MERSING CHRONICLES

PART 2: Chapter 16 A Blowpipe in Qinghai

5 Years Later

ELDERLY CHINESE FARMER DISARMS BURGLARS WITH BLOWPIPE

June 5, 2086

Beijing – A farmer in the remote province of Qinghai on the Tibetan plateau disarmed two burglars with a blowpipe. The elderly farmer in his 70s was awakened from his sleep in the middle of the night from sound coming from his kitchen. Using a blowpipe, he disabled both burglars as they were scrounging around his home. The darts used had a powerful tranquilizing drug used on animals. When asked how he acquired the blowpipe, he said he instinctively knew how to make the 5-foot long blowpipe out of bamboo. He was not taught the trade. A blowpipe is a weapon indigenous to tribes of Borneo, an island in the South China Sea. AFP.

"Did you read today's report of a farmer in a remote part of China using a blowpipe to knock down two burglars?" Cheng asked Hiang as she came into the office during her usual start of the day.

"What of it?" she asked unconcerned.

"It strikes me as odd that this farmer on the Tibetan plateau knew how to use a sumpit," he said referring to it by its indigenous name.

"Tibetan plateau?"

Strange stories always catch her attention. She looked up the piece on her screen.

"I can see why it made the news," she said. "Anyways, what do we have on our agenda today?"

They discussed the topics of the day that would potentially appear in the paper tomorrow.

But the story stuck in her mind: the blowpipe is a weapon indigenous to Borneo in the South China Sea and the Kadazans, of whom Nur was a member, are from Borneo.

She recalled an interview she had of a Chinese retiree in Malaysia who had called her 4 years ago after she had printed an article of Nur in the Singapore Times. The article was an account of her search of the special forces officer over 6 years culminating in her visit to the Etajima Naval Academy where she witnessed his death on video.

The retiree had a rank equal to a Lt Col in the Singapore Armed Forces when he was with China's People's Liberation Army. Lt Col Shang claimed he was a captain when he was attached to the Intelligence Department of the PLA. He said he recognized Major Nur as the prisoner he was tasked with keeping watch over in 2051. She had a meeting with him in Johor Bahru in a café in a busy Shopping Mall.

"How sure are you this person was Major Nur?" she had asked.

"He had a strange story. We knew he came from an observation post on an island in the South China Sea. But he couldn't remember anything from his past. Maybe he was faking it. We couldn't be sure. So we kept him for 5 months asking the same questions over and over again."

"How did he survive that episode near Tioman island?"

"Apparently the Japanese had scuba divers in the water as soon as they spotted his body. He was a high priority target and they wanted him alive. They pulled him out of the water and applied CPR."

"I saw he was in the water for 20 minutes his head submerged. How could anyone be resuscitated after being in the water for 20 minutes?"

He shrugged. Hiang eyed him as he answered the questions. He seemed sincere. And what good would it do him to create a story like this?

"Where was he sent after the 5 months of interrogation?"

"We did everything, torture, drugs, even changed our tactics by providing him comfort and good food. But he couldn't remember. After 5 months he was sent back to the POW department. Not sure what happened to him after that."

"Any tattoos on him?"

"Yes, there was one, the US Navy Seals trident on his left arm."

Hiang was startled. There was no account anywhere in her article of the trident tattoo, nor for that matter anywhere in the internet. And Nur had that tattoo on his left arm. However most US Navy Seals graduates do this kind of stuff, as a kind of badge of honor. So it wasn't unique nor conclusive.

She tried to get corroborating evidence from other sources including through Gen Sofi's successor. But there was none. It was a dead end. And now this article about a blowpipe in the Tibetan plateau far from its place of origin. If Nur was alive he would be in his 70s, the age of that elderly farmer.

"Let's send Jenny to Qinghai," Hiang said to Cheng a month later.

"What for?"

"I am intrigued by that blowpipe story."

"You think there might be a connection with Nur?"

She nodded. "I was looking for corroborating evidence when the PLA officer claimed to have seen Nur after the Tioman incident, and I think this is it."

"Could someone be alive after been in the water for almost 30 minutes?" Cheng asked.

"Nur was especially fit and at the prime of his life. I wouldn't discount that possibility."

And Jenny, one of her Senior Journalist, went on a trip to Qinghai.