On the Edge of Darkness (Special Force Orca Book 1) by Anthony Molloy

me gloves on,” he stared at his hands, “me fingers look like a string of sausages.”
    “ Don’t mention food, I’ve a terrible hunger on me. You wouldn’t be having a bar of ‘nutty’ about your person, now would yer?”
    Goddard was renowned for his sweet tooth, spending all his spare cash buying chocolate from every source, legal and illegal. He reached deep inside the warmth of his duffel coat and pulled out a bar. He broke off a few squares and passed them over to O’Neill.
    O ’Neill stuck the chocolate between his teeth while he pulled his gloves back on. “Cheers decent of yer I’ll…” he broke off as he heard the snarl of a revving diesel engine. “ Shite! That’s a Jerry!” He grabbed Goddard by the sleeve and dragged him unceremoniously into the cover of the trees.
    “ Put that fag out.” he whispered quickly, crushing his own into the snow.
     
    *     *     *
     
    The two marines had reached the northern side of the inlet and were about to set up the second lamp when they too sighted the German E-Boat moving slowly in from seaward. They dropped down behind the ridge out of the line of sight.
    “ Blakey get back to the ship warn them we’ve got company… Leave the Bren. Keep below the skyline… Get moving!”
    While Blake’s white clad figure skied rapidly away in the direction of ‘Nishga’, Bushel crawled carefully forward on his elbows until he reached the cliff edge. Laying out full length in the snow he set up the Bren. As he worked he noticed movement out of the corner of one eye. Off to the southwest he could see the ‘Nishga’s’ sea boat, a half-assembled raft and what looked like a pile of conifer branches that seemed to be moving slowly towards the boat. “Bloody Matloes!” he hissed, “they’re going to give the game away.”

 
     
     
    Chapter 4
     
     
     
    Surprise
     
     
     
    Olaf’s Inlet, 1040 hrs, Tuesday, 16 th April, 1940.
     
    From his position, high above the entrance, Bushel studied the E-boat as she clawed her way across the sheltered water, gulls wheeling and planning in the sky above it. It had been modified at some point for although it still had its original crosstrees mast its torpedo tubes had been boxed in, streamlined to replicate the high fo’c’s’le of the more up to date versions.
    As she drew nearer he could hear that all was not well with the sleek craft. The animal purr of its powerful engines did not sound quite right, the revs were dying away and then picking up again. He couldn’t be sure at first; it might have been a trick of the wind. If she was in trouble and perhaps coming in to carry out repairs it would make life very difficult. He thought of reporting the possibility straight away but quickly abandoned that idea. Blake would give an initial warning, far better to wait and watch, see exactly what she did and where she made her landing.
     
    *     *     *
     
    From his hiding place in the trees Goddard watched O’Neill crawl across the frozen ground towards the boat and the half-finished raft, behind he dragged a huge bundle of conifer branches.
    Goddard sniffed and slowly shook his head the way he ’d seen his mentor Able Seaman Wilson do on many an occasion. They should have hidden the boat when they first landed. He knew what Wilson would have said, ‘Leaders of men eh? I’ve shit ‘em.’ He popped another square of nutty into an already chocolate smeared mouth.
     
    *     *     *
     
    O’Neill was sweating, that in spite of the freezing snow he was crawling through. He couldn’t see the E-boat from where he was, had no idea what sort of progress she was making towards the shore. He expected any minute to see it tower above the rocks in front of him, rocks that hid him from view for the time being. His plan was to use the branches to break up the outline of the boat and the raft.
    Crouching at the side of the boat he peeped cautiously over the gunwale.
    The E-boat didn’t seem to have made