to him. He could not expect the rest of the party to wait for him at the
boats and endanger themselves for this whimsy of his.
Twice he heard automatic gunfire in the distance, coming from the
direction of the chasm, down towards the Po. However, the chance he
took paid off, and he reached the dam site without running into a I ny
of Nogo's forces. He did not, however, push his luck too far. Before
approaching the dam openly, he climbed the hillside above it and
surveyed the area. It gave him time to recover from the hard run up the
valley, and to check that Nogo had not left men to guard the dam,
although he considered this unlikely.
He could see that the yellow front-loader tractor was still parked on
the bank high above the wall where Sapper MET &
had left it. He could also see no sign of any human presence, no armed
Ethiopian army guards. He grunted with relief and wiped the sweat out of
his eyes with his shirtsleeve.
Even with his naked eye he could see that the water was lapping the top
of the wall and squirting through the gaps and chinks between the
gabions. Yet from where he stood the wall still seemed to be holding
well, and it would need another foot rise in the level of the backed-up
river to overturn it.
'Well done, Sapper,' he thought, grinning. 'You did a hell of a job.'
Nicholas studied the level of the river and the condition of the waters
that were being held back by the wall.
The flow down from the mountains was much stronger than when he had last
been here. The river bed was brimming from bank to bank, and some of the
trees and bushes at the edge were already partially submerged, bowing
and nodding as the swift current tugged at them. The flood was a sullen
grey colour, fast and hostile, swirling into the pond of the dam before
finding the outlet into the side channel and tearing down it, growling
like a wild animal released from its cage, brimming into spume and white
water as it felt the sharp fall into the valley.
Next he looked towards the escarpment of the gorge.
It was blotted out by banks of dark, menacing cloud that obscured the
northern horizon. At that moment a squall of wind swept over him, cold
with the threat of rain. He needed no further urging and started down
the slope towards the dam, slipping and sliding in his haste. Before he
reached the bottom, the squall of wind had turned to cold rain. It flung
needles into his face and plastered his shirt to his body.
He reached the tractor and scrambled up into the t. There was a moment
of panic when he driver's sea AL
Wor thought that Sapper might have removed the key from its
hiding-place under the seat. He srabbled for it for a few seconds until
his fingers closed over it, and then let out a sigh of relief.
'Sapper, for a moment there you were very close to death. I would have
broken your neck with my own hands.' He thrust the key into the ignition
lock and turned it to the pre-heat position, waiting for the coil light
on the dashboard to turn from red to green.
'Come on!' he muttered impatiently. Those few seconds of delay seemed
like a lifetime. Then the green light flashed and he twisted the key to
start.
