Mary sat hunched in the aircraft. In front of her Wash’s huge shoulders blocked out the greater part of the dimly lit instrument panel. Faintly she could hear him humming to himself and, now that he was in his favourite element – the air – he seemed completely happy and relaxed. Behind her Lothar was sitting. She had caught only a glimpse of him as Wash had hurried her into the plane, but she was terribly conscious of his nearness to her and could actually feel on her spine the chill that emanated from him.
Wash’s abrupt disclosure that he was taking her with him to Russia had shattered her completely. More, even, than the Great Ram’s threat to put a curse upon her. About a curse there was something nebulous. For some inexplicable reason it might not mature; given unshakeable faith in one’s own powers of resistance it could be made to rebound on its initiator or, if one could find a priest of sufficient saintliness one could get it lifted. But to be carried off to a distant country from which there was very little chance of ever getting back was a down-to-earth matter; and it was actually happening to her.
The lights of the air base had already disappeared and the plane was climbing steeply. In a matter of minutes now they would have left England behind and be flying through the dark night out over the North Sea. Dully her mind sought to probe the future. It would be utterly different from anything she had ever known. Never again would she see any of the friends she had made while married to Teddy, or live again in the pleasant little flat at Wimbledon on which she had lavished so much care. Her only link with the past - the only person she would know who could even speak her own language - would be Wash; and although he had the power to arouse her physically she felt no faintest spark of love for him. On the contrary, knowing the cruel and evil nature that lay below his casual cheerfulness, she hated him more bitterly every time she recalled, with shame, her own weakness in having let herself respond to his passion.
And when he had tired of her, what then? He had shown very clearly that when he wanted a thing he would stop at nothing to get it – and get it quickly. Rather than wait twenty-four hours he had made himself liable to an onerous penalty by carrying her off to the country instead of attending the Walpurgis Eve ceremony. Since, he had developed such an obsession for her that, only an hour ago, he had taken the appalling risk of defying the Great Ram rather than have her spoiled for him as a mistress. But such fierce obsessions never lasted. Within a few weeks, or months at most, any man who had made a habit all his life of sleeping with one pretty girl after another would tire of his new plaything. Mary had no doubt at all that his desire for her would cease as swiftly as it had begun; and that overnight he would throw her out for some fresh charmer. Where would he throw her? Presumably to the Great Ram to be cursed – unless with his revenues from the United States cut off he found himself in need of money. If that happened the chances were that he would postpone letting the Great Ram know that he had done with her, and first sell her into a Russian brothel.
Once again she bemoaned her folly in having let herself become caught in this terrible web through having recognised Teddy’s shoes on Ratnadatta’s feet. If only she had kept her promise to Barney! Well, at least she had saved him from paying with his life for her stupidity. She wondered if while struggling with his captors he realised that it was she who had enabled him to break free, and thought it unlikely. If that was so he would not even feel that he owed her anything. Neither could he have any idea how desperately she loved him. When he did give her a casual thought in the months ahead it would only be as Wash’s mistress, and a born whore who, having delighted in the licentious rights practised by Satanists, had willingly left the country with her great brute of a lover.
The tears coursed silently down her cheeks until at length she drifted off to sleep.
She was woken by the aircraft beginning to bump. It was in cloud, but she could sense that it was descending, and shortly afterwards it broke clear so that on looking down she could see the extraordinary panorama that lay spread below them. They were flying over what seemed an endless vista of deep valleys and snow-capped mountains. The sun was still low and on their left, so that it lit only one side of each peak, and the valleys, in sharp contrast to the blinding whiteness of the snow-clad heights, were still irregular chasms of night-shrouded blackness.
As they came lower the bumping became much worse, so Wash took the aircraft up again to just below cloud level. Even there it was far from comfortable, and every few moments the plane dropped like a stone from fifty to a hundred feet. Several times now Wash changed course, and in one case circled right round a giant peak. Then he evidently got his bearings and in a series of shallow dives brought the plane right down until it was flying between two ranges of mountains. Turning where they opened out he came back, now perilously skirting great jutting crags. But he was a superb pilot and still seemed perfectly relaxed as he lay back with his long legs stretched out, his great hands firmly on the controls.
