Midnight Runner - Jack Higgins [40]
Kate said, "My cousin would like to see something of your work."
He looked Rupert over and was not impressed. "Ah, something for the tourists." He beckoned two youths forward. "Try to take me." They looked distinctly worried. "I said, try to take me," he shouted.
They ran in at him together. He avoided the first boy's punch easily, grabbed him by the jacket, then fell backwards, a foot on the boy's stomach, and tossed him high in the air. The youth crashed to the ground, Hamid rolled on his front and kicked backwards at the other boy, dislodging his left kneecap. The boy lay crying on the ground.
Hamid confronted Kate, Rupert, and McGee, hands on his hips, smiling triumphantly. "Is that good enough?" There was a kind of contempt in his voice.
"Hell, you're too good for me. I pass." Rupert put a hand up placatingly.
Hamid laughed, head thrown back, legs apart, and Rupert kicked him between them, dead center. Hamid went down hard and started to assume the fetal position. Rupert put a foot on his neck.
"Very careless, fella, very. I could break your neck easily, but I won't, because I imagine help is hard to find out here."
He turned to Kate. "Is that it? Can we go now?"
"You bastard," she said, but she was laughing.
Carver was doing something inside the Scorpion. When he saw them approach, he got out. "Ready to go?"
"We'll spend the night in Hazar, then we'll leave at seven for Northolt." She turned to McGee. "I'll leave Keenan and Drumcree to you."
She climbed inside, Rupert followed her, and they took off a few moments later.
W hen Villiers and his men reached El Hajiz, Bobby Hawk and his troops were already there with three Land Rovers.
"Good to see you." Villiers held out his hand. "Decent trip?"
"Better than yours, by all accounts. What happened?"
"I'll fill you in later. Let's set up camp."
They laagered up the five Land Rovers in a semicircle against a bluff, the scattered palms of the pool of the oasis behind them. Some of the men cut fuel from nearby thorn bushes with their jambyas and lit a fire. Soon, water was heating in two pots and Villiers spoke to the assembled men.
"For those of you who were not there, Omar was shot dead by a sniper at the pool at Hama."
There was an excited buzz of anger.
"Settle down. Later, Selim was murdered in Hazar, his throat cut. I know who did these things. It was Abu, the bodyguard of the Countess. He could have killed me, but did not. At Hama, he struck again, hitting a water bag Achmed was carrying. Obviously, he could have killed him, too, but chose not to. I exposed myself, called him to face me. Again, he could have shot me but didn't, because the Countess wants me alive. I will only die if we venture over the line, so we stay in Hazar for now. I just wanted all of you to know all of this."
He turned to Achmed. "Put three men at the machine guns, everyone else can eat."
Later, Villiers and Bobby were presented with a stew, courtesy of Heinz, composed of baked beans and a cock-a-leekie soup, with plenty of unleavened bread to go with it.
"Not quite the officers' mess at Windsor," Villiers said.
"Not bad, though," Bobby Hawk said. "It's given me a taste for honest plain food, all this canned stuff we're eating."
He was only twenty-two, and had already done a tour in Kosovo with the Lifeguards in Challenger tanks and armored cars. The chance for a posting to the Hazar Scouts was something he'd been unable to resist, although it had put back his promotion to Second Lieutenant. Villiers, of course, could have told him the opposite. His time with the Hazar Scouts would count for a great deal for his future military career.
They finished eating, and one of the men took their mess tins and another brought them enamel mugs and a kettle of the bitter black tea that even Bobby was developing a taste for. Dusk was falling, and the men moved to squat by the Land