by Jack Higgins
Ali had allowed him to handle the controls, drive the old engine, savor the wind in his face, the smell of steam, and Keenan had found it wonderful. As the train started up the steep gradient to Tank Five, he sounded the whistle. Yusuf had explained the necessity for the stop, and now Ali tapped him on the arm and took over. He started to slow the train down and up ahead was Tank Five.
C rouched behind the rocks halfway up the slope, Dillon and Billy waited, and suddenly Dillon's Codex rang.
He answered instinctively. "Who is it?"
"Ferguson. I wondered what was happening."
"We're at Tank Five and the train's just toiling up the slope, that's what's happening, so I'd get off the line if I were you, General."
The train ground to a halt below amid a hissing of stream. Ali and Halim got down from the footplate, followed by Keenan.
"The man himself," Dillon said softly. "That's Barry Keenan, Billy, and that's Kelly and the other is Casey," he added, as they arrived, each with an AK slung from his shoulder. Yusuf trailed at the rear.
The voices below were muted, as Dillon and Billy watched, and Halim brought a length of canvas tubing linked to the train, which he clipped onto the end of the outlet tube at the bottom of the tank and started to work a lever, which was obviously a hand pump. Dillon debated whether to call Villiers and decided to leave it until they were on the train. Kelly and Casey were laughing at something.
"We could knock them off now," Billy whispered. "Why not?"
"Because we can't be certain what Keenan's done on the train. He'll have everything ready to blow, probably timers. I suspect the explosives will be in the enclosed freight cars, but we need one of those bastards to show us."
"I see your point."
At that moment, Halim uncoupled the canvas water tubes, Keenan got back on the footplate, and Kelly climbed up a ladder to the top of the front car and squatted there. Casey did the same, sitting behind him on the rear car. Ali and Halim followed Keenan and Yusuf moved to the rear of the train.
"The guard," Dillon said.
They watched him enter the guard's van and shut the door. Keenan, under Ali's supervision, was at the controls. He sounded the whistle, the train juddered, and there was a great cloud of steam.
"Move it, Billy," Dillon said and led the way, sliding down the slope at the rear of the blockhouse.
The train was moving now with a great clanking, and as it passed they ran out onto the track, reached for the rail of the platform to the guard's van, and heaved themselves up. Keenan kept pulling the whistle line. Billy and Dillon, AKs ready, stood on either side of the door.
Dillon got his Codex out and called Villiers. He got an answer almost immediately. "Is that you, Dillon?"
"As ever was. They've taken on water. Billy and I are on the platform at the rear of the guard's van. We're going in hard, so do your best and let Ferguson know."
He clicked off, put the Codex in his pocket, and grinned at Billy. "I'm an older guy, so you can have the honor."
"Bastard."
Dillon turned the brass handle and opened the door and Billy was through in a second, AK ready. At the desk, Yusuf turned in alarm as the two demons, dressed in black, appeared. Billy had him back against the desk, the muzzle of the AK under his chin.
"He'll kill you without hesitation," Dillon said in Arabic. "And the weapon is silenced. No one will know."
Yusuf was terrified. "Sahb, please don't."
"You speak English?"
"Yes."
"Then use it now, my companion has no Arabic. Answer my questions and live. Where are the explosives you carry?"
"On the two enclosed cars in the center of the train."
"The three men, the Irishmen, what have they done since you left Al Mukalli?"
"I don't know, Sahb."
"You lie. Kill him, Billy."
Billy stood back and took aim and Yusuf cried wildly. "No, Sahb, I speak the truth."
"You still lie. You are Rashid Bedu, you and the engine driver and fireman. I know this because the Countess boasted you were her people. As this is so, you must know the train stops on the Bacu Bridge, where the Irishmen will blow it up. Is this not so?"
"Yes, Sahb."
"So tell me the truth. What have they done, the Irishmen, since leaving Al Mukalli?"
Yusuf was in despair. "I only know that they have worked in the explosive cars for most of the time, but I was instructed to stay here, Sahb. I have not seen what they have done."
It was obviously the truth, and Dillon lit a cigarette and passed it to him. "Is it easy to get to those cars?"
