Those in Peril (Unlocked) (24 page)

‘Keep good watch, Faisil,’ he whispered as he reached the man’s side, and then he killed him, swiftly and quietly. The other men were lying less than thirty paces away and they heard nothing. Uthmann crawled towards them. When all four were dead Uthmann stood up and turned towards the fortress. He started to run. He climbed the path up the hillside. He had only been this way once before, but he took the left turn under the wall and ran close beside it to the North Gate. When he was still a hundred paces from the gate he began to shout a warning to the men who he knew were waiting on top of the walls.

‘Do not shoot! It is me, Uthmann. I am the Khan’s man. I must speak to Adam.’ There was no response and he ran on towards the gate, shouting the same warning. When he was fifty metres from the gate a blinding white light suddenly burned down catching him full in its beam. He stopped and threw up his hands to shield his eyes. A voice called down to him from the battlements.

‘Throw down your weapon! Raise your hands! Walk towards the gate slowly. We will shoot you if you try to escape.’ Uthmann approached the gate and it opened just before he reached it, but he was still dazzled by the beam of light and could see nothing in the darkness beyond the opening. He hesitated when he reached the threshold, but the voice called down to him, ‘Keep walking. Do not stop!’ He entered the gateway and immediately a mob of men rushed out of the darkness and beat him to his knees.

‘I am one of the Khan’s men.’ Uthmann covered his head with both arms. ‘I have a vital message for him. You must take me to him.’ They would have continued the beating, but at that moment an authoritative command froze them.

‘Leave him be! I know this man. He is one of our trusted agents.’ Uthmann climbed to his feet and made a deep obeisance to the man who strode towards him out of the shadows.

‘Peace be on you, Adam. Blessing and peace on your illustrious grandfather, Sheikh Khan Tippoo Tip!’

‘What is amiss, Uthmann? The plan was that you lead the infidel here. Where is Cross, the blaspheming assassin?’

‘Cross has a wild animal’s instinct for survival. At the very last moment he would not follow me. He has found a woman who knows the fortress well. He commanded me to remain without, while he went with her through a secret way to enter the walls.’ Adam stared at him.

‘Where is Cross now?’

‘Doubtless he is already within the fortress.’

‘Why did you not warn us before?’ Adam’s voice rose in agitation.

‘Because I did not know myself until a short while ago,’ Uthmann replied. ‘You must waste no time closing all the gates, then send more men to stand guard at the prisoner’s cell and others to search the citadel to find Cross.’

‘Come with me!’ Adam snarled at him. ‘We will go to my grandfather. However, if you have let the infidel escape with our hostage it will go hard with you, this I warn you.’ Adam lifted his robe and ran, but by the time they reached his grandfather’s council chamber he was panting wildly.

This descendant of the Prophet is as soft as the withered dugs of an old woman
, Uthmann thought contemptuously as he followed Adam into the chamber and prostrated himself at the feet of the Khan, and gabbled out his extravagant praises and wishes of eternal life for the old man.

‘Enough!’ Sheikh Khan rose from his cushions and towered over Uthmann. ‘Why do you tremble? Do you have a fever? Or is it that you have broken faith with me? Have you brought mine enemy to me that I may pay off the debt of blood and go peacefully to my grave, or have you allowed him to escape my vengeance? Answer me, you stinking puddle of diseased pig dung. Is the son of a Christian whore your prisoner? Or is he not?’

‘Mighty scourge of the infidels, I know not . . .’

‘You know not? Then I will make you know.’ He lashed the hippo-hide whip across Uthmann’s back. His flak jacket absorbed the blow, but Uthmann squealed and writhed as he blurted out his report. After half a dozen strokes the Khan’s ancient arm tired and he stood back. ‘Send men immediately to the cell of the Christian whore. Bring her to me. I will have her chained at my side where I can guard her myself. Go! Swiftly!’ The men he sent to fetch Cayla returned within a short space of time and cast themselves at his feet. They were gibbering with terror and the Khan’s hearing was dull, but at last he understood what they were telling him.

‘The infidel sow has disappeared and her guards are strangled? Are these the ravings of apes and lunatics?’ He was panting with rage and his wrinkled features had swollen and turned puce.

‘We should lock the gates to prevent them from escaping, and we must search the palace and find the girl and these infidels who have violated your stronghold.’ Adam had also prostrated himself. He knew well how to deflect his grandfather’s rage.

‘Shut the gates!’ roared the Khan. ‘Search every room in the palace. Find them and bring them to me.’ Then he turned to Adam. ‘You cannot let him escape now.’

‘We are wasting time here, Grandfather. Cross is not in the palace. Every minute you delay he is getting further beyond our reach. Cross has only five men with him. Uthmann killed the others. Give me your dogs, enough men and trucks and I will bring him to you.’

‘There is only one truck here, but it has two punctured tyres that have not yet been repaired. I have sent the other trucks and most of the men to your uncle Kamal at Gandanga Bay to man the attack boats.’

The Khan went on, ‘But we can take my personal hunting truck. As soon as the tyres of the big truck are repaired it will follow us with the rest of the men. We will take my dogs also, and I will ride with you. I want to be in at the death when you run them down. I want to see them bleed and listen to their death squeals.’

‘B
efore we leave this oasis I must call in Hans Lategan in the helicopter to pick us up,’ Hector told Tariq, and pulled the satellite phone out of his pack. He extended the aerial and switched on the handset. Hans answered on the first ring. Hector smiled. He must have been waiting with his thumb on the button.

‘This is Kudu.’ Hans gave his call sign.

‘Stilton cheese!’ Hector replied. This was the arranged code that they had exited the fortress with Cayla and were heading for the pick-up rendezvous. Hector had considered having the helicopter hovering nearby. But the sound of the engines would have alerted the enemy to their presence.

