Bloody Passage - Jack Higgins [49]
I ran him across to the pier in the dinghy and took my time coming back. The more I thought about it the less I liked it, but the truth of it now was quite simply that there was no other choice.
* * *
We spent the rest of the afternoon getting the equipment ready. The uniforms were no problem as Barzini had included half a dozen in the first place to cover all eventualities. The Libyan Army at that time, like most paramilitary organizations throughout the world, favored camouflaged battledresses and Africa Korps caps. All very sinister-looking.
We had a Russian AK assault rifle each plus a hundred and eighty additional rounds in belt bandoliers and I had a Stechkin machine pistol. On top of that there were three Sturma stick grenades per man, not to mention a couple of two hundred foot coils of finest hemp climbing rope, Nino having refused nylon with contempt.
Simone, of course, was going to have to wear Angelo's clothes. She took them off with her to the aft cabin to get ready. She was to wear a loose-fitting mini dress with a smock front and before she put it on I went in and helped her wind two hundred feet of twine around her waist. She also had a rubber electric torch to fasten to the end of the twine and lower from the ramparts to give us some guidance as we waited on the cliffs below.
She took the whole thing with astonishing calm, including the moment when Barzini appeared with a Ceska automatic, fully loaded with a four-inch silencer on the end, which he put in her handbag. He also produced a switchblade knife and a roll of surgical tape.
"I'll tape the knife to your right thigh," he said. "Don't forget it's there."
She pressed the button with her thumb. The razor-sharp blade sprang into view and she shuddered. "I could never use a thing like that on anyone."
"You'll just have to wait and see like the rest of us, won't you?" Barzini told her roughly. He taped the knife in position and went out.
Simone pulled the dress over her head and adjusted it, then she combed her hair. She really did look very pretty. I said, "You look too good. If Masmoudi sees you, he'll grab you himself."
"We'll see," she said, and for the first time that night, smiled. "You'd better take me ashore now."
The others were silent when we went through the saloon, but as I handed her into the dinghy, Langley came out on deck. He leaned over the rail and said awkwardly, "Look, I'm sorry about the way things have worked out--okay?"
She said, "Is that supposed to make it all right?"
"Oh, go to hell," he said and turned away as I pressed the starter and took the dinghy in toward the shore.
We waited in the shadows by the store, not that we had long for I could hear the truck coming for quite some time, the engine clear on the night air.
"Well, this is it," I said as it reached the olive grove.
She cracked then, for a moment only, flinging herself into my arms, kissing me. And then she pulled away.
"If you die on me, I'll never forgive you," I said.
It was a poor attempt at humor. She blew me a kiss, a strangely personal act that touched me deeply, smiled and turned and walked toward the truck as it pulled up.
There was a great deal of shouting and singing coming from inside. In fact, a good many of the girls sounded fairly drunk to me. Perhaps they needed to be. Not a pleasant thought. She climbed up in the cab beside Zingari and he drove away. I stood there in the shadows, listening to the sound of the engine dwindling and after a while there was nothing. So that was very much that and I turned and went back to the dinghy.
When I reached Palmyra, Barzini, Nino, and Langley were waiting on deck, all in battledress. I left them to load the equipment and went below and changed myself. Strange to be in uniform again. It had been a hell of a long time. Once I had enjoyed this kind of thing.
As I went up the companionway I was conscious of neither optimism nor despair. As a matter of interest, the only thing I could think about was Simone and that would never do. It was not, after all,