this one with me.' Mike wiped his mouth with the back of his hand,
sweating now across the forehead and on his upper lip, tiny jewels of
sweat squeezed out of the skin by the craving of his body.
'Come on, boy.' Wally's voice hoarse with excitement; teasing,
wheedling, tempting.
Mike's hand closed round the tumbler, moving of its own volition,
lifting it towards lips that were suddenly slack and trembling, his eyes
filled with mingled loathing and desire.
'Just this one,' whispered Hendry. 'Just this one.' Mike gulped
it with a sudden savage flick of his arm, one swallow and the glass was
empty. He held it with both hands, his head bowed over it.
'I hate you. My God, I hate you.' He spoke to Hendry, and to himself,
and to the empty glass.
'That's my boy!' crowed Wally. 'That's the lad! Come on, let me fill you
up.' ruce went in through the front door of the hotel with
Shermaine trying to keep pace with him. There were a dozen or so people
in the lobby, and an air of tension amongst them. Boussier was
one of them and he came quickly to Bruce.
'I'm sorry, Captain, I could not stop them. That one, that one with the
red hair, he was violent. He had his gun and I think he was ready to use
it.'
'What are you talking about?' Bruce asked him, but before Boussier could
answer there was the bellow of Hendry's laughter from behind the door at
the far end of the lobby; the door to the bar-room.
'They are in there,' Boussier told him. 'They have been there for the
past hour.'
'Goddarn it to hell,' swore Bruce. 'Now of all times.
Oh, goddam that bloody animal.' He almost ran across the room and threw
open the double doors. Hendry was standing against the far wall with a
tumbler in one hand and his rifle in the other. He was holding the rifle
by the pistol grip and waving vague circles in the air with it.
Mike Haig was building a pyramid of glasses on the bar counter.
He was just placing the final glass on the pile.
'Hello, Bruce, old cock, old man, old fruit,' he greeted Bruce, and
waved in an exaggerated manner. 'Just in time, you can have a couple of
shots as well. But Wally's first, he gets first shot. Must abide by the
rules, no cheating, strictly democratic affair, everyone has equal
rights. Rank doesn't count. That's right, isn't it Wally?'
Haig's features had blurred; it was as though he were melting, losing
his shape.
His lips were loose and flabby, his jowls hung pendulously as an old
woman's breasts, and his eyes were moist.
He picked up a glass from beside the pyramid, but this glass was nearly
full and a bottle of Remy Martin cognac stood beside it.
'A very fine old brandy, absolutely exquisite.' The last two words
didn't come out right, so he repeated them carefully. Then he grinned
loosely at Bruce and his eyes weren't quite in focus.
'Get out of the way, Mike,' said Hendry, and raised the rifle
one-handed, aiming at the pile of glasses.
