the floor, the curved edge far too close to the side of his neck as the man went suddenly rigid in a combination of fear, shock and outright self-preservation.

  He locked eyes with Lloyd in that moment, daring him to provide some excuse to draw the blade across the major’s throat as the guards continued to lay their boots into several of the other prisoners. At the same time, the doors at the near end of the building were flung open and six more armed Japanese stormed inside, weapons raised and not looking like any of them would have the slightest concern about opening fire on every single prisoner in the room.

  “I’m sorry, captain…” Newbury rasped, trying to remain as still as possible with the sword still resting beneath his chin. “Sorry I didn’t listen to you…”

  “It’s okay, sir…” Lloyd shrugged sadly, fighting to hold back tears in the emotion of that moment. “No one would a’ believed a story like that.” He almost managed a wistful, ironic grin. “Who knows? Maybe I’m wrong, and they really are just taking me off for questioning.” With another shrug, he turned to Nakagawa and nodded with resignation as he raised both hands and took a few steps in the man’s direction. “Come on then, dickhead… let’s get on with it.”

  “Sir…?” That querulous call came from the same junior officer who’d questioned Lloyd’s tale earlier. “Sir, are we gonna just let them take him…?”

  “It’s okay, lieutenant,” Evan assured quietly, stopping for a moment to pat him reassuringly on the shoulder and consciously trying to take the heat off of the man’s CO. “There’s too many of ‘em right now…” He added, leaning in and giving the man a meaningful stare. “You see a chance, take it… together… but don’t throw your life away when you know you can’t win. Chin up, boys!” He called loudly as they led him toward the door. “Don’t give these bastards the satisfaction of seeing you down!”

  “You and you…!” Nagakawa snapped sharply, tapping Newbury on the shoulder with the flat of his sword before quickly withdrawing it and then levelling the blade directly at the lieutenant Lloyd had just spoken to. “You two come also! You come for questioning too…!”

  “Trooper to Phoenix-Leader... we got movement at the schoolhouse!” Langdale hissed urgently into his headset mike, never once lowering a pair of binoculars from his eyes as he watched a small group leave the rear of the schoolhouse and disappear into the nearby treeline, heading westward and inland.

  “Whaddya got, Mallee…” Thorne’s voice crackled in his headphones a few seconds later.

  “Not sure yet… squad of Japs just went into the building, then came out with a couple of prisoners. They’re obscured by treeline at the moment, but I’m pretty sure they’re headed our way. There’s been Japs gathering at the dig site for about ten minutes now – maybe two dozen of the bastards standing about now – but this is the first time I’ve seen any activity in the village.”

  “Christ…” A long pause. “Keep me posted, mate… I want to know the moment anything starts going down.”

  “You think this is ‘it’, boss?”

  “Fuck, I hope not, mate… I hope not… keep your eyes open, okay… and stay frosty…!”

  “Understood,” Langdale acknowledged hesitantly, feeling a faint tightness in his chest as fear of what might be happening and his immediate inability to do anything about it suddenly pushed his stress levels through the roof. “Trooper out…”

  They marched Lloyd away from the beach, heading inland through the surrounding jungle along the southern bank of the Pia Besar. The escort party grew as they made their way through the trees, collecting submachine gun-armed soldiers and also, he realised with interest, a small number of rather bedraggled looking Japanese sailors in dirty and in some cases quite obviously torn naval uniforms. He was at the head of a procession that stretched back a few dozen yards by the time they broke out into clearer space once more amid the more regimented plantation lines of coconut trees, perhaps a hundred yards or so from the schoolhouse.

  Behind him, Newbury and the lieutenant were being quite vocal throughout the journey, swearing profusely and demanding to be told why they were being led into the jungle, quite clearly away from the village and from a command post where any kind of legitimate interrogation might’ve been held. As they marched on, Lloyd could hear their outbursts becoming more and more nervous and fearful as the reality of their situation began to truly hit home.

  For his part, Evan remained generally silent and alert, noting the position of every enemy soldier they passed on the journey, along with their visible armaments and a rough assessment of their possible level of threat. They’d bound his hands in front of him, limiting his ability to fight back should the need arise, but his feet were still free, and he was damn sure he could still deliver a fair double-handed punch, a kick, or just run like the proverbial wind too should the need arise. The real issue was going to be finding a suitable opportunity. Much as he had no intention of allowing himself to be executed without a fight, nor was he stupid enough to throw his life away in some senseless escape attempt that offered no hope of success.

