A Bridge Of Magpies (10 page)

Jutta gathered up the figurine and the broken seashells. Fine,'
I
said to Denny. 'You've done your stuff, both temporally and spiritually.
I
couldn't care less. What
I
care about
is
that both of you are defying the law.
This is Sperr-
gebiet!
Get going I'

'You can't - not now ! Jutta was incredulous.

'Now's just the time.'

'Not when everything's going my way

`What way is that?'

She didn't answer. What had been brewing inside me, ever since our breather-stop, lashed back at me.
I
went on, 'You had a lot of show-me wishes.
I
obliged. The party's over.'

`Struan I '

There was more than disappointment and anger in that one word-it could have been hurt.
I
bulldozed it aside.

'This shore isn't a free-for-all. You both seem to have forgotten that. Now let's get moving to the boat? Ànd then?' All feeling had left her voice.

`Luderitz. Kaptein Denny will take you back?

'That "will" sounds exactly like a re-tread captain's order.' '

Re-tread or not, it's an order. I'm also confiscating all
68

this stuff until I can go through it'

'I'm staying That's flat!'

'What have you got to say-Kaptein Denny?'

'I agree to return to
Gaok.
There's no law against a man sitting in his boat in the channel. Merely sitting.'

He was right, of course, Essentially he was saying the same thing as Jutta, but more cleverly.

I was saved by the bell from further argument I heard Koch's Land-Rover before they did, because I was expecting him. It was grinding through an outcrop barrier behind the sandhills, and trailing a long plume of dust.

I pointed it out to them; and tried bluffing, because I didn't want Koch to come and find me unable to shift a girl and a fisherman from the beach.

'That's probably a diamond patrol. You're in a hot seat. You can save yourselves trouble by coming to the boat right away.'

'I'll give you my word not to
come
ashore,' said Kaptein Denny.

'And you, Jutta?'

'No.'

There was a tight silence. Then she exclaimed. 'You don't .. can't . . . understand! It would take hours to explain. You'

ve been wonderful–and beastly–today.'

'The boat'

'Oh, damn and blast you!'

Kaptein Denny said, 'That's not
a
police patrol. Their vehicles are painted bright orange so they can be spotted from their air if they're in trouble.'

Koch broke it up by coming round the sandhills in a tearaway slide. He'd clearly sighted our group. There wasn't much of
his
Austrian charisma in evidence when he finally pulled up hard and covered us in dust.

'What the devil goes on here-Struan? Showing tourists around?'

'Keep your cool. We were just sorting things out.' '

A woman tool'

He'd had a rough ride over the desert, judging from his red, hollow eyes and dust-covered face. His cheeks were stubble-shadowed; and dust made a tracery in the lines about his 'nose, making him look angry and older. A roof tar69 paulin covering his gear and extra jerricans of petrol had blown loose and flapped in the wind, drawing attention to the load.

Koch saw that Kaptein Denny was eyeing it and snapped, '

Get in. I want a word with you.'

`To the boat,' I ordered the other two; but they just went on standing there. Koch slammed in the gears and we drove up a dune-out of earshot,

I got in first. 'Now . . I gave him a quick rundown of the situation and why Jutta was there.

'Be your age, man!' he retorted. 'Women in these days don't dare deserts simply in order to brood over sites of minor naval actions and placate ancestral spirits! Lady Hester Stanhope's dead!'

'Maybe she's different.'

'They all are–to start with. To the birds today the male is simply a gun loaded with chauvinism and sperm. Get that straight and you'll be
a
happy man.'

`Her story sounded okay–at least part of it.'

Wive la difference!
Nor did I like the look of that bugger with her.'

'Maybe he's at the bottom of it all. I don't know yet.'

'Letting her down lightly
again,
Struan? You were given a job to do here–remember? The Sperrgebiet isn't Santorin-all lesbians and love-ins.'

'I like your language when you're drunk. It's even better when you're mad. What do you want me to do?' '

Arrest them both. Throw them out.'

