THE GREEN KING (part 74)
----------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------
The Candlesticks
of Bogota
He screamed:
‘Parnell! We’ve got them blocked off here, but I want them alive! Do you hear
me, Parnell?’.
In answer, a
spray of bullets hit the ground less than a yard from his feet, but without
touching him. And Harmond understood two things: first, that the burst of
gunfire had come from his Irgun comrades, who were stuck on the ground floor,
and, second, that they had recognized his voice.
A head appeared
on the second floor, that of a young officer in shirt sleeves, disheveled,
holding a regulation pistol. Lazarus smiled at him broadly.
‘Lieteunant
Parnell? I am Major Connors. God bless Ireland. We’ve got the bastards. The
trick is to get them to talk. I’m going to speak to them in their gibberish.
Would you ask your men to stop shooting, please.’
He went on, in
Hebrew, in a load and resonant voice, marked now more than ever by a heavy
Irish accent. He wasn’t taking any risks, just in case there should be someone
in the British contingent who might understand him. Addressing the men from the
Irgun, he suggested they give up, on the spot, and put down their arms. He told
them he was coming in, that they didn’t stand a chance of getting out alive,
except as prisoners, in which case he would personally guarantee them status as
political prisoners.
Reb Klimrod had
reached his side, carrying two heavy satchel. Silence felt suddenly, after one
final shot. And in the silence they all heard the rumbling of an arriving tank,
followed by several trucks filled with perfectly authentic paratroopers. These
reinforcements deployed themselves. Encircling the building. Lazarus glanced at
them and nodded, looking more satisfied than ever.
‘Not a change,’
he repeated in English, then in Hebrew. ‘I’m coming in.’
And the went in
– they went in, he and Klimrod. Harmond, dumbfounded at the wheel of his Jeep,
saw them disappear inside the station, and experienced ‘rather serious
concern.’ As he put it, feeling the light line of paratroopers closing in
around him.
TO BE CONTINUED
____________________________________
I LOVE YOU…
I LOVE YOU…
I LOVE YOU…
I LOVE YOU…
I LOVE YOU…
I LOVE YOU…
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar