The Vivero Letter

After a while I said softly, 'I'm sorry.'

He snorted. 'You're sorry! Sorry for me! It seems as though I'm not going to live to die in hospital if you're right about Gatt -- and neither is anyone else here. I'm sorry, Jemmy, that I got you into this. I'm sorry for the others, too. But being sorry isn't enough, is it? What's the use of saying "Sorry" to a dead man?'

Take it easy,' I said.

He fell into a despondent silence. After a while, he said. When do you think Gatt will attack?'

'I don't know,' I said. 'But he must make his move soon.' I finished the whisky. 'You'd better get some sleep.' I could see Fallon didn't think much of that idea, but he said nothing and I went away.

Rudetsky had some ideas of his own, after all. I bumped into him in the darkness unreeling a coil of wire. He cursed briefly, and said, 'Sorry, but I guess I'm on edge.'

'What are you doing?'

'If those bastards attack, they'll be able to take cover behind those two huts, so I took all the gelignite I could find and planted it. Now I'm stringing the wire to the plunger in our hut. They won't have any cover if I can help it.'

'Don't blow up those huts just yet,' I said. 'It would come better as a surprise. Let's save it for when we need it.'

He clicked his tongue. 'You're turning out to be quite a surprising guy yourself. That's a real nasty idea.'

'I took a few lessons out in the forest.' I helped him unreel the wire and we disguised it as much as we could by kicking soil over it. Rudetsky attached the ends of one set of wires to the terminals of me plunger box and slapped the side of it gently with an air of satisfaction. I said, 'It'll be dawn fairly soon.'

He went to the window and looked up at the sky. 'There's quite a lot of cloud. Fallon said the rains break suddenly.'

It wasn't the weather I was worried about. I said, 'Put Smith and Fowler on watch out at the edge of the camp. We don't want to be surprised.'

Then I had an hour to myself and I sat outside the hut and almost nodded off to sleep, feeling suddenly very weary. Sleep was something that had been in short supply, and if I hadn't had that twenty-four hour rest in the forest tree I daresay I'd have gone right off as though drugged. As it was I drowsed until I was wakened by someone shaking my shoulder.

It was Fowler. 'Someone's coming,' he said urgently.

'Where?'

'From the forest.' He pointed. 'From over there -- I'll show you.'

I followed behind him to the hut at the edge of the camp from which he had been watching. I took the field glasses he gave me and focused on the distant figure in white which was strolling across the cleared land.

The light was good enough and the glasses strong enough to show quite clearly that it was Gatt.

Eleven

There was an odd quality in the light that morning. In spite of the high cloud which moved fast in the sky everything was crystal clear, and the usual heat haze, which lay over the forest even at dawn, was gone. The sun was just rising and mere was a lurid and unhealthy yellow tinge to the sky, and a slight breeze from the west bent the branches of the trees beyond the cleared ruins of Uaxuanoc.

As I focused the glasses on Gatt I found to my disgust that my hands were trembling, and I had to rest the glasses on the window-sill to prevent the image dancing uncontrollably. Gatt was taking his time. He strolled along as unconcernedly as though he were taking his morning constitutional in a city park, and stopped occasionally to look about at the uncovered mounds. He was dressed as nattily as he had been when he flew into Camp One, and I even saw the tiny point of whiteness that was a handkerchief in his breast pocket.

Momentarily I ignored him and swept the glasses around the perimeter of the ruins. No one else showed up and it looked as though Gatt was alone, a deceptive assumption it would be wise to ignore. I handed the glasses to Rudetsky, who had come into the hut. He raised them to his eyes, and said, 'Is that the guy?'

That's Gatt, all right.'

He grunted. Taking his time. What me hell is he doing? Picking flowers?'

Gatt had bent down and was groping at something on the ground. I said, 'Hell be here in five minutes. I'm going out there to talk to him.'

That's taking a risk.'

'It has to be done -- and I'd rattier do it out mere man back here. Can anyone use that rule we've got?'

'I'm not too bad,' said Fowler.

'Not too bad -- hell!' rumbled Rudetsky. 'He was a marksman in Korea.'

That's good enough for me,' I said with an attempt at a grin. 'Keep your sights on him, and if he looks like pulling a fast one on me, let him have it.'

Fowler picked up the rifle and examined the sights. 'Don't go too far away,' he said. 'And keep from between me and Gatt.'