The Seventh Scroll - Smith Wilbur - Страница 143

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questioning. He obviously knew how Helm worked.

Helm came back into the room, and nodded at Nogo.

"Very well. We are finished with her. You know what to do., Nogo stood

up nervously and placed his hand on the webbing holster at his side.

"Here?"he asked. "No!"

"Don't be a bloody fool," Helm snapped. "Take her away. Far away. Then

get somebody in here to clean up this mess." Helm turned on his heel and

went back into the rear room.

Nogo roused himself and then went to the door of the hut. He walked wide

of where Tessay lay, so as not to soil his canvas paratrooper boots.

"Lieutenant Hammed!the called through the door.

t Hammed and Nogo lifted Tessay to her feet. Neither  them spoke and

they were subdued, almost chastened, as torn and bloodied clothing.

they helped her into her yes from her naked body and the Hammed averted

his ed her glossy amber skin.

burns and other injuries that marre He draped the shamnw over her

shoulders, and led her towards the door, When she stumbled he caught her

before her with a hand under her elbow.

she fell and supported truck, and she moved He led her down the steps to

the sat in the passenger seat slowly, like a very old woman. She her

cupped hands.

with her burned and swollen face in Nogo summoned Hammed with a jerk of

his head, and led him aside. He spoke quietly to him, and Hammed's

listened to his orders. At expression became stricken as he one point he

started to protest, but Nogo snarled at him savagely and he chewed his

lower lip in silence.

"Remember!" Nogo repeated. "Well away from any of the villages. Make

certain that there are no witnesses.

Report back to me immediately."

Hammed straightened his shoulders and saluted before  up into the seat

he marched back to the truck and climbed  the driver a curt order and

they beside Tessay. He gav drove out of the camp, following the track

back towards Debra Maryam. sed and in such pain that she had Tessay was

so confu s, she lurched lost all sense of time. Only half-consciou ugh

icularly ro about in the seat when the truck hit a part ead rolled

loosely on her stretch of the track, and her  shoulders. Her face was so

swollen that it required an effort and when she did she thought to force

her eyelids apart, that her vision was failing and that she was going

blind.

sun, had set and darkness had Then she realized that the in the hut with

fallen. She must have spent the whole day Helm.

She felt a mild lift of relief that the burns on her eyelids had not

done more damage. At least she was still

form able to see. She peered out through the windscreen, and found

that in the headlights the road was unfamiliar.

"Where are you taking me?" she mumbled. "This is not the way back to the

village."

Lieutenant Hammed sat slumped beside her in the seat and would not

answer. She relapsed into a daze of pain and exhaustion.

She was jerked awake when the truck braked abruptly and the driver

switched off the ignition. Rude hands dragged her out of the cab and

into the glare of the headlights. Her hands were jerked behind her back

and her wrists were bound together with a raw-hide thong.

"You are hurting me," she whimpered. "You are cutting my wrists." She

had used up the last of her strength and courage. She felt beaten and

pathetic, with no fight left in her.

One of the soldiers yanked on her bound wrists and shoved her off the

road. Two others followed, each carrying trenching tools. There was

enough of a moon for her to see a grove of eucalyptus trees about a

hundred metres from the side of the road, and they led her there. They

pushed her down at the base of one of the trees and the man who had tied

her wrists stood over her, holding his rifle casually aimed down at her

and smoking a cigarette with his free hand. The others stacked their

rifles and began digging.

They seemed to take no interest in her at all, but were discussing the

All Africa Soccer Championships that were being held in Lusaka, and the

Ethiopian team's chances of reachin the finals.

It was only after a while that it began to sink into Tessay's befuddled

mind that they were digging a grave for her. The saliva in her injured

mouth dried up and she looked around desperately for Lieutenant Hammed.

But he had stayed with the truck.

"Please," she whispered to her guard, but before she could say more he

kicked her painfully in the belly. -iftu vvurta 3 ivium i- utar vyo

"Keep quied' he used the derogatory term of address only applied to an

animal or a person of the lowest order, and as she lay doubled up on the

ground she realized the futility of appealing to them. A feeling of

weakness anded her and she found herself weeping resignation overwhelm

softly and hopelessly in the darkness.

er swollen lids, \&Then she looked up again through  oonlight for her to

see that the grave there was sufficient  was now so deep that the two

men still digging in it were out of her line of sight. Spadefuls of dirt

flew over the lip of the hole and splattered on to the growing pile. Her

and sauntered over to the guard left her side for a momen edge of the

hole. He looked down in it and then grunted.

"Good. That is deep enough, Call the lieutenant." The two soldiers

scrambled up out of the grave, then off into gathered up their tools and

weapons and traipsed the darkness of the grove. Chatting amicably

amongst wards where the truck was themselves they headed back to parked,

leaving Tessay and her guard.

the cold and with terror, She lay there shivering with puffed while her

guard squatted at the lip of her grave and her on his cigarette. She

thought that if she could get ton for feet she could kick him into the

hole and make a ru ut when she tried to sit up her it, back through the

trees.  movements were stiff and slow, and she he no feeling in her

hands or feet. She tried to force herself to move, but at that moment

she heard Lieutenant Hammed coming from the truck and she slumped back

in despair, rch. He flashed it Hammed was carrying an electric to down

into the grave.

ugh."

"Good," he said loudly. "That is deep eno He switched off the torch and

said to the man guarding Go back and wait at the truck. When her, "No

witnesses.

come back with the others to help me you hear the shots, fill the hole."

over his shoulder and disap The guard slung his rifle JI peared amongst

the trees. Hammed waited until the man was well out of earshot, then he

came to Tessay and hoisted her to her feet. He pushed her to the edge of

the grave, and then she felt him fumbling with her clothing. She tried

to lash out at him, but her arms were still bound behind her.

"I want your shanitna." He pulled the white woollen cloak off over her

shoulders, and then went with it to the edge of the grave, He jumped

down into the hole and she heard him scuffling about in the bottom.

His voice came back to her, speaking softly. "They must see something

here. A body-'

He climbed back beside her, puffing with the exertion, and stepped

behind her. She felt the touch of cold metal on the inside of her

wrists, and then he was sawing at the leather thong. She felt her bonds

fall away, and she gasped at the pain as the blood poured back into her

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