![]() Stevens cried out in horror, sent his chair crashing back as be leapt to his feet.īlack, hate-filled eyes glared back at him in silence. "Waal, waal, whaddya know! Mebbe he does speaka da Eenglish after all." An almost hopeless mission, Miller was quietly aware, and as vital as it was, in his opinion, suicidal but he was beginning to understand why they'd picked this tough, sunburnt New Zealander to lead it. There were those who could be ribbed and those who could not be ribbed. The American was a shrewd judge of people. Miller made to speak but changed his mind. "A man doesn't spend ten minutes with his ear glued to a keyhole if he doesn't understand a word that's being said. Miller cleared his throat and clucked his tongue sadly. A glance at the choleric eyes, gleaming lightblue prawns afloat in a sea of vermilion, was quite enough to confirm the obvious. These had been red enough when Mallory had first seen them in the Colonel's office-high blood pressure and even higher living, Mallory had supposed: the extra deeper shades of red and purple now present probably sprung from a misplaced sense of righteous indignation. The white contrasted oddly with the puffed red of the heavy neck and face above. Captain Briggs was hatless and wore a white silk muffler round his throat in place of the usual collar and tie. They sat in silence for the next five minutes, then looked up as the door opened. There are far too many lives at stake." His voice suddenly hardened, the eyes were grim and pitiless. "All we know is that he "has" been listening and that we can't take any chances. "Maybe he doesn't and maybe he does," Mallory said evenly. "Get Captain Briggs here, will you, Matthews?" he asked. This is a military establishment and these are army officers' billets." "You have a fixation about hotels, Corporal. "He's had more sleep in a day than I've had in the past week." He glanced at his watch and the heavy brows came down in a straight line over the tired, brown eyes. "My heart bleeds for Captain Briggs and his broken slumbers," Mallory said acidly. Suddenly he felt a complete fool Characteristically, Miller was the first to speak. Slowly Stevens looked away, saw the triumphant grin on Andrea's face, the dawning comprehension in Brown's and Miller's. He broke off and stared in amazement at the sight of the prisoner catapulting himself bodily across the room to crash into a distant corner, one arm up-curved in rigid defence, stark, unreasoning panic limned in every feature of his face.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |