The Dark of the Sun - Smith Wilbur - Страница 5
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Ruffy nodded and buttoned the playing cards into his top pocket while he
selected the gendarmes to accompany them; then he asked Bruce, "We might
need some oil; what you think, boss?" Bruce hesitated; they had
only two cases of whisky left of the dozen they had looted in August.
The purchasing power of a bottle of genuine Scotch was enormous and
Bruce was loath to use them except in extraordinary circumstances. But
now he realized that his chances of getting the supplies he needed were
remote, unless he took along a substantial bribe for the quartermaster.
"Okay, Ruffy. Bring a case." Ruffy came up out of the chair and clapped
his steel helmet on his head. The chin straps hung down on each side of
his round black face.
A "A full case?" He grinned at Bruce. "You want to buy a battleship?"
"Almost," agreed Bruce; "go and get it." Ruffy disappeared into the back
area of the house and returned almost immediately with a case of Grant's
Stand awl"
fast under one arm and half a dozen bottles of Simba beer held by their
necks between the fingers of his other hand.
"We might get thirsty," he explained.
The gendarmes climbed back into the back of the truck with a clatter of
weapons and shouted cheerful abuse at their fellows on the
verandah. Bruce, Mike and Ruffy crowded into the cab and Ruffy set the
whisky on the floor and placed two large booted feet upon it.
"What's this all about, boss?" he asked as Bruce trundled the truck down
the drive and turned into the Avenue I'Etoile. Bruce told him and when
he had finished Ruffy grunted noncommittally and opened a bottle of beer
with his big white chisel-blade teeth; the gas hissed softly and a
little froth ran down the bottle and dripped onto his lap.
"My boys aren't going to like it," he commented as he offered the open
bottle to Mike Haig. Mike shook his head and Ruffy passed the bottle to
Bruce.
Ruffy opened a bottle for himself and spoke again. "They going to hate
it like hell." He shook his head. "And there'll be even bigger trouble
when we get to Port Reprieve and pick up the diamonds." Bruce glanced
sideways at him, startled. "What diamonds?"
"From the dredgers," said Ruffy. "You don't think they're sending us all
that way just to bring in these other guys.
They're worried about the diamonds, that's for sure!" Suddenly, for
Bruce, much which had puzzled him was explained. A half-forgotten
conversation that he had held earlier in the year with an engineer from
Union Mine jumped back into his memory. They had discussed the three
diamond dredgers that worked the gravel from the bed of the Lufira
swamps. The boats were based on Port Reprieve and clearly they would
have returned there at the beginning of the emergency; they must still
be there with three or four months" recovery of diamonds on board.
Something like half a million sterling in uncut stones. That was the
reason why the Katangese Government placed such priority on this
expedition, the reason why such a powerful force was being used, the
reason why no approaches had been made to the U.N. authorities to
conduct the rescue.
Bruce smiled sardonically as he remembered the human itarian arguments
that had been given to him by the Minister of the Interior.
"It is our duty, Captain Curry. We cannot leave these people to the
notsotender mercy of the tribesmen. It is out duty as civilized human
beings." There were others cut off in remote mission stations and
government outposts throughout southern Kasai and Katanga; nothing had
been heard of them for months, but their welfare was secondary to that
of the settlement at Port.
Reprieve.
Bruce lifted the bottle to his lips again, steering with one hand and
squinting ahead through the windscreen as he drank. All right, we'll
fetch them in and afterwards an ammunition box will be loaded on to a
chartered aircraft, and later still there will be another deposit to a
numbered account in Zurich. Why should I worry? They're paying me for
it.
"I don't think we should mention the diamonds to my boys." Ruffy spoke
sadly. "I don't think it would be a good idea at all." Bruce slowed the
truck as they ran into the industrial area beyond the railway line. He
watched the buildings as they passed, until he recognized the one he
wanted and swung off the road to stop in front of the gate. He blew a
blast on the hooter and a gendarme came out and inspected his pass
minutely. Satisfied, he shouted out to someone beyond the gate and it
swung open. Bruce drove the truck through into the yard and switched off
the engine.
There were half a dozen other trucks parked in the yard, all emblazoned
with the Katangese shield and surrounded by gendarmes in uniforms patchy
with sweat. A white lieutenant leaned from the cab of one of the trucks
and shouted.
"Ciao, Bruce!"
"How things, Sergio?" Bruce answered him.
"Crazy! Crazy!" Bruce smiled. For the Italian everything was crazy.
Bruce remembered that in July, during the fighting at the road bridge,
he had bent him over the bonnet of a Land Rover and with a bayonet dug a
piece of schrapnel out of his hairy buttocks - that had also been crazy.
"See you around," Bruce dismissed him and led Mike and Ruffy across the
yard, to the warehouse. There was a sign on the large double doors Dp&
Ordinance - Aim& du Katanga and beyond them at a desk in a glass cubicle
sat a major with a pair of Gandhi-type steel-rimmed spectacles perched
on a face like that of a jovial black toad. He looked up at Bruce.
"Non," he said with finality. "Non, non." Bruce produced his requisition
form and laid it before him. The major brushed it aside
contemptuously.
"We have not got these items, we are destitute. I cannot do it.
No! I cannot do it. There are priorities. There are circumstances to
consider. No, I am sorry." He snatched a sheaf of papers from the side
of his desk and turned his whole attention to them, ignoring Bruce.
"This requisition is signed by Monsieur le President," Bruce pointed out
mildly, and the major laid down his papers and came round from behind
the desk. He stood close to Bruce with the top of his head on a level
with Bruce's chin.
"Had it been signed by the Almighty himself, it would be of no use. I am
sorry, I am truly sorry." Bruce lifted his eyes and for a second allowed
them to wander over the mountains of stores which packed the interior of
the warehouse. From where he stood he could identify
at least twenty items that he needed. The major noticed the gesture and
his French became so excited that Bruce could only make out the repeated
use of the word
"Non'. He glanced significantly at Ruffy and the sergeant major stepped
forward and placed an arm soothingly about the major's shoulders; then
very gently he led him, still protesting, out into the yard and across
to the truck. He opened the door of the cab and the major saw the case
of whisky.
A few minutes later, after Ruffy had prised open the lid with his
bayonet and allowed the major to inspect the seals on the caps, they
returned to the office with Ruffy carrying the case.
"Captain," said the major as he picked up the requisition from the desk.
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