Sad Wind From the Sea - Jack Higgins [63]
For a moment an angry retort was on his lips and then he cracked suddenly, and his shoulders sagged a little. There was a force here that he could not contend with on equal terms. He shook his head, an ironical smile on his lips, and said: 'Integrity and honour. I thought they'd gone out of fashion.' He grinned. 'Mason must be laughing his damned head off at me.'
She swung round and there was hope on her face. 'You'll help me, Mark? You'll help me to get the gold to Saigon?'
His face hardened and he shook his head slowly. 'Not a chance, angel. I can't afford your kind of ethics.'
Her shoulders sagged and she seemed to age ten years. 'I see.' She turned away and began to wipe another plate in a mechanical, defeated fashion.
Hagen said, 'Are you going to help us get out of here?'
She carefully put the last plate in the cupboard and turned towards him and he saw that there was a change in her. She was straight again and in full control. 'Yes, I'll help you.' She laughed bitterly. 'I'm trapped by my kind of ethics, you see. I'm thinking of that old man in the engine-room. If I refused to help you and we were caught, he would die, too, and I wouldn't like to have that on my conscience.'
For a moment they challenged each other and then Hagen turned away. 'If you'll come on deck, I'll show you what to do,' he said.
He gave her a heavy reefer coat as a protection against the rain, and a powerful electric torch. He took her forward to the prow and shone the torch out into the gloom. The heavy white beam lanced through the rain and mist and showed the reeds quite clearly on the far side of the lagoon. 'What do I have to do?' she said.
He explained. 'Stay here in the prow. We'll be going dead slow and I'll keep warning you when to look out for side channels. The waterways are pretty narrow and the torch should give you enough light. I don't want to use the spot.'
She nodded. 'Is that all?'
His smile was obscured by the night as he said: 'Don't bother about port and starboard. Just yell out right or left and then I'll know what you mean.' He turned on his heel and a thought struck him and he added: 'Hang on to the stay and be careful. I don't want you going over the side.'
Her voice came sadly from the darkness. 'Good luck, Mark.' For a brief moment he almost reached out his arms to her and then he turned quickly and went aft to the wheelhouse.
It was nearly four o'clock when the engines shuddered into life and he took Hurrier forward and into the barrier of reeds. Slowly and relentlessly they passed through and out into the larger lagoon beyond. He turned the wheel sharply and the boat swirled obediently round and proceeded into the mist towards the sea.
Hagen opened the window of the wheelhouse and rain kicked into his face. There was a slight wind blowing in from the sea, across the marshes, lifting the mist before it into weird shapes, and he could taste the salt of it on his lips. Very slowly and carefully the boat ploughed forward into the darkness, her engines no more than a dull rumble as though they slept. Hagen consulted his chart. At their present speed they should be approaching the first cut-off. He leaned out of the window and hailed the girl. 'Any minute now on your left there should be a channel.'
For a few minutes there was nothing, only the beam of her torch stabbing into the darkness ahead, and then she cried out and Hagen began to swing the wheel. The prow of the launch grazed a wall of reeds and he swung the wheel even further and then quickly spun it in his hands to straighten her, and they were proceeding safely along the new course.
They repeated the manoeuvre on three occasions without serious mishap. Only once did they overshoot and Hagen was compelled to reverse, but the time lost was of no consequence. Gradually a faint, pearly luminosity appeared and he was able to distinguish the greyness of the mist and then the dark, silver lances of the rain. On the next occasion he had to change course he was able to distinguish the turning for himself. He leaned out of the window and shouted to the