The Tightrope Men / The Enemy

by Desmond Bagley

  He woke McCready. ‘Come and look at this.’ McCready looked at the mist thoughtfully, and Denison said, ‘It’s been thickening steadily. If it keeps to the same schedule visibility will be down to ten yards in another hour.’

  ‘You think we ought to make a break?’

  ‘I think we ought to get ready,’ said Denison carefully. ‘And I think we ought to find out if our friends are still there before the mist gets any thicker.’

  ‘We meaning me,’ said McCready sourly.

  Denison grinned. ‘It’s your turn—unless you think Harding ought to have a go. Or Diana.’

  ‘I suppose I volunteer—but let’s wake up the others first.’

  Ten minutes later it was established beyond doubt that the besiegers were still there. McCready slammed the door. ‘That bastard doesn’t like me; I felt the wind of that one.’

  ‘I saw him,’ said Denison. ‘The range is a hundred yards—not more. He could have killed you, but he didn’t.’

  ‘The mist has thickened,’ said Diana. ‘Even in the last ten minutes.’

  ‘Let’s get everything packed,’ said McCready.

  They started to repack their gear, all except Denison who went to the window to stare out over the marsh. Fifteen minutes later McCready joined him. ‘Aren’t you coming?’

  ‘Visibility down to fifty yards,’ said Denison. ‘I wonder what would happen if someone went outside now.’

  ‘If Johnny is still in those reeds he wouldn’t see.’

  ‘What makes you think he’s still in the reeds? If he has any sense he’ll have closed in. So will the others.’

  ‘Others?’

  ‘Logic says there are at least four-two to watch back and front, and two to sleep.’

  ‘I’m not so sure of that,’ said McCready. ‘It’s only theory.’

  ‘Try climbing out of the back window,’ said Denison drily. He rubbed his jaw. ‘But you’re right in a way; it doesn’t make sense, does it? Not when Schmidt could have put two men right here in the hut with us. He’d have saved two men.’

  McCready shook his head. ‘He’s too wise a bird to fall for that. When you have a rifle that’ll kill at a quarter mile you don’t guard at a range of three yards. Guards that close can be talked to and conned into making a false move. We can’t talk to these jokers outside and they talk to us with bullets.’

  He tapped on the glass. ‘But Schmidt didn’t reckon on this mist. It’s thickening rapidly and when the visibility gets down to ten yards I think we’ll take a chance.’

  ‘Then you take it on your own,’ said Denison flatly. ‘If you think I’m going to go stumbling around out there when there are four men armed with automatic rifles you’re crazy. They might not want to kill us by design but they could sure as hell kill us by accident. I don’t go—nor does Lyn. Nor does Harding, if I have any say.’

  ‘A chance like this and you won’t take it,’ said McCready disgustedly.

  ‘I’m not in the chance-taking business, and in this case it doesn’t make sense. Tell me; suppose you leave this hut—what would you do?’

  ‘Head back to Vuotso,’ said McCready. ‘We couldn’t miss it if we skirted the edge of the marsh.’

  ‘No, you couldn’t,’ agreed Denison. ‘And neither could the Czechs miss you. You’d be doing the obvious. Come over here.’ He walked over to the table and spread out the map, using Harding’s cartridges to hold down the corners. ‘I’m not recommending leaving the hut at all—not the way things are now—but if it’s necessary that’s the way to go.’

  McCready looked at the way Denison’s finger pointed. ‘Over the marsh! You’re crazy.’

  ‘What’s so crazy about it? It’s the unexpected direction. They wouldn’t think of following us across there.’

  ‘You’re still out of your mind,’ said McCready. ‘I had a good look at that marsh from up on the mountain. You can’t tell where the land begins and the water ends, and where there’s water you don’t know how deep it is. You’d stand a damned good chance of drowning, especially if you couldn’t see ten yards ahead.’

  ‘Not if you took the punt,’ said Denison. ‘The two girls and one man in the punt—two men alongside pushing. Where the water becomes deep they hang on and are towed while the people in the punt paddle.’ He tapped the map. ‘The marsh is two miles across; even in pitch darkness you could get through in under four hours. Once you’re across you head west and you can’t help but hit the main road north from Rovaniemi.’ He bent over the map. ‘You’d strike it somewhere between Vuotso and Tankapirtti, and the whole journey wouldn’t take you more than seven or eight hours.’

