Free Running Blind / The Freedom Trap by Desmond Bagley

get up but a spasm of pain hit him and the sweat started out on his brow. ‘You’re not in a position to do much,’ I said. ‘You have a hole in your gut.’
    He sagged back and moistened his lips. ‘Slade said…’ He fought for breath. ‘…said you weren’t dangerous.’
    ‘Did he, now? He was wrong, wasn’t he?’ I held up the carbine. ‘If you’d come empty-handed without this you wouldn’t be lying where you are now. What was supposed to be the idea?’
    ‘Slade wanted the package,’ he whispered.
    ‘So? But the opposition have it. The Russians—I suppose they are Russians?’
    Graham nodded weakly. ‘But they didn’t get it. That’s why Slade sent me in here. He said you were playing a double game. He said you weren’t straight.’
    I frowned. ‘Now, that’s interesting,’ I said, and sat on my heels next to him with the carbine across my knees. ‘Tell me this, Graham—who told Slade the Russians hadn’t got it? I didn’t tell them, that’s for sure. I suppose the Russkies obligingly told him they’d been fooled.’
    A look of puzzlement came over his face. ‘I don’t know how he knew. He just told me to come and get it.’
    I lifted the carbine. ‘And he gave you this. I suppose I was to be liquidated.’ I glanced at Elin, and then back at Graham. ‘And what about Elin here? What was to happen to her?’
    Graham closed his eyes. ‘I didn’t know she was here.’
    ‘Maybe not,’ I said. ‘But Slade did. How the hell do you think that Land-Rover got here?’ Graham’s eyelids flickered. ‘You know damned well you’d have to kill any witnesses.’
    A trickle of blood crept from the corner of his mouth. ‘You lousy bastard!’ I said. ‘If I thought you knew what you were doing I’d kill you now. So Slade told you I’d reneged and you took his word for it—you took the gun he gave you and followed his orders. Ever hear of a man called Birkby?’
    Graham opened his eyes. ‘No.’
    ‘Before your time,’ I said. ‘It just happens that Slade has played that trick before. But never mind that now. Did you come alone?’
    Graham closed his mouth tightly and a stubborn look came over his face. ‘Don’t be a hero,’ I advised. ‘I can get it out of you easily enough. How would you like me to stomp on your belly right now?’ I heard Elin gasp, but ignored her. ‘You have a bad gut wound, and you’re liable to die unless we can get you to a hospital. And I can’t do that if someone is going to take a crack at us as we leave Asbyrgi. I’m not going to put Elin into risk just for the sake of your hide.’
    He looked beyond me to Elin, and then nodded. ‘Slade,’ he said. ‘He’s here…about a mile…’
    ‘At the entrance to Asbyrgi?’
    ‘Yes,’ he said, and closed his eyes again. I took his pulse and found it very much fainter. I turned to Elin. ‘Start to load; leave enough room for Graham to lie in the back on top of the sleeping bags.’ I stood up and checked the load in the carbine.
    ‘What are you going to do?’
    ‘Maybe I can get close enough to Slade to talk to him,’ I said. ‘To tell him his boy is badly hurt. Maybe I won’t—in that case I’ll talk to him with this.’ I held up the carbine.
    She whitened. ‘You’ll kill him?’
    ‘Christ, I don’t know!’ I said exasperatedly. ‘All I know is that apparently he doesn’t mind if I’m killed—and you, too. He’s sitting at the entrance to Asbyrgi like a bloody cork in a bottle and this is the only corkscrew I’ve got.’
    Graham moaned a little and opened his eyes. I bent down. ‘How are you feeling?’
    ‘Bad.’ The trickle of blood at the corner of his mouth had increased to a rivulet which ran down his neck. ‘It’s funny,’ he whispered. ‘How did Slade know?’
    I said, ‘What’s in the package?’
    ‘Don’t…know.’
    ‘Who is bossing the Department these days?’
    His breath wheezed. ‘Ta…Taggart.’
    If anyone could pull Slade off my back it would be Taggart. I