God, the morning that I die.
The mental process that became a physical happening, and his body cowed to a foetal position of fear. No protection, nothing to hide behind, nothing to squirm to. The morning that I die. He felt the tremble and the shudder take him, and the awareness was overwhelming. God, the morning that I die.
The first precious beginnings of the day were seeping into the wood. Not the sunlight, but its outriders in the grey pastel that permitted him to detect the lines of the nearest tree-trunks. This morning, with the birds singing, at nine o'clock. Another shape, suffused and vague and hard to alert himself to, as Giancarlo rose and stood above him and looked down. Giancarlo, called by Harrison's movements and inspecting the fatted goose of the feast.
'What time is it, Giancarlo?' He could hear the watch ticking on his wrist, could not see it
'A little past four… '
The little bastard had learned the role of gaoler, thought Harrison, had taken on the courtesy of the death cell attendant.
The hushed tone, and 'Don't you worry, lad, it doesn't hurt and it's quick'. The warm eyes of sympathy. Well, that never helped a poor lad who was going to swing at nine. What do you know about that, Geoffrey? I read it. That was other people, Geoffrey, and half the fucking population saying 'And a damn good thing too'. That's for a criminal. 'No sympathy' and 'Deserves all he's getting'. That's for men who've shot policemen and raped kids.
That's not for bloody Geoffrey Harrison.
'Did you sleep?'
'Only a little.' Giancarlo spoke simply. ' It was very cold on the ground.'
' I slept very well. I didn't dream.'
Giancarlo peered down at him, the definition of his face growing with the slow coming light.
T h a t is good.'
'Are you going to get some food?' He could have kicked himself when he'd said it, could have spat on himself.
' I am not going for any f o o d… not n o w… later, later I will eat.'
Cheaper to feed one. More economic to sustain the single person family. Silly man, Geoffrey. Should have your calculator there, the one beside the desk in the office, the one you use for all the arithmetic of ICH, then you'd know the boy would be only shopping for one, and how many lire he would save that way. Only for one, because there will only be one mouth. Not on the bloody bread list, Geoffrey, because you'll be past food, past caring about the ache in your guts.
Geoffrey Harrison's voice rose in crescendo, down the paths of the wood, high with the branches, fluttered the thrushes and blackbirds.
'Don't hurt me, Giancarlo. Please, please, don't hurt me..
He was answered far back, from the shadows among the trees, distant and beyond sight, by the rampage of a dog's bark.
And in the wake of the bark was the drumming of running feet and the crash of branches swept aside.
An avalanche, circling and nearing.
Giancarlo had crouched, bent double, at the sound of the dog.
At the noise of the approach of men he surged towards Harrison, pulled him to the limit of the wire and flung himself into the gap between his prisoner and the earth roof where the roots had taken the ground high out of the pit. He panted for breath, wriggled to get lower, held the gun at the lower hairs of Harrison's head.
' If you shout now you are dead.'
The gun squirming against his neck, Harrison played his part, the one he was familiar with. 'Run, you little fool. Run now.'
He could sense the boy's shock of terror imparted through their clothes, body to body, flesh warmth, through the quivering and pulsing of the blood veins. He didn't know why he called, only that this is what he would have done. This was his way.
Avoid contact, avoid impact, stall the moment, the lifestyle of Geoffrey Harrison.
'If you go now you have a chance.'
He felt the boy drive deeper into the pit, and then the voice, small and reeded.
' I need you, 'Arrison.'
'Now, you have to go now.' Father and mother, didn't the little bugger understand? Time for running, time for ducking, time for weaving.
' If I go now, they will kill me.'
What was he supposed to do? Feel sorry for the little pig?
Wipe his bottom for him, clean his pants out?
'We stay together, 'Arrison. That is what Franca would have done.'
The man and the boy, ears up, lying in the shallow hole and listening.
Around them, unseen, among the trees an army advanced, clumsy and intimidating in its approach, breaking aside the wood that impeded its progress. Closing on them, sealing them, the net tightening. Fractured and splintered branches in front and behind them, stamped leaves and curses of discomfort to right and left. And the baying of dogs.
Harrison turned his body from his side, a ponderous movement, then twisted his neck further until he could see the face of the boy. 'It is too late, Giancarlo.' He spoke with a kind of wonderment, astonished because the table was turned and the fear exchanged. 'You had to go when I said.'
'Shut up,' the boy spat back at him, but there was a shiver in his voice. And then more slowly as if the control were won with great effort, 'That is not our way.'
Carboni with his pistol drawn, Vellosi trailing in one hand a submachine-gun, Carpenter keeping with them, all were running in their own fashion down the narrow path, spurred on by the shouts of the advance, and the roars, fierce and aggressive, full and deep-throated, of the police attack dogs. They sprinted on the shadowed surface, buried in the surrealism of the dawn mist that ebbed between the tree towers.
Carpenter saw the shape of the polizia vice brigadiere materialize from the foliage at the pathside, rising to block Carboni and Vellosi. The stampede stopped, men crouched about them and struggled to control the heaving of their lungs that they might be quieter. The trees were infested, the undergrowth alive. Static from the portable radios, whispered voices, distorted replies. A council of war. Grown and elderly men on their knees, huddled to hear, the weapons in their hands.
'Carpenter, come close,' Carboni called, his voice blanket-shrouded. 'The dogs heard voices and barked. They are about a hundred metres from us. We are all around them but I do not wish to move further till there is light. We wait here for the sun.'
'Battestini, will he pack it in, will he give himself up?'
The big sad eyes rolled at Carpenter, the shoulders heaved their gesture. 'We have to try. If the spell of Tantardini is still on h i m
… '
Left unsaid because Carpenter mouthed his obscenity and understood.
'But he can kill him now, while we are here.'
'We wait for the sun.' Carboni turned away, resumed the hush of conference.
This was where it all ended. In a damp wood with mud on your shoes and dirt on the knees of your trousers. Right, Archie.
Where the family picnickers might have been, or boys with tents, or a kid with his condom and his girl. Only the method and the style to be decided. To be determined only whether it was champagne or a mahogany box. You're within rock-throwing distance of him, Archie. You could stand up and shout and he'd hear you. A few seconds running, you're that close. God, the bastard can't shoot him now. Not now, not after all this. Not after Violet.
The dawn came steadily, imperceptibly, winnowing behind the trees and across the leaves, cloaking the men who peered forward and fingered the mechanisms of their firearms. Drawn-out, lethargic, mocking their impatience, the light filtered into the wood.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Horizontal and thrusting with its brilliance, the dart of a lance, the first sunray pierced the wall of trees. The shaft picked at the ground in front of the fallen trunk, faded in the eddy of the branches, then returned. The sharpness held sway over the grey shadowed light.