State of Siege

I did not have to wait long for the answer. During the morning I had found a pack of cards in a drawer of Jebb’s belongings, and at intervals since then I had been teaching Rosalie to play gin rummy. We had just sat down to resume our interrupted game when there was a sound of movement from the next room and the radio was switched off. Sanusi and Roda had returned.

For a few minutes, there was a steady murmur of voices punctuated by sharp monosyllables from Roda. Suddenly, chairs grated on the tiled floor and a door closed. Then, footsteps sounded on the terrace, the curtain was pushed aside, and the staff captain whom I had seen the previous day on the floor below peered in at us.

I looked up, and he beckoned.

“You, come.”

“Where to?”

“See Boeng.”

My heart was beating too insistently for comfort; but, for Rosalie’s benefit, I put my cards down with a sigh of irritation and a word of apology before I stood up.

“You, come.” He was belligerent now.

“I am coming.”

I walked out on to the terrace and, with his hand on his pistol, he stood aside to let me pass. I took no notice of him and walked along to the living-room windows. There was no glass in them and I could clearly see the four men inside. Apart from Sanusi and Roda, there were a major and a lieutenant-colonel, both of them grey with dust and wearing steel helmets.

As before, it was Roda who took the initiative. He beckoned me in. The captain followed and stood behind me. Sanusi was sitting on the side of one of the long chairs, staring at the floor. He took no notice of me.

Roda glanced at the other two. “It was this tuan who repaired the radio power generator when a bomb damaged it yesterday. He is an engineer from Tangga.”

The lieutenant-colonel nodded absently. The major stared. Sweat had caked the dust on their faces and their eyes were swollen with fatigue.

Roda stood up. “Mr. Fraser, you will answer some questions. Some of the answers we already have, so that we shall know whether you tell the truth or not. So, be careful.”

I said nothing and waited.

“Have you seen Major Suparto today?”

“Certainly I’ve seen him.”

“When?”

“I think it was shortly before the General and you came up here, nearly an hour after the planes came over that dropped leaflets.”

“Where did you see him?”

“Here, naturally.”

“What was said?”

“He told me that the General was returning to this apartment, and that I should respect his desire for privacy by keeping off the terrace outside.”

“What else?”

“He allowed me to fetch some drinking-water from the kitchen.”

“What else?”

“Nothing more, I think. Oh yes, he mentioned that he was going to make a reconnaissance in the city.”

Roda laughed shortly. Inside the room there was a silence. Not very far off, an eighty-eight was slamming away like a pair of double doors in a gale.

Sanusi raised his head. “Was nothing else said, Mr. Fraser?”

“No, General.”

“Why should he tell you where he was going?”

“I’ve no idea, General.”

“You knew Major Suparto when he was at Tangga. Were you friendly with him there?”

“Not particularly. He was employed by the contractors as a liaison manager. His duties were very different from mine.”

“What was the opinion of Major Suparto at Tangga?”

“Very high. In fact…” I broke off.

“Go on, Mr. Fraser. Say what there is to be said.”

“I was only going to say that Major Suparto was exceptional. The Government sent quite a lot of unemployed officers to work with us there. Major Suparto was the only one of them who had any real ability.”

There was another brief silence. Sanusi looked at Roda. Roda stared back at him bitterly for a moment and then swung round to face the other two.

“You hear?” he said in Malay. “You remember the meeting at Kail? I asked then. Why should they send him to Tangga where it was so easy for him to contact us? Luck, you all said. Luck, and more. It showed that they did not have the smallest suspicion that he was one of us.” He glared round the room. “Well, now you know better. Now you know…”

“That is enough,” Sanusi broke in impatiently. “Many mistakes have been made. I did not believe that we were ready. I was for waiting another year, for letting them destroy themselves before we moved. I yielded to the Committee’s judgment.”

“A judgment based on information supplied by a traitor, Boeng.”

“I am not reproaching you. We are men, not gods, Ahmad. We cannot read souls.” Sanusi stood up and walked over to the table.

Perhaps because they were now speaking Malay they thought I did not understand. Perhaps they had forgotten me. I just stood there. They watched him as if they were waiting for an oracle, while he smoothed out a map and bent over it.

“Here are the possibilities,” he said at last. “We can try to break out of the city and regain our base.”

Roda shrugged. “That is their greatest hope, that we will try,” he said.