'Do what you're told, don't argue, damn it.' They were within twenty
feet of the car now, and he told her, 'Now, go, fast as you can.' She
darted away, reaching the high side of Miss Wobbly before any of the
Gallas could intervene and she went up it with a single agile bound.
'Close down,' Jake shouted after her, and felt a quick lift of relief
as the hatch clanged shut. The ( gal las growled like the wolf-pack
denied its prey and they swarmed forward, pressing hard and surrounding
the car.
Jake fired a single shot in the air, and Ras Kullah screamed a command.
The Gallas drew back fractionally and fell into a sullen silence.
'Vicky, can you hear me?' Jake called, as he shepherded the
Italian prisoners close in against the hull.
Her voice was muffled and remote from behind the steel plate as she
acknowledged.
'The rear doors,' he told her urgently. 'Get them open but not before
I tell you.' He pushed the Italians around towards the rear of the
car, but it was slow work, for they were confused and stupid with
terror.
Now, 'Jake shouted and knocked impatiently against the hull with the
pistol. The lock grated and the doors swung outwards, and came up
against the packed bodies outside.
'Goddamn it,' growled Jake, an got his shoulder to one leaf of the
door. He shoved it open, knocking down two Of the closest Gallas and
in the same movement boosted one of the Italians through the opening
into the dark interior of the car. In a panicky scramble, the other
two followed him and Jake swung the door closed on them and put his
back flat against it, and heard the bolts shot closed on the inside,
facing the hating dark faces, and the surging press of their hundreds
of bodies. Voices were raised at the rear of the crowd and violence
was seconds away they had seen most of their prey escape, and it needed
little more to trigger the mob reflex.
Jake found he was panting as though he had run a long way, and his
heart pounded, so that he could feel it jump against his rib cage but
he held Ras Kullah, changing his grip from the pudgy upper arm to the
thick wiry bush of his hair, twining his fingers deeply into the
stiff,
dark halo at the back of his skull and twisting the head so that Ras
Kullah faced his men. With the other hand Jake thrust the pistol
deeply into the aperture of the man's ear hole
'Speak to them, sweet lips He made his voice vicious and menacing.
'Otherwise I'm going to push this piece right out through the other
ear.' Ras Kullah understood the tone, if not the words, and he gabbled
out a few hysterical words Of Amharic; the front warriors drew back a
pace and Jake slid slowly along the hull, keeping his back to the steel
and Ras Kullah pinned helplessly by his hair to cover his front. The
crowd moved with them, keeping station with them, their faces glowering
in the moonlight, cruel and angry, balancing critically on the pinnacle
of violence. A voice rang out from the darkness, an authoritative
voice urging action, the crowd growled, and Ras Kullah whimpered in