He was banking on there only being two men coming down the trail and the simplest and safest method to getting their weapons was to shoot them when they were at a range he could not miss. He had the rifle, Shinobu had the revolver and in a pinch, Keegan had the Glock. They could use the Claymores but as experience showed, the mines damaged the weapons. A few rifle shots would alert the men in the hut but not give them a definite location of the source. A Claymore sent up a cloud of debris, dust and smoke that precisely marked the source. Ideally he would have liked to get the weapons silently but successful ambushes of that nature were generally limited to TV and movies. Men with guns and especially men who used guns in their livelihood can get off shots, making it far too dangerous an undertaking for his group of rank amateurs.
Keegan and Dayah were whispering and drawing something in the dirt. Gray had squatted in the cover at the bend in the trail and was selecting the best position to shoot from and judging where the men should be when he fired. He did not trust the rifle’s accuracy although he was fairly confident it would fire. The sights could not be so far off that he would miss if he waited until they were inside 75 feet. Because of the lack of confidence in the accuracy, he was forced to go with chest shots for both men. His preference would have been a head shot for the first, a sure kill from having plenty of time to aim, and then snap shots to the chest of the second man. On the off chance the rifle did not fire, he would place Shinobu on the right side of the trail to take the leading or right hand man and Keegan on the other side to take the trailing or left hand man. They were to fire if Gray had not fired by the time the men reached a marker he would place in the trail.
Keegan and Dayah motioned Anna and Shinobu to their conference. Gray did not want to leave the trail unmonitored so he did not join them. They were keeping the noise down enough and he could shush them should someone appear up the trail. There was the possibility of someone coming up the trail from the clearing. He motioned for one of the group to come to him. All of them moved to his side.
“Dayah, will you watch the trail coming up from the clearing?”
The young woman nodded happily and took off east through the jungle. Anna knelt by him and whispered. “You told us that it would be ideal if we could get weapons silently. Does that still stand?”
Gray gave her a sideways glance. “It does…”
“We have a plan.” Anna outlined their plan. They proposed stringing a wire six inches above the ground across the trail after the first turn. When the men coming down the trail were about a hundred feet away, Dayah would walk onto the trail, pretend to be surprised by the men and take off running. One or both of the men would run after her, trip, and Gray, Keegan, Anna and Shinobu would jump from the jungle and stab them with spears.
Gray considered it a pretty solid plan until he thought it through. “Anna, that is very brave of Dayah to volunteer to do that and brave of all of you to go with only spears against men armed with rifles. But men can still fire weapons when stabbed if they have not already been stunned and they do not die very quickly which makes it terribly dangerous for you. I think we might actually succeed in killing them but at a cost we do not need to pay. Two or three of us might wind up dead. Baseball bats might actually be better than spears because a bat to the head will stun them immediately if not kill them outright.”
Anna listened and when Gray was finished gave him a sheepish smile and nodded.
Gray glanced up at Keegan and Shinobu. Keegan did not appear happy but Shinobu smiled and nodded in agreement. The young Irishman said, “I could cut a club air two.”
“The silence is not worth the risk. We would be forced to take those risks if we did not have firearms, but we do. It is kind of like what Paolo did. He did not have to take that risk.”
“Aye, and he lost a rifle doing it.”
Gray did not add that he also lost his life doing it. “Anyway, Keegan, the shots will just sound like pops to those at the hut with this distance and the jungle absorbing the sound. We’ll grab the weapons, carry the bodies into the jungle so they are not found and then I have an idea you’ll like.”
“I will old yer to that.”
Gray led Shinobu and Keegan a ways up the trail, pulled a large, dying leaf from a bush and laid it at the edge of the trail. He explained which men they were to shoot if he had not fired by the time the men reached the leaf. “And when I fire, do not jump out into the trail until I am done shooting. I will yell, go, when I am done.”
Keegan took up position twenty five feet down the trail from the leaf marker and Shinobu dashed across the trail and took up a position on the other side. Gray told Anna about the go signal and sent her back to tell Dayah to stay in her position until she heard shooting or saw someone coming up the trail. In either case she was to run up through the jungle and join the others.
They swatted insects but kept motion to a minimum as the light grew dimmer. No one complained. The failing light was sure to cut the pirates’ foray short so their wait would not be much longer.
Gray listened for the sound of the motorboat but instead of the burbling exhaust of the motorboat, thunder rumbled from the southeast. He guessed the boat took nearly as long to go around the island as it took someone to walk across the trail. If the motorboat arrived at the dock, it might mean the walking men had ridden back in the boat rather than take the trail so all his group’s preparation and waiting was a waste.
But their waiting was not a waste. In the dim light two men walking single file came around the bend far up the trail. Gray gave the short bird whistle to alert the others. Keegan, Shinobu, Paolo and Anna had successfully ambushed the two men earlier so Gray had confidence they would maintain silence and stay motionless.
