the Hind there was no defense, no more tricks to play.
'I'm leaving you here,' Sean repeated, and he crawled back to the hollow in which the women were concealed.
Claudia had Minnie on her lap, but she looked up expectantly as Sean slid down the shallow side of the hollow.
'They've got in behind us,' Sean told her shortly. 'We are surrounded' He dumped the empty AK magazines in front of her.
'There are boxes of spare ammo, in AlPhonso's pack. You know how to fin these.'
It would keep her busy. The next hour was going to be difficult to live through. Sean crawled to the back lip of the hollow and peered over the edge.
He saw something move in the dried brown leaves fifty paces ahead of him, and he fired a quick burst into the brush. His fire was returned from three or four positions in their rear. AK bullets cracked overhead, and behind him Minnie wailed with fright. The minutes dragged past slowly, the silence broken every few seconds by sporadic bursts of -holding fire from the Renanio positions.
Claudia crawled up beside Sean and stacked the replenished magazines at his right elbow.
'How many boxes leftT' he asked.
'Ten,' she told him, and pressed a little closer to him.
It didn't really matter that there were only two hundred rounds remaining in Alphonso's pack. Scan looked up at the sky. Any moment now they woulil hear the whistle of the Hind's turbos. Claudia read his Aoughts, and she groped for his hand. Lying in the hot African sun, they held hands and waited. There was nothing left to say, nothing more they could do. No defense, however feeble. All that remained was to wait for the inevitable.
Matatu touched Sean's leg. It wasn't necessary to say anything.
Sean cocked his head and picked up the sound. It was higher and steadier than the soughing of the afternoon breeze in the forest tops.
Claudia squeezed his hand very hard, digging her fingernails into his palm. She had heard it also.
'Kiss me,' she whispered. 'One last time.' And he laid the rifle down and roiled onto his side to take her in his arms. They strained together, holding with all their strength. if I have to die,' Claudia whispered, -I'm glad it will be like an this.' And Sean felt her press the loaded Tokarev into his h d.Good-bye, my darling,' she said.
He knew he had to do it, but he did not know where he would find the courage.
The sound of the Hind s engines was rising into a high Penetrating shriek.
He slid the safety catch to the 'off' position and lifted the Tokarev gently. Claudia's eyes were tightly closed, and she had turned her head half away. A little swear-damp tendril of dark hair hung down in front of her ear, and he could see the artery beating under the creamy skin of her temple that the curl had protected from the sun. It was the most difficult task he had ever set himself, but he raised the muzzle of the Tokarev to her temple.
There was a shattering explosion of a shell burst on the lip Of their shelter. Instinctively Sean pulled Claudia down to protect her. He thought for a moment that the Hind had opened fire, but that was impossible; it was still out of sight and range.
A further series of explosions crashed out in rapid succession, and Sean lowered the pistol and released Claudia. He rolled to the lip of the hollow and saw that a heavy barrage of fire was sweeping the Renamo positions. Mortar fire-Sean recognized the characteristic bursts of three-inch mortar shells and then the rushing the trees of the forest. The smoke trails of RIG rockets among rattling din of small arms drowned out even the sound of the approaching Hind. The entire situation had changed.
Suddenly they were in the midst of a battle, and Sean saw figures running wildly among the windrows and stumps, firing as they ran.
'Frelimo!' Matatu was tugging at Sean's arm and screeching with excitement. 'Frehmo!'
Only then did Sean understand. Their desultory exchange of fire with the Renamo pursuers must have called up a large force of Frelimo troops who had been massed in the immediate vicinity, probably preparing to attack the Save River line.
Now the fifty Renamo guerrillas suddenly found themselves attacked by a vastly superior Frelimo force. Judging by the intensity of fire, Sean estimated that there were several hundred Frelimo out there in the forest, front line regular troops in battalion strength.
He saw the small party of Renamo who had cut them off abandon their positions among the deadwood of the cut line and scuttle away in wild disorder with mortar shells bursting among them.
Sean snatched up the AKM and helped them on their way with a long burst. One of the running men fell and flopped around into the brush like a beached catfish.
