“You take the fat one, Paedro,” Isabelle heard the woman say. “She’s a good mark for you. I could kill a bird at that distance.”
Isabelle’s blood ran cold. As the black dwarf lifted his rifle she thought of flight but her feet would not move.
Then all of a sudden from behind her something set up a tremendous clatter. As if she were watching a movie she saw the woman and her dwarf tumble in a heap. Then the bright light blinked out, leaving all in darkness.
“Jan!” Isabelle cried. “What happened?”
“I shot them.”
It was the voice of Than Shwe who spoke. She was standing behind them. In her hand was a smoking Tommy-gun. “I shot them,” she repeated in a cool even tone. “They deserved to die. They brought death to hundreds of my people. They would have killed you. I saw you go, so I came too.”
“But Than Shwe! Where did you get that Tommy-gun?” Jan demanded.
“This?” The little nurse held the gun up proudly. “This is the Tommy-gun the colonel carried out of Burma on his shoulder. When I came to Mai-da’s house he let me take it.
“Now,” she added, “I go get Gale’s radar set.” With her gun across her shoulder she marched away.
Ten minutes later she returned, lugging the set. “They are quite dead. That is good,” she said. “We will tell the Army Intelligence. When they see what is in that house they will say I am a very good girl. She was a very bad spy, that woman.”