King Rat

Chapter 11

Twenty-two days later Eve gave birth. In the next cage, Adam tore at the wire netting to get at the living food and almost got through, but Tex spotted the rent just in time. Eve suckled the young. There were Cain and Abel and Grey and Alliluha; Beulah and Mabel and Junt and Princess and Little Princess and Big Mabel and Big Junt and Big Beulah. Naming the males was easy. But none of the men wanted their girls' names or their sisters' or their mothers' names attached to the females. Even mother-in-

law names were some other man's passion or relation of the past. It had taken them three days to agree on Beulah and Mabel.

When the young were fifteen days old, they were put into separate cages.

The King, Peter Marlowe, Tex and Max gave Eve until noon to recover, then put her back with Adam. The second litter was launched.

"Peter," the King said benignly as they climbed through the trapdoor into the hut, "our fortune's made."

The King had decided on the trapdoor because he knew that so many trips under the hut would excite curiosity. It was vital to the success of the farm that it should remain secret. Even Mac and Larkin knew nothing about it.

"Where's everyone today?" Peter Marlowe asked, closing the trapdoor.

Only Max was in the hut, lying on his bunk.

"Poor slobs got caught for a work party. Tex's in hospital. The rest are out liberating."

"Think I'll go and liberate too. Give me something to think about."

The King lowered his voice. "I got something for you to think about.

Tomorrow night we're going to the village." Then he yelled to Max, "Hey Max, you know Prouty? The Aussie major? Up in Hut Eleven?"

"The old guy? Sure."

"He's not old. Can't be more'n forty."

"From where I'm at forty's old as God. It'll take me eighteen years to get that old."

"You should be so lucky," the King said. "Go see Prouty. Tell him I sent you."

"And?"

"And nothing. Just go see him. And make sure Grey isn't around - or any of his eyes."

"On my way," Max said reluctantly and left them alone.

Peter Marlowe was looking over the wire, seeking to the coast. "I was beginning to wonder if you'd changed your mind."

"About taking you along?"

"Yes."

"No need for you to worry, Peter." The King got out the coffee and handed a mug to Peter Marlowe. "You want to have lunch with me?"

"I don't know how the hell you do it," Peter Marlowe grunted. "Everyone's starving and you invite me to lunch."

"I'm having some katchang idju."

The King unlocked his black chest and took out the sack of little green beans and handed them to Peter Marlowe. "You like to fix them?"

As Peter Marlowe took them out to the tap to begin washing them, the King opened a can of bully and carefully eased the contents onto a plate.

Peter Marlowe came back with the beans. They were well washed and no husks floated in the clean water. Good, the King thought. Don't have to tell Peter twice. And the aluminum container had exactly the right amount of water - six times the height of the beans.

He set it on the hot plate and added a large spoonful of sugar and two pinches of salt. Then he added half the can of bully. "Is it your birthday?"

Peter Marlowe asked.

"Huh?"

"Katchang idju and bully, in one meal?"

"You just don't live right."

Peter Marlowe was tantalized by the aroma and the bubble of the stew.

The last weeks had been rough. The discovery of the radio had hurt the camp. The Japanese Commandant had "regretfully" cut the camp's rations due to "bad harvests," so even the tiny desperation stocks of the units had gone. Miraculously, there had been no other repercussions. Except the cut in food.

In Peter Marlowe's unit, the cut had hit Mac the worst. The cut and the uselessness of their water-bottled radio.

"Dammit," Mac had sworn after weeks of trying to trace the trouble. "It's nae use, laddies. Without taking the bleeding thing apart I canna do a thing. Everything seems correct. Without some tools an' a battery of sorts, I canna find the fault."

Then Larkin had somehow acquired a tiny battery and Mac had gathered his waning strength and gone back to testing, checking and rechecking.

Yesterday, while he was testing, he had gasped and fainted, deep in a malarial coma. Peter Marlowe and Larkin had carried him up to the hospital and laid him on a bed. The doctor had said that it was just malaria, but with such a spleen, it could easily become very dangerous.

"What's a matter, Peter?" the King asked, noticing his sudden gravity.

"Just thinking about Mac."

"What about him?"

