The Dark Side of the Island - Jack Higgins [21]
He picked up the reins and moved away into the darkness and Lomax turned to Boyd. "We haven't got much time. Let's get our friend outside as quickly as possible."
Katina followed them and stood in the door watching as they pulled the German's gauntlets over his stiffening fingers and strapped on his helmet. As they brushed past her with the body, she turned her face away, but a few moments later as they eased the body into the sidecar, she came out on the porch.
"Who's going to drop him?" Boyd asked.
"I will," Lomax told him. "You get the kit down and be ready to move as soon as we get back."
Boyd nodded and ran up the steps into the house and Lomax turned to Katina. "I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to show me the nearest suitable spot."
She came down the steps without a word and he mounted the machine and waited for her to get on to the pillion. As soon as she was seated, he kicked the starter and let in the clutch.
They followed a well-defined path up out of the valley and then she pressed his shoulder and pointed and he swung the machine into a track that cut across the dark earth like a white line in the night.
The wind on his face carried the good fresh smell of the sea and he could taste the salt on his lips and then they came over a small rise and the dark line of the cliffs was no more than fifty yards below.
He cut the motor and turned as she dismounted. "Is this the place?"
She nodded. "The cliffs are a hundred feet high here. At their base there is an old jetty and a boathouse where my father kept his boat before the war for the fishing. Now the Germans have forbidden us to use it."
He pulled the body from the sidecar and laid it on the ground. Then he put the machine into neutral and let it roll towards the edge of the cliffs.
He hoisted the dead man on to his back and went down the slope. For a moment he stood at the edge, looking at the white line of surf breaking on the rocks below, and then he tossed the body down after the machine and went back to the girl.
She was standing at the top of the rise where he had left her and he was conscious that she was looking at him through the darkness.
"I'm sorry you had to get mixed up in this," he said awkwardly. "It's been a hell of a night by any standards."
She stood quite still without saying anything and he moved closer. "Are you all right?"
And then she started to cry and he put an arm round her gently, pulling her close. After a while, they started back through the darkness towards the farm.
7
Of Action and Passion
Oliver Van Horn's villa was perched on the extreme end of a narrow finger of rock that jutted out into the calm waters of a secluded bay on the other side of the headland from the town. It was a two-storeyed building with a flat roof and stood in a couple of acres of garden surrounded by a high wall.
They went down the hillside and crossed the white dusty strip of road and approached cautiously. The great, iron-bound gates stood open. They moved inside and Katina led the way along a narrow flagged path between olive trees.
The garden was a riot of color, the night air heavy with the scent of flowers. Palms lifted their heads above the wall and gently nodded in the cool breeze and a fountain splashed in a fish pool in a small clearing.
They could hear the low murmur of voices from somewhere near at hand and Katina moved forward quietly and crouched down.
They were on the edge of the circular driveway in front of the main entrance. A German command staff car was parked at the bottom of the steps and two NCOs in grey uniforms and forage caps lounged beside it smoking cigarettes.
A moment later, the front door opened and two men moved out into the lighted porch. Lomax recognised Van Horn at once from the many photos he had seen. Lean and wiry in a white linen suit, his clipped moustache and grizzled hair prematurely grey.
The other man was a German staff officer, a colonel