by John Muir
CHAPTER 36
THE CAVALRY
Maria Christina Hotel - Day 9
It was almost 2:00 am. By the time Pater and his group, excluding the rented fisherman, returned to the hotel. Immediately on arriving, Pater sent Nilo to all the rooms to wake the helpers. When the whole group, in various states of dress and alertness had assembled in Pater’s room, they listened while he narrated a censored version of what they had done that night. Then he told what he had planned for the next night.
After some questions, he dismissed them all except for Marivic, Nilo, Henry and Rangi. He was not surprised at the objections raised by the first two, but was pleased to see his Maori helpers grinning wider with each of his explanations.
He set Nilo his tasks and codes to learn for the next day, then sent them all to their own rooms. Ferreting through his backpack, he pulled out two long socks. Tomorrow, on the way to their destination, he would fill those with sand. Right now he needed a short sleep. What he had planned would make the next day a long one.
----------
Paradise Plantations – Day 9
Ueda woke immediately the hand touched his shoulder. His instinct told him there was no threat in the action, though it was strange.
He immediately sat up and though the room was not lit by anything more than moonlight he saw it was Yamada crouching by his floor mattress. Ueda sat up and crossed his legs in a lotus position.
“I’ve found it my friend, I’ve found it.” Yamada spoke with a joy in his voice that Ueda had not heard for a few days. Perhaps he had been prejudging the need for a severance in the relationship.
“My esteemed Grandfather had in fact drawn a remarkably accurate position on his map as long as the three rocks were correctly aligned,” he went on.
“Have you dug it up already?”
“No, no. The returns on the detector are so strong I knew it couldn’t be anything else. So I dug up one of the smaller returns.” Yamada turned round and held up a large dirt covered glass jar.
Ueda noticed how similar it was to the saki storage bottle his Father used to keep his home made rice wine in.
Yamada removed the already loosened stopper and then lifting what was obviously a very heavy item, inverted the bottle slightly pouring several darkened coins into the space between Ueda’s legs. Ueda picked one up and looked at it trying to make some sense of it in the poor light. “What are these?”
“Spanish gold coins. The dates are printed on some of them though at this stage I can’t read them. I just don’t know which way to deal with this. They will have enormous collectors value. Most will have been smelted locally. But if I have to I’ll melt them down for the gold value.” He swept his hand behind him.
Ueda saw what he was pointing out. There were three more similar jars.
“They’re so heavy. It took me over an hour just to bring these jars. This was all that was in that small cache. I know it will take hours to dig up the large cache. I wouldn’t get anything much out before the workmen arrived. We’ll have to do that tomorrow night. We’ll take the truck down and load directly into it.”
Ueda looked around for his watch which he always removed before he went to sleep.
“About 4:00 A.M., one and a half hours to sunrise,” said Yamada guessing at what Ueda was looking for.
“We’re gonna be rich, I really want to get it all out if I can.” Yamada went on, “I’ll be richer than I ever thought possible.”
Ueda noticed how quickly Yamada had switched from the we, to the I. Then perhaps his ‘we’ might have meant his family. The ‘we’ certainly meant both of them would be digging and Ueda would probably be the one taking the risks smuggling it out through Zamboanga. He thought about other things while Yamada talked on about his new wealth.
----------
The jeepney pulled into exactly the same spot it had before, but this time facing up toward the area of the plantation. Again Nilo and Marivic would play the lovers if unexpectedly approached.
“You both know all the signals for what’s to be done. All our lives might depend on the right action. Are you sure they’re stuck in your mind?” asked Pater.
Nilo checked the r/t was switched on and close at hand. “Yes.”
Pater re-checked that his mobile phone was switched off and the volume of his r/t was at zero. He knew of operations elsewhere that had been compromised by a badly timed incoming call.
Then with Henry and Rangi, also dressed in black, the three slipped out the open back door.
Nilo turned around to see if he could see them this time. Despite the moonlight he was once more frustrated that their disappearance seemed so easy and so complete.
The trio stopped short of the clearing where they saw the dark figure working over the cleared area to the right side of the road on the previous visit. Edging along in the shadows to the road’s left they watched and waited for ten minutes. Their target was not where Pater had hoped he would be.
That meant switching to the next plan. At his signal the trio moved off, ten metre spaces between them. Hugging shadows they moved further up the road, at a steady jog, toward the hut and storage facilities of the plantation.
Immediately the buildings could be seen they stopped and waited for five minutes looking for any movement. There was none. No lights were showing.
The open ground and the noise of any footfalls over the road metal would again make any totally silent approach difficult.
