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I hid in the shadows with my gun at the ready and breathing a little heavier than normal, and then took some time to take a look at the building. It was lengthy, but I couldn't go round to check on the width; it would be a waste of precious time, I figured. Though I was certain that no one knew I was still in the station, I decided to remain stationary for a while until I was satisfied that it was safe to proceed. Then I ran up the porch, grabbed the knob of the door, turned gently, and pushed, but the door didn't move. My heart began to beat faster as I stood by the door listening and watching.
After a moment, I heard a shuffling noise within the building and almost immediately, a light came on. Moments later, I heard Legion's voice, probably speaking on a phone or walkie-talkie. He was frantic with anger as he bawled orders at the person on the other end, but he spoke mostly in Afrikaans. Finally, he told the person to assemble his men immediately and hung up. A minute or two later, he called out for his guards, but I had seen the two lads leaving in the heat of the commotion when I was approaching the building. He shouted again, but no one responded to his call, and I thought I heard him curse under his breath.
Time seemed to have stood still as I waited with nervous anticipation while cold sweat ran down my back. The half-moon had begun to creep out behind the thick cloud, and I became a little worried because I knew the light could easily break my cover and make me an easy target to any gun-toting fool. I was contemplating whether it wouldn't be wise to leave while I still had a chance . . . when I heard the key turn in the lock and the bolt slide back. Then the door opened, and in two quick but quiet strides, I made it to one of the six, wide columns which held the canopy that shaded the porch.
Legion came out cautiously onto the porch with a gun in one hand and a flashlight in the other. However, he instantly snapped off the light and tucked it away in his hip pocket when he saw that the moon had lighted most of the area. I was unable to see his face clearly from where I stood, as the column was by the wall of the building and at the end of the balustrade, but I could tell that he was furious with the whole situation, more so at the stupid actions of his guards; but then, what more could he expect from poor lads who should actually be in school? He cursed under his breath as he began to shuffle across the floor toward the other end of the porch with his back turned to me.
I quietly stole up to him as quickly as possible and before he could turn around, I snatched the gun from his hand, dealt him a vicious blow on the side of his face with my fist, and dragged him back into the room. I shoved him across the room, and he fell sprawling on the floor with a heavy thud like a bag of grain. I snapped off the light, shut home the bolt on the door, and as he tried to get up, I gave him a kick around the midriff, though not too hard, and he fell again.
Although, it was too dark to see the whole room clearly, I could make out that it was unusually large and sparsely furnished with rather old-looking and worn-out furniture. The size, however, didn't exactly add up to the length I had seen outside, but I didn't bother to check further as I was losing time and patience, and that had been a terrible mistake. When he began to come around, I pulled him up and dragged him to an armchair I saw with the faint light that filtered through the window.
"Where are the diamonds?" I demanded, snarling as I leveled the gun at his chest.
"You're a real fool," he spat, "and this time, you will certainly not leave here alive," he said with a loud sardonic laugh.
"Let me worry about that," I returned with a jeering grin, "and as it is now," I went on, "you are in no position to threaten me. Just give up the diamonds or else I will slit your damned throat with this," I said as I brought out my hunting knife and showed it to him.
"Go to hell, loser!" he spat again, and then I decided it was time I showed his lump head that I meant business. In one swift twist, I slit his khaki shirt and watched him cringed with pain as the tip of the razor-sharp knife sliced the skin of his chest. I knew just how much pressure to use to cut a guy's vein and how much to draw some blood from his skin and give him a little scare.
"Now don't kid with me," I said heatedly as I stood over him. "Where are they and stop wasting my time?" I barked and cleaned the bloodstained knife on his left shoulder.
He made no move or said anything again; he just sat staring balefully at me with a venomous look on his face and that murderous light I had already seen in his eyes. But I was beyond caring about his facial expressions, and I was determined to get the diamonds, even if I had to kill him.
"You're going to die today and slowly too, I promise you that," he said at last through clenched teeth after few minutes of tense silence.
"Okay, you bastard!" I exclaimed. "You want to play rough? Then let's—" I broke off instantly and stopped short in my move to give him an awakening smack as I felt the cold muzzle of a gun at the back of my neck, and then I heard a sudden click as the safety catch moved back, and then Lydia's cold flat voice.
"If you make one more move, I will blow off the top of your head," she stated rather dramatically and went on. "Now, drop the gun and the knife." I obeyed promptly.
She kicked the knife away, picked up the gun, tucked hers instantly into her hip pocket, and began to frisk my body. However, before she could reach into my pocket and pull out the small transponder Captain gave to me, Legion got up and gave me a sharp blow across my face. It caught my left eye, but there wasn't much strength behind it. Nevertheless, I staggered back and fell on the floor to keep away from them. She walked toward the door and snapped on the light while she had me well covered, and I wish she hadn't as the light gave the bruised eye a slight but painful sharp twitch at that moment, and I could hardly see clearly with it.
Where the hell did she spring from? I thought, as I huddled up on the floor. It then dawned on me that I might not leave their camp alive as Legion had said. I had been crazy not to have taken a good look at the room as I saw behind her and still opened, a door which looked like a closet, leading to a larger hall adjacent to Legion's bedroom. Well, no use feeling sorry for myself, I thought, and though the situation looked so precarious, I was certainly not going to die alone. I was sure to take him with me, even though I had yet to figure out how that was going to be possible. Legion came forward and gave me a sharp kick on my chest that stopped me thinking and sent me rolling backward.
"I told you, didn't I?" he asked savagely. "You're going to die today," he snarled as he picked up the knife, looked at me, and swore under his breath, then grinned viciously, like a cruel hyena, as he had done the first time I set my eyes on him. After a moment's thought, he seemed to have changed his mind on what he intended to do. He dropped the knife and picked up the telephone on a chestnut table in the center of the room, but before he could dial a number, Lydia snatched it out of his hands, and I could have jumped her at that minute if I had imagined that would happen. However, she was remarkably fast and soon had the gun aimed between Legion and me.
"Move back!" she threatened him with a guttural voice I hardly recognized. "And you! Stay where you are," she said, a snap in her voice as she waved the gun to and fro between Legion and I.
"What're you doing? Have you gone crazy?" Legion snapped, looking tense and completely bewildered.
"Not yet!" she returned. "Just move your stupid bulk back," she added with bitterness and hatred emanating from her hard eyes like steam out of boiling water. "I have long waited for this day when you would be completely at my mercy," she went on quietly but woodenly, and I couldn't help wondering if she had actually gone crazy. "Today, I'll fulfill the promise I made to bring you down once I had you in my hands," she continued. "Now is the time to avenge your wicked deeds and—" She broke off instantly, and as I sat watching her, I wondered what she was talking about. In her predisposition, it could be difficult to predict what she was capable of doing next as her face looked pale and drawn while her eyes roved in their sockets and seemed receding.
Legion remained motionless and petrified. His face suddenly turned white as he looked, for a moment, like a shadow of his old self, and I could barely recognize him. Then, without warning, the room reverberated with the sound of the two shots from the gun. I sprang instantly to my feet but stopped short in my move as she held the gun pointed at me. I looked and saw Legion's head bloody as he fell forward and sprawled out on the floor. Several seconds later, she seemed to have suddenly recovered from her violent urge as she brightened up while a triumphant grin broke out on her lips, and I wondered what was coming next as she had the gun still pointed at me.
"Go," she said suddenly, "before I change my mind!" I looked helplessly at her; the gunshots had attracted some men, and they were banging on the door already.
"Quick, the window!" she exclaimed, and threw the gun to me while she instantly pulled out the one in her hip pocket.
Without further delay, I pushed up the windowpane and off I went. I dropped quietly on the ground from the low window, and as I hesitated for a second or two to decide on which direction to take, two shots hit the windowsill, shattering a pot of geraniums on it, and I heard her telling the men that I had gone through the window. Well, I grimaced, that was the least she could do, and George had been so naïve to think she was in danger. She had been smart enough to shoot Legion with my gun and threw me out in the open; proving once again that she was capable of taking care of herself, I thought, as I broke into a run. I ran along the back of three buildings without being spotted but instantly ducked behind an empty drum when I saw two men running down my way.
Shortly after, the siren, which had long been silent, suddenly came on again, and the whole station was thrown into yet some more pandemonium. Obviously, the news of Legion's death had spread in the station, and the men would have been told that the killer was still at large and in the yard. An additional two searchlights from the wooden watchtower began to rove the grounds with increased urgency, and I knew instantly that the search for me had begun in earnest, but I was determined to leave the station alive. When the light shone on the wall of the fence, I noticed that it was about forty yards away, but I knew I didn't stand a chance of escaping with the grapnel. Perhaps they might have found it and waited in ambush for me to come that way. So I decided to move in another direction, though a bit farther. It was the only reasonable option under the circumstances.
