ITS CAVERNOUS INTERIOR with its sixteenth-century walls, yawning naves, heavy ornate fittings, and forbidding inner cloisters gave the church a gloomy and sombre air. A tourist attraction, the church of San Nicholas within the Intramuros, the name given to the old Spanish inner walls of Manila, was an unlikely spot for a rendezvous so late at night. The fact that it was still open came as a surprise to Lechaim and he suspected that some pesos had greased someone's hands
As he entered its inner sanctum, he glanced at his watch and saw that it was five to ten. The heavy wooden pews cried out for attention, and he chose one in the center. Sitting there beneath the heavy lanterns hanging from the hammerhead ceiling, he felt like a fly in a web awaiting the spider. It was an obvious trap but Lechaim knew that he had no choice if he wanted to get Maxine back. Alone on the old pew that had borne the weight of many over the years, he cast his eyes up to the small balcony high in the wall to the left of the nave. Within its dimness, Lothar lurked with a rifle, a position he had taken up more than an hour before. At the pistol range, Lechaim had found Lothar to be a marksman without peer with a hand gun. Lito had assured Lechaim that Lothar was equally as good with the longer version.
Lothar's shooting ability was one of the reasons that Lechaim had picked him for his backup. He needed someone that could shoot straight and was not frightened to pull the trigger if 'push came to shove'. The other reason was that Lothar had one quality, if it could be termed a quality, that few other men possessed. He was completely ruthless when he needed to be. Lechaim suspected that ruthlessness would be required before the night was out.
The church was empty, not even a priest to break the silence as both men waited, the hunted and the hunter. The question was, who was the hunter and who the hunted? The minutes ticked by but still no sign of activity. Ten past ten came and went but Lechaim remained where he was. Then, at quarter past the hour, Lechaim heard the sound of footsteps on the marble floor and turned around. Two men were walking towards him, both tall for Chinese. They slid in on either side of him and one spoke, “So, Captain Lewis! The famous Captain Lewis! You decided to come!”
“You are?” Lechaim inquired as he eyed the bulky men, both similar in statue with puggish faces that were also alike. They were not pretty, Lechaim thought, but in their line of work, they weren't required to be.
“That's not important! If you want to see Miss Mant again, I suggest you come with us.”
Lechaim said in a dry manner, “There's a marksman above your heads, gentlemen. I advise you to remain perfectly still or no one will be seeing you again! Alive, that is!”
The men had not expected this and Lechaim guessed as much. He had long decided that he would not play the game according to their rules but rather his own. It was the only way he and Maxine had a chance to survive. The two Chinese stiffened as they glanced up. Lothar emerged from the gloom and the men relaxed their hands which were straining to go for the pistols in their shoulder holsters.
“Where's the girl?” Lechaim demanded.
Both men looked at him contemptuously. “You fool! You'll not see her alive again if you persist in this foolishness,” one said. As he spoke, both men looked into Lechaim's eyes, and they were suddenly uncertain for there was no pity there. Lechaim relieved them of their weapons and waved Lothar down from the balcony. A few minutes later they were outside the church and down one of the side alleys. The two men were made to stand with their feet apart facing a fence with their arms spread and their fingertips touching the wood.
“I'll make this short and sweet!” Lechaim said. “Tell me where the girl is or you'll die!” They were both afraid but confident that this Englishman would not kill them, he was too civilized. The other man perhaps, but not Captain Lewis. Still, they hesitated because there was something in the man's voice that suggested a finality. They were right about the Captain and they were right about the German. Before Lechaim could stop him, Lothar seized one of the men and snapped his neck with a twist of his powerful hands. As the man slumped to the ground with the life fading from his eyes, the second man recoiled in fear.
“No! please don't kill me!” the frightened man pleaded.
Lechaim felt revulsion at this cold-blooded execution by Lothar but vermin needed to be eradicated and these men were vermin. What's more, these two would have killed Lechaim and Lothar just as callously if the circumstances were reversed.
“Talk muverfucker or me kill!” Lothar snarled.
Lechaim quelled his sensibilities and steeled himself to the task at hand. Lothar, who was in a killing mode now, put his hands around the second man's neck terrifying him even more. Lothar was not about to kill him though for he knew full well the importance of making this second man talk,
Lothar looked at Lechaim and smiled. “I kill, yah?” he asked politely.
Lechaim said, more for the benefit of the terrified man than for Lothar, “Not yet! We'll let him live if he tells us what we want to know!”
The man looked at his tormentors wildly and realized that it would be pointless to hold out now. Death was too final for that.
“I'll take you to her - the girl! I'll take you to her!”
