killed there in 1943. He was with the Sixth South African Division. They
called it Wadi Hellfire.' He took another monstrous bite of sandwich. 'I
never knew the old man. Fred and I landed there once.
Tried to find his grave.' He shrugged eloquently. 'It's a hell of a big
piece of country. Lots of graves. Very few of- them marked.'
Nobody spoke for a while. They chewed their sandwiches, thinking their
own thoughts. Nicholas's father had also fought in the desert against
Rommel. He had been more fortunate than Jannie's father.
Nicholas glanced across at Royan. She was staring out of the window at
her homeland, and there was something so passionate and fraught in her
gaze that Nicholas was startled. The temptation to think of her as an
English girl, like her mother, was at most times irresistible. It was
only in odd moments such as these that he became intensely aware of the
other facets of her being.
She seemed unaware of his scrutiny. Her occupation was total. He
wondered what she was thinking what dark and mysterious thoughts were
smouldering there.
He remembered how she had seized the very first opportunity on their
return from Ethiopia to hurry back to Cairo, and once again a feeling of
disquiet came over him. He wondered if other emotional ties of which he
was unaware might not transcend those loyalties which he had taken for
granted. He realized with something of a shock that they had been
together for only a few short weeks, and despite the strong attraction
that she exerted over him he knew very little about her.
processor' Alost POPU
At that moment she started and looked round at him quickly. Crowded as
they were at the portside window, they stared into each other's eyes
from a distance of only a foot or so. It was only for a few seconds but
what he saw in her eyes, the dark shadows of guilt or some other
emotion, did nothing to allay his misgivings.
She turned back to Jannie, leaning over his shoulder to ask, 'When will
we cross the Nile?'
'On the other side of the border. The Sudanese government concentrate
all their attentions on the rebels in the far south. There are some
stretches of the river here in the north that are completely deserted.
Pretty soon now we will be going down right on the deck, to get under
the radar pings from the Sudanese stations around Khartoum.
We will slip through one of the gaps.'
jannie lifted the aeronautical map on its clipboard from his lap, and
held it so she could see it. With one thick, stubby finger he showed
Royan their intended route.
it was drawn in with blue wax pencil, 'Big Dolly has taken this route so
often that she could fly it without my hands on the stick, couldn't you,
old girl?' He patted the instrument panel affectionately.
Two hours later, when Nicholas and Royan were back at the chess board in
the main cabin, Janrfie called them on the PA, 'Okay, folks. No need to
panic. We are going to lose some altitude now. Come up front and watch
the show.'
Strapped into fold-down seats in the back of the flight deck, they were
treated to a superb exhibition of low flying by Fred. The descent was so
