State of Siege

by Eric Ambler

  There were some eggs left in the kitchen and a Primus stove. While I held the flashlight, Rosalie made an omelette. I salvaged a couple of broken chairs from the chaos in the living room and we ate out on the terrace. It was not comfortable and the smoke still drifted over, but we were very hungry and did not care. We were eating the last of the fruit when Major Suparto returned.

  I offered him fruit, but he declined stiffly.

  “No, thank you, Mr. Fraser. I have to report to General Ishak and must leave immediately.”

  “I see. Well, what’s the news?”

  “I do not think that Miss Linden need feel alarmed for her sister’s safety. I am told that there is little damage in that quarter. Apart from that, I regret that the news I have for you is not good. The streets about here are forbidden to civilians at present. If you insist on leaving, I will provide you with an escort, but I do not advise it. The hotels are being searched for rebel sympathisers and many arrests are being made. Emotions have been aroused and matters are a little out of hand. You would be wiser to remain here.”

  “Oh.”

  “I can understand your reluctance to stay in this apartment a moment longer than is necessary, but in your own interests it is better that you do.”

  “Yes. All right.”

  “There are troops in this building. There is much to be done here. But you will not be disturbed. I have given strict orders. By the morning, perhaps…”

  “Yes, of course. It’s good of you to come and tell us yourself.”

  He hesitated. It was clear that he was desperately tired, but he also seemed ill at ease, even embarrassed. I wondered why.

  “Mr. Fraser,” he said, “I may not have the opportunity of seeing you again.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “You, I think, will soon be leaving Selampang.”

  “If the police haven’t lost my passport in the confusion.”

  “Should you have difficulties, Lim Mor Sai will arrange matters for you. If you will mention that I suggested that he should.”

  “Thank you. I was forgetting he was a friend of yours. Will you be going back to Tangga?”

  “No. I believe that I am to be given other duties now.”

  His face had become impassive, and I knew now what was troubling him. He was going to be promoted for his services to the Government, and he had a bad conscience. Aroff’s sneer about his treachery had hurt, and I had been there to hear it. He believed that in my heart I despised him. I wished that there were some way of telling him that I did not; and knew that there was no way that would not humiliate us both.

  “Gedge will be sorry to hear that,” I said; “and so will the Transport Manager.”

  He smiled sourly. “As Mr. Gedge will shortly be losing his other liaison managers also, perhaps he will feel compensated.” The smile went. “And now I regret that I must go.”

  “Major, I wish that I could begin to thank you…”

  He broke in hastily. “Please, Mr. Fraser, no thanks. We are both civilised and-what was your word? — humane men. Are we not? Yes. I will wish you, as I wished you the other day in Tangga, a safe journey and a happy future.”

  “Thank you.”

  He gave Rosalie a curt little bow, and then went back through the living room to the passage door. I followed. As he opened the door, I held out my hand.

  “Goodbye, Major.”

  His handshake was limp; a perfunctory concession to European manners.”

  “Goodbye, Mr. Fraser.”

  He went. There was another officer waiting for him in the passage.

  I shut the door and bolted it. Then, I walked back through the living room and stood for a moment looking round at the litter and wreckage and filth on the terrace. Where Roda and Sanusi had died there were two large stains, congealed, glistening, and black in the moonlight.

  I went over and sat down by Rosalie.

  “Do you mind very much that we have to stay here?”

  “Now that I am not so worried for my sister, it does not matter.”

  “Are you still hungry?”

  “Not any more.”

  “Would you like a drink?”

  She shook her head. “Do you think that we could have baths?”

  “There should be enough water for you.”

  “For both of us if we use the water carefully. I will show you.”

  “All right.”

  So we bathed, pouring the water carefully over one another so that none was wasted, soaping ourselves, and then each rinsing the other. And gradually, as we stood there in the warm darkness, our bodies began to come alive. Nothing was said. We had not touched. We could not see. Yet both of us knew suddenly that it was happening to the other as well. For a moment or two we stood there motionless, each listening to the other’s breathing. It became intolerable. I put out my hands and touched her. She drew in her breath sharply; and then her body pressed with desperate urgency against mine.

  I picked her up and carried her along the terrace. Somewhere in the wreckage of the bedroom there was a bed. Later, when our bodies had celebrated their return to life and the smell of death had gone, we slept.

  10

  Soon after eight thirty the next morning I was awakened by someone knocking on the outer door of the apartment. By the time I had found my dressing gown, the knocking had ceased, but there were voices in the passage, one of them a woman’s. She sounded annoyed. When I opened the door, Mrs. Choong was waving her door key angrily in the face of a soldier who had come to ask what she was doing there.

  She gave a cry of triumph as she saw me. Not only, she said, had she been prevented from coming to work the last two mornings by soldiers in the street, but now, when the soldiers in the street did let her pass, there were other soldiers waiting to accuse her of looting. Her trousers quivered with indignation. When I sent the soldier away she shouted insults after him.

  Then, she came in and saw the apartment.

