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telescopes. The great dish shapes were only faintly discernible in the light
of a waning moon and a thousand stars. Only when Mrs. Bekuv reached the place
where her husband was standing did her garbled cries become comprehensible. It
was Russian. I could pick out a few phrases here and there: "The girl is dead.
Who would have done it if not you? Who can I tell, who can I tell?& I hate
you& Why did she have to die?& If only it had been me& " Many of them were
repeated in that grief-stricken litany with which humans numb their minds to
anguish.
"It wasn't me, and it wasn't any of the Arabs," said Bekuv, but his voice did
nothing to calm her, and soon he began to contract the very hysteria that he
was trying to cure.
He shouted and slapped her across the face very hard, the way they do it in
old Hollywood films but it only made her worse. She was struggling now,
hitting, punching, and kicking him, so that he had to hold her very close to
restrain her. It was like trying to cage a wildcat. Half a dozen Arabs had
come out to watch the struggle, and four men at the controls of the
dish Russian technicians stopped their work to see what was happening. But
none of them did anything to part the couple.
I turned away from the window and looked at Red. "She's done you proud," I
said. "No one could have asked for a better performance."
"She loves me," said Red. Her voice was matter-of-fact.
"And you?"
"I don't love anyone," she said. "My analyst says I'm bisexual. He doesn't
understand. I'm neuter."
"You don't have to hate yourself," I said. "You've brought no harm to her."
"No," she said scornfully. "I've taken her away from her husband, she'll
never again see her grownup son. If we all get out of this alive, she'll be a
KGB target forever and ever. And what have I given her in return nothing but a
good time in bed and a lot of worthless promises."
I looked down into the central yard. Two Arab guards were restraining Mrs.
Bekuv. She was still talking to her husband, but I couldn't hear the words.
Red came to the window and looked down, too.
"She'll do it," I said.
"Yes, she'll do it," said Red, "She's incredibly clever with everyone except
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with me."
"What's the matter?" I said.
"I can't go down that rope. I'm frightened of heights& I get dizzy just
looking down into this yard here."
"I'll tie it around you and lower you down. Keep your eyes closed and you'll
be all right."
"Will he come up here looking for the corpse?" she asked.
"Perhaps but not until he's finished his transmission. And that will take
hours."
She went to the other window and looked down at the sand far below. Dempsey
and Mann had already left but they were not to be seen. "And the sentries?"
"Stop worrying," I said. I went across to her and put my arm around her
waist. It was no more than a brotherly gesture, and she did not shrink away
from me as she held done earlier.
"I'm sorry," she said. "We both lost out but now I'm beginning to think maybe
I lost more than you did."
"Let's get the rope around you," I said. "It won't get any darker than this."
The night air was cool, but underfoot the sand was warm, and soft enough to
make progress slow and difficult. Even with the stars to guide us, we lost our
way after the moon disappeared. The sandhills, like some great rolling ocean
transfixed forever, shone in the dusty starlight.
There was no sound; it must have been flying very high. There was a flash
like that of an electrical storm, and a rumble like thunder. Anywhere else and
we would have written it off as a thunderstorm, put up our umbrellas, and
waited for the rain. But this was a thousand miles deep into the Sahara.
"Smart bomb," said Mann. "You put a laser beam from aircraft to target and
let the bomb slide down the beam."
"Unless you can persuade the target to put up a beam for you," I said.
Red said nothing. Ever since we'd caught up with Mann and Dempsey she'd been
walking a few paces behind us. Several times I saw her turning around hoping
to see Mrs. Bekuv there.
The sound of the explosion rumbled across the empty desert and then came
rolling back again, looking for a place to fade away. I waited for Red to
catch up. I put my arm out, offering to help her, but without a word she
limped past me, sometimes sliding in the soft steep dune. After the explosion
she didn't look back again.
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