Jason laughed. ‘Comrade, you make my mouth water but please don’t tempt me. We will be on our way. Up lads and put on your packs.’ He shook hands with the three guerrilla leaders. ‘You said this was not your area. When will you be returning?’ The last thing he needed was a confrontation at the boat point.
‘You say there are no enemy anywhere along the track?’
‘That is correct. It is as safe as anything.’
Ah Soo Chye looked at the others. ‘Time we had a break, isn’t it? We could all do with a few days good meat.’ At that moment one of the Temiar came back with a small boar. ‘This is Senagit from Kerinching’s ladang’ called out Lo See, not realising that none of Jason’s group knew what he was talking about. ‘Let him show you how to shoot before you leave.’
Senagit showed them, Jason pretending he had never seen such before. ‘Are they used against men?’ he asked.
At that question, which was answered by a shake of the head, Ah Soo Chye turned to Lo See and said, ‘by the way, from what we’ve heard there’s nothing to worry about.’ What he said next made Jason prick up his ears. ‘That helicopter we heard must have only been someone important on a visit. Nothing to worry about; no special forces.’
‘In that case we’ll bid you farewell and wish you good luck and a full belly,’ Jason said. ‘You will know it is boar meat, not dog meat’ and, in a joyous mood, went to where Senagit was holding the pig. Remembering he was not supposed to know Malay he gently took the dead pig out of the Temiar’s hands and, to Senagit’s horror, the dead pig started grunting. When Jason made to give it back Senagit jumped away.
Jason went back to his group and off they went, almost with a swagger although every one of them breathed a deep, deep sigh of relief.
27-28 February
Before Jason’s group reached the boat point they went to the cave where they had hidden their other uniforms and changed before later that evening reaching the boat point where they were delighted to meet the police squad and two boats. The squad had brought an extra amount of rice with them, knowing how the five men had been on short commons. Jason told them about Ah Soo Chye, Tek Miu, Lo See and their men being a day’s walk up the track. ‘I doubt they’ll bother us but it is better to be alert.’
Nothing untoward happened during the night and at dawn they caste off. With the current the boats made good time, luckily needing no shear pins to be changed, and reached Fort Tapong before sunset and were made welcome. Jason introduced Meng Ru, not by name, merely saying that he was their target they had been sent to escort from across the border. As they were having a refreshing shower, Jason in the officers’ shower and the four men where the rank and file of the force did, a radio message was sent saying all was well and that could six men be heli-ed out on the morrow? One of the group, no name was given, was obviously suffering from malnutrition and acute tiredness so could a medical officer be handy?
After a bumper supper they all, dog tired, retired to bed early.
Next morning the Malay Inspector got his answer. ‘Expect a heli at 1100 hours.’
At Kuala Lumpur they were met by Colonel Mason, C C Too, Ismail Mubarak and a doctor. Meng Ru was taken away almost immediately but was allowed to say his farewells, which were touchingly warm and obviously sincere. That Rance man’s magic worked thought Colonel Mason, I need a long session with him.
‘Jason, all well?’ Moby asked.
‘Everything went like clockwork. They are a fine bunch of blokes. Are you taking them back now?’
‘Yes. I’ve got a vehicle all ready.’
‘Do me a favour will you? Take this sack along with you,’ and he gave a wink, unseen by anyone else. ‘I’ll say good bye to them before you take them away.’ He went over to them and thanked them. ‘Now you’ll be free. I hope we can meet some time as we are friends.’
They bobbed their heads, smiling, turned and Moby led them away, thinking that the Buddha-hearted Leopard had indeed done them well.
‘Jason. I have told the battalion I’ll take you home for the night and we’ll talk. I’ll arrange an Auster for you sometime tomorrow. You must have an enormous amount to tell me.’
‘Sir, I have. I’ve nothing else to wear but these clothes. I’ll pong a bit.’
