The Iron Tiger - Jack Higgins [46]
Janet sat there in the darkness, and after a while Hamid climbed over the tailboard. He helped himself to tea and squatted on the other side of the stove from her.
'I should wake Jack. He's supposed to take over from me at four.'
'That's all right. He was here. He's just gone for some air.'
'Trouble?' Hamid said.
She shrugged. 'Four o'clock in the morning talk, that's all. He's just decided he's too old for me.'
Hamid nodded. 'He's tired, that's all.' He hesitated and then decided to carry on. 'Jack isn't aware that I know this, Janet, but for the past five years at least, he's been working for British Intelligence, mainly flying illegal reconnaissance flights across the borders of what might be termed the less friendly powers.'
The breath went out of her in a long sigh. 'You're sure about this?'
'Oh, yes, the information comes to me from friends in Indian Army Intelligence. A long time for a man to live on his nerves.'
'Which explains a great many things.'
'Last year he crashed in the Borneo jungle and was badly wounded. They nearly got him that time and the Indonesians do not care for the British these days. His fate would hardly have been a pleasant one.'
'Is that when he got that terrible scar on his face?'
He nodded and leaned across, his face grave in the diffused light of the stove. 'He's a good man, Janet, but he's had enough. Take him home, wherever that turns out to be.'
There was an obvious change in her, she seemed confident, assured, smiled suddenly and squeezed his hand. 'I will, Ali, I will.' She got to her feet. 'I'd better check on Kerim.'
Hamid poured himself some more tea, feeling strangely sad, and after a while Drummond climbed over the tailboard and joined him.
'Where's Janet?'
'Gone to have a look at Kerim. Who's on duty at the road?'
'Ahmed, I think.' Drummond hesitated and then went on, 'Brackenhurst turned up when I was doing my hour up there last night.'
'What did he want?'
'I'm not sure. I rather got the impression he was toying with the idea of killing me, but basically he just wanted to make sure that we hadn't told the others what really happened at Sadar.'
He explained what had taken place. When he had finished, Hamid nodded slowly, a frown on his face. 'Of course, he could argue that he was carrying the gun merely as precaution in case of trouble. He could never have used it. Far too noisy. The knife is the weapon for darkness, Jack.'
'I'm not sure that he's rational enough to look at things in that way any more,' Drummond said. 'He's badly scared, and he's certainly never possessed the kind of cold-blooded guts it takes to go after a man with a knife.'
'We'll have to watch him from now on, that's all.' Hamid shivered suddenly. 'I don't like it at this time in the morning, Jack. Makes me think of other dawnings, other places and a lot of good men dead.' He laughed in a peculiar fashion. 'I must be getting old.'
'Aren't we all?' Drummond said.
He got to his feet and moved to the tailboard. It was already dawn, a grey light seeping through the mist. The heavy rain lancing into the ground and he stared out at it morosely, wondering what the day would bring.
Wrapped in a sheepskin on the floor in front of the fire in the headman's house at Bandong, Piroo was awakened suddenly by a savage kick in the side. He sat up with a start, aware, as if in a dream, of faces staring down at him, the shining Burp guns, the red stars in the peaked caps.
Somewhere, Yussuf cried aloud, running for the door. A foot tripped him and a rifle butt thudded savagely against the back of his skull, cracking the bone.
Piroo was dragged to his feet, gibbering with fear and then a sharp voice cut across the noise and confusion and there was silence.
Colonel Cheung paused in the doorway, the fur collar of his greatcoat pulled up around his neck, the face beneath the fur hat lined and drawn with fatigue.
There had been considerable delay in crossing the river at Kama. For one thing, the shallows had been deeper than usual owing to the heavy rain and one of the troop carriers had bogged