by JC Ryan
***
REX WOKE WITH a start to find Luciana leaning over him, a soft smile playing on her lips.
“Wake up, sleepyhead,” she said.
He flailed wildly, disoriented for a moment that someone could have sneaked up on him.
Where’s Digger? Oh – I left him on guard outside.
Luciana must have read his mind, because she said, “I fed Digger and let him in. The sun’s up, and half the village is in the square waiting for you to tell them if we’re safe now and what they should do. We are safe, I think. I doubt Shining Path will want to walk into that buzz-saw again.”
He scooted up to a sitting position before he remembered he wasn’t dressed. Then he remembered he’d crawled into the sleeping bag with his pants on after the battle.
Luciana had walked away, and now she was back with a cup of coffee and an admiring look at his bare chest.
Oops. I did take off my shirt.
Rex slurped the coffee gratefully. His brain fog was dissipating. His eyes scouted the floor for a flat place to set the cup, so he could grab his shirt and pull it on. He thought he caught a fleeting look of disappointment on Luciana’s face, but when his head popped out of the neck of the shirt, she had her neutral expression in place.
What the hell is wrong with me? This woman is messing with my brains. Damn, but she’s beautiful. She may do that any time she wants.
Digger sat a yard or so away staring at rex and Luciana in turn—and he smiled.
Rex made an effort to collect his scattered thoughts and asked if Luciana had been out to count the bodies that morning.
“No. Waiting for you. I don’t care to see them, if that’s okay with you.”
Her squeamishness surprised him. She hadn’t hesitated to pull the trigger last night. As soon as he finished his coffee, he’d need to take care of business. Dead bodies in the middle of the village would quickly become a health hazard, not to mention a psychological shock for the villagers, and it was definitely not a sight children should see.
He took a huge swallow to finish the coffee and stood up.
“No worries. I’ll go arrange to get rid of the bodies. I wish we could know how many of them were in their group. Depending on that, we’ll get an idea if they might regroup and come back.”
“Impossible to tell,” she replied, “maybe if you question everyone who was involved in the fight to find out how many they saw from their positions you could come up with an estimate?”
“Hmm, that’s an idea, and maybe we can also check out their tracks as well.”
Luciana nodded.
“I’m going, then,” Rex said, “Want to head over to the square and tell them I’ll be along in a few minutes?”
“Okay.”
He started with the pile of fused, burned bodies only a few yards from their door. It was a mess, but he counted six heads, or rather six skulls. Some of the faces and skin were burned off right down to the bone. He didn’t think Greek fire would consume bone to ash, so he took that number as accurate. Three more lay in sprawled heaps nearby. Luciana’s kills, from the bullet wounds in their faces and chests.
From there, he walked around the village, counted three more in the underground pit traps, and another five gunshot and lying here and there in the spaces between the village houses. Seventeen. A strange number. He hadn’t seen the one who’d done the talking on the first night. Was he missing, or was he one of the faceless victims of the Greek fire?
After Rex reported the death count to the village and consulted with Luciana and the Markses, he oversaw the men Pidro had detailed to help dig a burial pit a mile from the village. Other men from the village dragged the bodies to it with the help of Rex’s llamas, and they tried to burn the remains again before they buried what was left after the fires went out.
During the project, Rex couldn’t help but notice his helpers were looking at him with a mixture of awe and superstitious dread. He supposed they were wondering if he was a demon or magical being who could command fire that wouldn’t go out. Or if they wanted him to be their new Inka Mallku because he was the first one in their lifetimes to stand up to these evil men who raided their village with impunity.
He thought two of the bodies were those of two of the four men who’d come to demand protection money in the first place. One had been sandwiched face down in the pile of six burned men, so he hadn’t recognized him before. The other, he hadn’t recognized at all, but Barry had.
The spokesperson was still not accounted for.
Rex had asked Flo to accompany Luciana, and set the two of them to find out what, if anything, they could do for the villagers to get them settled back to normal again. Though normal, he assumed, would elude them for a while. He didn’t suppose this village had heard of a raid like that for hundreds of years; not since the Conquistadors had swept through and destroyed the village represented by the ruins they’d visited.
When they finally all came together again, Rex told them the bad news. It looked like the leader of the insurgent group that had attacked them had escaped.
He proposed to go after them, if Digger could get a scent to track. Flo dropped her head into her hands, knowing from experience that when Rex was determined to do something, she would never be able to talk him out of it. Barry made a half-hearted offer to go with him, which Rex declined. Luciana’s offer, though, he accepted. She’d proved herself a worthy teammate, and he figured he and Digger could use her help.
***
THERE WAS NO time to waste if they were going to have a prayer of tracking down the Shining Path survivors from the previous night’s raid. Already, scents would have faded or been confused by activity in the village today. Rex and Luciana left with only their backpacks containing food, water, their weapons, and remaining ammunition. Digger also carried his backpack with three days’ worth of kibble and some water.
If they didn’t catch up with the insurgents or locate where they turned off the trail in that time, they’d be in Santa Teresa and there’d be no chance of finding them.