"We had to take him up to the hospital yesterday. He's not so hot."

"Malaria?"

"Mostly."

"Huh?"

"Well, he's got fever all right. But that's not the main trouble. He goes through periods of terrible depression. Worry -about his wife and son."

"All married guys've the same sweat."

"Not quite like Mac," Peter Marlowe said sadly. "You see, just before the Japs landed on Singapore, Mac put his wife and son on a ship in the last real convoy out. Then he and his unit took off for Java in a coastal junk.

When he got to Java he heard the whole convoy had got shot out of the water or captured. No proof either way — only rumors. So he doesn't know if they got through. Or if they're dead. Or if they're alive. And if they are — where they are. His son was just a baby — only four months old."

"Well, now the kid's three years and four months," the King said confidently. "Rule Two: Don't worry about nothing you can't do nothing about." He took a bottle of quinine out of his black box and counted out twenty tablets and gave them to Peter Marlowe. "Here. These'll fix his malaria."

"But what about you?"

"Got plenty. Think nothing of it."

"I don't understand why you're so generous. You give us food and medicine. And what do we give you? Nothing. I don't understand it."

"You're a friend."

"Christ, I feel embarrassed accepting so much."

"Hell with it. Here." The King began spooning out the stew. Seven spoons for him and seven spoons for Peter Marlowe. There was about a quarter of the stew left in the mess can.

They ate the first three spoons quickly to allay the hunger, then finished the rest slowly, savoring its excellence.

"Want some more?" The King waited. How well do I know you, Peter? I know you could eat a ton more. But you won't. Not if your life depended on it.

"No thanks. Full. To the brim."

It's good to know your friend, the King thought to himself. You've got to be careful. He took another spoonful. Not because he wanted it. He felt he had to or Peter Marlowe would be embarrassed. He ate it and put the rest aside.

"Fix me a smoke, will you?"

He tossed over the makings and turned away. He put the rest of the bully in the remains of the stew and mixed it up. Then he divided this into two mess kits and covered them and set them aside.

Peter Marlowe handed him the rolled cigarette.

"Make yourself one," said the King.

"Thanks."

"Jesus, Peter, don't wait to be asked. Here, fill your box."

He took the box out of Peter Marlowe's hands and stuffed it full of the Three Kings tobacco.

"What're you going to do about Three Kings? With Tex in hospital?"

asked Peter Marlowe.

"Nothing." The King exhaled. "That idea's milked. The Aussies have found out the process and they've undercut us."

"Oh, that's too bad. How do you think they found out?"

The King smiled. "It was an in and out anyway."

"I don't understand."

"In and out? You get in and out fast. A small investment for a quick profit.

I was covered in the first two weeks."

"But you said it would take you months to get back the money you put out."

"That was a sales pitch. That was for outside consumption. A sales pitch is a gimmick. A way of making people believe something. People always want something for nothing. So you have to make 'em believe they're stealing from you, that you're the sucker, that they — the buyers — are a helluva lot smarter than you. For example. Three Kings. The sales force, the first buyers, believed they were in my debt, they believed that if they worked hard for the first month, they could be my partners and coast forever after on my money. They thought I was a fool to give them such a break after the first month. But I knew that the process would leak and that the business wouldn't last."

"How did you know that?"

"Obvious. And I planned it that way. I leaked the process myself."

"You what?"

"Sure. I traded the process for a little information."

"Well, I can understand that. It was yours to do as you pleased. But what about all the people who were working, selling the tobacco?"

"What about them?"

"It seems that you sort of took advantage of them. You made them work for a month, more or less for nothing, and then pulled the rug from under them."

"The hell I did. They made a few bucks out of it. They were playing me for a sucker and I just outsmarted them, that's all. That's business." He lay back on the bed, amused at the naivete of Peter Marlowe.

Peter Marlowe frowned, trying to understand. "When anyone starts talking about business, I'm afraid I'm right out of my depth," he said. "I feel such an idiot."

"Listen. Before you're very much older, you'll be horse-trading with the best of them." The King laughed.

"I doubt that."

"You doing anything tonight? Oh, about an hour after dusk?"

"No, why?"

"Would you interpret for me?"

"Gladly. Who, a Malay?"

"A Korean."

"Oh!" Then Peter Marlowe added, covering at once, "Certainly."

The King had marked Peter Marlowe's aversion but didn't mind. A man's a right to his opinions, he'd always said. And so long as those opinions didn't conflict with his own purposes, well, that was all right too.

Max entered the hut and crumpled on his bunk. "Couldn't find the son of a bitch for a goddam hour. Then I tracked him down in the vegetable patch.

Jesus, with all that piss they use for fertilizer, that son-of-a-bitching place stinks like a Harlem brothel on a summer's day."

"You're just the sort of bastard who'd use a Harlem brothel."

The King's snarl and the raw grate of his voice startled Peter Marlowe.

Max's smile and fatigue vanished just as suddenly. "Jesus, I didn't mean anything. It's just a saying."

"Then why pick on Harlem? You wanna say it stinks like a brothel, great.

They all stink the same. No difference because one's black and another's white." The King was hard and mean and the flesh on his face was tight and masklike.

"Take it easy. I'm sorry. I didn't mean nothin'."

Max had forgotten that the King was touchy about talking crossways about Negroes. Jesus, when you live in New York, you got Harlem with you, whichever way you look at it. And there are brothels there, an' a piece of colored tail's goddam good once in a while. All the same, he thought bitterly, I'm goddamned if I know why he's so goddam touchy about nigs.

"I didn't mean nothin'," Max said again, trying hard to keep his eyes off the food. He had smelled it all the way up to the hut. "I tracked him down and told him what you said."

"So?"

"He, er, gave me something for you," Max said and looked at Peter Marlowe.

"Well, hand it over for Chrissake!"

Max waited patiently while the King looked at the watch closely, wound it up and held it close to his ear.

"What do you want, Max?"

"Nothin'. Er, you like me to wash up for you?"

"Yeah. Do that, then get to hell out of here."

"Sure."

Max collected the dirty dishes and meekly took them outside, telling himself by Jesus one day he'd get the King. Peter Marlowe said nothing.

Strange, he thought. Strange and wild. The King's got a temper. A temper is valuable but most times dangerous. If you go on a mission it's important to know the value of your wing-man. On a hairy mission, like the village, perhaps, it's wise to be sure who guards your back.

The King carefully unscrewed the back of the watch. It was a waterproof, stainless steel.

"Uh-huh!" the King said. "I thought so."

"What?"

"It's a phony. Look."

Peter Marlowe examined the watch carefully. "It looks all right to me."

"Sure it is. But it's not what it's supposed to be. An Omega. The case is good but the insides are old. Some bastard has substituted the guts."

The King screwed the case back on, then tossed it up in his hand speculatively. "Y'see Peter. Just what I was telling you. You got to be careful. Now, say I sell this as an Omega and don't know it's a fake, then I could be in real trouble. But so long as I know in advance, then I can cover myself. You can't be too careful."

He smiled. "Let's have another cup of Joe, business is looking up."

His smile faded as Max returned with the cleaned mess cans and put them away. Max didn't say anything, just nodded obsequiously and then went out again.

"Son of a bitch," the King said.

Grey had not yet recovered from the day Yoshima had found the radio.

As he walked up the broken path towards the supply hut he brooded about the new duties imposed on him by the Camp Commandant in front of Yoshima and later elaborated by Colonel Smedly-Taylor. Grey knew that although officially he was to carry out the new orders, actually he was to keep his eyes shut and do nothing. Mother of God, he thought, whatever I do, I'm wrong.

Grey felt a spasm building in his stomach. He stopped as it came and passed. It wasn't dysentery, only diarrhea; and the slight fever on him wasn't malaria, only a touch of dengue, a slighter but more insidious fever which came and went by whim. He was very hungry. He had no stocks of food, no last can and no money to buy any with. He had to subsist on rations with no extras, and the rations were not enough, not enough.

When I get out, he thought, I swear by God that I'll never be hungry again.

