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

‘No, Effendi. They are already in the gorge and marching towards the valley outside the cave.’ The man hesitated. ‘But there is another tunnel forking off from this one. It’s very narrow, but big enough for a man to crawl through, and I see light at the end. I think it comes out at the back of the mountain.’

‘Another way out?’ I frowned, disbelieving. ‘Why didn’t the bandits use it, then?’

‘If it’s as narrow as he says, they would have had to leave their plunder and supplies behind,’ Mr Ambrose dismissed my objection. ‘No sane man would put his life above his money.’

I exchanged a look with Youssef. Mr Ambrose and we probably had different views of what a sane man was. But who knew, perhaps the bandit leader had shared his opinion?

‘Karim, get up there!’ Without hesitation, the Mohammedan followed Mr Ambrose’s command. Leaning down out of the hole, the man up in the tunnel grabbed him by the hands and pulled. With some effort, he managed to pull the bodyguard’s huge form up far enough for him to grab the edge and pull himself up the rest of the way. The two of them up there were not able to fit side by side into the tunnel at the same time, so the lookout scrambled back into the passage.

‘Go down the tunnel!’ Mr Ambrose ordered Karim. ‘When you’ve gone through with no problem, we’ll know it’s large enough for the rest of us. Give us a signal, and we’ll know it’s safe to follow.’

Karim did his best to bow without ramming his head against the floor in the narrow space. ‘As you command, Sahib.’

Minutes of tense silence followed. When Karim’s shout of ‘Follow!’ finally came, we breathed out a collective sigh of relief. All of us except Mr Ambrose, of course. He would never waste breath in such a pointless manner.

‘Move!’ He gestured to the men to start climbing up. They rushed past him, one after the other being pulled up to the hole. Not one was tall enough to reach it by himself. When Youssef was about to go past, he stopped in his tracks.

‘What about you, Effendi? You should go before me.’

‘On the contrary. I am in charge. I should go last.’

‘But Effendi…’

‘That is an order, Youssef! Move, I said!’

Reluctantly, Youssef let himself be pulled up into the tunnel. We had about half the men safely on their way, when I thought I heard something.

‘Stop!’ I raised my hand.

Everyone froze.

‘In case you have forgotten,’ Mr Ambrose told me with a cold glare, ‘I am the one in charge here. Move, men!’

‘Just stop and listen for a moment! Do you hear that?’

We all listened, and then we heard it: The thud, thud, thud of marching feet, coming down the big tunnel.

‘As I said,’ Mr Ambrose repeated, his voice even colder and harder. ‘Move! Now!’

Everyone started running. Men almost ripped their arms out of their sockets trying to lift the ones behind them up as fast as possible. More and more men scrambled up the wall towards freedom, and all the while, the sound of marching feet came closer and closer. Finally, there were only two people down there.

‘You first,’ Mr Ambrose told me in a voice that brooked no argument.

Well, frankly, I didn’t give a damn[30] what his voice brooked or did not brook!

‘No! You go first!’

‘I gave you an order!’

‘And I don’t bloody care! Look at these!’ I lifted my arms, then gestured at his tall form. ‘I’m flattered that you think so highly of my strength, but do you honestly think I’ll be able to lift you up there?’

‘You won’t need to. He will.’ Mr Ambrose gestured to the man waiting at the hole in the wall, his hands outstretched.

‘Once I’m up there, he won’t be able to get around me! The space is too narrow!’

‘He could… I could…’ Mr Ambrose trailed off. His eyes flicked from me to the hole in the wall and back again. ‘I can’t leave you down here to be the last one! You have to go first!’

‘Why? Because I’m a girl?’ I put my fists on my hips. ‘This isn’t the right time to be a chauvinist! Get your stony butt up there right now!’