"Yes, Sahb, through the door, and there are walkways across the open cars."
"So you can go all the way to the engine?"
"Yes, Sahb."
Dillon turned menacing. "Is there more to tell me or have you told me all?"
"I swear it on the life of my eldest son." He was obviously trying hard, sweat on his face. "They worked in the car for an hour or an hour and a half. Afterwards, two of them sat in here and drank whiskey. The leader joined Ali and Halim on the footplate. He's been driving the train."
"Driving it?"
"Yes, Sahb, when we were taking on water, Ali told me he is like a young boy. He loves trains."
"Did he tell Ali this?"
"No, Sahb, he has no Arabic and Ali no English. It's just the way he behaves."
Billy said, "So what's the big deal, Dillon?"
"The big deal is he's busy up there, Billy, and that's good." He took Yusuf by the arm and pushed him to the back of the van. At that point, looking up the gradient, the train was doing perhaps twenty-five miles an hour. "I'll keep my word," he said to Yusuf. "I promised that if you told me the truth, I would let you live." He opened the rear door.
"But, Sahb, I..."
"Sahb, nothing. Jump and perhaps you live, stay and you certainly die."
Yusuf went down on the metal steps and jumped to one side of the track, where banks of sand covered the oil pipes. He rolled over several times and then the train went round a corner and he was lost from view.
"What now?" Billy said.
"We need either Casey or Kelly, either will do. That's why it's useful that Keenan is busy on the footplate. Let's go."
He opened the door and looked out across the open cars, able to see Kelly on top of the front explosives car and Casey on the one behind. The train was rattling along now, blowing up sand and emitting clouds of steam.
"Now what?" Billy demanded.
"I'll cross to that rear wagon and you stay here. When I get there, shoot Casey in the head. Knock him off the roof for me. Kelly's looking the other way. He won't see."
"Then what?"
"I'll entice Kelly down. It's a chance we'll have to take that he'll behave as I expect."
"Okay, you're the boss."
Dillon stepped out on the walkway, started across the swaying cars, and reached the rear door of the explosives car, the ladder up to the roof beside it. He turned and waved to Billy. Casey was trying to light a cigarette, the AK across his knees as he sat there. Billy took careful aim and shot him in the head, the muted crack of the silenced AK drowned in the noise of the train. Casey keeled over, slid down the slightly curved roof, and went over the edge, rifle and all.
Dillon looked back to the body at the side of the track, waited until the train went round another curve, then he mounted the ladder and peered over the edge. Kelly squatted there on the other roof, unaware that Casey had gone.
Billy had stepped back inside the guard's van out of sight. Dillon eased slightly down the ladder and called, "Kelly, help me." He went down the ladder all the way now and stood waiting, his AK ready.
The voice, muffled by the train noises, was difficult to hear, but Kelly looked round and Billy watched, ready to shoot him if necessary. Kelly got up, slung his rifle over one shoulder, crossed to the end of the front car, and jumped to the second. He stood there, swaying, then came on.
"Casey, where are you
?" he called as he reached the edge.
"Dead and gone, but you've got me, your old friend Sean Dillon." Dillon trained the AK on him. "Come on down or you're a dead man, too, and if I don't get you, my friend will," and Billy stepped out of the guard's van.
"Holy Mother of God, you, Dillon! It can't be."
"I said get down here."
Kelly did as he was told. Dillon took the AK from him and threw it down to the side of the track. He opened the door to the inside of the car as Billy joined them.
"Get in there," and he shoved Kelly in. "Open the outside door, Billy."
Billy did as he was told, and the interior was flooded with light. "Right, show me what Keenan did."
"Jesus, Dillon, he'll kill me." It was an instinctive and stupid reply.
Billy decided to take a hand and played the bad guy. "It's a waste of time, Dillon. Just let me throw him out."
"But he'd break his neck," Dillon said. "I mean, we're doing about forty miles an hour."
"So what?"
Billy rammed the muzzle of his AK into Kelly's stomach, forcing him back to the open door, and he cracked.
"No, Dillon, I'll show you."
"Get on with it, then."
