a moment while Nicholas checked the porters and made certain that they
were all out of the chasm.
Sapper set off at the head of the column along the trail through the
thorn forest, with the file of porters strung out behind him. Nicholas
and Royan waited until all the men were on the pathway before they
themselves brought up the rear of the column. The sound of the fighting
was frighteningly close now. It seemed to be almost at the brink of the
chasm close behind them, less than half a mile away.
The crackle of automatic fire gave a spring and a lift to the feet of
the porters, and the entire party raced back through the forest to reach
the main trail down to the monastery before they were cut off by Nogo's
advance.
Before they reached the junction of the paths, they ran into a party of
stretcher-bearers carrying a litter. They too were headed down towards
the monastery. Nicholas thought the person they were carrying was one of
the wounded guerrillas of Mek's force. But even when he caught up with
them it took a moment for him to recognize Tessay's swollen and burned
face.
'Tessay!' He stooped over her. 'Who did this to you?' She looked up at
him with the huge dark eyes of a wounded child, and told him in halting,
broken words.
'Helm!' Nicholas blurted. 'I' love to get my hands on that bastard.' At
that moment Royan caught up with them, and she let out a small cry of
horror as she saw Tessay's face. Then immediately she took charge of
her.
tcher'bearers Nicholas spoke quickly to one of the stre from he
recognized.
wh
'Mezra, what is happening out there?'
'Nogo moved a force in from the east of the gorge.
They outflanked us, and we are pulling out, This is not our kind of
fighting.'
'I know,' Nicholas remarked grimly. 'Guerrillas must
'Where is Mek Nimmur?' keep moving.
'He is retreating down the eastern bank of the chasm.' As Mezra replied,
they heard a renewed outburst of firing behind them. 'That is him!'
Mezra nodded. 'Nogo is pushing him hard.'
'What are your orders?'
'To take Lady Sun to the boats and wait for Mek Nimmur there.'
'Good! Nicholas told him. 'We will go with you.'
he jet Ranger was flying low, hugging the contours Of the land, never
cresting the high ground. Helm knew that Mek Nimmur's shufta were armed
with RPGs, rocket-launchers. In the hands of a trained man, these were
deadly weapons against a slow-flying, unarmoured aircraft such as the
jet Ranger.
The pilot's defence was to use the terrain as cover, weaving and
twisting up the valleys so as to deny the racketeers a clear shot.
Although the rain clouds were slumping down the into the Abbay gorge,
the helicopter was escarpmen keeping well below them. However, the
sudden squalls of wind rocked the machine dangerously and splatterings;
