A Time to Die

He looked up again at the approaching Hind. It was very close.

It was almost time, He would not warn her. He would simply kiss her one last time and then Suddenly Sean's eyes narrowed. Something about the Hind's silhouette was different. It was coming in swiftly, swelling in size before his eyes, and he felt the first stirring of a new excitement as he realized what had been changed on the helicopter.

"There is still a chance," he whispered to her. "A small chance, but we are going to take it. Come here, Mi

"Hold her," Sean whispered, and he lifted the back of the child's short, ragged skirt. Under the skirt she wore a pair of blue panties.

Sean pulled open the elastic top of the underpants and pushed something down into them, something as round and black as one of her little buttocks between which it nestled.

"Keep that for me, little one," he whispered to the child in Shangane as he adjusted the waistband. "It's a secret. Don't take it out. Just keep it there. Will you do that for me, my little flower?"

Mi

The sound of the Hind's turbos was almost unbearably shrill as it came in toward them at the level of the hilltop. When it was two hundred meters out, Alphonso opened fire with his AK rifle, pouring a full magazine into the front canopy. The light bullets left no mark on the armored glass, and the helicopter slowed and hung motionless on its shining rotor. General China was sitting up in the high-backed seat of the weapons cockpit, so close they could clearly see the triumphant smirk on his face as he lifted the microphone to his mouth.

His grossly magnified voice boomed out of the speakers of the "sky shout" system slung below the helicopter's stubby wings.

"Good morning, Colonel Courtney. You have led me a merry dance, but the chase is over Tell your men to lay down their weapons, please."

"Do it!" Sean shouted at Alphonso, but he snarled a protest and clipped a fresh magazine onto his rifle. "Do as I tell you!" Sean's voice hardened. "I have a plan. Trust me."

Still Alphonso hesitated. Suddenly the Hind's Gatling ca

"Don't try my patience, Colonel. Tell your men to stand up with their hands high above their heads."

"Do it!" Sean repeated, and first Matatu and then Alphonso rose slowly to their feet, arms held high.

"Tell them to turn around. I want to make sure they have no surprises for me."

They shuffled in a circle, and China's voice boomed out again.

"Take your clothes off, all of them."

Slowly they stripped themselves and stood naked before him.

"All right, now move down the hill into the open."

With their hands held high they walked down into the open ground below the crown of rocks.

"Now the two women."

"Be brave," Sean whispered to Claudia. "We've still got a chance, a good chance."

Claudia stood up slowly.

"Miss Monterro." China's voice echoed across the forest tops.

"Will you be good enough to remove your clothing?"

Briskly, defiantly, Claudia unbuttoned her ragged shirt and pulled it over her tousled head. Her breasts were white in the early sunlight.

"Now your trousers," China encouraged her. She let them drop around her ankles and kicked them off.

"Very good, and now the rest of it."

Claudia's lace panties had been washed and worn until they were wispy as spiderweb; her pubic triangle was a dark shadow under the filmy cloth.

"No." She shook her head. "I won't do it." She crossed her hands in front of her. Her refusal was unmistakable.

"Very well. We'll allow you your modesty for the time being.

My men will enjoy it all the more later." China chuckled. "Move down into the open, please."

Claudia walked down the hill, her chin and her small pert breasts held high, and stood between Alphonso and Matatu.

"Now you, woman," China spoke in Shangane, and Miriam stood up. She did not have a European's shame of nudity, and quickly she stripped herself naked. Holding her little brother's hand, she went down to join the others.

"And now, Colonel Courtney. The last is the best of all the game- Sean rose to his feet and carelessly threw aside his tattered Clothing.

"Very impressive, Colonel," China taunted him. "For a white man, that is."

Sean stood and stared up at him impassively, but he was trying to judge the distance to the helicopter. Sixty yards, he estimated, much too far.

"Please come down into the open where I can keep an eye on you, Colonel. We don't want any misunderstanding now, do we?"

Sean took Mi