Read Online Black Horn by A. J. Quinnell - Free Book Online

anything."
    "What
will you do?"
    "I
have three months' paid leave. When the house is sold I'll probably move into
an apartment with another air hostess." She saw the concern on his face
and said, "You know the Triad mind, Colin, but you don't yet know my mind.
I'm not going to be chased out of town by any bastard Triad. Not Tommy Mo or
anybody else."
    For the
next five minutes, he tried to convince her of the dangers of staying in Hong
Kong. He was still trying to convince her when the phone rang. She answered it,
listened and then passed it over to Chapman.
    He
listened for several minutes, occasionally asking a one-word question, then he
hung up, turned to her and said, "Assuming that a letter from here to
Zimbabwe takes about a week, then at about the same time as Cliff Coppen got
your father's letter, he was shot dead, together with an American girlfriend on
the banks of the Zambezi River. The Zimbabwe police are faxing me a full
report."
    "Coppen's
death could be a coincidence... after all, Africa can be a dangerous place."
    The
Englishman shrugged. "So can New York, Rio or a little village in the
country. When it comes to the Triads, I don't believe in coincidences."

Chapter 11
    The
Gulfstream IV was equipped with a satellite telephone. Maxie MacDonald used it
first. As they flew across the Alps, he spoke to his cousin, seventy miles
outside Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city. He spoke in a language which Gloria
did not understand.
    She
looked at Creasy across the table and asked, "What is it?"
    "Ndebele."
Creasy answered. "It's the language of the Matabele, which is the main
tribe of that part of the country."
    "Do
you understand it?"
    "A
little. Maxie and his cousin speak it perfectly."
    "Why
aren't they speaking in English? Is it some secret you're keeping from
me?"
    Creasy
kept the irritation out of his eyes.
    "We're
keeping nothing from you, Mrs Manners, not at the beginning of this trip or
now. It's just that we don't know how secure this satellite link-up is. Maxie
is talking about weapons. We don't want anybody eavesdropping."
    "What
weapons?"
    "Well,
obviously, Maxie and I are not going into the bush looking for murderers with
our bare hands. We need rifles and handguns. The plan is that we will leave
Michael in Harare for a few days, to nose around. He's good at that and no one
knows him there. You have to understand that, although it's a big country, the
cities and towns have a village mentality, especially among the white
community. After leaving Michael in Harare, we'll fly to Bulawayo and spend one
day there, and then fly on to Victoria Falls, which is the nearest town to the
operational area. There are some good hotels there. That will be your base
while Maxie and I go into the bush."
    "What
will you be looking for, exactly?"
    "Nothing,
exactly. All tracks of the killer or killers have been lost."
    "So
what's the point of going into the bush? Are you just going to be playing at
boy scouts?"
    Again,
Creasy kept the irritation out of his eyes.
    He
said, "Mrs Manners, so far, apart from the hiring of this jet, this
operation is costing you relatively little. If Maxie and I don't stumble across
something in the bush -- and if Michael draws a blank in Harare -- then we'll
go home."
    There
must have been an edge of sarcasm in his voice because she immediately
bristled.
    "Is
that what you want?" she snapped.
    He
shook his head. "Let me explain further, Mrs Manners. Usually, I'm very
choosy about who I work for. In fact, given the choice, I wouldn't be working
at all. I ended my career with a nice nest-egg, but events over the past two
years have whittled that down. I'm not poor, by any means, but I like to have a
good reserve. So I'd be very happy to find something in the bush that relates
to your daughter's murder, and then go on to collect the big payment. So will
Maxie and Michael."
    "What
you're saying is that if you still had this nest-egg, you wouldn't have taken
on this job?"
    "I'll
tell you the truth, Mrs