Triple (54 page)

Ken Follett

but the only way to the bridge was through the second deck. He would have to

take out -any soldiers in the cabins on his Own.

He looked back. Feinberg had retreated behind the galley, perhaps to

reload. He waited until Feinberg started shooting again, then got to his

feet. Firing wildly from the hip, he broke from behind the lifeboat and

dashed across the afterdeck to the ladder. Without breaking stride, he

jumped on to the fourth rung and scrambled up, conscious that for a few

seconds he made an easy target, hearing a clutch of bullets rattle on the

funnel beside him, until he reached the level of the upper deck and flung

himself across the walkway to fetch up, breathing hard and shaking with

effort, lying against the door to the officers' quarters.

"Stone the bloody crows," he muttered.

He reloaded his gun. He put his back to the door and slowly slid upright to

a porthole in the door at eye level. He risked a look. He saw a passage

with three doors on either side and, at the far end, ladders going down to

the mess and up to the chartroom. He knew that the bridge could be reached

by either of two outside ladders leading up from the main deck as well as

by way of the chartroom. However, the Arabs still controlled that part of

the deck and could cover the outside ladders; therefore the only way to the

bridge was this way.

He opened the door and stepped in. He crept along the passage to the first

cabin door, opened it, and threw in a grenade. He saw one of the enemy

begin to turn around, and closed the door. He heard the grenade explode in

the small space. He ran to the next door on the same side, opened it, and

threw in another grenade. It exploded into empty space.

There was one more door on this side, and he had no more grenades.

He ran to the door, threw it open, and went in Bring. There was one man

here. He had been firing through the porthole, but now he was easing his

gun out of the hole and turning around. Dickstein's burst of bullets sliced

him in half-

Dickstein turned and faced the open door, waiting. The door of the opposite

cabin flew open and Dickstein shot down the man behind it.

Dickstein stepped into the gangway, firing blind. There

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were two more cabins to account for. The door of the nearer one opened as

Dickstein was spraying it, and a body fell out

One to go. Dickstein waited. The door opened a crack, then closed again.

Dickstein ran down the gangway, and lacked open the door, sprayed the

cabm. There was no return fire. He stepped inside: the occupant had been

hit by a ricochet and lay bleeding on the bunk.

Dickstein was seized with a kind of mad exultation: he had taken the

entire dock on his own.

Next, the bridge. He ran forward along the gangway. At the far end the

companionway led up to the chartroom and down to the officere mess. He

stepped on to the ladder, looked up, and threw himself down and away as

the snout of a gun poked down at him and began to fire.

His grenades were gone. The man in the chartroom was impregnable to

gunfire. He could stay behind the edge of the companionhead and fire

blind down the ladder. Dickstein had to get on the ladder, for he wanted

to go up.

He went into one of the forward -cabins to overlook the deck and try to

assess the situation. He was appalled when he saw what had happened on

the foredeck: only one of the four men of Abbas!s team was still Bring,

and Dickstein could just make out three bodies. Two or three guns seemed

to be firing from the bridge at the remaining Israeli, trapping him

behind a stack of anchor chain. -

Dickstein looked to the side. Feinberg was still well afthe had not

managed to progress forward. And there was still no sign of the men who

had gone below.

The Fedayeen were well entrenched in the mess below him. From their

superior position they were able to keep at, bay the men on deck and the

men in the 'tweendeeks below them. The only way to take the mess would

be to attack it from all sides at once-including from above. But that

meant taking the bridge first. And the bridge was impregnable.

, Dickstein ran back along the gangway and out of the aft door. It was

still pouring rain, but there was a dim cold light in the sky. He could

make out Feinberg on one side and Dovrat on the other. He called out their

names until he caught their attention, then pointed at the galley. He

jumped from the walkway to the afterdeck, raced across it, and dove into

the galley.

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Ken FoUeff

They had got his meaning. A moment later they followed him in. Dickstein

said, "We have to take the mess."

"I don't see how," said Feinberg.

"Shut up and I'll tell you. We rush it from all sides at once: port,

starboard, below and above. First we have to take the bridge. I'm going to

do that. When I get there ru sound the foghorn. That will be the signal. I

want you both to go below and tell the men there."

"How will you reach the bridge?" Feinberg said.

Dickstein said, "Over the roof."

On the bridge, Yasif Hassan had been joined by Mahmoud and two more of his

Fedayeen, who took up firing positions while the leaders sat on the floor

and conferred.

'They can't win," Mahmoud said. "From here we control too much deck. They

can!t attack the mess from below, because the companionway is easy to

dominate from above. They can't attack from the sides or the front because

we can fire down on them from here. They can't attack from above because we

control the down companion. We just keep shooting until they surrender."

