knowledge of vastly superiorfirepower.Oh, really ... ?
And again Malinari laughed, but a second later hissed and grimaced, and clasped his handsomely alien head in wildly trembling hands. It was the pain - those lightning-flashes of terrible pain which ever accompanied any excessive use of his mentalism - the pain that came from searching out or listening to the thoughts of so many others, and of suffering the tumult of their massed emotions, their thronging dreams and fancies. For weirdly mutated minds were gathering here now, and the greater their talents the more piercing the pain in his head.Cursing vividly, in the tongue of Starside, Malinari swiftly withdrew his probes. And as the pain receded, so he relaxed a little and gave vent once more to strained, broken laughter.But strained? And broken?He had thought often enough about that before - even Malinari - finding cause to wonder: The laughter of a madman? Well, perhaps it was at that, though he preferred to think of himself as merely ... eccentric? And anyway, what of it? When a man is unique, surely he has a right to such small idiosyncrasies ...Drawing him back from his musing, the fading pounding in Malinari's temples was suddenly matched by a stuttering in the sky: the mechanical throbbing of jets, as their power diverted to whirling, fanlike vanes. And though momentarily startled - sufficiently so that he lifted his crimson gaze to the dragonfly shape that blurred the stars - still he felt no real concern or threat. His plans were laid, and every eventuality had been anticipated. Even this one.Down in the gardens, in front of the casino, that was the most obvious of the few places where the jet-copter could land. But it was also one of the many places that Malinari had mined. And:Hah! So be it! he thought. Now let this game commence.
The car at the gate issued a single man; equipped with a heavy, deadly automatic weapon, he crouched low and ran to the small, open-fronted chalet that housed reception. A rearguard, of course; also a guard against anyone trying to escape. These guileless fools! No one would be trying to 'escape' from Xanadu - well, except for these ridiculous invaders themselves! As for Malinari quitting the place ... but that was the plan! And in any case, what would it serve to stay? When this was all over, there would be nothing left to stay for.
And now the flying machine was settling towards the garden, its searchlight beams flickering over the dark casino, the chalets, the pools. And suddenly the car's lights were blazing bright, lighting the way as it sped to its rendezvous.Its rendezvous with certain death ... but not just yet.First let Trask and these E-Branch people taste something of what they had brought down on themselves when, of their own free will, they had chosen to pursue Nephran Malinari.Lord Malinari, aye, of the Wamphyyrrriiii!The coastguard vessel made smoke where she lolled port-side on to the narrow strip of sandy beach that fronted Jethro Manchester's island. Apparently crippled, she rocked this way and that in the gentle wavelets of the night surf. On her starboard side, hidden by the cabin, an SAS man aimed his flame-thrower at the sky and fired short-lived bursts of flame above the cabin's roof. As viewed from the island, it would seem for certain that the ruddily lit boat was on fire; even as her keel bit into the sand, so a signal flare made a starburst high in the sky.Also in the sky, but not so very high now - indeed, wheeling in low over the ocean's horizon - Chopper Two's pilot saw the starburst and told his crew:'We're over the island. I can see the boat "burning" down there, and the lights of the villa in the trees. So this is it. Jump to it as soon as we touch down. I'll be airborne and waiting for you when you get done. You can whistle me down. I mean, you know how to whistle, don't you? Good luck, guys!'Dark figures were running up the beach as the chopper came down, and a faint waft of garlic tainted the night air ...
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
The StormingSituated one hundred and sixty yards from where the coastguard vessel had beached, and set well back from the high-water mark behind massively thick, fortress-like rock walls in four acres of landscaped