Rashid went forward and spoke to Bell. 'So, it goes forward?'

'It will if we can get on with it instead of having a lot of idiots in bed sheets interfering.'

Beside him stood a plastic bottle of water. Suddenly, there was a single shot and the bottle jumped into the air. Two of Paul Rashid's guards ran forward and pulled him and Kate to one side, turned them, and ran them to the Land Rover column. There was another shot and one of them, a bullet in his back, fell on his face.

On the top of the sand dune, Dillon looked through the glasses. 'It's Paul Rashid down there and Lady Kate. Who wrote this script?'

'I don't know, Dillon. What I do know is there's forty down there and two up here.'

'So live dangerously, Billy. I'll take the one on the left doing the wiring. You do the one on the right.'

He took careful aim and shot O'Hara, who had stood up, in the back. Brosnan was running, weaving, toward the column, and Billy got him in the lower spine, driving him forwards onto his face.

Paul Rashid looked up to the top of the sand dune, calm, controlled, adjusting his glasses, and caught a glimpse of the two men.

'Dear God, it's Dillon.'

He turned and called to his men as Bell arrived. 'Surround the dune,' he said in Arabic. 'And I want them alive.'

Dillon got his mobile out, called Villiers and brought him up to date.

Villiers said, 'Won't be long now, but can you hold?'

'There's two of us, Colonel, that's all.'

'Just hang on there, Dillon, I'll push like hell.'

'And Bronsby?'

'Trying just as hard from the other direction.'

'Well, I hope you all make it. They're coming up to get us right now.' He put the phone back in his breast pocket. 'Here we go, Billy.' He took careful aim and started to shoot at the Arabs climbing the dune.

Billy joined him. 'Listen, Dillon, if the Council of Elders lot turn up, all this shooting's going to put them right off.'

'Exactly, Billy. Let's pray Colonel Villiers gets here soon.'

But Villiers had done better than that. He cut the road ahead of the Council of Elders convoy, stopped them and spoke to their escort commander. The convoy turned and went back. Villiers carried on to Rama with his men.

Dillon and Billy burrowed in, confident of only one thing: they had the high ground. They shot several of the Rashid Bedu as they came up the sand dune, but they were still only two… and then in the far distance on the road, Villiers appeared.

One of Paul Rashid's men ran to his side and pointed. Rashid turned, focused his glasses and saw Tony Villiers in the lead Land Rover.

'Damn,' he said to Kate. 'It's the Hazar Scouts.'

'So, all we have down there is a totally useless bomb,' Kate said.

'Let's get out of here,' Paul Rashid said. 'And live to fight another day.'

His men retreated to the column, some firing up at the top of the sand dune. Billy and Dillon fired back, and then the column moved away and turned out into the desert.

Dillon lit a cigarette and checked the approach of Villiers and his men. 'Just in time, isn't that the phrase?'

They went down and found Villiers, as the Land Rovers rolled to a halt. Dillon said, 'We've got a bomb here. If you've got a pair of wire cutters, I'll take care of it for you.'

'So kind.' Villiers spoke to one of his men in Arabic. After a while, Dillon was supplied with what he needed.

Later, they sat beside the lead Land Rover, drank bitter black tea and smoked cigarettes.

'So, the Elders are safe,' Villiers said.

Dillon produced a pack of Marlboros and lit another one, Tony Villiers reached over and helped himself. 'I'll tell you, I may have commanded that man in the Gulf, but I'd still like to know what goes on inside his head.'

'Rashid?' Dillon said. 'Tell me, Colonel. You did Irish time. Remember Frank Barry?'

'Who could forget?'

'He also had a title. An Irish Peer, the Lord of Spanish Head up there on the Down coast, pots of money. But all that was important was what went on in his head. The game.'

'And you think that's true of Paul Rashid?'

'He's done everything else. He's got everything else. Yes, I'd say the one thing he's seriously left with is the game.'

'So, Bosworth Field is Rama today.'

It was Billy, the London gangster, who said, 'Dauncey, that was the family name?'

'That's right,' Dillon said.

'Well, they lost with Richard III and they lost with us.'

Dillon sat there thinking about it, then smiled. 'True, Billy, very true. Are you trying to make a profound point?' He turned to Villiers. 'Billy and I share a love of moral philosophy. So does Paul Rashid.'

'What I find really interesting is Sean Dillon, pride of the IRA, loving moral philosophy.'

'You didn't approve of my cause, Colonel, but I was just as much a soldier as you, and you know damn well that soldiers go beyond position, beyond money, beyond normal success. They stand up and take the sword.'

'To hell with you, Dillon,' Tony Villiers said. 'You're too damn good.'

They started west now, following the tracks of Rashid's column, and gradually the light changed, things got darker. Some miles away, Cornet Bronsby of the Blues and Royals approached with his men toward an improbable rendezvous and was suddenly under fire.

They responded at once. There was an exchange. The column they had reached head-on was Paul Rashid and his group on the retreat from Rama.

There was a brief return of fire, but Rashid's men held them off. Then Bronsby decided enough was enough and ordered his men to retreat. At some time in the confusion, men rushed in from the shadows and overwhelmed him.

Paul Rashid, his sister and Bell pushed south and finally made contact with George Rashid, and dis-covered Bronsby. Paul Rashid was not happy. He sat their with Kate and George and Bell, and Bronsby was brought forward.

In a way. it was like being back at Sandhurst.

This young decent Englishman was a soldier just doing his job. In many ways, so like Rashid. It was a kind of turning point he couldn't really explain to himself. All he knew was that this wasn't the way it was supposed to have happened…

'I know where they are,' Villiers said to Dillon. 'My spies out ahead are earning their money. One of their wounded has confirmed that they've caught Bronsby.'

Dillon said, 'That isn't good, is it?'

'No. They're a very cruel people by nature. What you and I think of as horrific, they think of as normal in a strange kind of way.'

Dillon said, 'So they're going to give him a hard time.'

'I'm afraid so.'

Dillon sat there, smoking a cigarette and thinking about it.

'I don't like that.' He said to Billy, 'Bronsby is what you'd call a posh git, but he was just doing his job.'

'Yeah, well, I don't like it either.'

He turned to Villiers. 'So where do we go?'

'I'd say Shabwa.'

'And what do we do? Take Rashid and the good Kate on face-to-face?'

'To a certain degree.' There was a pause and Villiers said, 'You like her, Dillon.'

'Who the hell wouldn't?' Dillon laughed and lit another Marlboro. 'Go and stuff yourself, Colonel, and let's press on, just in case we can help Bronsby.'

Outside Shabwa Oasis, cooking fires glowed and the Rashid Bedu held the high ground. Villiers and his men were exhausted, but they had enough energy to make something to eat. And then the screaming started. It was just after midnight and continued at intervals.

Up there on the hill, Paul Rashid, George and Kate approached to where Cornet Bronsby was tied down.

Kate said, 'Is this what you want, brother? He was one of your own, a Guardsman.'

'Yes, but that isn't the point.'

'It doesn't bother you?'

'It bothers me a great deal,' he said bitterly, 'but other things are more important.'

A full moon bathed the mountainside in a harsh white light. The men of the Hazar Scouts waited impassively behind what cover there was. They smoked cigarettes and drank the English version of coffee provided in self-heating cans.