Part 13 (1/2)

' What's your progress?'

'Coming along, Major. Two out o' six. This isn't work you can hurry.'

Grant stood for a moment undecided, his mind working in a vacuum of officious authority. Then he rounded again on Ryderbeit, 'And if you light another match, I'll have your kneecap off!'

Ryderbeit took a languid step forward, then paused. They all looked up as the Suzuki jeep came driving back across the ap.r.o.n and slewed to a halt in front of the hangar. Jo was alone at the wheel. She had driven off only a few minutes earlier for the town. Guy Grant had complained that she was distracting the local labour-force, whose dark faces were now once again turned in sullen curiosity towards her.

She got out of the jeep, leaving the door open, and ran forward, stopping in front of Grant to catch her breath. 'There are some men at the gates.'

'What sort of men?'

'They look like soldiers. Very dirty, in uniform.'

Grant turned again to Nugent-Ross. 'Right, now's your chance to use your Greek. Get into the truck with me. Rawcliff, you look reasonably respectable'

- he jabbed his thumb at the Suzuki - 'You go with Jo. If any questions are asked, you're a doctor. Ryderbeit, the rest of you, stay out of sight.'

Ryderbeit stood grinning, still holding his dead cigar.

Rawcliff began to walk over towards the Suzuki, and heard Jo hurrying up behind him. Once outside the hangar the heat hit them like an opened oven, the salt and sand and sea all merged in a s.h.i.+mmering dull glare. Jo climbed into the driving-seat beside him and kicked off her shoes.

'I'll be glad to get out of this uniform and have a swim,' she said, wrinkling her freckled nose.

They heard Grant, in the pick-up truck behind, start up with a roar and come careering round in a swath of dust that swept through Jo's open window, makingher cough. 'The b.a.s.t.a.r.d! He's just doing it to show off.'

'What's the panic?'

'Peters has given strict orders that if anyone's seen near the wire, they're to be stopped and challenged. Grant's obviously enjoying every minute of it - playing at soldiers again.'

'I suppose he realizes that security can be overdone? All it does is make people more suspicious.'

She had switched on the engine and they started off into the blinding wake of dust thrown up by Grant and Nugent-Ross in the pick-up truck, which was now leading.

'Perhaps they've got a right to be suspicious?' she said.

He looked at her carefully. 'What about you? Are you suspicious, Jo?'

'Should I be?'

'Oh, for Christ's sake, you're on the pay-roll, aren't you? And you're certainly deeper in than I am.'

She shrugged, grinding gears. 'I'm a member of the VSO - Voluntary Services Overseas. One of those nice do-gooders who try to help the underdeveloped countries.' There was a flat edge to her voice, with no perceptible irony, suggesting a deeper side to her character than Rawcliff had so far observed.

'I might ask you the same question,' she added.

'What? Am I suspicious? - or what am I doing here in the first place?'

'Both - although you don't look entirely the type. They pulled you in at the last minute, didn't they?'

'I pulled myself in. I've got a business in London that's going broke, and I want to end my days cultivating my garden, as Voltaire said. As for being suspicious, I suppose that's part of what we're paid for?'

'I suppose so. I'd say it was cheap at the price.' Her voice had become vague now, as she peered ahead through the dust.

'You're Jim Ritchie's girl, aren't you?'

'I'm n.o.body's girl. I met Matt while I was working out here. He was doing some business with a local s.h.i.+pping agent called Kyriades who has some tie-up with Jim Ritchie's air-taxi firm. So I more or less got drawn in -just came with the package, so to speak.'

'For how much?'

She gave him a crinkled sideways look. 'Enough. Enough to give a girl time to get her bearings.'

The faint outline of the perimeter fence was growing out of the fog of dust.

Grant and Nugent-Ross, in the pick-up ahead, were slowing up towards the gate.

Beyond, Rawcliff could just make out three men behind the wire.

'If there are any awkward questions, just hang back and let Nugent-Ross do the talking,' he said. 'As long as they get a glimpse of your uniform.' 'And as long as that b.l.o.o.d.y Major doesn't try to be a hero,' she said, drawing up beside the pick-up. Grant was climbing out, adjusting his mirror gla.s.ses.

The three men behind the wire wore dark dungarees with shoulder-flaps and belts of Army webbing. Two of them were lounging against the cantilevered posts, the third, was squatting down in the dust, chewing the stub of a cigarette. They looked grubby and unshaven and very tough, with an air of mute hostility, showing no interest as Jo walked out and stood beside Matt.

'Who are they and what do they want?' Grant said.

To Rawcliff's untrained ear, Nugent-Ross' Greek sounded very fluent. The two men by the posts said nothing. The third straightened up and kicked his cigarette into the dust. He spoke quickly, abruptly, as though reciting something from memory.

There was a brief exchange, then Matt turned to Grant. 'They claim they're on contract to the airport. They're asking for employment here. Their spokesman claims he's a union official and has the right to see the men's working conditions.'

'Like h.e.l.l he does. Does he know how much they're being 'I guess that's why they're here - to get a piece of the action.'

'Ask to see their ID cards.'

This time what sounded like an argument followed: the three men shrugged and talked at once, with their hands in their pockets. Their spokesman broke off and now began eyeing Jo with a snide glint.

Matt turned again to Grant, 'They say they'll show you their papers when you open the gates.'

Grant hesitated, then asked Jo for the spare bunch of keys which he had given her earlier. He undid the two locks and pulled the wire frame open. 'Tell them to get into the back of the truck.' He nodded to Jo and Rawcliff: 'All right, follow us.'

In the Suzuki jeep Jo said, 'There's something funny going on.'

'I don't know. Grant seems very keen to get them inside. I'd lay odds they're carrying guns.'

'Oh Christ.' She bit her lip. 'Are you sure?'

'Not without seeing them. But I don't suppose it's all that unusual out here.

Since Independence there's been a lot of hardware floating around in Cyprus, and even more since the Turks invaded.'

The three men were now sitting in the back of the pick-up truck in front; then at the last moment Grant jumped down and came round to Rawcliffs side of the Suzuki. 'We're not going back to the hangar - not immediately. Just keep on my tail - and watch those boys out front.'

They had been going a couple of hundred yards, when Jo said, 'I've got a very handy monkey-wrench in the back. I'll get it out for you when we stop.'