Town Hall, Rosario, Surigao del Sur Province, Mindanao
lie was a repulsive, reptilian man, Lieutenant Colonel Golconda thought with distaste. Greasy hair, greasy skin and even as he sat in his chair, he seemed to be constantly fighting a strong underwater current. He’d asked for an appointment on a business matter and that’s what he had been given. That didn’t mean Golconda had to like it or him.
“Honored Colonel, I believe we have a matter of mutual interest. You have a battalion of your troops here, more, a battalion combat team in fact, with a battery of artillery and a company of your Monash tanks. That is more than a thousand soldiers. Those soldiers will be going on leave in this small town and, not to mince words honored Colonel, they will want to enjoy the company of ladies. But this is a town of good devout Catholics who honor the virtue of their women.
“If your men start to approach the ladies here, it will cause much offense and bad feeling, there will be fighting, perhaps some of your men will be hurt, perhaps some of the men here. If there is much trouble it may even cause outraged menfolk to consider helping the bandits. That would be a very sad thing. Even if your men do not offend in this way, if they try to find their own amusements, they may fall into bad company, perhaps women who will give them foul diseases or who will rob and even kill them. Even worse, the women may be working for the bandits and will extract information from your men that will damage your work here. So much room for problems.
“But, honored Colonel, I can offer a solution. Working for me are a number of ladies who enjoy the company of men. They are good girls, they take care of their health, they are honest and they do not steal. If they can talk your men into giving them gifts, well that is the way of the world yes? But they will not steal. You ask any of the young men in the town, the girls who work for Angel Hernandez are clean and honest. I do not suggest we have a formal agreement between us, but if your NCOs make sure the men in your command only go to the cafes where my girls work, I will guarantee those men will not be harmed or cheated. And if your doctors help my girls look after their health by giving them regular checks and if your military police keep an eye on the cafes so that those who have had a little too much to drink are quietly and discreetly assisted back to their barracks unharmed, well, this benefits us both yes?”
The damnable thing was, the repulsive man was right. Facilities for soldiers on evening passes were always a problem and this was as good a solution as any. If this man could be trusted, it would be a good solution indeed. And, as he’d pointed out, fraternization between the soldiers and local women was going to happen anyway. Better it should be controlled.
Like it or not, Rosario was going to be a garrison town now and the problems of garrison towns were as old as soldiering itself. Disease would hit his ready-for-duty strength and, sooner or later, he would start to lose men, stabbed in back alleys or poisoned. The arrangement being oh-so-tactfully suggested was indeed a good one. Golconda nodded almost imperceptibly to his senior sergeant-major who returned the gesture. The pimp would be met on the way out and the arrangements made. But the poisonous character was talking again. He’d caught the exchange of nods and interpreted them correctly.
“I am very pleased that we are able to establish friendly relations, honored Colonel. To have unwanted advances made to respectable women always causes trouble. Take the girl who works at the PNB in the square, Miss Narisa. She is a very attractive lady, very well educated, she had a degree in accountancy from Santa Theresa College. She handles all the foreign exchange dealings of the PNB, the money sent in from our foreign workers in India and Australia, the money sent back from our ladies who have married foreigners. Miss Narisa does all the paperwork for those transfers and helps the families get their money. Every time money arrives, Miss Narisa knows of it.
“A fine catch for a husband you might think. But she is a devout Muslim girl whose faith has deepened much in the last year or so and she will see nobody outside her own faith.” Hernandez sighed deeply “Such a pretty girl, but she spends all her time off work with the most pious of her fellow Muslims. It would cause much trouble if your men spoke to her.”
Good heavens, Golconda thought, He didn’t come here to discuss his business, he came here to discuss mine. And the bit of information he has just given me is a piece of the puzzle that helps everything else drop into place. Other pieces dropped into place as well. If this place became bandit country, Hernandez had realized it wouldn’t just ruin his business, he and his girls would die ugly. That meant the unspoken agreement he offered was indeed important to them both, especially the doubly unspoken part. His girls would pass back any information they picked up in the course of “business”. They might also pass back identities of any of his men who spoke too much about things they shouldn’t speak at all.
Golconda mentally apologized to the man, he was still a disgusting pimp but Golconda had allowed that to blind him to the very real value of the services he offered. He appreciated the ambiguity of the man’s last remark, he’d left it open as to exactly who would be caused much trouble if his men spoke to the girl in question. Then an anvil dropped. There was a much better way of handling that situation, one that could pay enormous dividends.
“Mister Hernandez, I would like to thank you for coming here and giving me your insight into local customs. Before you leave, would you join me in a drink? To celebrate the new friendship of our peoples?”
Market Street, Rosario, Surigao del Sur Province, Mindanao
Dahlia Tuntoya fingered her rosary and said a small prayer to herself. They would be coming soon and the thought terrified her. She’d agreed to the plan to avenge the injury done to her cousin Graciella who even now lay in hospital in grave pain from her wounds but that didn’t mean the she wasn’t terrified of the risk she was running. She was on her own, her house was quiet, her husband was away in Bacolod, her children, all but the youngest were away also, working or in college. She and her husband were proud of the fact that they’d managed to put every one of their children through school, even though they’d had to sell some of their land to do it. After all, the only better investment than land was an education.
Her eldest son was working in Australia, an engineer, he was gaining the practical experience he needed to match his school work. Then, as promised by the big Australian Colonel, a letter had arrived. Her son had completed a job far under budget and ahead of schedule so the company had promoted him and given him a big, big bonus. A draft check was enclosed with the letter and Dahlia had taken it to Miss Narisa to be cashed. When the conversion had been done, Miss Narisa had given her no less than a 100,000 pesos, enough to buy back the land they’d sold. A fortune indeed. Or, looked at another way, bait.
The doorbell rang. Dahlia kissed her rosary again, said another quiet prayer and opened the door. As she slipped the latch, the men outside hurled the door open into her face.
Across the road, the watchers grimaced as the three men forced their way into the Tuntoya house. They heard a gasping scream, cut sharply off and then nothing. Shane looked at the specialist who was monitoring the listening equipment in the house. He was white with anger and the skin had tightened over his cheekbones until they seemed ready to cut through the skin. The rage was unmistakable even through the whisper.
“They’re working the old girl over. Didn’t even give her a
chance, just knocked her down and started in on her........ They