He shook his head in mortification.Itmust have been me, Andrea. All this started just after I had been on watch-and Panayis didn't have the glasses. He paused, remembering, then grinned wryly.It could have been myself. It would only require a single flash to tip them off. There was no other way, therecould have been no other way. Of course, of course I had been wondering.
Mallory touched his arm.What is it, Dusty? Almost three seconds had passed before the handful of those who still lived-about a quarter of the way in from either end of the line where converging streams of fire had not yet met-realised what was happening and flung themselves desperately to the ground in search of the cover that didn't exist.
Only a couple stood still where they had been hit, vacant surprise mirrored in their lifeless faces, then slipped down tiredly to the stony ground at their feet. Schmeissers-it was no war, as he had said, but sheer, pitiful massacre, with the defenceless figures on the slope below, figures still stunned and uncomprehending, jerking, spinning round and collapsing like marionettes in the hands of a mad puppeteer, some to lie where they fell, others to roll down the steep slope, legs and arms flailing in the grotesque disjointedness of death. With four machine-guns in their hands-two Brens and two 9 mm. His last words were caught up and drowned in the tearing, rapid-fire crash of the automatic carbines. Mallory stared at him, slowly released his grip on the glasses, nodded several times in succession. But his voice was steady enough as he spoke, relaxed and almost casual.Right. Even as he spoke he could hear the soft scrape as the three others slid their automatic barrels across and between the protective rocks in front of them, could feel the wave of revulsion that washed through his mind. I'll take the white helmet in the middle, Louki. The middle of the ragged line of advancing soldiers, slipping and stumbling on the treacherous scree, had almost reached the lower limits of the blackened, stunted remains of the copse.They've come far enough. Bitter-mouthed, savage, the American was swearing softly and continuously, oblivious to the pain as he pounded his fist time and again into the sharp-edged gravel before him. Then he became aware of the low murmuring to his left, shifted round again. The gravelly earth beneath his elbows grated harshly as Mallory shifted his weight slightly, looked at the two men to his right, Andrea with his impassive face empty of all expression, Louki with the sheen of tears in his eyes. The sudden silence was curiously oppressive, louder, more obtrusive than the clamour that had gone before. The frenetic stammering of the machine-guns stopped abruptly and in unison, the sound sheared off as by a guillotine. Miller looked round at him, eyes cold and still and empty of all recognition, then he blinked several times and grinned, a cut and bruised hand automatically reaching for his cigarettes.
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