A Cleft Of Stars

'A cleavage face, do you hear! The Cullinan had been cut. .! '

It was the moment I had been waiting for. I jostled him and whipped the automatic from his belt with my left hand, keeping him between me and Koen.

Koen faced me but the M-25 was aimed at Nadine's waist. She stared at us in horror. I had von Praeger fast in a kind of half-nelson with the pistol aimed beneath his left arm. Koen said, 'I'll cut her in half, Bowker — drop that gun!'

I lowered the weapon, seeking desperately for some last minute way of getting a shot in. I still had the pistol.

'In five seconds her guts'll be all over the floor-drop it!'

I let go and the pistol clattered on the rock. Praeger jerked loose, snatched it up and swung blindly at me.

There was an ugly clunk from the M-25.

'Stop! Keep still!'

Even Praeger came to his senses at the note in Koen's voice and he drew back from me.

Koen rapped out. 'For Chrissake, Doc, is there shit in your eyes? Do you want to get yourself killed?'

A child could have taken the pistol from him; he was shaking and biting his lips.

'For that, Bowker, I I. . I.

'Let's get cracking,' snapped Keen. see he doesn't cause any more trouble, Doc. You get on with Rankin. Let me know when you want me back. Same signal-three shots.' He leered at me. 'That'll be the time for you to start saying your prayers!

Come on, both of you!'

Nadine moved but I hung back. I felt Rankin, the key to everything, was slipping through my fingers while I remained powerless to do anything about it.

'March!' ordered Koen. 'March, you bladdy gomgat!' We had already started for the entrance when a thought struck me. It was so monstrous and yet so likely that I stopped short and Koen jammed the muzzle of the M-25 savagely into my back.

I ignored him and swung round to Rankin. 'Rankin,' I said, 'Did you kill my father too?'

We made a tight, nerve-shot little group, all eyes focused on the hard-faced man on the stretcher. I think he was about to reply, for my words brought a spark of animation to his face, but Praeger spoiled it.

'I'll ask you that on his behalf, Rankin!' He laughed a grating high laugh which set my teeth on edge. 'Think it over!'

'Get on!' repeated Koen. 'It's a long way to the river.'

I read dismay in Nadine's eyes and I tried to keep my face expressionless. Discovery of the boat would rob us of our last chance of escape and this was inevitable once we got anywhere near the pool at the confluence. 'If you don't want us to hear Rankin's screams when you start torturing him, The Hill's far enough,' I threw at Praeger. The heat will be pretty tough later on for such a long slog to the river.'

'We want you to see our aeroplane! replied von Praeger and they both began to laugh. The implication was lost on us.

We reached the entrance. They had made the dangerous crossing safe by rigging a handline from door to walclass="underline" the risk was cut to nothing. The thought of my action in negotiating it carrying Talbot appalled me in retrospect.

'The girl first,' said Praeger.

Nadine pulled the cowl of her flying-jacket over her head as protection against the sun, whose heat was becoming evident. Koen stood at the rear, the M-25 trained on our backs I rejected a plan to try and unsnick the rope once I had crossed, so as to maroon him temporarily while taking cover behind the wall, because the range was so short that he could spray the place with bullets and finish us off before we could hope to reach safety.

'Bowker! You next!'

With a growing feeling of helplessness I sensed that the crunch was at hand and I had nothing left to fight with but words.

'Von Praeger,' I said levelly. 'There are already two dead men at The Hill. I'm going to see that you and Rankin hang, if it's the last thing. !

'You'd be a fine poker player, Bowker,' he laughed in my face. 'Your hand is empty yet you go on calling as if you had a full house.'

'I warn you, Praeger..

'Let me warn you, Bowker. Do a lot of thinking on this little walk of yours with Koen. If you don't, it may be the last walk you take.'

'Shut up and get across,' snapped Koen.

There was nothing for it but to obey. While Koen made the crossing Praeger held his pistol on us and kept the hyena at the ready. Once clear of the wall, we three followed a well defined path, which was clearly Rankin's own, down the side of K2 towards the Wadi. It wound steeply but entailed no risks. Although it was still early, the heat was already becoming trying. There was a mirror-like dazzle off some very high thin cloud which magnified our discomfort. The suggestion of moisture earlier had vanished and the unmoving air seemed to throttle the countryside. The short hike underwrote the futility of any plan of ours to escape on foot. I marvelled at Koen being able to take the heat without a hat. As we neared the foot of K2 I said to Koen, 'Where's your plane? It might be easier for us to make a circuit rather than go directly via The Hill. The entrances to it are blocked with barbed wire and gates..

'I know. I'll shoot 'em open.'

I simply couldn't think of any other argument to forestall Koen's taking the direction which must ultimately reveal my boat.

Shortly afterwards Koen called a halt in the shadow of a big rock before starting on the shadeless, sandy crossing of the wadi. Ahead lay The Hill, sticking up like a long grey stone cruiser; the warship image was carried further by the projecting section below the tabletop resembling a naval cutwater. Koen drank some water from a canteen and followed it with another slug from his half-jack — a home distilled fire water made from peaches. I eyed the bottle, thinking it could become a deadly weapon if broken and jammed into. Koen's throat.. He passed the canteen on to Nadine and me.

'Apart from the gates, we'd make it much easier for ourselves if we kept to the hard ground along these hills,' I persisted. 'Also, the wadi's at its narrowest farther along opposite the tabletop and there's less sand..

Koen considered me curiously. 'You're very keen to stop me getting near The Hill, aren't you? What have you got there?'

'Gold,' said Nadine.

I'm not sure whether Koen or I was the more thunderstruck. She pulled off her cowclass="underline" the inclination of her head as she pretended to shake her long hair free told me everything: I read the double meaning in her lips and played up to it.

'We're in the hot seat through absolutely no fault of our own,' she told Keen. 'But I don't intend to be made mincemeat of by your crazy doctor friend. I can't confess to something I don't know. And I don't know about the Cullinan. Nor does Guy.'

He appeared to eye her with a new respect but his reply was unconvinced. 'Go on.'

She said vehemently, play-acting splendidly: 'I'm tired of being pushed around by a couple of bullies and I'm prepared to pay to get shot of you. You know who my father is.'

'Don't give me that line! Harold Raikes couldn't pay thirty million dollars ransom for his daughter!'

She went on angrily. 'you talk as if you had thirty million!

Where is it? Just tell me that and I'll go along with your story!' She waved at the blanched countryside. 'Fine — where? Just where, Koen?'

'The Doc says. . Bowker and Rankin..

'It's a dream; you're chasing shadows!'

I threw my weight in with Nadine's. 'I'll give you a playback of everything connected with the Cullinan, Koen. Just you tell me when you've heard it if your yarn makes sense.'

'I know the story,' he answered sullenly. 'The Doc told me everything.'

'Including the hyena's blanket?' I jeered. 'Just what the hell does that mean, Koen? It's the ravings of a sick man.'

'Listen to me, Koen,' added Nadine. 'Von Praeger was a Gestapo doctor. We don't know how many people he killed then. A man has got to find a reason for murdering if he's to stay sane. So what happens? Praeger carries on by justifying his conscience in the name of a bigger diamond than the biggest in the world. It's so far removed from reality that he had to invent a way-out code for it. I don't have to tell you what that is.'