Chapter Xxiii
Raimond had flung himself into a doorway with the first wild shots that sped back from the retreating figures in the top corridor.
Behind him he heard a gasp and, half turning, saw one of his men fall. He opened the door against which he was pressed, yelled to those on their way up to take cover and, using the doorway for his own shelter, sniped at the Arabs who were rushing headlong up another staircase at the end of the corridor.
"Search all the rooms on the way up," he called back. "We don't want any rear ambush."
He moved on quickly but carefully and reached the staircase. There was a door at the top. When he reached it he found it locked. The stairs were bare boards and, at a guess, Raimond thought, it led out onto the roof.
He put his shoulder to the door but it merely hurt his shoulder when he barged. A group of police gathered around him as he shot round the lock. The door opened at the first push and, motioning back the men behind him, Raimond peered out. He was met by a little hail of bullets.
The door opened straight out onto a flat roof which climbed to other levels and was dotted with chimney stacks.
"They can't get away," Raimond snapped. "No point in risking any of our blood. Send back and tell them downstairs that they're on the roof, to make sure the place is completely surrounded and to get up on top of the buildings opposite."
"Can they get from this one onto any other?" someone asked.
"Tell them surround the whole block and to send somebody into each apartment. We'll cut off any possible means of escape."
Raimond peered through the door again to be met by several more bullets, dangerously close to his head.
"All right," he said, "we can wait for them."
He posted a large body of men on the staircase and retraced his steps down through the building and out into the street where, in the doorways on both sides, uniformed police were keeping watch.
He had a few words with a little group of officers who were staring up at the roof of the building and then he entered the apartments on the opposite side of the street. He took the lift up to the top floor. On every floor the anxious inhabitants were crowding and being calmed by police who'd taken over the building.
From the top floor he climbed the rough spiral stairway which led out onto the roof. A superintendent came over as soon as he saw him.
"Good work," he said. "I think we've got them all cooped up there. But it may take some time to break them down."
"What's happening. Can you see them?"
"There's a parapet round the front, same as this side.
We've given them a few shots but they're not wasting their ammunition. They're keeping low."
Raimond walked with the superintendent to a low wall which formed a parapet all around the roof. Crouching behind it he glanced over to the building opposite, some 30-40 feet away.
The block of buildings was not large and all the roofs were flat on different levels. There was no sign of the Algerians.
"Well, we've got them all right," he said. "But it certainly looks like a long wait. They're covering the only entrance to the roof we've found like hellfire. And I've no doubt they're covering everyone we haven't found too. There's no way of even having a straight gunfight with them and we don't want to wreck the building."
"By the way," the-superintendent said. "There's an Arab being held down below says he was working with you. We found a gun on him. That's quite a new escape method."
"Ahmed ben Lulla?"
"That sounds like his name. You know him."
"He did it."
"Did what?"
"Got them there and us here. I'll go down and see that he's all right. I suppose we'll just have to wait for them to run out of cannon fodder."
He went back across the roof and down the stairs, leaving the superintendent staring after him in astonishment. It didn't do for everybody to know everything-even if he was a superintendent.
Going down in the lift, past the crowded landings, Raimond felt quite pleased with the way things had worked out. Of course he had no illusions. National Liberation Front activities would start up again in the capital pretty soon. But it would need fresh organization and after this it would have to be more careful and thus less effective. It would mean a quieter time for everybody for a while and it wouldn't do much for the morale of the enemy troops in the Algerian mountains.
On the bottom floor he pulled open the wooden swing doors and undid the iron gate. He stepped out, closing the gate with a clang and went into the ground floor apartment which had its door open and was swarming with policemen. He found Ahmed ben Lulla, handcuffed and indignant, seated in a corner and guarded by two policemen who seemed quite amused at his explanation of the part he'd played in the whole business.
"Inspector Raimond," he cried out in violent relief. "Thank God you're here."
Raimond grinned.
"A misunderstanding," he said. "These are pretty hectic times."
