The Tango Briefing

But theycame nearer and I couldn't move any more, their wings thundering close as they hooked and pecked and I tried to move but they knew I couldn't, the ether smell and the pain digging, I don't know, I haven't met this kind of a thing in Europe, their green gowns and the flutter of their hands, we'll just hope for luck, I guess, and she said yes, They didn't screech any more, where are they, where are what, leaning over me, wanting to hear what I was saying.

'It's very fast-acting.'

Some of them had gone away and the smell of ether was strong. I hadn't seen him before. I tried to say Diane.

'Diane.'

Her head turned to look down at me and she said my God, whatis that stuff?

'The brand name is Theratal and I gave him 30mg IM, a bit more than the normal dose. I've used it for pulling kids out of trips, though not with a dose that size.' He was putting some instruments away. 'This is nothing to do with ergot, you know — he'd be dead by this time.'

My left hand felt like a boxing-glove and I told them to take the stuff off but he just leaned over me again and lifted my eye-lids in turn, nodding to her.

'Get this stuff off my hand.'

'You feeling okay now?'

'I want to use my hand.'

'You have the other one, don't you?'

He looked at her and laughed comfortably, pressing the two brass locks and picking up the bag. She seemedworried by this.

'Are you going now?'

'There isn't anything else I can do until tomorrow. He just has to rest and I’ll leave instructions with the ward nurse: they have Diazon-3 here and it's the same thing with a Belgian brand name. He'll be okay.'

She went to the door with him and I'd got half the bandage off by the time she came back and tried to stop me. She was wearing a zipped windcheater and her hair was in some kind of bandeau.

'Is it night?'

She said it was.

There seemed to be odd periods of blackout between periods of lucidity but they didn't worry me. I wanted to know things and she could tell me, and the lucid periods lasted longer than the blanks. 'Is base intact?'

'Yes.'

'Chirac pull me out?'

'What?'

'Did Chirac pull me out?'

'Yes.'

There was still three cylinders I hadn't reported on but London must have got enough or they wouldn't have ordered Loman to pull me out. He'd sent Chirac with a helicopter, the only way: that was why I'd heard their wings thundering.

'Get this off, will you?'

She said it had to stay like that and I told her to shut up and get it done. I don't like being one-handed even when there's nothing particular to do. She fetched one of the nurses who'd been here before. The nurse said the bandage had to stay on and I managed to swing my legs off the bed and sit up, nearly flaked out again and said to Dianelisten I mean it and she talked some persuasive French, them'sieur was feeling very frustrated because of his accident and it would be better to do what he asked, so forth, worked in the end because in any case I was in a rotten mood and they could see I was going to tear the bloody thing off if they didn't co-operate. But the whole wall kept coming and going and I had to sit still for a minute while it stopped.

Finger looked a mess. I told them how I wanted things, just a No. 1 dressing on it and the others left free, especially the thumb, lose three fingers and you can still grip things, lose the thumb and all you've got left is a hook and a hammer.

'How is the mad Arab?'

'Comment?'

'L'Arabe fou, comment va-t-il?'

She spoke English perfectly welclass="underline" she was the girl who'd fixed me up here yesterday and she'd talked to Vickers, the, big oil-driller; but she was annoyed because I wanted my hand done differently.

'Je ne comprends pas, m'sieur. Ecartez les doigts, s'il vous plait.'

And she didn't want to talk about the mad Arab, either. That was all right but there were one or two things beginning to needle me and I didn't like it: the American said just now that it wasn't anything to do with ergot and I could believe him. They were checking the bread supplies as a formality while a more specialized medical team was trying to find out the real cause of the trouble. There'd been other Arabs, Vickers had told me, and what I wanted to know is how they'd got anywhere near that aeroplane without first knowing it was there, and how they'd survived and reached Kaifra without broadcasting the fact, because even in delirium they'd surely mention the plane, and that would have initiated an immediate air search.

But it hadn't. The Arab had been here in Kaifra at 15.00 hours yesterday raving about the 'mountains' and 'great birds' out there but he couldn't have mentioned the freighter or the Algerian squadrons would have overflown the area much sooner.

Blank period and someone held me suddenly, tried hard to surface, no go. Memory throwing images for me but no sequence, the dazzle of the headlights blinding and fading and the trays on the waiters' hands and the storm of dark plumage against my face, keeping me upright, holding me steady, could hear my breathing, its rhythm slowing, a cold compress on my forehead, her eyes worried, Diane's, poor little bitch, been sitting prettily in the British Embassy ordering buns for the Queen's Birthday and then the bastards had shanghaied her and now she was having to wet-nurse something the vultures had left, not at all nice.

'All right'

They still kept a hold on meand I had to say it againI'm all right tillthey'd let me go, difficult patient, yes, I grant you, but don't like being held up, demoralizing.

When the nurse had gone off I said:

'Go and tell them.'

'Tell them what?'

She thought I hadn't been listening. The nurse had finally had enough of me and she was going to bring help and get me undressed and into a bed.

'If they try anything I'm going to smash the place up so make sure they understand because it'll save a lot of noise.'

She went off a bit impatiently and I had five minutes to straighten out, steady deep breaths, muscles relaxed, one or two questions, why wasn't Loman here, he must be packing us up at base, the Arab could have been working in strict hush for the opposition yes but in delirium he'd have broken down, shouted aeroplane all over the place, something didn't quite add up in this area.

Opened my eyes and she was there again, her eyes worried, waiting for me to start collapsing but I wasn't going to any more, didn't intend to, the organism was trying to take over and I was going to let it.

'You tell them?'

'Yes.' She stuck her small hands into the windcheater but she was obviously ready to pull them out fast to do something if I keeled over again and that annoyed me and I got off the bed and went a couple of paces and leaned on the wall and she had more sense than to help me, could see my face.

Very good being on the feet again. Therapeutic.

'Who was the doctor?'

'He's visiting the American camps.'

'Where did Chirac land me?'

'At South 6.'

'And brought the doctor along with me?'

'He'll be able to shoot that stuff into the Arabs now.'

'Yes.'

'The last one died in the night.'

Turned awayas she said it and turned back when I didn't answer. She looked quietly furious, not a bit worried now. I said

'Getting on your nerves, is it, all this?'

Surprise, comprehension, frustration: she had wonderful eyes and you could read everything in them and that was why they'd been such bastards to use her, reaction-concealment capacity sub-zero and her hands too small to lift a gun.

'Do you always go on till you drop?'

'Oh Christ,' I said, 'don't you start.' I leaned off the wall and tried walking about, not too bad, no pratt-fall. 'Listen, they were in poor condition anyway, what d'you expect, a diet of dates all their life, or they inhaled more of it than I did. You'll have to find something better than me to worry about.'