A Time to Die c-13

by Wilbur Smith

  "He didn't come back with you, did he?"

  Sean shook his head, and his sodden locks dangled into his face.

  "Did he find his elephant?" she asked softly.

  "Yes," Sean answered simply.

  "I'm glad," she said. "I wanted that to be my last gift to him."

  Now she let go of the branch and slipped both her arms around Sean's neck, laying her cheek against his so she did not have to watch his face as she asked the next question.

  "Is my father dead, Sean? I must hear you say it before I will believe it."

  With his free arm he held her tightly and gathered himself to reply.

  "Yes, my darling. Capo is dead, but he died a man's death-the kind he would have wanted-and Tukutela, his elephant, went with him. Do you want to hear the details?"

  "No!" She shook her head, holding him tightly. "Not now, perhaps not ever. He is dead, and a part of me and my life dies with him."

  He could find no word of comfort, and he held her as she began to weep for her father. She wept silently, clinging to him, the grief Hill r i er er shaking her. Her tears mingled with the droplets Of r v wat On her face, but he tasted their diluted salt on his lips as he kissed her again and his heart went out to her.

  wide green river, the smoke and the So they floated down on the smell of battle drifting over them from the bombarded banks and the faint cries and groans of the wounded carrying to them across the water. Sean let her expend her silent grief, and slowly the sobs that rocked her abated. At last she whispered throatily, "I don't you to help me. You were know how I could have borne it without so much alike, the two of you. I think that's what attracted me to you in the first place." VP "I take that as a comp limen "It was meant as one. He gave me a taste for men of power and strength." within touching distance, was a Floating beside them, almost -striped camouflage battle corpse. Trapped air ballooned the tiger jacket and the body floated on its bark. The face was very young, perhaps His wounds were washed almost a boy of fifteen years discharge like smoke in the green bloodless, just a faint pinky water drifted from them, but it was enough. the bark of an Sean saw the gnarled saurian heads, scaled like ancient oak, coming swiftly down the current, following the taint of blood. Ripples spreading from the hideous snouts, long tails each other for the prize.

  fanning--4wa big crocodiles, racing reared out of the One of the reptiles reached the corpse and , gaped wide, water; its jaws lined with uneven rows of yellow fangs then closed over the corpse's arm. The fangs met through dead flesh with a grinding sound that carried clearly to them, and Claudia gasped and turned her head away the d pull the body below the surface Before the crocodile could ts into the second reptile, even larger than the first, fitst=W jaws dead belly and began agruesome tug-of-war.

  are not designed to shear clearly The fangs of the cmcodile on with locked jaws and used through meat and h9the, so they held twisting viciously in their t combed tails to spin in the water, a latbrerof white foam, rending the corpse between them, dismembering It so the onlookers could hear the sinews tear and the joints of shoulder and groin separate.

  In fascinated horror, Claudia looked back. She gagged as one of reptiles rose high out of the water with an arm in its jaws the giant yellow scales of its and gulped at it convulsively. The creamy back to tear throat bulged as the limb slid down. Then it lunged another morsel from the body.

  Tugging and fighting over the Pathetic human fragments, they war ked away from the floating tree. Sean, remembering the long tear in his back from the barbed wire, felt a lift of relief, for his own blood must be scenting the green waters.

  "Oh God, it's all so horrible," Claudia whispered. "It's becoming a terrible nightmare,"

  "This is Africa." Sean held her, trying to give her courage. "But I'm here with you now, it's going to be all right."

  "Will it, Sean? Do you think we'll get out of this alive?

  "There is no money-back guarantee," he admitted, "if that's what you are asking for."

  She gave one last sob, then leaned back in his arms and looked steadily into his eyes. "I'm sorry," she said. "I'm acting like a baby. I nearly let go there, but it won't happen again, I promise you that. At least I've found you, before it's too late." She smiled at him with forced gaiety, bobbing with water up to her chin.

  "We'll live for today, or what is left of it."

  "That's my girl." He grinned back at her. "Whatever happens, I'll be able to say I loved Claudia Monterro."

  "And was loved by her in turn," she assured him. She kissed him again, a long lingering kiss, warm and spiced with her tears, an expression not of lust but of longing, for both of them a pledge and an assurance, something true and certain in a world of dangerous uncertainty.

  Sean was not even aware of his own pervading physical arousal until she broke the kiss and demanded breathlessly, "I want you now, this minute. I won't... I dare not wait. Oh God, Sean, my darling, now we are alive and in love, but by tonight we could both be dead. Take me now."