Then he spotted a sweep line of Frehmo infantry coming in from the left at a run. Their camouflage field dress was East German issue, the blotches of green and brown distinctly different from the Renamo tiger stripes.
Renamo or Frelimo were equally dangerous for them. Sean pulled Claudia down beside him.
'Don't move. The Frehmo probably don't know we are here.
They might just chase off the Renamo and overlook us. We've still got a chance.'
Minnie was wailing loudly, terrified by the uproar. Sean called urgently to Miriam, 'Keep her quiet. Stop her screaming.'
The Shangane girl pulled the child down beside her and covered her mouth and nose with her hand, cutting off her wails abruptly.
Sean raised one eye above the lip of the hollow and saw the Frehmo sweep line still bearing down on them, tough-looking troopers, firing from the hip as they came. They would overrun the hollow within seconds. He raised the AKM. Their salvation had been fleeting; the only real change was that now they would be killed by Frehmo rather than by Renamo.
ie rai tie and aimed at the belly of the nearest of the oncoming Frelimo troopers, the target was blotted out by a tall curtain of flying dust, and from the sky above came the thunderous roll of a 12.7-men cannon. The Frelimo sweep line dissolved before Sean's eyes, blown away by the Hind's concentrated fire, and the dust rolled over the hollow in which they lay, concealing them from the air in those crucial seconds the Hind hovered above them.
Now all was chaos, two forces inextricably mixed up in the deep forest, mortar and rocket fire crashing through the trees, while over the battlefield the Hind hovered, sending in rockets and bursts of cannon fire to makithe confusion complete.
Sean slapped Matatu on the shoulder. 'Fetch Alphonso,' he ordered, and the' little Ndorobo disappeared into the dust and gunfire, to emerge only a minute later with the huge Shangane close behind him.
'Alphonso, get ready to make another run for it,' Sean told him tersely. 'Frelimo and Renamo are giving each other a full go out there. We'll try to sneak away before the Hind spots us.' Sean broke off and sniffed the air, then raised himself quickly on his knees to look back.
Already the air around them was turning a dirty gray, and above the din of battle and the whine of turbos, Sean heard the first faint crackle of burning brush.
'Fire!' he snapped. 'And it's upwind of us!'
One of the exploding rockets had ignited the rows of piled deadwood, and now a dense cloud of smoke rolled down over the hollow where they lay, stinging their eyes and making them cough and choke.
'Now we have no choice-it's run or cook.' The crackle and roar of the flames were already drowning out the din of battle.
Dimly they heard the shrieks of wounded men caught up in the path of the surging fire.
'Let's go!' Sean swept Minnie onto his back, and the child locked both arms around his neck and clung to him like a little black flea. Sean pulled Claudia to her feet. Alphonso had Mickey sitting perched on his shoulders, his legs dangling over the bulky radio pack, and Miriam at his side, clinging to the arm that held his rifle.
The smoke rolled over them, thick as oil, and they ran with the wind, bunched up to keep contact with each other. The smoke filled their lungs and blotted out the sky, screening them from the fighting men in the forest around them and from the helicopter gunship that hovered above them. The fire raged close behind them, driving them on wildly but gaining on them with every second.
Sean felt the heat fan the back of his neck, and Minnie squeaked as a flying spark touched her cheek. Gasping for breath, Claudia stumbled and sank to her knees, but Sean hauled her to her feet and dragged her onward.
Sean was suffocating. Each breath burned all the way down into his lungs. They couldn't go much farther. The heat licked their skin, and flying sparks dashed against them. The child on Sean's back screamed in agony and pawed ineffectually at her tortured body as though assailed by a swarm of wasps. She lost her grip and Id have fallen, but Sean snatched her off his back and carried wou her under one arm.
Suddenly they were into another open cut fine. Only dead stumps surrounded them, standing like tombstones in the dense banks of rolling smoke, and the sandy earth beneath their feet had been plowed up by the teams of loggers.
'Down!' Sean pushed Claudia flat onto the ground and placed Minnie in her arms.
The child was struggling wildly. 'Hold her