They went to the trail head, just beyond the pit trap. He studied the tracks on the ground and found a set he was reasonably certain belonged to one of the attackers and followed it for a few yards. Then he knelt to have a talk with Digger, pointing to the tracks on the ground and saying, “We need to find those bad men. Can you do it?”
He got no answer except a swipe of Digger’s tongue across his face.
The dog dropped his nose to the ground and snuffled for a second or two, looked up at Rex, and waited for instructions.
“Yep, that’s right, boy, track.”
Digger was on his feet, nose down, following the tracks.
Rex and Luciana followed.
Digger went about twenty yards, stopped, and looked over his shoulder. He lifted his head and barked, a fierce, protective bark.
“That’s it, boy!” Rex exclaimed. “Find them!”
Luciana looked down as she and Rex caught up with Digger, and she saw what Digger had detected.
“Look, Ray! One of them is wounded.” She pointed to a tiny drop of blackened blood in the dirt.
“Now I’m sure he’ll be able to find them. Let’s go!” Rex said. They quickened their steps even more, breaking into a jog as Digger kept going. The two of them were pelting downhill so fast Luciana soon became breathless, and Rex had to call to Digger to slow down, so they were able to keep up.
Their quarry had a twelve-hour head start.
After a couple of hours, Luciana needed a rest stop, so Rex called Digger back for a drink and some well-deserved praise. It wasn’t long after they started up again that Digger followed the tracks along another hidden branch in the trail, which led off to the opposite side of the trail from the one on which Rex and Digger had followed Junior a few days before.
The main trail was proving to be more than a minor route from Santa Teresa to the Quechua village. It was a regular ‘superhighway’.
On the first day, after turning
off the main trail, they traveled what Rex reckoned was about twelve miles before it got too dark under the forest canopy to continue. They stopped for the night and unrolled their sleeping bags next to each other in the shelter of a tree that had low-hanging branches to conceal them.
After a quick meal of jerky and a few bites of cold cooked quinoa, they climbed into their sleeping bags and told themselves to go to sleep. Their breathing told Rex that Luciana and Digger were asleep within minutes.
Rex, however, was too keyed up to sleep. It was not as if he was on a mission with a few highly-trained, trusted, and well-equipped Special Forces operators. He would have been happier if he’d had a few grenades, an accurate idea of the enemy’s whereabouts, the ability to use his and Digger’s coms without awkward questions from Luciana, and while he was wishing, a rocket launcher or two and a drone or two overhead.
Eventually, he was able to quiet his thoughts and get some sleep. It seemed like it had been only a few minutes, though, when Digger stirred. Shortly after that, Luciana woke up as well. It was still dark enough under the tree that Rex doubted it was morning, but the twitter of the birds set him straight.
“We might as well get up,” he muttered. “The avian alarm-clock can’t be set to snooze.”
Luciana’s delightful tinkle of laughter answered. “You’re right. And nature is calling me anyway.”
They settled for having breakfast to go, chewing jerky as they walked. While Luciana made her quick side trip, Digger gobbled his kibble and a piece of jerky.
They’d been traveling around the mountain peak on a relatively flat route since leaving the main trail. Today, however, the trail led distinctly downward. Rex asked Luciana how well she knew these mountains, whether they might be heading into a valley.
She started to explain, but before she could get two words out, Rex noticed Digger had stopped and was alerting to something. He touched her arm and put his finger to his mouth. “Something or someone is up ahead,” he whispered. “Stay here and stay quiet. I’ll check it out.”
Luciana stopped in her tracks, nodded her understanding, and melted into a squatting position just off the trail. When Rex looked back a few steps later, he noted with approval that she’d disappeared from his view.
That woman is not just a beautiful face.
He crept silently to Digger’s position—the birds had fallen silent as well. Digger’s stance was unmistakeable. There was some threat up ahead.
When he reached Digger, he quickly saw the alarming truth. The trail turned sharply there and dropped steeply. The trees were thinner, and through them, Rex could see a mile or more down the zigzag of the trail. In the distance was what looked like a tent city. And between the tents and their position, he and Digger could see a group of men, six to eight, coming up the trail toward them. The distance, the trees, and rugged terrain made it hard to tell accurately how many they were. But he could make out the long guns they were carrying. The bottom line was, he, Digger, and Luciana were outnumbered at least two to one in the best-case scenario.
Only help for that is an ambush to level the odds a bit.
But there was precious little time to set it up. A faint echo of sound from downhill assured him that the insurgents were not expecting any trouble.
He sprinted for Luciana’s position.
“They’re coming our way, and they’re armed for bear—six to eight of them.”
“We aren’t. What do we do?” she asked.
“We’ll have to ambush them, unless we just hide and follow. But that leaves the village and the Markses as sitting ducks. I think we should take them on here.
“How much ammo do you have left?”
“One clip. Fifteen rounds. You?”
“I have twenty-eight. That’s enough as long as we can surprise them and make each shot count.
“Okay, you stay where you are. You’re in a good spot right there; they won’t be able to see you. Fortunately, they’ve not spread themselves out. They’re bundled up in a small group. Obviously not expecting any trouble—all working in our favor.