“No tricks, mind!” Lechaim threatened, “Or I'll give you to my friend here!”
Lothar smiled like a man awaiting a prize and the Chinese seeing this paled and felt physically ill as he remembered how his brother had died minutes before.
“Now, take us to your car!”
“You follow behind in my car!” Lechaim told Lothar when they had reached the man's vehicle.
“Not me!” Lothar replied, “No drive! "No learn!”
“You can't drive?” Lechaim asked incredulously. He hadn't planned on this for it had never occurred to him that Lothar couldn't drive.
“Okay! We'll all travel together in his car!” Lechaim said and turned to the man he had by the arm, “Where is she?”
“Quezon City! Quezon City!” the man hurriedly volunteered.
“Okay! Let's go!” Lechaim ordered. “You do the driving”
Turning to Lothar, he said, “Make sure this clown does what he’s told!”
Lothar, still feeling somewhat inadequate because he didn’t know how to drive, and wanting to prove that he could still be useful, answered, by turning to the Chinese man, “You trick us, I cut dick off...put in mouth” and he indicated what he meant by putting his hand to his mouth, imitating someone munching on something.
Lothar's crudity was repulsive to Lechaim but he had to admit that the German's direct approach was a great time saver. The Chinese man's eyes rolled as the threat sank in and his fingers trembled as he turned the key in the ignition.
“Take it easy!” Lechaim warned the driver as the car shot away. “We want to get there in one piece!” The man lifted his foot off the accelerator and the car slowed appreciably. “Not that slow!” Lechaim added.
The confused, frightened man tried to maintain a speed that he felt was pleasing to the two thugs in the car with him while he tried to think of a way to escape. Lothar's threat constantly played on his mind as he tried to imagine life without a dick. It was the only thing about him that women admired.
When they arrived in the street where the driver claimed the house was that Maxine was being held in, Lechaim told him to stop the car when he came to it and douse the headlights.
“Which one is it?” Lechaim then asked.
“There!” the driver said pointing to a house in the street that was shrouded in darkness.
“How many inside?” Lechaim demanded.
“No one!”
“No one!” Lechaim echoed. “I asked how many are inside?”
Lothar from his seat in the back grabbed the man by the throat. “Cut dick”
“No one!” the Chinese man gasped. “There’s no one inside! Just the girl!”
Strange, Lechaim thought. Why wasn't the girl being guarded and where was the man that Lechaim had expected to confront at the church, the man that had tried to kill him on Corregidor.
He voiced his reservations, “Why isn't the girl being guarded?”
The man hesitated as if searching for an answer and Lechaim became impatient.
“No like!” Lothar muttered. “Something wrong! I cut dick!”
“No! No! The girl's inside! You'll see!” the sweating man shrieked.
“You lie! Hang dick on fence!” Lothar warned and the man shrank back in his seat. No longer the smirking, confident gunman, he had been an hour before, he now checked between his legs with the palm of his hand to confirm it was still intact. Seconds later his worries were over forever as the windscreen shattered and his head exploded in a bloody mushroom
“Fooking Jesus!” Lothar exclaimed as the contents of the driver's cranium showered him. He threw himself out the door onto the broken paving stones and landed beside Lechaim who had beaten him by milliseconds.
“Night scope!” Lechaim exclaimed as he and Lothar huddled against the car, waiting breathlessly for more shots to follow, but none came.
“You okay?” Lechaim asked as he saw the bloody state Lothar was in.
“Yah! Pig's brains!” Lothar answered as he wiped away some of the gore from his face and vest, once white, now red. “Head has plenty blood, yah?”
Sartori had been waiting for some time wondering whether the two Chinese brothers would have any problems. When he saw the car stop at the top of the street and he looked through the scope on his rifle, he saw that there was only one Chinese in it. Then he saw Lechaim’s face for a moment as he leaned across the other man. However, a tree on the verge of the road was blocking his shot so he couldn’t take Lechaim out. Never mind, he would pick the Captain off when he broke for cover. From his vantage point on one of the roofs above, he took the Chinaman out with his first shot. Now, Captain Lewis and the German were trapped behind the car and they would have to expose themselves eventually. It was just a matter of patience and he had plenty
Lechaim saw Lothar reach slowly back past the open door into the back seat and retrieve his rifle.
“Can you see anything?” Lechaim asked.
“Nein!”
“We can’t achieve anything staying here! I'm going in!” Lechaim whispered. “When you see the flash from his gun, shoot to kill!”
Lothar nodded as Lechaim crouched to run. Bracing himself, Lechaim launched forward expecting as he did so to feel the impact of metal.
