I waved dazedly back. I was just beginning to catch up on Luiz's plotting.

Then she saw the dark bruise on my chin. 'Did that happen when you crashed?'

'No. Just a couple of short conversations widi die Air Force.'

She spun round on Ned. 'Where's a first-aid box?'

He shrugged. 'He doesn't need one. It'll get better with time. If he has any time.' Then somediing clicked and he satup straight. 'Christ -she was why… you knewshe was here. You didn't want to leave a single Vamp alive and shooting.' He leant back in his chair. 'I never thought I'd seeyou take a risk for anybody else, Keith.'

J.B. was looking puzzled. 'What's this all about?' Luiz said sadly: 'In order to stopthélast jet taking off, we had to collide with it. Carr was most brave. He totally forgot I was also on board.'

Whitmore whistled softly. 'So that's how come you lost the ship, huh? Well, we can get another.'

'Another?'

'Ned was sitting up straight again. 'Hell, yes. I got a picture to make.' He frowned and poured himself more beer. 'But would've been better to use the same one that took part in a revolution. Great publicity angle.'

Ned was staring at him as if he'd turned green and bug-eyed. Then he leaned back again, shaking his head in bewilderment. Finally, he said: 'Well, all your actors are here. Did any of you remember to bring a script?'

Whitmore waved the pistol. But I said: 'It's a fair question: wheredo we go from here?'

'Hell, we just bust through the Jiminez downtown. It ain't cordoned off except up around the radio station.'

I shook my head. 'You can do what you damn like – but I'm getting J.B. out of the country. There's a lot of shooting yet to come.'

She smiled, frowned, grinned, scowled – a fast flip through the whole expressions catalogue. 'It's a nice thought, Keith, but-'

Luiz said firmly: 'The old town is cordoned off, by now. Boscogave the orders upstairs, when he heard Jiminez had taken the radio. That is his tactic now: to pin Jiminez down -and to wait. For some jets to become serviceable, to see which way the Army jumps. And the longer he makes Jiminez wait, the less chance Jiminez has of a popular uprising. People do not jump on a bandwagon that is not moving.' And his face was suddenly old, tired; the face of a man who has heard the chariot pass him by. 'It will take time, now. Better get out, Walt.'

Whitmore frowned. 'Yeah? Hell – and we got to be back onthe picture day after tomorrow.'

Luiz smiled a little crookedly. 'And of course, there is that.' Ned was looking at Whitmore, still not quite believing in him. 'This is just a couple of days' holiday from moviemaking – that right, matey?'

'Button up. I got an investment to protect.'

'Aninvestment?'

Isaid: 'He means he's in it for the money, same as you.'

That got me stiff looks from both – but I was still right. It was just cash that had put them on opposite sides. If it had brought them together, they'd have had a perfect understanding.

Whitmore rubbed the slight bristle on his chin with the pistol. 'Well, I guess if it ain't going to finish today, we better pull out.' He sounded honestly reluctant. There must have been bars and brothels he'd hated to leave before closing time, just because he had a picture to make in the morning. But he'd always left. He was a pro – in his own way. 'So, how do we do it? – If the old town's sealed off?'

'You don't,' Ned said. 'You're stuck.' He stood up and held out a hand. 'Like me to take over now – or you want to wait for the shooting?'

Whitmore looked at him. J.B. said quickly: 'There's still the civil airport. Jiminez said there wasn't any fighting up there – and there's a Pan Am flight for Kingston due just after eleven.'

I said: 'If Pan Am knows there isn't any fighting there. They'll probably overfly us.'

'Anyway,' Luiz said, 'it will be booked five times over already. And it would not be a good place to be stranded. It is just a little obvious.'

There was a short, thoughtful silence.

I said: 'That brings us back to the Dove – wherever it may be.'

Ned said: 'Get stuffed.'

'In case you hadn't noticed, you're down to corporal already, Ned. You haven't been exactly a ball of fire even as a jailer, have you? You could be up against the wall with us. Now let's get to hell out of this country.'

He considered me carefully. 'Keith – you don't understand, do you? It ain't just getting me throat cut – but I had a reputation, too. I was a damn good war pilot. You busted that. But we'll have two Vamps serviceable in forty-eight hours. I'vegot to stay for that. I'vegot to pick up the pieces. Or I'm finished. I'll never get another job again.'

In the silence, J.B. said: 'Are we talking about your aeroplane, Keith? Jiminez told us it had been moved over to the air base.'

I nodded. 'So now we know.'

Ned smiled f aintly. 'The old man liked it: had it done up and's been using it as his personal plane.' He nodded at Whit-more. 'Now let's seehim act the scene where he breaks into the big well-defended air base and swipes the General's private aeroplane.'

A phone buzzed.

'Or,' he added, 'ask Boscofor permission. Now's your chance.'

I was on my feet, holding out a hand at Whitmore. 'Give me a gun. He'll believe I'll kill him.' Then I swung Ned's own revolver at him. 'All right – dear old pal. Talk us out of this.'

He eyed the squat, heavy Magnum. 'You nevercould hit a hangar at five paces, Keith.'

I clamped both hands on the gun. 'I'll come as close as it needs and shoot as often as it takes – if you're theman who getsher caught in this town.'

The phone buzzed again – longer.

He waved his hands and his head. 'I didn't think I'd see a pro like you become so bloody amateur.'

Then he stood up, took a deep breath, and snatched up the phone. 'Hello – General?… Sorry, I been in the bathroom…' Luiz leant in cautiously, listening hard.

I kept the revolver pointed at Ned.

He didn't say much, just grunts and a 'yes' and a 'no'. A few geological eras passed. Then he banged the phone down again, glanced contemptuously at Luiz, and said: 'You tell 'em.'

Luiz said evenly: 'The General is going with Capitán Miranda to the base. Señor Rafter is to wait here with hisprisoners. A firing squad is on call downstairs in case…' He shrugged delicately.

Whitmore said: 'So, what now?'

'We wait,' I said. 'Just long enough to let Boscoget settled in his office out there. Then we take Ned's car out, Ned helps us bluff past the guards on the gate, we find the Dove, we climb in -zoom.'

Ned stared incredulously. 'You're barmy.'

'Ned – what have you got to stay for? When Boscofinds out you faked that phone call, you'll be ten ranks below corporal and six feet under ground.'

'No-o.' He shook his head slowly. 'I can bluff that out. Your Hollywood pals could've come inafter the call. One way or another, you won't be around to say they didn't. And Boscoain't going to believehim.' He jerked his head at the guard, squirming around on the sofa and trying to remember which end of the sky had fallen on him. 'So what's your script say now, Keith? Stick a gun in me guts and tell me to drive you through the gate or else…? It always works in the movies.'