by James A. Cox
Crawford nodded and said,speaking to them both. "A messenger from my people to the south.Continue with your newly arrived warriors, O Guemama."
Cliff Jackson had picked up the folded heliohopper and was nowcarrying it easily.
Guemama looked at the device and blinked.
Crawford refrained from laughing at his commander of irregulars. "Itis not a _kambu_ device. My people deal not in magic. It is but one ofthe many of the things the new ways bring. One day, Guemama," Homer'sface remained expressionless, "perhaps you will fly thus."
The teguelmoust hid the other's blanch.
In the tent, Homer turned to the Bahaman, motioned to what seatingarrangements were available.
Isobel said, "I'll get some coffee."
Cliff blurted, "Holy Mackerel, if Donaldson, here, can drop in on usout of a clear sky, what keeps anybody else from doing it? Somebodywith a couple of neopalm bombs in the way of calling cards."
The dried up little man grimaced in his equivalent of a grin and said,"Hold it, you chaps. I want to notify the others."
"The others? What others?" Crawford said.
Donaldson ignored him for a moment, unslung the small bag he carriedover one shoulder and dipped into it for a tiny, two-way radio. Hepressed the buzzer button, then held it up to his mouth. "Jack, Jimmy,Dave. Here we are. Took donkey's years, but I found them. You chapszero-in here." He left the device on and set it to one side, thenyawned and settled himself to the rug-covered ground, crosslegged,Dogon style.
Homer Crawford, even as he sat down himself on a footlocker, in lieuof a chair, rapped, "How did you find us? Who did you just radio?Where'd you come from?"
"I say, hold it," Donaldson chuckled sourly. "First of all, I've cometo join up. I thought as far back as that time we co-operated inquelling the riots in Mopti that you ought to do this--proclaimyourself El Hassan. When I heard you'd taken the step, I came to joinup."
"Oh, great," Cliff said. "What took you so long? We hardly get here,to our ultra-secret hideout, than here you are."
Isobel came with the coffee and handed it around, silently. Then she,too, settled to the rug which covered the sand of the floor.
Rex Donaldson turned to Cliff and there was a wrinkle of amusement inthe older man's eyes. "I took so long, because I needed the time torecruit a few other chaps I knew would stand with us."
Crawford rapped, "That's who you just radioed?"
"Of course, old boy. I'd hardly bring the opposition down on us, wouldI?"
"Where are they?"
"In a couple of hovercraft, similar to your own, possibly twentykilometers to the southwest."
"You still haven't told us how you found us?"
The little man shrugged. "After tendering my resignation to SirWinton, I considered the possibilities, which narrowed down veryquickly when I heard the Arab Legion had taken Tamanrasset."
"Why?" Isobel said.
Donaldson shot a glance at her. "Because, my dear, unless El Hassan isable to retake Tamanrasset, his movement has come a cropper." Heturned his eyes back to Crawford, who was nervously running his handthrough his hair. "I knew you had done considerable work in this area,so your whereabouts became obvious seeing that Tamanrasset is inTuareg country. It was simply a matter of finding what Tuaregencampment was your base, and since your quickest manner of gatheringsupport would be to swing the Amenokal to your banner, I headed forhis usual encampment this time of year."
Cliff looked at Homer Crawford. "If Rex found us so easily, so willanybody else."
Isobel put in. "Not necessarily. Mr. Donaldson has information thatmost of El Hassan's opponents wouldn't."
* * * * *
Homer came to his feet unhappily and began pacing. "No, Isobel.Ostrander, for instance, has all the dope Rex has and is just ascapable of working it through to a conclusion. It takes no greatinsight to realize El Hassan has to either put up or shut up when itcomes to Tamanrasset. That's possibly why some of the other elementsinterested in North Africa have so far refrained from action againstthe Arab Union. They want to see what El Hassan is going to do--findout just what he has on the ball."
Rex Donaldson looked at him interestedly, "And? What are your plans?"
