Assignment - Tiger Devil by Will B. Aarons

Author:Will B. Aarons [Aarons, Will B.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Part of Durell's mind stood objectively aside and noted that Peta, with remarkable restraint, had kept a gun hidden, doubtlessly in the leather pouch, through everything that had happened in the mill, chancing capture, possibly torture, certainly death, anticipating a moment when he could use it on Durell and be reasonably certain of a safe escape. The other part of Durell's mind stormed with anger and dismay, but he kept his voice calm, as he said: "Why didn't you use that when it was needed, Peta?"

"Against them? It would have made no difference— but here, it does." The boy's voice tightened. "I wish you no harm, Mr. Durell. You are very much of a man, and a good man, I think. Just tell me where my diamond is."

The car did not slow in its flight through the wind-stroked cane. Ana's face was as pale as the tropical star-shine. Oddly enough, she had not asked what diamond, but maybe she was too frightened.

Finally, Durell replied: "If you pull that trigger, Peta, you'll never know."

He felt the gun go uncertainly away from his skull, and added: "I guess you're along for the ride—all the way."

Durell's hands trembled slightly. Adrenaline. Weariness. Anticipation. And his clothing was a chill mess that grated soggily on patches of tender skin.

But he was on the road to Bartica, on the track of the Warakabra Tiger. Rapidly, his thoughts ordered themselves into a list. All he had to do was:

Hope that Peta would tell him how to find Claudius.

Go through the motions of selling a diamond he did not have, under the nose of Peta, who would try to kill him if he knew.

Get a look inside Dick's police-sealed house, even as the police sought his arrest and deportation.

Check the Chinese dam in the face of Colonel Su's warning not to venture there.

And then, remembering Leon's words, attempt to stop a revolution single-handedly.

Chapter Seventeen

"You won't let Peta keep that gun, will you?" Ana said.

"I'm not going to take it away from him," Durell replied.

"You're afraid you'll have to harm him?"

"Maybe."

"Why do you protect him?"

"I need him."

Ana sighed, sat back, folded long, narrow hands in the lap of a raincoat she had thrown over her apricot silk gown. Durell noted she'd had the presence of mind to pack a suitcase. It filled half of the cavity between seats, crowding Peta, whose resentful green eyes paced back and forth, from Durell to Ana, never resting.

Distant headlamps flared above the cane just as they turned from the plantation road onto the highway, and Durell knew they were being pursued. Thankful for the AK rifle beside him, he put his foot to the floorboard and drove with one eye on the rear-vision mirror. The little car split through the spanking wind, and the palms did a witch's dance against the sky.

A ferry took them across the Demerara to Vreed en Hoop, and they dashed around a long curve of the shore to Parika, where the highway ended at another red-dirt trail gouged through the jungle.

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