“The men should not be much longer now,” said the lieutenant. “Mr. Banks, may I see these directions you have?”
I was reluctant to let go of my notebook even for a few seconds. But in the end I handed it to the officer, opened at the appropriate pages. He studied the directions for a while, then returned the notebook to me.
“Mr. Banks, I should tell you. This house. It will not be so easy to reach.”
“But I happen to know, sir, it’s very near here.”
“It is near, that is true. Nevertheless, it will not be easy. Indeed, Mr. Banks, it may even be behind Japanese lines by now.”
“Japanese lines? Well, I suppose I could always reason with the Japanese. I have no quarrel with them myself.”
“Sir, if you will come with me. I will show you, while we wait for the men, our exact position.”
For a moment, he spoke rapidly to the captain. He then walked towards a broom cupboard in the corner, flung open its door and stepped inside. It took me a moment to realise I was expected to follow, but then when I tried also to enter the cupboard, I almost walked into the heels of the lieutenant’s boots—which were now directly in front of my face. I heard his voice say from the darkness above:
“If you will please follow me, Mr. Banks. There are forty-eight rungs. It is better you keep at least five rungs below me.”
His feet disappeared. Stepping further into the cupboard, I reached out my hands and found some metal rungs on the brick before me. Far above in the darkness, I could see a little pond of sky. I guessed that we were at the bottom of a chimney, or an observation tower used by the police.
For the first few rungs, I found the going awkward; not only was I nervous of missing my grip in the dark, there was also the worry of the lieutenant slipping and falling down on to me. But eventually the patch of sky grew larger, and then I saw the lieutenant’s figure clambering out above me. In another minute or so, I had joined him.
We were standing up on a high flat roof surrounded on all sides by miles of densely packed rooftops. Away in the distance, perhaps a half-mile to the east, I could see a column of dark smoke rising into the late-afternoon sky.
“It’s odd,” I said, looking around me. “How do people get about down there? There appear to be no streets.”
“That is certainly how it looks from up here. But perhaps you will care to look through these.”
He was holding out a pair of binoculars. I raised them to my eyes and spent some time adjusting them until I could see clearly, only to find I was gazing at a chimney stack a few yards in front of me. Eventually, though, I managed to focus on the column of smoke in the distance. The lieutenant’s voice said somewhere close beside me:
“You are now looking at the warren, Mr. Banks. The factory workers live there. I am sure in all the time you were a child here, you never visited the warren.”
“The warren? No, I don’t think so.”
“Almost certainly not. Foreigners rarely see such places unless they are missionaries. Or perhaps communists. I am Chinese, but I too, like many of my peers, was never permitted to go near such places. I knew almost nothing about the warren until ’32, the last time we fought the Japanese. You would not believe human beings could live like that. It is like an ants’ nest. Those houses, they were intended for the poorest people. Houses with tiny rooms, row after row, back to back. A warren. If you look carefully, you may see the lanes. Little alleys just wide enough to allow the people to get into their homes. At the back, the houses have no windows at all. The rear rooms are black holes, backing on to the houses behind. Forgive me, I am telling you this for a good reason, as you will see. The rooms were made small, because they were for the poor. There was a time when seven or eight people shared such a room. Then as the years went on, families were forced to make partitions, even within these small rooms, to share the rent with another family. And if they still couldn’t pay the landlords, they would partition the room further. I remember seeing tiny black closets divided four times, each with a family in it. You do not believe this, Mr. Banks, that human beings can live like this?”
“It does seem unbelievable, but if you’ve seen these conditions yourself, Lieutenant . . .”
“When the fight against the Japanese is over, Mr. Banks, I will consider giving my services to the communists. You think that is a dangerous thing to say? There are many officers who would rather fight under the communists than under Chiang.”
I moved the binoculars over the dense mass of shabby roofs. I could see now that many of them were broken through. I could decipher, moreover, the lanes the lieutenant had mentioned, narrow passageways threading here and there into the tenements.
“But this is no shanty town,” the lieutenant’s voice was continuing. “Even if the partitions erected by the tenants are flimsy, the essential structure, the warren itself, is brick. This proved crucial in ’32 when the Japanese attacked, and it is proving so to us now.”
“I can see that,” I said. “A solid warren defended by soldiers. No easy prospect for the Japanese, even with their modern weapons.”
“You are right. The Japanese weaponry, even their training, counts for almost nothing down there. Fighting is reduced to rifles, bayonets, knives, pistols, spades, meat cleavers. The Japanese line, in the past week, has actually been pushed back. You see that smoke, Mr. Banks? That point was held by the enemy only last week. But now we have pushed them back.”
“Are there civilians still living down there?”
“There are indeed. You may not believe it, but even close to the front, some of the houses in the warren are still occupied. This makes it even harder for the Japanese. They cannot shell indiscriminately. They know the Western powers are watching and they fear ruthlessness will have a cost.”
“How long can your troops hold out?”
