it thundering away in the darkness.
'How far have we come?' Nicholas asked. 'And'how much further to go?'
'It's almost impossible to tell, but I guess we are halfway to the
border. Should reach there some time tomorrow afternoon.'
They were silent for a while, and then Mek asked, 'What is the date
today? I have lost count of the days.'
'So have Nicholas tilted his wrist-watch so that he could read the
luminous dial in the last of the light. 'Good God! It's the thirtieth
already,' he said.
'Your pick-up aircraft is due at Roseires airstrip the day after
tomorrow.'
'The first of April,'Nicholas agreed. 'Will we make it?'
'You answer that question for me.' Mek grinned in the night without
humour. 'What, chances of your fat friend being late?'
jannie is a pro. He is never late,' said Nicholas. Again a silence fell,
and then Nicholas asked, 'When we reach Roseires, what do you want me to
do with your share of the booty?' Nicholas kicked one of the ammunition
crates.
'Do you want to take it with you?'
'After we see you off on the plane with your fat friend, we are going to
be doing some hot-footed running from Nogo. I don't want to be carrying
any extra luggage. You take my share with you. Sell it for me - I need
the money to keep fighting here.'
'You trust me?'
'You are my friend.'
'Friends are the easiest to cheat - they never expect it,' Nicholas told
him, and Mek punched his shoulder and chuckled.
'Get some sleep. We will have to do some hard paddling tomorrow.' Mek
stood up in the Avon as she pitched and rolled gently to the push of the
current. 'Sleep well, old friend,' he said, and climbed across to the
boat alongside, where Tessay waited for him.
Nicholas braced his back against the soft pneumatic gunwale of the Avon
and took Royan in his arms. She sat between his knees and leaned back
against his chest, shivering in her sodden clothes.
After a while her shivering abated, and she murmured, 'You make a very
good hot'water bottle.'
'That's one reason for keeping me around on a permanent basis,' he said,
and stroked her wet hair. She did not answer him, but snuggled closer,
and a short while after, wards her breathing slowed as she fell into an
exhausted sleep.
Although he was cold and stiff and his shoulders ached and his palms
were blistered from wrestling with the steering oar, he could not find
sleep as readily as she had.
Now that the prospect of reaching the airstrip at Roseires loomed
closer, he was troubled by problems other than those of simply
navigating the river and battling his way Wot through Nogo's men. Those
were enemies he could recognize and fight; but there was something more
than that which he would soon have to face.
Royan stirred in his arrns and muttered something he could not catch.