It was lighter now. Mary could see the dark woods on the lower slopes, and the green of fields in the bottom of the valley. They passed over a cluster of dwellings, came lower, gently now, and in another minute were running low over a long stretch of meadow. But Wash did not land. In a steep climb he took the plane out of the far end of the valley, circled and came in again, still more slowly. The plane bumped once, twice, then ran on smoothly for several hundred yards, until he braked it to a halt in front of an open hangar.
A short, swarthy man with a shock of dark wiry hair ran out from it, followed by two Chinese one of whom was carrying a ladder. Wash stretched a long arm back and undid the clamps of the aircraft’s door. The ladder was put against it and, pushing past Mary, the Great Ram stepped out. Seizing his hand, the swarthy man kissed his ring, greeted him in some foreign language and helped him down the last few rungs.
When he had left the aircraft Mary found her voice. She was staring in surprise at the Chinese, and said to Wash, ‘Where are we? Surely there are no great mountains like these in Russia. Have you brought us down in … no, it couldn’t possibly be Tibet; we haven’t been in the air long enough.’
He laughed. ‘This is Switzerland. We’re stopping off here for a day or so on our way to Moscow; that’s all.’ As he spoke he ducked his head and thrust his great body through the doorway. Springing down, he turned at the foot of the ladder, held out his arms, and told her to jump.
Lothar was speaking to the swarthy man. When he had done, he turned to Wash and said, ‘This is our brother Mirkoss. He is an Hungarian and a very clever engineer. He also speaks fluent Chinese, but he does not understand English. I have told him that you and your woman will be staying with us until the great work is completed, and that his men are to unload the crate with the greatest care. He will bring it and the luggage along later in the box car. We three will go on ahead.’
Mirkoss and Wash exchanged grins, then the latter, with Mary beside him, followed Lothar across the field to a narrow road running alongside a rock-strewn stream that foamed and hurtled along the valley bottom. On the road a car was waiting with another Chinese at its wheel. Lothar got in beside him, the other two got into the back, and it set off up the valley.
The road was steep and winding; soon it became no more than a rough track. It was bitterly cold and with a shiver Mary drew her coat more closely about her. They climbed for about two miles then, round a sudden bend, the track ended at what looked like a big barn with a chalet roof. From it steel cables looped upward from a succession of tall steel pylons set in the mountainside, to end far above the snow line at what looked like a small black hole.
They left the car and went into the chalet, which Mary now saw was an engine-house, with an opening at one end near which stood the cabin of the cable railway. The cabin was divided by a partition, the front section having benches to seat four passengers; the rear section was empty and evidently for carrying up stores. A fourth Chinese came out from a room at the back of the chalet and started the engine up, the others got into the cabin. There was a grinding sound as it ran the few yards along its landing rails, then, as it swung out into the open, silence.
The cabin moved steadily at a moderate pace but the ascent took nearly a quarter-of-an-hour. First they passed over rough grassy slopes, then a deep belt of dark fir trees, the branches of those in the higher part of which were powdered with snow. Beyond them the mountain was much steeper and, except where here and there grey rocks broke through, a convoluted sheet of dazzling white.
The sun had now risen above the chain of mountains opposite, so that only a part of the valley was left in deep shadow and Mary, who was seated facing it, found the scene one of almost terrifying grandeur. She had never before been up a mountain and would have enjoyed the experience had her mind not been distracted by thoughts of the grim company she was in.
Suddenly there came a clatter of steel on steel, and she looked round in alarm, but was reassured on seeing that they had reached the top. The cabin ground to a halt on a broad flat shelf of rock.
She now saw that the black spot she had seen from below was in fact the entrance to a cave at least twenty feet in height. It was lit by a row of electric bulbs spaced out along its ceiling, and along one side of it ran a range of low-roofed shallow wooden sheds; but it curved away into the mountain so she could not see its end.
As they got out, a blast of icy wind, carrying a flurry of snow, struck her with such force that she could hardly stand against it; but Wash took her by the arm and hurried her into the cave. Ten feet inside it they were sheltered from the wind and it was comparatively warm there, although she never discovered whether it contained some normal heating installation or conditions in it were made bearable by the Great Ram’s Satanic powers.
He led the way down it and they passed the open doorway of a lean-to made from stout planks in which a Chinese cook was busy at a stove. The next shed along was a small dining-room. It was not even deep enough to have a bench along the far side of the table, which was formed by a flap projecting from the wall, but it was long enough to seat six people in a row on the near side and at its far end had shelves on which were a number of bottles. Their host pointed to the shelves and said:
‘No doubt you would like something to warm you up. Food will be brought to you presently, but I shall not join you. I have learnt to do without such things for long intervals. You will also need sleep. But you will not sleep together. While you are here I forbid it; because it would arouse vibrations on the animal plane which could disturb the transcendental links that I have created.’
