Read Online The Last Place God Made by Jack Higgins - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Jack Higgins
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there?"
I nodded reluctantly.
"Did you ever kill one?"
"All right," I said. "I was at Forte Tomas hi November thirty-six when they attacked the town and butchered thirty or forty people."
"A bad business," he said. "You must have been with the survivors who took refuge in the church and held them off for a week till the military arrived. You must have killed many times during that unfortunate episode."
"Only because they were trying to kill me."
"Exactly."
I could see him in my mirror as he leaned back and took a file from his briefcase, effectively putting an end to the con-versation.
Hannah grinned, "I'd say the colonel's made his point."
"Maybe he has," I said, "but it still isn't going to help the Huna."
"But why hi the hell world would any sensible person want to do that?" he seemed surprised. 'They've had their day, Mallory, just like the dinosaurs."
"Doomed to extinction, you mean?"
"Exactly." He groaned and put a hand to his head. "Christ, there's someone walking around inside with hob-nailed boots."
I gave up. Maybe they were right and I was wrong - per-haps the Huna had to go under and there was no other choice. I pushed the thought away from me, eased back the stick and climbed into the sunlight.
The whole trip took no more than forty minutes, mostly in bright sunshine although as we approached our destination we ran into another of those sudden violent rainstorms and I had to go down fast.
Visibility was temporarily so poor that Hannah took over the controls in the final stages, taking her down to two hundred feet at which height we could at least see the river. He throttled back and side-slipped neatly into the landing strip which was a large patch ofcampo on the east bank of the river.
"They don't have a radio, so I usually fly in over the settle-ment just to let them know I'm here," Hannah told me. "The nuns enjoy it, but this isn't weather to fool about in."
"It is of no consequence," Alberto said calmly. "They will have heard us land. The launch will be here soon."
The mission, as I remembered, was a quarter of a mile up-stream on the other side of the river. Alberto told Lima to go and wait the launch's arrival and produced a leather cigar case.
Hannah took one, but I declined and on impulse, opened the cabin door and jumped down into the grass. The rain hammered down relentlessly as I went after the sergeant. There was a crude wooden pier constructed of rough-hewn planks, extending into the river on piles, perhaps twenty or thirty feet long.
Lima was already at the end. He stood there, gazing out across the river. Suddenly he leaned over the edge of the jetty, dropping to one knee as if looking down at something in the water. As I approached, he stood up, turned to one side and was violently sick.
"What's wrong?" I demanded, then looked over the edge and saw for myself. I took several deep breaths and said, "You'd better get the colonel."
An old canoe was tied up to the jetty and the thing which floated beside it, trapped by the current against the pilings was dressed in the tropical-white robes of a nun. There was still a little flesh on the skeletal face that stared out from the white coif, but not much. A sudden eddy pulled the body away. It rolled over, face-down and I saw there were at least half a dozen arrows in the back.
Lima climbed up out of the water clutching an identity disc and crucifix on a chain which he'd taken from around the nun's neck. He looked sicker than ever as he handed them to Alberto and stood there shaking and not only from the cold.
Alberto said, "Pull yourself together for God's sake and try and remember you're a soldier. You're safe enough here any-way. I've never known them to operate on this side of the river."
If we'd done the sensible tiling we'd have climbed back into the
I nodded reluctantly.
"Did you ever kill one?"
"All right," I said. "I was at Forte Tomas hi November thirty-six when they attacked the town and butchered thirty or forty people."
"A bad business," he said. "You must have been with the survivors who took refuge in the church and held them off for a week till the military arrived. You must have killed many times during that unfortunate episode."
"Only because they were trying to kill me."
"Exactly."
I could see him in my mirror as he leaned back and took a file from his briefcase, effectively putting an end to the con-versation.
Hannah grinned, "I'd say the colonel's made his point."
"Maybe he has," I said, "but it still isn't going to help the Huna."
"But why hi the hell world would any sensible person want to do that?" he seemed surprised. 'They've had their day, Mallory, just like the dinosaurs."
"Doomed to extinction, you mean?"
"Exactly." He groaned and put a hand to his head. "Christ, there's someone walking around inside with hob-nailed boots."
I gave up. Maybe they were right and I was wrong - per-haps the Huna had to go under and there was no other choice. I pushed the thought away from me, eased back the stick and climbed into the sunlight.
The whole trip took no more than forty minutes, mostly in bright sunshine although as we approached our destination we ran into another of those sudden violent rainstorms and I had to go down fast.
Visibility was temporarily so poor that Hannah took over the controls in the final stages, taking her down to two hundred feet at which height we could at least see the river. He throttled back and side-slipped neatly into the landing strip which was a large patch ofcampo on the east bank of the river.
"They don't have a radio, so I usually fly in over the settle-ment just to let them know I'm here," Hannah told me. "The nuns enjoy it, but this isn't weather to fool about in."
"It is of no consequence," Alberto said calmly. "They will have heard us land. The launch will be here soon."
The mission, as I remembered, was a quarter of a mile up-stream on the other side of the river. Alberto told Lima to go and wait the launch's arrival and produced a leather cigar case.
Hannah took one, but I declined and on impulse, opened the cabin door and jumped down into the grass. The rain hammered down relentlessly as I went after the sergeant. There was a crude wooden pier constructed of rough-hewn planks, extending into the river on piles, perhaps twenty or thirty feet long.
Lima was already at the end. He stood there, gazing out across the river. Suddenly he leaned over the edge of the jetty, dropping to one knee as if looking down at something in the water. As I approached, he stood up, turned to one side and was violently sick.
"What's wrong?" I demanded, then looked over the edge and saw for myself. I took several deep breaths and said, "You'd better get the colonel."
An old canoe was tied up to the jetty and the thing which floated beside it, trapped by the current against the pilings was dressed in the tropical-white robes of a nun. There was still a little flesh on the skeletal face that stared out from the white coif, but not much. A sudden eddy pulled the body away. It rolled over, face-down and I saw there were at least half a dozen arrows in the back.
Lima climbed up out of the water clutching an identity disc and crucifix on a chain which he'd taken from around the nun's neck. He looked sicker than ever as he handed them to Alberto and stood there shaking and not only from the cold.
Alberto said, "Pull yourself together for God's sake and try and remember you're a soldier. You're safe enough here any-way. I've never known them to operate on this side of the river."
If we'd done the sensible tiling we'd have climbed back into the
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