  He glanced quickly around their leafy arbor. Through the chinks he could see the banks. They seemed to have drifted below the Renamo fortifications. There was no further sign of life below the galleries of tall riverine trees, and the silence of the African noon was heavy and somnolent. Closer to them, just beyond arm's length, floated Job and Dedan, but only the backs of their bare heads were visible as they surveyed the riverbanks.

  Sean looked back at Claudia, looked into her honey-gold e yes, and he wanted her. He knew he had never wanted anything in his life so desperately.

  "Just say it one more time," she breathed huskily.

  "I love you," he said, and they kissed again, but a different type of kiss, hard where the first had been soft, hot where it had been warm, savagely urgent where it had been gentle and lingering.

  Quickly," she said into his mouth. "Every second is precious."

  Her hands below the surface of the water were tearing at their Mom clothing. He had to use one hand to keep them from slipping under the green water, but with the other he helped her as best he could.

  She opened the front of his bush jacket and then her own shirt to the waist and pressed herself to him. Her breasts were lubricated by the cool water. Her nipples were hard with wanting him; he could feel them distinctly sliding over his chest, they felt as big as ripe grapes.

  He tugged the tongue of the leather belt that held her khaki shorts. She lifted herself to make it easier for him to unzip the fly, then kicked to free her legs as he worked the clinging wet cloth down over her buttocks. He slipped the garment over his arm to prevent it floating away and she was naked from the waist down.

  In frantic haste she opened the front of his trousers and thrust in both hands to scoop him out.

  "Oh Sean," she blurted. "Oh God, my darling. You're so big, so hard. Oh please, quickly, quickly!"

  In the water they were both weightless and lithe as mating otters.

  Her long legs closed around his body, wrapping him, her knees up under his armpits, her ankles locked across the small of his back as she searched for him blindly. He angled his hips to meet her thrusts and they almost succeeded, but it slipped away harmlessly between their tense naked bellies.

  She groaned softly with frustration, then reached down and seized him again. Then with a lewd and beautiful arching of her back she took in just, the tip of him. They strained against each other, and suddenly her body went rigid and her golden eyes opened so wide they seemed to fill her face as he went sliding full length into her. After the cold green water she was so hot it was almost unbearable, and he cried out involuntarily.

  Both Job and Dedan glanced around in surprise, then looked away in embarrassment,. but Sean and Claudia were oblivious to all the world It was over very swiftly and she hung around his neck, exhausted as a marathon runner at the end of a grueling race.

  Sean recovered his voice first. "I'm sorry," he said. "It was so quick. I couldn't wait. Did you-?"

  "I was there long before you." She grinne
d up at him, a lopsided and uncertain grin. "It was like being in an auto accident, quick but devastating!"

  They remained locked together by the embrace of her legs and arms for a long time, quiet and resting, until she felt him shrivel and slip away. Only then did she release the grip of her legs and reach up with her mouth to kiss him tenderly.

  F "Now you belong to me, and I to you. Even if I die today, it won't matter so much. I have had you in me."

  "Let's try for a little more than one day." He smiled gently down at her. "Get dressed now, my love." He handed her back her clothing. "While I check on what's happening in the real world out there. He swam away from her and went to Job. "What do you see?" he asked.

  "I think we are clear of the lines," Job answered, avoiding Sean's eyes tactfully. Strangely, it did not embarrass Sean that Job what had happened between Claudia and himself. He still knew felt elated and triumphant at the consummation of their love, and nothing could degrade it.

  "As soon as it's dark enough, well swim the tree in toward the bank and get ashore." Sean glanced at his Rolex. Not more than two hours to sunset. "Keep your eyes open," he said, and swam across to Dedan to repeat the warning.

  He tried to estimate the rate of the current by watching the bank and decided it was not more than two miles an hour. They would still be dangerously close to the Renamo lines when the sun set, and the river was flowing eastward toward the sea, so they would have to work their way around or through General China's forces to reach the Zimbabwean border in the west. It was a formidable task, but Sean felt optimistic and invulnerable. He e S side and swam back to Claudia.

  "You make me feel good," he said.

  "That's going to be my job in the future," she assured him. "But what do we do now?"

  "Nothing until dark, except steer this liner down the river."

  She cuddled against him under the water, and they held each other and watched the riverbanks drift slowly by After a while she said, "I'm getting cold."

  They had been in the water for almost two hours, Sean realized, and though it was only a few degrees below their body temperature it was gradually chilling them through.

  She slanted her eyes at him and gave him a naughty grin. "Can't you think of something to prevent hypothermia?" she asked. "Or do I have to make a suggestion? "Well he pretended to reflect, "we can't light a fire."

