Mercenary

by Duncan Falconer

  Steel waited for an answer.

  Stratton got to his feet. The cold expression on his face said enough. ‘Thanks for supper,’ he said to the others as he strode to the door and walked out into the rain.

  Steel watched the door close behind him. ‘I didn’t have Stratton pegged as a prima donna,’ he said.

  ‘Isn’t that unfair?’ Louisa said. ‘It sounds like a dangerous operation.’

  ‘Oh, Stratton ain’t afraid of any operation. Not that guy. This is a walk in the park for someone like him. It’s me that he has a problem with. He’s got his feathers ruffled. I wasn’t exactly cordial to him when we first met. I was busy, had a lot on my mind. Truth is I didn’t know a whole lot about him then. Let him cool off. He’ll come around.’

  ‘He’s leaving in the morning,’ Victor said.

  Steel collected his maps and photographs and put them back into his bag. ‘Let’s wait and see.’

  ‘If he won’t do it, is there any other way we can?’ Victor asked.

  ‘Let’s talk about that later,’ the American said. He picked up his poncho and hat and left the cabin.

  Sebastian got to his feet.

  ‘If we could, would we do it?’ Victor asked him.

  ‘Kill Chemora?’ Sebastian said, his expression reflecting revulsion at the mention of the man’s name. ‘I’d drive a stake through his black heart as soon as look at him.’ He headed for his room, pausing at the door to look back at Victor. ‘What do you think of Stratton?’

  ‘I think he is honourable.’ Victor shrugged. ‘But he has his own path. He said it isn’t his fight.’

  ‘It wasn’t his booby trap either but he went back into the burning wood to get those men,’ Louisa said.

  ‘His mind rules his heart,’ Victor said. ‘He’s brave, of course, but he would have calculated the odds on his survival before going into that fire.’

  ‘I don’t agree with you,’ Louisa said.

  Sebastian left them alone, closing the door to his room behind him.

  ‘One day you’re trying to kill Stratton and the next you look as if . . . well, you’re different with him,’ Victor said.

  Louisa went back to clearing up the table. ‘I was wrong about him, that’s all.’

  Victor went to the front door and looked back at her, a smirk on his face. ‘I’m still French, you know.’ He winked and walked outside.

  Stratton sat stripping his pistol and placing the parts on the dining table. Water dripped from the roof of the cabin into several pans he had placed on the floor. The door opened, the draught almost blowing out the candles on the table as Steel hurried in to get out of the weather.

  ‘Goddamned rain,’ he cursed, shaking the water from his hands.

  Stratton went back to his weapon.

  Steel put down his bag and took off his coat, glancing all the time at Stratton as if trying to figure him out. ‘You mind if I have some wine?’ he asked, looking inside a jug on the table that was empty.

  Stratton ignored him.

  ‘Come on, Stratton, lighten up,’ Steel said, going to the wine casks and filling up the jug. ‘We got off on the wrong foot, that’s all.’ He brought the jug to the table and filled two mugs, holding one out to Stratton. ‘We could be of help to each other. I’ve got a lot of connections in our business, on your side of the pond as well as mine.’

  Stratton decided to humour the man and see how far he would go. He took the mug.

  Steel smiled and tapped Stratton’s mug with his own. ‘To the revolution,’ he said, taking a good swig.

  Stratton took a sip.

  ‘Sumners, your boss back in London - he’s no big fan of yours, is he? He’s never said as much but I can read between the lines. It’s kind of why I was the way I was with you in the beginning. I got the impression he didn’t rate you too highly. Let’s face it, this job is way below your skills grade. What is it with you guys?’

  ‘As you say, he doesn’t like me.’

  ‘Yeah, well, that’s between you both, I guess. If you’re wondering how he feels about you getting involved, I spoke to him last night, told him we were considering an op that might require your expertise. I asked if there were any issues. He had none.’

  Stratton was not surprised. Sumners would love to hear that Stratton had been caught, or worse.

  ‘You know,’ Steel continued, ‘if you plan this right it’s a stand-off attack. You could trigger it and be miles away from there before anyone turned up to see what had happened. What do you say? Any comment at all?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Are you at least thinking about it?’

  Stratton said nothing.

  ‘I need to know one way or the other. If you don’t do it I walk out of here and, well, hell, this rebellion’s over. They can’t do this op, not without you. I know it’s a heavy load I’m puttin’ on you, I mean, you having to be the one who calls in the rebellion. But, well, that’s the way it is sometimes. More often than not the biggest decisions in war come down to just one man. Kind of funny really. Neravista and those people in there think they control this war, when, right now, it’s all down to just you and me.’

  ‘What are you going to do when you leave this business, Steel? Sell second-hand cars?’

  The Marine colonel found the comment amusing, but there was a darkness to his chortle. ‘I like you, Stratton, you know that? You’re a funny guy. Tell you what,’ he said, finishing his drink and collecting up his stuff. ‘I’ll let you sleep on it. But come morning I want an answer, and no answer means no.’

  As Steel stepped back out into the rain, Stratton put down his mug. It was possible that Sumners had given the man permission to make use of Stratton but he would bet everything he owned that the conversation had not been recorded. If Stratton was caught both men would deny having anything to do with him and his mission, he was sure of that. They would say that he had done it off his own bat. He had become involved.

  Stratton began to clean the various parts of his pistol and put it back together.

  Chapter 5

  Stratton got up as the sun’s rays broke over the treetops and started packing his gear. His gut instinct was to get out of there as soon as he could but he had woken feeling all over the place. Steel’s statement that the rebellion would falter without the attack had got to him, despite his efforts to dismiss it. He felt guilty, in spite of the clumsiness of the American’s manipulation. Then there was Louisa. She was the least of the reasons he had to stay and should not have been one at all. But he could not deny that she had a greater influence on him than anything else. It was crazy. The sooner he got away from the camp the better.

  Stratton picked up his pack and parachute, left his charred clothes and unusable M4 on the floor and walked down the stairs.

  He dumped his kit on the table and decided to make himself a cup of coffee. While waiting for the water in the old percolator to boil he mulled over the ramifications of getting involved in the rebellion and London finding out. It soon became confusing and he wondered why he was even considering it.

  The percolator bubbled and he turned off the heat, checked inside a mug for bugs and half filled it with the hot black liquid. The coffee was strong.

  The front door opened and in walked David, Victor and another young rebel soldier carrying two large plastic ammunition boxes between them. Panting with the effort they lowered the cases heavily to the floor, grabbing their aching arms after releasing their load.

  ‘Whose idea was it not to rest until we reached the cabins?’ Victor asked.

  ‘Yours,’ David replied, out of breath and inspecting his palms where the ammo-box handles had cut into them. David’s hair was short all over to minimise any contrast with the patches that had been burned away. His face and arms were already beginning to peel.

  Victor noticed Stratton’s backpack. ‘I see you’re ready to go.’

  ‘What are those?’ Stratton asked, knowing the answer.

  ‘One box of claymore mines, one box of
rockets,’ Victor replied curtly.

  ‘Is that wise, bringing them into the house?’

  ‘Is that fresh coffee?’ the Frenchman asked, ignoring the question. He poured some into a mug and took a mouthful, savouring it. ‘I was hoping you might show us how to operate them before you go.’

  Stratton looked at him as if the man had lost the plot.

  Victor unlatched one of the boxes, snatched it open, then shouted in a pantomime fashion, ‘Oh my God! What have I done?’

  Stratton watched him as if bored.

  Victor burst into a cackling chuckle. ‘I’m sorry. I could not resist. I checked them for grenades as Steel said. I opened the box just enough to slide my hand in and felt around.’

  ‘You did them all?’

  ‘Are you crazy? Just these two. I’m not doing any more. I almost had a heart attack. I was up all night thinking about it. But I had to. You brought them all this way. You should at least finish what you came to do . . . This is Bernard, David’s cousin.’ Victor introduced the young man.

  Bernard nodded a polite hello.

  Stratton nodded back, remembering him from the ambush. He was the one whose cousin had been among the hanging victims.

