A Time to Die - Smith Wilbur - Страница 163

"Blood!"

Sean threw all caution aside and rushed to Claudia's body, dropping to his knees beside her and sweeping her into his arms.

She gasped and cried out, coming out of a deep sleep. She began to struggle in his arms, then quieted as she realized who he was.

"Sean!" she blurted, still groggy with sleep. "What is it? What "Thank God," he murmured fervently. "I thought-!" He set her down gently, and reached across to where Job lay in the litter.

"Job, are you all right?" He shook him carefully, and Job stirred and murmured.

Sean jumped to his feet and went to where Alphonso lay. He touched his neck. The skin was warm, his pulse strong and even.

"Claudia!" he called. "Bring the flashlight."

In the beam of the flashlight he examined the laceration in Alphonso's scalp. "A-nice little ding," he grunted. Although the bleeding had stanched spontaneously, he pressed a field dressing over it and bound it in place. "Good thing they hit him on the head, or they might have done some serious damage." He grinned wryly at his own joke.

"What happened, Sean?" Claudia demanded anxiously. "I was fast asleep. I didn't heat a thing."

"Lucky for you." Sean tied the tag ends of the bandage. "Or you might have got thesaine treatment."

"What happened? Where are the others?"

"Gone," he told her. "Flown, deserted. They obviously didn't fancy the walk or the destination. They bashed Alphonso on the noggin and took off back to General China."

She stared at him. "You mean there are only the four of us now.?

All the Shanganes except Alphonso have gone?"

"That's right," Sean agreed. Alphonso groaned and reached up to touch his bandaged head. Sean helped him sit up.

"Sean!" Claudia tugged at his arm and he turned back to her.

"What are we going to do?" Sean glanced across at Job's stretcher.

I" going to do with Job? How are we going to carry him? How are we going to get out of here now/P" 90 "That, My love, is an extremely interesting question, Sean tell you is that by this time tomorrow, our know that we are on the run, and

"We don't seem to have us-we keep on the way we are going."

one road still open to He hauled Alphonso to his feet.

"that's impossible, "Claudia whispered anxiously. "Two of YOU cannot carry the stretcher-" some other or' You right, of course. we'll have to make rangement."

Between them they lifted Job out of the fiberglass stretcher and laid him on Claudia's blanket. Then, while the Others watched, had finished, Sean began to dismantle the stretcher. Before he Matatu appeared silently out of the darkness and whispered a brief report to Sean.

Sean barely looked up as he told Alphonso, "You taught them well. Your Shanganes have bomb shelled taken off in eleven different directions. If we followed, we might catch one or two of them, but some of them are going to get back to China with the good news."

Alphonso cursed the deserters bitterly, while Sean explained to Claudia and Job, "I'm going to use the nylon webbing from the stretcher to improvise a sling seat."

Claudia looked dubious. "Job isn't strong enough to sit upright.

lee ding--2" She broke The movement will reopen his wound, the b off as Sean glared at her.

"Can you think of a better way?" he snarled, and she shook her head.

Sean doubled the length of heavy green canvas and took the rifle and Alphonso's AK to make carrying loops.

slings from his AKM ted, 1"14 "-We'll have to make adjustments as we go along," he grun "Instead of finding difficulties, make your then looked at Claudia.

self useful by gathering all the equipment the Shanganes left. We'll have to make a selection."

quipment swiftly, discarding all but the most He picked out the e tween us. On vital pieces. "Alphonso and I will be carrying Job be that we'll only be able to manage our basic weapons and a top of blanket each. Claudia and Matatu must lug the medical pack, the water bottles, and a blanket each. Everything else will be left behind."

we are headed."

are we going to do?"

choice," he said. "There is only The canned food?" Claudia asked.

Forget it," Sean told her brusquely. He set about apportioning their loads, cutting everything down to the barest minimum, knowing every pound of weight now would seem like ten after the first few miles. He even made Alphonso abandon his AK rifle and gave him the pistol he had taken from the Russian pilot to replace it. He restricted himself to two spare clips of ammunition for his own AKM, and he and Alphonso retained only a pair of grenades each, one fragmentation and the other phosphorus.

They piled the abandoned equipment in the bottom of the ravine and covered it with loose earth and branches to conceal it from casual discovery by a Frehmo patrol.

"Okay, lad," Sean told Job. "Time to go." He glanced at his wristwatch and found it was a little before three o'clock. They were well behind schedule, and they only had a few hours of darkness left in which to make the crossing.