‘I’ll lend you something to wear. And, in fact, considering you have been to the edge of Thailand and back, it’s amazing how your clothes don’t seem to pong after so many days without your getting a proper wash!’ and the ghost of a smile twitched the Colonel’s lips.
The main point of Jason’s talk with Colonel Mason was the importance of maintaining good relations with the Temiar and other similar groups of people, of which there were quite a few. ‘Sir, I don’t speak Temiar and from what I gather few on the government side do either. That ought to be rectified.’
‘I agree with you but it’s a thorny one and more than tact and charm will be needed to put it into action.’
The Colonel drove Jason to the airstrip and, before he emplaned, thanked him effusively. ‘I can’t tell you how much I admire what you have done but,’ and here his face clouded, ‘sadly no recognition can ever be awarded as the citation would result in a court-martial not a bravery award.’
Jason felt like saying ‘there’s no need to tell my CO’ but forbade to, merely saying, ‘thank you sir for your hospitality and letting me run my show my own way: some might say that two indulgences were an extravagance.’
Without Jason knowing about it, C C Too had taken a comprehensive statement from the Emissary, taking all of two weeks, before deciding how he could use his input and how to present it to his masters. It took a lot to horrify him – he was constantly shocked but seldom horrified – but his reaction to Meng Ru’s description of being met on the Thai border by a tall Englishman wearing guerrilla uniform with four Chinese guerrillas similarly dressed, did momentarily horrify him. This must be kept under wraps and not appear in my report Mr Too decided but lest something did leak out, he felt he had to tell the Director of Operations about it. So a meeting was arranged at Flagstaff House and the General was, frankly, appalled. ‘How and why could Major Rance have had the audacity, the stupidity, the, the …’ he stammered ‘to have acted in such a forbidden and foolhardy way? He ought to be court-marshalled. He still could be.’
‘Sir, I can’t tell you why. I am also unhappy about what happened. In KL he was looked after by Colonel Mason. All I do know is that earlier on Major Rance rang me to ask if I could make a special case for four SEPs, the ones that had gone with him to try and persuade Tan Fook Loong, the successful commander of 2 Regiment, MRLA, to surrender, and he needed them for Operation Emissary he called it. I saw no difficulty as such: they had proved their worth already.’
Relations between the outgoing British and the new Malayan Government were going through a difficult period and the General feared unpleasant repercussions were such a story to get abroad. ‘I must get to the bottom of this as soon as I can,’ he said and reaching for his phone dialled Colonel Mason’s home.
‘Colonel Mason speaking.’
‘James, it’s the General this end. Are you irreversibly tied up here and now? If not could you come over to see me, please, now, at my place? There’s something I simply must get straight. It won’t take long, just a few minutes then you can go back to what you were doing.’
In twenty minutes a car was heard outside and in the Director of Intelligence came. He was offered a drink and told to sit down. ‘James, I’ll come straight to the point. Why did that idiot Major Rance behave so irresponsibly in going and fetching that man from the Thai border dressed as a guerrilla? He should be court-martialled for behaving like that.’
The Colonel put his drink down on a side table and said ‘Sir, rather me than him,’ with a sheepish and lop-sided smile. ‘Let me tell you exactly what happened …’ and out the story came. ‘So it was a case of stopping the entire escape with heaven-knows-what difficulties the other end or rolling with the punch so I let him go ahead. He seemed as confident as he normally did.’
‘Were he and his men wearing CT rig in KL?’
‘No, sir.’
‘In Fort Tapong or in the boat going upriver? Have you heard anything from the Police Field Force?’
‘No sir. Nothing of that nature at all. I think we would have heard by now if that had been the case.’
C C Too broke in. ‘General, the Emissary said that on that last night before meeting the boat people the Englishman, who never gave any name, went into a small cave, produced a sack, took out a different lot of clothes and all five of them changed.’
‘So no one except that man knows what they wore.’
‘Well, except for the four SEPs and Inspector Ismail Mubarak and that’s our way out if needs be. We’ll merely say it is nonsense and ask, rhetorically of course, if the asker is trying to be funny.’
