Unlawful Chase

by C J Schnier

Retreating deeper into the cluster of tents was the one option open to me. At least there I had more shadows to use to my advantage. Staying close to the tent and using the crates as cover, I slunk back into the center of the storage cluster.

  Options for hiding were limited out in the open, and I needed a place to think for a moment. I didn't want to make a break back to the woods. I knew Blatt was in the camp, but Bardales could move him at any time. If I was going to save him, and if I wanted any chance of getting out of Cuba, I needed to get to him tonight. I needed to form an alternative plan. The old military saying, "no plan survives first contact with the enemy," popped into my head. Bardales' men had changed the game, and I would have to adapt.

  Movement drew my attention, and my heart jumped into my throat. The shadow of a person, distorted and elongated by the angle of the light, creeped out from the rows of tents. The sentry!

  His shadow was growing larger, moving between the tents, pausing for a few seconds and then continuing. In seconds he would round the corner and see me. Desperate, I drew back the flap of the nearest tent and slipped inside.

  The tent's dense canvas blocked most of the light, but one solitary sliver from a gap in the tent flaps cut through the darkness and gave me just enough light to see. Crate upon crate was stacked from floor to ceiling, filling almost the entire interior. There was barely enough space to stand in the entrance, the rest was a solid mass of wood boxes.

  Briefly I wondered what all of this equipment could be for as I moved two crates off the top of the stack in the corner to my left and placed them on the floor. Both crates were heavy, and I had to stifle my grunts of effort, and ignore the pain from my elbow, as I hurried to move them. Time was a luxury I did not have. Hastily, I crawled on top of the shortened stack I had created and curled up in as small of a ball as possible and waited.

  I could hear the rustle of fabric as the guard flipped one of the neighboring tent's flaps back. There was nothing left for me to do but to wait in my makeshift hiding spot. Anything more than a cursory glance and he would find me. I could only hope that he was complacent and bored.

  The sliver of light that fell from the gap in the tent flaps went dark as the soldier moved in front of the tent. A second later the flap lifted, letting in a flood of yellow incandescent light. A few heartbeats later the soldier grunted, and let the heavy canvas flap drop back into place, leaving it swinging gently back and forth until it once again sat completely still in the night air, leaving a small beam of light cutting through the dark.

  The sentry's footsteps crunched in the dirt as he moved on to the next tent. When I could no longer hear him, I unfolded myself from my hiding spot. A quick glance out of the tent confirmed he was gone. Rapidly, I moved from shadow to shadow, back to the stack of crates where I had been when the lights came on. I noticed some stenciled words on the wooden boxes. Equipo de mineria. Mining equipment? That didn't make any sense. What did the military need with mining equipment? My thoughts went back to the gold in the stream and the cave with the idol. Bardales was here for the gold, not the idol.

  I fought back the urge to pry open one of the crates and see what was inside. Whatever it was Bardales was up to, it had nothing to do with me. My goal was to get Blatt and get out of here. I waited until I could see the sentry moving on, checking another set of storage tents farther away. It would be awhile before he came back this way. It was time for me to make my move.

  Looking left and right, I saw that the path was clear. I darted across the well-lit expanse and into the shadow of Blatt's tent. It was a large tent with one opening, which appeared unguarded. That would make getting inside easier. Unfortunately, however, the opening was illuminated by the tower's floodlights and within plain view of the other two tents. There was no way for me to scout out the inside of the tent without being seen.

  Taking a couple of deep breaths, and ignoring all the aches and pains I had accrued in the last couple of days, I moved from the shadows, flung the tent flap open and leapt inside. Instantly my hands were up in self defense, and my head snapped from corner to corner for the guard that had to be there. Only there was no soldier waiting inside. Instead, located directly in the middle of the tent under a bright gas light was Dr. Miles Blatt, seated at a table, looking up at me over the top of his glasses with an expression of mild surprise and amusement.

  "Well now, this is unexpected," the waifish man said.

  "Is it just you, Dr. Blatt?" I whispered, moving cautiously farther into the tent, my eyes searching for hidden threats.