The men coming down the trail had their rifle slings over their shoulders which meant they no longer feared ambush. When the two men were within a hundred yards, Gray raised the rifle with the selector set on single fire. Then they were fifty yards away, then twenty five and when he had a clear shot at the man in the rear he fired and then fired at the man in the front. The man in the rear crumpled backward, the one in front stumbled to his knees and was pulling his rifle from its slung position when Gray fired again. The man fumbled the rifle and toppled sideways as Gray yelled, “Go!”
Anna and Keegan jumped out of the foliage and drove their spears into the bodies of the men. Anna grunted savagely as she drove the bamboo spear into the man’s chest. When there was no movement from the body other than that imparted by the thrust of her spear, Anna threw the weapon aside and pulled a bandolier of clips off the man’s shoulder and picked up his rifle. Keegan held up a rifle, a pistol and another bandolier of clips. The men had gone out well prepared for a firefight. Grey removed a two way radio that was clipped to the top of the closest man’s shorts.
Rather than dragging the men off the trail and leaving crushed vegetation, Gray and Keegan carried the men by arms and legs into the jungle and dropped them behind thick foliage. Dayah had joined them and they took off north into the jungle as fast as the dim light allowed.
After they had hiked about ten minutes, Gray brought up the GPS function on his phone, selected the way point for their hidden gear and discovered it was very close. They located the hiding place, shouldered their new loads and headed for the peak. At the tree line Gray sent the others around to the right and he went to the left and climbed down toward the shelter. Before leaving the jungle, he squat and listened for the motorboat but heard nothing. He went out to the beach and turned to face the peak. Anna, golden in the setting sun, waved to him from the foliage along the edge of the plateau that ran north from the peak. Perfect.
Gray hauled a couple of large volcanic rocks down to the beach and dropped them near the water line at the north end of the beach. They were not needed tonight but tomorrow the rocks would be useful. When he had grabbed some of the firewood and tinder left at the shelter, he headed up to the flat. He reached it as the rain started. It was deserted and he went straight to t
he cave.
He dropped the firewood at the mouth of the cave and pulled out the little flashlight. They stowed the supplies in the areas that were not flat which left what little flat area there was available for sleeping.
With Anna holding the flashlight, Gray examined the two most recently captured rifles. They were both in good condition considering they were used in the tropics. One was an HK-74 and the bandolier containing three clips gave them a total of over 140 rounds for that rifle and his. The other rifle was an AK-47 using the 7.62 x 39 round and for it they had 120 rounds counting the three clip bandolier. The pistol was another Glock in 9mm with a single clip and in workable condition. He asked Keegan for the damaged Glock and when the young man handed it over, removed the live round from the chamber and the clip and handed it back, saying, “Sling this as far out into the water as you can.”
When the young man came back from the mouth of the cave Gray gave him the good Glock and the extra clip. “Would you prefer a rifle?” he asked.
“Nope, awm grand wi dis, tank yer mooch.”
Gray asked Shinobu for the revolver and the extra cartridges and showed Dayah the basic operation of the weapon. She was somewhat reluctant but he told her it was just for her use if the situation became desperate. He had her dry fire the revolver and practice loading it. He gave the AK-47 to Shinobu and the AK-74 to Anna. After demonstrating the operation of the rifles to Anna and Shinobu and giving instruction on aiming of the rifle to Anna, he gave them some drills at loading and unloading them and aiming and dry firing them. Doing the drills in the dim light of the cave made it more difficult but Gray thought it might increase the benefit. They could sleep on what they learned and he could reinforce the training in the morning.
While they were busy with familiarizing themselves with the rifles, Gray had Dayah and Keegan lay out five small piles of items to take if they had to make a dash from the cave. The items included Claymore mines, tools, food, water, and two blankets apiece.
The rain turned into a down pour and the temperature outside dropped but stayed the same inside the cave. Gray had considered trying a fire at the mouth of the cave since there was a slight air movement coming from the back of the cave but decided the risk was not worth it. The meat in the sandwiches and the yogurt was going bad so they made a meal of fruit, cheese and the bread but before they could eat the bread they had to pick mold off of it in the beam of the flashlight.
They made their beds on the hard floor of the cave. Gray insisted Shinobu take a couple of the extra blankets to cushion his old bones. He got no argument. They used all the blankets and it was still miserable, making the bare earth of the shelter seem cushy by comparison. The rain stopped before midnight but no one felt it necessary to post a guard. Gray remembered leaving the Claymore mines and the clackers out in the rain but believed they were well enough designed to remain functional.
Chapter IX Day Five
When morning arrived, Gray wished they had tried a fire in the night to make some rice. They were down to some sealed packages of cheese, nuts and crackers and a few apples and oranges. The plastic boxes labeled chicken and beef smelled rancid and Anna dumped them along with the last of the yogurt north of the flat.
Gray did some stretching exercises trying to shed the pain and stiffness from sleeping on the cave floor. Even Dayah complained of being stiff. Shinobu, usually the most smiley of the group, was quiet and somber.
After eating, Gray took the binoculars and climbed to peak. Careful to shade the lenses from the rising sun, he scanned the clearing. Melanie was still shackled to the pole. He counted five pirates, all of those that remained or so he hoped. Three were sitting near the dock, their rifles cradled across their laps or leaning nearby. Two were on the motorboat. There were palms partially blocking the view but it appeared the men in the boat had the top hatch off the engine compartment and were leaning over the compartment. The engine compartment looked about three feet wide and a bit more long and lay a third of the boat’s length ahead of the stern. Whatever they were doing, Gray was going to give them something to think about.
