Absolute stillness.
It was as if the earth had ceased to spin in the heavens. As if nothing existed upon a torrid planet save this group of men standing outside a tiny military outpost.
It was uncanny. And like all uncanny things it could not endure for long. Either the rattle of firearms had to end it—or some action from among the legionnaires themselves.
It came from among the legionnaires.
From Paffal.
He pushed through the huddle of his comrades, his head bent low. When he emerged he had lost his kepi and the sun reflected off his shining bald scalp.
He made a nervous gesture. Then he said to Gallast: “ I am ready.”
Keith made a dart to him and grabbed his shoulder. But Paffal shook him off.
“I am ready,” he repeated. His voice had a firmness which had never been heard before. There was a strangely decisive air about him.
For a moment Gallast seemed confused. Then he said: “I don’t recognise your accent, fat one. What’s your nationality?”
“I am a Greek.”
“Indeed… you surprise me. What is there about Greeks which makes them so willing to die?”
“I am afraid to die. But I would be more afraid if I saw my comrades dying because of me.”
Gallast nodded.
“You confirm my reasoning. But you also puzzle me. I know nothing about Greece which leads me to believe that its people are capable of such courage.”
“Then you truly know nothing about Greece. My people have fought tyrants for two thousand years. They fought them just a little time ago when they broke the hearts of the Italian armies who tried to invade the land… I am not a brave man. Sometimes I think I am a very stupid and useless sort of man. But I can try to be worthy of my people, who have never been cowed by bullies such as you, for freedom… oh, but you would not understand!”
“I may not agree—but I will understand. Continue.”
“I was only going to say that freedom was born in Greece. But you can’t know what freedom means!”
Gallast sniffed. It was almost an obscene sound.
“But I do know! Freedom is the privilege of serving the state with blind loyalty, for the state gives all and to the state we owe all. But… but as a soldier I respect you. I would be prepared to let you live…”
He paused and there was an eager hopeful stir among the legionnaires. It was frozen still as Gallast continued: “…but I never rescind an order such as this. It would be an unforgivable weakness. March away from us… Greek!”
Paffal took a half step forward, then stopped. He looked confused.
“My cap,” he said. “I’ve lost it. It would not look well if I died without wearing my cap. May I have it, please?”
The kepi was near Keith’s feet. He picked it up and handed it to Paffal. He could not meet Paffal’s eyes.
Carefully, Paffal adjusted it over his hairless head. But he was typical at the last. He failed to notice that at one side the chin strap had fallen away from the button. He had a length of thin black leather trailing past his left ear.
He walked away from them—a little unsteadily, but with no slackening of pace.
The legionnaires turned away as a couple of Luger shots rang out.
6. According to Plan
At Sidi Bel Abbes…
A cooling fan whirred discreetly over General Jonot’s head. The sound blended with the hum of traffic in the street outside. The hot air was tainted with petrol fumes and the indefinite odour of the nearby Arab market.
The general was glancing at the reports on Zone Zero.
It was a leisurely process.
He would pick up a signal sheet from a small pile on the right of his desk. After a brief pause, he would initial it. Then he would transfer it to a growing pile at his left elbow. Occasionally the general would put a casual question to his deputy chief of staff, who sat opposite.
As, for example, when he came to the sheet headed Fort Ney Area Command.
General Jonot was about to initial it when he paused, pen in contact with the paper. His brow became furrowed. He said: “I see that we received a message from Fort Ney at 15.07 hours yesterday.”
His deputy nodded. “I believe we did.”
“But only the last word could be identified!”
“That is so. The wireless room requested a repeat. It was received some twenty minutes later.”
General Jonot concentrated heavily upon the report sheet. Then he said: “And when it arrived it was quite a trivial query. But it might have been important—and there was all this delay in making contact. It’s not good enough… I have come to a decision…” Jonot paused weightily. His deputy waited without much interest.
Then Jonot added: “As soon as things are back to normal after the explosion we will have new wireless equipment installed in Fort Ney. Even a wretched little place like that must possess good communications.”
At the Sanna Oasis…
For centuries it had been a place of blistering desolation. Then the desolation gave way to seeming chaos. Men arrived. They came in massive transport planes and in huge track laying lorries. They brought with them a weird conglomeration of materials. The Arab labourers among them built temporary huts which served as offices and living quarters. The soldiers circled the place with wire and minefields. And in the midst of it all a mast-like steel structure went up. Armoured electric cables— which had been fed from a point fifty miles due south— were installed at the top of the mast.
And now the evacuation was starting.
The Arabs went first, packed in the lorries.
The less senior technicians were following by plane.
For only seven days were left. And before six of them had passed Sanna would be deserted again.
Except for the protecting ring of minefields. The wire. The flimsy huts.
And except for that stark steel mast which would become molten and vaporise when the thermo-nuclear bomb exploded on top of it.
At Tala Baku.
The colonel flipped through the Standing Orders Diary and said to the adjutant: “I see the mess funds are due for audit at any time now. Let me see… who’s in charge?”
“It was that fellow D’Aran.”
“D’Aran? Ah, oui! You posted him to Fort Ney, didn’t you?”
“Yes. And for the time being I’m holding the safe key, man colonel. “I’ll hand it to the auditor when he arrives.”
“Quite… you know, now I come to think of it, D’Aran seemed unusually depressed when he set off for Fort Ney. I happened to notice him on the parade ground. Still, I suppose the prospect of three months in that place would distress anybody.”
“He’ll have plenty to occupy his mind, what with that infernal bomb going off. It’ll do him a lot of good, mon colonel.”
“A lot of good? I don’t understand.”
“Well… he was heading for trouble, you know.”
“Trouble! He always seemed to me to be a reliable young man. No money, not much background, but efficient.”
“He’d been seen about with a woman. That Lucinne Ranoir creature. Beautiful—oui. But dangerous for one so young.”
The colonel removed his reading glasses and chuckled.
“Such women are only safe in mature and experienced arms—such as our own! Eh?”
“Certainly, mon colonel. I did not want to see him make a fool of himself—that’s why I selected him for Fort Ney. He’ll be well away from her. He’ll be able to forget…”