Stratton placed one in the well of one of the vertical I-beams that ran along the sides of the bridge to see how noticeable it was. ‘That should finish it off,’ he said, more to himself than to her. ‘Throw down some twine!’ he called out to Bernard.
Louisa picked it up and brought it to Stratton. He used a length to secure the mine.
‘How do they work?’ she asked.
‘Each mine contains six hundred steel ball-bearings the size of a pea,’ he explained as he placed the deton - ator wire in position. ‘They’re packed against a thick sheet of plastic explosive. Each one is the equivalent of about a hundred shotguns, but each shotgun’s ten times more powerful than a regular one.’
Louisa looked up at David attaching a mine above her and tried to imagine what it would be like when they all went off together. ‘Now that I’m here I don’t know if I approve any more.’ She looked at Stratton for his reaction.
‘Bring those others, would you?’ Stratton asked her as he crossed the road.
Louisa fetched another mine and handed it to him. ‘Does that disappoint you?’
‘Of course not.’ He stopped what he was doing and looked at her. ‘Do you want to cancel it?’
‘Would you, if I asked?’
‘Yes,’ he said.
‘Why?’
‘Because I’m not doing this for myself.’
Louisa looked up at Bernard and David who were attaching another mine. ‘You’re doing it for them,’ she said. ‘If I stopped you I would be doing it just for myself.’
Victor climbed up onto the road and walked to the bridge, carrying the remainder of the wire on its spool. He looked around at what had been done so far. ‘What shall I do?’ he asked Stratton before realising that he was interrupting a serious conversation.
‘Well?’ Stratton said, looking at her and waiting for the answer. She seemed to waver.
‘Leaders sometimes have to make tough decisions - life-and-death decisions. It’s your call. Do we destroy Chemora? Or do we leave it and walk away?’
Victor realised what this was all about. David and Bernard stopped what they were doing and watched Louisa.
‘There’s nothing wrong with changing your mind as long as you believe it’s the right thing to do,’ Stratton said.
Louisa looked at the others. They stared back at her, waiting for her to make a decision.
A distant shout interrupted them. It was Kebowa, charging down alongside the river. He pointed up the valley.
‘Trucks!’ David said from his vantage point.
‘How many?’ Stratton asked quickly.
David took a moment to be sure. ‘I think three . . . yes, three.’ He looked down at Stratton. ‘One, possibly two could be locals. Three will be Neravistas.’
‘How far?’ Stratton called.
‘A minute,’ David decided.
‘You and Bernard clear the hanging twine away and then stay there. Lie flat, look away from the trucks.Victor. Up there,’ Stratton said, pointing to higher ground.
Victor set off at a run, pulling his rifle from his shoulder.
‘Hide everything,’ Stratton shouted to Louisa. He ran to collect the mines at the end of the bridge.
Louisa ran along it, picking up bits of wire and twine, any evidence they had been there.
The vehicles’ headlights caught the top of the bridge. David and Bernard dropped to their bellies and lay still.
Stratton hurried along the embankment, dropped over the edge and dumped the claymores. He looked back for Louisa. She was still on the bridge. ‘Louisa! Come here!’
A gentle curve in the road hid the vehicles from view but their engines grew suddenly louder as they came round the bend.
Stratton knew they had just seconds before the trucks were on them. He sprinted up onto the bridge, grabbing Louisa as she leaned down to pick up the last piece of twine. The vehicles rounded the curve and their headlights lit up the entrance to the structure. Stratton manhandled her through a narrow gap in the bridge’s struts.The river bank was invisible below them but if they did not move immediately they would be exposed. ‘Jump!’ he urged her.
Louisa didn’t hesitate. Stratton followed, landing hard, colliding with her on the rocky slope. He grabbed her and held her close to stop her from sliding down the slope.
The first truck bumped over the edge of the tarmac onto the metal surface of the bridge’s roadbed, the wheels grinding as if they were crossing a cattle grid. The second vehicle was bigger and Stratton made out the back of an open truck, a couple of dozen soldiers inside it. The last vehicle was a jeep of some kind. Before long all three were off the bridge and heading away down the road.
‘You okay?’ Stratton asked Louisa.
She felt one of her wrists and nodded. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said.
‘For what?’
‘I didn’t realise they were so close.’
‘It’s difficult to tell at night. We were lucky,’ he said, getting to his feet and helping her up to the road. ‘They still heading away?’ he called up to David.
The sound of the trucks’ engines had already died away but their headlights glowed in the distance. ‘All three are still going,’ David said.
Stratton was satisfied and breathed a sigh of relief, his gaze resting on Louisa. ‘You were saying?’ he asked.
She simply looked at him.
‘Are we going to finish this or not?’ he reminded her.
‘I know what you meant,’ she said.
The others waited in silence.
‘Chemora should not be allowed to do what he does,’ she said. ‘Let’s do what we came here to do.’
‘No doubts?’ Stratton asked. ‘We don’t undo this once we’ve wired it up.’
‘No doubts,’ Louisa said, her expression grim.
‘Start wiring these together like this,’ Stratton said to Victor, who arrived a little out of breath. He placed a claymore in the recess of an I-beam. ‘Keep the cable behind the struts and out of sight.’
Victor walked to the end of the bridge and began his task. Bernard and David got back to theirs.
Stratton scaled the side of the bridge, clambered on top and began wiring the claymores together. It was a laborious job in the dark and he had to rely most of all on his sense of touch.
As the horizon began to lighten Stratton climbed down and walked the length of the bridge, carrying out a final inspection.
‘It will rain soon,’ Victor warned, looking up at the heavy clouds that were now just about visible in the dawn sky.
‘It won’t affect anything,’ Stratton said. ‘I think we’re good to go.’
The three other men filed past him and down the embankment to the river. Louisa waited beside Stratton, looking at their handiwork. He gazed at her and grinned broadly.
She realised he was watching her. ‘What’s so funny?’ she asked.
‘I can’t imagine any other circumstance where you would follow a man so obediently.’
‘Neither can I,’ she said, a softness in her voice.
It began to rain, small droplets at first which rapidly grew in size and intensity until they came down hard, soaking everything. The air rang with the metallic plinks of drops hitting the bridge. But Stratton and Louisa did not appear to notice.
‘Do you have any particular sentimental feeling when you’re standing in the rain?’ she asked.
‘I do now,’ Stratton said, watching the water trickle down her face. Without thinking, he reached out his hand to touch her cheek. He wanted to wipe away the rain, obviously impossible under the circumstances, but the feel of her skin blurred all thoughts but one. He leaned towards her and she did not shy away. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly to him. Her hands cupped his face as they kissed.
Victor looked back to see what was keeping them and stopped when he saw what they were doing. He blinked against the rain, unsure quite what he felt about it. A part of him was happy for them both. Love affairs were indeed beautiful things. But another part of him was troubled.