Kelly turned to the boxes of explosives. "Barry put chemical fuses in this lot. They're linked by the det cord to the next car."
"And what's in there?"
"Semtex. They're on ten-minute timer pencils."
"Good. Now get a grip on that det cord and yank out the fuses." Kelly did as he was told. "There you go. That was easy, wasn't it? Now, next door and you can tackle the Semtex."
I t was at the same moment that Keenan happened to turn and saw, to his surprise, that there was no sign of his men. They were very close to the bridge now, he could see it a mile ahead, as the defile through which the train ran widened. Uneasy, he mounted the walkway over the coal tender and water tank and reached the first car. The trap door in the roof was open. He'd done that deliberately to alleviate the heat inside--it wasn't good for Semtex, which could become unstable. He heard voices and peered in.
Billy had opened the sliding door, and Kelly, who had ripped out the chemical fuses and det cord, was removing the pencil timers from the Semtex. He turned to throw them out through the open door, and Keenan, in a blind rage, drew his Browning from his pocket.
"You stupid bastard!" He shot Kelly twice in the back, driving him out through the open door.
Billy fired up at him and Keenan stepped back. "Keep firing, Billy," Dillon called, ducked out, and went up the ladder to the roof.
The train was rocking and Barry was having difficulty keeping his feet under him. He fired wildly, the bullet going several feet to one side of Dillon. He tried to take aim again, then a look of amazement crossed his face.
"Christ, Dillon, it's you."
"God bless all here, Barry," Dillon said, and fired the AK on automatic, driving him back over the front end of the wagon to fall beneath the wheels of the train. A moment later and Billy joined him.
"Dillon, we did it."
"Saved the world again, Billy." Dillon got out his Codex and called up Villiers. "Mission accomplished, Tony. Keenan and his friends are stiffed and all the explosive charges are defused. We're almost at the bridge. Where are you?"
"Two miles the other side, but you'd better keep going. You could have trouble. The Rashid Scorpion passed over me."
"Is that so? Thanks for the warning. See you soon and we'll stop the train then."
Billy said, "Now what?"
"Tony says he just saw the Rashid helicopter, so we keep going hard until we meet up with them. You go down on the footplate with the driver and fireman and keep them at it. I'll talk to them. Get on with it."
Billy did as he was told an dropped down to Ali and Halim, who looked greatly shocked. Dillon shouted down in his bad Arabic. "Everyone else is dead. If you want to live, keep the train moving and do as you're told, otherwise my friend will shoot you."
Ali looked cowed, but Halim, as it sank in, looked angry now. Dillon went back to the roof of the first wagon, got the Codex, and rang Ferguson. There was an almost instant reply.
"Ferguson."
"Dillon. I'm standing on top of a train just about to cross the Bacu Bridge. There've been no nasty explosions, so the oil can continue to flow to an ungrateful world, which will never know how close it came to disaster."
"And Keenan and company?"
"Dead, I'm afraid, gone to that great IRA rest home in the sky."
"As usual, you astonish me."
"God save us, General, I astonish myself sometimes, but I must go. I think I heard the Rashid helicopter approaching."
T hey were on the way in to the bridge, the Scorpion at six hundred feet, when Rupert Dauncey first saw the column of Land Rovers over to the left. Kate Rashid picked up a pair of binoculars and focused on them.
"It's Tony Villiers and the Scouts. What's he doing here?"
"More importantly," her cousin said, "how did he know to be here?"
The Bacu Bridge loomed ahead, an awesome sight, and the train started to cross. "What in hell is going on? It isn't stopping," Kate said.
Dauncey had taken the binoculars from her and focused them. He passed them to her. "Even more interesting is how an old friend of yours happens to be down there dressed in a Special Forces combat uniform."
It was her turn to focus the binoculars. "My God," she whispered. "Dillon, but how?"
As the Scorpion made its pass, Dillon waved cheerfully.
"Damn you," she said.
The train continued to cross, Dillon still waving. It reached the other side and she said, "Abu, shoot him."
"Waste of time, sweetie," Rupert told her. "That's not the way this thing operates."
Abu pulled open the door, leaned forward and fired, but the helicopter bucked and he dropped his rifle and grabbed at a seat belt, almost going headfirst through the door.
On the footplate, Billy looked up at the sound of the shot, and Halim grabbed at Billy's AK, forcing the barrel up. Billy fired, alerting Dillon, but even as he did so, the fireman, with his great strength, hurled Billy backwards out of the engine.
As Dillon shot Halim in the back, too late, driving him also to the side of the track, Dauncey took the binoculars and focused on Billy. "It's young Salter."
Kate Rashid shouted at Carver, "Land beside him. Go on, do it." She turned to Rupert. "Give me your Walther."
"Now look, Kate, Villiers will be here at any moment. Let's get out of here."
"Give me your Walther!"
Abu glared at Dauncey and held his AK ready. Rupert sighed, took out the weapon, and gave it to her. "As you say, cousin." The Scorpion turned, hovered, and went down.
Dillon dropped onto the footplate and rammed his AK into Ali's side. "Stop the train," he said in Arabic. "Now."
Ali did as he was told and Dillon jumped to the ground, turned, and ran back.
B illy, dazed, was hauled to his feet by Abu and the two Bedu. There was blood on his face from a bad cut.
"You bastard," Kate said. "You little Cockney swine. I told you all that you were dead when I was ready. Well, your time has come. Go on, run for it." She said to Abu in Arabic, "Make him run."
Abu sent Billy staggering away, and she fired at him repeatedly, most of her bullets hitting the titanium waistcoat, but two struck the top of his right thigh and another passed through the left side of his neck.
Dillon dropped to one knee and fired, catching one of the Bedu, then swung as Rupert pulled Kate inside, and shot Abu in the back of the head as he tried to follow them. The other Bedu simply ran away, making for the sand dunes.
As Carver took the Scorpion up, Dillon ran to Billy and fell on his knees beside him, and it was at that moment that Tony Villiers and the Scouts arrived.
T hey laid Billy across the rear seats of one of the Land Rovers while Villiers checked him out, a combat medical kit open on the driver's seat. They'd taken off the titanium waistcoat, w
hich had four bullets embedded in it.
"Has he had it?" Dillon demanded.
"Well, I'm no doctor, but I've treated plenty of gunshot wounds. Here, the bullet's gone straight through the neck. If it had damaged an artery, the blood would have been pumping out, and it isn't, so we can do a temporary job on that with wound packs. Pass me one."
He quickly bandaged Billy's neck, who moaned softly, eyes staring. "Thank God for titanium," Dillon said.
"Yes, but he's been shot twice at the top of his right thigh." Villiers took a scalpel from the kit and sliced open the material, exposing two bullet wounds. There was very little blood and he felt round to the other side. "They're still inside. God knows how much damage they've done. All I can do is bandage again and give him morphine. There are drips in the medical kits in all the Land Rovers. Someone can sit close and hold one for him."
"That's me," Dillon said.
He helped sit Billy up as Villiers used the wound pack, tying it securely round the waist. Finally, he covered the gash in the face with a large bandage and carefully inserted the needle from one of the drip bags into the left arm. The Bedu had watched impassively, and now Achmed came forward and held the plastic bag high.
"Four hours to Hazar and a hospital, on this road. Does he have a chance?" Dillon asked.
"I don't know, but I can improve his chances. I'll call Ferguson."
H e found him enjoying the comforts of the Excelsior, there no longer being any reason for them to maintain their presence in Hazar secret.
"Where are you?" Villiers asked.
"In the bar at the Excelsior, celebrating with Harry. I've spoken to Blake Johnson. He's over the moon."
"Well, hold the celebration. Billy's been badly wounded. Kate Rashid shot him several times in the back."
"Dear God."
"We need to get him to Hazar Hospital as soon as possible. The train's no good. It carries on north into the Empty Quarter, which leaves us with a four-hour trip by road."
"But can the boy survive that?"
"Well, his chances would improve if you arranged to have an ambulance come to meet us halfway. The head of surgery at the hospital is a man called Daz, an Indian. He's done a lot for me in the past. Get in touch with him and arrange it. They can't miss us. It's the only road."