A Time to Die - Smith Wilbur - Страница 93

Sean was silent as he sought the words to tell her, but it was Claudia who spoke again.

"He didn't come back with you, did he?"

Sean shook his head, and his sodden locks dangled into his face.

"Did he find his elephant?" she asked softly.

"Yes," Sean answered simply.

"I'm glad," she said. "I wanted that to be my last gift to him."

Now she let go of the branch and slipped both her arms around Sean's neck, laying her cheek against his so she did not have to watch his face as she asked the next question.

"Is my father dead, Sean? I must hear you say it before I will believe it."

With his free arm he held her tightly and gathered himself to reply.

"Yes, my darling. Capo is dead, but he died a man's death-the kind he would have wanted-and Tukutela, his elephant, went with him. Do you want to hear the details?"

"No!" She shook her head, holding him tightly. "Not now, perhaps not ever. He is dead, and a part of me and my life dies with him."

He could find no word of comfort, and he held her as she began to weep for her father. She wept silently, clinging to him, the grief Hill r i er er shaking her. Her tears mingled with the droplets Of r v wat On her face, but he tasted their diluted salt on his lips as he kissed her again and his heart went out to her.

wide green river, the smoke and the So they floated down on the smell of battle drifting over them from the bombarded banks and the faint cries and groans of the wounded carrying to them across the water. Sean let her expend her silent grief, and slowly the sobs that rocked her abated. At last she whispered throatily, "I don't you to help me. You were know how I could have borne it without so much alike, the two of you. I think that's what attracted me to you in the first place." VP "I take that as a comp limen "It was meant as one. He gave me a taste for men of power and strength." within touching distance, was a Floating beside them, almost -striped camouflage battle corpse. Trapped air ballooned the tiger jacket and the body floated on its bark. The face was very young, perhaps His wounds were washed almost a boy of fifteen years discharge like smoke in the green bloodless, just a faint pinky water drifted from them, but it was enough. the bark of an Sean saw the gnarled saurian heads, scaled like ancient oak, coming swiftly down the current, following the taint of blood. Ripples spreading from the hideous snouts, long tails each other for the prize.

fanning--4wa big crocodiles, racing reared out of the One of the reptiles reached the corpse and , gaped wide, water; its jaws lined with uneven rows of yellow fangs then closed over the corpse's arm. The fangs met through dead flesh with a grinding sound that carried clearly to them, and Claudia gasped and turned her head away the d pull the body below the surface Before the crocodile could ts into the second reptile, even larger than the first, fitst=W jaws dead belly and began agruesome tug-of-war.

are not designed to shear clearly The fangs of the cmcodile on with locked jaws and used through meat and h9the, so they held twisting viciously in their t combed tails to spin in the water, a latbrerof white foam, rending the corpse between them, dismembering It so the onlookers could hear the sinews tear and the joints of shoulder and groin separate.

In fascinated horror, Claudia looked back. She gagged as one of reptiles rose high out of the water with an arm in its jaws the giant yellow scales of its and gulped at it convulsively. The creamy back to tear throat bulged as the limb slid down. Then it lunged another morsel from the body.

Tugging and fighting over the Pathetic human fragments, they war ked away from the floating tree. Sean, remembering the long tear in his back from the barbed wire, felt a lift of relief, for his own blood must be scenting the green waters.

"Oh God, it's all so horrible," Claudia whispered. "It's becoming a terrible nightmare,"

"This is Africa." Sean held her, trying to give her courage. "But I'm here with you now, it's going to be all right."

"Will it, Sean? Do you think we'll get out of this alive?

"There is no money-back guarantee," he admitted, "if that's what you are asking for."

She gave one last sob, then leaned back in his arms and looked steadily into his eyes. "I'm sorry," she said. "I'm acting like a baby. I nearly let go there, but it won't happen again, I promise you that. At least I've found you, before it's too late." She smiled at him with forced gaiety, bobbing with water up to her chin.

"We'll live for today, or what is left of it."

"That's my girl." He grinned back at her. "Whatever happens, I'll be able to say I loved Claudia Monterro."

"And was loved by her in turn," she assured him. She kissed him again, a long lingering kiss, warm and spiced with her tears, an expression not of lust but of longing, for both of them a pledge and an assurance, something true and certain in a world of dangerous uncertainty.

Sean was not even aware of his own pervading physical arousal until she broke the kiss and demanded breathlessly, "I want you now, this minute. I won't... I dare not wait. Oh God, Sean, my darling, now we are alive and in love, but by tonight we could both be dead. Take me now."

He glanced quickly around their leafy arbor. Through the chinks he could see the banks. They seemed to have drifted below the Renamo fortifications. There was no further sign of life below the galleries of tall riverine trees, and the silence of the African noon was heavy and somnolent. Closer to them, just beyond arm's length, floated Job and Dedan, but only the backs of their bare heads were visible as they surveyed the riverbanks.

Sean looked back at Claudia, looked into her honey-gold e yes, and he wanted her. He knew he had never wanted anything in his life so desperately.