7L 111.7- 7 -7
'If the Fat Man comes,' Mek Nimmur qualified.
'He will come,' said Nicholas confidently. 'Jannie has never let me down
yet.' He thumbed the microphone and called again: 'Big Dolly! Come in,
Big Dolly.'
The static hummed softly, and Nicholas retuned the set carefully. He
called again every fifteen minutes as they huddled around the set in the
dark under the acacia trees.
Suddenly Royan started to her feet and exclaimed excitedly, 'There he
is. I can hear Big Dolly's engines.
Listen!'
Nicholas and Mek ran out into the open, and turned their faces upwards,
looking into the north.
Nicholas exclaimed sud
'That's not the Hercules, denly. 'That's another machine.' He turned and
faced southwards, towards the river. 'Anyway, it's coming from the wrong
direction.'
'You are right,' Mek agreed. 'That's a single engine, and it's not a
fixed wing. You can hear the rotors.'
'The Pegasus helicopter!' Nicholas exclaimed bitterly.
'They are on to us again.'
As they listened, the sound of the rotors faded.
Nicholas looked relieved. 'They missed us. They can't have IR spotted
the Avons.'
They trooped back under the cover of the acacias, and Nicholas called
again on the radio, but there was no reply from Jannie.
Twenty minutes later they heard the sound of the jet Ranger returning,
and they monitored it anxiously.
'Gone again,' said Nicholas after a while, but then twenty minutes later
they heard it yet again.
'Nogo is up to something out there,'Mek said uneasily.
'What do you think it is?' Nicholas was infected by his mood. When Mek
worried, there was usually a damned good reason to worry.
'I don't know,' Mek admitted. 'Perhaps Nogo has spotted the Avbns and is
bringing up more men before he comes after us.' He went out into the
open and listened intently, then came back to where Nicholas crouched
over the radio.
'Keep calling,' he said. 'I am going out to the perimeter to make
certain my men are ready to hold Nogo off if he comes., The helicopter
moved up and down the Nile at'short intervals during the next three
hours, but the lack of any further developments lulled them, and
Nicholas barely looked up from the radio each time they heard the
distant beat of the rotors. Suddenly the radio crackled, and Nicholas
started violently at the shock.
'Pharaoh! This is Big Dolly. Do you read?'
Nicholas's voice bubbled over with relief as he replied, 'This is
Pharaoh. Speak sweet words to me, Big Dolly.'
'ETA your position one hour thirty minutes.' jannie's accent was
unmistakable.
