rated at 4900 horsepower, struck the helicopter with the force of an
avalanche.
Like a dead leaf in an autumn gale she was swept away, spinning end over
end, and when she struck the ground her own engines were still squealing
at full power. On impact the fuselage crumpled like a sheet of aluminium
cooking foil, and Nogo was dead even before the fuel tanks exploded and
a fireball engulfed the jet Ranger.
As soon as Jannie reached safe manoeuvring altitude he brought Big Dolly
around on her northerly heading, and they could look back over the wing
at the Roseires airstrip falling away behind them. The column of black
smoke from the burning helicopter was tar-thick as it drifted away on
the light westerly wind.
'You did say they were the uglies?' Jannie asked. 'So rather them than
us, then?'
nce Jannie had settled Big Dolly on her sailing low northerly heading,
and they were over the open deserted Sudanese plains, Nicholas went back
into the main hold.
'Let's get the wounded settled down comfortably , he an unbuckled their
safety belts suggested. Sapper and Roy and went back with him to attend
to the men lying where haste of the their litters had been dumped during
the getaway from Roseires.
After a while Nicholas left them to it and went forward flight deck. He
to the small, well-stocked galley behind the soup and sliced hunks of
fresh bread opened some canned from the loaves he found in the
refrigerator. While the tea water boiled, he found his small emergency
pack, and took from it.the nylon wallet which contained his medicines
and drugs. From one of the vials he shook five white tablets into the
palm of his hand.
In the galley he crushed the tablets to powder, and when he poured tea
into two of the mugs he stiffed the powder in with it. Royan had enough
English blood in her veins never to be able to refuse a mug of hot tea.
After they had served soup and buttered toast to the wounded men, Royan
accepted her mug from Nicholas gratefully. While she and Sapper sipped
their tea, Nicholas went back to the flight deck and leaned over the
back of Jannie's seat.
'What is our flying time to the Egyptian border?' he asked.
'Four hours twenty minutes,'Jannic told him.
'Is there any way that we can avoid flying into Egyptian air
space?'Nicholas wanted to know.
Jannie swivelled around in his seat and stared at him with astonishment.
'I suppose we could make a turn out to the west, through Gadaffi-land.
Of course, it would mean an extra seven hours' flying time, and we would
probably run out of fuel and end up making a forced landing somewhere
out there in the Sahara.' He lifted an eyebrow at Nicholas. 'Tell me, my
boy, what inspired that stupid question?'
'It was just a rare thought,'Nicholas said.
'Let it be not merely rare, but extinct,' Jannie advised.
'I don't want to hear it asked again, ever.'
Nicholas slapped his shoulder. 'Put it out of your mind.' When he went
back into the main hold, Sapper and Royan were sitting on two of the