For Mary this last ordinance was a crumb of comfort, and Wash took it philosophically, remarking to her as Lothar left them, ‘Me, I’m all for remaining just a simple Mage. What’s the fun in becoming an Ipsissimus when it means that most all the time you’re on an astral plane so high you’ve no use for your body. But don’t fret, honey, we’ll not be stuck here more than thirty-six hours. Come Tuesday night at latest we’ll be in little ole Moscow, and by then we’ll have gotten a fine edge on our appetites.’
He took a bottle from the shelf and two broad-bottomed rummers, poured three fingers of Bourbon for her and three-quarters filled the other big glass for himself, swore because there was no ice container, and instead splashed a little water into both. She was still cold, so she took a long drink from the one he handed her. As the almost neat spirit went down she shuddered; but its reaction was swift and gave her the courage to ask, ‘Why have we stopped off here, anyway?’
‘See that big crate in the tail of the aircraft?’ he grinned. ‘That’s the reason. It has in it the war-head of an H-bomb.’
Realising that he must have stolen it for some nefarious purpose she stared at him for a moment in consternation; then she exclaimed, ‘But why? What do you mean to do with it?’
He swallowed a good half of his drink, set the glass down and replied, ‘You’re such a smart kid I’d have thought you’d have guessed, after what I told you a few nights back.’
‘You … you can’t really mean that you’re going to let it off, here in Switzerland.’
‘Sure, honey, sure. It’s just what we mean to do. The big bang will scare the pants off the peoples in the West. They’ll force their Governments to make a pact with the Soviets to scrap all nuclear weapons. That’ll leave a free field for the Russians to go right on with their plans for making the world Communist, without fear of Uncle Sam being able to pull a fast one when he does see the red light. And we’ll be made Heroes of the Soviet Union.’
Mary knew that it would be futile either to plead or argue. Even if she could have won Wash over that would now make no difference. Clearly in stealing the bomb he had acted only as the agent of the Great Ram, and he could not be diverted from his evil purpose. While coming up in the cabin of the cable railway she had not dared even to raise her eyes to his; and, with a swift sinking of the heart, she suddenly realised that, now he had got what he wanted from Wash, he might even go back on his agreement to postpone laying a curse on her.
In a low, anxious voice she put that possibility to Wash. But he told her not to worry, because the Great Ram would still need him to fly him on to Moscow.
Shortly afterwards the Chinese cook came in and laid places for three at the long narrow table. Then the stocky, shock-haired Hungarian, Mirkoss, joined them. They exchanged bows and smiles with him but, when the food was served, on account of his presence they fell silent. The meal was simple but good: firm baked lake fish, a ragoût of veal with mushrooms, and a selection of excellent Swiss cheeses.
After it, Mirkoss beckoned them outside and a few yards along the cave, then threw open the doors of two adjacent sheds. Each had only a single bunk. Wash’s belongings had been stacked in the one that abutted on to the dining cabin, and Mary’s suitcase reposed in the other. They smiled their thanks to the Hungarian, smiled at one another, then entered their narrow but solidly made quarters.
As Mary shut the door her strength seemed suddenly to drain from her. Although she had slept in the aircraft the strain she had been under for many hours had been so great that she felt as if she had not closed her eyes for weeks. There were no sheets, only blankets, on the bunk, but pulling her clothes off, except for her chemise, she crawled in between them and almost instantly fell asleep.
It was late in the evening when Wash roused her to say that another meal was being prepared for them by the Chinese cook. At the far end of her cabin there was a small basin with running water, and above it a nine by four inch mirror. Getting up, she washed and tidied herself as well as she could, then joined Wash in the dining cabin.
He mixed drinks for them, this time having first gone to the entrance of the cave and broken off some icicles to chill the spirit; then Mirkoss came in and the Chinese served them with a dinner of sorrel soup, wild duck and a vanilla soufflé. When coffee arrived Mirkoss declined it and left them, but they sat over theirs for some time drinking with it a Swiss Apricot Brandy that seemed positively the essence of the rich ripe fruit.
