tomorrow.'
'And from there to the monastery?'
'Another two days' march,' Mek replied. 'We will be there just in time
to receive the drop from your fat friend in the fat plane.'
He turned away and gave his last orders to the platoon commander who
would remain at Roseires to guard the stores. Then he assembled the
party of six men who would form their escort across the border. Mek
divided up the loads between them. The most important single item was
the radio, a modern military lightweight model which Nicholas carried
himself.
'Those bags of yours are too difficult to carry. You will have to repack
them,' Mek told Nicholas and Royan. So they emptied their bags and
stuffed the contents into the two canvas haversacks that Mek had ready
for them. Two of his men slung the haversacks over their shoulders and
disappeared into the darkness.
'He is not taking thatV Mek stared aghast at the bulky legs of the
theodolite that Sapper had retrieved from one of the pallets. Sapper
spoke no Arabic, so Nicholas had to translate.
'Sapper says that it is a delicate instrument. He cannot allow it to be
dropped from the aircraft. He says that if it is damaged he will not be
able to do the work he was hired for.'
'Who is going to carry it?' Mek demanded. 'My men will mutiny if I try
to make them do it.'
'Tell the cantankerous bugger that I will carry it myself.' Sapper drew
himself up with dignity. 'I wouldn't let one of his great clumsy oafs
lay a finger on it.' He picked up the bundle, placed it over his
shoulder and stalked away with 'a stiff back.
Mek let the advance guard have a five-minute start, and then he nodded.
'We can go now.'
Thirty minutes after Big Dolly had taken off, they left the airfield and
set out across the dark and silent plain, headed into the east. Mek set
a hard pace. He and Nicholas seemed to have the eyes of a pair of cats,
Royan thought, as she followed close behind them. They could see in the
darkness, and only a whispered warning from one of them prevented her
falling into a hole or tripping over a pile of rocks in the darkness.
When she did stumble, Nicholas seemed always to be there, reaching back
to steady her with a strong, firm grip.
They marched in complete and disciplined silence. It was only every
hour, when they rested for five minutes, that Nicholas and Mek sat close
together, and from the few quiet words she picked up Royan realized that
Nicholas was explaining to him the full reasons for their return to the
Abbay gorge. She heard Nicholas repeat the names 'Mamose' and 'Taita'
often, and Mek's deep voice questioning him at length. Then they would
be up again and moving forward in the night.
After a while she lost all sense of the distance they had travelled.
Only the hourly rest periods orientated her to the passage of time.
Fatigue crept over her slowly, until it required an effort to lift her
foot for each pace. Despite her boast, her knee was beginning to ache.
Now and then she felt Nicholas touch her arm, guiding her over the rough
places. At other times they would stop abruptly at some whispered