  ‘Well, I’ll be damned!’ said McCready. ‘You’ve really been working all this out, haven’t you?’

  ‘Just in case of emergency,’ said Denison. He straightened. ‘The emergency hasn’t happened yet. We’re a bloody sight safer here than we would be out there. If there was a life and death reason for getting out of here I’d be in favour of it, but right now I don’t see it.’

  ‘You’re a really cool logical bastard,’ said McCready. ‘I wonder what it takes to make you angry. Don’t you feel even annoyed that we’re being made fools of by those Czechs out there?’

  ‘Not so annoyed as to relish stopping a bullet,’ said Denison with a grin. ‘Tell you what—you were so keen on the democratic process when you were stringing Schmidt along, so I’ll settle for a vote.’

  ‘Balls!’ said McCready. ‘It’s either the right thing to do or it isn’t. You don’t make it right just by voting. I think you’re right but I don’t…’

  He was interrupted by a single shot from outside the hut and then there was a sustained rapid chatter of automatic fire. It stopped, and McCready and Denison stared at each other wordlessly. There was another report, a lighter sound than the rifle fire, and a window of the hut smashed in.

  ‘Down!’ yelled McCready, and flung himself flat. He lay on the floor of the hut and then twisted around until he could see Denison. ‘I think your emergency has arrived.’

  THIRTY-SIX

  All was silent.

  Denison lay on the floor and looked at McCready who said, ‘I think that was a pistol shot; it sounded different. I hope it was.’

  ‘For God’s sake, why?’

  McCready was grim. ‘Just pray they don’t start shooting at this hut with those bloody rifles. They’re NATO issue and they pack a hell of a wallop. In Northern Ireland the army found they were shooting through houses—through one wall and out the other.’

  Denison turned his head. ‘Are you all right, Lyn?’

  She was flat on the floor by her bunk: ‘I…I think so.’ Her voice was tremulous.

  ‘I’m not,’ said Harding. ‘I think I was hit. My arm is numb.’

  Diana crossed the hut at a low run and flopped down beside Harding. ‘Your face is bleeding.’

  ‘I think that was the flying glass,’ he said. ‘It’s my arm that’s worrying me. Can you have a look at it?’

  ‘Christ!’ said McCready savagely. ‘One lousy bullet and he has to get in the way. What do you think now, Denison? Still think it’s not time to leave?’

  ‘I haven’t heard anything more.’ Denison crawled over to the window and cautiously raised himself. ‘The mist is much thicker. Can’t see a damned thing.’

  ‘Get down from there,’ snapped McCready. Denison pulled down his head but stayed in a crouch below the window. ‘How’s Harding?’

  Harding answered. ‘The bone is broken,’ he said. ‘Can someone get my black box? It’s in my pack.’

  ‘I’ll get it,’ said Lyn.

  McCready crawled over to Harding and inspected his arm. Diana had torn away the shirt sleeve to get at the wound, a small puncture. Harding’s arm was a curious shape; it seemed to have developed an extra joint. ‘It was a pistol shot,’ said McCready. ‘If you’d have been hit by one of those rifle bullets at that range you’d have no arm left.’

  Again came the sound of automatic fire but from a great
er distance. It sounded like a noisy sewing machine and was interspersed with other single shots. It stopped as quickly as it had begun.

  ‘Sounds like a battle,’ said McCready. ‘What do you think, Denison?’

  ‘I think it’s time to leave,’ said Denison. ‘We’ve had one bullet in here—we might get more. You and I will go down to the punt; Diana and Lyn can help Harding along as soon as we’ve made sure it’s safe. We leave the packs and travel light. Bring a compass, if you have one.’

  ‘I’ve got one in my pocket.’ McCready looked down at Harding and saw he had filled a syringe and was injecting himself in the arm. ‘How are you, Doctor?’

  ‘That will keep it quiet,’ said Harding, taking out the needle. ‘If someone can slap a bandage around it.’

  ‘I can do better than that,’ said Diana. ‘I can make splints.’

  ‘Good,’ said Harding. ‘I have a broken arm—not a broken leg. I can walk and I’ll be ready to move in five minutes. Did you say something about going by punt?’

  ‘Denison’s idea.’

  ‘Then why don’t we take the gun?’

  ‘Haul that bloody great…!’ McCready stopped and glanced at Denison. ‘What about it?’

  Denison thought of two pounds of birdshot. ‘Might give someone a fright.’

  ‘Tie that tighter,’ said Harding to Lyn. ‘Then bring me those cartridges from the table.’ He raised his head. ‘If you are going scouting we’ll have the gun loaded when you get back.’

  ‘All right,’ said McCready. ‘Let’s go.’ All the frustration had dropped from him now that he had something to do. ‘When we go out of the door we go flat on our bellies.’

  He opened the door and wreaths of mist drifted into the hut. When he put his head around the corner of the door at floor level he found the visibility to be ten to fifteen yards, shifting in density as the mist drifted in from the marsh. He wriggled out and waited until Denison joined him, then put his mouth to Denison’s ear and whispered, ‘We separate but keep in sight of each other—ten yards should do it. We go one at a time in ten yard runs.’

  At Denison’s nod he went forward, then dropped to the ground ten yards ahead and, after a moment, waved Denison on. Denison angled away until he was parallel with McCready; he lay and stared into the mist but could see nothing. McCready went ahead again and dropped and then Denison followed, and so on until Denison put his hand wrist-deep in cold water. They were at the edge of the marsh.

  He lay there, turning his head from side to side, trying to penetrate the pearly mist, his ears strained for the slightest sound. When he looked up he could see the tops of the stiff reeds, and all he could hear was a rustling as the lightest of airs brushed through them. From the marsh came the occasional call of a bird.

  McCready edged up next to him. ‘Where’s the punt?’

  ‘To the left—a hundred yards.’

  They went slowly and separately, McCready leading because of his experience. At last he stopped and when Denison drew up with him he saw the loom of the boathouse through the mist. McCready put his lips next to Denison’s ear. ‘There could be someone in there. I’ll take it from the other side. Give me exactly four minutes then close in from this side.’ He wriggled away and was lost to sight.

  Denison lay there watching the sweep second hand on his watch. Four minutes seemed a hell of a long time. At exactly two minutes there was a renewed burst of firing which made him start; it seemed to come from the direction of the hut but he could not be sure. He found he was sweating despite the cool clamminess of the mist.

  At four minutes he went forward carefully and looked into the dimness under the roof of the boathouse. He saw no one until a movement on the other side made his stomach roll over until he realized it was McCready. ‘All safe,’ said McCready.

  ‘We’d better take the punt out and ran it up on to the beach,’ said Denison in a low voice. He waded into the water, trying not to splash, and floated out the punt. Between them they ran it up on to the shingle which crunched loudly. ‘For Christ’s sake, be quiet!’ whispered McCready. ‘Did you hear that last lot of shooting?’

  ‘I thought it came from behind me.’

  ‘I thought it came from the marsh,’ said McCready. ‘You can’t tell with mist, though. It distorts sounds. Let’s go back and get the others.’

  They made it back to the hut uneventfully. McCready closed the door and said, ‘There doesn’t seem to be anyone out there—not towards the marsh, anyway. That idea of yours might be a good one.’

  ‘I wouldn’t go in any other direction,’ said Denison briefly. ‘Ready to move, Lyn?’

  Her face was pale but her chin came up in the resolute gesture he had come to know. ‘I’m ready.’

  ‘McCready and I will go first. You follow and help Harding if he needs it. We won’t be going too fast if we’re carrying the gun.’

  ‘It’s loaded—but quite safe,’ said Harding. His face was drawn. ‘It can’t be fired until it’s cocked and a detonator cap put on the nipple.’

  ‘We’d better know what we’re going to do,’ said McCready. ‘Are you sure this gun will shoot, Doctor? I don’t want us to be lumbered with a load of old iron.’

  ‘It’ll shoot,’ said Harding. ‘I tested the powder and it burns well; and I tested a detonator while they were shooting out there.’

  Denison did not know what sound a detonator would make but that might account for his impression that a shot had come from the direction of the hut. He said, ‘I think we ought to play safe until we get well into the marsh. Harding ought to go in the punt from the beginning because of his wound—and you, too, George, in case there’s shooting. The girls and I will tag on behind.’

  McCready nodded, but Harding said, ‘I want Denison in the punt with me.’

  McCready stared at him. ‘Why?’

  ‘Put it down to crankiness or, maybe, loss of blood,’ said Harding. ‘But that’s the way I want it. Believe me, I know what I’m doing.’

  McCready looked blankly at Denison. ‘What do you say?’

  ‘All right with me. If that’s what he wants, that’s what he gets.’

  ‘Good,’ said Harding. ‘Come over here.’ He took Denison to where the gun lay. ‘It’s all ready for going on to the punt. There’ll be no difficulty in fixing it—it just drops into place and I have the breech ropes all ready to reeve through the eye-bolts.’ He paused. ‘There are two important items to remember when you shoot one of these things.’

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘First; keep your head well back when you pull the trigger. There’ll be a blowback from the touch-hole which could make a nasty burn on your face. Secondly; you’ll be lying flat on your belly when you shoot, and you’ve got a limited amount of lateral aim by shifting the butt—there’s enough play in the breech ropes to allow for that. But just before you pull the trigger raise your knees from the bottom of the punt. That’s important.’

  ‘Why?’

  Harding shook his head. ‘I don’t think you realize yet what sort of gun this is. If your knees are in contact with the punt when the recoil comes you’re likely to have a couple of shattered kneecaps. Watch it.’

  ‘God Almighty!’ said Denison. He looked at Harding curiously. ‘Why did you pick me instead of McCready?’

  ‘McCready knows too much about guns,’ said Harding. ‘He might fall into the error that he knows about this one. I want somebody who’ll do exactly as I say without contaminating it with what he thinks.’ He smiled wryly. ‘I don’t know whether we’re going to fire this gun—under the circumstances I hope not—but, believe me—when you pull that trigger you’ll probably be just as surprised as the man you’re shooting at.’

  ‘Let’s hope it never happens,’ said Denison. ‘How’s your arm?’

  Harding looked down at the improvised sling. ‘It’ll be fine as long as the drug holds out. I’m leaving my kit but I have a syringe loaded with pain-killer in my pocket. Just one more thing. If we shoot in the marsh it’s going
to be difficult to reload the gun. It will have to be done in shallow water with McCready at the front of the punt with a ramrod. I’ll have a word with him about that.’

  He went to McCready and Denison bent to examine the gun. It was suddenly much more real, no longer looking like an old piece of iron piping but a weapon deadly of purpose. He straightened to find Lyn at his side. ‘An extra sweater,’ she said, holding it out. ‘It’s always cold on the water.’

  ‘Thanks,’ he said, and took it from her. ‘It’ll be even colder in it. You shouldn’t have come, Lyn; this is no place for you. Will you promise me something?’

  ‘That depends.’

  ‘If we get into trouble out there—shooting, perhaps—promise to duck out of it. Get down among the reeds and out of sight. Don’t take any chances you don’t have to.’

  She nodded towards Harding. ‘And what about him?’

  ‘Leave him to the professionals. They’ll look after him.’

  ‘If it weren’t for me he wouldn’t be here,’ she said sombrely. ‘And you’re a fine one to talk about not taking chances.’

  He shrugged. ‘All right—but there is something you can do for me. Find a ball of string. Harding might know where there is some.’

  McCready came over. ‘We’re ready to move. Help me with the gun.’ As they lifted it they heard several single shots. ‘What the hell’s going on out there?’ said McCready. ‘We’re not being shot at—so who is?’

  Denison took the strain at the butt end of the gun. ‘Who cares? Let’s take advantage.’

  It was better this second time despite the hampering weight of the gun; they had a better sense of direction and knew where to go. Within five minutes they were lowering the gun on to the foredeck of the punt; it slotted neatly into place and Harding, hovering over it, wordlessly indicated how to fit the breech ropes.