Free The Iron Tiger by Jack Higgins Page B

window at the night as she moaned softly, digging her nails into his shoulder.
     
     
And after all. why not? This was one kind of answer and as good as any other.
     
     
In the darkness of the terrace, the old woman listened for a moment, then nodded to herself in satisfaction and crept quietly away.
     
     
It was close to dawn when he awakened, the sweat cold on his flesh. It was still raining hard outside and he hitched the blanket over his shoulders and turned into her warmth to sleep again.
     
     
Outside, the sound that had awakened him came nearer, the roar of an engine thundering through the rain. There was a squeal of brakes, boots running across the courtyard. Drummond got out of bed, reached for his dressing gown and padded to the window. As he moved out on to the verandah, Tony Brackenhurst stumbled on the top step and dropped to one knee, his face wild and strained in the light of the porch lamp.
     
     
Tor God's sake, man, what is it?. Drummond demanded.
     
     
'Chinese troops,' Brackenhurst gasped. 'At HoweeL They over-ran my camp, slaughtered my men..
     
     
'Chinese?' Drummond said. 'A patrol, you mean?.
     
     
'Hundreds of the bastards! Hundreds 1' Brackenhurst sobbed.
     
     
Drummond stood stock-still for a moment and then pulled Brackenhurst to his feet. 'Have you told anyone else about this?'
     
     
Brackenhurst shook his head. 'No, I haven't had time.'
     
     
'Good, if word gets out too soon we might have a general panic and that plane of mine can take no more then fifteen in this kind of flying country.'
     
     
That's what I thought,' Brackenhurst said.
     
     
1 bet you did. Now this is what we do. From here, we go to the mission to warn Father Kerrigan and Janet We'll leave them my jeep and they can follow us in with Kerim as soon as they're ready..
     
     
"What do we do then?
     
     
'Come back to town in your Land Rover and break the news to the Khan. This might prove to him just how useless it was to rely on the border tribes for information.'
     
     
He returned to his bedroom and dressed quickly, pulling on fur-lined boots and his old naval flying jacket Famia sat up in bed, the blankets clutched to her breast and watched him.
     
     
.When will you be back?' she said.
     
     
He took the Smith & Wesson.38 from a drawer, checked that it was loaded and slipped a box of spare cartridges into his pocket. 'God knows, but you'll bs all right You don't need me. You never did..
     
     
He went out through the window and a moment later she heard the two engines break into life^ one after the other, and the sound of them faded into the rain.
     
     
The door creaked open and the old woman crept in..Did you hear?' the girl said softly in Urdu.
     
     
The woman nodded and pulled the blankets aside. 'Come, girl, there is not much time and you know what must be dons.'
     
     
Famia dressed quickly in an old pair of Drummond's drill pants and a white naval sweater that dropped over her slim hips. She pulled on slippers, nodded to her mother and moved out on to the verandah. A moment later, she was running through the quiet streets, head down against the rain.
     
     
Within five minutes, she came to a bungalow almost identical with Drummond's, ran up the steps to the verandah and knocked on the door furiously.
     
     
'Mr. Cheung! Mr. Cheung!' she called.
     
     
Action by Night
     
     
IT was the rain which saved Brackenhurst, the sudden torrential downpour which turned a normally quiet mountain stream into a brawling torrent, in one place filling a dip in the road with a ford of ice-cold water.
     
     
He had spent a long, hard day in the mountains on his own, prospecting for ore specimens and now, on his way back to his base camp at Howeel, the sudden rush of water gleaming white and brown in his head. lights caused him to stamp hard on the brake.
     
     
He got out, found a branch at the side of the road and poked it carefully into the water. It was at least four feet deep. He might be able to