Hassan said, "One of them tried to take this companion a few minutes ago.

I stopped him."

"You were on your own up herer

"Yes."

He put his hands on Hassan's shoulders. "You are now one of the Fedayeen,"

he said.

Hassan voiced the thought that was on both their minds. "After thisr'

Mahmoud nodded. "Equal partners."

They clasped hands. -

Hassan repeated, "Equal partners."

Mahmoud said, "And now, I think they will try for that companionway

again-its their only hope."

"IT cover it from the chartroom," Hassan said.

They both stood up; then a stray bullet from the foredeck came in through

the glassless windows and entered Mahmoud's brain, and he died instantly.

And Hassan was the leader of the Fedayeen.

Lying on his belly, arms and legs spread wide for traction, Dickstein

inched his way across the roof. It was curved, and

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totally without handholds, and it was slick with rain. As the CoparelU

heaved and shifted in the waves, the roof tilted forward, backward, and from

side to side. All Dickstein could do was press himself to themetal and try

to slow his slide.

At the forward end of the roof was a navigation light. When he reached that

he would be safe, for he could hold on to it. His progress toward it was

painfully slow. He got within a foot of it, then the ship rolled to port

and he slid away. It was a long roll, and it took him all the way to the

edge of the roof. For a moment he hung with one arm and a leg over a

thirty-foot drop to the deck. The ship rolled a little more, the rest of

his leg went over, and he tried to dig the fingernails of his right hand

into the painted metal of the roof.

There was an agonizing pause.

The Coparelli rolled back.

Dickstein let himself go with the roll, sliding faster and faster toward

the navigation light.

But the ship pitched up, the roof tilted backward, and he slid in a long

curve, missing the light by a yard. Once again he pressed his hands and

feet into the metal, trying to slow himself down; once again he went all

the way to the edge; once again he hung over the drop to the deck; but this

time it was his right arm, which dangled over the edge, and his machine gun

slipped off his right shoulder and fell into a lifeboat.

She- rolled back and pitched forward, and Dickstein found himself sliding

with increasing speed toward the navigation light. ibis time he reached it.

He grabbed with both hands. The light was about a foot from the forward

edge of the roof. Immediately below the edge were the front windows of the

bridge, their glass smashed out long ago, and two gun barrels poking out

through them.

Dickstein held on to the light, but he could not stop his slide. His body

swung about in a wide sweep, heading for the edge. He saw that the front of

the roof, unlike the sides, had a narrow steel gutter to take away the rain

from the glass below. As his body swung over the edge he released his grip

on the navigation light, let himself slide forward with the pitch of the

ship, grabbed the steel gutter with his fingertips, and swung his legs down

and in. He came flying through the broken windows feet first to land in the

middle of the bridge. He bent his knees to take the shock of landing, then

straightened

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up. His submaebine gun bad been lost and he bad no time to draw his pistol

or his knife. There were two Arabs on the bridge, one on either side of

him,, both holding machine guns and firing down on to the deck. As

Dickstein straightened up they began to turn toward him their faces a

Picture of amazement.

Dickstein was fractionally nearer the one on the port side. He lashed out

with a kick which, more by luck than by judgment, landed on the point of

the man's elbow, momentarily paralyzing his gun arm. Then Dickstein

jumped for the other man. His machine gun was swinging toward Dickstein

just a split second too late: Dickstein got inside its swing. He brought

up his right hand in the most vicious two-stroke blow he knew: the heel

of his hand hit the point of the Arab's chin, snapping his head back for

the second stroke as Dickstein's band, fingers stiffened for a karate

chop, came down hard into the exposed flesh of the soft throat

Before the man could fall Dickstein grabbed him by the jacket and swung

him around between himself and the other Arab. The other man was bringing

up his gun. Dickstein lifted the dead man and burled him across the

bridge as the machine gun opened up 'Me dead body took the bullets and

crashed into the other Arab, who lost his balance, went backward out

through the open doorway and fell to the deck below.

There was a third man in the chartroom, guarding the companionway leading

down. In the three seconds during which Dickstein had been on the bridge

the man had stood up and turned around; and now Dickstein recognized

Yasif Hassan.

Dickstein dropped to a crouch, stuck out a leg, kicked at the broken door

which lay on the floor between himself and Hassan. The door slid along

the deck, striking Hassan!s feet. It was only enough to throw him off

balance, but as he spread his arms to recover his equilibrium Dickstein

moved.

Until this moment Dickstein had been like a machine, reacting reflexively

to everything that confronted him, letting his nervous system plan every

move without conscious thought, allowing training and instinct to guide

him; but now it was more than that. Now, faced with the enemy of all he

had ever loved, he was possessed by blind hatred and mad rage-

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