  "Can't we?" she asked. "Do you want to bet?" She reached down, and after a few seconds she whispered, "See, nothing to it, and I didn't even use matches "It's a miracle!" he agreed, and began to unbuckle her belt again.

  "This time let's see if we can make the miracle last longer than ten seconds," she suggested.

  As the sun set, it turned the surface of the river to a luminous serpent with scales of furnace orange and glowing crimson.

  "Now we can begin working in toward the bank," Sean ordered, and they began to swim the floating tree across the current. It was heavy and ungainly, most of its bulk below the surface, and it resisted their efforts to move it closer to the bank. All four of them kept at it, kicking out strongly, and ponderously it began to swing across the wide waters.

  The sun slipped below the horizon and the waters turned black as crude oil. The trees along them were dark cutout silhouettes against the last glow of the sunset, but they were still thirty meters from the southern bank.

  "We'll swim from here," Sean decided. "Keep close together.

  Don't get separated in the dark. Is everybody ready?"

  They bunched up, clinging to the same branch. Sean reached for Claudia's hand and opened his mouth to give the order, then closed it again and cocked his head to listen.

  He was surprised he had not heard it before. Perhaps the sound had been muffled by the high banks of the river and the tall trees that lined its winding course. However, it was suddenly loud and unmistakable, the sound of an outboard motor running at high speed.

  "Oh, shit," he whispered bitterly, and looked toward the near bank. Only thirty meters away, it could just as well have been thirty miles.

  The whine of the motor rose and fell as the acoustics of water and trees played tricks, but it was clearly coming downstream fast, running down from the direction of the Renamo lines. Sean ducked his head to gaze through a chink in the vegetation, and he saw a glow in the darlilless, a beam of light that shafted briefly across the night skye then bounced from the dark trees along the bank, glinted from the water, and swept boldly along the banks.

  "Renamo patrol boat," Sean said. "And they are looking for US.

  Claudia tightened her grip on his hand, and no one else spoke.

  "We'll try to hide in here," Sean said, "though I don't see how they can miss us. Get ready to duck under when the light hits us."

  The sound of the motor changed, slowing down. Then the craft swept around the upstream bend of the river, a few hundred yards distant but coming down swiftly on the current toward them.

  The beam of the spotlight played alternately along each bank, fighting them like day. It was an enormously powerful beam, probably one of the portable battle lights simiW to the one that had trapped Sean at the top of the cliffs.

  As the beam switched from bank to bank it briefly illuminated the craft and its crew. Sean recognized it as an eighteen-foot inflatable Zodiac driven by a fifty-five-horsepower Yamaha outboard, and though he could not count the occupants, there were at least eight or nine of them and they had a light machine gun mounted in the bow. The man with the battle light was standing amidships.

  The beam of light glanced over their refuge, dazzling them for an instant with its malevolent white eye, passing on and leaving them blinded by its brilliance, then coming back remorselessly and holding them captive. Sean heard someone give an indistinct order in Shangane, and the Zodiac altered course toward them, the beam of the battle light still fastened on them.

  AM four of them sank low in the water until only their nostrils were exposed, and they cowered behind the branch to winch they were clinging.

  The helmsman of the Zodiac throttled back and slipped the engine into neutral. The black rubber craft drifted on the current, but twenty feet off, the battle light darted and level with them

  "Turn P"

  "yourfaime "away, Sean told Claudia in a tight whisper, and took her in his arms below the surface. Even their tanned faces would shine in the light, and he Screened her and turned the back of his head toward the Zodiac.

  "There is nobody there," somebody aid in Shangane. Although spoken at conversational level, the voice carried clearly across the water to where they were hiding.

  r voice ordered in a tone of command.

  "Go around!" anothe oozed the shangane sergeant who had been his escort.

  Sean rec A white wake spread out behind the Zodiac as it began to circle the floating tree.

  The light beam cast stark black shadows from the tangled branches and struck dazzling reflections when it touched the water.

  As the Zodiac circled, they padded quietly to the further side of their leafy refuge, and when the beam fastened on them, they slid softly below the surface, trying not to gasp for breath as they came up again The deadly game of hide-and-seek lasted all of eternity before said again. "There is nobody there. We are the voice in the Zodiac wasting time."

  "Keep circling," the sergeant's voice answered, and then after another minute, "Gunner, fire a burst into the tree."

  In the bow of the Zodiac, the muzzle flashes of the RPD light machine gun twinkled like fairy lights, but a storm of shot tore into the floating tree with brutal and stunning savagery. It cracked in their eardrums and thumped into the branches over their heads, cutting loose a shower of leaves and twigs. It ripped away slabs of bark and kicked spray from the surface of the water, odd shots ricocheting into the night, wailing like demented spirits.