Quiller: Salamander by Adam Hall

Author:Adam Hall [Hall, Adam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781932100181
Publisher: BenBella Books
Published: 1994-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

In the left-hand mirror, fanning between the hills behind and below me, flashing once as they came directly in line and then fading, blacked-out suddenly by a turn in the track. They would belong to a vehicle leaving the camp: all traffic on this route was strictly Khmer Rouge. The major road to Pouthisat was still some way ahead, two miles, two and a half, and there wasn't a single chance of driving out of this. Their lights were in the right-hand mirror now, flashing again as they lined up, brighter this time. The crew on board had already found my jeep standing there and this one gone; they might have stopped long enough to take a look around and seen the two soldiers lying there among the rocks. They would therefore be driving flat out and with purpose, and even if I got to the major road before they did I'd be within range of their guns, finito. The terrain was steeper here, with rifts and gullies filled with shadow in the peripheral glow of my lights, and I began watching for somewhere to ditch. There might of course be nowhere - I might simply have to stop this thing and get out and walk, run, while there was time. Question: how long would it take those people behind me to raise the alarm and bring a search party of a hundred men here in packed transports, two hundred, five? The jeep was skating again and I shifted down and got traction. Light came suddenly and in all three mirrors this time as the track ran straight for a while. They'd closed the distance by half, by more than half: their lights were throwing shadows now from the rear window of the jeep. Then I saw the gully leading away from the track, deeper than a gully, a small ravine, and steep, and I waited until the lights behind me were blacked-out by the rocks and then wrenched the jeep into a spin with the power still on and sent it towards the slope, dousing the headlights and hitting the brakes and jumping clear with enough momentum left in the thing to take it to the bottom of the ravine. I was lying flat among boulders when the Khmer transport came storming past, and as soon as its lights had died away I stumbled down to the jeep. It had rolled twice, and one wheel was still turning slowly in the moonlight. I took the flashlamp out of its bracket and found the last bottle of water lying among the rocks and picked it up and took it with me as I moved higher, away from the track.

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