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and the rattle of the anchor chain and there was a roaring in his ears.
     
     
Katina was there, her arms around him and Yanni, his face white with excitement. She led him to the jeep and the boy opened the door and Lomax slumped into the passenger seat.
     
     
She climbed behind the wheel and leaned across to wipe blood from his face. "Are you all right?" she asked calmly.
     
     
He could feel her hand trembling and he held it for a moment and smiled. "A good thing Kytros arrived when he did. I'm getting a little old to be playing that kind of game."
     
     
She drove away quickly, scattering the crowd, and turned the jeep expertly into the narrow side street.
     
     
"Where are we going?" he said.
     
     
"To the hotel for your things. Afterwards I'll take you out to the villa. Oliver would want me to."
     
     
She turned into the square and braked to a halt in front of the hotel. As she started to get out, Lomax laid a hand on her arm. "Not you, only me." He climbed down and walked round to the other side. "I could do with some tune to think this thing out."
     
     
She looked down at him gravely. "Just as you like."
     
     
"Are you going to keep Yarmi with you?"
     
     
She nodded. "I think it would be better."
     
     
He smiled and ran his fingers through the boy's tousled hair. "We'll find you another dog, Yanni."
     
     
He moved between the tables and just as he reached the door she called to him. When he turned he saw that she was unfastening a chain that hung around her neck.
     
     
She threw it to him, liquid gold in the sun, and he caught it, closing his hand over it at once, knowing what it was.
     
     
"I give you back your courage," she said, and drove away very quickly.
     
     
He went into the cool darkness, aware of Anna's frightened face peering at him from the kitchen doorway and the stairs seemed to stretch into eternity.
     
     
When he reached his room, he closed the door very carefully and stood with his back against it staring at his clenched right hand with the two ends of gold chain hanging down. After a while, he opened it gently and looked at the small bronze coin that bore the face of Achilles.
     
     
A long time ago, he thought. A hell of a long time ago. He lit a cigarette and went and lay on his back on the bed and stared blindly into the past.
     
     

Book Two

Cover of Darkness
     
It was the throb of the diesels that brought Lomax awake with a start. He lay there for a moment on the bunk, staring up at the steel bulkhead, a slight frown on his face as he tried to remember where he was.
     
     
After a while, something clicked and he pushed himself up on one elbow. Alexias was sprawled in a canvas chair in the far corner watching him.
     
     
The Greek removed the cigarette that smouldered between his lips and grinned. "You talk in your sleep, my friend. Did you know that?"
     
     
"That's all I needed," Lomax said. "Have you got one of those to spare?"
     
     
The Greek nodded and rose to his feet. He was a big,.dangerous looking man badly in need of a shave and his massive shoulders swelled under the blue reefer jacket. "I think that maybe you've been playing this game too long," he said as he gave Lomax a cigarette and struck a match.
     
     
"Haven't we all?"
     
     
Before the Greek could reply, the curtain was pulled back and Sergeant Boyd appeared with two cups of coffee. He gave one to Alexias and the other to Lomax ùwho took a sip and grimaced. "Everything tastes of submarine. I don't know how they put up with it."
     
     
Boyd was a big, dependable northerner with the ribbon of the Military Medal sewn neatly into place above his left breast pocket beneath the SAS wings.
     
     
"We've just surfaced," he said. "Commander Swansea asked me to tell you to be ready to go in fifteen minutes."
     
     
"Is all the gear ready?"
     
     
Boyd nodded. "I had to occupy myself somehow. Couldn't sleep. Never can in these things."
     
     
"How do you feel?" Lomax asked.
     
     
"About the