Assignment Madeleine by Edward S. Aarons Read Free Book Online Page B

untroubled by law or morality. It
had taken time, and there were dead men on the hail behind him; but the end was
now in sight. Charley smiled thinly in the loom of his cell. It wouldn’t be the
end the Hadji el-Abri hoped for him, or what the agent, whoever he was, would
want when he came for him.
    He sat up abruptly when he heard the gunfire. It came
in sharp and spiteful echoes on the wind, snapping irritably on the southern flanks
of the town. First a rifle cracked, then the rattle of a tommy gun
followed, then more rifles, and finally the dull thumping of
grenades. Charley moved to the window as footsteps pounded through the stone
barn. Hoarse shouts and yells came from the compound outside. Floodlights
blossomed into bright, glaring eyes that scanned the night with the wild insanity
of a madman. From the window, Charley saw the first red flicker of fire
on the southern edge of town. A jeep motor roared into life, then several
trucks raced out through the gates to the road below.
    Charley swallowed a sudden dryness in his throat. It could
be el-Abri out there, with his Kabyle guerrillas. They wanted him. Or it could
be el-Abri’s rivals, another guerrilla faction. In either case, he had cause to
fear, although fear was not in him normally. It was this cell, he told himself.
Being trapped if the rebel raid swept this far. He turned and yelled angrily as
several chasseurs pounded down the
steps outside, their equipment clinking, tommy guns in their hands. None of the
soldiers paid any attention to him. He returned to the cell window and gripped
the bars hard. The gunfire was reaching into the heart of Marbruk now,
coming this way up the slopes of the jebel , into the ruined vineyards and orchards of the farms.
It was a strong, bold raid, and the thin company of French troops would have
their hands full.
    Charley was suddenly sure that the wild desert men out there
in the hot night were stabbing directly for him.
    Jane Larkin heard the gunfire with a sudden quickening
in her almost like relief. From the window of her room in the only hotel
Marbruk could boast, she heard the thud of grenades and the hoarse shouts of
frightened people in the market place below. She leaned out through the narrow
window, but the mud streets were confused and dark, and all she glimpsed were
running figures in flapping robes and kachabias . Jane breathed a little
more quickly, her lips parted. Her boredom was forgotten. ”
    “Jane, honey,” Chet said. “Please get away from there.
    She turned to look at her husband, petulant anger changing
to scorn when she saw Chet loading a revolver as he sat on the edge of the huge
bed. “What do you think you can with that?”
    “You can’t tell what’s happening out there,” he said.
    “It’s the rebels, raiding,” she said impatiently.
    “I know that. And there’s a chance they’ll break in here.”
    “So you plan to defend me?”
    “I’ll try, Jane,” he said quietly.
    “You could have taken me away days ago.”
    “It wasn’t possible. You know how it’s been.”
    She spoke spite-fully. “Yes, but I didn’t know how it would
be when you sent for me, when I was with Daddy in Houston. You made it all
sound so romantic. So desert- sheikish . You didn’t
have the nerve to tell me how filthy it really was.”
    Chet Larkin finished loading the .38 Smith & Wesson and
put it on the bed beside him. His brown eyes were tired, candid, and patient.
“Can you blame me for wanting you with me, Jane? Maybe I’m selfish, but I
love you, honey, and I missed you so damned much I told a few lies to get you
to join me here. I didn’t think you’d find it so bad, though. Not really.
I thought you might get to like it.”
    “Like it?” She thinned her mouth. She smoothed her hands
down her hips. “We’re likely to get killed by those crazy people.”
    “They probably won’t get this far. It’s just another raid.”
    He didn’t want to go on arguing. This thing between them went
beyond