  "Yes, we are alone, for now," he replied. "The guards check in on me every half hour or so. They pretty much leave me to my work."

  "Your work? I thought you were being held prisoner?"

  Blatt sighed and put down the pen he was holding. "Oh, indeed, I am being held prisoner. But General Bardales is not a completely unreasonable man. When he found out that I had been arrested by his subordinates, he had them retrieve my files and moved me up here to continue my research. In return, I promised not to make any more trouble for him or try to escape. A deal that I'm afraid he did not extend to your friend Ms. Mercury."

  "So, Jaye is here?"

  Blatt nodded, but looked away from me, casting his eyes down at the table. "The general was livid when he arrived in camp, ranting and raving about your escape. A marvellous piece of work, I'm told. Did you really jump off a cliff to escape?"

  "Yeah, I did," I replied, annoyed by his distraction. "What about Jaye?"

  "Oh," he started again. "Well, I don't know the entire story, but they assumed you had died. Some soldiers looked over the edge but did not see you. After several minutes they gave up and returned here to the base. Bardales, as I said earlier, was quite angry about losing you. He and Mr. Pruitt have a very long-standing rivalry and he was going to use you and Ms. Mercury for gloating purposes I believe. It's quite childish, really. You should have seen them ten years ago."

  I held up a hand to stop him. "No offense, Dr. Blatt, but we probably don't have a lot of time. Where is Jaye?"

  "She's in the general's tent next door. When your body did not show up, he decided to keep her under his own personal supervision. I only saw her for a moment as she was being hauled out of the truck and towards his tent. She struggled against the guards and nearly broke free. Bardales struck her. She made the mistake of spitting on him. He has a ferocious temper, Mr. Hawkins. It wasn't pretty."

  "Damnit, Jaye, you should have just played it cool," I muttered, feeling guilty. Then, addressing Dr. Blatt again, I asked the question that was gnawing at me, "Is she still alive?"

  "I think so. After he beat her for spitting on him, he dragged her into his tent. Dragged her by the hair, actually. Since then," he paused for a second and looked me right in the eye, "I haven't seen her, I've only heard her. I think he has been beating on her, or worse. Poor woman. Periodically I hear him yelling and then I hear her crying out. It's," he paused again, "hard to listen to. If only she had cooperated with him."

  Jaye and I had our differences. She had been a ruthless competitor in the chase for the idol. She had even tried to kill me. But she had also helped me escape, and if Pruitt picked her in the same way that he picked me for this job, she was probably being blackmailed by him as well. I couldn't leave her in the clutches of a maniac like Bardales. I had to get all three of us out of here.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  "Alright Dr. Blatt, are you ready to get out of here? Because I'm going to need your help," I said.

  "What do you need me to do?" he said, gathering up his materials from the table.

  "If it was just you and me, we could probably sneak out of the camp. But I'm not leaving without Jaye."

  "What's the plan then?" Blatt asked.

  Bardales' camp might not have been very secure, but with thirty soldiers at his command and vehicles, he had the advantage. What we needed was a bit of sabotage and a massive distraction.

  "I saw some crates marked as mining equipment. What is our friend
The General up to here?"

  Blatt blinked a few times before answering, obviously not expecting the question. "He's looking for gold up in these mountains. At least I think that is what he's up to. I'm no geologist, but most of the gold mines are much farther inland. So, either he is prospecting, or he knows something."

  "Gold? I thought he was the minister of antiquities?"

  "Oh, he is. I get the feeling that this may not be a state sanctioned expedition."

  "So what? He's paying for this out of his own pocket?"

  "That's possible, but he's a shrewd man, Chase. It is more likely that he's using his position to his own advantage, which may explain why he wanted the idol so badly. I'm pretty sure he's disguising this operation as an archaeological dig and having the idol is just the sort of proof he needs to keep suspecting eyes off of him."

  "So, all that crap he was saying about us being grave robbers was for show?" I asked.

  Dr. Blatt laughed. "He's more likely to sell the idol to some collector himself if he thinks he can get away with it."

