Bloody Passage - Jack Higgins [64]
"Now you see them, now you don't," he shouted. "I used to be great at this sort of thing in the amusement arcades on the front at Brighton. Nino tells me you intend to go out trailing clouds of glory?"
"I always fancied it," I said. "Like Beau Geste and his Viking funeral."
The Landrovers emerged into an open stretch of road again and commenced firing, bullets plowing into the top of the boxcar in front of us. Langley answered in a continuous burst that seemed to go on for ever and suddenly, the rear Landrover veered sharply off the road and plowed through an olive grove, coming to rest against a stone wall.
The other vanished from sight as the road disappeared behind a series of low hills and Langley laughed out loud and patted the RPD. "One down, one to go."
"Two to go," I said. "You're forgetting the lead Landrover--the one with Masmoudi and Husseini in it."
He looked mildly surprised, "You know, you've got a point there, old stick. What do you think they're up to?"
"Something nasty, I've no doubt. Maybe they intend to try and block the track at some suitable point up ahead. If they do, I'm keeping my fingers crossed it's after the Gela tunnel. That's our big strength. Masmoudi doesn't know where we intend to get off."
"I'll keep my eyes skinned," he said cheerfully. "I'd like to cut a notch for Masmoudi before we go."
I left him and climbed down the side of the boxcar, using the bars and slipped inside. Wyatt still lay with his head in Simone's lap and Nino crouched beside them.
"How is he?" I asked.
"Not so good," Nino answered. "I tell you something. Getting him down to the beach is going to be one hell of a job."
"I didn't say it would be easy." I dropped to one knee beside Simone. "You know what to do when we reach the tunnel?"
"Yes. Nino told me." She put a hand on my arm. "Has it got to be this way, Oliver?"
"Can you suggest anything better?" Her eyes dropped and I patted her cheek. "See you in church. Keep smiling."
She looked up. "Is that a promise?"
But I didn't reply to that one, mainly because there didn't really seem to be much point. I worked my way along the bars to the tender and joined Barzini on the footplate.
There was a quick burst of firing from Langley and I turned to see the remaining Landrover appear briefly in a gap between two hills. It didn't bother to reply and disappeared a moment later. This performance was repeated three or four times over the next couple of miles. It was somehow uncanny, the Landrover appearing and disappearing in the hard white light of the moon without a sound except for the sullen chatter of Langley's machine gun, the rattle of the train.
"What are they playing at?" Barzini demanded. "Why don't they fire?"
"Keeping us under observation, is my guess," I said. "They've got a radio aerial on that thing, which means they're probably giving Masmoudi a blow-by-blow account every step of the way."
"And where in the hell is Masmoudi?"
"Somewhere up ahead, waiting for us." I turned to Talif. "Where would be a good place?"
"To block the line, effendi? That's easy. There is a way station at Al Haifa on the other side of the river. There are points there and a loop so that we can be taken off the main line if something is coming the other way."
"I see," I said. "So he's no need to block the line, just throw the points and we'll be turned into that loop without being able to do a damn thing about it."
Barzini chuckled and slapped me on the back. "And the only thing wrong with that from Masmoudi's point of view, is that we'll be long gone."
"Gela tunnel very soon now, effendi," Talif said. "Other side of the next cut."
We dropped into a defile between high banks, came out of the other side at the top of a long incline and below, perhaps quarter of a mile away, was the entrance to the tunnel. There were