13
Johore, January 1950
Howard slumped into a chair and eased off his wet boots. The rain had soaked all the way through, so he tugged off his socks as well.
He glanced at his watch. Almost time for the news on Radio Malaya. Recently it hadn’t seemed worth tuning in as there was so little coverage of the progress of the Emergency. Suspiciously little. Across the table, Alan and Roger, two of Redmond’s assistant managers, were already in place, waiting with bored expressions as Billy, the junior assistant, fiddled with the dials.
But tonight, it was a different story. The news was shattering. The British Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, had announced in Parliament that the British government was recognising the Chinese Communists, under Chairman Mao Tse-tung, as the official government o
