Moonscape? As he gazed out, Tweed thought Paula's description was perfect. The Land Rover had started to wobble from side to side. The flat so-called plain was desolate. Its surface was littered with small rocks, shale and pebbles. `This whole area is unstable,' Philip remarked casually. Paula glanced once at him and realized he was looking grim. He was wondering how to get them out of this. She had never before seen him looking so serious. Her reaction steeled her nerve. She twisted round in her seat, pressed her binoculars to her eyes, focused on the three police cars. She could hear a distant whine. The fools still had their sirens shrieking out here in this totally deserted region. And their blue lights were still flashing. Idiots. Paula focused on the lead car. A policeman was standing, head and shoulders poked through the open roof. `A slim man,' she said, 'in full uniform with gold braid and wide shoulders. Mouth open as though he's shouting.' `That will be Benlier himself,' Philip told her, `shouting en advance.' `Must think he's Napoleon at Austerlitz,' Tweed commented drily.
Quite suddenly the gradient changed. They were climbing a steep slope, up and up. Paula focused her binoculars on their destination. `There's a ridge above us,' she reported. 'Perched on its edge a line of big boulders, one of them enormous.' `They weren't there when I came here on a recce three days ago. There's been a landslide…' `Head for that gap between them,' Paula urged. 'Just to the left of that huge chap. Your Land Rover will pass through easily.' `You think so?' Philip queried. `Do as she suggested,'Tweed ordered. 'She has some plan and so often she's right.' `Will do,' Philip agreed with a grin. `Newman and Harry are close behind us,' Paula reported as she glanced back. `So are the police cars,' Philip remarked. `This is better,' Paula said as she lowered her window a few inches and breathed in ice-cold air.
Her brain was now working at full power. `Better than what?' Tweed chaffed her. `Being indoors. The manor was giving me the creeps. Wasn't much better in The Forest. Claustrophobic atmosphere.' `Which may have been an element,' Tweed observed, `in the murders.' `Don't miss the gap,' Paula shouted at Philip, who was just turning his wheel, heading for the opening, followed by Newman's and Harry's vehicles. `That's better,' Paula added. 'You'll just scrape through.' `I'll just glide through,' he said with another grin. `And I think I've spotted your strategy…' `Better late than never.'
The Land Rover had at least a foot's spare space as he passed through behind the rampart line of boulders. Paula stared at the treacherous ground scattered with a slither of shale. `Park the vehicle pointing up the hill,' she suggested. `We may have to leave quickly if everything starts to give way.' `I had thought of that,' Philip replied amiably. 'It's like quicksand.'
The other two vehicles had arrived after passing through the gap. They had followed Philip's example, pointing uphill for a quick getaway. There was a crackle of gunfire even though the pursuing police cars, coming up fast, were still a quarter of a mile below them.
'Prepare to meet the enemy, as they said a hundred years ago,' Tweed ordered.
35
They divided up naturally into couples. Tweed and Paula were cautiously testing the stability of the enormous boulder. He gently leaned against it and the massive rock trembled. On the other end Paula's effort to move it failed. It remained rigid. `It will take both of us to shift it when the time comes,' Tweed called out to Paula. 'At this end I can see through the gap when they're coming. When I shout "Now!" heave with all your strength.'
Beyond the gap Newman and Marler had tested two boulders very close together. They were positioned behind the smaller boulder, which still looked like a killer.
Beyond them Harry, with his partner Nield, also stood behind two boulders almost touching each other. Paula could see what had caused the boulders to pause where they had. Behind the rampart was quite a wide area of flat ground, before the surface again climbed steeply to another distant ridge. The flat area had slowed their momentum to almost nothing and the slight ridge they were perched against now had brought them to a halt. For the moment.
It was quiet now under the glow of the moon. Benlier must have ordered his men to silence their sirens so they could hear his commands. The three police cars had stopped moving for the moment and the only sound was the purr of their distance engines. There was no more crackle of futile gunfire and a heavy silence had settled over the Ardennes. `Calm before the storm,' Paula said to herself.
Like the rest of the team she had donned her heavy motoring gloves. Bare hands pushing at the sharp- edged rocks would have ended up cut to ribbons and bleeding profusely. She stamped her booted legs on a flat rock to keep her circulation going. Then she walked over to where Tweed was peering round their giant boulder. `Go back to your post,' he said quietly. 'When they come I'll shout "Now!"You push with all your strength. But be very careful you don't go with the boulder.' `Understood.'
Their own three Land Rovers had been parked pointing uphill. The purr of their engines was lost with the engine sound of the police cars revving up. `Won't be long now,' Tweed warned. `Sooner the better,' Paula replied.
She was worried that her own weight added to Tweed's might not be enough to shift the massive boulder. She would have liked to have taken deep breaths but realized that wasn't a good idea. At this height the air was like liquid ice.
Peering round the end Tweed saw Benlier, motionless. He was wearing white gloves, which looked ridiculous. He was deliberately delaying to heighten the tension. To break their nerves.
Then his hands rose in the air, made a forward movement. He shouted a command which Tweed couldn't catch. The police cars accelerated upward, Benlier's in the lead, his two supporting cars behind him. `Now!' shouted Tweed.
Paula put every ounce of strength into her push. No movement. Then the boulder was surging forward and down. She nearly went with it. Remembering Tweed's warning she dug her feet into the ridge, regained her balance, stared at the spectacle. An avalanche of boulders was speeding down the slope and now she could see the enemy.
With half his body exposed up through the open car's roof Benlier gazed in horror. 'Swerve!' he screamed at his driver, who never heard the order. Benlier was paralysed with fright. The world had gone. The moon had gone. The massive height of the boulder loomed over him. He tried to get back down inside his car but seconds had become years. The immense weight and size of the boulder hit the car, crushed it flat. Benlier's broken body was somewhere amid the smashed metal. Hardly pausing, the boulder trundled at increasing speed down the slope and soon, to Tweed and Paula, watching, it was no more than a large pebble a long way down.
Marler and Newman had got both their boulders moving. One police car swerved, avoided by inches the first boulder and was then flattened by the second boulder.