He had the perfect shot, Sartori noted with satisfaction - he couldn't miss. As Lechaim's frame filled his sights, Sartori's finger took up the slack on the trigger. The flurry of wings before his face, as he fired was sufficient to spoil his aim, and the shot only creased Lechaim's shoulder as it flew harmlessly past.
“Fuck! Fuck!” Sartori swore as he fired again but Lechaim had already reached cover and the bullet howled overhead into the night
Sartori shouted in terror as a black shape landed on his chest and he smelt its rancid breath. Screaming, he forgot about the two men below as he leapt to his feet to brush the hideous thing from him. His companion and he were then joined permanently in death as a bullet tore through the dark furry shape, through Sartori's body, and on into the night in search of other game. The force of the impact threw the man back onto the tiles where he lay clutching feebly at the jet of blood that was erupting from his ruptured aorta; the thing still clawing at his chest in its death throes. Seconds passed and the stars overhead started to go out one by one. He was once again that same frightened little boy that lurked in the back alleys of Napoli long ago stealing to feed himself. Vaguely aware that the evening had not gone exactly to plan, he slipped away from this life.
Seconds ticked by and then Lechaim waved Lothar forward. Arriving at his side, Lothar was panting with excitement more than exertion. “Got the muverfucker!” he exclaimed.
“You certain!”
Lothar looked aggrieved.
“You'd better check on him anyway just to make sure!”
Lothar was soon back with a show of teeth, “Him dead!” He tossed something down at Lechaim's feet. and laughed, “Muverfucker jump up when see this!”
Lechaim looked at the furry animal with the membranous wings that had been killed by the high-velocity bullet and gave it only a moment's thought - after all, it was just a bat.
Lechaim searched the darkness of the house trying to sense out where fresh danger lay.
“It's too quite! Surely he couldn't have been on his own!”
“Yah, Too quite!” Lothar agreed, “Go in now?”
“Why not!” Lechaim said and they both crept towards the back of the house and peered through one of the windows. The glass was clouded with dirt but a pane was partly broken, giving them a clear view of the interior. The light from the street picked out the shape of the woman lying supine on the floor of the room. Lechaim thought at first that she might be dead until he saw the steady rise and fall of her breasts. It was too dark to see the woman's face but the legs looked familiar. They found a door that was unlocked and cautiously entered, Lechaim leading the way. The only sound that could be heard in the house was their breathing as they inched their way slowly forward. The place had been empty for some time judging from the grime and dust that lay on everything. There had been some recent comings and goings however judging from the footprints on the floor. They searched the house thoroughly upstairs and down, but it was empty save for the woman they had seen. Lechaim and Lothar then returned to the room where the woman lay and Lechaim knelt beside her. He felt the relief flood over him as he saw that it was indeed Maxine, and she was alive. Furthermore, she appeared in excellent health and condition for a woman that had been in captivity for some days. He could also see that she was conscious because she had her eyes open, and was staring at him but seemingly without comprehending.
“Are you all right?” he asked as he pulled her to him.
“Pe..the man! Where is he?”
“It's all right, Maxine! You're safe now!”
“Where is he?” she insisted as she tugged on Lechaim's arm.
“I kill muverfucker gud” Lothar exclaimed with evident pride from his position behind Lechaim
Maxine let out a stifled scream and passed out against Lechaim's shoulder.
She's had a bad time of it, Lechaim thought. God knows what he did to her.
Lechaim lowered her gently back to the bare floorboards and said to Lothar, “I'm going to scout around outside to see if it's all clear. I'll be back in a few minutes”
The German went to protest but then realized that the Englishman was more than capable of carrying out the task alone. “Okay!”
Satisfying himself that the perimeter was clear, Lechaim checked on the man lying dead on the roof nearby. Sure enough, it was the man in the tunnel who seemed even smaller in death. Searching through his pockets, he found nothing, not even some loose change. What had Lothar said, “Muverfucker jump up when see this!” and Lechaim recalled the bat. Was it a coincidence or something more? Whatever, Lechaim decided that he was leading a charmed life. Was something protecting him or was it merely luck?
He descended from the roof and went over to the car where the dead Chinaman lay slumped over the wheel with half his head missing. Again, there was nothing in his pockets. Both men, Lechaim suspected, were professional assassins.
Returning to the house, he took Maxine, who was still in a faint, up in his arms and the two men then began walking into the city. Along the way, Lothar found a tap in someone's yard and washed the blood off himself as best he could. Throwing his bloody vest in the gutter, he caught up again with Lechaim. They were seen more than once on their journey by Filipino malefactors that lurk in the dark of night. There was no one around, however, who was game enough to accost these two formidable-looking white men as they walked into the heart of the city in search of a taxi.