After that there was nothing left except for Jason to be driven back to the boat, leaving his full glass of whisky still untouched, hardly saying a word as they went. Their parting was not unfriendly but a touch frosty: no one likes losing face to a stranger, especially a Nepali in authority.

***

The Consul was in a quandary; how to let His Majesty know that there had been a mistake without letting on that the troops had been visited. A diplomatic ‘white lie’ was the solution. As ordered, he would write a strictly secret personal letter to the Consul in Calcutta giving all the details of what Captain Rance had told them after he had been invited to the consulate on what was seen as a friendly visit. They had come to the conclusion that it was most likely that such a monstrous untruth was not just a mistake in correspondence but more likely to be a plot to embarrass His Majesty. ‘I therefore suggest,’ he wrote to his opposite number, ‘that before you write your report to His Majesty, which you are duty bound to do, you make a thorough search among your staff to see if there is anyone likely to have been responsible. If that turns out negative, put your “eyes and ears” to work to find out who could be responsible for such disinformation.’ Between them they felt it better not to give the letter to Captain Rance to deliver but to put it in the next diplomatic bag bound for Calcutta, even though it would be much slower to get there. Even though no perpetrator was found in the Calcutta consulate, the King was greatly relieved at the news.

***

Thinking about all that he had experienced earlier on while trying to get to sleep, Jason’s mind turned to his phone call with his one-time CO … then it scratched at something slightly unusual said to him on another telephone, years, was it, or months, or even weeks ago? … then it came as he suddenly remembered a curiously ungrammatical remark made by Sergeant Padamsing Rai when he was talking to him the morning A Company left for Gemas. He had mentioned about going to Kelantan and following that referring to the leave party. It was then his answer that came back to him, ‘No sir, that is more than all’ and the tone of voice it was said in. He turned it over and over in his mind and decided to tell Ah Fat everything that had happened during the day, as well as mentioning that strange remark before, finally, dropping off to sleep.

After his routine duties Next morning Jason took Ah Fat to his cabin and told him what had passed in the consulate. ‘I can’t understand it. It came “out of the blue” and really shook me as it was me with my A Company that had been up in Kelantan earlier this month. How could anything like this have happened so quickly and yet so far away?’

Ah Fat looked at his friend. Yes, he really is worried! ‘Jason, let me remind you about Operation Tipping Point …’

Jason, taken by surprise, interrupted with a squawk, ‘What’s that? Say that again. Operation what was it? You never mentioned anything like that when you gave me your background reasons for going to Calcutta,’ he remonstrated.

Ah Fat had the grace to look abashed. ‘No, nor I did,’ he confessed. ‘My going to the very centre of a big Communist spider’s web and meeting the spider himself will be the “tipping point” in their struggle, hence the operational name?’

‘Got it. Carry on please. I’m sorry to have interrupted your flow and glad I did.’

Ah Fat resumed his briefing. Face screwed up in concentration he continued with ‘there is a Gurkha at the back of the “from inside” part of the scheme, a Padamsing Rai I think was the name mentioned at the Politburo meeting …’

At that name Jason shot up from his reclining position. ‘P’ing Yee I interrupt once more. I too am guilty of omitting something that could prove vital in our understanding of this.’

It was Ah Fat’s turn to look surprised. ‘How come?’

‘There is a Padamsing Rai, a prisoner on board this ship of ours, being repatriated under arrest on another charge. I had to ring the OC of the Gurkha education school in Singapore with a message from my CO. He was out and Padamsing Rai answered. It was to him that I said I was going to Kota Bharu and after that about the leave party. It was only last night that I remembered how his answer struck me as being so unlike his normal correct English grammar.’

‘And what was it?’ Ah Fat prompted.

‘I finished off by saying “That is all I have for you. Have you anything for me?” and his answer, in a suggestive tone of voice, was “No sir, that is more than all.” It was so unlike his normal correct English, he is a Darjeeling scholar, that it could have a second, inner, meaning to him but not to others like us.’

‘Yes, it is certainly a coincidence, his name being the same and the slip of the tongue. Not to follow it up would be crass. How shall be go about it? Ideas, please.’

Jason bit his lower lip as he thought. ‘Can you remember if there was anyone special at that Politburo meeting who was told to make contact with a certain Padamsing Rai?’

‘Yes, there was. Now let me see…who was it?’ With puckered brow he searched back. ‘Ummm. Yes, it was the courier from Kuala Lumpur, who said he would go to Singapore; Xi Zhan Yang whose alias is Ah Ho.,’

‘Got it,’ said Jason excitedly. ‘I’ll take you down to the cell and you will talk to Padamsing, saying you are Xi Zhan Yang’s brother,’

‘I’ll say Ah Ho which is the name he uses when talking to outsiders.’

‘Better still. I’ll tell the duty Corporal Red Cap’ – he had to explain what he meant as Ah Fat did not know what ‘Red Cap’ referred to – ‘that you need to speak to him. Only mention his present condition if he brings it up.’

‘And have you any particular questions you’d like me to ask?’

‘Well, what do you suggest? You have more background than I have.’

Ah Fat’s smile was triumphant. ‘Shandung P’aau, yes. I’ll give you data for your own Operation Tipping Point. At the Politburo meeting we were told that there were some other Nepalis, now Gurkha soldiers, behaving similarly but no details about them were known. I’ll find out from this Gurkha who those other renegades are. He’s bound to know them. I’ll tell him that as he himself will no longer be in Malaya I’ll have to contact the others to help them in their good work, so to give me their names and units. How about that?’