“Who knows? Chiang Kai-shek may send us reinforcements. Or the Japanese might decide to give up and redeploy, concentrate instead on Nanking or Chunking. It is by no means certain we will not still be victorious. But the fighting recently has cost us dearly. If you will move your field glasses to the left, Mr. Banks. Now, do you see that road? Yes? That road is known locally as Pigs’ Alley. It doesn’t look an impressive road, but now it is very important to the outcome. As you see, that is the one road that runs along the edge of the warren. At the moment, our troops have sealed it off, and have managed to keep the Japanese out. If they are able to come down that road, the warren can be penetrated all along the side. There will be no point in our attempting to hold out. We will have been flanked. You asked for men to accompany you to the house where your parents are. The men who will accompany you would otherwise have been deployed defending the barricade at the top of Pigs’ Alley. The last few days, the fighting there has become desperate. Meanwhile, of course, we are having also to hold our line across the warren.”
“From up here, you wouldn’t think there was so much going on down there.”
“Indeed. But I can assure you, inside the warren, things are now very bad. I tell you this, Mr. Banks, since you are intending to go in there.”
For a moment or two, I went on gazing through the glasses in silence. Then I said: “Lieutenant, that house, the house where my parents are being held. Will I be able to see it from up here?”
His hand touched my shoulder briefly, though I did not take my eyes from the binoculars.
“Do you see, Mr. Banks, the remains of that tower standing to the left? It looks like one of those Easter Island figures. Yes, yes, that’s it. If you draw a line from that over to the remains of that large black building to the right, the old textile warehouse, that was, this morning, the line to which our men had beaten back the Japanese. The house where your parents are being held is roughly level with that tall chimney on your left. If you draw a line, very level with it across the warren, until you come to just a little left of where we are now standing. Yes, yes . . .”
“You mean near that roof, the one with the eaves pointing up in
to a kind of arch . . .”
“Yes, that’s it. Of course, I cannot say with certainty. But according to those directions you showed me, that is roughly where the house is.”
I stared through the field glasses at that particular roof. For some time I could not stop staring, even though I was conscious of keeping the lieutenant from his duties. After a while, it was the lieutenant who said:
“It must feel strange. To think you might be looking at the very house containing your parents.”
“Yes. Yes, it does feel a little strange.”
“Of course, it might not be that house. That was simply a guess on my part. But it will be somewhere very near it. That tall chimney I showed you, Mr. Banks. The locals refer to it as the East Furnace. The chimney you can see much closer to us, almost directly in line with the other one, belongs to the West Furnace. Before the fighting, the inhabitants used to burn their refuse at one or other of these places. I would advise you, sir, to use the furnaces as your landmarks once you are within the warren. Otherwise it is hard for a stranger to keep his bearings. Look again carefully at that far chimney, sir. Remember, the house you seek is only a little way away from it, in a direct line due south.”
I finally lowered the binoculars. “Lieutenant, you’ve been most kind. I can’t tell you how grateful I am to you. In fact, if it won’t embarrass you, you will perhaps permit me to mention you by name during the ceremony that will take place at Jessfield Park to commemorate the freeing of my parents.”
“Really, my help has not been so significant. Besides, Mr. Banks, you must not assume your task is accomplished. Standing up here, it does not look far away. But inside the warren there is a lot of fighting. Although you are not a combatant, it will still be difficult to move from house to house. And aside from the two furnaces, there are few clear landmarks surviving. Then you must bring your parents out safely. In other words, you still have a daunting task ahead of you. But now, Mr. Banks, I suggest we go back down. The men may well have returned by now and be awaiting my orders. And as for you, Mr. Banks, you must try and come back before nightfall. It is hellish enough moving about the warren in daylight. At night, it will be like drifting through one’s worst nightmares. If you are overtaken by darkness, I would advise you to find some safe place and wait with the men until morning. Only yesterday, two of my men killed each other, they were so disorientated in the dark.”
“I’ve taken to heart everything you’ve said, Lieutenant. Well then, let’s be going back down.”
DOWNSTAIRS, CAPTAIN MA was talking to a soldier in a badly torn uniform. The latter did not appear to be wounded, but seemed shocked and upset. The Japanese in the chair was now snoring, as though enjoying a peaceful nap, though I noticed he had vomited some more down the front of his clothes.
The lieutenant conferred quickly with the captain, then questioned the soldier in the torn uniform. Then he turned to me and said:
“It is bad news. The others have not returned. Two have certainly been killed. The remainder are trapped, although there is a good chance they will yet escape. The enemy has, if only temporarily, made an advance, and it may well be that the house your parents are in is now behind their lines.”
“Regardless of that, Lieutenant, I still need to proceed, and without any further delay. Look here, if the men you promised me haven’t returned, then perhaps, though I realise it’s a lot to ask, perhaps you’d be good enough to escort me yourself. Honestly, sir, I can’t think of a more suitable person to assist me at this point.”
The lieutenant thought this over with a grave expression. “Very well, Mr. Banks,” he said finally. “I shall do as you ask. But we must hurry. I should not really leave this post at all. To do so for any length of time could have the most awful consequences.”
He issued rapid instructions to the captain, then opening a drawer in the desk, began placing a number of items into his pockets and belt.