Pater signalled to Henry and Rangi to check the storage and garage area. He watched as they moved away to the far end of the clearing before making their approaches through the tree line, avoiding the metal area. When he was satisfied they had enough start, he moved off following the tree line to approach as near as possible to the nipa hut without walking on the gravel.
He paused where the tree line ran out and the gravel began. He was still about 15 metres from the hut. There was little breeze, but he was certain he could hear quiet voices coming from within. But what did that mean? Were there two people inside or more? He had hoped there would only be the Japanese, Yamada, but really expected there to be two people including Ueda. But what if there was more? More than two had not been part of his plan.
A shadow moving on the hut veranda caught his eye. He realised it must be Henry or Rangi. It was soon joined by a second shadow. His colleagues had already finished checking the other buildings. Their arrival had been hidden by the shadows of the nearby buildings.
Pater moved slowly over the metal, making each footfall as light as possible. In the silence of the night his steps seemed to scream out a warning to the occupants of the hut. In the open, and side-lit by the moon, as he had to be to approach, he felt exposed. If the hut’s occupants did hear anything and look out the window, he would not be able to see them. The inside of the hut was too dark to provide any outline. His first knowledge he had been seen might be his receiving a bullet in his chest. That thought didn’t appeal.
Any haste though would counter his stealth.
----------
Ueda listened with pretended interest to Yamada’s monologue about what he would do with the wealth. Ueda, though not genuinely tired, pretended he wanted to go back to sleep.
A sound similar to the crunch of metal came from outside. Ueda’s senses heightened. But Yamada continued. Ueda tried to listen for the sound again and analyse what he had heard. Perhaps it was only the branch of a coconut tree splitting.
He thought about the wisdom of his ancestors surrounding their temples and homes with broad verandas with singing boards. It was not that the boards really sang, simply that they were joined in such a way that any footfall would create a loud creaking sound. This reduced the chance of surprise attack
The ornamental sand gardens, raked in their maximum beauty were for a similar purpose. It was designed to see if there had been any intruder who had sneaked through the guards. Here though, there was no danger. Who would want anything from them? There were hardly any canned supplies left. Then he realise
d that perhaps Yamada might be carrying a large sum of money. Now, in addition, there were the valuable gold coins in the saki jars.
Yamada continued on. Ueda did not want to be obvious about his disinterest in the conversation. He looked around for his watch.
“Still about 45 minutes before any light,” offered Yamada. “You should think about getting yourself something to eat. I am expecting that you will have a busy day later.”
----------
Pater pulled his r/t out of his belt, located the transmit button, then pressed it twice for two, three second, buzzes to Nilo’s r/t, then after ten seconds he pressed it four times in short bursts. He waited about 20 seconds before repeating the signal.
Placing the r/t back in its pouch, he pulled the sand filled long sock out of his belt and adjusted his hand for a comfortable grip in his right hand. He flattened his back against the wall to the right of the door. Henry pulled his sand sock from his belt and flattened his back to the left of the door. Only Rangi, standing behind Henry, had drawn his pistol. He was the emergency insurance.
----------
Nilo was thankful the r/t had not signalled for his attention two minutes earlier. He had only just finished making love with Marivic. This was the second time it had happened. The first time was on the first trip to the plantation at the same spot.
He was already tiring of this search for T.A. He felt restricted in doing anything in the hotel with Marivic, just as she did. They both wanted to be together but both were afraid of Pater’s reaction if they were caught.
As he leaned forward to start the motor, Marivic slid across the seat to be as close as possible and kissed him on the cheek.
Nilo switched on the headlights and put the gear shift lever into first gear. Marivic’s placed her hand on top of his. Slowly the jeepney moved up the road toward the plantation.
Every 50 metres, Marivic took her hand off the gear shift lever, grasped his genitals with the other hand pushed the horn twice while squeezing his genitals gently in unison with the horn noise. Both of them grinned.
----------
Ueda sat up when he thought he heard the distant sound of a vehicle horn. He was certainly not expecting any of the workmen to arrive early. That would be out of character, except for the unfortunate foreman a few days previous.
Yamada continued on with his monologue, not having heard the distant sound. Though Ueda wanted to tell his employer to be quiet; that would have shown disrespect, so he tried to filter out the sound of the voice.
Again he heard the sound. This time it was closer and very distinct. This time Yamada heard it too and stopped talking.
Ueda put his hand under his futon, pulled out his .22 and slipped it behind his back and under his now dirty and crinkled barong. He was surprised to see that Yamada was also holding a pistol. Before this, he had not been aware that Yamada had one.
Ueda motioned to Yamada to move back to the wall furthest away from the road. Then Ueda moved to the window, though standing back from it so none of his body was beyond the frame.
Light beams from the headlights of the approaching vehicle were just making themselves visible on the trees and leaves of the rain forest opposite to the open entry of the drive into the storage and turn-a-round area.
Mindful of what had happened to the previous unexpected visitor, Ueda decided he would greet these visitors before they got too close to the nipa hut; perhaps when they pulled into the gravel area. He was unsure of what Yamada’s reaction might be, especially with him unexpectedly producing a pistol.
It mystified Ueda why the approaching vehicle would be sounding its horn. At this time of night there should not be animals on the road, maybe there was though. The horn sound indicated there was no intent at a silent and sneaking approach.
He pulled open the inward swinging door and paused inside. He would not emerge until the vehicle was adjacent to the plantation buildings and was going to turn into the area. Perhaps it might be someone lost or looking for a local inhabitant. Either way he would give them a warning about trespassing on private roads and property when they turned on the gravel area.
The offending vehicle, a jeepney, eventually came into view and slowed at the outer rim of the turning area. Checking that his pistol was securely inside his belt under his barong, he stepped out of the door.
A sudden flash of stars appeared in his eyes at the same time as he felt the dull thud to the back of his head which wrapped around to his ears. He fought to retain his balance, then tumbled forward to the edge of the wooden veranda, and fell the extra few centimetres to the surrounding gravel. He sensed a figure had jumped over him and rushed through the doorway. A sudden overwhelming desire to sleep overtook him. He did not try to fight it.
As soon as he hit the bodyguard across the back of the head with the sand filled sock, Pater jumped the falling figure and ran through the door into the hut, moving to the left. Henry followed through the door but was moving to the right. The falling bodyguard was now the responsibility of Rangi.
Two loud reports from a pistol sounded from the far wall, the flame fleetingly lighting up the room. Timber shattered behind Henry’s moving figure.
Pater and Henry dived onto the floor.
Rangi fired two shots through the open door for effect, aiming high.
Pater had not been expecting this degree of readiness or resistance from the Japanese. In the small confined space of the room someone might get shot too easily. He did not know the calibre or type of weapon the Japanese had so he could not guess how many rounds might be in the magazine.
Though his eyes were already accustomed to the dark, the light inside was insufficient to clearly make out shapes. From the sound of the shots and the flame he guessed roughly where the Japanese was. He tossed the sand sock to the left of where he thought the Japanese was. The Japanese responded by firing two more shots at the sound where the sock hit the wall. The reports and the flame from the barrel enabled Pater to establish the Japanese’s position within centimetres. It also seemed that he was right-handed.
Henry then threw his sock to the right of the Japanese who turned away from Pater and fired two more shots where the sock hit the wall.
Immediately the Japanese fired, Pater ran toward the figure hoping to grab the Japanese’s gun arm and pin him against the wall. Concentrating on where he guessed the Japanese gun arm was, Pater made a frantic grab. His right hand missed, but his left managed to get a grip below the elbow which he pushed downwards. The power of his charge had spun the Japanese further around so he was facing the back wall with his body pressed against it and his arm held there by Pater’s weight. The Japanese fired two more shots which went into the floor.
Pater had managed to get a secure grip with his right hand on the Japanese gun hand, but the Japanese had begun pushing against the wall with his free arm. Henry smashed his full body weight into the Japanese back which pushed the Japanese harder into the wall. Pater gripped a finger holding the pistol and twisted it back. He heard the snap and the Japanese scream. It worked; the Japanese dropped the pistol.
Pater and Henry wrestled the Japanese face down to the floor. Henry pushed his knees into the Japanese’s back as Pater dragged the Japanese’s arms behind his back. Wrapping the wrists in masking tape, then running the strips up around the Japanese’s neck and pulling tightly, the Japanese’s shoulder blades stuck out prominently.
Pater noticed the dislocated finger was still pointing backwards at right angles to the hand. Pater pulled hard on it to the screams of the Japanese, then, pushed it back into its normal position.
Henry placed a small tape over Japanese’s mouth. Dragging him to his feet; Henry frog-marched the Japanese out the door toward the waiting jeepney.
Rangi had taped the unconscious bodyguard’s wrists and ankles, and taped his mouth. Immediately the three had emerged from the hut, Rangi struggled to drag the bodyguard into the hut.
Pater was searching the small hut with his flashlight. By the time R
angi and Pater had emerged, the Japanese was already on the floor in the back of the jeepney and covered with a blanket.
Pater guessed that maybe they still had about 30 minutes to first light. The jeepney pulled off the gravel and onto the plantations private road for the bumpy trip to the highway.
**********