I hastily moved on, hiding behind anything I could find on the way. The pace was slow, but I reminded myself that caution ought to be the watchword since I was certain that a good description of me and perhaps Captain too might have gone round the station. After about fifteen minutes of hiding and running, I grinned to myself as I saw that the fence was just some thirteen yards away from where I was hiding. Though there wasn't much cover along the way to reach it as the moon had lighted the whole ground, there were overgrown shrubs lining the length of the wall, which could provide reasonable cover once I managed to get there undetected. So I had to wait a while for the moon to recede behind the clouds again.
Time seemed to be still again as cold sweat ran down my stiff back while I crouched in the shadows waiting, and I heard noises all around the station as the men kept on searching. Suddenly, I felt the muzzle of a gun on my head.
"Move and you're a dead man!" the jeering voice of a man exclaimed. "Now stand up!" he bawled. When I stood up, I realized it was a rifle. I took one step forward and with the speed of lightning, I grabbed the barrel and snapped the gun upward, so that the muzzle was held away from my head. We began to struggle fiercely with the gun. Though he was stronger, I held on tenaciously and when I found his hold was getting lax, I gave him a vicious kick at the groin. However, before he went down, he pulled the trigger and the bullet hit the wall of a nearby building with a frightening bang. I snatched the rifle from his limp hand, clubbed him on the shoulder with the butt, and he fell flat on his face.
The gunshot had attracted others, and I heard noises coming from some distance behind, so I broke cover and began to run again toward the fence. When I got to the fence, I hid behind the privet hedges that ran along its length, and as soon as I caught my breath, I began to run once more between the fence and the hedges. I felt a little confident that the hedges should provide enough cover to shield me from Legion's men, so I slowed down my pace as I was already getting exhausted. However, I hadn't run for long before I saw what I had been hoping to find and instantly left the cover of the hedges. I tucked the gun away in my pocket, picked up the metal drum, and set for the fence. It was so damned heavy, but I could have carried an oil tanker at that moment.
The men were already some few yards away by the time I mounted the drum. The hedges had prevented them from sighting me at once, until I lifted myself up and held the iron bar between the barbed wires. I felt sharp cuts in my sweaty palms as I swung on top of the wall, but it was a shot that caught my left arm that sent me reeling to the ground on the other side. I almost lost consciousness, but with firm determination to escape after having gotten that far, I got up immediately and ran as fast as I could into the bush.
I had fallen from a side of the fence that was close to the main road, and the men were already in the bushes even before I began to run, but they hadn't spotted me yet. I sat behind a thicket watching and nursing my hand. The moon had gone behind the clouds again, throwing the whole bush into temporary pitch darkness. My eyes soon got used to the darkness, and I was able to make out their figures among the bushes as they formed circles of search parties.
I had decided before embarking on the mission not to kill anyone if I could help it, but as I watched the line of men closing in on me while in pain, a killer instinct that had longed ceased to exist in me, since I left military service, was suddenly awakened. It was like being in the war again, and I was then determined to take as many of them as I could with me. I was still making out how I would take on the men when I heard the sound of a helicopter in the sky and instantly the transponder in my pocket gave a slight vibration. Suddenly, I felt a cold wave of relief overwhelm me as I realized that it was Captain's men in the air. I had forgotten about them in the wake of the hunt for me, and when I first heard the sound, I had thought that Legion's men must want me so bad that they decided to chase me in a chopper.
When I brought out the transponder, the red light on it began to blink, and I had to cover it quickly with my palm so it wouldn't give me away. The men were already too close and the slightest sound or light might attract the nearest man. However, I also knew that if I didn't acknowledge the signal, they might as well turn back, thinking I'd been killed. Obviously, most transponders could automatically send out another signal in reply, but that particular piece had to be manually activated and could only send signals on rather limited range. I was certain that if I switched it on, the men's voices were sure to come on the line, and that might give me away, so I had to watch and wait for the right opportunity.
A minute or two later when I was sure that it was safe enough, I switched it on and then off almost immediately but not before I had pressed the green button twice. The helicopter came into sight, and I reckoned my signal had been received. It hovered along the road, and all attention was turned to it. The men suddenly began to shoot at it as it hovered in the air, and I was then certain that they must have been informed it wasn't one of theirs since they didn't bother with it when it first appeared.
There was a stampede in the bush as all the men ran after the helicopter when it flew downward and suddenly up again into the sky. That gave me the opportunity I needed to communicate with them. I instantly switched on the transponder, and with confidence that no one was within earshot, I began to speak freely with the men.
