Troopers began doubling along the edge of the clearing, heading up the valley.
Another burst of automatic fire, and the attention of every man was focused in that direction. Hastily, Craig pulled the pack onto his back.
"Come on!" he snapped. "You know what to do! The three of them scrambled out of the ravine and moved out into the clearing.
"Don't hurry," Craig cautioned them softly. They kept in a compact group, moving quickly but purposefully over the open ground towards Fungabera and is companion.
Craig took the grena4e from his pocket and with his teeth drew the pin. Helheld the grenade in his left hand.
In his right he carried the Uzi, loaded and cocked and with rapid, fire selected. They were within five paces before Peter Fungabera, glanced around and his astonishment was almost comical as he recognized Craig, even under his mud mask.
"At this range I can cut you in half," Craig warned him, lifting the Uzi to the level of Peter's belly. "This grenade is armed. If I drop it, it will blow us all to hell." He had to shout above the sound of the helicopter's engine.
The white man spun to face him, and his pate arctic eyes were savage.
"Go for the pilot," Craig ordered the girls and they ran to the fuselage port of the helicopter.
"Now, both of you," Craig told the two men, "walk to the helicopter. Don't hurry, don't shout." Craig followed three paces behind them. Before they reached the helicopter, the pilot appeared in the open port, both his hands high above his head, and Sarah behind him with the Tokarev pistol in his back.
"Get oud" Craig ordered, and with obvious relief, the pilot jumped down to the ground.
"Tell them that General Fungabera is a hostage," Craig said. "Any attack will endanger him. Do you understand?"
"Yes," the pilot nodded.
"Now walk back to that tent. Walk slowly. Don't run.
Don't shout." The pilot set off gratefully, but as soon as he was clear, he broke into a trot.
"Get in!" Craig gestured to the port with the Uzi, but Peter Fungabera glared at him and his head sank down menacingly on his wide shoulders.
"Don't do it." Craig backed off a pace, for there was an air of desperation about Peter Fungabera, the reckless quality of a man with nothing more to lose.
"Move!" Craig ordered. "Get up that ladder! and Peter Fungabera charged at him. Almost as though he were courting death, he ran straight onto the muzzle of the Uzi.
However, Craig was poised to meet him. He brought up the weapon and crashed the barrel across the side of Peter Fungabera's head with a force that dropped him onto his knees.
As Peter went down, Craig swung the Uzi back on to the white man, anticipating any move he might make.
"Help him up the ladder, "he ordered, and although the white man was encumbered by the black attache case chained to his wrist, the menace of the Uzi was persuasive and he stooped over Peter Fungabera and lifted him to his feet. Still stunned by the blow, Peter reeled in the man's grasp. He was mumbling dazedly.
It doesn't matter now, it's all over anyway."
"Shut up, you fool," the white man hissed at him.
"Get him into the helicopter." Craig prodded the Uzi into the white man's back, and the pair started towards the ladder.
"Keep the gun on them, Sarah," Craig called and glanced over his shoulder. The helicopter pilot had almost reached the edge of the clearing. "Hurry it up," Craig snarled at them, and the white man shoved Peter Fungabera through the port and clambered up after him, with the black case dangling on its chain from his wrist.
Craig jumped up into the body of the helicopter.
"Over there! he ordered his two prisoners to the bench seat. "Strap yourselves in! "Then to Sarah, "Tell Pendula. to get going!" The helicopter lifted off and rose swiftly out of the clearing, and Craig tossed the grenade out of the open port. It dropped away and exploded in the forest far below.
Craig hoped the explosion would heighten the confusion down there.
Craig stood behind Peter Fungabera with the Uzi pressed to the nape of his. neck while with his free hand he reached over and pu&d the Tokarev pistol from the holster on Peter'shipt He thrust it into his own pocket, then he backed off and buckled on the engineer's safety straps at the doorway. As Sarah clambered down from the cockpit, he ordered her, "Cover them both!" and he leaned out of the port and peered ahead.
Almost immediately, he saw Tungata. He was already out of the trees, just below the rock slope, waving both hands over his head, brandishing the AK 47.
"Hold on! I'm going down for the pick-up," Sally Anne -voice squealed from the twoway speaker above Craig's head.
The big helicopter dropped swiftly down towards where Tungata was waiting, and Sally' Anne steadied the machine and hovered above his head.
All around Tungata the grass was blown flat by the down-draught and Tungata's stolen battle-smock rippled and whipped about his body. He threw the AK 47 aside and looked up at Craig. The helicopter sank down the last few feet, and Craig leaned out of the hatch and made an arm for him. Tungata jumped and they locked arms at the elbows and Craig swung him aboard.
"Okay!" he yelled up at the speaker. "Go for it!" And they went bounding up into the sky so swiftly that Craig's knees buckled.
At a little over a thousand feet, Sally' Anne went straight and level and turned onto a westerly heading.