A Bridge of Magpies

I pointed it out to them; and tried bluffing, because I didn't want Koch to come and find me unable to shift a girl and a fisherman from the beach.

'That's probably a diamond patrol. You're in a hot seat. You can save yourselves trouble by coming to the boat right away.'

'I'll give you my word not to come ashore,' said Kaptein Denny.

'And you, Jutta?'

'No.'

There was a tight silence. Then she exclaimed. 'You don't.. can't

… understand! It would take hours to explain. You' ve been wonderful-and beastly-today.'

'The boat'

'Oh, damn and blast you!'

Kaptein Denny said, 'That's not a police patrol. Their vehicles are painted bright orange so they can be spotted from their air if they're in trouble.'

Koch broke it up by coming round the sandhills in a tearaway slide. He'd clearly sighted our group. There wasn't much of his Austrian charisma in evidence when he finally pulled up hard and covered us in dust.

'What the devil goes on here-Struan? Showing tourists around?'

'Keep your cool. We were just sorting things out.' '

A woman tool'

He'd had a rough ride over the desert, judging from his red, hollow eyes and dust-covered face. His cheeks were stubble-shadowed; and dust made a tracery in the lines about his 'nose, making him look angry and older. A roof tar69 paulin covering his gear and extra jerricans of petrol had blown loose and flapped in the wind, drawing attention to the load.

Koch saw that Kaptein Denny was eyeing it and snapped, '

Get in. I want a word with you.'

`To the boat,' I ordered the other two; but they just went on standing there. Koch slammed in the gears and we drove up a dune-out of earshot,

I got in first. 'Now.. I gave him a quick rundown of the situation and why Jutta was there.

'Be your age, man!' he retorted. 'Women in these days don't dare deserts simply in order to brood over sites of minor naval actions and placate ancestral spirits! Lady Hester Stanhope's dead!'

'Maybe she's different.'

'They all are-to start with. To the birds today the male is simply a gun loaded with chauvinism and sperm. Get that straight and you'll be a happy man.'

`Her story sounded okay-at least part of it.'

Wive la difference! Nor did I like the look of that bugger with her.'

'Maybe he's at the bottom of it all. I don't know yet.'

'Letting her down lightly again, Struan? You were given a job to do here-remember? The Sperrgebiet isn't Santorin-all lesbians and love-ins.'

'I like your language when you're drunk. It's even better when you're mad. What do you want me to do?' '

Arrest them both. Throw them out.'

'Kaptein Denny's given his parole – well, sort of. Isn't interested in coming ashore. This once was an exception.' 'And she?'

'Refuses to budge.'

'You've got a lock-up on Possession.'

'You can't throw a woman into a place like that,'

'I can. You will.'

'Let's see if we can't talk some sense into her.'

But we couldn't, and she even held out her wrists and mocked me to clap handcuffs on her. Without a boat Possession is as good as a prison anyway. Those two or three miles of white-capped channel water between the island and the mainland would, if a man were stuck there, lengthen to two thousand. The island looked like a nicked knife 70 blade lying in the sea, one of those curved things that have a thick back. The craggy bits, where the zombies hadn't managed to clear the guano, were still white, and the rest was grey where they had. Parts of the island were so low against the water that they looked like three or four islets loosely linked together.

Finally, under pressure and protest, Jutta agreed to accom- pany us. She remained adamant in her refusal to return to Luderitz

The four of us, plus Breekbout, piled into the two boats and we crossed to the island.

C H A P T E R. S I X

'Welcome to the commune'

Jutta eyed the guano-splashed prefabs, and didn't answer for a moment. The pissy wind came cascading over the rocks, and bits of feathers and nests made unerringly for one's eyes and nostrils. It was about mid-afternoon. In an hour or two the fog would start coming in. When it did, the wind would fall. The huts were sited under the lee of the island's northernmost high point, which-instead of giving shelter -acted acted more as a booster to jack up the force of the wind, breaking it up into eddies which searched out every nook and cranny and brought a continual avalanche of debris. You couldn't escape-whichever way you faced.

We were all standing on the concrete apron near the jetty

'Which is the jail?' Jutta demanded.

'The whole place is a jail,' Koch retorted. 'You've got an exercise yard over two miles long and half a mile broad. But don't get ideas. The most level bit is what you're standing mi.'

I added, 'Careful over the rocks. They get very slippery because of the guano and the fog. They're like ice every morning?

'Every morning? You've only been here.. Breekbout muttered something and he and Kaptein Denny grinned.

I translated the patois, as it was obvious the crack was directed at her.

'He says, please stay the winter and you'll grow webs on your feet like the birds-from climbing the rocks, He's never seen a woman with webbed feet..

'Save it!' It made her angrier.

Koch, too-was becoming more irritated. He pulled me away from the others to the headman's cottage where they couldn't overhear us.

'What sort of white-shoe captain are you?' he demanded. 72

'Don't blow your bilges. What the hell do you expect me to do with her?'

'Spell it out. Spell it out to both of them that they aren't staying. Throw 'em out.'

'They've heard that already. She won't budge. I can't stop Kaptein Denny anchoring his boat and just sitting.'

`That bastard has a racket. I don't buy that yarn of his. He isn't at Doodenstadt for a full frontal view of the scen'Don't get your knickers in a twist. I can't touch him; not legally anyway.'

'Find a reason; invent one if you must. If he gets back to Luderitz hell spread the rumour.'

'Welt do something, for crying in a bucket 1 I'm not going to start operations with Kaptein Denny watching every move I make. Get rid of him!'

'I believe the girl's story -the the part of it she told me. She wasn't acting for my benefit. But it wasn't the whole story, I' m certain. Whatever Kaptein Denny's racket is, he's using her as a front for it.'

'Your concern for her is so touching. You make me want to cry! Listen, man! There's a lost city under these rocks. Treasure, probably. If Denny gets back to Luderitz the whole security screen is blown. Sky-high. He'll manufacture just the situation the C-in-C is trying to avoid. Well have a queue of bums, no-goods, wide boys-they'll be here like flies. Trump up a reason to hold him;

'For how long? Months?'

'Get on the blower to the C-in-C if you feel you can't cope.'

'First day in command and I can't solve my own problems without running to the boss! Never!'

'Here's a way-Struan. Take the girl to Luderitz in your official boat You can make it in less than a day. Dump her. Make a few discreet inquiries; try to get some dirt on Denny. It can be done: the top brass there has been ordered to feather-bed you.

'She'll kick up hellish rough.'

'The scratching and kicking won't last more than a day. Then you can push the cat over the side and have done with it'

'And leave Kaptein Denny to go scot-free while I'm away?'. 73

'No. I'll stay, right here on Possession. I'll answer for him until you get back. Breekbout can stand turns on guard with

'I suppose it's okay. However, he did promise he wouldn't go ashore: