Exodus - Leon Uris [285]
She entered one of the faculty bunkers. Dr. Lieberman and the rest of the staff all sat on the edge of their cots staring blankly, numb with tension. Not a word was spoken. It was so morbid she could not stand it and she went outside again.
Both Karen and Dov were standing sentry duty.
She returned to the command-post bunker to find that Jordana had gone.
She stretched out on the cot again and covered her legs with a blanket. The vision of the men inching down the mountainside came to her once more. The day had left her spent. She began to doze. The hours passed.
Midnight—one o’clock. Kitty thrashed about on the cot. Her brain was filled with nightmare. She saw the horde of Kassi’s men charging out at the column, shrieking, with their sabers glinting. The guards were dead and the Arabs had taken all the children and dug a huge pit for them....
Kitty bolted up on the cot in a cold sweat with her heart pounding madly. She shook her head slowly and trembled from head to foot. Then a sound reached her ears. She cocked her head and listened. Her eyes widened in terror!
It was a sound of distant gunfire!
She staggered to her feet. Yes! It was gunfire ... coming from the direction of Abu Yesha! It was no dream! The column had been discovered!
Jordana entered the bunker just as Kitty rushed for the door.
“Let me go!” she shrieked.
“Kitty, no, no ...!”
“They’re killing my babies! Murderers! Murderers!”
Jordana exerted all her strength to pin Kitty to the wall but Kitty was wild. She lashed out and tore from Jordana’s grasp. The sabra girl grabbed her, spun her around, and smashed her across the shoulders, sending her to the floor sobbing.
“Listen to me! That gunfire you hear is Zev Gilboa and the Palmach making a diversionary attack. They are hitting the opposite side of Abu Yesha to draw Kassi’s men away from the convoy.”
“You’re lying!”
“It is true, I swear it. I was told not to say anything until just before the attack. I came here and saw you asleep and went to warn the others.”
Jordana knelt down and helped Kitty to her feet and led her to the cot. “There is a little brandy left. Drink it.”
Kitty swallowed it, half gagging to force it down. She brought herself under control.
“I am sorry that I struck you,” Jordana said.
“No ... you did the right thing.”
Jordana sat beside Kitty and patted her hand and massaged the back of her neck. Kitty weakly lay her head on Jordana’s shoulder and cried very softly until she had cried herself out. Then she stood up and put on her heavy clothing.
“Karen and Dov will be coming off guard soon. I’ll go to my bunker and make them some tea.”
The hours of darkness dragged on and on—a night without end. Out in the blackness the men crawled on their bellies past Abu Yesha while the Palmach made its raid on the other side of the village, and then they plunged quickly down ... down ...
Two o’clock. Three o’clock. By now the waiters, even Jordana Ben Canaan, sat drained and empty, in a dazed silence. At five-fifteen they came out of the bunkers. The morning was icy. A thin, slick frost covered the center green. They all walked out of the main gate to that point where the lookout post hung over the edge of the mountain.
The darkness faded from the land and the lights in the valley went off one by one as a musty gray dawn revealed the floor far below.
The sentry looked through the field glasses for some sign of life down the mountain. There was nothing.
“Look!”
The sentry pointed. All of them stared toward the Yad El moshav, where dots and dashes blinked out from a signal light.
“What does it read? What does it mean?”
“It says ... X1416 ... ” For a moment there was confusion. The message was repeated—X1416.
“They