Midnight Runner - Jack Higgins [86]
"We'll have to be damn quick. How do we board?"
"The guard's van at the rear."
"What if there isn't one?"
"There always is, Billy." Dillon glanced at his watch. "A quarter to eight. Time for the moment of truth."
There was a sound, a kind of whisper in the distance, and then a long, drawn-out whistle.
"Here she comes, Billy, let's get under cover." They started up the slope and bedded down.
T he door by the toilet in the guard's van opened to a metal ledge. There was a coupling to one of the open cars loaded with oil pipes, a wooden plank walkway giving access across four open wagons in all. Then came the enclosed cars containing the explosives, the ladder to each of them leading to the roof. Finally, the water tank and the coal tender. The point was that the engine was totally reachable and there were small access doors at each end of the enclosed wagons.
All of which suited Keenan's purposes. During the trip from Al Mukalli, he and Casey and Kelly had laid their charges, opening the access doors between the two explosive wagons, linking them with det cord. The block of Semtex was in the front wagon, and the det cord also linked to chemical fuses Keenan had stuck in some of the explosives packages.
It hadn't taken long. He'd decided on a couple of timer pencils, after all. They were ten-minute jobs and already in place in the Semtex block and ready to be broken at the appropriate moment when the train was halted on the bridge.
In fact, for the past hour or so, Keenan had enjoyed himself more than he had in years. Casey and Kelly had returned to the guard's van and the whiskey bottle, but Keenan had made his way up to the engine and joined Ali and Halim on the footplate.
Ali had allowed him to handle the controls, drive the old engine, savor the wind in his face, the smell of steam, and Keenan had found it wonderful. As the train started up the steep gradient to Tank Five, he sounded the whistle. Yusuf had explained the necessity for the stop, and now Ali tapped him on the arm and took over. He started to slow the train down and up ahead was Tank Five.
C rouched behind the rocks halfway up the slope, Dillon and Billy waited, and suddenly Dillon's Codex rang.
He answered instinctively. "Who is it?"
"Ferguson. I wondered what was happening."
"We're at Tank Five and the train's just toiling up the slope, that's what's happening, so I'd get off the line if I were you, General."
The train ground to a halt below amid a hissing of stream. Ali and Halim got down from the footplate, followed by Keenan.
"The man himself," Dillon said softly. "That's Barry Keenan, Billy, and that's Kelly and the other is Casey," he added, as they arrived, each with an AK slung from his shoulder. Yusuf trailed at the rear.
The voices below were muted, as Dillon and Billy watched, and Halim brought a length of canvas tubing linked to the train, which he clipped onto the end of the outlet tube at the bottom of the tank and started to work a lever, which was obviously a hand pump. Dillon debated whether to call Villiers and decided to leave it until they were on the train. Kelly and Casey were laughing at something.
"We could knock them off now," Billy whispered. "Why not?"
"Because we can't be certain what Keenan's done on the train. He'll have everything ready to blow, probably timers. I suspect the explosives will be in the enclosed freight cars, but we need one of those bastards to show us."
"I see your point."
At that moment, Halim uncoupled the canvas water tubes, Keenan got back on the footplate, and Kelly climbed up a ladder to the top of the front car and squatted there. Casey did the same, sitting behind him on the rear car. Ali and Halim followed Keenan and Yusuf moved to the rear of the train.
"The guard,"