Eye of the Needle(84)

Faber knew he could not keep this up much longer, he was certain to tire before David did. This had to be the last pass.

He ran faster. David steered an interception course, headed for a point in front of Faber. Faber doubled back, and the jeep zigzagged. It was now quite close. Faber broke into a sprint, his course forcing David to drive in a tight circle. The jeep was getting slower and Faber was getting closer. There were only a few yards between them when David realized what Faber was up to. He steered away but it was too late. Faber rushed to the jeep’s side and threw himself upward, landing face down on the top of the canvas roof.

He lay there for a few seconds, catching his breath. His injured foot felt as if it was being held in a fire; his lungs ached.

The jeep was still moving. Faber drew the stiletto from its sheath under his sleeve and cut a long, jagged tear in the canvas roof. The material flapped downward and Faber found himself staring at the back of David’s head.

David looked up and back, a look of astonishment crossed his face. Faber drew back his arm for a knife thrust…

David jammed the throttle open and heaved the wheel around. The jeep leaped forward and lifted on two wheels as it screeched around in a tight curve. Faber struggled to stay on. The jeep, still gathering speed, crashed down onto four wheels, then lifted again. It teetered precariously for a few yards, the wheels slipped on the sodden ground and the vehicle toppled onto its side with a grinding crash.

Faber was thrown several yards and landed awkwardly, the breath knocked out of him by the impact. It was several seconds before he could move.

The jeep’s crazy course had once again taken it perilously close to the cliff.

Faber saw his knife in the grass a few yards away. He picked it up, then turned to the jeep.

Somehow, David had got himself and his wheelchair out through the ripped roof, and he was now sitting in the chair and pushing himself away along the cliff edge. Faber, running after him, had to acknowledge his courage.

David must have heard the footsteps, because just before Faber caught up with the chair it stopped dead and spun around; and Faber glimpsed a heavy wrench in David’s hand.

Faber crashed into the wheelchair, overturning it. His last thought was that both of them and the chair might end up in the sea below—and then the wrench hit the back of his head and he blacked out.

When he came to, the wheelchair lay beside him, but David was nowhere to be seen. He stood up and looked around in dazed puzzlement.

“Here.”

The voice came from over the cliff. David must have just been able to hit him with the wrench before being flung from the chair and over the edge. Faber crawled to the cliff and looked over.

David had one hand around the stem of a bush that grew just under the lip of the cliff. The other hand was jammed into a small crevice in the rock. He hung suspended, just as Faber had a few minutes earlier. His bravado had gone now.

“Pull me up, for God’s sake,” he called hoarsely.

Faber leaned closer. “How did you know about the film?” he said.

“Help me, please.”

“Tell me about the film.”

“Oh, God.” David made a mighty effort to concentrate. “When you went to Tom’s outhouse you left your jacket drying in the kitchen, Tom went upstairs for more whisky and I went through your pockets and I found the negatives—”

“And that was evidence enough for you to try to kill me?”

“That, and what you did with my wife in my house…no Englishman would behave like that—”

Faber could not help laughing. The man was a boy, after all. “Where are the negatives now?”

“In my pocket…”

“Give them to me, and I’ll pull you up.”

“You’ll have to take them—I can’t let go. Hurry…”

Faber lay flat on his stomach and reached down, under David’s oilskin, to the breast pocket of his jacket. He sighed in relief as his fingers reached the film can and carefully withdrew it. He looked at the films; they all seemed to be there. He put the can in the pocket of his jacket, buttoned the flap, and reached down to David again. No more mistakes.

He took hold of the bush David was clinging to and uprooted it with a savage jerk.

David screamed, “No!” and scrabbled desperately for grip as his other hand slipped inexorably out of the crack in the rock.

“It’s not fair,” he screamed, and then his hand came away from the crevice.

He seemed to hang in midair for a moment, then dropped bouncing twice against the cliff on his way down, until he hit the water with a splash.

Faber watched for a while to make sure he did not come up again. “Not fair? Not fair? Don’t you know there’s a war on?”

He looked down at the sea for some minutes. Once he thought he saw a flash of yellow oilskin on the surface but it was gone before he could focus on it. There was just the sea and the rocks.

Suddenly he felt terribly tired. His injuries penetrated his consciousness one by one: the damaged foot, the bump on his head, the bruises all over his face. David Rose had been something of a fool, also a braggart and a poor husband, and he had died screaming for mercy; but he had been a brave man, and he had died for his country—which had been his contribution.

Faber wondered whether his own death would be as good.

He turned away from the cliff edge and walked back toward the overturned jeep.