'Kaptein Denny's given his parole – well, sort of. Isn't interested in coming ashore. This once was an exception.' 'And she?'

'Refuses to budge.'

'You've got a lock-up on Possession.'

'You can't throw a woman into a place like that,'

'I can. You will.'

'Let's see if we can't talk some sense into her.'

But we couldn't, and she even held out her wrists and mocked me to clap handcuffs on her. Without a boat Possession is as good as a prison anyway. Those two or three miles of white-capped channel water between the island and the mainland would, if a man were stuck there, lengthen to two thousand. The island looked like a nicked knife 70

blade lying in the sea, one of those curved things that have a thick back. The craggy bits, where the zombies hadn't managed to clear the guano, were still white, and the rest was grey where they had. Parts of the island were so low against the water that they looked like three or four islets loosely linked together.

Finally, under pressure and protest, Jutta agreed to
accom-
pany
us. She remained adamant in her refusal to return to Luderitz

The four of us, plus Breekbout, piled into the two boats and we crossed to the island.

71

C H A P T E R . S I X

'Welcome to the commune'

Jutta eyed the guano-splashed prefabs, and didn't answer for a moment. The pissy wind came cascading over the rocks, and bits of feathers and nests made unerringly for one's eyes and nostrils. It was about mid-afternoon. In an hour or two the fog would start coming in. When it did, the wind would fall. The huts were sited under the lee of the island's northernmost high point, which–instead of giving shelter –acted acted more
as a
booster to jack up the force of the wind, breaking it up into eddies which searched out every nook and cranny and brought a continual avalanche of debris. You couldn't escape-whichever way you faced.

We were all standing on the concrete apron near the jetty

'Which is the jail?' Jutta demanded.

'The whole place is a jail,' Koch retorted. 'You've got an exercise yard over two miles long and half a mile broad. But don't get ideas. The most level bit is what you're standing mi.'

I added, 'Careful over the rocks. They get very slippery because of the guano and the fog. They're like ice every morning?

'Every
morning? You've only been here . . Breekbout muttered something and he and Kaptein Denny grinned.

I translated the patois, as it was obvious the crack was directed at her.

'He says, please stay the winter and you'll grow webs on your feet like the birds-from climbing the rocks, He's never seen a woman with webbed feet . .

'Save it!' It made her angrier.

Koch, too-was becoming more irritated. He pulled me away from the others to the headman's cottage where they couldn't overhear us.

'What sort of white-shoe captain are you?' he demanded. 72

'Don't blow your bilges. What the hell do you expect me to do with
her?'

'Spell it out. Spell it out to both of them that they aren't staying. Throw 'em out.'

'They've heard that already. She won't budge. I can't stop Kaptein Denny anchoring his boat and just sitting.'

`That bastard has a racket. I don't buy that yarn of his. He isn't at Doodenstadt for a full frontal view of the scen'Don't get your knickers in a twist. I can't touch him; not legally anyway.'

'Find a reason; invent one if you must. If he gets back to Luderitz hell spread the rumour.'

'Welt
do
something, for crying in a bucket 1 I'm not going to start operations with Kaptein Denny watching every move I make. Get rid of him!'

'I believe the girl's story –the the part of it she told me. She wasn't acting for my benefit. But it wasn't the whole story, I'

m certain. Whatever Kaptein Denny's racket
is,
he's
using
her as a front for it.'

'Your concern for her is so touching. You make me want to cry! Listen, man! There's a lost city under these rocks. Treasure, probably. If Denny gets back to Luderitz the whole security screen
is
blown. Sky-high. He'll manufacture just the situation the C-in-C is trying to avoid. Well have a queue of bums, no-goods, wide boys–they'll be here like flies. Trump up a reason to hold him;

'For how long? Months?'

'Get on the blower to the C-in-C if you feel you can't cope.'

'First day in command and I can't solve my own problems without running to the boss! Never!'

'Here's a way-Struan. Take the girl to Luderitz in your official boat You can make it in less than a day. Dump her. Make a few discreet inquiries; try to get some dirt on Denny. It can be done: the top brass there has been ordered to feather-bed you.

