Delta Force

by Alex Westmore

  “Umm...anyway, did you find the waterfall?” Sal interrupted.

  Josh leveled his gaze at Sal before looking at Delta. “You fell in much farther upriver than you thought. I found the waterfall, but I’m afraid Manny is dead, hiding or captured.”

  “And the Colombians?” Connie asked.

  Josh shook his head. “Nothing. We’ll just have to travel up the riverbank until we reach the point where you fell in.”

  “Anything else we need?” Connie asked.

  “Just luck. And lots of it.”

  Delta hadn’t realized how far the river had taken her. It was after nine and they still hadn’t reached the area where she’d fallen in. Of course, hurtling downstream like a human torpedo was much speedier than hacking their way through dense foliage. Even with the four of them taking turns, it was slow going. By ten, they were exhausted, but finally managed to make it to the waterfall where Delta had found Megan.

  Collapsing on the cliff rocks where Manny had found Delta, the three women sat quietly while Josh disappeared on another reconnaissance of the area. Sitting with their backs to each other, they were able to scope out three hundred and sixty degrees.

  “I can’t believe you made it past some of those huge rocks, Del,” Sal whispered, wiping the sweat off her forehead with a bandanna.

  Suddenly, Josh reappeared. “No one down there still.”

  “Is that good or bad?”

  “Good. Do you remember which way they escorted you out?”

  Delta pointed in the direction the guards had taken her and Manny. “That way. They took us that way.”

  “Let’s go.” Josh led the way, using his powerful arms to swing the machete. After a while, the trail became passable, as they made their way over paths already cut by the soldiers. About three hundred yards in, he held up his hand, signaling everyone to stop. “What is it?” Sal whimpered.

  Squatting down, Josh examined some leaves. “Blood. You’re sure they hit Manny yesterday?”

  Delta nodded.

  “I think he may still be alive. Well, he or someone else. This blood is fairly fresh. Someone out here is bleeding.”

  For a moment, no one said a word. When Delta looked at the blood, she glanced up at Connie and motioned for her to take a look as well. “Remember that blood-splatter class we took?”

  Connie knelt next to Delta and studied the patch of blood. “You mean the class I took while you doodled and flirted with Jill Hodges?”

  “Can you tell which direction the bleeder is moving?”

  Connie took a side view of the blood before looking around. “He’s moving in that direction,” she said, pointing south.

  “Then it isn’t one of the soldiers,” Josh said. “They’d have headed back to camp.”

  “Manny,” Delta said to no one in particular.

  “I’d be very surprised if he escaped the soldiers for this long, but it’s sure worth a look. Stay here.” Before anyone could reply, Josh silently vanished.

  “How in the hell did he even see that blood?”

  “I told you,” Sal replied, “he’s very good.”

  Five minutes later, Josh returned, carrying Manny in his arms. Manny’s head bobbed against Josh’s meaty shoulder; his face sweaty and pale. A tourniquet had been tied around his right thigh, which sported a sticky, dark substance over his torn trousers.

  “Manny!” Delta cried, rushing over to them.

  “I take it this is the right guy?” Josh carefully set Manny on the forest floor.

  “Is he still alive?” Sal asked, watching their backside.

  “Yeah. He has some kind of herbal wrap on the wound, so I can’t tell how bad it is; but it looks like he’s lost a lot of blood.”

  Delta knelt next to Manny and held his hand. If it was possible, he looked younger than ever, and it broke Delta’s heart to see him so lifeless.

  “Manny? It’s me, Delta. Can you hear me?”

  Manny’s eyelids fluttered a moment before slowly opening. “Delta?”

  “It’s okay, Manny. Don’t talk. You’re...safe now. My friends are here to help us.”

  Manny rolled his eyes over to Connie, Sal and Josh, and nodded his understanding. “Lost a lot...of blood. Leave me.”

  Delta reached over and brushed his wet hair off his forehead. “Sorry, no can do. You saved my life. I owe you one, and Delta Stevens always pays up.”

  “You won’t get out carrying me.”

  Delta looked up at Josh, who nodded. “Still underestimating women, eh, Manny?” Smiling warmly, Delta rose and joined Connie and Josh. “We can’t just leave him here.”

  “He’ll slow us down, Del,” Josh said. “This guy needs a doctor.”

  Delta looked at Manny, who lay with his eyes closed. He already looked dead, but that didn’t mean she was going to treat him like a corpse. “Then he goes back.”

  “What?”

  “He saved my life, Con. I’m going to return the favor. One way or the other, we have to get him some help.”

  “It would take us too long to get him out,” Sal replied from her position.

  “Too long for the three of us, but not for Josh.” Delta tipped her head in Josh’s direction. “Josh can carry him out of here in no time.”

  “No way,” Josh said, shaking his head. “You’re not facing those bastards alone. Uh-uh. No way.”

  Delta shot a look over to Sal, who caught the pass. “Delta’s right, big guy. He’ll die if we don’t get him help, and you’re the only one who can do it. We’ve come too far to turn back, but you can go. You had to split up in ‘Nam, didn’t you?”

  “Yeah, but—”

  “But nothing,” Sal said. “We have to go with the flow here, and this man needs help. If he were in another platoon other than yours, what would you have done?”

  Josh thought about it for a minute before nodding slowly. “I’d save him.”

  Delta threw her arms around Josh’s neck and hugged him. “Thank you.”

  “Thank me over a brew in San Jose, Delta. Make that a dozen brews.”

  Josh looked at Manny, at Delta, and finally at Sal. His facial features softened when his eyes landed on her. “This is against my better judgment, Squirt.”

  Sal stood on tiptoe and hugged him tightly. “I know. But we came to help.”

  Josh released himself from Sal’s grasp and bent down to take a closer look at the dressing on the wound. After examining it for several seconds, he glanced over his shoulder at Delta. “How much do you know about this guy?”

  Delta frowned and shrugged. “Not much. I met his little sister in town first. He’s a tour guide in the rainforest for a local tour company. Why?”

  Josh merely shook his head and returned his attention to Manny. “I’ll go back the way we came so I shouldn’t have to do so much hacking.” Rising, Josh stood over Sal. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, Salamander. You got that?”

  Sal grinned and saluted. “Got it.”

  Josh then turned to Delta. “Here’s what you do. Get as close to the camp as you can tonight. No matter how much you want to go now, wait until nightfall. Use the rest of the daylight to see how large the camp is and how many men they’ve got. Spend a few hours counting and recounting. Check their routine, see where they come and go. Find out where they’re keeping Megan, but don’t do anything. Wait until tomorrow night to make your move. Patience is the key to every successful attack. As much as it pains you, Delta, hold off. Take it from an experienced soldier; if you go barging in there, you’ll get everyone killed. You understand me?” His face was stern.

  Delta nodded. “Yes.”

  “And remember, there will be guards all around the camp, so don’t get too close. Just remember the standard perimeter back home and apply it here.”

  “Okay,” Delta said, nodding.

  “One more thing,” Josh added.

  “Yeah?”

  “Don’t let anything happen to Sal.”

  “Gotcha,” Connie and Delta said in unis
on.

  Connie touched Josh’s shoulder. “We’d rather eat glass than make you mad.”

  This brought a grin to Josh’s face. “Just take good care of her, Connie.”

  Sal hugged Josh one last time. “You will come back, right?”

  “Hell, yes! The second I get this guy to a doctor, I’ll be high-tailing it right back here. You can count on that.”

  “What if you can’t find us? What if we...umm...get separated or something?” Sal asked.

  “Then we’ll meet up in Panama City. No matter what happens in here, you guys have to get to Panama. The border is closer than San Jose and you should be able to get some help there. Check with the American Embassy in Panama in case I don’t get back to you. That’s where I’ll be if anything gets hinkey.”

  Delta hugged Josh before walking over and kneeling next to Manny. His breathing was shallow, and she was beginning to wonder if he would survive. “Manny?”

  Manny cracked open one eye. “Sí.”

  “Thank you for coming back for me. You saved my life. Now I need you to do me one more favor.”

  “I’ll...try.”

  Leaning over, Delta whispered. “I need you to stay alive. There’s a little girl back home who wouldn’t know what to do without her big brother, okay?”

  Nodding, Manny reached out and took Delta’s hand. “You don’t understand what you’re...up against, Delta. In the jungle, nothing...is as it...seems.”

  “Shhh. Save your strength, and remember what I said.”

  “But—”

  Delta shook her head sterly and held the fingertips of her free hand to his jaw. “Later. Right now, conserve your energy.”

  After everyone said their good-byes, Sal, Delta and Connie trekked back down the path already established by Delta’s desperate flight to the river. They were finally getting closer to saving Megan.

  “What are you waiting for?” Siobhan asked as Megan counted quietly to herself.

  “The last two nights, I’ve counted how many minutes pass before the guards come back in this direction. So far, the quickest is seven minutes.”

  “So?”

  “That gives me seven minutes to cut open this tent and get into the rain forest before they have a chance to notice I’m not here. With any luck, they won’t know I’m gone until morning.”

  “Gone where?”

  Megan tied her long blonde hair in a knot behind her head. “Panama. It’s the safest route I can think of.”

  “Do you even know which way Panama is?”

  Megan nodded. “Before these bastards shot Augustine, he told me to get to Panama if I could and that it’s southwest, over there.” Megan pointed to her right. “If I go in a straight line from here and connect with the Rio Chirripo and follow it south, I’ll be in Panama in no time.”

  “And then you’ll send help?”

  Megan nodded. “Of course.”

  “Promise?”

  Megan nodded, reaching for the knife under her blanket. “I promise.”

  “What about me? When they see the hole, they’ll know I knew and they’ll kill me, too.”

  Megan smiled softly at her. “Already thought of that. If they discover I’m gone during the night, claim you slept through it. If they don’t catch on at night, when you wake up, start calling for the guards and tell them I escaped.”

  Siobhan nodded. “Good thinking.”

  “I know. Delta’s a good teacher.”

  “You speak of her with such adoration.”

  “You would, too, if you met her. Delta Stevens is one of a kind.”

  “Will it be tonight then?”

  Megan shrugged. “I don’t know yet. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

  When the sun had completely set and darkness reigned, Delta raised her head from their hiding place on the cliff’s edge and was astounded by the number of torches lighting the campground. This was a much larger operation than she had initially suspected. Green pup tents were strategically placed, and torches burned every twenty feet or so. Perched atop a small knoll was also something that looked like a mobile home.

  “What’s your count, Chief?” Delta asked Connie, after the first hour of silence.

  “Somewhere between twenty-five and thirty-five.” Connie did not take the binoculars from her eyes. “Hard to say. There’s a lot of commotion. Like they’re partying or something.”

  “Jesus,” Sal hissed, shaking her head. “What’s really going on here?”

  Connie stopped her counting and turned to Delta, who was lying on her stomach peering through a second set of infrared binoculars. “This isn’t just some drug-smuggling operation, Del. Smugglers are much more mobile than this. Something else is going on here.”

  Delta observed the movement in camp. “Maybe that’s what Manny was trying to tell me. What could be bigger than drugs?”

  Connie and Sal looked to each other for an answer neither of them had.

  “Then that’s the first thing we need to find out. What are these guys up to?”

  Connie peered through her binoculars and Delta saw the minute swing of movement as she followed the booted steps of a guard who paced across the compound.

  “Any suggestions?” Sal asked, lowering herself back to the ground cover. Drunken laughter from the men pierced the otherwise melodic sounds of the night insects.

  “I say we grab ourselves a man or two, get their weapons and some information before we introduce ourselves.”

  Delta nodded. “Agreed.”

  Delta and Connie both crawled behind some large ferns, joining Sal. “If we take a guard, we’ll have to move more swiftly because by morning, they’ll know their boy is missing.” Delta looked across at Sal; she hadn’t realized how dark it had become. Sal’s features were barely discernible.

  “Del’s right,” Connie said. “If we take one of them, we’re committed. We’ll have to get Megan tonight.”

  “Then let’s wait until they’re good and drunk.”

  Delta thought about this a second before shaking her head. “We don’t have time.”

  Sal looked at both of them before shaking her head. “What do you suggest?”

  Connie sighed loudly as she retied her ponytail. “Before we do anything, we need more information and a few of their automatics. One of us will have to get as close to the camp as possible and find out how many men there are, what kind of weapons they have, and how many other captives besides Megan there are.”

  Sal nodded. “That means you.”

  Connie nodded. “Right. You two couldn’t sneak up on a corpse. Besides, I speak Spanish.”

  Delta pinched the bridge of her nose. She felt so isolated and trapped here in the jungle that issues like language differences seemed to escape her. Suddenly, she began to feel very, very unsure of herself. The fatigue definitely didn’t help matters.

  From their position on the cliff, the trio could see that the tents were set up in a rectangle, with the trailer at one end. A torch flickered, occasionally revealing a man and a woman embraced in a bizarre dance. On the other side of the ring, men were drinking and laughing in a circle. Connie lowered her binoculars. “There are two tent sizes.”

  Delta peered through her binoculars in time to see a man pull a woman out of one of the smaller tents and press his body up to hers. Dropping the binoculars so they fell hard against her chest, Delta rubbed her temples. “Megan’s not alone down there. There are other women. The small tents are probably for them.”

  Connie nodded and reached out to touch Delta’s arm. “We’ll wait a little longer before I go down there. Don’t worry, Storm, we’re going to get her out of there.”

  Delta continued rubbing her temples, trying to press the image of Megan on the rock out of her memory bank. “And we have to do it tonight.” As she spoke, Delta gazed down at the torches below. Megan was down there, a prisoner of someone she’d never met, forced to do things they both thought she had left behind a lifetime ago. “Con?”

  “Yeah?”<
br />
  “What then? I mean, realistically, what do we do once we find her?”

  “We haul ass outta here,” came Sal’s answer for Connie, as she joined the two women at the rock. “We run like the wind until we get to Panama.”

  Connie looked over at Sal. “What about the others?”

  Sal looked at Connie hard and shrugged. “Casualties of war, then. We didn’t come here to save them. Hell, it’s going to be hard enough to get Megan out.”

  Connie stepped next to Delta and laced her fingers inside Delta’s large hand. “Well?”

  Reflecting back on all the times she’d left Megan stranded, the times she chose to save people she never knew, Delta was determined that this time, she would not make that same mistake. “Sal’s right. Casualties of war. We came to get Megan and only Megan.”

  “Del—”

  “I’m sorry, Chief,” Delta interrupted, shaking her head. “For once, I am putting my love for Megan before any other real or imagined obligation. This time, I won’t let her down.”

  An hour later, Connie crept past a sleeping guard, passed out against a tree. She had gleaned bits and pieces of information as she moved stealthily around the perimeter of the camp, listening to the men’s conversations. So far, she’d discovered that the tents to her left were filled with “workers” and the tents to her right with “soldiers.” The smaller tents’ flaps were completely zipped closed and secured with padlocks. The larger tents, where she supposed the soldiers slept, were unzipped and wide open. Light from the campfire allowed her to see inside some of the tents, and what she saw turned her stomach. In one tent, two women and one soldier engaged in a sex act she’d only seen in porno flicks. In another, one naked soldier was riding the back of a whimpering woman on her hands and knees. Gazing up at the sky, Connie noticed the crescent moon peeking out from behind a group of trees, and didn’t know whether to be thankful or not for the extra light.

  Sneaking behind the left row of a dozen or so tents, Connie listened to two women speaking German, one of the five languages she herself was fluent in.

  “I cannot do this any longer. My fingers ache, my wrists hurt, and I cannot bend down into the cold water one more day,” came the tiny voice of the first woman.