Wilbur Smith - Assegai

‘Yes, Courtney, do it!’ Eddy Roberts said, in a gloating tone. ‘Just give me the excuse. You got away with it last time, but that won’t happen again.’ The hammer was cocked, his finger was on the trigger and the weapon was aimed at Leon’s right leg. ‘Do it, you bastard! Give me the excuse to blow your bloody leg off.’

Leon knew he meant it. He clenched his hands until his fingernails dug into his palms, and ground his teeth. Eva was still staring up into Penrod’s face as he talked. Occasionally she nodded expressionlessly and Penrod kept talking, in his most charming and convincing manner. At last Eva’s shoulders slumped in capitulation and she nodded. Penrod placed an arm around her shoulders in an avuncular, concerned manner, then led her back to where Leon stood under the menace of Eddy’s pistol. She did not look at him. Her expression was dead.

‘Captain Roberts!’ Penrod said. He would not look at Leon either.

‘Sir?’

‘Use your handcuffs to restrain the prisoner.’

Eddy unhooked the bright steel chains from his webbing belt and snapped the bracelets on to Leon’s wrists.

‘Keep him here! Don’t harm him, unless he deserves it,’ Penrod ordered. ‘Don’t allow him off this mountain until you receive orders from me. Then take him to Nairobi under guard. Don’t let him speak to anyone there. Bring him directly to me.’

‘Yes, sir!’

‘Come along, my dear.’ He turned back to Eva. ‘We have a long ride ahead of us.’ They walked to the horses, and Leon called after them, his voice cracked with despair, ‘You can’t go, Eva. You can’t leave me now. Please, my darling.’

She paused to look back at him with opaque, hopeless eyes. ‘We were two silly children playing a game of make-believe. It’s over now. I have to go. Goodbye, Leon.’

‘Oh, God!’ He groaned. ‘Don’t you love me?’

‘No, Leon. The only thing I love is my duty.’ And he was not to know that her heart was breaking as she walked away, the lie still scalding her lips.

As soon as Penrod and Eva had gone down the mountain, Eddy Roberts had his askari drag Leon back into the hut and sit him down with his legs on each side of the central pole that supported the roof. Then he unlocked the cuffs from his wrists and clamped them on to his ankles. ‘I’m not taking any chances with you, Courtney. I know just what a slippery brute you are,’ Eddy told him, with sadistic relish. He allowed Ishmael to visit Leon in the hut once a day to feed him, to carry away the night-soil bucket and then to wash his backside, as if he was an infant. But apart from that Leon was forced to sit there for twelve long, degrading days until Penrod Ballantyne’s messenger came up the mountain track with a note written on yellow order paper. Then Eddy Roberts allowed him out of the hut and the askari lifted him on to his horse. His ankles were so swollen and raw where the manacles had galled him that he could barely walk. Nevertheless Eddy ordered his men to rope his ankles together under the horse’s belly.

It was an unpleasant journey up the Rift Valley to the railway. Eddy made it more so by riding behind Leon’s mount and prodding it into a trot over the rough ground. With his ankles bound, Leon was unable to pace with the gait of his mount and was bounced around savagely.

Penrod was furious when two askari almost carried his nephew into his office in the KAR headquarters building in Nairobi. He came out from behind his desk and helped him into a chair. ‘I did not intend you to be treated in that fashion,’ he said, which was as close to an apology as Leon had ever heard him come.

‘That’s perfectly all right, sir. I suppose I made it impossible for you to do anything else but have me hog-tied.’

‘You were asking for it,’ Penrod agreed. ‘You’re just bloody lucky that I didn’t have you shot out of hand. The thought did cross my mind.’

‘Where is Eva, Uncle?’

‘She’s probably somewhere in the Suez Canal by now, well on her way back to Berlin. I only sent for you when the liner steamed out of Mombasa.’ His expression softened. ‘You’re well out of the whole sorry business, my lad. I think I did you a great service by bringing you to your senses and getting rid of her for you.’

‘That’s as may be, sir, but I cannot say that I’m overflowing with gratitude to you.’

‘Not now, perhaps, but you will be later. She’s a spy, did you know that? She’s totally scheming and unscrupulous.’

‘No, sir. She’s a British agent. She’s a beautiful young woman of great courage who has done more than her patriotic duty for you and Britain.’

‘There’s a name for women like her.’

‘Sir, if you speak it aloud, I will not be responsible for my actions. This time you really will have to shoot me.’

‘You’re an idiot, Leon Courtney, a lovesick puppy, incapable of rational thought.’ He reached for his uniform tunic, which was hooked over the back of his chair.

As he buttoned it on Leon saw three stars and crossed-swords insignia on the shoulders. ‘If you’ve finished insulting me, sir, perhaps you might allow me to congratulate you on your meteoric rise to the lofty rank of major general.’

Leon had broken the tension and Penrod accepted the peace-offering. ‘So, no hard feelings, then. We all did what we had to do. Thank you for your congratulations, Leon. Did you know that while you were honeymooning on Lonsonyo Mountain some Serbian madman assassinated the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary and the heavy-handed retaliation of that country against the Serbs has set off a chain reaction of violence? Half of Europe is already at war, and Kaiser Wilhelm is spoiling to get into it. It’s all happening just as I predicted. Full-scale war within a few months.’ He searched his pockets for his cigarette case and lit a Player’s. ‘I was with “Bloody Bull” Allenby in the Boer War, and now he’s in charge of the Egyptian Army. They’re ready to go into Mesopotamia, and he wants me to take command of his cavalry. I sail for Cairo next week. Your aunt will be pleased to have me home for a few days.’

‘Please give her my love, sir. Who’s taking over from you here in Nairobi?’

‘Good news for you. Your old friend and admirer Froggy Snell has been promoted to colonel and given the job.’ He saw Leon’s face fall. ‘Yes, I know what you’re thinking. However, I can perform one last favour for you before I leave. Hugh Delamere is raising a volunteer unit of light horse unconnected with the KAR. I have transferred you from the reserves to act as liaison and intelligence officer to him. He’s keen to have you fly reconnaissance for his unit. He knows about your rift with Snell and will protect you from him.’

‘Very decent of him. But there’s one small problem. I have no aeroplane for these reconnaissance flights.’

‘The minute Kaiser Wilhelm declares war you’ll have your aeroplane – in fact, you will have two. Hugh Delamere borrowed a seaplane pilot from the Royal Navy base at Mombasa and sent him to Percy’s Camp to ferry the Bumble Bee up here. Both of von Meerbach’s aircraft are safely parked in the hangar at the polo ground.’

‘I’m not sure I understand. Didn’t he take them with him when he sailed?’

‘No, he left them with his mechanic, Gustav Kilmer, to take care of them. As soon as war breaks out they become the property of an enemy alien. We’ll lock up Kilmer in a concentration camp and commandeer the planes.’

‘That’s good news indeed. I’ve become addicted to flying, and wasn’t relishing the thought of having to give it up. As soon as you dismiss me, sir, I intend to go out to Tandala Camp to check on what Max Rosenthal and Hennie du Rand have been up to in my absence. After that, I’ll go down to the polo ground and make sure Gustav has the aircraft safely stowed.’