They were on their third glass of this delicious local liqueur when both of them instinctively turned round. Their senses, not their hearing, had told them of the approach of the Great Ram, and he was standing silently behind them in the doorway. Ignoring Mary, he said to Wash:
‘I do not need your help tonight but I shall require it tomorrow morning. You will be called at first light and we will set to work soon after dawn.’
‘Just as you say, Exalted One,’ Wash replied submissively; then he added, ‘It shouldn’t be a long job to fit a coupla time fuses to it. Reckon we could be done and on our way in the aircraft round about midday.’
‘It is not my intention to explode the war-head up here,’ announced the Great Ram calmly.
Wash gave him a puzzled look. ‘Not here! But for why, Chief? Where could you find a site more suitable?’
‘In a narrow valley such as this the effect of the explosion would be too localised. The blast could wreck only a few small villages and the fall-out beyond them would be negligible.’
‘Hey, have a heart, Chief! That’ll be plenty for our purpose. There’s no sense in blotting out more folks than need be.’
‘Some thousands at least must die if we are to achieve our object of horrifying everyone in the N.A.T.O. countries,’ declared the Great Ram in an icy voice.
‘But, Exalted One,’ Wash protested, coming to his feet, ‘you’ve got the darned thing up here now. I saw Mirkoss’s Chinks humping it in. It would be simple to time fuse it to go up a coupla hours after we’ve quit, but one helluva job to hump it some other place and rig electric batteries to set it off. If it disintegrates a single village that’ll sure be enough to scare the pants off every citizen in Europe.’
‘There will be no necessity to transport it anywhere. I intend to adapt its case so that it can be launched from this cave as the war-head of a rocket.’
‘A rocket!”
‘Yes. I had the parts manufactured by a number of different firms, and Mirkoss and I have assembled them here. I have also secured a supply of the latest rocket fuel; so nothing remains to be done but to work out the weight-fuel ratio, now that the weight of the war-head is available to me, and to attach it to the body of the rocket. The calculations I shall do tonight. Tomorrow your strength may prove of value in lifting the war-head into position for Mirkoss and I to fix it; and, unless some quite unforeseen difficulty arises, we should be able to launch it on Tuesday.’
‘But what’s to be your target, Chief? What’s to be your target?’ Wash asked in a puzzled, anxious voice. ‘No one’s ever accused me of having a yellow streak when it comes to taking life. No, sir! Not when it’s been to forward Our Lord Satan’s work, or my own. But to put this thing down on a city doesn’t make sense to me. It’ll get all the write-up we want without that; and there’s mighty few places of any size that hasn’t a few Brothers or Sisters of the Ram among its citizens. You sure can’t wish to blot…’
‘I did not say I intended to drop it on a city,’ the Great Ram interrupted coldly. ‘But I cannot afford to risk the effect being localised to this one narrow mountain valley and a radius of only a few miles of almost uninhabited country. For a target I have selected the small town of Saanen, in the foothills on the far side of this range. Apart from the mountain areas it is in one of the least populated parts of Switzerland, and almost equidistant from Berne, Lausanne and Interlaken. All of them are a good thirty miles from Saanen, so should not be affected by the initial shock. As for the fall-out, wherever we create the explosion that will be dependent on wind and weather, and Our Lord Satan’s will. And now, on this question, you will not presume to argue further.’
Turning on his heel he left them, and for a few moments Mary and Wash stared after him in silence. Then, with a shrug of his great shoulders, Wash said, ‘He’s right. To put this thing over a hundred-per-cent, there’s just gotta be at least one township blown sky-high. Must be, so as the newsreel boys can get their pictures and show the world what nuclear war would mean. And let’s face it, honey, what do a few thousand deaths matter, if that insures against millions being slaughtered in a few years’ time?’
Mary found it difficult not to agree, providing that his basic premises were right. But she still could not believe that the United States would ever attack Russia without provocation, and that if matters were left as they were an all-out war between the East and West was inevitable. She said so, and they argued for another hour, but found themselves going round in circles, so at last broke off and went moodily to bed.
