started to drag her away from the boulder. 'Come and get her yourself,
Mek. She is here if you want her.'
He tightened his lock around her throat, choking her until she struggled
and gasped, tearing at his arm with her nails and leaving long red welts
across the tanned skin.
'Listen to her! I am crushing this pretty neck. Listen to her choking.'
He tightened his grip, forcing the sounds of distress out of her.
Boris was watching the corner of the boulder where Mek had disappeared.
At the same time he was backing away from it, giving himself space in
which to work. His mind was racing, for he knew that he could not
escape. His right arm was barely usable, and there were too many of
Mek's shufta companions. He had the woman, but he wanted the man as
well. That was the best trade that he could hope for - both of them, he
had to have both of them.
He heard a shout, a strange voice from higher up the slope. Mek's men
were on their way. He was desperate now. Mek was not going to be drawn;
he had not heard him speak or move for almost two minutes. He had lost
him - by this time he could be anywhere.
'Too late,' Boris realized. 'I am not going to get him.
Only the woman. But I must do it now.' He forced her to her knees and
stooped over her, shifting the lock of his arm around her throat.
'Goodbye, Tessay,' he grated in her ear. He tightened his arm muscles
and felt the vertebrae in her neck arched to breaking point. It needed
only an ounce more pressure.
'It's all over for you,' he whispered, and began the final pressure. He
knew from long experience the sound, that the vertebrae would make as
they gave, and he tensed himself for it, poised for that crackle like
the breaking of a green branch, and the stack weight of her corpse in
his grip.
Then something crashed into his back with a force that seemed to drive
in his backbone and crush his ribs.
Both the strength and the direction were entirely unexpected. It did not
seem possible that Mek Nimmur could have moved so far and so swiftly. He
must have left the shelter of the boulder and circled out through the
scrub.
Now he had come at Boris from behind.
His attack was so savage that the arm that Boris had wound around
Tessay's neck opened.- She drew in a wheezing, strangled breath and
twisted out of his grip. Boris tried to turn and swing the rifle around,
but Mek was on him again, seizing the rifle and trying to wrest it from
Boris's hands.
The Russian's finger was still on the trigger, and a shot went off white
the muzzle was level with Mek's face. The detonation stunned him for an
instant, and he released the rifle and staggered backwards with his ears
ringing.
Boris backed away from him, struggling with the weapon, trying to open
the bolt and crank another cartridge into the chamber, but his crippled
right arm'made his movements clumsy and awkward. Mek gathered himself
and charged head down across the gravel beach. He drove into Boris with
all his weight, and the rifle flew out of the Russian's hands. Locked
