Free Fear Is the Rider by Kenneth Cook Page B

figures on the immenseness of the rock, tinier still in the immensity of the desert spread around them in millions of square kilometres. And tiny too, but growing larger and larger and filling the horizons of their minds was the Land Cruiser, rolling along the track bearing a strange death in its metal frame.
    They could see it quite clearly now: brown, metallic and menacing. In their minds, the machine itself had become the enemy; whoever, whatever was driving it, was an integral part of the vehicle. They watched the dust cloud dwindle as the Land Cruiser started up the rocky slope to the broken range where they were hiding. They could hear its labouring motor in the stillness of the desert.
    ‘Any moment now,’ said Shaw and shifted the gun in his hands, his finger near the triggers but careful not to touch them.
    Then the Land Cruiser stopped.
    Almost a hundred metres away, well down the slope from the rock on which they were lying, it stopped in full view.
    ‘He’s stopped,’ said Katie, dully.
    They waited. Waited for the Land Cruiser to move. For the driver to get out. For something, for anything to happen.
    But nothing happened.
    The Land Cruiser stayed where it was in the middle of the track and there was no movement in it or near it. It was as though it were an abandoned vehicle.
    Only a dozen kite hawks wheeling endlessly in the sky above them disturbed the deep immobility of the desert. The heat was surrounding them, from above, from the rock, enveloping them like a molten shroud.
    ‘He knows we’re here,’ whispered Katie.
    ‘He couldn’t.’
    ‘Then why isn’t he coming on?’
    ‘He couldn’t know we stopped. There’s no dust on these rocks. He can’t know we’ve stopped.’
    They waited and watched the Land Cruiser.
    It didn’t move.
    ‘If he knows the country,’ said Katie, ‘he’d have been waiting for the dust to start again on the other side of these rocks. He’s knows we’re waiting for him.’
    ‘But he doesn’t know we’ve got a gun.’
    ‘Doesn’t he?’
    ‘How could he?’
    ‘He could have seen us pick it up. He wasn’t that far behind.’
    Shaw didn’t answer. He couldn’t remember how far the Land Cruiser was behind when they’d picked up the gun.
    ‘Shoot him from here,’ said Katie.
    ‘Too far away.’
    ‘How do you know? Shoot. Try it.’ Her voice broke.
    ‘It’s too far. I think.’
    ‘You think! You think!’ Katie screamed. ‘Give the bloody thing to me!’
    She took the weapon from his unresisting hands. He didn’t want to let her have it, but he didn’t know how to stop her.
    She knelt, pointed the gun at the truck and pulled against the trigger. Both barrels went off almost simultaneously and Katie was knocked sideways by the recoil.
    The blasting double roar of the barrels broke the desert silence like a stone breaking a pane of glass. Then the silence fell again and the truck was still there and there was no sign of where the shot had landed.
    ‘It’s too far.’
    Katie regained her balance and knelt again. Tears were running down her cheeks.
    ‘Dear Christ,’ she said, ‘I shouldn’t have done that.’
    Shaw gently took the gun from her.
    ‘It doesn’t matter. He wasn’t coming up anyway. It’s probably just as well to let him know we have the gun. He might keep away from us.’ He didn’t believe it but he wanted the girl to forgive herself for firing the gun.
    They waited and watched the Land Cruiser. The sun had completely dried the towels around their heads now.
    ‘We might as well get out of here,’ said Shaw. ‘He’s only going to wait there until we move. We can’t wait in the sun any longer.’
    ‘Can we get out of there before he gets up the hill?’
    ‘Easily,’ said Shaw. ‘We can leave him behind easily enough. We’ll make for the hotel. This was a mistake.’
    ‘I shouldn’t have fired,’ said Katie.
    ‘Forget it. Come on. Let’s get on before the bloody sun kills us.’
    He broke the barrel of the shotgun