Bloody Passage by Jack Higgins

Author:Jack Higgins
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Harper
Published: 2010-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The sea really was running now and cold rain lashed my face as I went along the heaving deck to the wheelhouse. Langley was standing at the wheel, a cigarette in his mouth.

“Ah, there you are, old stick. Anything to eat down there?”

“I should imagine so.” I took over the wheel and he moved out of the way. “How’s it going?”

“Pretty fair. I just checked the weather on the radio. Wind force seven—heavy squalls—rain. Moderating towards evening. How are Nino and Carter?”

“Flat on their backs.”

He grinned. “Ah, well, some of us have it and some of us don’t, I suppose. See you later, old stick,” and he opened the door and went out.

The wheel kicked like a living thing and the seas grew rougher, rocking Palmyra violently and once again I tried increasing speed until the prow seemed to reach clean out of the water each time a wave rolled beneath her.

It was an exhilarating experience and for the next hour, I was totally involved in the task in hand. Finally, Barzini appeared.

“I’ll take over,” he said. “Go and have a cup of coffee.”

As I was about to go out, I suddenly remembered the Uzi sub-machine gun. Langley had certainly been up here on his own for long enough to do something about it if he wanted to.

I pulled down the flap and Barzini glanced up. “Still there. Did the girl tell him?”

“So she says.”

I took the Uzi down and weighed it in my hands for a moment. Everything seemed perfectly normal. I took out the ammunition clip, checked it and replaced it, which seemed to be that. I was about to put it back when something made me look at the firing pin— instinct, I suppose. It was a good job that I did because the end had been nipped off, probably with a pair of pliers.

I showed Barzini. “The bastard,” he said angrily and dropped the flap under the chart table and got the Stechkin.

I checked it over thoroughly, but everything seemed to be in perfect working order. I replaced them both and Barzini said, “So, the girl was telling the truth. She is on your side.”

“I’ll reserve judgment on that one.”

“What about this other business? Are you going to confront Langley?”

“No point,” I said. “For the time being it’s enough that we know.”

I went below feeling unaccountably cheerful. Certainly in the right mood for ham and eggs this time. Langley, having eaten, had taken Simone’s bunk in the aft cabin and appeared to be sleeping.

Simone gave me my meal and left me to go up on deck. I went up again myself when I’d finished eating and found her in the wheelhouse with Barzini. She turned to greet me excitedly as I opened the door.

“We’re there, Oliver! We’re there!”

Something of an exaggeration, but on the other hand, there was no doubt that the gray smudge on the horizon, visible now and then through the curtain of rain, was the coast of Libya, Cape Misratah, to be precise.

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