Bloody Passage - Jack Higgins [40]
The wheel kicked like a living thing and the seas grew rougher, rocking Palmyra violently and once again I tried increasing speed until the prow seemed to reach clean out of the water each time a wave rolled beneath her.
It was an exhilarating experience and for the next hour, I was totally involved in the task in hand. Finally, Barzini appeared.
"I'll take over," he said. "Go and have a cup of coffee."
As I was about to go out, I suddenly remembered the Uzi sub-machine gun. Langley had certainly been up here on his own for long enough to do something about it if he wanted to.
I pulled down the flap and Barzini glanced up. "Still there. Did the girl tell him?"
"So she says."
I took the Uzi down and weighed it in my hands for a moment. Everything seemed perfectly normal. I took out the ammunition clip, checked it and replaced it, which seemed to be that. I was about to put it back when something made me look at the firing pin-- instinct, I suppose. It was a good job that I did because the end had been nipped off, probably with a pair of pliers.
I showed Barzini. "The bastard," he said angrily and dropped the flap under the chart table and got the Stechkin.
I checked it over thoroughly, but everything seemed to be in perfect working order. I replaced them both and Barzini said, "So, the girl was telling the truth. She is on your side."
"I'll reserve judgment on that one."
"What about this other business? Are you going to confront Langley?"
"No point," I said. "For the time being it's enough that we know."
I went below feeling unaccountably cheerful. Certainly in the right mood for ham and eggs this time. Langley, having eaten, had taken Simone's bunk in the aft cabin and appeared to be sleeping.
Simone gave me my meal and left me to go up on deck. I went up again myself when I'd finished eating and found her in the wheelhouse with Barzini. She turned to greet me excitedly as I opened the door.
"We're there, Oliver! We're there!"
Something of an exaggeration, but on the other hand, there was no doubt that the gray smudge on the horizon, visible now and then through the curtain of rain, was the coast of Libya, Cape Misratah, to be precise.
8
Fire in the Night
In spite of the weather we sighted a considerable number of small fishing craft on the way in--tunny boats mostly. By the time we were close inshore, the storm seemed to have blown itself out, the wind dropping, leaving only a calm gray evening with a light rain falling.
The entrance to Gela Bay was a narrow passage between two jagged peaks which according to the charts, were known as the Sisters. Inside, there was an enormous landlocked lagoon fringed by white beaches and backed by a scattering of palm trees. There was a stone pier and a couple of motorized fishing dhows were tied up there. There were perhaps half-a-dozen flat-roofed houses scattered among the palm trees--no more.
We dropped anchor in a part of the channel where there was eight to ten fathoms of water. Barzini cut the engine and came out to join Langley and Simone and me at the rail.
The rain hissed down into the water of the lagoon. "Come to sunny Africa," Langley observed.
"So what?" I said. "You're not here to get a tan."
Nino and Angelo Carter appeared from the companionway looking pale. I said to Simone, "Try to get some food down them, will you? We've got work to do. They aren't going to be much good in this state."
She shepherded them below and Barzini said, "Now what?"
"I'll go ashore and see what's what. Zingari might be there now. You never know. Are you coming?"
"No, I'll stay. Take the pretty boy here with you. He probably needs the exercise."
If he was trying to bait Langley he was wasting his time for he simply grinned good-humoredly and gave me a hand to get the large inflatable dinghy over the side.
I pressed the starting button on the outboard motor and we moved in toward the shore. There wasn't much activity. An Arab with a white