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Cornered rats were dangerous, Saffron thought with a sinking heart. Neither Piero nor Nico had argued with Olivia, and Saffron had no doubt at all that the Italian girl would do exactly what she had said if the need arose. But they were mistaken about the sugar. She hadn't touched it!
'Lock her upstairs for now,' Nico told Olivia tersely. He moved, and for the first time Saffron realised that he was carrying a gun—not like those held by the others, but a snub-nosed, wicked-looking revolver type gun. A fine film of sweat covered her body. Dear God, if this was being rescued she almost preferred imprisonment!
'No. She stays down here, where we can watch her,' Olivia argued. 'We keep her with us—they'll be that much more careful about how they fire their guns. How long do you think it will be before they get here?'
She .was frightened, even Saffron could see that; and she couldn't help noticing how all three of them, even Guido, now turned to Nico for advice and instructions.
'It all depends how far they have to come. Say two hours—that is if they've guessed that we're here.' He glanced at his watch. 'We might as well start getting ready now. Olivia, take Saffron with you and bring in all the food stores—we don't know how long we're likely to be penned up in here. Guido, Piero, bring in the extra rounds of ammunition.'
'Aren't you going to warn Rome?' Olivia wetted dry lips and looked at him.
'What's the point? They couldn't send reinforcements in time. No, we're in this on our own.'
Strangely Nico seemed almost to be enjoying the situation, Saffron noted, while the other three were plainly unnerved by it. They were all bullies at heart, she realised with sudden awareness. Everything was fine while they were doing the bullying, but let someone bigger come along and threaten them and it was a far different story.
In the event Nico was out by half an hour. Almost exactly one and a half hours after Saffron had first seen it, the helicopter returned, circling the farmhouse before dropping down to land out of sight by the river.
'Damn, they're out of range!' Piero snarled, leaving the window he had been guarding. 'What do you think they'll do? Rush us, or wait it out?'
'Depends.' Nico seemed remarkably unaffected.
'On what?' Olivia demanded in a shrill voice.
'On whether it's the Italians, or whether Sir Richard Wykeham has been able to convince the British Government that as a British citizen his daughter has a right to expect the protection of their own troops.'
Olivia went white. 'The S.A.S.?' she demanded huskily. 'But the Italian authorities would never agree!'
'After the bloodbath of Moreau? I should think they'd be grateful to anyone who took the whole potentially embarrassing situation out of their hands. After all, that's one of the organisation's aims, isn't it? To bring down and disgrace the government? Total anarchy?'
Puzzled, Saffron wondered if Nico realised that he was increasing his companions' fears rather than allaying them. It was almost as though he knew how terrified they were at the thought of facing the S.A.S. and was deliberately playing on it, but she must be imagining things, surely?
'Nico, down by the olive grove ... look!'
Guido's tense words banished all thoughts of why Nico had behaved as he had from Saffron's mind, and like the others her total concentration was on the shadowy figures moving through the olive grove. What would they do?' she wondered dry-mouthed. The Italian method seemed to be to rush the building, and everyone inside, but the British were renowned for their use of diplomacy before force.
In the event it proved to be the latter. A man wearing camouflage clothing approached the farmhouse, carrying a loudhailer, flanked on either side by others carrying machine-guns.
He spoke through it in Italian, requesting Saffron's release. Guido's response was to fire off a round of ammunition. Saffron saw the men flatten themselves to the ground and the next moment Nico was pushing her down on to the floor herself.
'Keep down,' he mouthed curtly, ducking his own head as machine-gun fire ricocheted through the building.
The following hours were a time Saffron could never remember clearly afterwards. She was conscious of fear, and almost unbearable heat and tension in the small room. Sporadic bursts of gunfire interspersed with reminders that they could never escape the building alive seemed to be the answer from the soldiers outside to her captor's refusal to let her go.
How long it lasted Saffron wasn't sure. Time seemed to drag by on leaden feet, and fear cramped through her stomach as she thought how close freedom was and yet how far away. Death was as near as the gun in Olivia's hand, the knife at Guido's belt, and neither would hesitate for
one moment, she knew that.
Nico was lying full length on the floor beside her, guarding one of the windows, when she tried to crawl away, hoping somehow to escape upstairs without being seen and perhaps from there draw the attention of her rescuers, his fingers clamped round her wrist. Holding her did not seem to deflect from his aim, and she winced as she saw him level the gun and fire.
'You will never take us alive!' Olivia screamed at one point when they had been subjected to another plea to give themselves up. 'Nor will you get the girl back. We will kill her first!'
After that there seemed to be a lull outside. Guido went upstairs to check on any movement at the back of the farmhouse, but no sooner had he gone than another burst of firing from outside diverted the others' attention to their attackers.
Saffron was facing the stairs, lying on her stomach, her muscles cramped in protest, but too terrified of being hit by a stray bullet to move, and so she was the first to see the four figures emerging from upstairs, guns at the ready, their camouflage distinctively reassuring.
Afterwards she could not have said what prompted her, but instead of keeping quiet, she tugged instinctively on Nico's arm. His head swung round, and at the same moment Olivia screamed, 'Nico—the girl, kill her now!' Saffron saw her raise her gun. Nico sat up, dragging Saffron with him, at the precise moment when the door was forced open.
Saffron heard his muttered, 'The door—run, quickly!' in a daze, and obeyed instinctively, seeing too late, as she stood up, the purpose in Olivia's eyes. Nico moved, thrusting himself between her body and the gun; there was a loud explosion, the force of it seeming to carry her to the door, then camouflaged men caught her as she fell, unaware of the name falling achingly from her lips as they reassured themselves that she was unhurt before advancing into the melee inside the room.