I'll have a thousand eggs and a ton of meat and sugar and coffee and tea and fish. We'll cook all day, Trina and I, and when we're not cooking or eating we'll be making love. Love? No, just making pain. Trina, that bitch, with her "I'm too tired" or "I've got a headache" or "For the love of God, what, again?" or "All right, I suppose I'll have to" or "We can make love now, if you want to" or "Can't you leave me in peace for once," when it wasn't so often and most times he had restrained himself and suffered, or the angry "Oh, all right," and then the light would be snapped on and she would get out of bed and storm off to the bathroom to "get ready" and he would only see the glory of her body through the sheer fabric until the door had closed and then he would wait and wait and wait until the bathroom light was snapped off and she came back into their room. It always took an eternity for her to cross from the door to the bed and he saw only the pure beauty of her under the silk and felt only the cold in her eyes as she watched him and he could not meet her eyes and loathed himself. Then she would be beside him and soon it would be silently over and she would get up and go to the bathroom and clean herself as though his love was dirt, and the water would run and when she came back she would be freshly perfumed and he loathed himself afresh, unsatisfied, for taking her when she didn't want to be taken. It had always been thus. In their six months of married life — twenty-one days of leave, being together — they had made pain nine times. And never once had he touched her.

He had asked her to marry him a week after he had met her. There had been difficulties and recriminations. Her mother hated him for wanting her only daughter just when her career was launched and she was so young.

Only eighteen. His parents said wait, the war may be over soon and you've no money and, well, she's not exactly from a good family, and he had looked around his home, a tired building joined to a thousand other tired buildings amid the twisted tramlines of Streatham, and he saw that the rooms were small and the minds of his parents were small and lower class and their love was twisted like the tramlines.

They were married a month later. Grey looked smart in his uniform and sword (hired by the hour). Trina's mother didn't come to the drab ceremony, performed in haste between air raid alerts. His parents wore disapproving masks and their kisses were perfunctory and Trina had dissolved into tears and the marriage license was wet with tears.

That night Grey discovered that Trina wasn't a virgin. Oh, she acted as though she was, and complained for many days that, please darling, I'm so sore, be patient. But she wasn't a virgin and that hurt Grey, for she had implied it many times. But he pretended that he didn't know she had cheated him.

The last time he saw Trina was six days before he embarked for overseas.

They were in their flat and he was lying on the bed watching her dressing.

"Do you know where you're going?" she asked.

"No," Grey said. The day had been bad and the quarrel of the night before bad, and the lack of her and the knowledge that his leave was up today was heavy on him.

He got up and stood behind her, slipping his hands into her bosom, molding the tautness of her, loving her.

"Don't!"

"Trina, could we —"

"Don't be foolish. You know the show starts at eight-thirty."

"There's plenty of time —"

"For the love of God, Robin, don't! You'll mess up my makeup!"

"To hell with your makeup," he said. "I won't be here tomorrow."

"Perhaps that's just as well. I don't think you're very kind or very thoughtful."

"What do you expect me to be like? Is it wrong for a husband to want his wife?"

"Stop shouting, My God, the neighbors will hear you."

"Let 'em, by God!" He went towards her, but she slammed the bathroom door in his face.

When she came back into the room she was cold and fragrant. She wore a bra and half slip and panties under the slip, and stockings held by a tiny belt. She picked up the cocktail dress and began to step into it.

"Trina," he began.

"No."

He stood over her, and his knees had no strength in them. "I'm sorry I - I shouted."

"It doesn't matter."

He bent to kiss her shoulders, but she moved away.

"I see you've been drinking again," she said, wrinkling her nose.

Then his rage burst. "I only had one drink, damn you to hell," he shouted and spun her around and ripped the dress off her and ripped the bra off her and threw her on the bed. And he ripped at her clothes until she was naked but for the shreds of stockings clinging to her legs. And all the time she lay still, staring up at him.

"Oh God, Trina, I love you," he croaked helplessly, then backed away, hating himself for what he had done and what he had nearly done.

Trina picked up the shreds of the clothes. As though in a dream, he watched as she went back to the mirror and sat before it and began to repair her makeup and started to hum a tune, over and over.

Then he slammed the door and went back to his unit and the next day he tried to phone her. There was no answer. It was too late to go back to London, in spite of his desperate pleading. The unit moved to Greenock for embarkation and every day, every minute of every day, he phoned her, but there was no answer, and no answer to his frantic telegrams, and then the coast of Scotland was swallowed by the night, and the night was only ship and sea, and he was only tears.