Jason leant forward and shook his friend’s hand. ‘Spot on. Couldn’t be better. And as for the idea of my own Operation Tipping Point, that’s a real brainwave,’ and he laughed delightedly. ‘Let’s do it right away. Also try and find out where he got the idea of the discharged battalion from. If we could find that out it would help enormously, solving the problem at its origin. No need to look anywhere else. I’d like to have something definite to tell the DA who’s coming round later on today’ and Jason told Ah Fat how he had asked for him so he could let Calcutta, Singapore and the War Office know about his meeting in the Nepalese consulate.

‘Righty ho! On our way then. Give me a pencil and a piece of paper and off we go,’ said Ah Fat and the two of them went down to the brig. Jason beckoned to the CMP Corporal on duty, sitting smoking and looking at an old newspaper, and very quietly said, ‘Corporal, as OC Troops I have brought someone who happens to have been affected by the prisoner’s approaches, shall I call them, and wants to come to some settlement before we reach India otherwise he will start civil proceedings. I have brought him down to talk to Padamsing. Please let him in, on my authority as OC Troops.’

‘No sweat, sir,’ and beckoning to Ah Fat, took him to the door of the brig, unlocked it, looked inside and said, ‘A somebody come to see yer.’

The renegade Gurkha was both startled at the unexpected interruption to his solitude and happy to be able to talk to someone he hoped would be sympathetic. When a Chinese man came into his cell he just knew that someone had come to help him. The CMP Corporal pushed his own chair inside so both men could sit, and Ah Fat waited till the door was shut before sitting down and saying ‘Comrade Padamsing Rai, I have heard all about you and your work from my brother.’ He spoke in English.

‘Your br…brother?’ the Gurkha stammered in surprise and confusion, the word ‘comrade’ giving him a clue that the visitor was not worried about anything ‘down below’. ‘And who is your brother?’

‘Ah Ho. You met him in Singapore, didn’t you?’

‘Yes, yes, I did. He rang me and fixed a meeting at the Balmoral in Ulu Pandan.’

On target! ‘I heard that you were being sent to India before you could fully carry out your task and so I managed to get a passage and, at the most convenient time, come and see you as we have unfinished business.’

Yes we have, the hapless prisoner thought sadly.

‘You have started something by telling him about the mutinying Gurkhas on board and have scored a victory. I myself don’t know any details but you have made a significant advance in our struggle. We must build on it. Now, in Malaya, only your fellow comrades can carry on the good work you have so nobly started. I have come to get their details so, without anyone else knowing we have met, except in the Politburo after I return of course, we can continue with your good work.’

Padamsing smiled joyfully. ‘So my work won’t go amiss and even though I won’t be in Malaya any more, the work can continue. Yes, of course I’ll give you the names. I don’t have pen or paper,’ and he spat moodily, ‘but you must have.’

Ah Fat took the pencil and bit of paper out of his pocket and gave them to Padamsing. ‘You write them down as I will have difficulty with the spelling.’

The Gurkha wrote down six army numbers, names and units, smiling as he did. ‘They are my secret squad.’ He handed the pencil and piece of paper back with a deep sigh of satisfaction. Ah Fat put them in his pocket. ‘Your list will be safe here. And, in any case, were anyone to read the names they won’t mean anything to them, will they?’

‘No. Thank you sir. I am happy now.’

‘And thank you very much, Comrade. I’ll take care of everything so you need have no worries.’ He turned as if to go, hesitated, and turned back ‘Yes, there is one other point I need to have details about: where exactly did you get the information about the mutinying battalion from? I don’t think you ever told my brother, did you?’

Padamsing just knew he was with someone he could trust. His morale had recovered from being rock-bottom by now being able to get the other people to carry on with the good work. ‘To be perfectly honest I did rather exaggerate,’ he said with a lop-sided grin. ‘I changed a company going to Kelantan to a battalion and a leave party to a mutinying battalion. Nothing else. Your brother had put so much pressure on me to get concrete results within days when that was, quite frankly, impossible so that was the only way I could manage to give him an answer. He had threatened me if I didn’t, said I was bound to the Party. That phone call I had with a Captain Rance, you won’t know him but he’s on board, would have been a God-send had I believed in a God – which I still don’t?’ he added, with a rueful chuckle. ‘I hoped that by the time there was any reaction to my telling your brother something that was not yet quite true it would be true enough.’

Ah Fat inwardly gulped at such naivety but, being the splendid actor he had become, said, ‘Yes, that was a wise thing to do, especially as your other Party workers were not as far forward as you, were they?

The renegade shook his head. ‘No, sadly not. You are quite right,’ he said with a sigh.

Ah Fat blessed his inspired guess as he got up to leave, thanking the prisoner once more as he did.

 ‘Is there anything you can do for me when we reach India?’ he was asked, almost pleadingly.

Ah Fat shook his head. ‘All I can say is that I don’t know why you are in this cell. It is nothing to do with me. Provided you have only offended the British military and not us, there’s nothing to worry about.’

He took the chair outside and thanked the Corporal for it. Jason had been in earshot but unseen. They went up to his cabin where Ah Fat gave him the list.

‘You’ve done well. You probably realise this is a great victory for us…’ He was interrupted by the Tannoy announcing, ‘Attention please, attention please. Will the OC Troops report to the Purser’s Office.’ The message was repeated.

Jason mopped his brow. ‘Only just in time. As my father used to say: “just in time: born in the vestry”’ and left the cabin with the list of names in his pocket.

***