The Dark Side of the Island - Jack Higgins [34]
He tossed the useless weapon to one side and turned to run as a Schmeisser stuttered in reply. It was as if he had been kicked sharply in the legs several times and he fell forward on to his face.
Everything was going away from him, but he was still conscious when a hand gripped him by the shoulder and turned him over and a torch was shone into his face. He could hear the excited voices of the soldiers and the snarling of the dogs as they were held back and the whole swelled into a meaningless roar and he plunged into darkness.
Slowly the blackness turned to grey and he was aware of somebody talking quietly near at hand. He opened his eyes and saw a light directly over his head like a baleful eye.
He was lying on a narrow operating table and when he moved slightly, the talking stopped and quick footsteps sounded across a tiled floor. The man who leaned over him wore a neat white smock and was obviously a doctor.
"Just relax," he said. "You're going to be all right."
A male nurse moved beside him carrying a tray and the doctor filled a hypodermic and gave Lomax another injection. As he finished, a door swung open and Steiner came in and leaned over the operating table.
There was a faint smile on his face. "So, my dear Lomax. You are still with us?"
Lomax frowned, trying to push himself upright. "How did you know my name?"
The male nurse pressed a foot-pump, automatically raising one end of the table, bringing them face to face, and Steiner laughed. "I've got a file on you six inches thick in my office. Intelligence keep adding to it each month. I never thought we'd see you on Kyros, though. Excellent job you did on the monastery, by the way. Worth another bar to your MC I should imagine."
He took a cigarette from a slim gold case, put it in Lomax's mouth and lit it. "How do you feel?"
Lomax looked down and saw that his trousers had been cut open. Both legs were heavily bandaged. "As if I shouldn't be here."
"But you are," Steiner said. "Unfortunate, really. I'm supposed to have you shot. I presume you're aware of that?"
"I've had a good run," Lomax said.
"Of course a little co-operation might help me to change my mind," Steiner said. "The names of the people who helped you, for instance."
"I didn't need local assistance," Lomax said. "I had half a dozen good men with me."
"That's strange," Steiner said. "So far we've only accounted for you and the dead sergeant who was with you when you were picked up. How do you explain that?"
"The rest of my men must have made the rendezvous on time." Lomax glanced at his wristwatch and tried to sound convincing. "We were due to be picked up by a submarine at eight o'clock on the other side of the island." He smiled faintly. "You've missed the boat, Colonel."
"Then it is impossible for us to come to an understanding?"
"There's nothing to come to an understanding about."
"Somehow I thought you'd say that." Steiner pulled on his gloves. "No hard feelings, Lomax. I respect a bravo man, but I've got to do my job."
"No hard feelings," Lomax said.
The German shook hands and went out and Lomax lay back against the pillow. Nothing seemed to matter any more and he was beginning to feel sleepy as the drug started to take effect. The strange thing was that Steiner had seemed to be laughing at him and he couldn't think why. The nurse lowered the end of the table and lie stared up at the light and after a while drifted into sleep.
When he awakened, he found himself lying on a stretcher in an ambulance. Two medical orderlies in field uniform were sitting beside him and he turned his head weakly and frowned. "Where am I? What's happening?"
One of them leaned across, a young, pleasant-faced boy, eyes serious under the forage cap. "There's nothing to worry about. You're going to Crete, that's all. Your leg needs a special operation."
He lay there in a daze, trying to make some sense out of it, but he found it impossible to concentrate and then the ambulance stopped and they opened the doors and took him