The Savage Day - Jack Higgins [29]
He nodded to Tim Pat. 'Get Norah on board. We haven't much time.'
She rushed forward as if to argue and Tim Pat handed his Thompson to one of the other men, grabbed her by the waist and lifted her bodily over the rail of the MTB. Then he climbed up to join her.
Binnie and I stood waiting for sentence in the heavy rain. There was only Barry, and the two original ratings who had first boarded us left now, one of them holding the Thompson.
'Now what?' I said.
Barry shrugged. 'That depends.' He turned to Binnie. 'I could use you, boy. You're still the best natural shot with a handgun I ever did see.'
Binnie's hair was plastered to his forehead and he looked very young. He said quietly, but so clearly that everyone on the MTB must have heard it, 'I wouldn't sit on your deathbed.'
Barry didn't stop smiling for a moment. Simply shrugged. 'All right, Major, get back in the wheelhouse, start her up and move out to sea again. We'll follow and when I give the signal, you'll cut your engines and open the sea cocks.'
He clambered up over the MTB's rail. One of the ratings rammed a Browning into my side so I took the hint and moved along the deck into the wheelhouse.
The MTB's powerful engines rumbled into life. The Browning dug pointedly into my ribs again and I pressed the starter button and looked out of the side window. Barry was walking across the deck to the short ladder which led up to the bridge. Norah ran after him and grabbed him by the arm.
I heard her cry, 'No, you shan't. I won't let you.'
He had her by both arms now and laughed softly as she started to struggle. 'By God, Norah, but you have your nerve. All right, just to please you.' He turned to Tim Pat Keogh. 'I've changed my mind about Binnie. Pipe him on board.'
I leaned out of the window. 'And what about me, then?'
He paused half way up the ladder and turned to smile at me. 'Why, damn me, Major, but I just took it for granted that the sum total of any real captain's ambition was to go down with his ship.'
'We definitely operate on the same wave-length. That's exactly what I thought you'd say,' I called, and added cheerfully, 'The big moment, Binnie.'
I put my left hand on the wheel, my right went under the chart table, found my secret button and pressed. The flap fell and I had the Mauser and shot my guard through the head at point-blank range, all in one continuous movement.
The silencer was really very effective, the only noise a dull thud audible at a range of three yards. The other guard was in the process of urging Binnie towards the rail, prodding him with the barrel of the Thompson.
I called softly, 'Binnie,' and shot the man in the back of the head and he went down like a stone falling.
In the instant, as if by magic, Binnie had the Thompson in his hands, was already firing as he turned, catching the man who was standing by Norah Murphy with a long burst that drove him right back across the deck of the MTB and over the far rail.
Then he went for Barry who was still pulling hard for the top of the ladder. There was a flash of yellow oilskins on the far side of the rail, Binnie stopped firing as Norah Murphy ran, crouching, then scrambled over.
As she reached the safety of our decks he started to fire again, but by then Barry was over the top of the ladder and into the safety of the wheelhouse. A moment later, the engine note deepened as someone gave it full throttle and the MTB surged away into the darkness.
A burst of sub-machine-gun fire came our way and I ducked as one of the side windows in the wheelhouse shattered. Binnie kept on firing until the Thompson jammed. He tossed it to the deck with a curse and stood listening, in the sudden silence, to the sound of the MTB's engines fading into the distance.
I replaced the Mauser in its clip, shoved the flap back into place and went out on deck. Norah Murphy crouched by the rail on one knee, her face buried against her arm. I touched her gently on the shoulder and she looked up at me, a great weariness in her eyes.
'You