As Mary had slept most of the day she had a thoroughly bad night. For hours she tossed and turned in the narrow bunk, trying to think of some way in which she could get a warning of the Great Ram’s intentions to the Swiss authorities; so that, even if they were not in time to stop him launching the rocket, they could at least evacuate the town of Saanen and its surrounding district. Yet she knew that such mind-searching was utterly futile, because up there in the cave she was as completely shut off from the outside world as if she had been on a desert island in the Pacific. At length she fell into a half-sleep made hideous by nightmare visions of collapsing walls, houses in flames, and screaming, terrified people. Finally her mind became a blank for a couple of hours, but when she was woken by the Chinese cook she had the impression that she had been asleep for only a few minutes.
A quarter-of-an-hour later she joined Wash and Mirkoss at breakfast. They had been up since before dawn working on the rocket, and as soon as they had finished eating they returned to it. Knowing that the Great Ram would be with them, so she need have no fear of suddenly coming face to face with him, she decided to explore the cave.
She found it to be a good two hundred yards in length, curving round to another entrance at its far extremity. Tiptoeing forward to within about forty feet of the opening, she stood for some minutes watching the activity going on there. To one side there was a stack of what looked like oil drums, to the other an open shed housing a glowing furnace at which Mirkoss was hammering on a piece of white-hot metal. Outside in the centre of a broad rock platform lay the rocket, half hidden by a cluster of upright steel girders, a derrick with heavy lifting chains, a pumping apparatus and all sorts of other paraphernalia, among which the Great Ram and Wash were working.
Turning, she made her way back more slowly, exploring as she went the shallow sheds that lined the walls of the cave. Some contained stores of various kinds, including a big cache of tinned food, others were sleeping cabins; and one was obviously the Great Ram’s work room, as it had maps pinned up on its walls and contained a table-desk and filing cabinets.
In several places between blocks of two or three sheds there were lower tunnels running in at right angles to the sides of the big one. She cautiously explored them in turn, to find that some of them had pieces of machinery in them. They were all quite short and ended abruptly in a sloping rugged surface; so she thought it probable that most, if not all, of this big hole in the mountain owed its existence to mining operations which had later been abandoned.
Near the end of the tunnel to which the cable railway mounted, she came upon three other cabins of special interest. One was evidently the Great Ram’s bedroom, the next a bathroom and the last equipped with wireless apparatus.
The bedroom she did not dare to enter. A glimpse of a small altar in it on which stood a human skull that had been made into a chalice was enough to make her shut the door quickly and pass on; but in the radio room she stood for a long time, wondering if she could possibly send a message by the set. Unfortunately she was totally ignorant of everything to do with such things and had never even learned the Morse alphabet, so she was forced to abandon the idea.
However, the bathroom was a most welcome discovery, as it provided her with the means of whiling away an hour or two and, having collected from her suitcase her toilet and manicure things, she spent the rest of the morning there.
Wash and Mirkoss took barely a quarter-of-an-hour over their lunch, then hurried back to work; so she was again left to her own devices for the whole afternoon. With the idea that she might possibly suborn the Chinese cook, she visited his galley and attempted to enter into conversation with him; but she found that he did not understand a word of English, or French, which was the only foreign language of which she had a smattering. The other Chinese, she concluded, lived down below in the engine-house, and were brought up only when required for special jobs; so it seemed that there was very little chance of her getting a message out by one of them.
Nowhere could she find anything to read, even if she could have settled to it; so in desperation she returned to the bathroom where she spent a good part of the afternoon washing her hair and trying out different methods of arranging it so as to render as little conspicuous as possible the quarter inch of undyed gold that had grown up from her scalp.
Somehow she got through the hours until the early evening and when Wash and Mirkoss had bathed she joined them for dinner. The Hungarian was perforce, as usual, silent, but Wash was nearly silent too, which was most unusual for him; so Mary asked him the reason.
At first he hedged, saying that he had had a long day, and on heavy work of a kind to which he was not accustomed. But when Mirkoss had left them she pressed him further, and he said in a low voice, ‘I’m having kittens, honey. The Big Chief’s playing some deep game of his own. He’s flat lied to me over this rocket set-up, and if he’ll do that about one thing he’ll do it about another. Could be that now he’s gotten all the help he wanted from me, he means to do me dirt.’
‘That’s bad,’ she whispered back with quick concern. ‘What sort of lie has he told you?’
‘He said he meant to aim the rocket to fall on a little burg called Saanen. You heard him, last night. Well, we worked like buck solidly all day and the rocket’s set up. Wants only the right amount of gas pumped in and she’ll be ready to go. But her mechanism is not adjusted to send her in the right direction. Saanen is over the range to the west of here. Must be if it’s half-way between Lausanne and Interlaken. The rocket is oriented near due north-east, so he must mean to send it some place else.’