  "Damn, he gets worse and worse doesn't he?"

  "If you only knew."

  Bardales was setting up a mining operation. While that was interesting, I couldn't figure out a way to turn that information to my advantage. We needed to get out of here, and with Jaye in Bardales' clutches it would not be easy.

  "There is a communication tower alongside the tent next door," I stated.

  "I've seen it. Bardales uses it to communicate with his superiors in Havana and coordinate the troops he has spread over the area," said Dr. Blatt.

  "Then we have to disable it somehow. And we're going to need a distraction, something to get Bardales out of his tent. Then I can rescue Jaye and we can all escape while they're distracted. But, the communications need to be down or we'll have a swarm of soldiers hunting us when he realizes we're gone."

  "Hmm, let me think," Blatt said as his eyes glazed over behind his spectacles. He didn't move for a second, completely lost in thought. "There's a generator near the communications tent that powers most of the camp. If one of us can kill it, that would rob the tower of it's power, stopping both the communications and the floodlights."

  "Perfect!" I said, "A power outage would be an ideal distraction too. Do you think you could disable it?"

  "That shouldn't be too hard. I've used generators like that in the field many times, and they aren't exactly known for being reliable. I've learned more about them than I ever wanted to."

  "Great. I'll leave you to disable the generator. When it's done, head for the back of the lead truck. It should be plenty dark to cross the open area, and they'll be too busy dealing with the generator to bother searching the trucks. I'll wait for Bardales to leave his tent, grab Jaye, and meet you there so all three of us can make a run for it."

  Blatt nodded, excitement building visibly in his features. "It's a plan," he said, stuffing the last of his papers into a folder that he then jammed into a battered leather bag. "Just let me gather up the rest of my research."

  I shifted my weight back and forth impatiently as the archaeologist scampered around the big tent, grabbing papers and photographs and cramming them into his bag.

  Finally, after several minutes, my patience gave out. "I don't mean to rush you, Doc, but could you hurry it up a little? If one of the guards checks in on you, our little escape will be over before it starts."

  "Just a few more things," he said, picking up his pace a little. "I can't leave all this research behind."

  Another couple of minutes passed before he finished.

  "Alright, you're sure you're ok sneaking through the camp and disabling the generator?" I asked, looking over the bookish man.

  "Don't worry about me, I'm more capable than I look," he said with conviction, and then added, "It is a clever man that plays the fool."

  "And it is a fool who does not recognize it," I replied, realizing that his typical outward appearance and demeanor was a farce. There was much more to Miles Blatt than I had suspected.

  I had taken him at face value, thinking him nothing but a geeky academic. I was wrong. The man who stood alongside me was no meek scholar. He had transformed into something else entirely. He bounced lightly on the balls of his feet like a caffeine addict. This suddenly energetic and wiry man seemed willing and capable of any adventure.

  "Let's do this then," I said, sticking my head out of the tent and looking both left and right. "It's clear," I whispered.

  Blatt stuck his own head out, and after a quick glance in each direction, he shot out of the tent. Without making a sound, he crossed the narrow strip of light in a flash and disappeared into the darkness of the communication tent's shadow like a ninja. He moved with a grace and speed that I would never have thought possible. The man was full of surprises, apparently.

  When he was out of sight, I slipped out of the tent and slunk my way over towards Bardales' tent to wait for my cue. I moved as quietly as I could, sticking to the shadows. I wasn't as quick as Dr. Blatt, but it didn't take me long to sneak my way alongside the big command tent.

  I stopped a couple of feet shy of the corner where the entrance flaps were. Quietly, I lowered myself down to a prone position to reduce any chance of a stray soldier seeing my silhouette. Fat rain drops began to fall, making dull popping sounds on the canvas tent. But I laid still, waiting for my signal.

  Being in the open was risky. Any soldier could happen upon me, but I knew I needed to be close to the tent when the lights went out. Soldiers would be moving everywhere through the camp, especially at first. I just hoped Bardales wouldn't decide to stay in his tent.

