The monk’s eyes softened and he bowed. ‘Now go,’ he hissed.
Chiru led them away to the left, hugging the base of the hills and staying low among the boulders. The slight figure of the young Tibetan seemed to merge with the rocks around him and he moved silently over stone and scree. Jamie, with his arm supporting Sarah’s weight, struggled to keep up. When they had gone thirty paces the gunfire resumed and he knew that Tenzin was drawing the attention and fire of the Chinese. His mind counted down the seconds to the inevitable explosion and it came half a minute later, but the bomb must have fallen short because the shooting continued without pause. Chiru hissed at them and he guessed the boy was telling them to hurry. He risked one last look backwards but all he could see was rocks.
He knew that back in the clearing, Tenzin would be issuing his orders to his guerrillas. In his mind he saw the young men check their weapons. This day was always going to come. In some ways it was a comfort to them to be dying in the company of their friends. Better this than to die in the cold on some bleak mountainside with only prayers for companionship. He waited for the inevitable, saw the bomb arcing towards them, a black blob against the blue sky, first slow, then incredibly fast as it passed the top of its flight and plummeted down. His body cringed as he heard the blast and imagined the carnage in that confined space among the rocks.
This time the explosion was followed by silence and Jamie had to force himself to keep moving and not think about what was happening behind them. Sarah seemed to be drifting in and out of consciousness. Her body was almost a dead weight and combined with the weapon he carried made it almost impossible to maintain pace with their guide. Chiru moved out of sight around a buttress projecting from the hill and he resolved to call the young Tibetan back to help out. By the time he dragged Sarah to the corner Chiru was forty paces ahead. As Jamie opened his mouth to shout, a figure in grey-green camouflage rose silently from the left of the path and took aim at the Tibetan’s back. Jamie brought up the assault rifle and dropped Sarah in the same movement. The Chinese commando heard the sound of her outraged protest and half turned as the gun kicked in Jamie’s hands, a four-round volley that stitched the soldier from belly to chest and threw him back among the boulders. Chiru turned, his face pale, and ran to where the man lay groaning by the path.
The boy looked at Jamie and called something in Tibetan. When the Briton didn’t move he retrieved the commando’s spare magazines and threw them towards him. Jamie picked them up and stuffed them in his belt, then pulled Sarah to her feet. Her eyes rolled like the numbers in a slot machine and it was clear she barely knew where she was. Chiru took her other arm and they set off without another word.
The mortar blast threw Tenzin against the base of the hill in an eruption of heat and flame and his ribs cracked as he hit the rocks. For a few seconds he lay stunned, but when he looked up at least one of his men was still firing. He struggled to his knees as the staccato clatter of the machine guns rent the air. His padded jacket was torn in several places and blood and body parts painted the area where the bomb had fallen. The Tibetan was only alive because two of the guerrillas had taken the brunt of the explosion. One more was dead, and two others too badly wounded to fight, but a second man dragged himself to his feet and began firing at the commandos. Tenzin crawled to one of the men and filled his pockets with the Chinese-manufactured grenades he carried. Then he picked up his rifle and set off after Jamie.
* * *
Jamie had no idea where Chiru was leading them, all he could do was put his faith in the Tibetan. The firing resumed, which meant at least one of the guerrillas had survived the latest mortar blast, but he doubted they would last long against a sustained Chinese attack. The commando he had shot must have been one of the original group who had been tracking them, possibly sent ahead while the rest dealt with the two-man ambush Tenzin had set. That meant the others would be coming this way. Tenzin had said Chiru knew a way out, but if they didn’t find it soon it would be too late. The young Tibetan pushed ahead without speaking, dragging Sarah’s arm, but gradually he slowed and Jamie understood he was looking for something. Chiru searched the rock at the base of the hill with a puzzled frown.
‘Christ, don’t tell me he’s looking for a cave.’
Sarah’s eyes focused on him for a moment. ‘What?’
‘I think he’s looking for a bloody cave.’ Jamie heard the hysteria in his own voice. ‘It’ll take them about five minutes to find us.’
She muttered something before her head slumped forward again. He smoothed back the hair on her brow. ‘What did you say, Sarah?’