‘Did you question him about it?’
Wash ran a hand through his almost white hair before he replied in the same hushed, conspiratorial voice, ‘Nope. My Satanic name’s not Twisting Snake for nothing. Times are when it pays best to let the other feller think he’s got away with playing you for a sap. He’s more like to show his hand then. Gives you a better chance of saying snap.’
‘Have you any idea where he might mean to send the rocket?’
‘I had one notion. It can’t be right, though. Doesn’t make sense. Yet if I were right you and I have got no future. I’d give a mighty fat wad to be a hundred-per-cent certain that I’m wrong.’
‘I think you could, without much difficulty.’
He gave her a quick look. ‘Tell, honey.’
‘While you were all working this morning I explored the whole place pretty thoroughly. Near the far end of the tunnel he has an office. There are maps on the walls and papers scattered over the desk. All his calculations must be there somewhere. If you could get in…’
‘That’s certainly an idea. Wonder if he keeps it locked.’
‘As he doesn’t bother to lock it in the daytime, I don’t see why he should at night. Up here there is certainly no risk of burglars.’
‘Sure, honey, sure.’ Wash gave a sudden grin. ‘Then we’ll go along presently and have a look-see. Whether he ever sleeps or not I wouldn’t know, but there’s Mirkoss and the cook, so we’d best give the place a chance to settle down.’
For another hour and a half they continued sitting at the table, occasionally exchanging a remark or taking a sip of the Apricot Brandy, then Wash stood up and said in a whisper, ‘Let’s get weaving. Go quiet as you can. I’ll follow you. Pull up on the outer curve of the tunnel ten yards before you come to his office. Point it out to me as I pass, then keep your eyes and ears on stalks. Anyone coming don’t cough; just start walking on again natural. I trained my hearing young on the prairie, so I’ll catch your footfalls and be out alongside you time you come opposite the office door. Then if it’s the Big Chief I’ll tell him I was taking you to have a sight of the rocket in the moonlight. O.K.?’
She nodded and he followed her out. The lights along the roof of the tunnel were kept on night and day, and in all the cabins there were pilot lights that gave out a faint blue radiance, like those in the sleepers of International Pullman cars. Very quietly they walked down two-thirds of the length of the tunnel, then she halted and followed his instructions. The door of the office was not locked and he was in there a good ten minutes. To her it seemed an interminable time as she strained her ears for approaching footsteps, and her eyes into the semi-gloom behind her. But at last he emerged, and closed the door gently after him.
Taking her arm, and still walking softly, without uttering a word he led her back to the dining cabin. There, in the brighter light, she saw that his normally ruddy face had gone a queer shade of grey, and that his black eyes held a murderous glint.
‘Well,’ she asked in a whisper.
He sat down heavily, and muttered, ‘What I thought a crazy idea was right. It’s all worked out there. He’s aiming to put it on Moscow.’
At first Mary did not realise the full implications, so she said, ‘I can’t help feeling sorry for the Russians; but thank God it’s not London.’
For a moment he stared at her then, his voice still low, he broke into a tense spate of words, ‘Be your age, woman! The Russians will take it that the West launched the rocket at them. They’ll not wait to ask questions. They’ll think we’ve tried to shoot ‘em sitting down. Before what’s left of Moscow’s gone up in smoke they’ll press the button. Within twenty minutes New York, Washington, Pittsburg, Detroit will be just heaps of poisonous ruins – and London too. The West will react with all its got; land-based rockets, rockets from subs and cruisers, H-bombs from aircraft. Russia’s got subs, cruisers and long-range aircraft too – plenty. I’d give it three days, and every city west of a line Urals, Persia, India will have had it. Tens of millions dead, hundreds of millions dying; the whole of civilisation as we know it to hell and gone.’
‘Oh God!’ she breathed, Oh God! Somehow we must stop it!’
‘That’s easy to say; but you know the man we’re up against. I’d never be able to argue him out of anything he’s set on.’
‘But why, why does he want to do this frightful thing?’