  For several seconds she stood there staring; then, she waddled through slowly into the living room.

  It looked awful in the daylight. The bombing had made a mess, but it had been a tolerable mess; in two days a decorator could have put everything right again. The grenades and machine-pistol fire had savaged the place. The furniture was torn and splintered, the floor and walls and doors were scarred and pitted. Nothing was unspoiled; a pleasant room had become a hideous disfigurement.

  To my dismay, I saw tears beginning to roll down Mrs. Choong’s plump cheeks.

  “Soldiers!” she said bitterly, and then looked at me. “Bedroom also?”

  “That’s pretty bad, too, I’m afraid, Mrs. Choong.”

  “Poor Mr. Jebb! But you, mister? You here?”

  “Most of the time. Last night, when the attack came, Miss Linden and I went up on the roof.”

  “Miss Linden? That is Miss Mina’s friend?”

  “Yes.”

  “Ah.” She brushed the tears away. “You want breakfast?”

  “I’m afraid there isn’t any food left.”

  “I bring.” She held up the bag she was carrying. “I promise, I bring. Miss Linden, too? She want breakfast?”

  “Yes, please, Mrs. Choong. There’s no electricity, though. We used the Primus stove.”

  But she was already in the kitchen. I heard her swearing to herself over the confusion she found there.

  After breakfast, Rosalie and I cleaned ourselves up as best we could with the dregs of the water in the bathhouse, and made ready to leave. We had arranged to meet later at the Harmony Club. Meanwhile, she would go home and I would see the police about my passport. I would also have to buy some clean clothes. Mrs. Choong took away the dirty ones to get them dobi- ed.

  Nobody was allowed inside the radio station without a new sort of pass that I did not have, and we had to use the auxiliary staircase to get down into the square. The road was still closed to four-wheeled traffic, but the betjak drivers were back, and Mahmud was there, grinning knowingly as
if we had all been on a wild two-day party together and were suffering a common hangover. There were a lot of people about, staring awe-struck at the damaged buildings or excitedly discussing their experiences. The children were having a fine time playing in the shell holes. As he pedalled along, Mahmud talked continuously about what had happened where he lived; but I don’t think either of us listened to a word he said. We were enjoying our freedom.

  When we arrived at Rosalie’s apartment house, I waited outside until she had satisfied herself that all was well there, and then went on to the tailor’s shop. He had a pair of khaki slacks from another order that he said he could alter for me in an hour, and showed me where I could get a shirt ready-made. After I had bought the shirt, I set out for police headquarters.

  As we approached, I could see that there was a big crowd collected at the end of the street in which the headquarters were situated. It soon became apparent that we were not going to be able to get through, and I waited while Mahmud went ahead on foot to see what the trouble was. He was gone five minutes and came back looking troubled. Barbed-wire barricades had been set up at both ends of the street, he said, and troops were preventing anyone entering or leaving who did not have a special pass. The crowd consisted mainly of people with relations who had been arrested during the night. Many of those arrested, he added with gloomy satisfaction, were themselves policemen, but there were others whose only crime was that they had not refused to give food and water to the rebel troops; or so their relatives said.

  I went to De Vries’ offices, but they were closed. Then, I tried the Orient bar. That was closed, too. As I was coming away, I saw a man I knew slightly who said that there was rumour going around that both the Dutch manager of the Orient and De Vries had been arrested. I went back to the tailor’s shop and waited while he finished altering the slacks; then I told Mahmud to take me out to the Harmony Club.

  It was a little after eleven and the club did not open until noon, but the doorman was there and he fetched Mrs. Lim.

  She was only just sober, and obviously could not remember a thing about me; but she did her best.

  “Hullo, love. Fancy seeing you here!”

  “Hullo, Mrs. Lim. I’m looking for your husband.”

  “Oh, he’s gone into town. I don’t know where. Hasn’t it been awful? Where were you all the time? The Orient?”

  “Roy Jebb lent me his apartment.”

  “Dear old Roy. Is he back yet?”

  “He should be back today.” I could see her memory fumbling dimly with the fact that I knew Jebb.

  “And you want to see Mor Sai?”

  “That’s right. Major Suparto suggested that your husband might be able to advise me about a business matter.”

  Suparto’s name jolted her. She was suddenly wary.

  “Major who?”

  “Suparto.”

  “Never heard of him. But Mor Sai’ll be here soon. You’d better come in and wait.”

  “Thanks. While I’m waiting, is there anywhere in the club where I can have a bath and change my clothes?”

  “Oh, sure. Charlie there’ll show you. I expect you’d like a drink after. I’ll see you later in the bar, love.”

  It was Lim who was waiting for me in the bar when I got there. He nodded politely and we shook hands.

  “A drink, Mr. Fraser? Brandy dry?”

  “Thanks.”

  There was no barman there. He went round and poured two, one for himself.

  “I hear that you have had a bad time during these troubles, Mr. Fraser.”

  “Mrs. Lim told you that?” I smiled. “I must have looked rougher than I thought.”