  ‘We’d like to know how you would use these to . . . well, to blow up a bridge.’

  Stratton studied the man who was making a pathetically obvious job of baiting him. ‘There’s no way I can teach you how to blow up a bridge in a few hours and you know it.’

  ‘We are not so stupid,’ Victor insisted. ‘Tell us how to prepare them, at least, and we will work out the rest.’

  Stratton simply stared at him.

  ‘Make a sketch. I can work from diagrams.’

  ‘You don’t know the specifications of the bridge.’

  ‘Oh,’ the scientist said, feigning deep thought. ‘So, we would need an expert at the bridge to show us how to place the explosives once he had examined it?’

  Stratton took a sip of his coffee.

  ‘I’m not trying to talk you into doing anything, if that’s what you think,’ Victor insisted. ‘No, no, no. You’ll do whatever you feel you should, I know that.’ He faced David, hands on hips and wearing a serious, thoughtful expression. ‘We need to find an expert.’

  ‘Where do you think we can find one?’ David asked, playing along pathetically.

  ‘Oh, for God’s sake,’ Stratton interrupted. ‘I can’t do it and that’s that.’

  Victor looked into Stratton’s eyes and finally believed the Englishman. ‘You mean it, don’t you?’

  ‘Yes. I’m going home. I think I’ve come closer to dying more often here and in the shortest space of time than anywhere else I can remember and I’d be stupid to test my luck any further.’

  Victor nodded and lowered his gaze to the floor. The fight seemed to go out of him as he wandered to the other side of the room, unsure what to do. When he turned around his face was determined. ‘Fine. We’ll do it without you. Just show us how to explode these damned things.’

  ‘You can’t,’ Stratton said.

  ‘Don’t tell us we can’t!’ Victor shouted, his face turning bright red. ‘Do you see any experts here in anything to do with war? David’s a teacher! Bernard’s a farmer! I’m a conservationist! Go out there and find me a born soldier and you’ll be looking all day! You’ll find a lot of shopkeepers, tailors and cooks! We’ve even got a university professor and a circus clown! Don’t tell us we can’t because we all wake up every morning and have to tell ourselves one more time that we can! If you want to preach to those who can’t, go to our cemetery, it’s filled with those who tried. Now. If it’s not too much trouble, would you mind showing us how, please?’

  He stood red-faced and shaking but his expression was resolute.

  ‘You’re serious, aren’t you?’

  ‘You’re damned right I’m serious. We leave before midday. This is our fight and we’re here to fight it. Just tell us how to explode these bombs, then you can go and get on with that other struggle against evil you were talking about. Ours is here.’

  Stratton looked at them all. They were no longer playing. He sighed heavily. This was going to be hugely problematic. Poole suddenly seemed a long way away. ‘Get me the maps and the satellite photos,’ he said, finishing his coffee and putting the mug down.

  ‘You don’t need those to show us how to explode the bombs,’ Victor said.

  ‘Let’s get one thing straight from the start,’ Stratton said, his expression toughening. ‘You never question me, or anything I tell you to do. And you do it immediately. Is that understood? Now get me what I just asked for.’

  Victor was suddenly hopeful, his eyes lighting up. ‘You’re coming with us?’

  ‘No. You’re coming with me.’

  The Frenchman’s face broke into a broad smile. ‘He’s coming with us,’ he said to the others. ‘I mean, we’re going with him. I’ll be back in two seconds. Don’t go anywhere,’ he said to Stratton, hurrying to the door and leaving the cabin.

  Stratton lifted one of the cloth claymore bags out of the box and checked the contents. Apart from the mine itself it contained the hand dynamo, cabling and a complete booby-trap system including trip-wire, plus pressure and release switches.

  He had hoped that agreeing to do the task might settle his mind but it had not.

  Hurrying to Sebastian’s cabin, Victor saw Louisa walking nearby and went towards her.

  She looked up as he approached.

  ‘You look lost,’ he said.

  ‘No. Not lost.’ She sat on the edge of the long table, picking at the wood.

  ‘You’re waiting to say goodbye to Stratton.’

