Modesty Blaise - Cobra Trap Part 22

It was an effort to speak, for his throat had almost closed, but he croaked, "All right, Princess." The last word had barely left his lips when he saw a figure stand up on the peak across the valley, a rifle aimed. With instant reaction he sighted and fired. The man went down, and as he did so Willie heard a quiet sound close beside him, followed a fraction of a second later by the brief chatter of firing from the peak, delayed by distance and no more than four or five rounds.

He said, "I got 'im just as he fired, Princess. Looks like he was on 'is own."

Her hand pulled feebly at his arm, and when he turned his head he saw that she was lying on her side now with blood welling from the hollow behind the collarbone, and he knew that a chance bullet had driven down through that hollow, deep into her chest. She said in a gentle voice, "Well, there now. I'm sorry. Do what you think best, Willie love."

She turned on to her front, head pillowed in the crook of her good arm, her face hidden. Seconds later her body went limp. Willie reached out to rest a hand on her neck. Two fingers felt the last fading pulse of the carotid artery, and he knew he was alone. Beside her the radio squawked and Dinah's voice said, "We've got up steam, Modesty, and the driver says only ten minutes now. You and Willie start running. Please, honey, don't wait."

Before Willie could reply he heard the sound of mortars from down in the valley. Moments later, when three bombs landed, he was huddled down in the hollow, the radio beneath him for protection, an arm across Modesty for no reason. The bombs exploded, the nearest fifteen yards from where he lay. He said, "No damage, Princess," and was lifting his head to watch for the expected attack when a piece of rock the size of a melon came down from thirty feet on to his ankle.

After the first gasp of agony he focused on the pain, closing his mind to it as he peered down the slope. Four men were moving up at a crouching run, weaving as they came. He waited a little, ignoring Dinah's anxious voice from the radio, then picked off the leading two. The others turned back and he let them go. Using the Sivaji technique, he opened himself to the pain, letting it wash through him as water through a net, distancing himself from it until it faded to insignificance. Then he picked up the radio and said, "Dinah?"

"Oh G.o.d, I heard them start that bombing again, Willie. Are you both okay?"

He said, "I've got something important to tell you, Dinah. Modesty was going to tell you 'erself, but it's too late now. She just died."

"Oh Willie, no!" Her voice cracked on the word.

"It's what she wanted. Exactly what she wanted. She told me why, only a couple of minutes ago. Now listen..."

A little way from where the second rail was being bolted to the last of the fishplates, Dinah stood whitefaced and drawn, the radio close to her ear. A minute later, cheeks wet with tears, she said shakily, "But why didn't she tell us? Oh, I'm sorry, that's stupid! She wouldn't lay that on us. But... but... oh G.o.d, I can't think. Can you get away now? She'd want that, Willie, you know she would. We'll be ready the moment you get down here."

His voice over the radio was easy and untroubled. "She told me to do what I think best, so here it is, Dinah. With one of those last bombs, a b.l.o.o.d.y great chunk of rock came down on my ankle and it's bust. Now listen and don't argue. There's no way I can come with you. I'm staying 'ere till I see the train on its way. When it's about 'alf a mile from where you are now I'll be able to see the smoke until you go be'ind that low ridge where the track takes a long bend."

"Willie, please-"

"Just listen. Once you're away I'll move off. I'll be a bit slow, but with any luck I'll be able to lie low or get clear one way or another. Then I'll take the jungle route to the border. I can rig a crutch with the rifles, and I'm good in the jungle, you know that. This is what Modesty would want, so this is what I'll do. Okay?"

She said in a small voice, "Yes, Willie."

"That's a good girl. Don't let Steve make a song and dance about this, will you? I think that's all. See you later, love, but I might be a while so don't wait up for me, eh?"

"All right, Willie. Good luck, and a big hug from me." She lowered the radio and called, "Steve! Steve!"

Two minutes later, grey with exhaustion and grief, Collier said, "Oh, dear G.o.d. We'll be breathing on one lung from now on." He put his arms round Dinah and held her close. "Do you think he'll make it?"

"He'll... sort of do his best. But for Willie there's no longer any point in making it now. That's the difference." She drew a deep breath, stepped back and wiped her damp grimy face. "Come on, tiger. We've got a job to finish. I couldn't bear to let them down now."

Fifteen minutes later Willie saw smoke from the locomotive appear above the trees to the east. He watched with satisfaction as it moved steadily on for several minutes before vanis.h.i.+ng behind the ridge. There was no further attack in that time, but he suspected that a small party had split from the main body unseen during the last mortar attack and had moved along the valley to climb the ridge further west and so outflank him.

On reflection he decided it was time to tidy up and be gone.

He had strapped the broken ankle securely, and lashed the two riflebarrels together, overlapping end to end so that they formed a makes.h.i.+ft crutch. Now he spent five minutes crawling round the edge of the hollow, setting small quant.i.ties of plastic explosive deep in the sandy earth beyond the rim, talking quietly to Modesty.

"I'm glad it worked out for you, Princess. Knocked me sideways at first, but... I can see 'ow you felt. I reckon they're aiming to outflank me, so I'll be off soon. The train's away with Dinah and Steve and all the rest, so there's nothing more to be done 'ere. I 'ope you're okay. Funny thing, when we were on the train Steve got us talking about what comes next. Well... it's anyone's guess, isn't it?" He put the last piece of plastic in place, then set a detonator in each before crawling away from the hollow to the edge of the wooded slope leading down to the railway. There he took cover, watching.

The explosions came as close together as he had hoped when setting the detonators, and as the echoes died he saw with satisfaction that what had been a deep hollow was now a mound of earth and sand. He said, "Sleep well, Princess," and began to hobble down the slope.

After five minutes he had covered no more than two hundred yards and had fallen twice. His hurt foot gave no support and the rifles made a poor crutch on the incline, tending to slip. Pausing for a moment, holding a sapling for support, he heard shouts from the ridgetop behind him. Chest heaving with effort, he pushed on. There came a louder shout from above, and he heard the whipcrack sound of a bullet as it pa.s.sed a yard to his left.

"Getting a bit dodgy, Princess." Holding in his mind's eye that smile of hers that was his alone, he stumbled on, well content, but had moved only a few more yards when he fell again and for a moment was numb.

Then he was on his feet once more, moving easily and unenc.u.mbered down the slope, without pain, the trees gone now. Timeless he moved down the slope of gra.s.s that in some way was not gra.s.s but perhaps the essence of it, down towards the valley where a silvery path or perhaps a river, though in some way neither, ran or perhaps simply was.

Somewhere he could hear the songs the stars sang, and with new senses he was aware in unimaginable ways of himself and everything about him, but above all and as never before knowing the totality of the familiar companion moving with him.