Bloody Passage - Jack Higgins [42]
"Holy Mother of God," Barzini said in disgust. "Sometimes I wonder how in the hell I ever allowed you to persuade me to join this crazy enterprise," and he went into the wheelhouse and pressed the button on the electric winch which immediately started to heave in the anchor.
Ras Kanai, Cape of Fear. It was well named. A grim, forbidding-looking place of jagged rocks and high cliffs and the fortress itself, half glimpsed through a drift of rain in the gathering darkness was quite something.
We'd draped nets from the mast down to the stern rail and I stood in their shelter and examined the situation through binoculars. The cliff below the south ramparts looked completely unclimbable to me and at their base, waves thundered in across a jumble of black rocks although there was also a narrow strip of shingle which promised some sort of toehold.
I passed the binoculars to Nino who kept them for only a few brief moments while he examined the cliff face. He gave them back to me and nodded cheerfully. "Nothing to it. Given time, I could get up there on my own. With a rope it will be a piece of cake."
"Even in darkness?"
"Most suitable time of all," he said. "Nothing to see if you look down."
Which seemed to take care of that so I handed the binoculars to Langley. He took rather longer over his inspection than Nino. "Two sentries," he said. "I can see them clearly enough. Nasty-looking cliffs those."
"You think you can get up them?" I said.
"Do you?"
I didn't seem to have a ready answer to that one. Certainly Simone looked serious enough and even Barzini wasn't smiling as he took Palmyra round in a wide circle and started back.
"Cheer up, Aldo." I leaned in the wheelhouse window and helped myself to one of his cheroots. " After all, you don't have to get up the damn thing, do you?"
Before he could reply, Zingari, who was standing in the corner by the door, looking if possible even more agitated than ever, cracked wide open.
"For pity's sake, Signor Grant, abandon this whole foolish scheme. No good will come of it."
Barzini said in disgust, "My God, and we're supposed to depend on that object."
Langley appeared in the open doorway. He stuck a cigarette in his mouth and scratched a match on the door. "What's the matter with you, then, old stick?" he said to Zingari. "Didn't Mr. Stavrou pay you enough?"
"Please--signor," Zingari protested. "Mr. Stavrou has been more than generous."
"Oh, I see. What you mean is that you didn't know what the job would entail before you took it."
Zingari oozed sweat, the little anguished eyes swivelled helplessly from side to side seeking escape where there was none.
Langley said, "Mr. Stavrou appreciates loyalty above most things. Last year, for example, he had dealings with a man called Cousceau in Algiers in connection with foreign exchange. Rather large sums were involved and friend Cousceau proved wanting."
Zingari licked dry lips. "Signor--please. What has this to do with me?"
"They found him in a cellar in the Casbah," Langley went on. "Nailed to a table. Hands and feet. He'd been there three days and he was certainly in no condition to get up and walk. You find this interesting?"
Zingari, face twitching in horror, seemed incapable of speech, which suited me just fine, for I was beginning to get the impression that the more scared Zingari was, the better it was for the rest of us.
We passed between the Sisters into the lagoon and dropped anchor again. It was almost dark and Zingari tugged at my sleeve as I stood at the rail.
"You need me anymore, Mr. Grant? Can I go now?"
"All right," I said. "Get in the boat."
I took him ashore myself, running the prow up onto the sand so that he could step out dry-footed. As he did so, I said, "Tomorrow morning."
He turned warily, bending to peer at my face through the darkness. "Signor?"
"Ten o'clock," I said. "Here, with the truck. I want you to show me everything. The prison, the road, Zabia. You understand me?"
"But Signor," he said, "there could be great danger in driving around in the immediate area of the