  “It was not my wife who told me.” He pushed a glass across to me and raised his own. “Your health, Mr. Fraser.”

  “And yours, Mr. Lim.”

  I took a drink from my glass. He sipped at his, and then put it down and felt in his pocket.

  “I think that this is what you wished to see me about,” he said, and put my passport on the bar in front of me.

  I stared at it uncertainly, then picked it up and looked through the visa pages.

  “The exit permit is in order,” he said; “and the Customs and exchange clearance papers are clipped to the back.”

  “This is remarkable, Mr. Lim.”

  “Oh no. Our friend told me that you had left your passport with the police. I knew that you would not be able to get it, and would come to me. So, to save a journey, I brought it with me.”

  “You make it sound very simple. I’m deeply grateful.”

  “What have you been able to arrange about your air passage?”

  “Nothing. The airline offices are shut. Someone told me that De Vries has been arrested. Is that true?”

  “He will be released later, perhaps. But planes can fly without his assistance. Naturally, the scheduled services have been suspended, but foreign airports have been notified now that all is well again. There will be a plane in from Djakarta early this afternoon. It will leave again at five thirty. A passage will, I am certain, be arranged for you.”

  I smiled. “It sounds as if the Major is in a hurry to get rid of me.”

  The eyes behind the rimless glasses considered me attentively for a moment. Then, he shrugged. “Why not, Mr. Fraser? You know a little more than is convenient. The longer you are here, the more likely you are to talk to a newspaperman or to a friend who might himself talk.”

  “I can talk just as well in Djakarta.”

  “The Major thinks not. He has great confidence in you. Also, he believes that you will not wish to cause difficulties for Miss Linden. No, no, Mr. Fraser. Do not misunderstand. You are not being threatened. Neither is she. It will be no hardship for her to be discreet. We merely ask that you permit her to remain so for the moment. Later, in a week or two, nobody will be interested.”

  “Well, she’ll be here soon. I’ll let you know.” I paused. “You could have warned me the other night. Why didn’t you?”

  “I am an agent, not a principal, Mr. Fraser. In such a delicate situation, I was not free to consult my own personal wishes. I was very pleased to hear that you had come to no harm. Another drink?”

  “No, thanks.”

  “Then, if you will excuse me now.”

  “Of course. And thanks again for the passport.”

  “If you decide to leave this afternoon…”

  “Sure, I’ll let you know.”

  Rosalie arrived wearing a dress I had not seen before and looking delightful. She had spoken both to Mina and to her sister. Everything was all right. Mina had not dared to go to the apartment this morning; she had been afraid to find the whole thing blown to pieces and our bodies lying among the ruins. She was going to find a place for Roy to stay while the repairs were being done.

  “Poor Roy,” I said.

  “He will not blame us. We could not help what happened.”

  “No.”

  She looked at me quickly. “What is wrong?”

  There was nobody else in the bar. I told her about my passport and the plane that afternoon and what Lim had said. When I had finished, she thought for a moment, then nodded.

  “Yes, I see. What is it you wish to do?”

  “I want to know what you think. I’m not going to leave here if they’re going to make things difficult for you.”

  “But it is you they are worried about. They know I will say nothing. Isn’t that what Lim said?”

  “Do you believe him?”

  “Oh yes. They know I would not dare.”

  I knew enough about her now to know when she believed what she was saying; but I persisted.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Do you not want to go?”

  I hesitated. “No, I don’t.”

  “Because of us?”

  “Yes.”

  “I am glad. I, too, had hoped that we could be together again as we were last night. I keep thinking about it. But if they mean you to go, it is better that you go today.”

&nb
sp; “Yes, I suppose it is.”

  The barman came in and I ordered some drinks. We drank them and then went in to eat. The food was delicious, but I could not eat very much of it. She scarcely looked at hers. After a bit I gave up trying.

  “Rosalie.”

  Her eyes met mine. She said softly: “Yes, it is the same with me. I cannot stop thinking. What time must you be at the airport?”

  “Five, I should think.”

  “If you went back to the Air House and packed your things, we could be together until it is time for you to go.”

  “Where?”

  “At my home. My sister will not be there. It is very small and not like Roy’s apartment, but you will not mind that.”

  “No, I won’t mind.”

  As soon as we were ready to leave, I went into the bar and found Lim.

  “About that air passage. What do I do about the ticket?”

  “It is at the airport reception office, waiting for you, Mr. Fraser.”

  “You were pretty sure of me, weren’t you?”

  “Not of you, Mr. Fraser. But I was sure of Miss Linden. She is an honest and clear-thinking person. Do you not agree?”

  Back at the apartment, I found that Jebb had returned and was surveying the damage with Mrs. Choong.

  “Well, Roy,” I said.

  “Well, chum,” he answered grimly; “I bet that’s the last time you mind anybody’s place for them.”

  “I’m sorry, Roy. But first the bombing and then the grenades and stuff. There was nothing we could do. You see…”