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The Blue Noon
A Novel
By Robert Ryan OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA
Copyright © 2003 Robert Ryan
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4804-7760-5
CHAPTER 1
Hong Kong, 1938
Harry Cole lit his first Capstan of the day and gazed over the waters of the bay to the dark shape of Stonecutter's Island, wondering how the gun crews out there had fared during the night. Two hundred dead and counting on the mainland, that's what they were saying. Mostly Chinese, of course, and nearly all refugees from the sprawling shanty towns that had colonised the foot of Lion Rock.
The daih fung, the big wind, had dashed itself around the hillsides, creating berserk vortices that tore at the tin, wood and canvas of the makeshift homes. The torrents of water it had sucked from the ocean had transformed the thin soil of the hillsides into a thick sludge that had swept through the compounds, pulling the weakest individuals into its glutinous embrace.
Out in the Straits, the sea was still boiling in the aftermath, its surface thick with the detritus of the storm. Harry turned to face the ugly sprawl of the Sham Shui Po barracks, where various sappers inspected walls and roofs for damage, and the red-eyed men of the First Battalion were bullying and cursing the gangs of coolies charged with clearing the debris.
A Number Nine storm, the old hands claimed, one short of a direct hit. If that was a nine, Harry would hate to see a ten: the barracks' church tower had gone, casually sheared off and carried into the hills. The Other Ranks' dining room was so much kindling, although the Officers' Mess and Club were still standing, because, as always, they were the best built bit of kit on the barracks. A mafoo, one of the Chinese stable coolies, walked by, pulling two jittery horses behind him, the beasts still snorting with residual terror from having the roof torn off above their heads.
Harry closed his eyes and the familiar show-reel played. In his mind he saw the crimson robe fall from her shoulders, held his breath as she stepped forward out of the shadows. It had been a week since he had stood behind the carved screen that formed the false wall of the spartan room where he watched the girl Suki perform for Colonel Parkhill, his CO. He had felt certain that his Colonel and the girl would hear the drumming of his heart from his hiding place, but the lovers had other things on their minds.
Harry had marvelled at the colour and texture of her young body in the soft orange glow of the lanterns and he almost groaned as she climbed on top of the prostrate Colonel. A tap on the shoulder from Mister Eric, the whorehouse's manager, and he had left, taking the vivid scene with him.
Harry and Mister Eric—not, of course, his real name, he was Lam Sang to the locals—had had business. There was always business to discuss. In the past few years, Harry had moved from London's Hoxton, Bethnal Green, and the West End, to Surrey—with a short diversion into Wormwood Scrubs—then out to Singapore and now Hong Kong. Just a change of venue, that's all. The basics were always the same—all you had to do was get the language right, so there were no misunderstandings.
Hence he had Jimmy the barman from the Officers' Club teaching him a few basic Cantonese phrases. Most of the expats derided it as a total waste of time, especially as the Chinese all spoke pidgin anyway. Harry disagreed, it was still the locals' manor, no matter how many fancy hotels, gun emplacements and tram systems the British put in, or how much they excluded them from their clubs and the whites-only housing on The Peak, the highest spot on the island. Learning the Chinese ways, even if it was just how to say hello, was simply a mark of respect.
'Cole.'
Harry flung the cigarette over his shoulder and straightened as he spun round. Striding towards him, splashing across the sodden ground, was the beefy form of Regimental Sergeant Major Cross. He was one of the permanent Hong Kong garrison, as attested by the deep walnut colour of his knees, an NCO who had been moved up from Stanley to show the First Battalion the ropes.
'Sir,' Harry said quickly. At his full height of a shade under six foot, Harry was almost a head higher than the RSM, but Cross carried a couple more stone of muscle, upholstered with what looked deceivingly like baby fat.
'What you doing out here, Corporal? Half the barracks looks like shit and you're out here sucking on a Woodbine.'
A Capstan Extra-Strength, he almost corrected, but thought better of it. 'The MO sent me out for a break, sir.'
Harry flinched as a fat hand shot out and cupped his forehead, checking for fever. 'The MO? He give you any more quinine for the malaria?'
'Offered it. But you know what that stuff's like. You get Bow Bells goin' off in your head all night.'
'You take it, Cole, I don't care what's goin' on in your head. I've had two bouts of the shivers, boy, and I tell you, it's worse than anything the quinine can do. You're driving the Colonel today?'
'I am.'
'Well, before you do, report to me at the Officers' Mess. You was an orderly once, wasn't you?'
Harry nodded. For all of three weeks in Singapore, till a little confusion over the brandy stocks.
'Wolsey is out of action,' offered Cross.
'Out of action?'
'Touch of the Cubans.'
Harry suppressed his smile. A piece of old Havana, a touch of the Cubans, something burning on the Spanish Main—'nobody knew why, but the Hispanic Caribbean provided most of the euphemisms for a good old dose of the pox in Hong Kong.
'I need someone who knows his way around an optic, get the drink-boys working on Ladies' Night. You think you can handle that?'
'Yes, Sarge.'
'Good. Off you go. And take your bloody quinine.'
Harry walked back to the barracks, only grinning when he was sure Cross couldn't see his face. Running the bar at Ladies' Night, all pink gins and dull small talk? A piece of piss.
Of course Harry didn't have malaria. When the orders came to reorganise as a machine-gun battalion in anticipation of shipping out to Hong Kong, he had suddenly seen the future. It involved lugging either a Vickers or, worse, its metal boxes of ammunition through some godforsaken jungle or, in the case of the New Territories, a sodding wet, mosquito-infested paddy field. He'd been long enough in Singapore by then to know you could get anything you wanted on Amoy Street. Even a bitter potion that would mimic malaria by causing a fever and making your skin look jaundiced. The metallic after-taste that lasted three days was just about worth it.
A squad of soldiers double-marched towards the docks, rifles across their chests, causing a couple of mui-tsai, the indentured servant girls, to step out of their way. After a typhoon there was always the threat of looting, and Harry was certain these men were off to make sure the rice godowns were secure. Later in the day they would be on congee duty, distributing the mix of rice and salt to the poorest inhabitants of the city, a lesson learned in the 1920s after the riots when the typhoons kept the rice boats away for days on end.
Harry reached the barrack gates, nodded at the sentries and stepped over the growing pile of roofing tiles that were being swept together by coolies, overseen by the sweat-stained soldiers of First Battalion.
'Best get them out of the way, lads,' he said to his colleagues. 'Colonel's car comin' through in a couple of hours and we don't want a puncture, do we?'
'Fuck off, Cole,' came the reply in unison.
Harry laughed. He had been thinking, what with the order to be ready to defend the International Settlement in Shanghai from the Japanese army at twelve hours' notice, that he had better come up with a way of fucking off pretty soon.
Colonel Parkhill was new to the First Battalion, but not to Hong Kong, having completed a tour of duty three years previously. He'd been given the command of Harry's unit when the previous CO was shifted off to Palestine. Parkhill knew the value of a good driver and picked Harry because, although he was on light duties, he alone in the battalion boasted a First Class Motoring Certificate from the demanding Reading course. He wasn't to know it had cost Harry a fiver from a fly corporal at Aldershot. Fake or not, Harry made sure he impressed the Colonel with his ability to keep the ride smooth over Kowloon's tricky roads, to abuse roundly the local ricksha' coolies ('diu lay lo mo hail'—fuck your mother's hole—was one of the first phrases Jimmy taught him) and to keep the Colonel informed of the mood of the troops.
Harry drove the Colonel's Austin out of the barracks and south, past the shoe and incense factories towards the strip of watercress fields that separated Sham Shui Po from the tenements of Kowloon proper.
'How are the men, Cole?'
Harry looked in the mirror. The Colonel had put down his papers and was fiddling with his pipe, excavating the bowl with a knife, but Harry knew he wasn't simply making conversation. Drivers were meant to double up as weathervanes.
'Concerning what, sir? The typhoon?'
'The reorganisation.'
Harry shrugged and marshalled his thoughts. He recalled a conversation he had overheard between two warrant officers, and played it back as his own. 'Now they have got used to the guns, sir, not too bad. However, I do feel some men in the anti-tank company are wondering if their howitzers are the most appropriate weapon for the terrain. Assuming we'll be defending the bridges to the north, sir, over the—' What was the bloody river called? '—Shum Chin. The thinking is that the best strategy would be to blow the bridges to stop the enemy tanks, sir, then pin the Japs down with the Vickers.'
Harry saw Parkhill frown. 'Might not come to blowing bridges, Cole. The twelve-hour order is about to be rescinded. We are now on twenty-four to Shanghai. My guess is it'll be forty-eight before long.' This was no idle tidbit, but a reassuring rumour to be circulated through the ranks by Harry on his return. 'Where are you going, lad?' Parkhill snapped.
Harry had followed the waterfront to the harbour, the route the Colonel usually preferred, making a left onto Salisbury Road.
'Peninsula Hotel, sir.'
'King's Jetty, Cole. I'm off to see the Governor.'
'Sir. Sorry, sir. Thought it was a normal Wednesday.'
'Does it look like a normal Wednesday?' He waved his still unlit pipe at a drunken tower of bamboo scaffolding, leaning dangerously across the Hankow Road while a gang of shirtless erectors battled to make it secure with streams of rattan.
'Sir.'
Harry spun the car around, ignoring the muttered protests of the cyclists and ricksha' coolies, and swept down to a Victoria Harbour getting back to chaotic normality. Now the winds had dropped, the lighters, the scruffy coasters and the bobbing walla-wallas had recolonised its waters. A Short flying boat made its approach, klaxon blaring to clear the way for its landing. The Governor's launch was waiting at the jetty, rising and falling with the chop, the official plumage atop the wheelhouse looking a little threadbare. As Cole opened the car door for him, Parkhill said, 'I'll be three hours, Cole.' Harry nodded. He waited until the launch had cast off, heading for Blake Pier, before stepping back into the Austin and driving along the waterfront for some meetings of his own.
