rebelled. Despite the Tokarev pistol that Nogo held to his head, he had
banked the jet Ranger into a 180-degree turn and headed back low along
the river.
By now Nogo knew he had been defeated and ourwitd. He brooded unhappily
in the front seat of the helicopter ter beside the pilot, trying to
fathom out what had happened to his quarry. He saw the tall smokestack
of the abandoned sugar-mill at Roseires poking up into the early morning
sky, and he glowered at it angrily. They had passed the mill only a
short while before on their way downstream.
'Turn in towards the north bank,' he ordered the pilot, and the man
hesitated and glanced at him before he obeyed..
They passed directly over the building, flying lower than the chimney.
The factory was roofless and the windows were empty rectangles in the
broken walls. The boilers and machinery had been removed twenty years
previously, and Nogo could look into the empty shell. The pilot hovered
the aircraft while Nogo peered down, but there was no place where anyone
could hide, and Nogo shook his head.
'Nothing! We have lost them. Head back upstream.' The pilot lifted the
machine's nose and turned away towards the river, obeying the order with
alacrity. As the aircraft banked steeply, Nogo was looking down directly
into the overgrown canefields verging the river when a flash of bright
yellow caught his eye.
'Waid' he shouted into his mike. 'There is something 9 there. Go back!'
The helicopter hovered over the field, and Nogo gestured urgently
downwards. 'Down! Put us down.'
As soon as the skids touched the earth, the stick of six heavily armed
troopers dived out of the rear cabin and raced out to take up defensive
positions. Nogo clambered out of the front door and ran into the
overgrown bed of tall cane. One look was all he needed. The yellow boats
had been deflated and folded and hastily covered. The earth around them
had been churned up by booted feet.
The tracks led away inland. The men who had made them had been heavily
laden, for they had trodden deeply into the soft, sandy earth.
Nogo ran back to the helicopter and thrust his head in through the open
cabin door. 'Is there an airstrip near here?' he shouted at the pilot,
who shook his head.
'There is nothing shown on the chart,, 'There must have been one. The
sugar'mill would have had a strip.'
'If there was one, it must have been decommissioned years ago.
'We will find it,'Nogo declared. 'Mek Nimmur's tracks will lead us to
it.' He sobered immediately. 'But I will have to bring up more men.
judging by his spoor, Mek Nimmur has at least fifty of his shufta with
him.'
He left his men at the sugar-mill and flew back to the border with an
empty rear cabin to pick up the first load of reinforcements.
'nDig Dolly! Come in, Big Dolly. This is Pharaoh.
Do you read?' Nicholas put out his first call an MD hour before sunrise.
'If I know the way jannie's mind works, and I should, he would plan to
make his approach flight in darkness and arrive here as soon as there is
enough light to pick up the strip and land.'