'She'll kick up hellish rough.'

'The scratching and kicking won't last more than a day. Then you can push the cat over the side and have done with it'

'And leave Kaptein Denny to go scot-free while I'm away?'. 73

'No.
I'll
stay, right here on Possession. I'll answer for
him
until you get back. Breekbout can stand turns on guard with

'I suppose it's okay. However, he did promise he wouldn't go ashore:

'Not while
we
watch, he won't. But half the bloody day and all the night there's fog. You won't ever
know
where he is. There's a lot of craftiness there, boy, make no mistake:

'Kaptein Denny

'You always give him his title, I notice.'

'There's something about him. Something out of the ordinary. Don't ask me what: all I know, it's there:

'That makes him dangerous. We've got to break up this lost city party of theirs, Struan?

'You're sending flowers before the funerals.'

'Maybe. I like flowers better than funerals.'

'Funerals . . I told him about the graveyard. 'I've never known Malays use sea shell ornaments before.'

'It's just one more sound reason why we should lock him up. It could have something to do with his racket,' '

What do you
think
that is, Hellmut?'

'My guess is that he's got a lead on the lost city and
is
playing the zip-lip with his dumb fisherman act'

'Brace yourself; let's go and tell 'em our verdict.'

Jutta, Kaptein Denny and Breekbout were hunkered down, drinking coffee in the cheerless bunkroom in front of a small cast-iron stove. There wasn't any proper furniture.
A
few boxes and packing cases served as chairs and tables. There was a big stove in the galley to
meet
the needs of scores of guano workers but it was too much trouble for Breekbout. I helped myself to
a
pint-sized chipped mug and a biscuit. We'd missed our lunch ashore. I moistened my throat with a couple of sips and told them what I intended. I didn't beat about the bush. Jutta took it quietly, eyeing me
as
she remained squatting, cup in hand. But I saw the tension in her eyes:
I
wondered how much pressure she would stand. Kaptein Denny remarked in a neutral kind of way,

gave you my parole I wouldn't go ashore.'

'Bull!'

Koch laughed derisively before
I
cut him short.

'Will your boat be safe where she lies? I won't be
away
74

'more than a couple of days.'

He shot me a glance of appreciation. -The
holding
ground
is
good where she
is.
Mud and shell in five
fathoms. Just
outside the line of the main channel. There's a rock which I
use as a
sort of
ansteuringstonne.'
He used the word quite naturally but it brought me a fresh rush of suspicion regarding the seamy-faced skipper.
Ansteur-
ingstonne
means an approach buoy. But it's U-boat jargon.
Jima
said, 'I'd like to collect my things from Kaptein Denny's boat.'

I was relieved to be able to break up the tight group Is there anything you want, Kaptein Denny?'

'Not
immediately?

Jutta and I used the whaleboat to cross to the cutter. I was equally relieved to exchange the ammoniacal
stink
of
Posses-
sion
for the varnished smell of
Gaok's
mahogany cabin. Jutta spoke only once on the trip across. She'd been viewing the old liner and the shoreline
as
though to photograph them in her memory.

'Will I see this tomorrow before
we
leave?'

'Maybe. Depends on the fog.'

She bit
her
lips. I had the impression I'd pumped the tension
a
littJe
nearer
exploding-point.

While she collected her things from the inner cabin I made a quick check of the anchor cables and then the bridge.
Gaok
was
a
honey and I'd have loved to have owned her. I finally went below into the main cabin and opened the mahogany bar,

Jutta came into
the
doorway.

'What are you doing?'

'Brandy,' I said. 'The Possession party may need a bit of livening up this evening.'

'Do you always help yourself to whatever you want aboard somebody else's ship?'

'Always. It's in the blood. I come
from a long line of
wreckers.'

She
opened her mouth, then bit back whatever she'd meant to say.

I added, 'I aJso intend to make a thorough search.' 'You've no right!' she flared. You're abusing your position, Me first, then him— I mean, his ship— when
he isn't here
75