The Seventh Scroll - Smith Wilbur - Страница 82

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unmistakably, there came the sound of an aircraft engine and the flutter

of rotors in fully fine pitch for takeoffs

"Quickly," he snapped at her. "Get in as close as you can to the

overhang." He pushed her back against the sheltering boulder. "Lie flad'

When she obeyed without question, he lay beside her and piled loose

rubble over them both.

"Lie still. Don't move, whatever you do."

They lay and listened to the sound of the helicopter approaching, and

circling overhead. It moved up and down the valley, flying a few feet

above the surface of the river.

At one point it was directly above the ledge on which they lay, and they

were buffeted by the down-draught of the rotors.

"Looking for survivors," said Nicholas grimly. "Don't move. They haven't

spotted us yet."

"If they were watching us before the blast, they should have been able

to come directly to where we are," she whispered. They seem confused."

"They must have lost us in the dust of the avalanche and the break-up of

the cliff face. They aren't sure where we are lying." The sound of the

helicopter moved off slowly along the river, and Nicholas told her, "I

am going to risk a peep, to make sure it's the Pegasus job - not that

there can be many other choppers in this area. Keep your head down!'

He lifted his head slowly and cautiously, and one glance was sufficient

to confirm all his speculations. Half a mile upstream, the Pegasus jet

Ranger hovered over the river. It was moving slowly away from him, so

that from this angle Nicholas was unable to see through the windscreen

into the cockpit. But at that moment the engine beat changed as the

pilot changed pitch and pulled on the collective.

As the aircraft rose vertically and turned northwards, Nicholas caught a

glimpse of the passengers. Jake Helm sat in the front seat beside the

pilot, and Colonel Nogo was in the seat behind him. They were both

staring down into the river valley, but in seconds the helicopter lifted

them away and the machine disappeared beyond the ridge, flying in the

direction of the escarpment, and the sound of its engines dwindled into

silence. Nicholas crawled out from beneath the boulder and pulled Royan

to her feet.

"No more doubts. We know who we are dealing with now. That was Helm and

No  in the chopper. Helm 9 almost certainly laid the gelly, and Nogo

probably led the men who hit our camp last night. Each of them doing the

job he does best," Nicholas told her. "So that confirms it.

Whoever owns Pegasus is the ugly behind all this. Helm and Nogo are

merely the stooges."

"But Nogo is an officer in the Ethiopian army," she protested.

"Welcome to Africa." He did not smile as he said it.

"Here everything is for sale at a price, including government officials

and army officers." Now he scowled so that the caked dust on his face

was dislodged and filtered down in a fine powdering. "Now, however, our

main concern is to get out of the gorge and back to civilization."

He looked up the slope. The trail above them had been obliterated

beneath the rock fall. "We can't get back that way," he told her, and

took her hand. But when he lifted her to her feet she gasped and quickly

shifted her weight to her right leg.

My knee!" Then she smiled bravely. "It will be all right.)

However, she was limping heavily as they scrambled down to the rivet,

terrified that their movements would set off another rock slide. They

ended up waist'deep in the water under the bank.

Royan stood behind Nicholas and washed the blood and dust from the wound

in his scalp. "Not too bad," she told him. "Doesn't need a stitch."

"I have a tube of Betadyne in my pack," he said. He fished it out, and

she smeared the wound with the yellow brown ointment before binding it

up with the Paisley bandana.

"That will do." She patted his shoulder.

"Thank the Lord for my burn-bag,'Nicholas remarked as he zipped it

closed. "At least we have a few essentials with us. Now our next job is

to look for any other survivors."

"Tamte!'she exclaimed.

They floundered along the bank. The river was clogged with loose rock

and earth that had fallen from the cliff. In the deeper places they were

forced in up to their armpits, and Nicholas carried his pack at arm's

length above his head. The loose rock was treacherous, and gave way

under them when they tried to scramble out of the water to search for

the other members of the caravan.

They found the bodies of two of the monks, both of them crushed and

half-buried. They did not even attempt to dig them free. One of the

mules lay with one leg in the air and the rest of its body completely

covered with broken rock. The pack that it had carried had burst open

and the contents were scattered about. The rolled skin and trophies of

the dik-dik had been churned into the muck. Nicholas rescued them and

strapped them on to his burn-bag.

"More to carry,'Royan warned him.

"Only a pound or two, but worth it," he replied.

They made their way towards the point below the itail where they had

last seen Tamre and Aly. But though they searched for almost an hour

they found no sign of either of them. The slope above them was

devastated: raw ravaged earth, great rocks shattered, bushes and trees

uprooted and smashed to kindling.

Royan climbed as high as her injured leg enabled her, then cupped her

hands around her mbuth and shouted, "Tamre I Tamre! Tamre!" The echoes

took her cry and flung it from' all to valley wall.

"I think he is done for. The poor little devil has been buried,'

Nicholas called up to her. "We have been at it an hour now. We cannot

afford more time, if we are to get out ourselves. We will have to leave

him."

She ignored him and worked her way along the rockslide, loose scree

rolling under her feet, and he could see that the knee was giving her

pain.

"Tamre! Answer me," she called in Arabic. "Tamre!

Where are you?"

"Royan! That's enough. You are going to damage that knee even more. You

are putting both of us at risk now.

Give it up!'

At that moment they both heard a soft groan from higher up the slope.

Royan scrambled up towards the sound, slipping and sliding back almost

as far as she climbed, but at last she gave a cry of horror. Nicholas

dumped his pack and went up after her. When he reached her side, he too

dropped to his knees.

Tam-re was pinned down in the rubble. His face was barely recognizable.

It was torn and lacerated, with half the skin ripped off. Royan had

lifted his head into her lap, and was using her sleeve to wipe the filth

out of his nostrils to allow him to breathe more freely. Blood was

oozing from the corner of his mouth, and when he groaned again it welled

up in a fresh flood. Royan dabbed at it, smearing it across his chin.

His lower body was buried, and Nicholas tried to clear the broken rock;

but almost immediately he realized the futility of it. A lump of raw

rock the size of a billiard table lay across him. It weighed many tons,

and must certainly have crushed his spine and pelvis. No single man

would be able to move that massive weight unaided. Even if it were

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