The Dark of the Sun - Smith Wilbur (читать книгу онлайн бесплатно полностью без регистрации .TXT) 📗

Ruffy nodded and buttoned the playing cards into his top pocket while he

selected the gendarmes to accompany them; then he asked Bruce, "We might

need some oil; what you think, boss?" Bruce hesitated; they had

only two cases of whisky left of the dozen they had looted in August.

The purchasing power of a bottle of genuine Scotch was enormous and

Bruce was loath to use them except in extraordinary circumstances. But

now he realized that his chances of getting the supplies he needed were

remote, unless he took along a substantial bribe for the quartermaster.

"Okay, Ruffy. Bring a case." Ruffy came up out of the chair and clapped

his steel helmet on his head. The chin straps hung down on each side of

his round black face.

A "A full case?" He grinned at Bruce. "You want to buy a battleship?"

"Almost," agreed Bruce; "go and get it." Ruffy disappeared into the back

area of the house and returned almost immediately with a case of Grant's

Stand awl"

fast under one arm and half a dozen bottles of Simba beer held by their

necks between the fingers of his other hand.

"We might get thirsty," he explained.

The gendarmes climbed back into the back of the truck with a clatter of

weapons and shouted cheerful abuse at their fellows on the

verandah. Bruce, Mike and Ruffy crowded into the cab and Ruffy set the

whisky on the floor and placed two large booted feet upon it.

"What's this all about, boss?" he asked as Bruce trundled the truck down

the drive and turned into the Avenue I'Etoile. Bruce told him and when

he had finished Ruffy grunted noncommittally and opened a bottle of beer

with his big white chisel-blade teeth; the gas hissed softly and a

little froth ran down the bottle and dripped onto his lap.

"My boys aren't going to like it," he commented as he offered the open

bottle to Mike Haig. Mike shook his head and Ruffy passed the bottle to

Bruce.

Ruffy opened a bottle for himself and spoke again. "They going to hate

it like hell." He shook his head. "And there'll be even bigger trouble

when we get to Port Reprieve and pick up the diamonds." Bruce glanced

sideways at him, startled. "What diamonds?"

"From the dredgers," said Ruffy. "You don't think they're sending us all

that way just to bring in these other guys.

They're worried about the diamonds, that's for sure!" Suddenly, for

Bruce, much which had puzzled him was explained. A half-forgotten

conversation that he had held earlier in the year with an engineer from

Union Mine jumped back into his memory. They had discussed the three

diamond dredgers that worked the gravel from the bed of the Lufira

swamps. The boats were based on Port Reprieve and clearly they would

have returned there at the beginning of the emergency; they must still

be there with three or four months" recovery of diamonds on board.

Something like half a million sterling in uncut stones. That was the

reason why the Katangese Government placed such priority on this

expedition, the reason why such a powerful force was being used, the

reason why no approaches had been made to the U.N. authorities to

conduct the rescue.

Bruce smiled sardonically as he remembered the human itarian arguments

that had been given to him by the Minister of the Interior.

"It is our duty, Captain Curry. We cannot leave these people to the

notsotender mercy of the tribesmen. It is out duty as civilized human

beings." There were others cut off in remote mission stations and

government outposts throughout southern Kasai and Katanga; nothing had

been heard of them for months, but their welfare was secondary to that

of the settlement at Port.

Reprieve.

Bruce lifted the bottle to his lips again, steering with one hand and

squinting ahead through the windscreen as he drank. All right, we'll

fetch them in and afterwards an ammunition box will be loaded on to a

chartered aircraft, and later still there will be another deposit to a

numbered account in Zurich. Why should I worry? They're paying me for

it.

"I don't think we should mention the diamonds to my boys." Ruffy spoke

sadly. "I don't think it would be a good idea at all." Bruce slowed the

truck as they ran into the industrial area beyond the railway line. He

watched the buildings as they passed, until he recognized the one he

wanted and swung off the road to stop in front of the gate. He blew a

blast on the hooter and a gendarme came out and inspected his pass

minutely. Satisfied, he shouted out to someone beyond the gate and it

swung open. Bruce drove the truck through into the yard and switched off

the engine.

There were half a dozen other trucks parked in the yard, all emblazoned

with the Katangese shield and surrounded by gendarmes in uniforms patchy

with sweat. A white lieutenant leaned from the cab of one of the trucks

and shouted.

"Ciao, Bruce!"

"How things, Sergio?" Bruce answered him.

"Crazy! Crazy!" Bruce smiled. For the Italian everything was crazy.

Bruce remembered that in July, during the fighting at the road bridge,

he had bent him over the bonnet of a Land Rover and with a bayonet dug a

piece of schrapnel out of his hairy buttocks - that had also been crazy.

"See you around," Bruce dismissed him and led Mike and Ruffy across the

yard, to the warehouse. There was a sign on the large double doors Dp&

Ordinance - Aim& du Katanga and beyond them at a desk in a glass cubicle

sat a major with a pair of Gandhi-type steel-rimmed spectacles perched

on a face like that of a jovial black toad. He looked up at Bruce.

"Non," he said with finality. "Non, non." Bruce produced his requisition

form and laid it before him. The major brushed it aside

contemptuously.

"We have not got these items, we are destitute. I cannot do it.

No! I cannot do it. There are priorities. There are circumstances to

consider. No, I am sorry." He snatched a sheaf of papers from the side

of his desk and turned his whole attention to them, ignoring Bruce.

"This requisition is signed by Monsieur le President," Bruce pointed out

mildly, and the major laid down his papers and came round from behind

the desk. He stood close to Bruce with the top of his head on a level

with Bruce's chin.

"Had it been signed by the Almighty himself, it would be of no use. I am

sorry, I am truly sorry." Bruce lifted his eyes and for a second allowed

them to wander over the mountains of stores which packed the interior of

the warehouse. From where he stood he could identify

at least twenty items that he needed. The major noticed the gesture and

his French became so excited that Bruce could only make out the repeated

use of the word

"Non'. He glanced significantly at Ruffy and the sergeant major stepped

forward and placed an arm soothingly about the major's shoulders; then

very gently he led him, still protesting, out into the yard and across

to the truck. He opened the door of the cab and the major saw the case

of whisky.

A few minutes later, after Ruffy had prised open the lid with his

bayonet and allowed the major to inspect the seals on the caps, they

returned to the office with Ruffy carrying the case.

"Captain," said the major as he picked up the requisition from the desk.