Part 32 (1/2)

By the tih enough up the slope to look out over the deep-water channel, the crash boat was aresolutely for the distant reens of the sea, and the higher harsher blue of the sky

I tucked the FN under my arress My wristwatch showed seven an to wonder if the case of gelignite below the crash boat's stern had, after all, been torn loose by the drag of the water and the wash of the propellers

The crash boat was now passing between the sub the open inshore waters The reefs blew regularly, breathing white foah a monster lay beneath the surface

The small white speck of the crash boat seemed ethereal and insubstantial in that wilderness of sea and sky, soon she would e with the wind-flecked and current-chopped waters of the open sea

The explosion when it came ithout passion, its violence muted by distance and its sound toned by the wind There was a sudden soft waterspout that enveloped the tiny white boat It looked like an ostrich feather, soft and blowing on the wind, bending when it reached its full height and then losing its shape and s away across the choppy surface

The sound reached ainst ht I felt the flap of the blast like the puff of the wind against ness the channel was en re upon the wind-bloaters

I knew that with the tide the big evil-looking albacore sharks hunted inshore upon the flood They would be quick to the taint of blood and torn flesh in the water, and I doubted that any of those aboard the crash boat who had survived the blast would long avoid the attentions of those single-minded and voracious killers Those that found Coht, unless they recognized a kindred spirit and accorded hiaveamusement I stood up and walked down to the caves

foundthe previous day's looting, but I retrieved sufficient ers Three of the nails had been torn out I feared that the roots had been destroyed, and that they would never grow again - but when Sherry expressed the same fears, I denied them stoutly

Once her injuries were taken care of I made her s a couple of codeine for the pain and made a bed for her in the darkness of the back of the cave

”Rest,” I told her, kneeling to kiss her tenderly ”Try and sleep I will fetch you e are ready to leave”

Chubby was already busy with the necessary tasks He had checked the whaleboat and, apart froood condition

We filled the holes with Pratleys putty from the toolchest, and left her on the beach

The hole in which the chest had been buried served as a co about it We laid them in it like sardines, and covered theolden head fro eye still in the broad forehead, and staggering under its weight we carried it down to the whaleboat and padded it with the polythene cushi+ons in the bottom of the boat The plastic packets of sapphires and emeralds I packed into my haversack and laid it beside the head

Then we returned to the caves and salvaged all the undaed stores and equipment - the jerrycans of water and petrol, the scuba bottles and the compressor It was late afternoon before we had packed it all into the whaleboat and I was tired I laid the FN rifle on top of the load and stood back

”Okay, Chubby?” I asked, as I lit our cheroots and we took our first break ”Reckon we can take off now”

Chubby drew on the cheroot and blew a long flag of blue so up and fetch Angelo,” heto leave the kid up there It's too lonely here, he'll want to be with his own people in a Christian grave”

So while I went back to the caves to fetch Sherry, Chubby selected a bolt of canvas and went off into the gathering darkness

I woke Sherry and made sure she arave her two more codeine and took her doards the beach It was dark now, and I held the flashlight in one hand and helped Sherry with the other We reached the beach and I paused uncertainly There was so, I knew, and I played the torch over the loaded vessel

Then I realized what it was, and I felt a sick little jolt in er where I had left it in the whaleboat

”Sherry,” I whispered urgently, ”get down and stay there until I tell you”

She sank swiftly to the sand beside the beached hull, and I looked around frantically for a weapon I thought of the spear-gun, but it was under the jerrycans, rove - I had forgotten about it until this ht was as far as I got

”All right, Harry, I've got the gun” The deep throaty voice spoke out of the darkness close behindstupid”

He rove after he had taken the rifle, and now he had co around - just toss that flashlight back here

Over your shoulder”

I did as he ordered and I heard the sand crunch under his feet as he stooped to pick it up

”All right, turn around - slowly” As I turned, he shone the powerful beauelyshape of the ood swim, Suleimanr I asked I could see that he wore only a pair of short white underpants, and his enorlea to develop an allergy to your jokes, Harry,” he spoke again in that deep beautifully rossly overweightsalt water of the sea However, even with the turn of the tide to help hi the explosion and swih almost two miles of choppy water I doubted any of his men had done as well

”I think it should be in the belly first,” he spoke again, and I saw that he held the stock of the rifle across his left elbow With the same hand he aimed the torch beam into et it”

We were silent forwith his deep asth desperately to think of soive rab the barrel of the FN

”I don't suppose you'd like to go down on your knees and plead with me?”he asked

”Go screw, Suleiman,” I answered

”No, I didn't really think you would A pity, I would have enjoyed that But what about the girl, Harry, surely it would be worth a little of your pride ” We both heard Chubby He had known there was no way he could cross the open beach undetected, even in the dark He had tried to rush Suleiman Dada, but I am sure he knew that he would notme the distraction I so desperately needed

He ca in silently with only the squeak of the treacherous sand beneath his feet to betray him Even when Suleiman Dada turned the rifle on to hie

There was the crack of the shot and the long lightning flash of the muzzle blast, but even before that, I was halfway across the distance that separated e black man From the corner of an to swing the rifle back towards me

I brushed past the barrel of the FN and crashed shoulder first into his chest It should have staved his ribs in like the victim of a car smash - instead I found the power ofof dark flesh It was like running into a feather h he reeled back a few paces and lost the rifle, Suleiht on those two thick tree-trunks of his legs, and before I could recover

He picked me up off my feet, and pulledboth s to resist his weight and strength I experienced a chill of disbelief when I felt the strength of theso hty that there seee of the sea

I tried withto break his hold, but the blows found nothing solid and rip of his ariant python I realized instantly that he was quite capable of literally crushi+ng me to death - and I experienced a sense of panic I twisted and struggled frantically and unavailingly in his arhtwheezed reat shoulders overmy back into an arc that must soon snap my spine

I bent back my head, reached up with an open mouth and I locked my teeth into the broad flattened nose I bit in hard, with all h the flesh and gristle of his nose and instantly my mouth filled with the war at a bull-baiting, I worried and tugged at his nose

The er and he released his crushi+ng grip from around my body to try and tear my teeth from his face The instant ot a purchase with both feet in the firm wet sand, so I could putto dislodge the grip of my teeth from his nose that he could not resist the throw and as he went over backwardsflesh

I spat out the horrid mouthful but the warm blood streamed down my chin and I resisted the temptation to pause and wipe it clean

Suleiman Dada was down on his back, stranded like so, but he would not reer, I had to take hiht be vulnerable

I juh over him and came down to knee-drop into his throat, to drive ht and momentum of my body into his larynx and crush it

He ift as a cobra, throwing up both arms to shi+eld his throat and to catch ain, I was enmeshed by those thick black arms, and we rolled down the beach, locked chest to chest into the waroon

In a direct contrast of weight for weight like this, I was out froer, and he pinneddown upon an to drown My lungs caught fire, and the need to breathe laced my vision with sparks and whorls of fire I could feel the strength going out ofinto blackness