  Doubts were gaining traction in my head as I waited. This whole rescue was a bad idea. If one thing went wrong we were all in trouble, and if we did escape, where would we go? Paramour was gone, Jaye's plane was shot all to hell, and I didn't speak Spanish near well enough to hide. At least not here in the countryside. I might be able to play the tourist in Havana, but getting there seemed impossible. I didn't even know what road to take.

  My thoughts were cut short when I heard a loud pop and sizzle. The obnoxiously bright floodlights went dark, covering the entire camp in darkness again. I watched as the bulb's filaments faded quickly from a bright orange to dull gray and finally to black. Miles had done it.

  Surprised groans and voices echoed through the now stifling darkness. One voice was instantly recognizable to me. Bardales, and he did not sound happy. Men were wandering out into the camp, their flashlight beams bouncing in all directions, some dangerously close to me.

  "C'mon, get out of there," I hissed to myself, willing the general to leave his tent and investigate. The flashlight beams were drawing closer. Any moment one would land on me and my plan would go from half-assed to fatal.

  Finally, I saw the flap fly open and Bardales stepped out into the darkness. He was not wearing the uniform coat I had seen him in earlier. Instead, he simply wore a wife-beater tank top tucked into his pants. He grumbled and stomped towards the communications tent like a bulldog. When he was a few paces away, I rose to my feet and slipped around the corner and into the tent.

  "Jaye!" I said in a hushed rasp. "Are you in here?"

  There was no immediate answer, just the shouts and grumbles of the men outside moving about the camp, and the steadily increasing thrum of raindrops falling. I was glad to be out of the rain and was relieved to find that it wasn't completely dark in the tent. A solitary camping lantern hung from a hook in the middle of the tent, providing dim, but usable light.

  My eyes searched the tent, darting from place to place. The interior was spartan and utilitarian. Much like Blatt's tent, there was a table under the lamp covered in photographs and maps. In one corner, a desk sat empty and unused. A blue military style footlocker sat opposite of it. Behind the big central table a cloth divider bisected the tent, creating two separate rooms. There was nothing else of interest and I hurried over to the divider.

  "Jaye?" I repeated, moving the cloth as
ide.

  The second room was more spartan than the first. The only pieces of furniture were an enormous bed surrounded by mesh mosquito netting and a table that acted as a nightstand. On the nightstand glowed another camp lantern.

  Through the screening, I could see that the bed was hardly up to military standards. The sheets were wadded up haphazardly, laying against the back of the tent, and the pillows were disheveled, scattered across the bed. But that was it.

  "Damnit!" I said, realizing that Jaye was not there. If she wasn't here, there was nothing I could do about it. I needed to meet Miles and try to get out of here. I turned to leave when I heard it, a sob coming from the other side of the bed. There on the floor, half-naked and curled into a defensive fetal position, was Jaye Mercury. She was convulsing and sobbing softly into her hands.

  "Holy shit! Jaye!" I said, louder than before. "Are you alright?"

  "Chase?" She muttered through her sobs.

  I knelt down to comfort her, pulling a sheet from the bed and placing it over her. "Yeah, it's me."

  Her sobbing stopped, and she rolled over to look at me. Her right eye was swollen and purple. A nasty cut split her top lip. I looked her over more closely and could see other bruises scattered up and down her arms.

  Her one good eye bore into my own, and I could see the relief in it. "I thought you were dead," she croaked.

  "Oh, come on, you of all people should know that it takes more than a little cliff to kill me," I replied. "You, on the other hand, look like hell. Bardales went to town on you, didn't he?"

  She broke her eye contact and looked away. "He...," she started.

  "Shh," I said, silencing her. "Don't worry about that now. I'm here to get us out of here."

  "Us?" She asked, confused.

  "Dr. Blatt, too. He's the one that told me you were here. He's also the one who killed the generator to act as a distraction."

  "Blatt is here too? I didn't know. Bardales has had me in here since we arrived."

  "He is, but we need to go. Bardales will be back soon. Can you stand?" I asked.