Read Online Assignment Madeleine by Edward S. Aarons - Free Book Online

hair
was very thin, s owing a freckled scalp through the strands. He stood alone in
the corridor. Chet let him in, and Felix entered with a sidling motion.
    “ Mon Dieu , it was a close one, no? You are certain you are
all right, madame ?”
    Jane said, “It's a fine thing, when your guests get
shot at.
    “Jane, it wasn’t Felix’ fault,” Chet said quickly.
    “My apologies, madame . But the
danger is ended, I think." Felix laughed and reached back into the hallway
and lifted a rifle, patted it, and put it down out of sight again. “I am
a member of the territorials, you know. We colonists have to fight our
own battles many a time. Some of those devils actually reached the market place
here, but my friends and I drove them back.” His eyes lingered on Jane’s body.
She hadn’t bothered to throw on Chet’s flannel robe. Chet felt a pang of
embarrassment for her and said, “Is everything all right here?”
    “Oh, yes, no one was injured.” Bourges sank into a rattan
chair and puffed out his lips as he expelled an exhausted breath. “It is a
serious matter.” Felix got up and helped himself to brandy from the Martel
bottle.
    “You two are the last of my guests."
    “I’ve had a call from DeGrasse, by the way, Chet said.
    ‘“There’s a plane coming in tonight. We re flying out
on it in the morning.”
    “Perhaps you are the fortunate ones, then. A plane, you
say?” Felix swallowed the brandy. His round face was shiny with sweat. “It will
be the regular mail flight from Algiers.” He looked at his watch. “Due
now. We can go on the roof to watch for it, if you like.”
    “Good,” Jane said. “I could use the air.”
    “Is it safe?” Chet asked.
    “The fighting in the town is over.”
    Felix was correct about the fighting in the town, but
the crackle of gunfire still came from the outskirts of Marbruk as Chet
and Jane stepped out on the roof of the hotel. From the crenelated parapet,
Chet could see across the jumbled alleys and streets to where a fire
burned luridly on some farm in the foothills. The hot wind blowing from the
south made the flames leap crazily.
    “The airfield is over there," Felix said,
pointing.
    Chet saw lights come on in the long crisscross pattern to
the southwest. At the same moment he heard the drone of a single-engine plane
over the town He looked at Jane as she leaned against the parapet. She was
smiling. She had not looked so happy since he had met her at Maison Blanche in Algiers. She had looked like that on the
Rue Michelet, that day they went shopping. And that afternoon, in the shadowed
heat of their hotel room, when they were alone. It was a lifetime ago, never to
be recaptured.
    He knew what Jane was thinking. The plane meant rescue for
her, deliverance from heat and boredom and dirt. Freedom from him, too. He
didn’t want to think about it. Anger moved in him. He had yielded everything he
could, including his self-respect. But he still didn’t know if it would be
enough for her.
    The plane was landing now. He saw it distinctly, a bright
yellow bug in the glare of a beacon that picked it up as it headed into the
wind.
    “It’s awfully small,” Jane said.
    “The roads to the coast are blocked,” Felix Bourges told
her. “The telegraph lines are down. And those devils out there have a radio-jamming
station that prevents reliable communication. You are lucky, madame , that we retain control of the air.”
    The plane had touched down. The wings rocked a little on the
rough landing strip. Chet saw Jane lean eagerly over the parapet to watch. Then
the plane stopped and more lights came on, making the military hangar stand out
against the black of the night. It was like watching a tiny stage far away,
surrounded by dark velvet.
    He saw the explosion before he heard the sound. Even before
the tiny plane lurched up and went over on its nose, one wing crumpling, he
knew it had been a grenade, thrown by someone on the dark edge of the landing
strip. He saw some people