“It is better you do not carry a rifle, Mr. Banks. But do you have a pistol? No? Then take this. It is German and very reliable. You should keep it concealed and if we encounter the enemy, you must not hesitate to declare your neutrality immediately and clearly. Now, if you will follow me.”
Taking a rifle that was leaning against the desk, he strode over to the hole gouged into the opposite wall and nimbly climbed through. I pushed the pistol into my belt, where it was more or less concealed by my jacket, then hurried after him.
CHAPTER 19
IT IS ONLY HINDSIGHT that makes the first part of that journey appear relatively easy. At the time, as I stumbled after the lieutenant’s striding figure, it certainly did not feel that way. My feet quickly began to smart from the rubble-strewn ground, and I found terribly awkward the contortions required to negotiate the holes in each wall.
Of the latter, there seemed an unending number, all of them more or less similar to the one in the cellar command base. Some were smaller, some large enough for two men to squeeze through at the same time; but they had all been gouged out with rough edges, and required a little jump to climb through. Before long I found myself close to exhaustion; no sooner had I clambered through one such hole than I would spot the lieutenant ahead of me, smartly easing his way through the next wall.
Not all the walls were still standing; sometimes we would pick our way through the debris of what must have been three or four houses before encountering another wall. The roofs were almost all smashed, often absent altogether, so that we had plenty of daylight from the sky—though here and there, heavy shadows made it easy to lose one’s step. More than once, until I grew more accustomed to the terrain, my foot slipped painfully between two jagged slabs or sank ankle-deep into fragmented rubble.
It was all too easy in such circumstances to forget we were passing through what only several weeks before had been the homes of hundreds of people. In fact, I often had the impression we were moving through not a slum district, but some vast, ruined mansion with endless rooms. Even so, every now and then it would occur to me that in among the wreckage beneath our feet lay cherished heirlooms, children’s toys, simple but much-loved items of family life, and I would find myself suddenly overcome with renewed anger towards those who had allowed such a fate to befall so many innocent people. I thought again of those pompous men of the International Settlement, of all the prevarications they must have employed to evade their responsibilities down so many years, and at such moments I felt my fury mount with so much intensity I was on the verge of calling out to the lieutenant to halt, just so I could give vent to it.
The lieutenant did, though, pause at one point of his own accord, and as I caught up with him, said:
“Mr. Banks, please take a good look at this.” He was indicating a little over to our left, towards a large boiler-like construction which, though covered in masonry dust, had remained more or less intact. “This is the West Furnace. If you look up there, you will see the nearer of the two tall chimneys we saw earlier from the roof. The East Furnace is similar in appearance to this, and it will be our next clear landmark. When we reach it, we shall know we are very close to the house.”
I studied the furnace carefully. A chimney of some girth emerged from above its shoulders, and when I took a few steps closer and looked up, I could see the huge chimney going off way up into the sky. I was still staring up at it when I heard my companion say:
“Please, Mr. Banks. We must continue. It is important we complete our task before the sun sets.”
It was several minutes after the West Furnace that the lieutenant’s manner became noticeably more cautious. His tread became deliberate, and at each hole, he would first peer through, his rifle poised, listening intently, before climbing up. I also began to spot more and more stacks of sandbags, or coils of barbed wire, left within reach of the holes. When I first heard the machine-gun, I abruptly froze, believing we were under fire. But then I saw the lieutenant before me still walking, and with a deep breath, went on after him.
Eventually I came through a hole
to find myself in a much larger space. In fact, in my exhausted condition, I thought I had entered the bombed remains of one of those grand ballrooms I had been taken to in the Settlement. I then realised we were standing in an area once occupied by several rooms; the partition walls had almost entirely vanished, so that the next good wall was all of twenty-five yards away. There I could see seven or eight soldiers lined up, their faces to the brick. I at first took them for prisoners, but then saw how each man was standing before a small hole through which he had inserted the barrel of his rifle. The lieutenant had already crossed the rubble and was talking to a man crouched behind a machine-gun mounted on a tripod. This machine-gun arrangement was positioned before the largest hole—the one through which we would have to climb to continue our journey. Coming closer, moreover, I saw the perimeters of the hole had been decked with barbed wire, allowing only enough space for the gun barrel to manoeuvre.
I supposed at first the lieutenant was asking the man to remove this obstacle out of our way, but then I saw how tense all those present had become. The man behind the machine-gun, all the time the lieutenant spoke to him, never took his gaze from the hole before him. The other soldiers too, all along the wall, remained still and poised, their attention utterly focused on whatever was on the other side.
Once the alarming implications of this scene had sunk in, I felt inclined to climb back through the previous hole. But then I saw the lieutenant returning towards me and remained where I was.
“We have some trouble,” he said. “A few hours ago the Japanese managed to push forward a little way. We have now beaten them back again and the line has been re-established where it was this morning. However, it would seem several Japanese soldiers did not retreat with the others, and are now caught behind our line. They are completely cut off and thus very dangerous. My men believe they are at this moment on the other side of that wall.”
“Lieutenant, you’re not suggesting, are you, that we delay while this matter sorts itself out?”