Midnight Runner - Jack Higgins [87]
They watched him enter the guard's van and shut the door. Keenan, under Ali's supervision, was at the controls. He sounded the whistle, the train juddered, and there was a great cloud of steam.
"Move it, Billy," Dillon said and led the way, sliding down the slope at the rear of the blockhouse.
The train was moving now with a great clanking, and as it passed they ran out onto the track, reached for the rail of the platform to the guard's van, and heaved themselves up. Keenan kept pulling the whistle line. Billy and Dillon, AKs ready, stood on either side of the door.
Dillon got his Codex out and called Villiers. He got an answer almost immediately. "Is that you, Dillon?"
"As ever was. They've taken on water. Billy and I are on the platform at the rear of the guard's van. We're going in hard, so do your best and let Ferguson know."
He clicked off, put the Codex in his pocket, and grinned at Billy. "I'm an older guy, so you can have the honor."
"Bastard."
Dillon turned the brass handle and opened the door and Billy was through in a second, AK ready. At the desk, Yusuf turned in alarm as the two demons, dressed in black, appeared. Billy had him back against the desk, the muzzle of the AK under his chin.
"He'll kill you without hesitation," Dillon said in Arabic. "And the weapon is silenced. No one will know."
Yusuf was terrified. "Sahb, please don't."
"You speak English?"
"Yes."
"Then use it now, my companion has no Arabic. Answer my questions and live. Where are the explosives you carry?"
"On the two enclosed cars in the center of the train."
"The three men, the Irishmen, what have they done since you left Al Mukalli?"
"I don't know, Sahb."
"You lie. Kill him, Billy."
Billy stood back and took aim and Yusuf cried wildly. "No, Sahb, I speak the truth."
"You still lie. You are Rashid Bedu, you and the engine driver and fireman. I know this because the Countess boasted you were her people. As this is so, you must know the train stops on the Bacu Bridge, where the Irishmen will blow it up. Is this not so?"
"Yes, Sahb."
"So tell me the truth. What have they done, the Irishmen, since leaving Al Mukalli?"
Yusuf was in despair. "I only know that they have worked in the explosive cars for most of the time, but I was instructed to stay here, Sahb. I have not seen what they have done."
It was obviously the truth, and Dillon lit a cigarette and passed it to him. "Is it easy to get to those cars?"
"Yes, Sahb, through the door, and there are walkways across the open cars."
"So you can go all the way to the engine?"
"Yes, Sahb."
Dillon turned menacing. "Is there more to tell me or have you told me all?"
"I swear it on the life of my eldest son." He was obviously trying hard, sweat on his face. "They worked in the car for an hour or an hour and a half. Afterwards, two of them sat in here and drank whiskey. The leader joined Ali and Halim on the footplate. He's been driving the train."
"Driving it?"
"Yes, Sahb, when we were taking on water, Ali told me he is like a young boy. He loves trains."
"Did he tell Ali this?"
"No, Sahb, he has no Arabic and Ali no English. It's just the way he behaves."
Billy said, "So what's the big deal, Dillon?"
"The big deal is he's busy up there, Billy, and that's good." He took Yusuf by the arm and pushed him to the back of the van. At that point, looking up the gradient, the train was doing perhaps twenty-five miles an hour. "I'll keep my word," he said to Yusuf. "I promised that if you told me the truth, I would let you live." He opened the rear door.
"But, Sahb, I..."
"Sahb, nothing. Jump and perhaps you live, stay and you certainly die."
Yusuf went down on the metal steps and jumped to one side of the track, where banks of sand covered the oil pipes. He rolled over several times and then the train went round a corner and he was lost from view.
"What now?" Billy said.
"We need either Casey or Kelly, either will do. That's why it's useful that Keenan is busy on the footplate. Let's go."
He opened the door and looked out across the open cars, able to see Kelly