  They trudged on through the plantation, and in spite of the fact that he already logically knew what was coming, the sight of the open graves he could now see up ahead between the trees filled him with a terror that was almost overpowering, forcing him to clench his fists and make a conscious effort to retain control of his own emotions. There were more Japanese standing about around the graves now – close to thirty officers and men – and again Lloyd noted the presence of several sailors and at least one IJN officer.

  All looked as scruffy and ragged as the others he’d already seen, and one or two were also clearly injured, with dressings covering their bare arms, legs or, in the case of the officer, a bandage wrapped tightly around his scalp and
covering one eye. They were all watching intently as the prisoners approached, most of them smiling in an almost predatory way, and one or two of the sailors went as far as to cheer at the sight of Lloyd and the others and to begin gloating and jeering in unintelligible Japanese (although what they were howling was clearly insulting in tone and expression)

  “Not good,” he muttered softly under his breath. “Not good…!” Uncaring enemy soldiers ‘just following orders’ were one thing to deal with, however incensed and enraged fanatics watching your every move like hawks and slavering for your hide was a different matter entirely. He knew exactly how much more precarious his situation had just become and Evan Lloyd was struggling already with his levels of fear and exhaustion.

  It was at that moment he noticed the faint, momentary flash of light on glass from a position perhaps three hundred yards away, somewhere in the middle of a treeline high up atop a rise beyond the adjacent open fields. He could see no Japanese patrols moving about in that area, and although it was relatively close to the village – possibly dangerously so considering the concentration of enemy in the area – he was somehow filled with the certainty that whoever it was hidden up there was an ally. He didn’t dare hope that it might be Langdale, yet that hope flared within him all the same.

  “Oh, Jesus Fucking Christ…!” Langdale breathed softly, his stomach lurching in shock and dismay as he scanned the new arrivals through his binoculars and realised that Lloyd was among them.

  “Talk to me, mate…”

  “Sir, they’ve got Captain Lloyd…” Mal croaked hoarsely. “They’ve brought him out first, for fuck’s sake!” There was a long silence as he waited in vain for a response. “Sir…? Sir…! Did you hear what I said?” He continued, his voice louder now and clearly loaded with tension. “They have Evan, sir… I’m looking at him right now…!”

  “Yeah… yeah, Mallee, I hear you…” Thorne finally responded, his reluctant tone evident behind the hiss of radio static. “Look… we’ve...” short pause “…we’ve got a few issues here… we’ve received initial recon from the overflight that shows Eileen is being held across the bay at Tan Tui…” Another pause. “Mal, we need you to sit tight for the moment. We need you to observe and report…”

  “Sir…”

  “I understand, mate… believe me, I understand… we just…” There was a long, excruciating silence before he continued “…we need you on the other side of the bay by tomorrow morning… we need you across the bay and in one piece and able to provide us with decent intel on the ground…”

  “You gotta be fucking kidding me…!”

  “Mal, I wish… ” Another long pause “…I wish I was, mate: I’m so sorry…”

  They’d been halted for a few minutes now, clustered together a dozen yards or so from the diggings as a pair of Japanese officers engaged in a somewhat heated discussion, standing to one side of the graves and apart from the main group. A major and a captain, as far as Lloyd could tell – one of them the same officer who’d been throwing orders about during their capture the night before – and although he’d not yet picked up enough Japanese to understand what was being said, they were clearly arguing over something regarding the prisoners’ arrivals, with hand gestures being directed their way on several occasions throughout the exchange.

  He stiffened up as the two broke and the major he’d recognised turned and headed directly toward him, fear rising that perhaps the man somehow also suspected an ally nearby.

  “I did not expect this, captain,” Hasegawa explained in perfect English as he drew near, sounding surprisingly apologetic. “When I ordered you taken back to Soewakoda last night, I did not think the Admiral would decide on such extreme actions…”

  “Must ‘a been a real fuckin’ surprise,” Lloyd growled back with deep sarcasm, not bothering to look at the man as he answered. “Like you fuckers have never done anything like this before… ever…”

  “A minesweeper was blown up yesterday… sunk by a mine while engaging a small gunboat that you were almost certainly aboard…” Hasegawa explained coldly, not sounding particularly concerned about the information either way. “The survivors – perhaps eighty officers and men – are demanding vengeance, and the admiral has acceded to their wishes: he has given them you and the others taken prisoner here at Laha. We are only delaying now because we are awaiting the arrival of the rest of the survivors…” He shrugged faintly. “You noted me discussing this with the other officer there, yes? I do not think this course of action to be either sensible or useful in any way, but I am no more than another company officer in the end, and the admiral is in command of this invasion force. His orders remain.”