He came down from the peak and called everyone together with their weapons. After going over the instructions and drills he had given them in the cave, he told them what he planned and then took off around the peak and climbed down to the beach. He gathered many times the amount of driftwood they had used for a cooking fire and set it alight on the beach. When the fire was burning strong, he threw a stack of green palm fronds on top of the fire and then hurried up the slope to join his companions. He had a lot to do in hopefully a short time.
When Gray reached the flat, smoke from the fire was billowing into the blue sky although the prevailing breeze over the peak was causing a downdraft in places and the smoke was sent off to the northwest. It swirled higher than the peak at times making it visible from the clearing and that was all he wanted.
Anna and Shinobu joined Gray at the ledge overlooking the beach. To their left but blocked by the peak from view lay the shelter. The rocks Gray had carried out and placed on the beach last night were visible. He explained they would use the rocks as targets and fire off a few rounds to get used to the weapons. Although his own rifle had performed perfectly at close range, he wanted to verify the sight setting and adjust it if necessary. And firing at the rocks nearly matched the angle and range he hoped to have soon at live targets.
They aimed and fired for some fifteen minutes and at times Gray held down the talk button of the two way radio he had taken from the man on the trail. He wanted to give the impression that the men were still alive and involved in a firefight and the radio was not transmitting properly. It might not help but it could cause confusion about the status of the two men they had killed yesterday evening, and what could it hurt? When Anna and Shinobu were hitting the rocks with some regularity, he had Dayah fire a couple of rounds to give her some confidence with the weapon. Keegan fired a couple of rounds and everybody went back to the shade.
Gray left them and climbed up the peak only far enough to see over the jungle. One of the pirates was still in the motorboat. Four were standing near the dock gazing in the direction of the peak, presumably wondering what the smoke was about. Melanie was sitting up with her back to the post. That she was sitting up was encouraging. The pirate in the orange shirt walked over to Melanie and pointed toward the peak. They seemed to be carrying on some kind of conversation. The man stood over her with hands on hips for sometime. He suddenly gave her a kick to the ribs and walked back to the others. Melanie doubled up and then tipped sideways and lay in the dirt. Gray came down from the peak shaking with rage.
“What is it?” Anna asked when she saw his expression.
Gray was too angry to speak. He pulled Anna into his arms and took deep breaths. When he could speak he just said, “I just saw the guy in the orange shirt kick Melanie. It’s probably by far not the worst treatment she has gotten but it just got to me.”
The others overheard and drew close. Keegan’s face grew red and the muscles in his neck tightened like cords.
Shinobu asked in a quiet voice, “Is it working?”
Some of the anger in Gray dissipated as he tried to interpret what he had seen and then tell the others. Keegan asked if he could take the binoculars and see for himself. Gray explained how to shade the lenses from the sun so they did not make a flash visible from the clearing. An idea formed while making the explanation and he asked Shinobu for the signaling mirror.
Gray and Keegan climbed the peak from the northwest side and lay flat on the top so they did not make a silhouette. The young Irishman watched the pirates for a minute through the binoculars.
Gray asked, “Can you tell me when they are all looking away from the peak and toward the east or the motorboat?”
Keegan glanced at the signal mirror in Gray’s hands and grinned. “Aye, I can do that.”
It was a long wait until Keegan said, “Gay ready.”
Another minute passed and he said, “Now.”
Gray swept the flash from the mirror twice very quickly across Melanie. She did not move. Gray said, “Are they still turned away?”
“Aye.”
He flashed her twice more. The distance made it difficult for Gray to be sure that her head turned toward the peak but he could tell she had sat up.
“Old et, they looking dis way,” Keegan said. In a few seconds he said, “Now.”
Gray flashed her twice more. Her head definitely turned toward the dock but her hand came up and he thought she made a little wave toward the peak. Keegan confirmed it by whooping and backhanding him on the shoulder hard enough to make him yelp.
When Gray asked Keegan what he made of the activity around the boat, the young man said in a voice still shaky from excitement that he thought they were having engine trouble. They climbed down and told the others they had signaled Melanie and she had responded. Dayah and Anna hugged each other and both wept. Shinobu could not hide his grin or the fact that his eyes moistened. As for enticing the pirates to come back to the west side in the boat, that was hung up likely due to engine failure.
“They have to be able to get to their ship,” Anna said.
Keegan said, “Aye, they do. It is likely a fuel problem, or electrical. They’ll fix it.”
They discussed what they could do in lieu of ambushing the boat. Attacking the five pirates in the clearing was not practical. It was unlikely the pirates would send any more pairs of men into the jungle. One thing they could do was use the fire to cook some of the beans and rice they had taken from the hut. As long as someone remained on the peak to assure that all five of the pirates were on the east side of the island, Gray and his companions had the run of the west side. Anna said she would take the first watch atop the peak.
PULAU MATI Page 14
