The first truck bumped over the edge of the tarmac onto the metal surface of the bridge’s roadbed, the wheels grinding as if they were crossing a cattle grid. The second vehicle was bigger and Stratton made out the back of an open truck, a couple of dozen soldiers inside it. The last vehicle was a jeep of some kind. Before long all three were off the bridge and heading away down the road.
‘You okay?’ Stratton asked Louisa.
She felt one of her wrists and nodded. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said.
‘For what?’
‘I didn’t realise they were so close.’
‘It’s difficult to tell at night. We were lucky,’ he said, getting to his feet and helping her up to the road. ‘They still heading away?’ he called up to David.
The sound of the trucks’ engines had already died away but their headlights glowed in the distance. ‘All three are still going,’ David said.
Stratton was satisfied and breathed a sigh of relief, his gaze resting on Louisa. ‘You were saying?’ he asked.
She simply looked at him.
‘Are we going to finish this or not?’ he reminded her.
‘I know what you meant,’ she said.
The others waited in silence.
‘Chemora should not be allowed to do what he does,’ she said. ‘Let’s do what we came here to do.’
‘No doubts?’ Stratton asked. ‘We don’t undo this once we’ve wired it up.’
‘No doubts,’ Louisa said, her expression grim.
‘Start wiring these together like this,’ Stratton said to Victor, who arrived a little out of breath. He placed a claymore in the recess of an I-beam. ‘Keep the cable behind the struts and out of sight.’
Victor walked to the end of the bridge and began his task. Bernard and David got back to theirs.
Stratton scaled the side of the bridge, clambered on top and began wiring the claymores together. It was a laborious job in the dark and he had to rely most of all on his sense of touch.
As the horizon began to lighten Stratton climbed down and walked the length of the bridge, carrying out a final inspection.
‘It will rain soon,’ Victor warned, looking up at the heavy clouds that were now just about visible in the dawn sky.
‘It won’t affect anything,’ Stratton said. ‘I think we’re good to go.’
The three other men filed past him and down the embankment to the river. Louisa waited beside Stratton, looking at their handiwork. He gazed at her and grinned broadly.
She realised he was watching her. ‘What’s so funny?’ she asked.
‘I can’t imagine any other circumstance where you would follow a man so obediently.’
‘Neither can I,’ she said, a softness in her voice.
It began to rain, small droplets at first which rapidly grew in size and intensity until they came down hard, soaking everything. The air rang with the metallic plinks of drops hitting the bridge. But Stratton and Louisa did not appear to notice.
‘Do you have any particular sentimental feeling when you’re standing in the rain?’ she asked.
‘I do now,’ Stratton said, watching the water trickle down her face. Without thinking, he reached out his hand to touch her cheek. He wanted to wipe away the rain, obviously impossible under the circumstances, but the feel of her skin blurred all thoughts but one. He leaned towards her and she did not shy away. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly to him. Her hands cupped his face as they kissed.
Victor looked back to see what was keeping them and stopped when he saw what they were doing. He blinked against the rain, unsure quite what he felt about it. A part of him was happy for them both. Love affairs were indeed beautiful things. But another part of him was troubled.
Chapter 6
The saddled horses and burros stood quietly together, soaked to the skin, their bodies steaming. The rain had stopped but brooding clouds remained in the sky, scraping the tops of the surrounding hills.
Bernard and Victor sat on their ponchos on the slope from where they could see the road at both ends of the valley. Victor munched gloomily on a piece of dried meat. Now that everything lay ready and the waiting had begun his nerves were feeling the strain. He began to see the things that could go wrong. His main concern was how they were going to get away once the ambush had been sprung. It would take precious time to get back up the steep slope to safety beyond the ridge line and they would be vulnerable during that