The group continued down the slope without another word. A large dark patch near the bottom of their side of the valley turned out to be a small wood, an ideal place in which to hide the horses until the sun came up. As they neared it they discovered a small rise between the wood and the river, which made it an even better place of concealment. The ground was arid and peppered with shrubs and stunted trees.
The moon shone as brightly as it had the night before, more so than Stratton would have liked.
Stratton ordered the equipment unloaded and the horses and burros unsaddled for the time being. He spread his shelter canopy on the ground while the Indians stood by, watching him. Stratton removed one of the claymores from its pouch and laid it on the canopy along with the roll of wire, the twine and a couple of wire-cutters.
When the others had completed their tasks they returned to see what Stratton was up to.
‘Sit in a line,’ Stratton said, slipping naturally into instructor mode. ‘I’m going to run through the ambush set-up. If at any time you don’t understand what I’m telling you, just ask me to go through it again.’
‘I feel like I’m back in school,’ Victor said.
‘You are. The difference is that if you screw up this lesson we may all die.’
The Indians moved closer to look at the strange devices that the soldier was holding.
‘The plan is quite simple,’ Stratton went on. ‘The bridge is our ambush point - our killing zone. All we’re going to do is wait for our target vehicle to drive onto the bridge and then we’ll blow it. You’re happy with how to wire up the detonators like I showed you yesterday?’
Victor nodded.
‘David, Bernard?’ Stratton asked.
The two young men nodded.
‘Show me again, quickly,’ Stratton said. He tossed Bernard a claymore and the wire and placed a detonator in front of him.
Bernard confidently unscrewed the detonator-terminal cap from the top of the claymore. He stripped the plastic coating off the ends of the wires with his teeth, picked up the detonator with care, unravelled the wire that was factory-wrapped around it and connected the bared ends, twisting them together. He finished by tying the join in a knot to prevent it from being pulled apart. He inserted the detonator into the claymore and screwed the terminal housing home.
‘That’s good,’ Stratton said. ‘Do I need to see you two do it?’ he asked the others.
‘If you want,’ Victor said. ‘But I’ve never been more sure of something in my life.’
David nodded in agreement.
‘Good. Victor, your job will be to roll out the wire from the bridge all the way to here, which will be the firing point. Put the batteries there but keep them in the bag and nowhere near the ends of the wires.’
‘Of course,’ Victor said.
‘We’ll prepare all the mines here, then take them to the bridge. I’ll lay them out.You boys,’ he said, looking at David and Bernard, ‘will tie them into position and connect them to the main wire which I will lay. Any questions?’
‘What if a car comes along?’ Victor asked.
‘Kebowa and Mohesiwa will watch from the rise. If they see anything one of them will come and warn us. We’ll have plenty of time. Anything else? Okay. Let’s go.’
The men began preparing the claymores.
‘What can I do?’ Louisa asked.
‘You’re going to be my gofer.’
‘Your what?’
‘My go-for-this, go-for-that.’
‘Oh. I see.’
When all was ready the men divided up the mines between them, hanging the canvas bags over their shoulders. Victor handed the twine to Louisa.
Stratton paused on the edge of the rise to observe the general area for a moment. They all stood silently watching and listening, allowing their senses to acclimatise to the sights and sounds of the landscape.
Stratton set off and they headed down the slope to the edge of the river, which was as wide as a main road. Bernard was first in after declaring that it was not deep and he went to the middle, where it reached his waist. They walked out on the other side, the road now a stone’s throw away, and Stratton followed the river bank around a sharp bend where it went beneath the bridge.
They paused to observe the decades-old large iron structure. It was a truss construction, a skeletal design made up of straight girders formed into triangular frames and riveted together. The sides were high enough to allow a lorry to pass beneath where the cross-beams joined over the top.
‘Give us your mines,’ Stratton said to Victor. ‘Tie off the end of the cable at the left base of the bridge. Allow enough to reach the top of the bridge. Then run it back through the river to where we crossed and on back to the mound.’
Victor shared his mines out between the others, including Louisa, and hurried to the base of the bridge with the wire spool.
Stratton led them up the steep bank onto the road. The tarmac came to a ragged stop where it met the bridge’s grid-metal road surface. ‘Put all the mines here,’ he said, pointing down. ‘Bernard. Up you go to the top.’
Bernard started to climb up one of the bridge’s girders. Stratton took a slow walk across the bridge, examining the top and sides as he went. Louisa and David watched him until he was almost at the far end, nearly out of sight in the darkness.
‘You nervous?’ she asked David.
‘Not right now. But I think I will be later.’
‘I’m nervous now. I’ll be exhausted later.’
David smiled at her and went back to watching Stratton. ‘He’s a good man, Stratton, don’t you think?’
‘Yeah, I think he’s a good man.’
Stratton made his way back, inspecting the cross-bars above. ‘David. Climb up. I’ll pass the mines to you and you pass them to Bernard.’
David scurried up. Stratton climbed behind him but stopped only a couple of metres above the road. He stretched a hand down to Louisa. ‘Hand me one mine at a time. Stop when you get to ten.’
She passed him one of the bags. Stratton handed it to David who hefted it up to Bernard who was lying on his belly on top of the bridge.
‘That’s it,’ she said when she had reached ten.
‘The wire and then the twine,’ Stratton said.
Louisa gave them to him.
‘Shall I come up?’ she asked.
‘No. I might need you down there,’ Stratton replied as he climbed up to join the others.
The three men stood up carefully on the top span that ran the length of the bridge. It would have been wide enough to walk on comfortably if it had been lying on the ground but it was unnervingly narrow so high up.
Stratton walked along it to examine the cross-struts and check his calculations. Louisa followed below, hardly taking her stare off him. The long spans that ran parallel with the road were connected by ten cross-struts.
‘One mine under each strut pointing down at the road,’ he called out from halfway along.
‘In the centre?’ David asked.
‘Yes. Let’s do the first one and see how it goes.’ David knelt down and stretched out along the top of the cross-strut, which was narrower than the main spans. Bernard removed a mine from its bag, straightened the ends of the detonator wires and handed it to him. A length of twine followed and when the mine was secured David tied the ends of the detonator wires on top of the strut in readiness for the main wire.
‘Let’s get them all in position first and wire them up after,’ Stratton said, taking the spool, securing the wire to one end of the long span and allowing it to unravel as he walked to the other end.
He climbed down the angled girder at the end and jumped onto the metal road, wincing at a painful twinge in his back. He had forgotten about the wound.
‘Where are you going to put those?’ Louisa asked, indicating the remaining claymores.
Stratton placed one in the well of one of the vertical I-beams that ran along the sides of the bridge to see how noticeable it was. ‘Tha
t should finish it off,’ he said, more to himself than to her. ‘Throw down some twine!’ he called out to Bernard.
Louisa picked it up and brought it to Stratton. He used a length to secure the mine.
‘How do they work?’ she asked.
‘Each mine contains six hundred steel ball-bearings the size of a pea,’ he explained as he placed the deton - ator wire in position. ‘They’re packed against a thick sheet of plastic explosive. Each one is the equivalent of about a hundred shotguns, but each shotgun’s ten times more powerful than a regular one.’
Louisa looked up at David attaching a mine above her and tried to imagine what it would be like when they all went off together. ‘Now that I’m here I don’t know if I approve any more.’ She looked at Stratton for his reaction.
‘Bring those others, would you?’ Stratton asked her as he crossed the road.
Louisa fetched another mine and handed it to him. ‘Does that disappoint you?’
‘Of course not.’ He stopped what he was doing and looked at her. ‘Do you want to cancel it?’
‘Would you, if I asked?’
‘Yes,’ he said.
‘Why?’
‘Because I’m not doing this for myself.’
Louisa looked up at Bernard and David who were attaching another mine. ‘You’re doing it for them,’ she said. ‘If I stopped you I would be doing it just for myself.’
Victor climbed up onto the road and walked to the bridge, carrying the remainder of the wire on its spool. He looked around at what had been done so far. ‘What shall I do?’ he asked Stratton before realising that he was interrupting a serious conversation.
‘Well?’ Stratton said, looking at her and waiting for the answer. She seemed to waver.
‘Leaders sometimes have to make tough decisions - life-and-death decisions. It’s your call. Do we destroy Chemora? Or do we leave it and walk away?’
Victor realised what this was all about. David and Bernard stopped what they were doing and watched Louisa.
‘There’s nothing wrong with changing your mind as long as you believe it’s the right thing to do,’ Stratton said.
Louisa looked at the others. They stared back at her, waiting for her to make a decision.
A distant shout interrupted them. It was Kebowa, charging down alongside the river. He pointed up the valley.
‘Trucks!’ David said from his vantage point.
‘How many?’ Stratton asked quickly.
David took a moment to be sure. ‘I think three . . . yes, three.’ He looked down at Stratton. ‘One, possibly two could be locals. Three will be Neravistas.’
‘How far?’ Stratton called.
‘A minute,’ David decided.
‘You and Bernard clear the hanging twine away and then stay there. Lie flat, look away from the trucks.Victor. Up there,’ Stratton said, pointing to higher ground.
Victor set off at a run, pulling his rifle from his shoulder.
‘Hide everything,’ Stratton shouted to Louisa. He ran to collect the mines at the end of the bridge.
Louisa ran along it, picking up bits of wire and twine, any evidence they had been there.
The vehicles’ headlights caught the top of the bridge. David and Bernard dropped to their bellies and lay still.
Stratton hurried along the embankment, dropped over the edge and dumped the claymores. He looked back for Louisa. She was still on the bridge. ‘Louisa! Come here!’
A gentle curve in the road hid the vehicles from view but their engines grew suddenly louder as they came round the bend.
Stratton knew they had just seconds before the trucks were on them. He sprinted up onto the bridge, grabbing Louisa as she leaned down to pick up the last piece of twine. The vehicles rounded the curve and their headlights lit up the entrance to the structure. Stratton manhandled her through a narrow gap in the bridge’s struts.The river bank was invisible below them but if they did not move immediately they would be exposed. ‘Jump!’ he urged her.
Louisa didn’t hesitate. Stratton followed, landing hard, colliding with her on the rocky slope. He grabbed her and held her close to stop her from sliding down the slope.
The first truck bumped over the edge of the tarmac onto the metal surface of the bridge’s roadbed, the wheels grinding as if they were crossing a cattle grid. The second vehicle was bigger and Stratton made out the back of an open truck, a couple of dozen soldiers inside it. The last vehicle was a jeep of some kind. Before long all three were off the bridge and heading away down the road.
‘You okay?’ Stratton asked Louisa.
She felt one of her wrists and nodded. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said.
‘For what?’
‘I didn’t realise they were so close.’
‘It’s difficult to tell at night. We were lucky,’ he said, getting to his feet and helping her up to the road. ‘They still heading away?’ he called up to David.
The sound of the trucks’ engines had already died away but their headlights glowed in the distance. ‘All three are still going,’ David said.
Stratton was satisfied and breathed a sigh of relief, his gaze resting on Louisa. ‘You were saying?’ he asked.
She simply looked at him.
‘Are we going to finish this or not?’ he reminded her.
‘I know what you meant,’ she said.
The others waited in silence.
‘Chemora should not be allowed to do what he does,’ she said. ‘Let’s do what we came here to do.’
‘No doubts?’ Stratton asked. ‘We don’t undo this once we’ve wired it up.’
‘No doubts,’ Louisa said, her expression grim.
‘Start wiring these together like this,’ Stratton said to Victor, who arrived a little out of breath. He placed a claymore in the recess of an I-beam. ‘Keep the cable behind the struts and out of sight.’
Victor walked to the end of the bridge and began his task. Bernard and David got back to theirs.
Stratton scaled the side of the bridge, clambered on top and began wiring the claymores together. It was a laborious job in the dark and he had to rely most of all on his sense of touch.
As the horizon began to lighten Stratton climbed down and walked the length of the bridge, carrying out a final inspection.
‘It will rain soon,’ Victor warned, looking up at the heavy clouds that were now just about visible in the dawn sky.
‘It won’t affect anything,’ Stratton said. ‘I think we’re good to go.’
The three other men filed past him and down the embankment to the river. Louisa waited beside Stratton, looking at their handiwork. He gazed at her and grinned broadly.
She realised he was watching her. ‘What’s so funny?’ she asked.
‘I can’t imagine any other circumstance where you would follow a man so obediently.’
‘Neither can I,’ she said, a softness in her voice.
It began to rain, small droplets at first which rapidly grew in size and intensity until they came down hard, soaking everything. The air rang with the metallic plinks of drops hitting the bridge. But Stratton and Louisa did not appear to notice.
‘Do you have any particular sentimental feeling when you’re standing in the rain?’ she asked.
‘I do now,’ Stratton said, watching the water trickle down her face. Without thinking, he reached out his hand to touch her cheek. He wanted to wipe away the rain, obviously impossible under the circumstances, but the feel of her skin blurred all thoughts but one. He leaned towards her and she did not shy away. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly to him. Her hands cupped his face as they kissed.
Victor looked back to see what was keeping them and stopped when he saw what they were doing. He blinked against the rain, unsure quite what he felt about it. A part of him was happy for them both. Love affairs were indeed beautiful things. But another part of him was troubled.
Chapter 6
The saddled horses and burros stood quietly together, soaked to the
skin, their bodies steaming. The rain had stopped but brooding clouds remained in the sky, scraping the tops of the surrounding hills.
Bernard and Victor sat on their ponchos on the slope from where they could see the road at both ends of the valley. Victor munched gloomily on a piece of dried meat. Now that everything lay ready and the waiting had begun his nerves were feeling the strain. He began to see the things that could go wrong. His main concern was how they were going to get away once the ambush had been sprung. It would take precious time to get back up the steep slope to safety beyond the ridge line and they would be vulnerable during that part of their escape. He would have preferred the ambush to take place at night but then they would probably not have been able to identify Chemora’s vehicle. In the early-morning light his lined face looked careworn.
David was on watch, lying on his belly and looking through Stratton’s binoculars. The Indians squatted under one of the stunted trees, keeping an eye on the rear, and Louisa sat on the empty claymore box watching Stratton sort out the rocket launchers.
Each weapon came with its own shoulder strap that Stratton was pulling out to its full length. Louisa was curious about the part the devices would play in the ambush. As time went by she was becoming more afraid. She had fought off voicing her doubts, but the thought of the ambush itself, the noise and the destruction, made her ill at ease. ‘Why do you think nothing has come along this road since last night?’ she asked eventually.
‘I have no idea,’ Stratton replied, loosening another strap and checking the weapon.
‘I would have expected an army vehicle, or a horse and cart at least.’
‘Maybe the army have locked down the area.’
‘You don’t think it’s because they know we’re here? Perhaps they saw something when they crossed the bridge last night.’
He straightened up to ease a pain in his back and scanned the surrounding hills. ‘It’s possible. But I doubt it,’ he said.
‘Why?’
‘Just a feeling.’
‘What if they don’t come?’
Stratton shrugged. ‘We wait.’
‘For how long?’
Mercenary s-5 Page 16
