The dismissive sound the American girl made riled Jardine, while he was aware that she was not alone in her reaction. Vince had been delighted to see him and had appreciated how close a call it had been, but when Jardine explained how he had got away, who was responsible and why, the bland look of obscured disbelief was too obvious to miss.
Tyler Alverson had only opined with a doubt-filled aside that stranger things had happened in his life, while Ma Littleton, the only one not still present in the hotel — she had gone back to her previous archaeological digs — had been of the view that this Spanish lady was no better than she ought to be.
‘I just hope she is not in trouble for it.’
Alverson’s slow drawl was filled with irony. ‘Now, in a movie, Cal, you would strap on your weapons, put your hat firmly on your head, set your square jaw and, ignoring the pleas of your friends to show some sense, head out on your trusty steed to rescue her, backed by swelling music …’
‘Not swelling enough to fill that head, Tyler,’ Corrie Littleton cracked.
‘What are you still doing here?’
‘And what business, Jardine, is that of yours?’
‘You’re annoying me.’
‘Then leave.’
‘He would if he knew where to go, honey.’
‘Nothing stopping us now, guv,’ said Vince, backing Alverson up.
‘I thought you wanted to report on the war, Tyler?’
‘I do, Cal, but I guess I kinda think I dropped you in enough shit for one fight.’
‘You shouldn’t swear in front of ladies, Mr Alverson,’ complained Vince.
‘He didn’t,’ Jardine said, glaring at Corrie Littleton, seeing her tongue again.
The commotion outside distracted them all at the same time, the sound of a number of noisy vehicles arriving at once surprising them all equally. They got to their feet as Ras Kassa Meghoum, with several junior military officers on his heels, strode into the hotel lounge, his eyes fixed firmly on one man.
‘Captain Jardine, I was told you were here.’
‘Can I say I am surprised to see you, sir?’
‘My being here is not something I expected either, Captain,’ Kassa replied, nodding in turn to the others, ‘but my emperor has been betrayed and I have come to shore up an event that should never have happened. Haile Selassie Gugsa, the Lion of Judah’s own son-in-law, has deserted to the Italians, which has left a gaping hole in our front lines, the size of which we are uncertain.’
‘How important is this Gugsa feller?’ Alverson asked, which made the ras look at him hard, in a way that indicated he was disinclined to answer. ‘You can tell me, sir, or I can find out another way, given, even if it is a secret now, it won’t be that for long.’
‘It is not something I would want the world to know, Mr Alverson.’
‘Then I suggest you figure out a way to shoot every journalist the Italians have with them, and I am reliably told they brought along near two hundred. The Rome papers will spread this story fast and use it to make out the whole of Ethiopia is falling apart.’
‘Which it is not!’
‘That was my next question, and if that is true, it is a story you have to get out and damn quick. How have the Italians reacted?’
‘They are still in Aksum, as far as I am aware, making preparations to move on to Mek’ele.’
‘He should have done that days ago,’ Jardine said. ‘Stopping in Aksum was madness.’
‘For De Bono read De Bonehead.’
‘I was told you acquired a car, Mr Alverson.’
‘I did.’
‘Then perhaps you will use it to follow Captain Jardine and I while I go forward to assess the damage.’
‘I’ll get my kit,’ Jardine said, before looking towards a curious-cum-concerned Vince. ‘You don’t have to come.’
‘What? Leave you, guv, the trouble you get yourself into?’
‘Can I come?’ Corrie Littleton asked.
‘Why?’ Jardine demanded.
‘To annoy you, that’s why.’
‘Really.’
‘Beats sitting on my butt round here.’
‘If you’re sure you want to, honey,’ Alverson drawled, ‘there’s room in the Rolls.’
‘Tyler, it could be dangerous.’
‘Good,’ Corrie Littleton spat back at Jardine. ‘Do I get a gun, Ras?’
‘Why would you want a gun, Miss Littleton?’
‘There’s a Spanish broad up north very short on brains who needs to be put out of her misery.’ Seeing the confusion on the older man’s face, she added, ‘I’ll explain later.’
* * *
They went in convoy, on a road now free of any traffic, apart from a few supply columns that were rapidly shifted by a blaring klaxon, the ras in front in a Dodge with Alverson behind, he followed by several of the limited number of trucks in the Ethiopian army. They were carrying the escort, those same Shewan warriors that had accompanied them from the coast, and all armed with a portion of the weapons they had helped bring in. Jardine had asked Vince to go in the open-topped Rolls and keep his eyes peeled for aircraft, while he used the time to quiz Ras Kassa about what he thought would happen now.
‘For the moment our problem is nothing is happening in the way we anticipated, and that is due to De Bono, for he will not advance except at the pace of a snail. Information is coming in from those in Italy who are sympathetic that Mussolini is losing patience with him and he may be replaced.’
‘Would it not be better to hope he remained?’
‘No, Captain Jardine, it would not. We must fight these devils, and the longer our forces stay in the field, the greater the strain on our resources and morale. We need our people to see that it is possible to take on the Italians, and soon. Then we need them back on their land growing food.’
What the older man was not saying, and Jardine could understand why, was that the defection of the emperor’s own son-in-law was a blow that might have repercussions: Gugsa would not be the only Ethiopian aristocrat with flaky loyalty, while some tribes like the Galla, according to what he had learnt, were outright in opposition, openly supporting the Italians.
The double sound of the klaxon behind indicated to Jardine that Vince had spotted a plane, which led him to suggest that they pull off the road and get out of the vehicles. He had been wondering where the Italian air force was, because if he had been in command of the Regia Aeronautica this road would have been shut to traffic in daylight, and it was not.
The Ethiopians did have some anti-aircraft capability but not enough to trouble an Italian air force said to run to nearly a thousand planes. Perhaps they wanted their enemies before them in the mass and had no desire to stop them — foolish to his mind because he had seen what aircraft could do to a marching army, and it was devastating.
‘It may be friendly, Captain. I asked for reconnaissance so I could be kept informed.’
So it proved, with a biplane landing on the road before them. Jardine suspected before he knew that it would be de Billancourt and he was disappointed to be proved right, though the information the Frenchman brought was positive. Most of Gugsa’s men had stayed loyal and the front seemed secure, which left Alverson with a dilemma: it was a scoop and he wanted that story out before it got back to Addis and became general knowledge, a point he put to a pensive Ras Kassa while Corrie Littleton allowed her hand to be drooled over once more, that was until the Frenchman was called over to the ras.
‘Take Mr Alverson to the headquarters of Ras Seyoum and ask, from me, that he be given access to the telegraph line through to the Sudan. Just this once, Mr Alverson, we will do this, for it is important, but it is not something which will happen again, I fear.’
‘Thank you, sir,’ Alverson replied, before addressing de Billancourt. ‘No dogfights, pal, I get airsick.’