Harry parked the staff car in its usual bay on the eastern side of the great U-shape of the Peninsula adjacent to the railway station. He pulled his small kitbag from the boot, paid the usual fifty cents to the carboy, and walked back to the end of Hankow Road and stood for a few moments revelling in the sight and sounds of this Asian Babylon, from the illegal fan tan gaming den to his right, to the opium divan, selling its adulterated dope, opposite, and the low-rent brothel next door.
Harry walked the twenty yards to Kumar the tailor's place and stepped inside the cramped store, setting off the tinkle of bells.
Fifteen minutes later when Harry emerged, he was dressed in the cream linen and silk suit that Kumar had tailored for him and allowed him to store in the shop. It had been on only two outings so far. Harry slipped the matching lightweight panama on his head, the tortoiseshell glasses on his nose, lit a small cheroot and strode onto the main street, not as Lance Corporal Harry Cole, but as Rupert Wayne, industrial dye importer.
As he walked into the lobby of the Peninsula Hotel, past the flunkies in their black uniforms and pillbox hats, Harry felt the familiar flutter in his stomach. This was the big league, where the taipans, the bosses of the Hutchisons and Mathiesons and Jardines and Coxes and Butterfields and Swires and the other great trading houses held court, eating and drinking from the finest china and crystal under the lofty panelled ceilings of the vast lobby.
He nodded at the staff and checked his watch, an Omego, an almost perfect Chinese copy of the famous Swiss make, before heading for the bar. He would give himself an hour, no more.
Harry adjusted his tie as he stepped into the over-worked splendour of the Moorish-themed bar, and rapidly assessed the status and suitability of the drinkers. He settled on the solitary chap at the bar, the one with the slightly daft grin on his face.
He slid onto the adjacent stool and ordered a vodka and tonic. It would cost about two weeks' army pay, but with a modicum of luck it wouldn't be on his tab. He examined himself in the mirror, making sure he looked the part. Harry's face was handsome enough, although he was never sure whether the slightly bent nose and the chipped tooth from his brawling days in the East End of London detracted from his looks or gave him a slightly raffish, lived-in air. After all, they could easily be a proud memento of the rugger field. Satisfied, he turned and addressed his new companion.
'Don't think we've met.'
'No, don't think we have,' the man replied.
'Unless you know Henderson. Could have met you at his place.'
'Henderson? Is he the one in NT transport development?'
'That's the chap. Been to his house at ... now where was it ...'
'Fanling. Next to the golf course.'
'Of course.' Harry had spoken to a Henderson the previous week in the hotel, but he had no idea if they were talking about the same man. It didn't matter. He took a large gulp of his drink and pointed at the man's nearly-full glass of scotch and ginger. 'Ready for another?'
'Uh, no thanks. Thing is, had two already. I'm going home at the weekend. Nine months away from this place.'
That accounted for the grin. He was Boat Happy. Civil servants worked four years on, seven months off, with a month to sail in style in both directions tacked on. The thought of getting away from the heat, the flies and the foreignness always turned them giddy.
'You lucky man. Wayne's the name. Rupert Wayne. I'm in dyes.' Harry held out his hand and Simon Armitage, Deputy Land Officer for Cha Tao district, took it, not realising he was about to stand Harry two drinks before telling him the address of his house in Mid Levels that would be empty while he was away, apart from a Number One Chinese houseboy and a wash-amah. From the way Armitage described Number 8 May Road, it was the kind of house that would suit Harry Cole down to the ground.
CHAPTER 2
Harry Cole gave one last satisfying thrust into Mrs Parkhill and withdrew noisily. He gave her rump a slap, watched the flesh, with its silvery stretch marks, ripple for a moment then slumped over onto his back, gasping, letting the down-draught of the squeaky ceiling fan chill his naked skin.
She squatted there on all fours, dark hair plastered to her forehead, breathing heavily, rivulets of sweat streaming down her breasts. 'You, Mr Wayne,' she finally said, 'are a selfish bastard.' He smiled, because they both knew it wasn't true, at least as far as the sex was concerned.
Harry was pleased with the way things had turned out with the Colonel's wife, especially as his Rupert character had nearly blown up in his face, following the hugely successful Ladies' Night he had orchestrated. His masterstroke, apart from hiring a piano trio from the Peninsula, had been teaching Jimmy, the young Chinese barman, how to mix a proper pink lady.
'No yolk,' he had told him. 'Very important. Whites only. Like up on The Peak? Got it?' He poured the separated albumen into a cocktail shaker. 'And no bits of shell. OK?' He took the gin from the refrigerator, tossing it by the neck and catching it with a satisfied smile. 'Nice chilled gin. Not warm. Don't rely on ice cubes. Harry's gin is always in the refrigerator. Remember that. Now, not too much grenadine. Some say a tablespoon, I say that's too much. Give it a good shake. Pour, slowly and ... there you are. How's that?' Jimmy sipped and beamed a comical grin and Harry said to him: 'Now you do it.'
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Blue Noon by Robert Ryan. Copyright © 2003 Robert Ryan. Excerpted by permission of OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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