Part 29 (1/2)

A uniformed crew member of Mandrake saluted froesture of airy dismissal

The whaleboat left Mandrake's side and moved in towards the crash boat As Manny, his lady friend, bodyguards and luggage were disehed anchor, turned for the entrance of the bay, and set out in a determined fashi+on for the deep-water channel

”She's leaving,”-,that?”

”Yes, she's leaving,” I agreed ”Manny Resnick has finished with her He's got a new ally now, and he doesn't need his vwn shi+p She's probably costing him a thousand nicker a day, - and Manny alas a shy lasses on to the crash boat again and saw -Manny and his entourage enter the cabin

”There is probably another reason,” I muttered ”What's that, Harry?”

”Manny Resnick and Suleiman Dada ant as feitnesses as possible to what they intend doing now”

”Yeah, I see what you runted Chubby

”I think, my friend, that we are about to be treated to the kind of nastiness that will elo seeet Miss Sherry off that boat, Harry” Chubby was co had thrown hiht, Chubby, I agree But we aren't going to help her uess is that she will be safe until they get their hands on the treasure”

His huge face creased up like that of a worried bulldog ”What we going to do, Harry?”

”Right noe are going to run again”

”What do you mean?” ”Listen,” I told him, and he cocked his head There was the shrill of the whistle again and then faintly we heard voices carried up to us on the wind

”Looks like their first effort will be brute strength They've landed the entire goon squad, and they are going to drive the island and put us up like a brace of cock pheasant”

”Let's go down and have a go,” Chubby growled, and cocked the FN- ”I got a elo”

”Don't be a fool, Chubby,” I snapped at hirily

”Now listen to et a good chance, I want to try and get one of them alone and take his piece off hio yet Play it very cautious, hear!” I didn't want to refer to his atory tones

”Okay,” Chubby nodded

”You stay this side of the ridge Count how many of them come down this side of the island I'll cross over and do the same on the other side” He nodded ”I'll meet you at the spot where the crash boat shelled us in two hours”

”What about you, Harry?” Heme the FN - but I didn't have the heart to deprive hio, man”

It was a simple task to keep ahead of the line of beaters for they called to each other loudly to keep their spirits up, and they made no pretence at concealment or stealth, but advanced slowly and cautiously in an extended line

There were nine of thee, seven of them were blacks in naval uniform, armed with AK47, assault rifles and two of them were Manny Resnick's ear and carried sidearnized as the driver of the Rover that night so long ago, and the passenger in the twin-engined Cessna that had spotted Sherry and me on the beach

Once I had made my head count, I turned my back on them and ran ahead to the curve of the salt marsh I knew that when the line of beaters ran into this obstacle, it would lose its cohesion and that it was likely that some Of its thembers would become isolated

I found an advanced neck of swarass in dense shades of fever green I followed the edge of this thicket and came upon a spot where a fallen pal escape in two directions It had collected a dense covering of blown palood hide from which to y etation and I had the heavy bait-knife in ht hand ready to throw

The line of the beaters ca louder as they approached the swamp Soon I could hear the rustle and scrape of branches as one of them came directly down to where I lay

He paused and called when he was about twenty feet from me, and I pressed my face close to the damp earth and peered under the pile of dead branches There was an opening there and I saw his feet and his legs below the knees His trousers were thick blue serge and he wore grubby white sneakers without socks At each step his naked ankles showed very black African skin

It was one of the sailors fro an automatic weapon I preferred that to a pistol, which hat Manny's boys were armed with

Slowly I rolled on to ain so close and so loud thatflush of adrenalin in my blood His call was answered from farther off, and the sailor came on

I could hear his soft footfalls on the sand, padding towards me

Suddenly he came into full view, as he rounded the fall of brushwood He was ten paces from me

He was in naval uniforay little red pom-po ster in his early twenties, s nervously so there was a purple black sheen on his skin, against which his eyes were very white

He saw un on to ht hip and he blocked himself aardly in the turn I aimed for the notch where the two collarbonesof his unifor my wrist into it at the moment of release so the knife leapt in a silvery blur and thudded precisely into the mark I had chosen The blade was completely buried and only the dark walnut handle protruded from his throat

He tried to cry out, but no sound came, for the blade had severed all his vocal chords as I intended He sank slowly to his knees facingat his sides and theon its strap

We stared at each other for a moment that seemed to last for ever

Then he shuddered violently and a thick burst of bubbling blood poured froround

Crouched low, I flipped hi drag of wet flesh, and I cleaned the blade on his sleeve

Working swiftly I stripped hiazines in the bandolier on his webbing belt, then, still crouching low, I dragged hiluey mud of the creek and knelt on his chest to force him below the surface The mud flowed over his face as slowly and thickly as ed I buckled the webbing belt around un and slipped back quietly through the breach that I had made in the line of beaters

As I ran doubled over and using all the cover there was, I checked the load on the AK47 I was familiar with the weapon I had used it in Biafra and I azine was full and that the breech was loaded before I slipped the strap over ht shoulder and held it ready on my hip

When I had moved back about five hundred yards I paused and took shelter against the trunk of a palm while I listened Behind ainst the swa to sort thery shrill of the whistle It sounded like a cup final, I thought, and grinned queasily, for the ly fresh

Now that I had broken through their line I turned and struck directly across the island towards my rendezvous with Chubby on the south peak Once I was out of the paletation was thicker, and I h the better cover

Halfway to the crest I was startled by a fresh burst of gunfire

This ti lash of the FN, a sharper slowerbeat than the storun fire that answered it ied by the volume and duration of the outburst that all the weapons involved had eazines in a continuous burst A heavy silence followed

Chubby was having a go, after all hly alar was certain Chubby had missed whatever he had ailed upwards towards the crest, aiunfire had sounded

I burst out of a patch of goose-bush into a narrow overgrown path that followed the direction I wanted, and I turned into it and went into a full run