John Robb - I Shall Avenge!

There, Pete murmured: “We can’t start a shooting match yet.”

“Oh yeah? Why not?”

“Because Monclaire is waiting for the sound of shooting—that’s his signal to make a charge. The whole game would be given away before we got to the prisoners… as soon as the legionnaires come pelting out of the barracks the prisoners will be killed. Now do you understand?”

Rex understood.

Their plan was based on the premise that somehow they would manage to get between the prisoners and their guards before the shooting began. If shooting started now, they would be completely unable to defend the Europeans, who, in all probability, would be killed while Rex and Pete were still trying to force their way down to the basement.

Rex looked desperately around him.

“Okay—so what do we do?”

“Somehow we’ve got to divert the attention of the Touaregs. One of us will have to do it while the other takes the opportunity to slip into the hotel.”

“You mean, start a fight or something?”

“Yes—something of the sort… now listen. Leave the diversion to me. I’ll fix it so that for a few seconds at least, all the Touaregs are looking away from you. That’s your chance. Take it.”

Rex stared intently at Pete.

He muttered: “And what about you, Pete?

“I’ll be all right.”

“Like hell, you will! You’ll have a mob of Arabs pulling you to bits inside a couple of minutes. And you won’t be able to use your gun because it’ll give the alarm to the barracks too soon. No, sir. I ain’t lettin’ you do that.”

Pete’s voice lost its normal detached calm.

“Don’t talk like a hero in a Hollywood film. You’ve got to do it. So have I. Remember… there’re twenty-two helpless people in that hotel. Some of them are women and kids. We can t stand here debating while they are done to death…!”

“We’ll have to think of something else…”

“There isn’t anything else. We didn’t expect the mob to have surrounded the whole building, and we didn’t expect it to be so well guarded. So my idea’s the only possible one. Now…”

“Listen to me, Limey! It’s a punk idea! I’d have some kind of chance. But you wouldn’t have any at all. I ain’t doin’ it, and that’s final. I’ll tell you what I will do. I’ll make the disturbance and you can try getting into the hotel. I figure that’s the way it ought to be since—”

Pete interrupted. He whispered: “For God’s sake keep your voice down!”

Rex, never very cautious, had been uttering the last few vehement sentences in above normal tones.

The warning was too late.

There was a shuffle of movement among the mob. They were making way for five Touaregs. Each was armed with a pistol. And the pistols were aimed at Rex and Pete.

Rex pushed a hand under his burnouse . A voice said in French: “Leave it alone—or you’ll die.” It came from behind them.

It was a woman’s voice. That of Aiuuce Tovak.

The Hotel Afrique had changed. Yet it was substantially the same. It was like a new owner wearing an old coat.

The small and dusty hall with the reception desk in the corner was still there. But instead of containing a constant flow of disillusioned white people, it was now tenanted by Touaregs. They sat in the wicker chairs, and somehow expressed their arrogance even in their sitting. They looked with futile amusement at the pictures in the weeks-old French newspapers. Some of them found pleasure in ringing the aged handbell that reposed in front of a now thoroughly frightened black reception clerk.

Rex and Pete looked round in astonishment as they were half carried and half pushed into the place.

As rankers, they had never been allowed to enjoy the social amenities of the Hotel Afrique , So far as the Legion was concerned, it was reserved for officers only. But they were instinctively aware of the contrast.

As soon as the lounging Touaregs saw them, they gathered round them.

And they mumbled in fury as the guards pulled off the turbans and revealed first Pete’s closely cropped fair hair and then Rex’s equally sparse dark head.

The Touaregs watched with interest as the Piets were pulled from them.

But, because few of them understood French well, they were only puzzled and curious as Annice Tovak spoke to them.

She had a sense of drama and a sense of the fitness of things, had Annice.

In the past few hours she had discarded her western clothes and had put on purple robes. They were of fine Alleta silk, and their rich darkness contrasted with the paleness of her skin and the fairness of her hair.

She said as she recognised them: “A coincidence, is it not? The very legionnaires I met in the wineshop… the ones who helped to murder my husband!”

The latter words lashed out, like a series of cracks from a whip.

Neither Pete nor Rex answered. They were still battling with a sickness of disappointment and confusion.

She added: “Were you alone? Or were any other legionnaires trying this stupid trick?”

They stared back at her, but still they didn’t reply.

She smiled. It was that weird smile which transformed beauty into ugliness.

“I could soon find out. But it does not much matter. I thought that something of the sort might be attempted and anyone joining the crowd outside here is being watched until we are satisfied—just as you were watched. And you were not very skilful, were you? I was told that two strangers had been seen whispering together. And I arrived to hear the American shouting! No, I don’t think either of you would make good secret agents!”

She regarded them thoughtfully. Then she said: “You will die. You will die because of the innocent man you willingly executed.”

Rex blurted: “There was nothing willing about it. We all felt sorry for Tovak.”

“Sorry! But you killed him just the same! How deeply do you feel sorrow? Now listen to me—for I shall give you justice. You came here because you hoped to save those prisoners. You were fools, for most of them are what? I’ll tell you. They are rich, weak, flabby and cowardly. They belong to a dying social order. Their lives are not worth saving…”

She began to pace up and down in front of them, her slim body tensed, her eyes holding a hint of madness.

“And I shall prove what I say. When the garrison has left Sadazi, as it must, I wíll have you taken to the same place where my husband was executed…

“I shall give a rifle to each of the men who are our hostages…

“And I shall order them to shoot you. It will be the last condition for sparing their lives. A small additional condition…

“They will do it—they will do it. They are too fond of life to sacrifice it for a couple of common soldiers, even if the soldiers had risked everything to save them…

“Thus I shall have vengeance… and in the moment before you die you will know what worthless people they are, they for whom you terrorise and subjugate Morocco…”

Rex took in a deep breath. It expressed horror and incredulity.

Pete was the first to recover. He said dryly: “You have a distorted sense of humour—and you’re not much judge of character.”

“We shall see, and 1 know that 1 shall be proven right. These civilians when so near to safety, will certainly kill you in order to preserve their own squalid lives.”

Pete shook his head. But it was not a convincing expression of doubt. He knew that the men hostages were almost certain to represent a fairly typical cross-section of the human race. Some, no doubt, would be brave and refuse to fire. But there would be the others. The others who would gladly do her bidding.