The Dark of the Sun - Smith Wilbur - Страница 12

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pilot had the right idea: why risk your life when it's none of your

business."

"He was wounded," Bruce guessed. "I think we hit him on his first run."

Then they were silent, with the rain driving into their faces, slitting

their eyes to peer ahead along the tracks. The men at the Brens huddled

into their brown and green camouflage groundsheets, all their jubilation

of ten minutes earlier completely gone. They are like cats, thought

Bruce as he noticed their dejection, they can't stand being wet.

"It's half past five already." Mike spoke at last. "Do you think we'll

make Msapa junction before nightfall?"

"With this weather it will be dark by six." Bruce looked up at the low

cloud that was prematurely bringing on the night. "I'm not going to risk

travelling in the dark.

This is the edge of Baluba country and we can't use the headlights

oftheloco."

"You going to stop then?" Bruce nodded. What a stupid bloody question,

he thought irritably. Then he recognized his irritation as reaction from

the danger they had just experienced, and he spoke to make amends.

"We can't be far now - if we start again at first light we'll reach

Msapa before sun-up."

"My God, it's cold," complained Mike and he shivered briefly.

"Either too hot or too cold," Bruce agreed; he knew that it was also

reaction that was making him garrulous. But he did not attempt to stop

himself. "That's one of the things about this happy little planet of

ours: nothing is in moderation. Too hot or too cold, either you are

hungry or you've overeaten, you are in love or you hate the world-"

"Like you?" asked Mike.

"Dammit, Mike, you're as bad as a woman. Can't you conduct an objective

discussion without introducing personalities?" Bruce demanded. He could

feel his temper rising to the surface, he was cold and edgy, and he

wanted a smoke.

"Objective theories must have subjective application to prove

their worth," Mike pointed out. There was just a trace of an amused

smile on his broad ravaged old face.

"Let's forget it then. I don't want to talk personalities," snapped

Bruce; then immediately went on to do so.

"Humanity sickens me if I think about it too much. De Surrier puking his

heart out with fear, that animal Hendry, you trying to keep off the

liquor, Joan-" He stopped himself abruptly.

"Who is Joan?"

"Do I ask you your business?" Bruce flashed the standard reply to all

personal questions in the mercenary army of

Katanga.

"No. But I'm asking you yours - who is Joan?" All right. I'll tell him.

If he wants to know, I'll tell him.

Anger had made Bruce reckless.

"Joan was the bitch I married."

"So, that's it then!"

"Yes -

that's it! Now you know. So you can leave me alone."

"Kids?"

"Two - a boy and a girl." The anger was gone from Bruce's voice, and the

raw naked pain was back for an instant. Then he rallied and his voice

was neutral once more.

"And none of it matters a damn. As far as I'm concerned the whole human

race - all of it - can go and lose itself. I don't want any part of it."

"How old are you, Bruce?"

"Leave me alone, damn you!"

"How old are you?"

"I'm thirty."

"You talk like a teenager."

"And I feel like an

old, old man." The amusement was no longer on Mike's face as he asked.

"What did you do before this?"

"I slept and breathed and ate - and got trodden on."

"What did you do for a living?"

"Lawyer."

"Were you successful?"

"How do you measure success? If you mean, did I make money, the answer

is yes." I made enough to pay off the house and the car, he thought

bitterly, and to contest custody of my children, and finally to meet the

divorce settlement. I had enough for that, but, of course, I had to sell

my partnership.

"Then you'll be all right," Mike told him. "If you've succeeded once

you'll be able to do it again when you've recovered from the shock; when

you've rearranged your life and taken other people into it

to make you strong again."

"I'm strong now, Haig. I'm strong because there is no one in my life.

That's the only way you can be secure, on your own. Completely free and

on your own."

"Strong!" Anger flared in

Mike's voice for the first time.

"On your own you're nothing, Curry. On your own you're so weak I

could piss on you and wash you away!" Then the anger evaporated and

Mike went on softly, "But you'll find out - you're one of the lucky

ones. You attract people to you. You don't have to be alone."

"Well, that's the way I'm going to be from now on."

"We'll see," murmured Mike.

"Yes, we'll see," Bruce agreed, and lifted the tarpaulin over the radio.

Driver, we are going to halt for the night. It's too dark to proceed

with safety." Brazzaville Radio came through weakly on the set and the

static was bad, for outside the rain still fell and thunder rolled

around the sky like an unsecured cargo at sea.

Our Elisabethville correspondent reports that elements of the

Kantangese Army in the South Kasai province today violated the ceasefire

agreement by firing upon a low-flying aircraft of the United

Nations command. The aircraft, a Vampire jet fighter of the Indian Air

Force, returned safely to its base at Kamina airfield. The pilot,

however, was wounded by small arms fire. His condition is satisfactory.

"The United Nations Commander in Katanga, General Rhee, has lodged a

strong protest with the Kantange se government-" The announcer's voice

was overlaid by the electric crackle of static.

we winged him!" rejoiced Wally Hendry. The scab on his cheek had dried

black, with angry red edges.

"Shut up," snapped Bruce, "we're trying to hear what's happening."

"You can't hear a bloody thing now. Andre, there's a bottle in my pack.

Get it! I'm going to drink to that coolie with a bullet up his-" Then

the radio cleared and the announcer's voice came through loudly.

at Senwati Mission fifty miles from the river harbour of Port

Reprieve. A spokesman for the Central Congolese Government denied that

the Congolese troops were operating in this area, and it is feared that

a large body of armed bandits is taking advantage of the unsettled

conditions to-" Again the static drowned it out.

"Damn this set muttered Bruce as he tried to tune it.

stated today that the removal of missile equipment from the

Russian bases in Cuba had been confirmed by aerial reconnaissance-"

"That's all that we are interested in." Bruce switched off the radio.

"What a shambles! Ruffy, where is Senwati Mission?"

"Top end of the swamp, near the Rhodesian border."

"Fifty miles from Port Reprieve," muttered Bruce, not attempting to

conceal his anxiety.

"It's more than that by road, boss, more like a hundred."

"That should take them three or four days in this weather, with time off

for looting along the way," Bruce calculated.

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