Grey shuddered under the Malayan sun. Ten thousand miles away. It wasn't Trina's fault, he thought, weak with self-disgust. It wasn't her, it was me. I was too anxious. Maybe I'm insane. Maybe I should see a doctor.

Maybe I'm oversexed. It's got to be me, not her. Oh Trina, my love.

"Are you all right, Grey?" Colonel Jones asked.

"Oh, yes, sir, thank you." Grey came to and discovered that he was leaning weakly against the supply hut. "It was — was just a touch of fever."

"You don't look too good. Sit down for a minute."

"It's all right, thank you. I'll — I'll just get some water."

Grey went over to the tap and took off his shirt and dunked his head under the stream of water. Bloody fool, to let yourself go like that! he thought. But in spite of his resolve, inexorably his mind returned to Trina.

Tonight, tonight I'll let myself think of her, he promised. Tonight, and every night. To hell with trying to live without food. Without hope. I want to die.

How much I want to die.

Then he saw Peter Marlowe walking up the hill. In his hands was an American mess can and he was holding it carefully. Why?

"Marlowe!" Grey moved in front of him.

"What the hell do you want?"

"What's in there?"

"Food."

"No contraband?"

"Stop picking on me, Grey."

"I'm not picking on you. Judge a man by his friends."

"Just stay away from me."

"I can't, I'm afraid, old boy. It's my job. I'd like to see that. Please."

Peter Marlowe hesitated. Grey was within his right to look and within his right to take him to Colonel Smedly-Taylor if he stepped out of line. And in his pocket were the twenty quinine tablets. No one was supposed to have private stores of medicine. If they were discovered he would have to tell where he had got them and then the King would have to tell where he got them and anyway, Mac needed them now. So he opened the can.

The katchang idju-bully gave off an unearthly fragrance to Grey. His stomach turned over and he tried to keep from showing his hunger. He tipped the mess can carefully so that he could see the bottom. There was nothing in it other than the bully and the katchang idju, delicious.

"Where did you get it?"

"I was given it."

"Did he give it to you?"

"Yes."

"Where are you taking it?"

"To the hospital."

"For whom?"

"For one of the Americans."

"Since when does a Flight Lieutenant DFC run errands for a corporal?"

"Go to hell!"

"Maybe I will. But before I do I'm going to see you and him get what's coming to you."

Easy, Peter Marlowe told himself, easy. If you take a sock at Grey you'll really be up the creek.

"Are you finished with the questions, Grey?"

"For the moment. But remember —" Grey went a pace closer and the smell of the food tortured him. "You and your damned crook friend are on the list. I haven't forgotten about the lighter."

"I don't know what you're talking about. I've done nothing against orders."

"But you will, Marlowe. If you sell your soul, you've got to pay sometime."

"You're out of your head!"

"He's a crook, a liar and a thief —"

"He is my friend, Grey. He's not a crook and not a thief…"

"But he is a liar."

"Everyone's a liar. Even you. You denied the wireless. You've got to be a liar to stay alive. You've got to do a lot of things…"

"Like kissing a corporal's arse to get food?"

The vein in Peter Marlowe's forehead swelled like a thin black snake. But his voice was soft and the venom honey-coated. "I ought to thrash you, Grey. But it's so ill-bred to brawl with the lower classes. Unfair, you know."

"By God, Marlowe —" began Grey, but he was beyond speech, and the madness in him rose up and choked him.

Peter Marlowe looked deep into Grey's eyes and knew that he had won.

For a moment he gloried in the destruction of the man, and then his fury evaporated and he stepped around Grey and walked up to the hill. No need to prolong a battle once it's won. That's ill-bred, too.

By the Lord God, Grey swore brokenly, I'll make you pay for that. I'll have you on your knees begging my forgiveness. And I'll not forgive you. Never!

Mac took six of the tablets and winced as Peter Marlowe helped him up a little to drink the water held to his lips. He swallowed and sank back.

"Bless you, Peter," he whispered. "That'll do the trick. Bless you, laddie."

