Bloody Passage - Jack Higgins [31]
As I opened the box, Langley moved to join me. The Stechkin was in a wooden holster and when I took it out I saw that it was similar to the Browning in appearance at least.
"Five inch barrel, twenty round magazine," Barzini said. "A hell of a lot of gun, especially if you use the wooden holster as a stock. They tell me a good shot can consistently hit a man-size target at up to a hundred and fifty yards."
"Now there's a challenge, if you like," Langley said. "May I, old stick?"
He hefted the Stechkin first in his right then in his left and finally tried it both hands together.
Barzini passed him an ammunition clip. "The safety selector's on the left behind the slide. Semiautomatic in the center, automatic at the top."
Langley took careful aim and shot the first target through the head, then he fired five times rapidly and scored five hits in the heart area, three close together, the other two straying towards the edge.
"Not bad," he said, "but I think the trigger needs lightening."
He went on to automatic and shredded the second target with what was left in the magazine. He turned and handed the weapon to me without a word.
Barzini gave me another magazine and I reloaded, took aim and fired half a dozen times at the third target. I nicked the edge of the heart once and the rest were in the shoulder area except for one which seemed to have missed altogether.
Langley shook his head. "It just isn't your day, is it? Ah, well, I suppose I'd better wend my way."
He started for the door and Barzini said, "Heh, smart boy, aren't you forgetting something?"
Langley smiled, took the envelope from his inside breast pocket and threw it on the table. "I thought you'd never ask. I'll be seeing you, old stick."
He went up the steps whistling softly between his teeth. The door closed behind him. Barzini took out the bank draft and examined it.
I said, "I'd cash it first thing in the morning if I were you."
"Tell me," he said. "The business earlier in the car about being too old and now this? Letting Langley make a fool of you."
"So he thinks he has an edge." I shrugged. "What harm does it do if it makes him feel good."
I fired three times so rapidly that to anyone except an expert it must have sounded like one shot, putting a bullet between the eyes of each of the remaining targets.
I put the Stechkin down on the table and nodded, "Yes, that really is a most remarkable weapon. Remind me to take one along, will you?"
I moved past him and went up the stairs.
6
The Rules of the Game
We came into the horseshoe bay below the villa at Capo Passero just before noon on Wednesday. Having left Palermo at midnight, we'd had an excellent passage, taking the western route past Marsala through the Sicilian Channel and the Golfo di Gela.
The Cessna was moored to the two buoys in the center of the bay and as we moved in towards the stone jetty the Landrover came down the dirt road which hardly surprised me. I suppose we must have been under scrutiny from the ramparts for quite some time.
Barzini was in the wheelhouse and Nino and Angelo fended the Palmyra off as we bumped against the jetty and I went over the rail with a line. As I looped it round a bollard, Langley got out of the Landrover followed by Gatano and came toward me.
"Hello there, old stick. How's every little thing?"
Gatano's face was badly bruised and there were stitches in the left cheek, the whole combining to make him look uglier than ever.
"Who's your friend?" I asked.
Gatano was holding a Sterling sub-machine gun and the look on his face was such that for a moment I thought he might be tempted to use it.
"Still full of the joys of spring, I see," Langley said. "The old man wants to see you and Barzini. The others can stay here."
"Anything to oblige." I turned to look up at Barzini as he cut the engine and leaned out of the wheelhouse window. "Royal command, Aldo. We're going visiting."
"That's nice," he said and came out on deck.
He was wearing a Smith and Wesson .38 in a spring holster