27 years ago
October 2053, somewhere in Kuala Lumpur
The Deli was flooded with sunlight at 5 in the evening. Hiang sipped her cappuccino and observed the outside traffic. Except for her and a couple some 20-foot away, the place was empty.
A lean well-built gentleman walked in, with T-shirt, and pants. The military crew cut was unmistakable. Maybe 30 years old. He scanned the premises, then walked to the restroom. He emerged seconds later and took a seat near the couple. Then he took out his phone and fiddled with it.
A tall elderly man about 60 came in. He was accompanied by two other lean well-built gentleman, as nondescript as the first. The elderly man walked straight to her.
"Evelyn?" he asked.
"General Sofi?" she stood up.
"Yes, yes how are you? And please sit."
"Very well, thank you."
He was dressed elegantly in a bright orange polo shirt, a belt buckle that was metallic gold, and khaki pants. She noticed the military boots.
"I see you have a cappuccino. Can I get you something else?"
"I am good General."
"Call me Izzy, that's short for Izaham, my middle name. Don't want too much formality for someone I have read so much about."
"Of course sir."
"Hassan," he called out to one of his security staff, "get me my usual and get yourselves something as well."
"You look absolutely gorgeous," the General gushed at her. "It came through in his journals."
"And how are your cousins?" he asked.
"Ken and John are doing great in Singapore. Trying to rebuild their career."
She was hoping for news of Nur and she was wondering when this niceties would end.
Pretty soon the General's cup of tea came. A chamomile, plain.
"Sir, wondering if you have news of Nur."
"No, nothing," he let out a sigh. "My favorite recon. He remains MIA. But thank you so much for the info you gave."
"What info?"
"The navy seals trident, that info. What do you think that was?"
"Oh, I didn't realise. I thought it was some device. Maybe a homing beacon or something. What do I know about spycraft?"
"From what I read, you know everything about everything."
"There's a memory chip in that trident and we extracted the last few days of Nur's observations before he left Paku," he continued. "Immense value. It included his journals from Day 1 of the invasion."
Then his aura turned serious.
"If Nur had come back to KL, he would have been court-martialed."
Hiang's eyes widened. "Whatever for?"
"He disobeyed a direct order."
She waited expectantly for details.
"And do you know what those orders were?" the General eyed her.
She shook her head.
"You and your cousins were supposed to be terminated."
She felt blood draining out of her head.
"And he didn't carry out those instructions," the General continued. "Instead he took you in and used up valuable rations and water in a covert observation post that was meant to last 6 months. That base wasn't meant to house refugees."
He paused a few seconds to let this sink in.
"And for all he knows," he continued, "you three might have been planted there by the enemy to ferret out that observation post disguised as locals."
"I wasn't aware," she finally found the words.
"And I have no doubt it's primarily because of you. Nur was ...." He paused correcting himself," is a romantic. I saw that in him the first time I interviewed him for the Recon unit. An impressive fellow, an engineering degree from NUS, and also a writer. He won a short story competition – although a consolation prize – at NUS while in his second year. A contradiction in personality. How many engineers you know who became famous for writing? Wrote some travel articles for the Singapore press over a few years. His most impressive article was when he explored deserted islands off the Mersing coast with a 12-foot inflatable and a 15 horse-power engine. Do you know how risky that was?"
Hiang shook her head.
"It's like asking to be killed. I think he had a suicidal streak in him. Those islands were 14 to 18 km from the coast. And he had only a 15 horse-power engine! Crazy bugger."
"He told me this story," the General leaned in, "once he and a pal had to launch in the dark at 11 pm because it was raining the whole day and the weather cleared at 11. Then when they were 10 minutes out to sea, maybe 2 km from coast, their engine stopped. Here they were in the middle of the open sea and it was totally dark and the engine stopped, bobbing in a 12-foot rubber dinghy. You know what he did?"
Her curiosity aroused, she shook her head.
"He prayed, that's what he did. He said a prayer, waited a few minutes and then restarted the engine. Whatever God he prayed to, it worked. The engine started. He realized it had overheated and waiting a few minutes cooled it down. For the rest of the journey to the islands they opened up the outboard engine's cover and poured cold sea water over it. They made it to the islands."
The General laughed, "That romantic bugger, quite a character."
"What made him join the Army?" the inquisitive journalist in her asked.
"He applied because he wanted an outdoor life. And engineering wouldn't give him that. It had to be outdoors and physically taxing. He showed promise during the six months basic military training and he was listed as a candidate for elite forces. We asked him to volunteer and he did."
She didn't want the conversation to end. Here was Nur's boss with very detailed knowledge of his motivations, and she could listen to the General for hours about him.
"Anyway, the reason I asked to meet is I have something for you," the General said fishing something out of his shirt pocket. It was an envelope. He placed it on the table. "This is from Nur."
"What is it?"
"Remember the trident you gave us? The memory chip we retrieved had his journals, the last 2 weeks of his observations on Paku, disposition of enemy units, the usual stuff, and then there was a folder we couldn't open. His instruction in his journal was they were for you. The folder was encrypted and he said you were the only one who knew what the code was."
Hiang looked surprised.
"I know the code?"
The General nodded.
"And this ends our meeting," he stood up and offered his hand.
Hiang stood up as well and shook his hand.
"If you ever need something that I can help you with, please call," he turned around and walked out of the Deli, his security behind him.
As the General and his staff walked out Hiang said softly "I know the code?"
Back in her hotel room, she inserted the memory stick into her laptop. There was the folder named "For Hiang". When she clicked on the folder, a window opened up asking for a password.
The date we first talked? she thought and she punched that in "300450". Didn't work. She tried over twenty guesses: date of the invasion, date of Nur's birthday, "Penang", the height of Paku Point in feet "1102", "Penang" plus date of invasion, "Penang" plus date they first talked, reverse the order, date first and "Penang" second. After an hour of unsuccessful tries, she felt tired and slept.
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