Doctor Who_ Combat Rock - Mick Lewis [65]
‘You all right?’ Wemus asked his friend.
Kepennis scratched his head. ‘I don’t know. Feel better now, but, you know... I hate the sight of blood.’
Wemus nodded. He wasn’t exactly fond of it himself.
They were two of a kind. Both cheeky and bold with the tourists, full of fast talk, wit and humour, always ready with the jovial quip and the naughty trick – and always happy to oblige tourists by drinking their whisky for them – even ordering it for them well before they left Batu on the tour, purely for the offworlders’ peace of mind, of course.
Everything well prepared, that was one of their tour mottos.
Yes, they were naughty, they were gamblers, they liked drinking even if they could never handle it, and they were always good-humoured to the point of seeming infantile.
Together they were like the children that were always in trouble with teachers.
But really, they were scared.
Because, underneath the facade of light-hearted simplicity, there was a lot to be scared of. They were Papul working in an Indoni-dominated society. They had to be careful. They were playing a dangeroUs game, on nobody’s side, as Kepennis continually reminded Wemus. Other Papuls – especially the OPG – resented them for making money out of the exploitation of the island, and the Indoni looked down on them simply because they were Papul. On top of that, they would now be suspected of working with the OPG, and this was an especially disturbing thought for Wemus: even if they were rescued by the Indoni army, they’d probably be shot as collaborators. The Indoni would believe they’d deliberately led the tour group into the hands of their colleagues the OPG.
Still, they didn’t really need to worry about the Indoni finding them. The OPG would probably chop their heads off long before then. Wemus remembered Budi and shivered.
It was ruminations like these that had helped rob Wemus of a lot of his sleep. It probably accounted for Kepennis’s faint as well, he thought, as he took in his friend’s tense expression.
The older guide had always been a little more introverted and serious than Wemus, but the last few days he seemed to have lost all his sense of fun. But then, they weren’t exactly in a fun situation, he admitted to himself ruefully. He hadn’t been his normal self either. But maybe that was going to change.
‘She likes me, Kepennis.’
‘Huh?’ the other guide was staring absently through the trees that fringed the clearing that was the meeting place.
Dawn was wooing the wildlife; creatures boomed plaintively, ululated, chuckled, whispered, called with jungle-morning yearning. Softly, quietly at first, the sound swelling triumphantly as the day caught hold. The sky was the purest creamy pink, fractured by bloody breaks.
‘She likes me – Wina?’ Still Kepennis looked confused.
‘The Indoni girl. She actually likes me. You know how rare that is: an Indoni liking a Papul. Normally they think we’re ugly and inferior.’
‘You are ugly, Wemus, you big-nosed brute. But you’ll never be inferior. Well, only to me anyway.’ Kepennis grinned at his friend fondly, coming out of his reveries. Then his face grew serious again as he took in the earnestness of Wemus’s expression. ‘Forget it, he said solemnly.
‘What do you mean?’
Kepennis sat up straight, the cigarette burning in one hand.
His eyes were more grave than Wemus had ever seen before.
‘She’s Indoni. Forget her. This is not right.’
‘Why should I? Why shouldn’t I try for something better?
Especially if she likes me.’
‘Have you heard yourself?’ Now Kepennis’s voice was hushed with a cold anger. ‘Something better? What are you talking about? What right have you got to say that to me!’
Wemus was frankly puzzled. He stood up, hurt and confused. ‘I don’t understand, Kepennis.’
‘Indoni will never be “something better”. You disgust me for thinking so little of your