Doctor Who_ Cat's Cradle_ Warhead - Andrew Cartmel [56]
The firing stopped for a moment and Ace started for the flap of the tent. Dfewar grabbed her and pulled her back just as the firing started again. He made a slamming gesture with the flat of his hand, pushing a fresh magazine into an automatic weapon. The sniper had just been reloading. A guy rope outside the tent broke, severed by a bullet, and the tent’s ceiling came bellying down, losing its shape.
The Kurds were swearing, shouting to each other now. Two of them crawled to the back of the tent and started cutting at the fabric with knives. They were widening the slit so that a man could get through it when the firing stopped again. This time it didn’t restart. There was a shout from the hillside.
Ace and Dfewar were the first out of the tent, running in the moonlight. Sean followed them. There was a crash of breaking vegetation as a bulky shape came rolling down the path of the hillside. ‘Warren!’ screamed Sean, running through the dry grass. He skidded to his knees on the ground, kneeling beside the boy who’d fallen from the path. The boy was fat, wearing a barbecue apron with a picture of a woman’s bare torso printed on it. He was shaking his head and clutching his mouth. Sean tried to touch him but the fat boy batted his hand away.
One of the Kurdish mercenaries came down the path in the moonlight. He was carrying one of the American automatic rifles as well as his own. He looked at the boys on the ground, then at Ace and Dfewar. He shrugged and smiled sheepishly. Sean pointed a finger at Ace. ‘You bastards,’ he said. His hand was trembling. ‘Warren’s got a broken tooth.’
‘Warren’s lucky he isn’t wearing his brains on his apron,’ said Ace.
* * *
‘You guys don’t know what you’re doing.’ Calvin shook his head and walked along beside the sea, staring down at his feet. He scuffed his sneakers through the damp beach pebbles.
‘Probably not,’ said Ace. She looked back to where Dfewar and his men were digging. The barrel was almost completely uncovered now, seawater flowing into the hole as they widened it with shovels and entrenching tools. The moon was behind clouds and they worked by the chemical light of snap‐sticks. Calvin brushed a strand of his long black hair away from his eyes.
‘We came here so nothing like this would happen.’
‘Nothing like what?’
‘You people. Coming here and taking it away. The government.’ He looked back at the barrel. The Kurds were wrestling it out of the ground.
‘We’re not the government,’ said Ace.
Calvin shrugged. ‘No difference,’ he said.
‘What are you going to do now?’
‘Go back home. Back to the States. Our parents are all worried sick. I guess it never would have worked.’ He looked up at the dark bulk of the island rising away from them, up from the sea. ‘I came here with my parents. Family vacation when I was ten. It seemed like the other side of the world.’
‘It is the other side of the world,’ said Ace.
‘Distance doesn’t exist any more. You never heard of the information revolution? I should’ve known someone would find us here. When they knew what we had. We were stupid.’
‘No you weren’t. You did a good job.’
‘Don’t humour me. You think I’m going to start crying again, right?’
Ace smiled in the darkness. ‘Right,’ she said.
‘We thought we were like the three musketeers, you know.’
‘Except there were four of you.’
‘There were four of the three musketeers, too. We swore we’d all work together and guard it and make sure nothing bad happened.’
‘Nothing bad has happened,’ said Ace.
‘You really don’t know what you’re doing, do you? You don’t know what you’ve got.’
‘I’ve got a friend. He knows.’
‘I hope you’re right.’ Calvin picked up a stone and snapped his arm hard, throwing out into the darkness over the sea. Ace listened but she didn’t hear a splash.
* * *
There