River of Death

'Vienna?' Maria said. 'Wiesenthal? The Institute?'

Serrano said: 'What's this, young lady?'

'You should watch those slips of the tongue, Mr Serrano, such as calling me a young lady. The Institute is a Jewish central organisation for hunting down war criminals. Based in Austria, not Israel. Mr Hamilton, why can they never let the left hand know what the right is doing?'

'Same old need-to-know principle, I suppose. All that I really know is that I'd a double reason for hunting Von Manteuffel down. I got close to him twice in the Argentine, twice in Chile, once in Bolivia, twice in the Kolonie 555. An elusive character, always on the run, always surrounded by his Nazi thugs. But I've caught up with him.'

'Or the other way around,' Serrano said.

Hamilton remained silent.

'Your friends are buried here?'

'Yes.'

'I'm hungry and I'm thirsty,' Navarro said plaintively. It was half an hour before dawn.

'I am deeply moved by your sufferings,' Hamilton said. 'What's a damned sight more important is that you're alive. I didn't want to depress anyone any more than we already were by saying what was in my mind, but I didn't really think we'd see the night out.'

Ramon said: 'And how could that have been?'

'Quite simple, really. Lots of ways. With a small cannon, a rocket launcher, any kind of anti-aircraft gun or a mortar. They could have directed two or.three very nasty pounds of high explosive straight through this open doorway. Maybe the shrapnel would not have got us all, but the concussion in this confined space would have finished us off. Or they could have crawled over the grain store roof from the back and lobbed in a few grenades or a stick or so of blasting powder. The effect would have been the same. Maybe they didn't have any of those materials to hand, which I don't for a moment believe — Von Manteuffel lugs around with him enough weaponry and artillery for an armoured battalion. Maybe the idea just didn't occur to them, which I don't believe either. I think that Von Manteuffel believes, as he has reason to, that we are dangerous in the dark and is waiting for daylight before moving in for the kill.'

Serrano said unhappily: 'It will be daylight quite soon.'

'It will, won't it?' In the first faint glimmering of light Maria, Serrano and Silver stared at Hamilton without comprehension as he extracted the camera from his haversack, opened it, released the flap to display the transceiver, extended an aerial and spoke into the microphone.

'Night-watch,' Hamilton said. 'Night-watch.'

The speaker crackled and the reply was immediate.

'We have you, Night-watch.'

'Now.'

'Now it is. How many vultures?'

'Thirty. Forty. A guess.' Repeat after me: Stay under cover. Napalm.'

'Stay under cover. Napalm.' Hamilton switched off. 'Useful, no? Very thoughtful is Colonel Diaz.'

'Napalm!' Ramon said.

'You heard the man.'

'But napalm!'

'Very tough, those airborne commandos. But, no, they don't use it directly. They've no intention of dropping the stuff on us. They ring the area. Not a new technique but very intimidating.'

Hamilton made another switch on the camera and a faint bleeping sound could be heard.

'Homing signal,' Ramon explained to no-one in particular. 'How else do you think they'd ever locate this place?'

'You've got everything organised, haven't you?' Maria sounded slightly bitter. 'Never thought to tell us, did you?'

'Why should I?' Hamilton said indifferently. 'Nobody ever tells me anything.'

'How long will they take to get here?'

'Twenty minutes. No more.'

'And dawn is in about the same time?'

'About.'

'It's starting to get light already. They could still attack before your friends get here.'

'Most unlikely. In the first place, it'll take Von Manteuffel and his minions some time to get organised and if we can't hold them off for a few minutes after that then we've no right to be here in the first place. Secondly, as soon as they hear the sound of the helicopter engines they're going to forget all about us.'

It was becoming quite light now but still the courtyard remained deserted. If Von Manteuffel,and his men were preparing to launch an attack they were being extremely discreet about it.

By and by Ramon said: 'Engines. I can hear them now. They're coming in from the south.'

'I don't hear them myself, but if you say they're coming in, then they're coming in. Do you see what I see, Ramon?'

'Yes, indeed. I see a man on the roof of their mess hall with a pair of binoculars to his eyes. He must have good hearing, too. The legs?'

'If you would.'

In his typical one-sweep movement Ramon lifted his rifle and squeezed the trigger. The man with the binoculars collapsed to the roof then, after some seconds, scuttled crab-wise away on two hands and a knee, dragging a useless leg behind him.

Hamilton said: 'Our friend, General Von Manteuffel, must, as they say, be losing his cool or he wouldn't have taken a stupid liberty like that. I don't think we'll be seeing any more sky-watchers.' He paused. 'I can hear them now.'

The sound of the aero-engines was now.unmistakable and increased rapidly in strength as the craft approached: finally, the rackety clamour of the engines reached an almost intolerable pitch as three large gunships began to descend between the reverberating walls of the cliff sides. '

Hamilton said: 'Inside, I think.'

Maria paused in the doorway. 'Okay to look?'

Hamilton pushed her roughly inside and behind a wooden partition where he joined her.

'Napalm, you ninny. Some of that stuff could fly loose.'

'Rockets? Bombs?'

'Jesus! This is an historic monument.'

Moments later, almost having to shout to make herself heard over the clamour, she said: 'That awful smell.'

'Napalm.'

'Shouldn't we — shouldn't we go out and help,them?'

'Help them? We'd only be in their way. Believe me, those lads don't require help of any kind. And has it occurred to you that they'd probably mow us down before we got three paces beyond that doorway? They don't know who we are and airborne commandos have the odd habit of shooting you first and asking who you are afterwards. A little discretion and patience until peace and calm reign again.'

The peace and calm came within two minutes. The sound of the helicopter engines died away. A klaxon sounded, presumably to indicate an all-clear. Not one shot had been fired.

Hamilton said: 'I think the intrepid Captain Hamilton and his gallant crew may now safely risk a peek outside.' They filed out through the open doorway.

Three gunships stood in the courtyard before the ziggurat. The ruins of the ancient city were ringed with smoke from the still burning napalm. At least fifty commandos, looking very tough and very competent and certainly armed to the teeth, had their guns trained on about three dozen of Von Manteuffel's followers, while four commandos, one of them carrying a carton of handcuffs which had been brought along for the purpose, moved along them securing their wrists behind their backs. In the forefront of the captives was Von Manteuffel himself, already handcuffed.

As Hamilton and the others reached the centre of the courtyard an Army officer advanced to meet them.

'Mr Hamilton?' he said. 'Major Ramirez. At your service.'

'You have already been of more than enough service.' They shook hands. 'We are most grateful. That really was efficient.'

'My men are disappointed,' Ramirez said. 'We had expected a rather more — ah — challenging training exercise. You wish to leave now?'

'An hour, if we may.' Hamilton pointed to Von Manteuffel. Td like to speak to that man.'