State of Siege

For once, I saw him disconcerted; but it was a shortlived pleasure. His lips narrowed and his hand went to his gun.

“You will explain that remark,” he said softly.

“Certainly. I was in the garden of the Harmony Club two nights ago. I saw your jeep. I knew it came from Tangga. I knew it could only have come by road, so…”

“How much did you hear?” he demanded abruptly.

“Not much, but enough to know that there are two Generals in this. Who is the other one?”

He ignored the question. “Whom have you told?”

“Nobody. It wasn’t my affair.”

“You said nothing of this last night.”

“Why should I? Until I heard Sanusi’s voice I thought that he was the other man whom you called ‘General.’ ”

“Was Miss Linden with you?”

“She only saw the jeep. She heard nothing.”

“I can believe you?”

“Yes.”

He sighed. “But why do you risk your life by telling me?”

“Because I want to save my life if I can, and Miss Linden’s. If what I suspect about this business is true, I don’t think either of us has very much of a chance. Do you?”

He looked me in the eyes. “Nobody here has very much chance.”

“By showing you that I can be trusted not to betray you, I increase what chance we have.”

“How?”

“If you can help us, you will.”

“Why should I help you? A moment ago, I was on the point of shooting you like a dog.”

“You will help me because, if the occasion arises, you can trust me to help you. Also, because you are a humane man.”

He stared at me grimly. “I would not depend too much on my humanity, Mr. Fraser. It may still become necessary for me to shoot you.”

“If it becomes necessary, of course, you will. I said that you were humane, Major. I didn’t accuse you of sentimentality. Now, you’d better show me this generator.”

We went on down the stairs.

“One thing I should like to know, Mr. Fraser,” he said. “Is your ignorance on the subject of generators as complete as you claim?”

“I have a certain amount of theoretical knowledge, naturally, but I don’t think that’s going to be much use. If the windings are damaged, and they probably are, there’s nothing I can do.”

“I ask, because if the generator is not running again by sundown, I am afraid that harsh disciplinary measures may be taken against you. I would regret that, but I could do nothing to stop it. And now, here we are.”

We had come to a short flight of steel stairs leading down to the sub-basement. There were lights on below and at the foot of the stairs there was a gleam of black, oily water. There were sounds of splashing. The bottom two stairs were under the water. Suparto went down as far as he could without getting his feet wet and called sharply.

There was more splashing and then two bedraggled young men waded to the foot of the stairs.

“What progress?” Suparto asked curtly.

One of them shrugged. “The water is no longer coming in, but we cannot make the drain work.”

“The tuan here is an engineer from Tangga. He understands these matters. You will take orders from him now. Mr. Fraser, these men are Engineer Osman and Engineer Alwi.”

I nodded to them and made my way down to the water level. From there I could see the whole area of the room. It was about thirty feet by twenty. The generating set and two five-hundred-gallon fuel tanks occupied most of the space. The diesel part of the set stood clear of the water but the generator itself was half-submerged. To one side was a slate switchboard.

I looked at Osman. “You say that there is a drain that won’t work.”

“Yes, tuan. We have put rods down it, but it will not work.”

I looked at Suparto. “How close did the bomb fall?”

“In the roadway at the side. You wish to see the crater?”

“No. But what happened?”

“The crater filled up with water from the broken pipe before a man who knew how to turn the water off could be found. Then it was found that the water was coming in here.”

“Where did it come in? A crack in the floor? Down the walls? Where?”

“Up through the drain, tuan.” This was Engineer Alwi, wide-eyed with wonder. “It bubbled up through the drain. I saw it.”

“Then what the Hell’s the good of poking about trying to get it to run back down the drain?” I demanded. “Don’t you see what happened? The bomb collapsed the drain conduit as well and the water from the crater took that way out. We must be below the crater here. Naturally the water won’t run back uphill. We’ll have to pump it out.”

“What do you need, Mr. Fraser?” This was Suparto.

“A powerful rotary pump. A fire-truck would do the job, or maybe there’s a sewage-disposal unit. Any pump that will lift water twenty feet at a reasonable speed. There’s nothing to be done until we get it.”

But Suparto was already hurrying up the stairs. Osman and Alwi stood there in the water looking at me sheepishly.

“Where does the exhaust from the diesel go?” I asked.

“There is a pipe, tuan,” said Osman. “It comes out at the back of the building.”

“There must be a ventilator shaft. Where is it?”

“There in the corner, tuan.”

“Where does that come out?”

“I don’t know, tuan.” He wrung his hands. “How should I know?”