'What did you do for a living?'
'Lawyer.'
'Were you successful?'
'How do you measure success? If you mean, did I make money, the answer
is yes.' I made enough to pay off the house and the car, he thought
bitterly, and to contest custody of my children, and finally to meet the
divorce settlement. I had enough for that, but, of course, I had to sell
my partnership.
'Then you'll be all right,' Mike told him. 'If you've succeeded once
you'll be able to do it again when you've recovered from the shock; when
you've rearranged your life and taken other people into it
to make you strong again.'
'I'm strong now, Haig. I'm strong because there is no one in my life.
That's the only way you can be secure, on your own. Completely free and
on your own.'
'Strong!' Anger flared in
Mike's voice for the first time.
'On your own you're nothing, Curry. On your own you're so weak I
could piss on you and wash you away!' Then the anger evaporated and
Mike went on softly, 'But you'll find out - you're one of the lucky
ones. You attract people to you. You don't have to be alone.'
'Well, that's the way I'm going to be from now on.'
'We'll see,' murmured Mike.
'Yes, we'll see,' Bruce agreed, and lifted the tarpaulin over the radio.
Driver, we are going to halt for the night. It's too dark to proceed
with safety.' Brazzaville Radio came through weakly on the set and the
static was bad, for outside the rain still fell and thunder rolled
around the sky like an unsecured cargo at sea.
Our Elisabethville correspondent reports that elements of the
Kantangese Army in the South Kasai province today violated the ceasefire
agreement by firing upon a low-flying aircraft of the United
Nations command. The aircraft, a Vampire jet fighter of the Indian Air
Force, returned safely to its base at Kamina airfield. The pilot,
however, was wounded by small arms fire. His condition is satisfactory.
'The United Nations Commander in Katanga, General Rhee, has lodged a
strong protest with the Kantange se government-' The announcer's voice
was overlaid by the electric crackle of static.
we winged him!' rejoiced Wally Hendry. The scab on his cheek had dried
black, with angry red edges.
'Shut up,' snapped Bruce, 'we're trying to hear what's happening.'
'You can't hear a bloody thing now. Andre, there's a bottle in my pack.
Get it! I'm going to drink to that coolie with a bullet up his-' Then
the radio cleared and the announcer's voice came through loudly.
at Senwati Mission fifty miles from the river harbour of Port
Reprieve. A spokesman for the Central Congolese Government denied that
the Congolese troops were operating in this area, and it is feared that
a large body of armed bandits is taking advantage of the unsettled
conditions to-' Again the static drowned it out.
'Damn this set muttered Bruce as he tried to tune it.