  He paused for a moment, eyeing Lloyd up and down before continuing in a similarly explanatory tone.

  “I have heard of your outburst at the schoolhouse earlier this morning,” Hasegawa advised, moving even closer and lowering his voice accordingly. “Orders had only come through from HQ regarding this action perhaps ten minutes before, yet you knew this with such certainty? How could you know this…?”

  “Piss off…”

  “Ahh… profanity…” he sighed, almost sadly. “Always a trusted recourse for the uneducated when no legitimate answer presents itself… I think that I know the answer, however…” he added, catching Lloyd off guard momentarily and causing him to blink in surprise.

  “You don’t know shit…” he snapped in return, knowing full well that the damage was already done.

  “Is that so, Captain… Lloyd…?” Hasegawa asked smugly, raising an eyebrow and nodding with approval at how well the SAS officer had this time controlled the shock he’d felt over the revelation that the man knew his name. “We know who Captain Donelson is, of course: capturing her alive was as vital to my mission here as securing the device within the hold of that German freighter. I admit there are some quite large holes in the information my department has been able to gather regarding Max Thorne and his ‘Hindsight’ team, however it is nevertheless well known that both he and the captain almost invariably travel with a trusted escort, one of those escorts being an officer of the Australian Special Air Services named Evan Lloyd.”

  “Never heard of the bastard…” Lloyd shrugged casually, pulling a face.

  “Are… zannen nagara…” Hasegawa mused thoughtfully, leaning in close to Lloyd’s ear and then whispering: “I know who you are, and I know where you come from! I suspect you have friends still out there in the jungle… friends that may be watching us right now…” He continued, a chill coursing through Lloyd’s body upon hearing those words. “Your death this morning will be… unfortunate… but this cannot be helped. Orders are orders, as I’m sure you understand. However I would prefer not to see any mass riots that would cause unnecessary losses within my own ranks. Those who remain at Soewakoda can no doubt hear a scream well enough from this distance, and the less reason they have to lose control, the better it is for all concerned. Understand this: if you make any attempt to escape… if anyone attempts to assist you in doing so… if you make any further outbursts regarding what is to happen here this morning – outbursts intended to incite riot among the other prisoners – I will personally see to it that Captain Donelson does not survive the night.”

  “You wouldn’t dare…” Lloyd hissed back, still refusing to turn in the man’s direction but dropping any pretence now of not knowing what he was talking about. “You said yourself: your mission is to bring her back alive.”

  “An unfortunate situation, yes,” Hasegawa agreed with a nod, “but this is a combat area after all: it is easy to die while attempting to escape, I suspect, and I can assure you that her death would be neither fast nor pleasant…” He almost grimaced at his own thoughts in that moment. “Most of our men had not had the pleasure of ianfu – a comfort woman – for many months now; I am almost horrified myself to think what beasts they might become, were they provided the company of a suitable substitute…”

  “You sick fuck…!”

 
There was no depth or thought in so blunt and crude a response, yet uttered with such revulsion and disgust it nevertheless perfectly described everything Evan Lloyd felt about the officer standing beside him in in that moment.

  “Your alternative is clear,” Hasegawa continued, unperturbed. “Accept my direction and go to an honourable death, and I will ensure that Captain Donelson is kept safe from harm. Go against me, and I will make sure she suffers unimaginably before she dies. I leave the decision to you…” he added, turning away from Lloyd and marching away, a smug expression flickering momentarily across his face.

  Run…! Run, you mad bastard…!

  The almost irresistible though flared in his mind like a burning torch, but Lloyd resisted as best he could, instead forcing himself down onto his knees to make it even more difficult to make a break for it, should the desire overcome him. He knew he’d not make it more than a few dozen yards at best before they cut him down, and if the other Aussies back at the schoolhouse tried to riot or break out, they too would be shot down where they stood, with no more chance of survival there than they would being brought out to these open graves in ones and twos.

  It occurred to him that they might at least die a quicker death if they fought back, yet there was the Jap’s threat against Eileen to consider also, and that was something he couldn’t afford to test regardless of how certain his logical mind might be that the Japanese High Command would not allow any harm to come to such a valuable resource. He’d heard the F-35E streak past earlier, and that had to mean they were gathering intelligence for some kind of rescue attempt: he knew Max Thorne would never leave Eileen prisoner if there was any possible way he could do something about that.