She intercepted Daniel heading for the door and she grinned at him maliciously as she whispered, Enjoy your lonely bed, lover. He grinned back at her as icily. I never did like a crowd. As he made his way through the darkness along the slippery mud-caked catwalk, a spot in the centre of his back itched. It was the spot into which somebody sneaking up behind him might stick a knife. He quickened his pace.
When he reached the door of his room in the Nissen hut, he pushed it open but hung back for a minute. There could be somebody waiting for him in the darkened room. He gave them a chance to move before he slipped his arm around the door frame and switched on the overhead light. Only then did he venture in cautiously. He locked the flimsy door and drew the curtains and sat on the bed to unlace his boots.
There were just too many ways that Chetti Singh could choose to do it. He knew he couldn't guard against them all. At that moment he felt something move under the bedclothes on which he was sitting. It was a slow, stealthy, reptilian sliding movement beneath the thin sheet and it touched his thigh. An icy dart of fear shot up his spine, stiffening every muscle in his body.
He had always had an unreasoning fear of snakes. One of his earliest memories was of a cobra in his nursery. It had only been a few months after his fourth birthday, but he vividly remembered the grotesque shadow that the reptile's extended hood had thrown upon the nursery wall as it reared in the diffuse beam of the nightlight that his mother had placed beside his bed. He remembered the explosive hisses with which the snake had challenged his own wild and terrified screams, before his father had burst into the nursery in his pyjamas.
Now he knew with the utmost certainty that the thing beneath the sheet was a snake. He knew that Chetti Singh or one of his men had placed it there. It must be one of the more deadly species, one of the mambas, slim and glittering with their thin grinning lips, or a forest cobra, black as death, or one of the thick repulsive gaboon adders.
Daniel sprang from the bed and spun around to face it. His heart hammered wildly as he looked around for a weapon. He snatched up the flimsy chair, and with the strength of his fear tore off one of the legs.
With this weapon in his hand he regained control of himself. He was still breathing rapidly and he experienced a quick rush of shame. As a game ranger he had stood down the determined charges of buffalo and elephant and the great killer cats. As a soldier he had parachuted into enemy territory and fought it out in hand-to-hand combat, but now he was panting and shaking at a phantom of his imagination.
He steeled himself to go back to the bed. With his left hand he took the corner of the sheet, raised the chair leg with the other hand and flung back the bedclothes.
A striped forest mouse was in the centre of the white sheet. It had long white whiskers and its bright inquisitive button eyes blinked rapidly in the sudden light.
Daniel was barely able to arrest the blow that he had already launched at it, and he and the tiny creature stared at each other in astonishment. Then his shoulders sagged and shook with nervous laughter. The mouse squeaked and leapt off the bed. It darted across the floor and vanished into a hole in the wainscoting and Daniel collapsed on to the bed and doubled up with laughter. My God, Chetti Singh, he gasped. You won't stop at anything, will you? What other nefarious tricks have you got up your sleeve? The helicopter came in from the east. They heard the whoppity-wop of its rotors long before it appeared in the hole in the forest canopy high above. It descended into the clearing with all the grace of a fat lady lowering herself on to a lavatory seat.
The helicopter was a French-built Puma and it was obvious that it had seen many years of hard service, probably with a few other airforces, before it had reached Ubomo.
The pilot cut the motors and the rotors slowed and stopped.
President Taffari vaulted down from the main hatch. He was lithe and vitally handsome in combat fatigues and parachutist's boots. Bonny moved in with the camera and he flashed a smile as bright and almost as wide as the medal ribbons on his chest, and stepped forward to greet the reception committee headed by Chetti Singh.
Behind him Ning Cheng Gong used the boarding ladder to descend from the Puma. He was dressed in a cream-coloured tropical suit. His skin was almost a matching creamy yellow that contrasted strongly with his eyes, dark and bright as polished onyx.
He looked around quickly, searching for somebody or something; and he saw Daniel standing back, out of camera shot.
Ning Cheng Gong's eyes licked Daniel's face for only an instant, like the black tongue of an adder, and then were past.
His expression did not change. There was not the least sign of recognition, but Daniel knew with certainty that Chetti Singh had managed to get a message to his master, to warn him of Daniel's presence in Ubomo. Daniel was startled by his own reaction. He had known that Cheng would be on the helicopter.
He had steeled himself for the first sight of him, but still it was as much of a physical shock as a punch under the ribs. It required an effort to respond normally to President Taffari's handshake and greeting.
Ah, Doctor; as you see, Mohammed has come to the mountain. I have set aside the afternoon to cooperate with your filming. What do you want me to do? I am yours to command. I am very grateful, Mr.
President. I have drawn up a shooting schedule. In all, I will need about five hours of your time, that includes make-up and rehearsal.
. Daniel resisted the temptation to glance in Cheng's direction, until Chetti Singh intervened. Doctor Armstrong, I'd like you to meet the managing director, head of UDC, Mr. Ning. Daniel was almost overcome by a strange sense of unreality as he shook Ning's hand and smiled and said. We know each other. We met briefly in Zimbabwe, when you were ambassador there.
I don't suppose you recall? Forgive me. Cheng shook his head.
I met so many people in the course of my official duties. He pretended not to remember and Daniel forced himself to keep smiling.
It seemed incredible that the last time he had seen this man was on the escarpment of the Zambezi valley, only hours before he discovered the mutilated and abused corpses of Johnny and his family. It was as though all the sorrow and anger in him had grown stronger and more bitter for being bottled up all this time. He wanted to shout out his rage, You filthy, greedy butcher! He wanted to clench his fists and attack that smooth bland face, to batter it into pulp and feel the bones break under his knuckles.
He wanted to gouge out those implacable shark's eyes and pop them between his fingers. He wanted to wash his hands inNing Cheng Gong's blood.
He turned away as soon as he could. He could trust himself no longer.
For the first time, he faced -what he had to do. He had to kill Ning Cheng Gong, or be killed in the attempt.