‘I‘d hazard a guess. Another hunch. But things he’s said fit into the picture. He knows that Russian Communism isn’t Communism any more. The Soviet is reverting to a bourgeois state. I’d seen that one for myself. It’s why I figured it to be the best bet as a place to spend the rest of my life in ease and plenty. But it’s no longer good soil for sowing the seeds of the Old religion. And that’s all the Great Ram gives a cuss about. “Do what thou wilt shall be the Whole of the Law.”’ As long as there’s settled Governments, doing that means risking a stretch in prison. But with a state of universal anarchy; well, ask yourself? Our Lord Satan would come into his own again in a real big way, wouldn’t he?’
Suddenly Mary’s blue eyes lit up and she stormed at him, ‘It’s you who are to blame for this! It’s you who have made this horror possible! You let him fool you into giving him your bloody bomb. He is a real Satanist. You are not, any more than I am. You’ve just made use of the cult because it suits you. You only wanted rich living for yourself; to loll around on the profits of girls you have forced into prostitution; to listen to music while fine food is being prepared for you, then take your fill of drink and women.’
For a moment she thought he was going to strike her. But instead he gave himself a quick shake, then seemed to sag, and admitted, ‘Maybe you’ve got something there. The Old Faith is the right one though. Prince Lucifer is the Lord of this World, and those who serve him come out tops.’
‘Do they?’ she countered hotly. ‘Then what about yourself? Instead of being a Hero of the Soviet Union this time next week, you’ll either be dead or trying to catch a stray dog to eat.’
‘There’s no going back on what’s done,’ he muttered miserably. ‘It’s by Our Lord Satan’s will that it should be this way, and we’ve just got to take it.’
‘No.’ Mary stamped her foot. ‘You can save yourself and countless innocent people. You must sabotage that rocket.’
‘I can’t I wouldn’t dare,’ he protested. ‘Just think what I’d let myself in for. If I threw a spanner in Our Lord Satan’s work I’d be whipped down to Hell and slow roast while a thousand devils nipped bits off me till the world goes cold.’
‘There is a power greater than Satan’s that would protect you.’
‘Maybe that’s what you think. But no one’s ever proved it.’
‘Yes. I have. You saw me throw that crucifix. It was only a little thing of wood and ivory; but look what it did to your Great Ram. It rendered him as weak as water. For ten minutes he hadn’t the power left to harm a rabbit.’
Wash’s dark eyes opened in wonder. ‘That’s true,’ he murmured. ‘Sure, I saw it happen. Somehow I’d never thought of it like that.’
‘Think of it now then. If the Powers of Good can intervene to save an individual, what wouldn’t they do to protect a man who saved all humanity? Wash, you must sabotage this rocket. It’s your great chance to make a come-back. Every evil thing you’ve ever done will be forgiven. You could sabotage it, couldn’t you?’
He considered for a minute. ‘Yeah. Not completely. Now it’s been erected I couldn’t get at the war-head. But I could drill a small hole in the casing, that wouldn’t be spotted. Be large enough though to cause the fuel to leak when it jerked into flight. That’d ensure it coming down somewhere this side of the Iron Curtain.’
With a sudden uplift of the heart Mary realised that he was on the brink of surrendering to her. Grasping him by the arms she pulled him to his feet, gave him a quick kiss on the mouth, and cried, ‘Come on then! What are we waiting for?’
As though in a daze he let her pull him out of the cabin. Side by side they tiptoed down the tunnel. When they reached its far end he seemed to have got his wits about him again and to have made up his mind to take the desperate gamble she had urged upon him. As they came level with the pile of fuel drums he said hoarsely.
‘Get in among those. Keep watch for me. If you hear anyone coming tap lightly on one of the drums. Stay there till they’ve passed you, then sneak back to your cabin. If there has to be a show-down I’d as lief have you out of it.’
She pressed his hand and let him go forward, while she crouched down among the drums in a position where she was hidden by deep shadow but could see in both directions. To her left was the empty, dimly lighted curve of the lofty tunnel, to her right and thirty feet away the out-jutting platform of rock with the rocket now standing upright among its vaguely-seen tangle of launching gear.
Beyond it was darkness. Cloud had come down blotting out the stars, and wisps of grey mist swirled about the entrance to the cave. To the right the forge still glowed dully. She saw Wash go into the shed where it stood. For some minutes he remained there, presumably selecting the right tools for the job. While she crouched among the drums she prayed frantically. At last he reappeared. As he walked towards the rocket she turned to look in the opposite direction. Unheard by her a figure had come into view. Her heart missed a beat. Only twenty yards away, with silent tread, the Great Ram was approaching.