Read Online Charlie Martz and Other Stories by Elmore Leonard - Free Book Online
Authors: Elmore Leonard
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Tranquility.
During the morning at Taiping, beginning the second week, Ah Min attended required courses. One explained the necessity for resettlement as long as the terrorists relied on the villages for their subsistence. Another stressed the need for Malay and Chinese to live together in an atmosphere of mutual respect and understanding. Still another course dealt briefly with the responsibilities Malaya would soon face as an independent nation. Ah Minâs eyes would remain on the instructor, but her thoughts were elsewhere.
Most frequently she relived the six months in the jungle with Tam Lee. The camp had been comfortable, fairly large for being so close to a village, and there had always been enough to eat. The idle times had been the best, when they simply rested or talked or planned ambushes, and when there were no pamphlets to read. The Malayan Communist Party was forever providing dull, political-sounding literature.
There were other girls in the camp, most of them married and happy to be with their husbands. Ah Min was certain Tam planned to marry her. Why else would he want her near instead of working for him in K.L.? He enjoyed her company, she knew. And he respected her ability to plan. A number of times, setting up ambushes, he had acted on her quietly offered suggestions. The way they stopped Harold Crowleyâs jeep, for example, had been Ah Minâs idea.
She could picture it clearly, seeing Tam Lee step out to the road as the jeep approached. He had clutched the grenade to his stomach, bent almost double, dragging his feet and waving feebly as if for help. And as the jeep came to a stop, she saw him lob the grenade underhanded onto the flat hood of the vehicle and dive for the side of the road. There was the explosion and the men struggling to free themselves.
Ah Min could feel the Sten gun in her hands again, the frame stock pressed against her side. She rose with the others and fired point-blank at the jeep, keeping the trigger squeezed, feeling the vibration and hearing the exhilarating clattering sound of the automatic weapons on both sides of her.
The rest was not worth remembering.
In the afternoonâevery afternoon while she was at TaipingâAh Min studied shorthand and typing. This course, an elective, was not taken simply to pass the time. Already a plan was forming in her mind: a way to aid Tam Lee that could be exceptionally interesting, yet required only a normal amount of luck to put into practice. And if it failed she would simply rejoin Tam Lee in the jungle.
Each evening she read the Straits Times for news of Ladang. This was the sixth year of the Emergency in Malaya and now only major terrorist incidents were considered newsworthy. Still, at least once every two weeks there was mention of Tam Lee. He now had 15,000 Straits dollars on his head and his organization was fast gaining notoriety as the Ladang Gang.
During the early part of March the gang ambushed two lorries of special constables, killing six men, wounding thirteen, and escaping with two bren-guns and four hundred rounds of ammunition.
In mid-March a police-lieutenant, A. B. Clad, who had replaced Harold Crowley at Ladang, reported the capture of three of the gang. Clad had lain in ambush six days with a handful of his police jungle squad to do itââdemonstrating patience and jungle fightingability learned while serving with a Gurkha regiment during the war,â the newspaper account said of Clad.
Tam Lee was mentioned again in early May when the Ladang Gang stopped a Kuala Lumpurâbound bus and unloaded all the passengers except three menâlater identified as police informers and one-time Communists. They tied these three to their seats, doused the bus with gasoline, and set it afire. The passengers failed to identify any of the terrorist photographs the police showed them.
That same month Police-Lieutenant A. B. Clad was in the news again. Returning from a visit to a nearby rubber
During the morning at Taiping, beginning the second week, Ah Min attended required courses. One explained the necessity for resettlement as long as the terrorists relied on the villages for their subsistence. Another stressed the need for Malay and Chinese to live together in an atmosphere of mutual respect and understanding. Still another course dealt briefly with the responsibilities Malaya would soon face as an independent nation. Ah Minâs eyes would remain on the instructor, but her thoughts were elsewhere.
Most frequently she relived the six months in the jungle with Tam Lee. The camp had been comfortable, fairly large for being so close to a village, and there had always been enough to eat. The idle times had been the best, when they simply rested or talked or planned ambushes, and when there were no pamphlets to read. The Malayan Communist Party was forever providing dull, political-sounding literature.
There were other girls in the camp, most of them married and happy to be with their husbands. Ah Min was certain Tam planned to marry her. Why else would he want her near instead of working for him in K.L.? He enjoyed her company, she knew. And he respected her ability to plan. A number of times, setting up ambushes, he had acted on her quietly offered suggestions. The way they stopped Harold Crowleyâs jeep, for example, had been Ah Minâs idea.
She could picture it clearly, seeing Tam Lee step out to the road as the jeep approached. He had clutched the grenade to his stomach, bent almost double, dragging his feet and waving feebly as if for help. And as the jeep came to a stop, she saw him lob the grenade underhanded onto the flat hood of the vehicle and dive for the side of the road. There was the explosion and the men struggling to free themselves.
Ah Min could feel the Sten gun in her hands again, the frame stock pressed against her side. She rose with the others and fired point-blank at the jeep, keeping the trigger squeezed, feeling the vibration and hearing the exhilarating clattering sound of the automatic weapons on both sides of her.
The rest was not worth remembering.
In the afternoonâevery afternoon while she was at TaipingâAh Min studied shorthand and typing. This course, an elective, was not taken simply to pass the time. Already a plan was forming in her mind: a way to aid Tam Lee that could be exceptionally interesting, yet required only a normal amount of luck to put into practice. And if it failed she would simply rejoin Tam Lee in the jungle.
Each evening she read the Straits Times for news of Ladang. This was the sixth year of the Emergency in Malaya and now only major terrorist incidents were considered newsworthy. Still, at least once every two weeks there was mention of Tam Lee. He now had 15,000 Straits dollars on his head and his organization was fast gaining notoriety as the Ladang Gang.
During the early part of March the gang ambushed two lorries of special constables, killing six men, wounding thirteen, and escaping with two bren-guns and four hundred rounds of ammunition.
In mid-March a police-lieutenant, A. B. Clad, who had replaced Harold Crowley at Ladang, reported the capture of three of the gang. Clad had lain in ambush six days with a handful of his police jungle squad to do itââdemonstrating patience and jungle fightingability learned while serving with a Gurkha regiment during the war,â the newspaper account said of Clad.
Tam Lee was mentioned again in early May when the Ladang Gang stopped a Kuala Lumpurâbound bus and unloaded all the passengers except three menâlater identified as police informers and one-time Communists. They tied these three to their seats, doused the bus with gasoline, and set it afire. The passengers failed to identify any of the terrorist photographs the police showed them.
That same month Police-Lieutenant A. B. Clad was in the news again. Returning from a visit to a nearby rubber
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