Part 2 (1/2)

This tirated to South Africa, where I was able with my qualifications to obtain a post as an operator with the security firm responsible for bullion shi+pments from the South African Reserve Bank in Pretoria to overseas destinations For a year I worked with the transportation of hundreds of old bars, and I studied the system in every minute detail The weak spot, when I found it, was at Roain I needed help

This time I went to the professionals, but I set my price at a level that made it easier for them to pay me out than put ainst treachery

It went as smoothly as I had planned it, and this time there were no victims nobody came out with a bullet or a cracked skull We o and substituted leaded cases Then we old bars across the Swiss border in a furniture re in a banker's private rooms furnished with priceless antiques, above the wide saters of the Rhine on which the stately white swans rode in ned the transfer into my numbered account of one hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling and he laughed a fat hungry little laugh

”You'll be back, Harry - you've tasted blood now and you'll be back Have a nice holiday, then coht up another deal like this one”

He rong, I never went back I rode up to Zdrich in a hire car and flew to Paris Orly In the men's room there, I shaved off the beard and picked up the briefcase from the pay locker that contained the passport in the name of Harold Delville Fletcher Then I flew out Panam, for Sydney, Australia

Wave Dancer costand I took her under a deck load of fuel drue on which we learned to love each other

On St Mary's I purchased twenty-five acres of peace, and built the shack with my own hands - four roost the Palht run had been forced upon ht-hand Path since then

it was late when I had done h up the beach in the ht before I went into the shack, but then I slept like an innocent

They were on tiht outfit The taxi deposited theled up at stern and stern and both engines burbling sweetly

I watched theroup He was not what I had expected He was tall and lean with a wide friendly face and dark soft hair Unlike the others, his face and are and very white He wore denim shorts and a white sweatshi+rt and he had a swiy shoulders and powerful ar equip over one shoulder He carried it easily, though I could see that it eighty, and he chatted gaily with his two companions who answered hiuards

He looked up at er There was an excitement, an anticipation, about him, that reminded rinned at rin, and I realized that he was an extre hiued as to how he had found a place with the wolf pack Underlines and, froster was the only one of them familiar with small boats

As we cleared the harbour, he and Materson cahtly and his breathing was raggedy from the mild exertion He introduced the newcoht his breath We shook hands and I put his age at not much over twenty Close up I had no cause to revise aze frorip was fir boat, skipper,” he tolda mother that her baby is beautiful

”She's not a bad old girl”

”What is she, forty-four, forty-five feet?” ”Forty-five,” I said, liking hiive you your directions,” Materson told me ”You will follow his orders” ”Fine,” I said, and Jimmy coloured a little under his tan ”Not orders, Mr Fletcher, I'll just tell you where ant to go ”Fine, Jim, I'll take you there”

”Once we are clear of the island, will you turn due west”

”Just how far in that direction do you intend going?” I asked

”We want to cruise along the coast of the African reat Did anybody tell you that they don't hang out the welcoers there?”

”We will stay well offshore” I thought aback to Ad the whole bunch ashore- ”Where do you want to go - north or south of the rivermouth?” North said Jiood

South of the river they patrolled with helicopters and were very touchy about their territorial waters I would not go in there during daylight

In the north there was little coastal activity There was a single crash boat at Zinballa, but when its engines were in running order, which was a few days a week, then its creere mostly blown out of theirthe coast When crew and engines were functioning simultaneously, they could raise fifteen knots, and Dancer could turn on twenty-two any time I asked her

The final trick in h the ht in a roaring monsoon, while it was my experience that the crash boat coht sunny day and in a flat calm, he preferred rhe quiet and peace of Zinballa Bay I had heard that he suffered acutely from sea sickness, and held his present appointment only because it was far away froovernment the co the disappearance of large an aid

From my point of vieas the idealto Materson ”But I' to cost you another two-fifty dollars a day - danger ht,”he said softly

I brought Dancer around, close to the light on Oyster Point

It was a bright h clear sky into which the stationary clouds that reat soft coluress of the trade winds across the ocean was interrupted by the bulwark of the African continent on which they broke We were getting the backlash here in the inshore channel, and randoreen waters and flecked the surface chop hite Dancer loved it, it gave her an excuse to flounce and swish her botto?” I asked casually, and Jimmy turned to tell rey eyes sparkled as he opened hisin his voice and a sharp warning in his expression, and Jimmy's mouth closed

”I know these waters I know every island, every reef I ht be able to save you a lot of time - and a bit of money”

”That's very kind of you,” Materson thanked e”

”You are paying,” I shrugged, and Materson glanced at Jimmy, inclined his head in a command to follow and led hiether beside the stern rail and Materson spoke to him quietly but earnestly for twofro his ear chewed to ribbons on the subject of secrecy and security

When he caer, and for the first ti hard line of his jaw He wasn't just a pretty boy, I decided

Evidently on Materson's orders, Guthrie, the hting chair to face the bridge He lounged in it, even in his relaxation charged- with the pro leopard, and he watched us, one leg draped over the arht in its pocket folded in his lap

A happy shi+p, I chuckled, and ran Dancer out through the islands, threading a fine course through the clear green waters where the reefs lurked darkly below the surface like ed with coral sand as dazzling white as a snowdrift, and croith dark thick vegetation over which the pal in the feeble re day as we cruised at randoet some hint of the object of the expedition However, still sht es of course at intervals, after I had pointed out our position on the large, scale adh there were no extraneous s on his chart, when I exaure that ere interested in an area fifteen to thirty miles north of the multiple mouths of the Rovuma River, and up to sixteenperhaps three hundred islands varying in size fro haystack in which to find his needle

I was content enough to perch up on Dancer's bridge and run quietly along the seaways, enjoying the feet ofthe activity of the sea ani chair Mike Guthrie's scalp started to show through the thin cover of hair like strips of scarlet neon lighting

Cook, you bastard,” I thought happily, and neglected to warn hi hooo smeared over his bloated and incarnadined features and a wide cloth hat covering his head, but his face flashed like the port light of an ocean-goer

By noon on the second day I was bored Jih he had recovered a little of his good huht for thirty seconds before accepting an offer of coffee

It wasto do than because I wanted fish for ing a big shoal of sardine ahead of us, I gave the wheel to Ji,” I told him and dropped down into the cockpit Guthrie watched lanced into the cabin and saw that Materson had in and tonic At seven hundred and fifty a day I didn't grudge it to hied from the cabin in two days

I went back to the ss and tossed thefish and brought hiolden in the sun

Then I recoiled the lines and stowed them, wiped the blade of hten up the edge and split the kingfishs belly froills and pulled out a handful of bloody gut to throw it into the wake

I over us screeched with greed and plunged for the scraps Their excite, flapping host of them astern of us

Their din was not so loud that it covered the metallic snicker close behind me, the un drawn back and released to load and cock Ibait-knife spun in rip and I turned and dropped to the deck in a singlefall with heels and left aran the throw at the instant that I lined up the target