‘Roger that! The Duchess is ecstatic.’ Damn Hans for that additional piece of chit-chat, Hector thought angrily. Duchess was Hazel Bannock’s code name. She was waiting at Sidi el Razig; how could she know already that Cayla had been rescued from the fortress? He dismissed the thought. The arranged pick-up point was on the far side of the northern ravine. Hans would come in from the Jig Jig airstrip and fly up the ravine until he spotted their recognition signal: another red distress flare. Hans had calculated that it would take about two hours and ten minutes to fly from Jig Jig. Hector reckoned it was approximately four miles to the southern bank of the deep ravine, or maybe a little less. Their pursuers would be riding in four-wheel-drive trucks. Although the terrain was rugged and criss-crossed with rocky outcrops and wadis, the trucks should be able to travel at least twice as fast as his small party. In her sick and starved condition Cayla weighed around one hundred pounds. He knew that under ideal conditions his men could probably reach the ravine in approximately an hour and fifty minutes. But not in darkness, not over this type of terrain, not with him having to carry Cayla.
What if they unleash the dogs?
He posed the question to himself, and then answered it:
To hell with the dogs!

Tariq was watching his face, and Hector spoke aloud.

‘I know what you want to ask me: did I tell Uthmann that we would head north for the ravine? The answer is, no I did not. Even though he knows our exact starting point, he does not know in which direction we will run. In the dark he will not find it easy to track us down.’ He did not want to even mention the dogs. ‘So, we will waste no further time.’ He stood up. ‘All of you drink as much as you can now. We will not stop again until we hear the helicopter on its way.’ While they had been talking Hector had buckled three of the webbing belts together to make a carrying sling for Cayla. He lifted her to her feet.

‘Heck’s Transport and Removals Service at your command, Miss Bannock.’

‘Is that your real name? Heck?’ Her voice was weak and breathy.

‘Absolutely.’ He helped her to wriggle into the improvised sling seat, and lifted her until she was on his hips with both her legs dangling backwards. ‘Put your arms around my neck and hold fast.’ She obeyed him meekly and he ran with her, starting at less than his top speed, pacing himself to last the distance. Tariq sent two of his men ahead to find the easiest route and the other two to follow up and try to sweep out any obvious sign that they had left on the desert sand. They covered the first mile and Hector found his second wind. He lengthened his stride.

‘You said your name was Heck. Is that short for Hector? My mother has spoken about you. You must be Hector Cross.’

‘I hope she had good things to say about me.’

‘Not really. She said you were arrogant and bumptious and she was going to fire you come the first opportunity. But don’t worry, I’ll talk to her.’

‘Cayla Bannock, my protector.’

‘You may call me Cay. All my friends call me that.’ He grinned as she tightened her grip around his neck. He had always thought that when the time came it would be a son.

The hell with it, a daughter will do me just fine
, he decided. They ran on for another forty minutes before he stopped and looked back. He thought he had heard something. Now he was sure. It was faint but unmistakable.

‘What is it, Heck?’ Cayla was trembling again, and her voice was panicky. ‘I think I can hear dogs barking.’

‘Oh, it’s nothing to worry about. Lots of stray dogs out here.’ Then he called to Tariq, ‘You hear it?’

‘I hear it. They have the dogs and at least one truck. They will catch us before we reach the ravine.’

‘No they won’t,’ Hector retorted. ‘Now we are really going to start running.’

‘What are you two talking about? I don’t understand.’ They were speaking Arabic, and Cayla was becoming more agitated. ‘I am afraid, Heck.’

‘Nothing to be afraid of. You take care of me and I will look after you. Is it a deal?’ He fixed his attention on the north star which was showing just above the horizon, and he ran. He ran with every breath in his lungs and the beat of his own heart sounding in his ears like a war drum. When his legs began to wobble under him he dropped his pack and his rifle and ran on. His legs steadied and he found reserves of strength that he had never known about. He ran another mile, and then another. Now, at last he was sure he was finished, he couldn’t take another step. But his legs kept pumping under him. Tariq and Daliyah ran beside him. Daliyah was carrying the rifle that Hector had dropped and Tariq had his pack.

‘Let me take the girl from you,’ Tariq pleaded with him. Hector shook his head. Tariq was a wiry little man, but he did not have the bull muscle for this load. Hector knew if he stopped running for even a second he would not be able to start again. He covered another mile and now he knew it was over, well and truly over.

‘This is where I die,’ he thought, ‘and I don’t even have a rifle. Life is a bastard.’ He stopped and lowered Cayla to the ground. He was reeling on his feet. The sound of the dogs was closer, louder. He still had his pistol on his belt.

‘I cannot let them take Cayla. I cannot let her fall into their clutches again. At the very end I will share the pistol with her, a bullet for each of us.’ It was the hardest and saddest decision of his life. It numbed his mind so when he heard men shouting his name he could not understand what they were saying. All he could hear were the dogs.
In the desert noise carries a long way
, he reassured himself,
they are not as close as they sound
.

‘We have reached the ravine, Hector.’ Tariq was shouting at him, and at last the words penetrated his exhaustion and his sadness. ‘Come on, Hector. You have made it. The lip of the ravine is only twenty metres ahead. Come on, my friend!’ Hector was past logical thought. His brain told him that he was finished and he could not go on. But he picked Cayla up in his arms and he ran. He only stopped when the earth disappeared from under his feet and he fell, sliding and rolling down the first steep pitch of the ravine. He was laughing and Cayla sat up beside him. She was powdered with dust and her elbow and one cheek were grazed. She stared at him in astonishment, and then she started to giggle.