He lapsed into sleep, his face burning, his spleen stretched to bursting, and his brain took flight in nightmares. He saw his wife and son floating in the ocean depths, eaten by fish and screaming from the deep. And he saw himself there, in the deep, tearing at the sharks, but his hands were not strong enough and his voice not loud enough, and the sharks tore huge pieces of the flesh of his flesh and there were always more to tear. And the sharks had voices and their laughter was of demons, but angels stood by and told him to hurry, hurry, Mac, hurry or you'll be too late. Then there were no sharks, only yellow men with bayonets and gold teeth, sharpened to needles, surrounding him and his family on the bottom of the sea. Their bayonets huge, sharp. Not them, me! he screamed. Me, kill me! And he watched, impotent, while they killed his wife and killed his son and then they turned on him and the angels watched and whispered in chorus, Hurry, Mac, hurry. Run. Run. Run away and you'll be safe. And he ran, not wanting to run, ran away from his son and his wife and their blood-filled sea, and he fled through the blood and strangled. But he still ran and they chased him, the sharks with slant eyes and gold needle teeth with their rifles and bayonets, tearing at his flesh until he was at bay. He fought and he pleaded but they would not stop and now he was surrounded. And Yoshima shoved the bayonet deep into his guts. And the pain was huge.

Beyond agony. Yoshima jerked the bayonet out and he felt his blood pour out of him, through the jagged hole, through all the openings of his body, through the very pores of his skin until only the soul was left in the husk.

Then, at last, his soul sped forth and joined with the blood of the sea. A great, exquisite relief filled him, infinite, and he was glad that he was dead.

Mac opened his eyes. His blankets were soaked. His fever had passed.

And he knew that he was alive once more.

Peter Marlowe was still sitting beside the bed. Night somewhere behind him.

"Hello, laddie." The words were so faint that Peter Marlowe had to bend forward to catch them.

"You all right, Mac?"

"All right, laddie. It's almost worth the fever, to feel so good. I'll sleep now.

Bring me some food tomorrow."

Mac closed his eyes and was asleep. Peter Marlowe pulled the blankets off him and dried the husk of the man.

"Where can I get some dry blankets, Steven?" he asked, as he caught sight of the orderly hurrying through the ward.

"I don't know, sir," Steven said. He had seen this young man many times.

And liked him. Perhaps - but no, Lloyd would be terribly jealous. Another day. There's plenty of time. "Perhaps I can help you, sir."

Steven went over to the fourth bed and took the blanket off the man, then deftly slid the bottom blanket off and came back. "Here," he said. "Use these."

"What about him?"

"Oh," Steven said with a gentle smile. "He doesn't need them any more.

The detail's due. Poor boy."

"Oh!" Peter Marlowe looked across to see who it was, but it was a face he didn't know. "Thanks," he said and began to fix the bed.

"Here," Steven said. "Let me. I can do it much better than you." He was proud of the way he could make a bed without hurting the patient.

"Now don't you worry about your friend," he said, "I'll see that he's all right." He tucked Mac in like a child. "There." He stroked Mac's head for a moment, then took out a handkerchief and wiped the remains of the sweat off Mac's forehead. "He'll be fine in two days. If you have some extra food

—" but he stopped and looked at Peter Marlowe and the tears gathered in his eyes. "How silly of me. But don't you fret, Steven will find something for him. Now don't you worry. There's nothing more you can do tonight. You go off and have a good night's rest. Go on, there's a good boy."

Speechless, Peter Marlowe allowed himself to be led outside. Steven smiled good night and went back inside.

From the darkness Peter Marlowe watched Steven smooth a fevered brow and hold an agued hand, and caress away the night-devils and soften the night-cries and adjust the covers and help a man to drink and help a man to vomit, and all the time a lullaby, delicate and sweet. When Steven came to Bed Four, he stopped and looked down on the corpse. He straightened the limbs and crossed the hands, then took off his smock and covered the body, his touch a benediction. Steven's slim smooth torso and slim smooth legs glowed in the glittering half light.

"You poor boy," he whispered and looked around the tomb. "Poor boys.

Oh, my poor boys," and he wept for them all.

Peter Marlowe turned away into the night, filled with pity, ashamed that Steven had once upon a time disgusted him.