Peter O'Donnell - Cobra Trap

Collier sat up straight, "I didn't interrupt!" he said indignantly. "It was you coming in with all that "if this and if that" rubbish! But I won't complain. It's my own fault for marrying beneath me. Go on, Willie lad. You have my full attention."

Dinah said, "Yes, go on, Willie. I'll deal with old Collier later. You'd lost a lot of blood and you were in The Network hospital."

"I don't remember anything much of what 'appened after Modesty grabbed me leg," said Willie. "Danny Chavasse told me later that she sat by my bed for three days after they'd pumped a new load of blood into me. All I remember is being… somewhere else, like in a dream, but much stronger, and different. Different in new ways you could never imagine. I was walking down a slope of grass, except it wasn't like any grass I've ever known, and at the bottom of the slope, in the valley, there was—"

Willie paused, giving Collier a look of wry exasperation. "I could say a sort of silvery path, or maybe a river, running off… somewhere. But it wasn't either. It was different. Look, people who use hallucinogenic drugs say they see colours and hear sounds that don't exist in the real world. Well, everything was like that, yet it was all perfectly natural and right in its own way. I said I was walking down a slope, but it wasn't a slope and I wasn't walking. It was all new and different. I can't even visualise it now, and even if I could there aren't words for it. But I was still me, and more… more fully aware of meself than I've ever been, before or since."

Collier said, "Were you aware of any other presence?"

Willie shook his head. "No. I was alone."

Dinah said, "It seems to have left memorytraces but no visual recall."

"That's about it."

She closed her blind eyes. "Or aural recall?"

It was a long time before he answered. During that time Collier could see and Dinah could sense that he was struggling for expression. At last he said reluctantly in a low voice, "You can 'ear the songs the stars sing."

After another silence Collier said gently, "Can you expand on that a bit, Willie?"

He shrugged. "No. It doesn't make sense to me either, now, but it's the nearest I can get in words. You can't really tell any of it in words."

"So there's no way of knowing whether it was a neardeath hallucination or… whatever?"

"There never will be. It'll always be anyone's guess."

Dinah said, "It doesn't seem like a dying brainflicker to me, Steve. I mean, he didn't die, did he?"

"No, which is just as well for us. Willie, this silvery path or river you sawdid you feel that it led somewhere?"

Willie exhaled gustily. "It's 'ard to give straight answers. I think I just felt it led to whatever comes next."

Dinah said, "But you came back. How did that happen?"

"I've no idea, love. All I can remember is waking up very slowly, 'earing Modesty's voice, very soft and gentle, saying nice things like 'ow much she needed me and so on. Then I could feel 'er hand 'olding mine, and a bit later I realised where I was and managed to open my eyes." Willie patted Dinah's hand. "Well, that was it. I never told anyone till now, except Modesty."

Collier said quietly, "Well thanks, Willie. I'm not going to make one of my usual insulting comments."

Dinah said, "You'd better not, or you'll get a knuckle sandwich from the little woman. Hey, listen, Willie, if it turns out that we all come back, you'll keep an eye open for us, won't you?"

Willie considered. Then, "All right. As long as you come back as a girl."

Collier laughed and was about to speak when the train jerked to a sudden halt, almost throwing Dinah to the floor. Willie caught and steadied her. Collier said, "You haven't lost much speed, Willie. Thanks. I'd have said somebody pulled the communication cord, except we don't have one."

With a hand on Willie's chest, Dinah felt a shape she recognised from long ago under the light leather windcheater he wore.

She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it and said nothing. Willie stood up, and she heard him open the door. "Hang on," he said. "I'll go and see what's 'appening."

Moments later he was moving along beside the track towards the locomotive, which was only partly in sight on a bend. Some of the soldiers were milling around excitedly. One or two men from the government contingent were with them, others were descending, some busy preventing older children getting off the train. Then Willie saw the track a few yards ahead of the locomotive and his heart sank, for both rails were buckled. It could only have been done by explosives, and well before the train's arrival here, for there had been no sound as it approached.

Willie was still fifty paces from the small crowd when he stopped abruptly and moved across the strip of bare ground between the track and the jungle. Five seconds later he had disappeared. In the compartment Collier stood looking out of the window. Dinah said, "What's happening, Steve?"

Collier shook his head. "God knows. The track curves just here, and I was watching Willie, but he suddenly oozed off into the jungle."

"Maybe—"

"No, I'm damn sure he wasn't going for a leak. There was something about the way he moved. Something familiar, but I can't recall why."

Dinah came to his side. "He knows something the rest haven't realised," she said. "That's what it is."

"What the hell can he know-" Collier broke off and put his arm round her. "Sorry, sweetheart. You're right, of course. I've seen him and Modesty in action enough to recognise the aspect they take on. That's what was familiar."

Dinah said, "He's wearing his knives. I felt them."

"I never doubted he would be, my darling. He sees us as his responsibility. You in particular. But what the devil can he be up to?" Collier's voice sharpened suddenly. "Oh Christ, of course! Somebody's blocked the line, and they must be here to have done it! So now they're tucked away in the bush, ready to open fire when they get the right target—the President and half the government most likely. Willie saw it right away."

"Oh my God, the children!" said Dinah. "Run and tell somebody, Steve tell them to keep under cover!"

Collier swore, opened the door, and dropped clumsily to the ground, almost falling. Then he began to run.

Willie Garvin moved warily through the trees and tangled bushes, moving in a halfcircle that would bring him towards the railway at a point where the cover was thickest, the best position for an ambush. He thought the Cobra team would be small, no more than an advance party of a few men, otherwise they would have attacked by now. Very sensibly they wanted to minimise risk and make their first strike conclusivea massive killing.

It was a long time since he had worn his knives except for practice, but he had brought them to Montelero in the knowledge that trouble threatened, and was thankful that he had done so. The leather jacket was unzipped. He carried a knife in one hand, held by the blade, the other was still in one of the twin sheaths strapped in echelon on his left breast. In his free hand he carried a rock he had picked up, the size of a cricket ball.

The ambush was where he had anticipated, three men with a Browning machinegun mounted on a tripod, hidden from the railway by a carefully constructed hide of leafy branches. One man sat at the gun ready to fire. A second knelt beside him with several spare ammunition boxes, each with its 250round disintegrating link belt. The third man was a few paces nearer to Willie, his back to the machinegun, peering into the jungle. He held a submachine gun at the ready, aimed from the hip, and Willie knew that when he left the train he must have been seen and was expected.

He said under his breath, "Send me good vibes, Princess," and stepped out from behind the tree that hid him. The rock hurtled fast from his hand as the muzzle of the gun swung towards him, finding its mark before the trigger could be pulled, striking squarely on the centre of the forehead. The man went down without a sound, but as he fell the Browning began to chatter.