Read Online the Savage Day - Simon Vaughn 02 (v5) by Jack Higgins - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Jack Higgins
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mug down on the chart table. 'All right, you asked for it.'
I sat down on the swivel chair, unlocked the automatic steering mechanism and took the wheel again.
'There was an area in Borneo around Kota Baru that was absolutely controlled by terrorists back in 1963 and most of them were Chinese Communist infiltrators, not locals. They terrorized the whole area. Burned villages wholesale, coerced the Dyaks into helping them by butchering every second man and woman in some of the villages they took, just to encourage the others.'
'And they put you in to do something about it?'
'I was supposed to be an expert on that kind of thing so they gave me command of a company of irregulars, Dyak scouts, and told me to clean out the stable and not come back till I'd done it.'
'A direct order?'
'Not on paper - not in those terms. We didn't have much luck at first. They burned two or three more villages, in one case after herding over fifty men, women and children into a longhouse beforehand. Finally, they burned the mission at Kota Baru, raped and murdered four nuns and eighteen young girls. That was it as far as I was concerned.'
'What did you do?'
'Got lucky. An informer tipped me off that a Chinese merchant in Selengar named Hui Li was a Communist agent. I arrested him, and when he refused to talk I handed him over to the Dyaks.'
There was no horror on her face and her voice was quite calm as she said, 'To torture him?'
'Dyaks can be very persuasive. He only lasted a couple of hours, then he told me where the group I'd been chasing were holed up.'
'And did you get them?'
'Eventually. They'd split into two which didn't help, but we managed it.'
'They said you shot your prisoners?'
'Only during the final pursuit, when I was hard on the heels of the second group. Prisoners would have delayed me.'
'I see.' She nodded with a kind of clinical detachment on her face. 'And Mr Hui Li?'
'Shot trying to escape.'
'You expect me to believe that?'
I laughed, and without the slightest bitterness. 'Absolutely true and that's the most ironic part of it. I was quite prepared to take him down to the coast and let him stand trial, but he tried to make a break for it the night before we left.'
There was silence for a while. I opened a window and took a deep breath of fresh sea air.
'Look, what I did to him he would have done to me. The purpose of terrorism is to terrorize, a favourite tag of Michael Collins, but Lenin said it first and it's on page one of every Communist handbook on revolutionary warfare. You can only fight that kind of fire with fire.'
'You ruined yourself,' she said and there was a strange, savage, concerned note in her voice. 'You fool, you threw everything away. Career, reputation, everything, and for what?'
'I did what had to be done,' I said. 'Malaya, Kenya, Cyprus, Aden. I'd seen it all and I was tired of people justifying the murder of the innocent by pleading that it was all in the name of the revolution. When I finished, there was no more terror by night in Kota Baru. No more butchering of little girls. That should count for something, God knows.'
I was surprised at the feeling in my voice, the way my hands were shaking. I stood up and pulled her forward roughly. 'You wanted to take the wheel. It's all yours. Stay on this course and wake me in three hours. Before if the weather changes.'
She grabbed my sleeve, 'I'm sorry, Vaughan, I really am.'
'You live long enough, you get over anything,' I said. 'I've learnt that.'
Or so I told myself as I went below. Perhaps if I repeated it often enough, I might really come to believe it.
I slept on one of the saloon bench seats and when I awakened it was almost three o'clock. Binnie was snoring steadily in the aft cabin. I peered in and found him flat on his back, collar and tie undone, mouth open. I left him to it and went up the companionway.
There was quite a sea and cold spray stung my face as I moved along the heaving deck and opened the wheelhouse door. Norah
I sat down on the swivel chair, unlocked the automatic steering mechanism and took the wheel again.
'There was an area in Borneo around Kota Baru that was absolutely controlled by terrorists back in 1963 and most of them were Chinese Communist infiltrators, not locals. They terrorized the whole area. Burned villages wholesale, coerced the Dyaks into helping them by butchering every second man and woman in some of the villages they took, just to encourage the others.'
'And they put you in to do something about it?'
'I was supposed to be an expert on that kind of thing so they gave me command of a company of irregulars, Dyak scouts, and told me to clean out the stable and not come back till I'd done it.'
'A direct order?'
'Not on paper - not in those terms. We didn't have much luck at first. They burned two or three more villages, in one case after herding over fifty men, women and children into a longhouse beforehand. Finally, they burned the mission at Kota Baru, raped and murdered four nuns and eighteen young girls. That was it as far as I was concerned.'
'What did you do?'
'Got lucky. An informer tipped me off that a Chinese merchant in Selengar named Hui Li was a Communist agent. I arrested him, and when he refused to talk I handed him over to the Dyaks.'
There was no horror on her face and her voice was quite calm as she said, 'To torture him?'
'Dyaks can be very persuasive. He only lasted a couple of hours, then he told me where the group I'd been chasing were holed up.'
'And did you get them?'
'Eventually. They'd split into two which didn't help, but we managed it.'
'They said you shot your prisoners?'
'Only during the final pursuit, when I was hard on the heels of the second group. Prisoners would have delayed me.'
'I see.' She nodded with a kind of clinical detachment on her face. 'And Mr Hui Li?'
'Shot trying to escape.'
'You expect me to believe that?'
I laughed, and without the slightest bitterness. 'Absolutely true and that's the most ironic part of it. I was quite prepared to take him down to the coast and let him stand trial, but he tried to make a break for it the night before we left.'
There was silence for a while. I opened a window and took a deep breath of fresh sea air.
'Look, what I did to him he would have done to me. The purpose of terrorism is to terrorize, a favourite tag of Michael Collins, but Lenin said it first and it's on page one of every Communist handbook on revolutionary warfare. You can only fight that kind of fire with fire.'
'You ruined yourself,' she said and there was a strange, savage, concerned note in her voice. 'You fool, you threw everything away. Career, reputation, everything, and for what?'
'I did what had to be done,' I said. 'Malaya, Kenya, Cyprus, Aden. I'd seen it all and I was tired of people justifying the murder of the innocent by pleading that it was all in the name of the revolution. When I finished, there was no more terror by night in Kota Baru. No more butchering of little girls. That should count for something, God knows.'
I was surprised at the feeling in my voice, the way my hands were shaking. I stood up and pulled her forward roughly. 'You wanted to take the wheel. It's all yours. Stay on this course and wake me in three hours. Before if the weather changes.'
She grabbed my sleeve, 'I'm sorry, Vaughan, I really am.'
'You live long enough, you get over anything,' I said. 'I've learnt that.'
Or so I told myself as I went below. Perhaps if I repeated it often enough, I might really come to believe it.
I slept on one of the saloon bench seats and when I awakened it was almost three o'clock. Binnie was snoring steadily in the aft cabin. I peered in and found him flat on his back, collar and tie undone, mouth open. I left him to it and went up the companionway.
There was quite a sea and cold spray stung my face as I moved along the heaving deck and opened the wheelhouse door. Norah
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