“What happened?” she asked as we ran.
“Long story,” I smiled. “A case of attempted double-crossing, a technique that should never be tried by amateurs.”
We reached the stable and slipped inside. It was full of horses, and, as I expected, there were no two Arabians saddled and waiting.
I saddled up two of the nearest stallions, carefully opened the stable door and started out.
“Bend low in the saddle,” I said to Marina. “Make a small target of yourself and don’t gallop until I do. Then give it everything you’ve got and follow me.”
The big, arched entranceway was still open, one guard at each side of it. I walked the big, powerful stallion forward, letting him wheel around a few times on his own. Hunched low in the saddle, I knew the guards, at this distance, could see nothing more than a dark shape in the saddle. All they could make out were two horses and riders on them.
I edged the stallion toward the gate, keeping him at a frisky walk.
Marina was right behind me.
I played, it cool and edged up still further. Coming out of the stables as we had, they were regarding us with no more than casual interest. Had we been approaching from outside they’d have had us in their rifle sights by now.
I turned the stallion’s head toward the gate, looked back again to see that Marina was wheeling her horse in position, and dug my heels into his ribs. He flattened his ears back, leaped forward and took off like a desert windstorm.
I passed the two guards and was outside before they even got their rifles up. I was on my way down the steep path when I heard the sound of Marina’s voice.
I looked back and saw her toppling from the saddle, one of the guards hanging onto her.
He had thought quickly and had seen there wouldn’t be time for him to bring up his rifle and fire. He’d leaped forward, throwing himself at her as she rode past.
“Dammit!” I cursed, wheeling the stallion around.
I raced back and saw the one guard struggling with Marina. The other one, seeing me galloping back, tried to get his rifle up.
He never made it. I ran the stallion right at him and he had to leap aside. As he did so, I brought the double-edge sword down on his head. The thunking sound had the ring of utter finality to it.
The other one struggling with Marina threw her to the ground and brought his rifle around, but I was on him too fast.
I came down with the sword with all my strength.
He ducked it and I wheeled for another try but I saw he would have the rifle up to fire in a second.
I threw the sword, hard and down. It went into his chest like a lance.
Marina had mounted her horse before he hit the ground and we took off.
They’d be coming after us, but we had a head start and they’d have to get lucky to pick which of the many passes we’d chosen to take.
But I wasn’t about to take any chances. I kept up the breakneck pace until we were at the foot of the mountain range. We’d taken some perilously steep trails to cut down as straight as we could and now I halted at the edge of the Taza Gap.
To the east, the camel caravan would be approaching from Algeria or Southern Morocco. To the west of the gap, Tangiers and the American Consulate.
I dismounted and pulled Marina down beside me.
“You heard what El Ahmid is planning,” I told her. “He’s got to be stopped. I’m going to give you a secret code signal. You ride to Tangiers, don’t stop for anything, ride right to the American Consulate there. Give the code signal to him and ask him to call AXE headquarters for you. He’ll do it because of the code signal. When you get AXE headquarters, tell the person on the phone the whole story. Got that so far?”
She nodded and I went on.
“Most important,” I said, “is to tell them about the camel caravan that will enter the Taza Gap. Tell them I said to run with the ball.”
She frowned.
“That means to do whatever is necessary to meet the situation,” I said.
“Where will you be, Nick?” she asked.
“I’m going to find me a spot somewhere and wait for that caravan,” I answered. “If my people don’t make it, I might still find a way to do something. I don’t know what but I’m sure as hell going to try.”
I looked down at her and remembered my thoughts about giving her a personal stake in all this. Now it was my time to buy a little insurance. I pressed my lips down on hers and held her breasts, pressing both hands against them. I ran my thumbs gently across their tips, feeling her nipples swell beneath the fabric of the dress.
“Remember what I said about needing each other?” I asked. “After you get to my people, when this is over, maybe we can make this a permanent team?”
I saw her eyes deepen and she nodded, holding me tight.
“Now get going, honey,” I whispered in her ear, a little reluctant to let go of those soft, enticing breasts myself. “Every second counts.”
I helped her mount, kissed her again and watched her go off. When she was out of sight and the first gray tint of dawn began to spread across the sky, I turned the stallion around and headed east along the edge of the Taza Gap.
The sky continued to lighten, and as it did I saw the flat stretch of land along which I rode, the historic road for conquerors from the East. The Taza Gap lay between the Rif range and the mountains known as the Middle Atlas. Through its wide swath, ancient legions had traveled from east to west and west to east and left their mark on the land itself.
I passed the ruins of ancient villages where Roman garrisons had been quartered, the unmistakable relics of Roman architecture an echo of their days of glory.
The road led up high into the mountains but still remained a natural highway between the two mountain ranges.
I stayed close along the northern edge, watching carefully as the sun rose high in the sky.
El Ahmid and his men would be out, coming this way, I knew. They might travel a distance in the Rif mountains and then cut down onto the Taza Gap as I had done with Marina, but sooner or later they would have to appear. Knowing I’d escaped, he had only one thing to do, meet the caravan and advance his timetable before I could summon help.
I had to halt to water the horse a few times but other than that I rode steadily, grateful for the deep-chested stamina of the Arabian under me.
It was late afternoon when I neared the eastern end of the gap. I wheeled the horse up into the Rif foothills, found a sheltered spot behind a circle of large boulders and put the stallion out of sight.
Climbing up onto the boulders, I flattened out and began to watch from my makeshift falcon’s nest. I could see a good distance down the gap in either direction, and I wondered how Marina had made out. I was pretty sure she had kept on with her mission, but I wasn’t at all sure they hadn’t cut her off before she got very far.
Only time would tell, and, as I waited in the heat of the blistering sun, I realized that I was pretty damn helpless. I hadn’t a revolver, a rifle, a dagger or a toothpick.
If Marina hadn’t made it, how the hell did I expect to stop an armed camel caravan of some seven hundred men plus those El Ahmid would bring with him to meet them? I’d have to meet a genie in a bottle, I said to myself. That or find Aladdin and his magic lamp.
My idle thoughts were cut off by a cloud of dust from the west. The cloud grew and materialized into El Ahmid and his men. There were some two hundred of them, I estimated, riding like hell with the Rif leader in the forefront. They were just about opposite me when I saw El Ahmid raise his hand and rein up to a halt.
I peered in the other direction to see the camel caravan approaching, the stately, unhurried motion of the camels somehow reminiscent of a royal procession. The caravan stretched out farther back than I could see, and I saw the double rows of camels in the center carrying the haik-clad “women,” two on a camel.