This dosage will cause severe nausea and vomiting for the next
twenty-four hours. He'll have deep burns, bloody diarrhea, his hair
will fall out, there'll be bone marrow destruction-' Hess raised his
hand. 'How much.can he stand and survive for two weeks?'
'I wouldn't push it over 500 rads, sir. Not if you want him to live
until the detonation.'
When Stern finally spoke, his voice was a knife blade. 'In one week,
Hess, you will stand in the dock before a war crimes tribunal in
Jerusalem.'
Hess laughed. 'Yes? Well, you might be interested to know that your
friend Hauer and his young Jewish companion are now in a Pretoria police
cell. And General Jaap Steyn is chasing a school of red herrings at the
request of my Pretoria office.'
'You will be manacled,' Stern went on stubbornly. 'Israeli
schoolchildren will file past your cell and spit in your face. History
will judge you as it did your master, as one more tragic gangster with
an inferiority complex@, 'Swine!' Hess shrieked. 'When your skin turns
black and begins to drop off, you will regret your words!'
'Don't let him provoke you, sir,' Smuts said evenly. 'In ten days time,
Israel will be a dead island in a sea of Arabs.'
'Yes,' Hess rasped. 'What do you think of that, Jew?'
'I think you should plead guilty,' Stern retorted. 'It will shorten the
time' you have to stand in shame before the world's cameras.'
Enraged, Hess stabbed a button on'his wheelchair and wheeled away toward
the door. 'Give him 500 rads! Now!'
Jtirgen Luhr's hysterical laugh was cut short by a sharp knock at the
door. A gray-uniformed soldier stepped in, saluted Hess, then turned to
Smuts. 'The radar shows one aircraft approaching, sir.
Twenty kilometers out. It responded properly to the codes.'
Hess smiled. 'Our Libyan friends have arrived to take possession of
their new toy.'
'I should get up to the tower, sir,' Smuts said.
'No, finish here first. I want this Jew to get his 500 rads today.'
Smuts frowned. 'I should be with you when you meet the Libyans.
Lieutenant Luhr can finish here. The machine is set. All he need do is
press the button.'
Hess paused. 'Very well.'
'Fifty more exposures,' Smuts tofu Luhr.
'Jawohl,' Luhr replied, his eyes exultant.
After Smuts rolled Hess out, Luhr swaggered over to the table and leaned
over Stern. 'Are you enjoying this, you filthy@' Stern spat into Luhr's
open mouth. The German gagged, raised his fist high over Stern's neck,
then dropped it shaking to his side. He reached up, took hold of the
X-ray tube housing and brought its barrel to within an inch of Stern's
groin. Then he hurried behind the lead shield and peered through the
thick bubble window.
'Let's see if we can burn your balls off, Jew,' he snarled.
He pressed the trigger.
604 Pm. The Northern Transvaol
The South African-built Armscor AC-200 armored car swerved off of the
last road east of Giyani and crashed down onto hard veld. Six huge
wheels hurled the long, wedge'shaped hull over berms and trenches at
forty miles per hour-the speed of a mildly agitated rhinoceros.
Machine guns bristled from the Arinscor's steel hide, giving the
lowslung fighfing vehicle the look of a tank designed for a war on the
moon. Inside, Dieter Hauer checked his watch. The hell-for-leather
journey from Pretoria had taken three hours, they still had twenty
kilometers of punishing, trackless wilderness to cover before they
reached Horn House. He estimated they would find it about dusk-the
worst possible time. It would still be light enough for the defenders
to see them coming, but too dark for accurate small-arms fire by his
assault team. He had tried to keep his mind off Hans's fight during the
trip; he'd spent most of the ride conferring quietly with General Steyn.
By concentrating on tactics, he ad almost managed to ignore the fact
that with Stern and the missing pages now in his custody, Hess had no
reason to keep Hans and Ilse alive any longer.
The scene inside the Armscor comforted Hauer, though it would have
terrified most civilians. Ever since Giyani, his team had worn their
black Kevlar helmets and anti-riot respirators. These sophisticated gas
masks concealed the entire face, giving their wearers the insectile look
of Hollywood movie aliens. Every man also wore a full suit of black
body armor. Made of Kevlar composite material fortified by ceramic tile
inserts, these suits would stop not only pistol rounds and shrapnel, but
high-velocity armor-piercing bullets.
Hauer could scarcely tell the men apart. He knew that General Steyn sat
beside him on the metal bench seat, and that one of the men sitting
across from him was Gadi Abrams. Captain Barnard was up front in the
shotgun seat.
The driver and the other two men were members of South Africa's elite
counterterror (CT) commando unit, making up the five-man force Hauer had
originally requested. All the rifles save Hauer's were South African.
Gadi did not mind this, as the South African R-5 assault rifle was
merely a carbine style variant of the Israeli Galil. Hauer carried the
long, graceful sniper rifle he had requested from General Steynthe
Austrian-built Steyr-Mannlicher SSG.69. On the floor lay an assortment
of weapons from grenades to combat shotguns.
He wrenched his respirator aside. 'Stern said to expect a strong
defense!' he shouted. 'And I think he knows what he's talking about.'
General Steyn pulled his own buglike mask off, revealing his perpetually
red face. 'He does, Captain. You're the one who insisted on one
vehicle and five men. I would have hit this place with an airborne
division!'
'And seen this corner of your country vaporized,' Hauer reminded him.
'What about land mines, General? Aren't they popular down here?'
'Very. We have so many unpaved roads that mines are the weapon of
choice. The bottom of this vehicle is designed to deflect mine blasts
upward and away, but a sustained series of hits-one large minefield,
say-and we've bought it.'
General Steyn grinned. 'I may be getting up in age, but I don't fancy a