"Can you hear me? Over," I whispered above the faint sound of the helicopter's engine coming through the line.
"Loud and clear!" the pilot answered.
"Now, listen," I said, a little curtly, "I've been badly wounded and I'm right now behind these bastards. Can you read me?"
"Go on!" the man returned, tersely.
"All right, leave the road and fly toward the bush, say about two hundred yards from the road. Hover for a while and attempt landing. Give them a minute or two to run after you, and then turn back for the road as fast as you can, but not straight to where you left off." I paused, feeling piercing pain in my arm. "Can you see the wall of the fence?" I went on, watching as bullets occasionally hit the chopper in the gloomy sky.
"You bet I can!" the man exclaimed briefly.
"Then come straight for me on the road about one hundred twenty yards from the edge of the fence. I have started moving. Over and out!" I concluded.
"Will that be safe enough for you?" the man's voice broke out, without much conviction.
"That should do," I returned, getting worried too as I started off with severe pains gripping my left shoulder. "I told you I'm badly wounded," I continued. "I can't walk or run too far, there may still be some men on the road, and I'd be taking unnecessary chances going further than that," I stated.
"All right, I'll pick you up in less than three minutes. Here I go."
The transponder went dead, and as I switched it off, I saw the helicopter fly over the bush, descending as it did, but soon climbed higher to escape the menace of the men's shots. I hastened my stride with my gun at the ready as I heard the men running further into the bush behind, chasing after the helicopter. I kept alert for anyone of them who might have stayed back but met or saw no one until I came to the road, and I was right that the road wouldn't be completely deserted.
Four men were by the gate of the station, but they didn't worry me much; they were some one hundred sixty yards away. However, there were these other two on the opposite side of the road, just some ninety yards away and on the spot the helicopter was hovering before it made its run over the bush. They searched the side of the road relentlessly and occasionally looked up at the helicopter as it hovered over some expanse of the bush. The whole scene looked absurd, like something from a funny movie, but I didn't kid myself that if the two men were good shots, the distance would be anything to stop them from hitting me.
I watched as the helicopter made to land, and suddenly gathered additional momentum as it turned and came straight toward the road. With my arm becoming stiff with pain, I truly began to wonder if I was actually going to leave the place alive. When the helicopter got closer, more bullets continued to whine into the air as the men chased after it. The four men left their duty posts at the gate and came running. The two on the road who had entered the bush also got out almost immediately and were running down too.
The helicopter flew nearly over my head, and as it got down within reasonable height, I broke cover and ran after it. I heard one of the side windows shatter into pieces as gunshots hit it and the pilot instantly stopped short in his attempt to land, but instead, began to climb fast. I knew I was already in the open, and if I didn't do anything right away, I might as well consider myself dead. I continued to run after the helicopter, and as it kept climbing, I jumped and held its landing rails with my hooked fingers.
As soon as I was lifted off the ground, my whole weight rested heavily on my arms. My shoulder felt frighteningly heavy, and there was a sharp pain in my left arm, as if a crooked pin had been driven into it, but I didn't let the pain stop me from holding firmly to the rail. The pilot felt my weight and instantly began to climb as fast as he could. When he had gathered enough height, he zoomed off. I yelled to them, above the noise of the engine and whirling blades, to let me in as the shooting below became fierce, and my shoulder and legs were becoming too heavy for my arms in midair. The door slid open, and as I tried to climb onto the rail, a bullet hit my left leg and another hit the shoe on my right foot, and I almost let go as it tore off the sole.
I felt very weak and sick as the pain in my arm increased. However, I swung forward again to resume the climbing, but stopped short almost immediately, stiffening with sharp pain as I felt the white-hot touch of another bullet hit my right thigh. Just then, the helicopter began to gain more speed and height again. My left arm dropped off the rail as the pain became so excruciating, and but for the air up there, I would have lost consciousness. I felt cold sweat run down my back and dizziness kept threatening to close up on me as my right hand took all the pain and heaviness of my whole body's weight, which was already soaked with blood, while I floated in midair.
My head felt dour pain and an irritating monotonous "singing" in my ear was worsened by the noise of the engine. However, I gathered all the strength that was left in me and managed to climb onto the rail. I limped forward and stretched out my almost numb left hand to the two men calling from the door. They held it firmly and as they pulled, my right hand hooked off instantly from the side rail. I saw three stars and finally, the pain faded away as I fell into pitch-blackness.