In the Eye of the Storm (Storm and Silence 2)

‘Yes! And I agree! With the bandits, we have one deadly danger to face already, we don’t need another! Now stay down!’

Bullets shot across the valley in deadly droves. From what I could see whenever I managed to raise my head long enough to catch a glimpse, the bandits were holding their own. Once, I saw Mr Ambrose at the other end of the line, commanding his men and shooting. But even his cold glare couldn’t drive the bandits away.

‘We aren’t winning, are we?’ I asked Youssef while he was reloading.

‘Have patience.’

‘That’s all very well for you to say! You’re not lying face-first in the dirt!’

‘You won’t have to lie down much longer! Look up!’

‘You just told me to stay down!’

‘Well, things are changing, Hanem. Look up!’

I did, just as the sound of more guns joined the cacophony of battle. Past all the smoke and shouting men and blazing guns, past everything up on the hills in the east, I saw riders appearing. A dozen? Two? No, soon there were more than that. They had to number at least a hundred, all sitting on camelback, and all shooting at our enemies.

‘What in God’s name is going on?’ I yelled over the noise of gunfire.

‘You didn’t think the explosives in the saddle bags were just a trap, did you?’ Youssef laughed. ‘The Effendi never does anything for just one reason. The explosion was a signal. More men have been following us ever since we left Alexandria, far enough away so nobody would notice, but close enough to hear a herd of exploding camels! I was slightly worried for a time that they had lost us in the sandstorm, but then the scouts made contact yesterday.’

‘He knew? He knew there were reinforcements, and he didn’t tell me?’

‘Yes.’

‘I’m going to kill him!’

‘Feel free to try, Hanem.’

As he spoke, more men started appearing to the west and the north. At a glance, I would have said they had to number at least three hundred. That bastard! That bloody, stone-faced, close-mouthed bastard!

Bandits were falling all over the place, shot in the back or in the sides. The ones left still alive cowered down in the sand, shooting wildly in all directions, their eyes wide with terror. For a supposedly timid caravan of traders, we were proving entirely too tough and nasty. Those who still had live camels underneath them kicked the animals into motion and darted towards the last few hills around the valley that were still free of attackers.

I scrambled to my feet.

‘Bloody hell! We can’t let them get away like that!’ I glared at Youssef. ‘Give me a gun!’

He shook his head. ‘I’m sorry, Hanem. I have my orders.’

Shooting him another glare, I bent down to pick up a good-sized pebble from the ground. ‘Good riddance!’ I hurled it after a retreating bandit. It squarely hit his camel on the rump. ‘Go bugger a banana!’

Only a few dozen yards away, I spotted Ambrose (the camel version), still loitering well away from the craters that had swallowed the fellow members of his species. The foxy old bugger! So he had survived, had he? Excellent! I started to run.

‘Hanem! Wait!’ a shout came from behind me. But I didn’t listen to Youssef. I wasn’t really in the mood to listen to anyone right now.

Just when I was about to swing myself up into Ambrose’s saddle, a rider on another camel shot past me. I only saw him in a blur, but there was no mistaking that black colour. All the other men wore the white burnous. And there was no mistaking his voice, either.

‘After them! Follow me, men!’

Cold. Hard. Commanding.

I pulled myself the rest of the way up into the saddle and urged Ambrose up and forward. It took me only moments to catch up to Mr Ambrose. When he glanced sideways at me, his face was still a kind of blur, constantly jerking around with the strange gait of the camel beneath him, but the ice in his eyes was clear enough.

‘I said follow me, men! In case I wasn’t clear enough, that didn’t include you!’

My eyes narrowed. ‘What do you want me to do? Stay back there?’ I jerked my hand at the empty desert behind us.

‘Yes. Right by that big rock.’ He waved dismissively at a sandstone formation. ‘We’ll come back when the bandits are dead.’