'Hendry. Listen to me.'
'Yeah. What is it?'
'When I reach that corner over there I'll give you a wave. We'll be
ready to go then. I want you to give us all the cover you can - keep
their heads down.'
'Okay,' agreed Wally and fired another short burst.
'Try not to hit us when we close in.' Wally turned to look at
Bruce and he grinned wickedly.
'Mistakes happen, you know. I can't promise anything.
You'd look real grand in my sights.'
'Don't joke,' said Bruce.
'Who's joking?' grinned Wally and Bruce left him. He found Ruffy and
four gendarmes waiting in the kitchen.
'Come on,' he said and led them out across the kitchen yard, down the
sanitary lane with the steel doors lor the buckets behind the outhouses
and the smell of them thick and fetid, round the corner and across the
road to the buildings beyond the office i lock. 'They stopped then and
crowded together, as though to draw courage and comfort from each other.
Bruce measured the distance with his eye.
'It's not far,' he announced.
'Depends on how you look at it,' grunted Ruffy.
'There are only two windows opening out on to this side.'
'Two's enough - how many do you want?'
'Remember, Ruffy, you can only die once.'
'Once is enough,' said Ruffy. 'Let's cut out the talking, boss.
Too much talk gets you in the guts.' Bruce moved across to the corner of
the building out of the shadows. He waved towards the hotel and imagined
that he saw an acknowledgement from the end of the verandah.
'All together,' he said, sucked in a deep breath, held it a second and
then launched himself into the open. He felt small now, no longer brave
and invulnerable, and his legs moved so slowly that he seemed to be
standing still. The black windows gaped at him.
Now, he thought, now you die.
Where, he thought, not in the stomach, please God, not in the stomach.
And his legs moved stiffly under him, carrying him half way across.
Only ten more paces, he thought, one more river, just one more river to
Jordan. But not in the stomach, please God, not in my stomach. And his
flesh cringed in anticipation, his stomach drawn in hard as he ran.
Suddenly the black windows were brightly lit, bright white oblongs in
the dark buildings, and the glass sprayed out of them like untidy
spittle from an old man's mouth.
Then they were dark again, dark with smoke billowing from them and the
memory of the explosion echoing in his ears.
'A grenade!' Bruce was bewildered. 'Someone let off a grenade in there!'
He reached the back door without stopping and it burst open before his
rush. He was into the room, shooting, coughing in the fumes, firing
wildly at the small movements of dying men..
In the half darkness something long and white lay against the far wall.
A body, a white man's naked body. He crossed to it and looked down.