Homer Crawford's face worked. "My plans right at present are to stayalive, and you finding me so easily isn't heartening. However, itbrings to mind some other problems which need solving, too."
The rest of them fell silent, looking at him. His usual casual humorhad dropped away, and his personality gripped them.
He stopped his pacing, and frowned down at them.
"El Hassan is going to have to remain on the move. Always. There canbe no capital city, no definite base, and it's going to be a poor ideato sleep twice in the same place." He shook his head emphatically asthough to deny rebuttal, which they hadn't actually made. "El Hassan'senemies mustn't know his location within twenty miles."
"Twenty miles!" Cliff blurted.
Crawford stared at him, but unseeingly. "Yes. At least half a dozen ofour opponents possess nuclear weapons."
Donaldson demured, sourly. "A nuclear weapon hasn't been exploded fordonkey's years and--"
"Of course not," Homer snapped. "Nor would anyone dare, anywhere elseexcept in the wastes of the Sahara. A nuclear explosion in the Ahaggarwould not go undetected and a controversy might go up in the ReunitedNations. But who could prove who had done it? And who, actually, wouldcare if in the explosion a common foe of all was eliminated? But letthe Arab Union, or possibly the Soviet Complex, or even others, learndefinitely where El Hassan is and a bomb could well devastate twentysquare miles seeking him out." Crawford shook his head. "No, we'vesimply got to keep on the move."
Donaldson said, even as he nodded agreement, "And what other problemswere you talking about?"
"Oh?" Homer said. "Well, keeping on the move will serve to add mysteryto the El Hassan legend. It isn't good for this Tuareg encampment,for instance, to see too much of El Hassan. A leader claimingdomination of half a continent looks small potatoes in a desert campof a few score tents. On the move, showing up here, there, the otherplace, for only a day or two at a time, is another proposition."
He thought a moment. "Remember DeGaulle?"
"How could we forget?" Rex Donaldson said wryly.
"He had one angle that couldn't be more correct. He said a leader hadto keep remote, ever mysterious. He can't afford to have realintimates. Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin. None of them had a real friend totheir name. The nearest to friends that Adolph the Aryan ever had, hisold comrades of the beerhall days, such as Rhoem, he butchered in theblood purge. And Stalin? He managed to do away with every OldBolshevik he knew in the days before the Party came to power."
Cliff was staring at him. "Hey," he said. "The one other thing one ofthese mystical leader types needs is a belief in his own destiny. Tothe point of clobbering all his intimates if he thinks they stand inhis way."
Homer broke into a sudden short laugh. "Any qualms, Cliff?"
Cliff growled, "I don't know. This dream of yours is growing. Where itmight end--I don't know."
As they were talking the cries of _Ul-Ul-Ul-Allah Akbar!_ had brokenout again.
"Heavens to Betsy," Isobel said. "Another contingent of camelmen?"
* * * * *
But this time the newcomers were three in number and rode in aircushion hover-lorries, the twins of that used by Homer Crawford.
Rex Donaldson brought them up to the tent, saying, "I didn't think youchaps were quite so close."
Homer, Cliff and Isobel faced the new recruits. The three were dressedin khaki bushshirts, shorts and heavy walking shoes--British style.Two were so obviously relatives that they could have been twins exceptfor an age discrepancy of two or three years. They were smaller instature than the Americans present, almost chunky, but their facesheld education and cultivation. The third was slight of build, almostas wiry as Rex Donaldson, and seemed ever at ease.
The small, bent Bahaman ma
de introductions. "Gentlemen, let me presentEl Hassan--Homer Crawford to you--formerly of the Reunited NationsAfrican Development Project, formerly of the United States of theAmericas." His face twisted in his sour grimace of a grin. "Nowrunning for the office of tyrant of North Africa."
"And these are two of his original and most trusted adherents, IsobelCunningham and Cliff Jackson." Donaldson turned to the newcomers."John and James Peters--that's Jack and Jimmy, of course--recentlycolleagues of mine with the African Department of the Commonwealth,working largely in the Nigeria area."
Homer
