Chapter Thirty One
The sergeant who Chalky White had detailed to service the Comet was sitting on a drum of fuel puffing on a cigarette as he watched Andy and Archie walking back to their accommodation from Chalky’s residence after dinner.
His mate, standing nearby, was nervously eying him up.
“Do you have to smoke while you’re sitting on 40-odd gallons of fuel? You’ll blow us both to smithereens!”
“Stop your carping,” the sergeant replied, “I’ve been doing it for years and there’s nothing happened yet.”
“Well there’s always a first time for everything. Anyway, what are you going to do about those two?” his mate said nodding in the direction of Andy and Archie.
“Nothing much.”
“What do you mean nothing much? They’ve virtually delivered the Talisman right to us, and now you just sit here smoking, waiting to get incinerated!”
The sergeant sighed, and then stubbed his cigarette out on top of one of the drums of fuel.
“Think about it,” he said. “We’re on a military base which is on an island. What’s our chances of robbing those two and actually getting away with it?”
His mate considered the question for a few seconds.
“Not good I s’pose. How’d you know they were coming here anyway?”
Flicking his cigarette butt away, the Sergeant looked back to his friend.
“I didn’t know they were stopping here. I got a coded message this morning on our radio from the sect back in England. The boss said they were flying out to the Far East or something and told to everyone to keep an eye out for them in case they showed up.”
"So what are you going to do?”
The sergeant smiled as he watched Andy and Archie enter their room and close the door.
“What I’m going to do my friend, is just enough to slow them down and put them in the hands of our mates a little further down the track. Chalky, in his infinite wisdom, has detailed me to service that plane of theirs tonight. A little turn of the spanner here and a bit of mischief there will make those engines die somewhere where there are a lot more of us and a lot less of them.”
“You seem pretty sure they’ll end up where there’s some of our blokes.”
“Don’t you worry about that.” the Sergeant said. “Now the message is out and we know what they’re up to, there won’t be anywhere they can hide.”
His mate didn’t look so confident.
“But, if those engines die, they’ll trace it back to you for sure.”
“Yes, but by then I’ll be long gone. The sect will pay me a reward big enough to retire for the rest of my life after I’ve delivered that toff and the boy into their hands.”
“Which won’t be long if you keep smoking over fuel drums,” his mate quipped.
“That’s my whole plan,” the sergeant replied. “Whilst you’re sweating over these dirty filthy airplanes, I’ll be sunning myself on a Spanish beach, surrounded by beautiful Spanish senioritas.”
“There’s a revolution on in Spain right now you know.”
“Yes, how silly of me,” the sergeant said giving himself a theatrical slap on the forehead. “Better make it France. No, Monte Carlo! That’ll do me. Now, let’s go and fix that plane!”
Part Two
Chapter One.
It was just about sunrise as Andy settled himself into the rear cockpit of the Comet. The engines had already been started by the ground crew and had settled into a rumbling idle. The sun was making a spectacular entrance on the eastern horizon, bathing the sky in brilliant hues of red and yellow. None of that mattered to Andy, because Archie was directly in front of him, and he smelt awful!
“I wish you’d warn me before you do that!”
“You got a whiff of that did you? Sorry old chap, but its Chalky’s wife’s cooking. It’s gone straight through me. I’ve been up half the night.”
Epilogue
Archie’s aroma is going to be the least of Andy’s worries. The Sect is ready to meet them wherever they land, and won’t hesitate to use deadly force to get the Talisman. They’ll need all their cunning and skill, and the help of unexpected allies to stay on the run and rescue Archie’s brother.
Käpu’n has his own problems. He and his warriors will be pushed to their physical and mental limits to hunt down the Spaniards who have the Talisman’s scrolls. His only hope of success is a desperate, and possibly suicidal, plan.
In the end, they will have to cross the centuries that divide them to defeat the Sect.
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