“I’ll go down about twenty yards from here toward them. They’ll pass me first, and as soon as the last one is past me, I will attack them from the back. Some of them might run toward you, and some might turn around to face me. So, your job is to shoot anyone coming your way, and I’ll take care of anyone coming my way. We need to hit them hard right from the beginning, get their numbers down as quickly as possible while chaos reigns in that first few seconds.”
“I will. Good luck,” she said.
Rex just nodded. He never really cared much for that expression. The concept made him think of the two sides of a coin, which meant he had fifty-fifty odds—chance or anti-chance. It implied that luck, not skill, would determine success or failure. Luck was not a strategy or a plan, and luck also had nothing to do with what he was about to do to the insurgents. However, he didn’t give Luciana a piece of his mind. He just thanked her and left.
He’d left Digger on guard to warn him when they got close, commanding him to hide and guard while he spoke to Luciana. Rex ran back to Digger’s position and found a place where he could hide.
He then walked a few yards back toward Luciana and set up the hunting rifle with a trip-wire made from a vine he hastily braided into a sturdier rope. One round from the rifle could take out at least one insurgent, and depending on how close these goons were to each other a single shot might get two or three of them.
After setting up the trap, he went back to his chosen position, next to Digger.
There was no time for anything else.
The wait seemed interminable but was only about fifteen minutes in truth. Digger’s soft, low growl warned him a few seconds before the first of the group came into Rex’s view. He let them pass his position. There were eight of them. They were talking and laughing, without a worry in the world.
Boys do I have a nasty surprise for you, Rex grinned.
The rifle trap was about ten yards away, halfway toward Luciana’s position.
The first man in the line, who Rex recognized as the leader of the group who visited them the first time, walked up to the vine crossing his path and kicked it out of his way.
Bang!
The .308 bullet went through, shattered his right arm, penetrated his chest, and blew his heart to pieces, then exited just below the left armpit and lodged in a tree trunk two yards away. If one of his buddies had been next to him, there would have been two dead men instead of one.
Digger exploded out of hiding and tackled the last man in the file, his standard operating procedure for a situation like this. It ensured he’d take out at least one enemy before the others realized what happened.
Rex opened fire. The next man went down, and then a second.
Three down, five to go.
Before the remainder of the thugs could figure out what was happening, and in which direction they should return fire, Rex had moved to a new position. He saw one point his automatic rifle and start spraying the position Rex had left. Rex shot him in the face, and the man fell backward, his rifle continuing to spew rounds into the air.
Four down, four to go.
Rex caught sight of Digger, who had ripped out the throat of the first guy he’d attacked and was engaged in a rolling, snarling fight for his life with the second. Rex shot one of the two remaining insurgents, and the last one dropped his rifle and lifted his hands in the air. Both had been aiming at Digger, unable to fire because they’d risk hitting their own man.
Rex rose and kept his gun pointed at the last insurgent. “Down on the ground, face down and hands behind your head!” he shouted in Spanish.
The man dropped down and did as he was told.
Rex walked up to him, picked his rifle up, and put his right boot between the man’s shoulder blades to keep him down before turning to see how Digger was doing.
Digger had his man down, and so far he’d been able to prevent the guy from getting his hand on his sidea
rm.
“Just hang onto that arm buddy, I’ll be there in a second.” Rex hit his captive behind the right ear with the Sig and his body went limp. He sprinted over to Digger. Seeing an opening, he moved in and kicked the insurgent in the ribs hard enough to lift him off the ground. He’d meant to get him in the head, but either way, it worked. The guy folded like a pierced balloon and went quiet—out cold. Digger shook himself loose and took a step back, ready to attack again. Only the guy’s desperate attempts to keep Digger away from his throat had saved him.
“Okay, you did great boy. Stand down.”
Rex then called out to Luciana that everything was under control.
The wide-eyed, pallid Luciana joined him a few seconds later and looked at the carnage in shock. Rex felt sorry for her, a battlefield in the aftermath was a gut-wrenching experience, even for battle-hardened soldiers.
He walked up to her, put his arms around her, and gave her a hug, and then gently guided her to one of the trees and helped her to sit down. He spoke gently, “Sit here and take a few deep breaths. I’ll take care of the prisoners.”
She just nodded dumbly.
He went back to his position where he started the fight, picked up his back pack, and retrieved flexi-cuffs which he used to tie the two captives up.
After tying up the last man, Luciana ran to him, throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly.
He submitted to the hug, and when she pulled her head back to look up at him, there were tears in her eyes. He lowered his face and kissed her gently on the lips, and then retrieved his handkerchief to wipe her tears away. He held her in a tight hug like that until he heard the first prisoner stirring, then said, “I think we have to get moving.”
She nodded, sniffed loudly, and said, “Yes, the quicker the better. How many dead?”
“Six.”
“What about the rest of the camp?”
“Their leader is dead. He was the guy who took the first shot you heard. The one who was the spokesman the first night they visited us to demand the money. Without their leader the rest of them will either disband or find another group to join, but in any case, they aren’t our problem unless they show up in the village again.”
