Those in Peril (Unlocked) by Wilbur Smith Read Free Book Online Page B

at the nape of her neck was damp. Under the baggy silk shorts he could make out the shape of her buttocks bouncing with each stride. He stared at them.
    Tennis balls? he asked himself, and felt a sharp stab of lust in his groin. Son of a gun, she can give me a hard-on even at this speed. Not half bad! he thought, and grunted with suppressed laughter.
    ‘Share the joke, Major,’ she invited him, still speaking in conversational levels, showing no signs of tiring.
    Bloody woman , he thought, she is just too bloody good to be true. I wonder what her weakness is.
    ‘Schoolboy humour. You would not find it entertaining, Ma’am.’
    ‘Come up alongside, Major. We can talk.’ He moved up and ran at her shoulder, but she was quiet, forcing him to speak first.
    ‘With all due respect, Ma’am, I am no longer a Major. I would much prefer it if you simply called me Cross.’
    ‘With the utmost respect, Cross,’ she replied, ‘I am not the Queen of England. You can drop the ma’am business.’
    ‘Certainly, Mrs Bannock.’
    ‘I am fully aware why you eschew the military rank, Cross. It reminds you of the reason why you were thrown out of your regiment. You shot three helpless prisoners of war, did you not?’
    ‘If I may correct you, I was not thrown out of the regiment. I was found not guilty by the court martial. Subsequently I requested and was granted an honourable discharge.’
    ‘But your prisoners were still very dead after you had finished with them, were they not?’
    ‘They had just blown up six of my comrades with a roadside bomb. Though they had their hands in the air at the time of their departure from this mortal coil they were still active hostiles. When one of them reached for what I thought was a suicide belt under his robe I had no time to be selective. I had a squad of my men within range of any blast. We were all in peril. I had no option but to cull all three of them.’
    ‘When the corpses were examined none of them were found to be wearing a belt. That was the evidence at your court martial. Was it incorrect?’
    ‘I was not afforded the luxury of making a prior body search of the prisoners. I had about one hundredth of a second to make the decision.’
    ‘Cull is a euphemism that usually applies to the killing of animals.’ She changed tack.
    ‘In the military it has another usage.’
    ‘Culling niggers?’ she suggested. ‘Slotting rag-heads?’
    ‘The choice of words is yours, Mrs Bannock, not mine.’ They ran on in silence for another ten minutes. Then she said,
    ‘Since entering the service of Bannock Oil there have been a number of further fatal incidents in which you were involved.’
    ‘Three to be exact, Mrs Bannock.’
    ‘During these three incidents another two dozen men were killed by you and your men. All the victims were Arabs?’
    ‘Nineteen of them to be exact, Mrs Bannock.’
    ‘I was close enough,’ she said.
    ‘Before we continue may I point out, Mrs Bannock, that those nineteen insurgents were all intent on blowing the hell out of Bannock Oil installations.’
    ‘It did not occur to you to arrest them and hold them for questioning to make certain they were truly terrorists?’ she asked.
    ‘The idea did cross my mind, Mrs Bannock, but at the time they were all shooting at me and they did not seem amenable to polite conversation,’ Hector said and this time he let a small sneer twist his lips. He had learned enough about her to know that would infuriate her. She ran on in silence for a while as she regrouped her attack. Then she went on,
    ‘Tell me truly, Cross. How do you feel about people of a darker complexion than your own lily white?’
    ‘Truly, Mrs Bannock, I don’t give a good stuff. I am as strongly antagonistic to bad-arsed lily-whites as I am to bad-arsed coal blacks. But I hold for both good lily-whites and good blacks alike a deep and abiding affection.’
    ‘Please moderate your language, Cross.’
    ‘Okay, Mrs Bannock, just as soon as you cut