Read Online Red Crystal by Clare Francis - Free Book Online Page B

well-being. Impulsively she put her arm through Giorgio’s. She thought: I love it all.
    A messenger roared up on a motorbike with information from the student leadership. Massive reinforcements of riot police were encircling the quarter.
    The group set to work with fresh ingenuity, raiding building sites, tearing down scaffolding and barbed wire, until by midnight the barricade had grown into a formidable wall of cobblestones, cars, wire, and jagged metal. Gabriele armed herself with a metal bar torn from the frame of a shop’s window-blind.
    The CRS were sighted at two-ten. Gabriele felt her mouth go dry. Slowly, without urgency, the riot police formed themselves into ranks at the far end of the street. They made a sinister sight: the rows of long black coats, the invisible faces, the goggles and helmets, the shields which glinted darkly in the street lights. Someone shouted, ‘ Pigs! Fascists! ’
    At two-fifteen a deathly silence fell, broken only by the sound of shuffling feet. The line of raised shields was moving towards them.
    Gabriele took her position half-way up the barricade, adjusted the handkerchief round her mouth and gripped a cobblestone in her hand. She wasn’t frightened any more; the adrenalin was making her light-headed, almost euphoric.
    A shouted order, and the black line paused. Snub-nosed pistols were pointed in the air and fired. Missiles with long white tails sailed up and over the barricades. The air became thick with sharp pervasive gases … Gabriele pressed the handkerchief to her face, but the gas seeped through, stinging viciously at her eyes, stabbing at her throat until she choked.
    A low rumble echoed along the dark street. The rumble grew to a clatter, a crescendo of batons beating on shields, and the black line was charging forward, unchecked by the hail of stones, paves and missiles from the student lines. Gabriele stood up and hurled a cobblestone wildly into the darkness, then bent down to pick up another.
    Suddenly she realized that the gleaming black figures were mounting the barricade. Dropping the cobblestone, Gabriele reached for the iron bar at her feet and grasped it tightly.
    Quickly, so quickly it took her by surprise, a dark shape loomed up in front of her. The figure swung his arm up in a high arc, a baton clutched viciously in his hand.
    She lashed at him with the iron bar. The metal made contact and swung back to hit again. The figure swayed as if off-balance. Then it was twisting to one side, the arm coiling back like a spring, and too late she saw the baton coming rapidly savagely down.
    She raised an arm against the blow, but it caught her on the side of the head, a dull sickening jolt of pain. She fell back, the sounds of the battle ringing in her ears.
    Another blow thudded on to her shoulder and with a cry she rolled down the mound of stones to the ground.
    She covered her raging head, but there were no more blows. Through her dim agony she could hear the sounds of the fight: thuds, cries, shouts, boots scrabbling on the stone … Then the whoomph! of a small explosion and the crackle of fire. With an effort she crawled away, searching for the shelter of a wall, a doorway … Suddenly a foot in her side, a body falling over her and running off … Cries of pursuit growing fainter … Then quieter – just the crackle and spit of a fire nearby.
    After some time she felt hands grasp her and started in alarm. But the hands were gentle, the voices soft. They pulled her to her feet and led her to a lighted interior. A cloth wiped her head, soothed her burning eyes … Rest, a soft pillow … Ah – peace.
    She lay still for a long time until the pounding in her head dulled to a sullen throb. Outside, it was quieter. As much as an hour had passed. Dimly she concluded that the fight must be over. She dozed uneasily.
    Suddenly there were sharp obtrusive noises: the sounds of heavy vehicles and shouted orders and doors opening.
    Confused and alarmed, she opened her eyes