He motioned to the two men to release their captive which they did, slowly, in an astonishment which amounted almost to disbelief.
"You'd better stay here until we've got them," Raimond said. "Be nice to him," he added to the policemen. "He deserves a medal."
In the porch of the house he stared up at the opposite building. There must be a way of getting onto the roof. At the far end of the block was a raised platform of roof with a few chimney stacks on it. It was the obvious last line of retreat, except that the Algerians couldn't get there now because it was covered from the roof opposite. Below the roof at this point were the apartment windows with their little balconies. A pattern of bas-relief designs were carved into the wall above and around them.
Raimond slipped out of the building and moved carefully along the street, keeping his eyes on the parapet of the roof which sheltered the prey.
In a large tunnel-like entrance to a courtyard which had become the G.H.Q. of the police forces he had a quick discussion with a number of officers and then, followed by a couple of lieutenants, edged along the street and entered the apartment building under the raised section of roof.
This was it. He knew. This was the way to get them quickly, to make a neat and effective job of the whole thing instead of having it drag on and possibly losing a man or two in the process.
They crammed into the lift, all three of them, and went up to the apartment on the top floor, as everywhere, police and anxious people mingled in the doorway, on the landing and in the apartment itself.
With a few words of explanation, Raimond led the two lieutenants onto the balcony.
Looking up the edge of the roof-seemed farther than it had from opposite, but the footholds and handholds in the bas-relief were deep.
Raimond loosened his revolver from its hoister and put it in his pocket. Half held by his two aides he climbed onto the little iron railing of the balcony and searched for a suitable hold in the bas-relief ... He didn't look down at all.
He found the hold and reached up for it with his hands, digging his toes into another indentation of the wall at the same time. He clung for a minute, accustoming himself to the balance and then he began to step gently, cautiously up the wall, using each crevice and clinging tightly with his fingers. The roof which overhung slightly was three feet above when he started.
The men below helped to apply inward pressure first to his back and then to his legs and finally, as his hands caught at the ledge of the roof and eased over, they could reach only his feet.
Hanging onto the edge of the roof over the street, leaning outwards slightly with the angle, Raimond felt with one hand towards the inner edge of the parapet. He found it. gripped it and then released his hold on the outer edge with the other, sliding it over the stone to join the first.
Sweat gathered on his face and body and he felt a slight chill in his stomach as he eased his whole body outwards around the lean of the roof, levering himself with his hands and arms, letting his feet swing free. Just for a moment or two he hung there dangerously six stories up, heaving himself over the parapet.
He heard the sound of firing. He was being covered from the opposite roof.
A final heave and he was lying along the parapet and could see down onto the roof below where the crouching figures of the Algerians filled every spot of cover.
They were not expecting attack from this quarter. They were all facing the far entrance to the roof, which, he now saw, appeared to be the only one.
Firing from the opposite roof redoubled and some intrepid marksman managed to take a few shots from the roof entrance.
Raimond leaned back over the parapet and caught the hands which were already reaching up over the parapet. He braced himself, taking their weight as the lieutenant below pushed up with his feet. In a few seconds the man was with him on the roof and behind him, the third man was passing up a couple of Sten guns.
The two men took the guns and moved quietly to the cover of a chimney stack. The enemy was spread out below. They had what was almost an aerial view.
"Right," Raimond said.
There was no time to be squeamish. The nationalists were desperate men who would give no quarter. Surprise was the only way to avoid greater bloodshed.
The two Sten guns nosed out from the chimney stacks.
"Now," Raimond said tensely.
There was sputtering fire which fizzed and ricocheted all over the roof.
It was all over in a matter of seconds. A perfect target, the Algerians collapsed under the stream of unexpected fire, without returning a shot.
When it was done and the roof was littered with bodies and police began to invade the roof from the apartment entrance, Raimond leaned heavily against the chimney, staring with his companion over the carnage.
"Quite an anticlimax," he said.