The Spirit Banner

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The Spirit Banner Page 3

by Alex Archer


  Apparently she should have paid more attention this time.

  The rebel soldier was dressed in a faded set of old fatigue pants and a dirty T-shirt. A new green cap with the emblem of his group emblazoned on it lay close to his unconscious form. He carried an assault rifle, an AK-47 to be exact, but unlike the rest of his uniform the weapon was new.

  Someone, somewhere, was arming the troops.

  She shrugged off the thought as soon as it came. It was not her problem and certainly not one she intended to get involved in. Right now, her only concern was rescuing the rest of her team from this guy's buddies.

  Annja considered taking his weapon, knowing she might need a bit of firepower, but while she knew how to use it, she felt better with her sword in hand. In the end, she ejected the submachine gun's magazine and shoved it into the cargo pocket of her pants, then jammed the muzzle of the weapon into the mud at her feet, stuffing the barrel so that it couldn't be used again without being cleaned. She also took the time to peel off the man's shoelaces and used them to bind his hands and feet. Between the smack on the head and the bindings, he should be out of the fight for some time.

  Satisfied, she moved off into the darkness again, slowly continuing to make her way toward the wide clearing where they had set up their main encampment a few weeks earlier.

  The path ahead grew lighter, the glow coming from the portable lights strung up over the eating area outside the mess tent, and she knew she was close. As there were sure to be guards posted at the top of the pathway and she didn't want to blunder into another one unexpectedly, she decided to slide off the path into the thicker foliage and approach at an oblique angle.

  When she came to the edge of the jungle, she stopped and peered out at the camp.

  Their tents had been grouped haphazardly, without any real plan or design to how they had been set up. After all, this was an expedition, not a Boy Scout camp. Whenever someone new arrived, they just selected a patch of ground and set up their tent wherever they wanted. Portable lights had been strung up here and there on poles throughout the camp, as well. While they didn't light up the camp like broad daylight, they did do their share to banish the darkness around the most commonly used paths and in front of about half of the tents. From where she crouched Annja could see that she was to the right of the mess area and about halfway along the maze of tents.

  She could also see several soldiers moving through the camp; she counted four in all. They were stomping in and out of the tents, kicking aside piles of equipment and supplies, looking for anything of value. She could also hear someone yelling something in Spanish at the other end of the camp, where the larger mess tent and command center had been set up.

  She couldn't see who it was. No matter. She'd find out soon enough.

  First, though, she had to deal with the soldiers in front of her.

  Annja waited until they were all either inside a tent or facing the other way, and then, when no one was looking, she left the cover of the trees behind and ran in a crouch to the nearest tent that hadn't been searched yet. Using her sword, she cut a long slit into the rear panel and then squatted at its edge, waiting.

  It didn't take long.

  The rebel came into the tent as she expected he would, head down, eagerly anticipating another iPod, cell phone or laptop computer to claim as his bounty. When he bent over to paw through a backpack someone had left open on the cot, Annja made her move. Slipping through the hole in the back of the tent she headed directly toward the soldier's unprotected back.

  She had almost reached his side when he straightened and turned. Seeing her, his eyes opened wide in fear.

  "¡Madre de Dios!" he whispered, frozen in place.

  Annja could only imagine what she looked like to him with her hair, face and body covered in drying muck, and a sword almost as long as she was grasped in one hand, like some vengeful spirit come back from the grave to right some ancient wrong. She didn't give him a chance to make sense of what he was seeing, either, but rather jammed the point of her sword up under his chin and held a finger to her lips to indicate he should be silent.

  "Give me your gun," she said in Spanish.

  Stiff with fear, he complied.

  "How many others are there?" she asked.

  His voice trembled as he said, "Five plus the captain."

  That meant she'd already taken care of the captain's only companion, since she'd counted four men looting the tents.

  Too bad for them that the odds were in her favor.

  "What are you doing here?" she asked.

  The soldier shrugged.

  Annja pushed the sword blade a bit harder and a thin trickle of blood ran down the man's neck in response. "Don't mess with me," she told him. "What are you here for?"

  The soldier explained that they had stumbled upon the excavation while fleeing from the police. With no money and a need to resupply themselves with both food and ammunition, the captain decided that a quick raid was in order. If they discovered that the excavation had yielded gold or other precious artifacts, so much the better.

  She could hear the other soldiers laughing nearby and knew she didn't have much time left. She was going to have to act and hope for the best.

  "Give me your shirt and hat," she told her captive.

  Once he had, she made him turn around and then struck him hard on the head with the butt of his own weapon.

  Two down, four to go.

  Releasing the sword back into the otherwhere, she pulled his shirt on over her own muddy T-shirt and shoved her hair up under the hat. The shirt was bulky and hung down to midthigh, which should help hide her shape and size from casual view. She only needed to pass for the other man for a few moments, just until she was close enough to carry out her plan. In the dark, and with the soldiers feeling secure that they were not in any danger, it just might work.

  She left the man lying there unconscious and stepped out of the tent, the soldier's rifle slung over her shoulder and the hat pulled down low over her face.

  The other soldiers were several tents away, a long stretch of darkness between them and her. They saw her emerge from the tent, but didn't think anything of it, her disguise apparently good enough at this distance to keep them from noticing anything was wrong.

  The one in the middle turned to her, shouted for her to hurry up and gave a "come on" gesture with one hand.

  Annja grunted something indistinguishable, waved to show she'd heard him and then held her breath.

  This was the moment of truth. If they were going to notice something was wrong, it would most likely be now, while their attention was on her and they were addressing her directly.

  The soldier hesitated.

  Annja tensed.

  The soldier turned back to his companions, apparently satisfied with her response.

  They waited for her there in the center of the camp's main thoroughfare as she approached. The men laughed and joked among themselves, their attention on one another and not on her.

  It proved to be a fatal mistake.

  She considered simply gunning them down where they stood as she moved closer; after all, they'd certainly killed Arturo and probably several others at this point, as well. She didn't owe them anything. But the sound would easily carry across the camp and she wasn't ready yet to let the captain know that his pack of hired guns had been taken out of the equation. Instead, she kept her right hand down at her side, ready to snatch her sword out of the otherwhere the moment she needed it. Thanks to the fact that they were standing directly in a pool of light cast by one of the overhead lamps, Annja was able to approach quite close to them while remaining shrouded in shadow the entire time.

  The man who'd spoken to her earlier turned as she approached, his eyes widening in surprise as she passed from shadow into light, revealing herself at last. His hand fumbled for the gun at his side as he pushed himself backward into the other two.

  Annja called her sword to her and thrust forward in the same motion, skewering
him where he stood.

  By now the other two men had noticed she wasn't who they'd been expecting and the fact that they were in danger was just registering in their surprise-addled minds. Using the precious seconds that surprise had given her, Annja spun to her left, withdrawing her sword from the body of the man she'd stabbed while at the same time bringing her elbow around in a vicious arc that connected with the head of the man on the far right, dropping him senseless to the ground.

  The man she'd stabbed dropped to his knees, his hands cupped across the savage wound in his gut.

  As often happened whenever she was in a fight for her life, Annja's senses suddenly became hypersharp, giving the effect that she was moving incredibly fast in a world where time had suddenly slowed to a crawl. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the third man had managed to get his hands around his gun and was bringing it up in her direction. Without stopping her momentum she planted her foot and continued her spin, the hand holding the sword coming up and down again, her weapon whistling through the air like the keening of a hungry ghost. The edge of the sword struck the man's arm just below his elbow.

  The gun dropped into the dirt at his feet.

  The soldier was opening his mouth to scream when Annja silenced him with one final blow of her sword.

  Heart beating madly thanks to the adrenaline coursing through her system, Annja took a few deep breaths to get herself under control. She collected the soldiers' weapons and tossed them into the darkness. She stripped the belts from the bodies and used them to bind the hands and feet of the unconscious man, assuring that he wouldn't make a sudden appearance and cause her future difficulties.

  When she was ready, she picked up her rifle once more and headed toward the mess area on the other side of camp. As she drew closer, the captain's voice came to her clearly.

  "¿Donde esta el tesoro?"

  None of the hostages answered him. Annja knew that the vast majority of those working the dig spoke Spanish and she was surprised that they seemed to be pretending otherwise, but she was glad they were. It meant there was still some fight in them and that was good. The sudden attack hadn't broken their spirit at least.

  The captain tried again, this time in English.

  "Where is the treasure?"

  By now Annja had reached the edge of the wide area that served as the camp's main meeting place. Floodlights set up on the front of the mess tent lit the place up well, allowing her to get a good look at the rebel leader.

  He was about her height, with that wiry look to him that told her not only would he be fast in a hand-to-hand fight, but that he'd have the strength to match his speed, as well. A wide scar started beneath his right eye and curled down to the edge of his mouth. Unlike the other soldiers, he was only armed with a handgun, a handgun that was currently pointed absently at the rest of the dig team who were kneeling in a semicircle in front of him. He did not appear to be happy with the cooperation he was getting, but he was clearly distracted, as well, glancing back repeatedly over his shoulder at the trailhead that led to the cenote.

  Annja smiled grimly to see his unease.

  Sorry, buddy, but there won't be any help from that direction.

  She knew she was going to have to use the gun this time, for the sword would be far too conspicuous and there would be too many questions about it afterward. While it wasn't her preference, she'd handled guns before and shouldn't have any problems.

  As the captain began shouting in anger at the captives, Annja checked to see that her weapon was ready to fire and then strode out of the darkness and into the light.

  4

  "Put down the gun!"

  Annja stood just inside the circle of light, the automatic rifle in her hands pointed unerringly at the rebel commander standing in front of her.

  He started in surprise at the sound of her voice and turned in her direction, the gun in his hand coming up slightly toward her.

  Annja didn't wait to see what he was going to do with it, but stitched a row of bullets across the dirt at his feet.

  "I said put down the gun," she said, "or I'll fill you full of holes."

  It surely wasn't the first time the captain had had a weapon pointed at him and his sense of machismo wouldn't let him surrender to a woman that easily, it seemed.

  He didn't drop the weapon, but neither did he raise it any higher in her direction. Instead, he glanced behind her while trying to stall.

  "You are making a mistake, señorita. A very big mistake."

  Annja shook her head. "I don't think so. And you can stop looking over my shoulder. They aren't coming."

  "Pardon?"

  "Your troops. They aren't coming."

  He scoffed, but after a moment or two more of silence, he frowned. As more time passed and help still didn't arrive, he began to realize that he was on his own.

  Here it comes, Annja thought.

  The rebel leader had been backed into a corner. He could either surrender to a woman, something his masculine pride objected to strongly, or he could try and fight his way out of his current predicament.

  Annja had little doubt which option he was going to choose.

  When he made his move, she was ready for him. He snapped his arm up toward her as he turned to the side, hoping to present a smaller target for her to shoot at while giving him enough time to kill her and thereby save himself.

  Anticipating just such a move, Annja put two bullets into his upper chest before he could complete his turn.

  An expression of surprise crossed his face and then he fell to the ground, dead on impact.

  Silence covered the scene in its heavy embrace and then her companions were shouting her name and cheering. She dropped her weapon and moved to their sides, untying them and then directing those who were free to do the same for the rest.

  Under Annja's supervision, the rebels were rounded up by the archaeologists and other camp staff, the hands and feet of those soldiers who were still alive tied securely with the ropes that they'd just taken off their own wrists. They were placed under the lights by the mess tent, where they could be watched until help could arrive. The dead were brought over, as well. Annja caught more than one of her dig mates watching her when they thought she wasn't looking—after they saw what had been done to the soldiers. Annja didn't care. She'd done what she'd had to given the circumstances. She'd spared lives when she'd been able to and so her conscience was clear.

  When they were finished, everyone gathered in front of the mess tent, arguing about what they should do next. Annja had just managed to get everyone settled down so they could discuss things rationally when Evans, the cook, pointed back over Annja's shoulder and shouted, "Look!"

  Annja turned to see multiple sets of headlights coming down the narrow dirt track that served as the only entrance to the camp. They were moving rapidly and it only took a few minutes before they were close enough to see the vehicles were American-made military Humvees painted in green camouflage.

  As the trucks braked to a stop, armed soldiers in blue jumpsuits, black flack vests and helmets poured out and took up defensive positions around the camp while Annja stared openmouthed in surprise.

  A short, muscular man in an officer's uniform climbed down from the passenger seat of the lead vehicle, looked at the rebel soldiers, all carefully bound and gagged, and then marched over to where Annja stood. He stared at her for a moment, his expression grim, and then said, "Who is in charge, please?" in heavily accented English.

  Annja had no idea who these men were, what they were doing here, or even if they might be allied in some way with the rebels that she'd just defeated. Her hand curled ready to summon her sword, but she didn't draw it. Not until, at least. Not till she knew who they were or what they wanted.

  Deciding her friends and teammates had had enough for one night, Annja bit the bullet and answered his question. "I am," she replied.

  His grim expression broke into a toothy smile. "Then my compliments to you, señorita. You and your people have
saved me considerable time and energy in tracking down and detaining these dogs."

  As he explained, the officer in question was Major Enrique Hernandez, of La Policia Mexicana, and he and his squad had been tracking this particular group of rebel soldiers for the past several days. Unfortunately they had lost them a few miles to the south of their present position. Hernandez had been trying to pick up the rebels' trail again when they had intercepted an emergency radio signal from the camp indicating it was under attack. The major explained that it had probably been just bad luck that the rebels had stumbled onto the excavation site, but their leaders weren't fools and the chance to add any artifacts that could draw good money on the black market had likely been too good to pass up.

  Surprisingly, Hernandez didn't ask many questions about what had happened to the rebels or how a few archaeologists and graduate students had managed to overpower six soldiers armed with heavy weaponry. He seemed happy just to have the problem dealt with and in so final a manner. Perhaps he felt he was better off not knowing.

 

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