  Her smile was genuine if a little sad. ‘I know, the perceptive Frenchman in you.’

  ‘Do you think you could prepare a horse for him? We will be leaving in a little while.’

  Louisa nodded and got to her feet lethargically.

  ‘He’s not leaving . . . well, not to go home, at least. He’s going to do the ambush.’

  She stopped in her tracks to look at him.

  ‘We’re going to get Chemora,’ Victor said, looking pleased. ‘I don’t know what it is about that man, but when he says he’s going to do something, well, you know what I mean? No, you probably don’t. It’s an instinct thing.’

  Louisa took a moment to absorb the information. ‘Who else?’

  ‘Me. David. Bernard. I must go,’Victor said, heading for Sebastian’s cabin. ‘We’ll be gone a few days, I expect. But we’re going to get Chemora. I know we are.’

  Louisa’s mind whirled as she watched him walk away. She headed up the path that led to the stables.

  In Sebastian’s cabin Steel sat at the table, wearing a pair of glasses and reading a document while sipping a cup of coffee.

  ‘Can I have those satellite photos and maps?’ Victor asked, confidently.

  Steel looked at him over the rim of his glasses. ‘Why?’

  ‘Because we’re going to do the job, of course.’

  ‘Who’s “we”?’

  ‘What would you say if I told you that I and some of the men were going to give it a try?’

  ‘I’d say forget it,’ Steel said, getting back to his papers.

  ‘And what would you say if I told you that Stratton was coming along too?’

  Steel looked back at him. ‘I’d ask if you were telling the truth.’

  ‘I am.’

  Steel smiled thinly, put down his coffee, dug the maps and photographs from his bag and slid them across the table. ‘Have fun,’ he said casually as he went back to his reading.

  Victor picked up the maps and photographs and left the cabin. When the door had closed behind him Steel put down his document, removed his glasses and began to think of his next move in earnest.

  Stratton climbed onto his horse. David winced as he lowered himself into his saddle and adjusted it.

  ‘You okay?’ Stratton asked.

  ‘Yes. And you?’

  ‘I’m fine.’ The
dull throb in Stratton’s back was constant but manageable. Otherwise, apart from a sore throat and feeling like he’d smoked a hundred cigarettes the night before, he felt okay.

  Bernard led three burros from around the back of the stable, their backs loaded with supplies.

  Victor cut a piece of plastic-coated wire from a drum and offered it to Stratton. ‘Is this good enough?’ he asked. ‘I hope so because I have a thousand metres of the stuff.’

  Stratton nodded. ‘It’ll do. What about batteries?’

  Victor showed him two six-volt motorbike batteries. ‘I checked that they’re fully charged.’ He pulled an AK47 off his shoulder and held it up to Stratton. ‘Your new rifle . . . Okay, so it’s not new but it’s the best I have.’

  The soldier took the weapon and checked it over. Victor handed him a magazine pouch which he slung over his shoulder and the weapon across his back.

  ‘You look like a proper rebel now,’ Victor said.

  ‘Which ensures I’ll be hung as one if I’m caught.’

  ‘True enough,’ Victor said, grinning as he climbed onto his horse and looked around. ‘I was expecting Louisa to see us off.’

  Sebastian walked around the corner of the stable towards the corral where the white horse walked up to him. ‘Good luck,’ he said to them as he reached out to pet the animal.

  ‘Thank you, Sebastian,’ Victor said. Then, to the others, ‘Shall we?’

  The group moved off, the three burros bringing up the rear. Victor urged his horse into a trot and the others followed.

  They slowed to a walk as they entered the jungle. A few metres in they came to a defensive embankment, essentially a shallow trench reinforced on the outer side with logs and sandbags. It was the camp perimeter and a handful of rebels sat around, acting as sentries. The group crossed a removable gangway and headed down a steep slope on the other side.

  They emerged from the trees a short distance later onto a track. It was wide enough for a couple of horses to walk abreast and Victor moved alongside Stratton. ‘When I was a kid my favourite story was d’Artagnan’s adventures with the Three Musketeers. Finally, I feel like I’m living the part.’