chartered aircraft, and later still there will be another deposit to a
numbered account in Zurich. Why should I worry? They're paying me for
it.
'I don't think we should mention the diamonds to my boys.' Ruffy spoke
sadly. 'I don't think it would be a good idea at all.' Bruce slowed the
truck as they ran into the industrial area beyond the railway line. He
watched the buildings as they passed, until he recognized the one he
wanted and swung off the road to stop in front of the gate. He blew a
blast on the hooter and a gendarme came out and inspected his pass
minutely. Satisfied, he shouted out to someone beyond the gate and it
swung open. Bruce drove the truck through into the yard and switched off
the engine.
There were half a dozen other trucks parked in the yard, all emblazoned
with the Katangese shield and surrounded by gendarmes in uniforms patchy
with sweat. A white lieutenant leaned from the cab of one of the trucks
and shouted.
'Ciao, Bruce!'
'How things, Sergio?' Bruce answered him.
'Crazy! Crazy!' Bruce smiled. For the Italian everything was crazy.
Bruce remembered that in July, during the fighting at the road bridge,
he had bent him over the bonnet of a Land Rover and with a bayonet dug a
piece of schrapnel out of his hairy buttocks - that had also been crazy.
'See you around,' Bruce dismissed him and led Mike and Ruffy across the
yard, to the warehouse. There was a sign on the large double doors Dp&
Ordinance - Aim& du Katanga and beyond them at a desk in a glass cubicle
sat a major with a pair of Gandhi-type steel-rimmed spectacles perched
on a face like that of a jovial black toad. He looked up at Bruce.
'Non,' he said with finality. 'Non, non.' Bruce produced his requisition
form and laid it before him. The major brushed it aside
contemptuously.
'We have not got these items, we are destitute. I cannot do it.
No! I cannot do it. There are priorities. There are circumstances to
consider. No, I am sorry.' He snatched a sheaf of papers from the side
of his desk and turned his whole attention to them, ignoring Bruce.
'This requisition is signed by Monsieur le President,' Bruce pointed out
mildly, and the major laid down his papers and came round from behind
the desk. He stood close to Bruce with the top of his head on a level
with Bruce's chin.
'Had it been signed by the Almighty himself, it would be of no use. I am
sorry, I am truly sorry.' Bruce lifted his eyes and for a second allowed
them to wander over the mountains of stores which packed the interior of
the warehouse. From where he stood he could identify
at least twenty items that he needed. The major noticed the gesture and
his French became so excited that Bruce could only make out the repeated
use of the word
'Non'. He glanced significantly at Ruffy and the sergeant major stepped
forward and placed an arm soothingly about the major's shoulders; then
very gently he led him, still protesting, out into the yard and across
to the truck. He opened the door of the cab and the major saw the case
of whisky.
