Stern looked at Ilse. His face softened momentarily, but he quickly
turned away. 'Captain Hauer,' he said tersely, 'do you believe I am
wrong about what must be done here?'
With a strange sense of fatalism Hauer looked down at the dead South
Africans. He looked at General Steyn, bleeding steadily from his
shoulder and heaving for breath. He looked at Hans, his own son, his
face flushed with passion for life, his innocent fervor mirrored in his
wife's beautiful eyes. He looked at Hess, cadaverous and gray, a living
anachronism sitting aloof on the floor beneath his Afrikaner protector.
And finally at Stern. Hauer had known the old Israeli less than a day,
yet he felt closer to him than he did to many men he had known all his
life. Stern is no fanatic, he thought.
He's a realist He's seen enough of the world to know that giving fate
one chance to beat you is one chance too many.
Or perhaps he's just my kind of fanatic. Hauer didn't want to die. But
what choice was there? To fight their way out was impossible. With all
eyes in the room turned to him, he stepped toward Hans and Ilse with a
heavy heart. Yet before he could speak, an unfamiliar voice shouted
from somewhere in the dark jungle of laboratory equipment behind them:
'Hullo the house! Hullo! White flag and truce!'
Gadi jerked his rifle toward the sound.
Hauer spun to face the darkness, but he saw nothing.
'Call off your dog, Stern! That's a British accent!'
'That doesn't make me feel any better!' Stern retorted.
'All right, Gadi,' he said finally. 'Stand down.'
After the young Israeli lowered his weapon, a sandyhaired man of medium
height rose from beneath a soapstone lab table. He was wearing tattered
commando gear, and his left hand held a well-oiled MP-5
submachine gun. 'Hullo,' he said. 'In a bit of a pinch, are we?'
'Who the devil are you?' General Steyn croaked.
'How did you get in?' asked Hauer. 'That's the question.'
'Name's Burton, sport. Ex-major in the British Army, too long a story
to tell.'
'Have the shields been lowered?' Stern asked, afraid that the Libyans
might already have penetrated into the inner complex.
'Don't know about any shields. I came in through a bunker.
There's tunnels running to every one of 'em and they all intersect right
here.'
Are you serious?' Hauer cried. 'The Arabs didn't see you?'
''Those camel bumpers? Not bloody likely.'
'But what's past the bunkers? Is there any way to get truly out of
here? Away from this place?'
'It just so happens,' said Burton, 'that I've got my own personal jet
and pilot waiting outside.'
Hauer's mouth fell open.
Hans and Ilse ran to the Englishman. 'We've got to get out of here!'
Ilse cried. 'Now! The Arabs will break through any minute!'
'Boarding in five minutes,' Burton said jauntily. 'One carry-on bag per
person, please.'
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
General Steyn threw his good arm over Hauer's shoulder, believing that
Burton's revelation of an escape route had resolved de facto all the
argument that had gone before Ilse barely had time to snatch up Hess's
black briefcase before Hans pulled her across the room toward the
Englishman. Dr.
Sabri also moved cautiously in that direction.
Yet Stern and Gadi did not move. They stood with their backs against
the gleaming steel storage vault, staring watchfully at the excited
group gathering around the British mercenary. Hauer laid his hand on
General Steyn's pistol.
He understood only too well what was passing through the minds of the
Israelis.
'Gadi,' Stern said sharply.
With his rifle braced on his hip, the young Israeli marched past Hauer,
grabbed Dr. Sabri by the sleeve and pulled him back to where the three
bombs waited on their carts. He kicked the Libyan behind the knee,
dropping him to the floor, then shoved him down over the bomb in the
middle of the cart.
'Open it,' Stern commanded.
'Wh-what?' the Libyan stammered.
'Open the weapon!'
'I need tools.'
Gadi swung his rifle around on Smuts.
'We don't keep any down here,' Smuts lied.
Gadi fired a slug into the wall beside the Afrikaner's head.
Smuts didn't flinch, but after a face-saving moment he stepped over to a
drawer and pulled out a metal tool kit. He carried it to the Libyan,
then returned to Hess's side.
General Steyn watched all this in disbelief. 'What are you doing now,
Jonas? Our problem is solved! As soon as take off, I can radio the air
force from this man's plane Stern looked up from where Dr. Sabri worked
on the bomb. 'This changes only two things,' he said quietly.
'First, you people now have a chance to get clear. And second, Hess can
go with you.'
Pieter Smuts stiffened.
Stern touched Gadi's sleeve. 'Hess is your responsibility.
You'll take him out with the others.'
The young Israeli's face wilted like a little boy's, then it hardened to
stone. 'I shall stay behind, Uncle,' he said solemnly.
'You should be the one who takes Hess to Israel.'
Stern shook his head impatiently. 'You-2' 'I say there,' Burton cut in.
'You're not talking about setting off these bombs. I've seen enough
conventional weapons to know an unconventional one when I see it. Even
if we manage to get airborne, the blast wave from one of those would
knock us right out of the sky.'
Stern crouch&d beside Dr. Sabri, who had just gotten the cover plate
off the bomb's arming system. 'What's the minimum safe distance for the
aircraft that delivers this weapon?'
Dr. Sabri looked up at Stern with wild eyes. 'There's no way to know!
