Monkey on a Chain

by Harlen Campbell

  The land above the canyon was flat, broken only by clumped sagebrush and mesquite. The landing strip paralleled the edge of the canyon, set back maybe fifty meters. It was only about ten meters wide. Good enough for small planes. There was a fuel tank near the top of the path, hidden under some camouflage netting. I walked the length of the strip looking for signs of another road, or anything that might force a change in my plans. Nothing. Roy walked along beside me, sweating heavily. I noticed that the flap on his holster was open.

  “Get much traffic, Roy?” I asked when we were done.

  “Enough.” He looked wary.

  “You can button your flap,” I told him.

  “Oh?” He kept his hand well away from the holster. Smart of him.

  “What are you running?”

  “Commodities.”

  “Like the old days?”

  “No. Newer stuff.”

  I nodded. “Your operation?”

  “I just trans-ship the shit, Rainbow. You got a problem with that?”

  “Your business is your business,” I told him. “Much money in it?”

  “Enough.” He was tense, sweating too much. “Interested?”

  I shook my head casually. “Not my field,” I said. “Take it easy, buddy. I don’t give a shit what you do. I’m here to kill a man. Then I’m gone.” I turned and walked away from him. My ears hurt, I was listening so hard. All I heard were his footsteps on the packed earth behind me. He caught up with me halfway down. I noticed he had closed his holster.

  “How do you want to play it?” he asked.

  “Later. After supper. We’ll talk.” I meant that I’d talk. He’d listen.

  When we got back to the hacienda, I put Roy, Sissy, and April on kitchen duty and inspected the packs his men had prepared. To them, food seemed to mean beef jerky, but other than that, the packs were okay. They had included enough water. I took the men with me and went for another tour.

  There were a number of good positions. I picked three rock falls that were easily defensible and offered good fields of fire. Two were under the cliffs on the western side of the canyon. They were already in shadow and were cooling quickly, as things do in the desert. The one farthest north was behind and above the house. The second was a couple hundred meters closer to the mouth of the canyon. The third was across the canyon from the first two positions. Together, they marked the points of a triangle. If Corvin and his mob reached the center of the triangle, they’d be trapped.

  I put one of Roy’s men at each position with a shovel and showed them where to dig. I wanted shallow trenches, each big enough for a man to rest in. Then I went down to the valley floor and verified that the positions would be invisible. I left them to work and walked up the main canyon. I hadn’t found what I wanted yet.

  The canyon narrowed rapidly. By the time I’d gone two hundred meters, the walls had closed in on me. The cliffs were no more than twenty meters apart and I was walking in cool shade between two smooth rock faces. The floor was sandy. There was some brush and a few lichens growing on an occasional rock, but otherwise the way was barren. Five minutes later, the canyon narrowed to a crack, no more than five meters across. There were still some tracks in the sand, so I kept going. The canyon opened up suddenly and I had what I was looking for.

  I was in a large room of stone, open to the late afternoon sky. The far side of the room was blocked by an enormous slab of stone that had fallen from the eastern face. It was smooth, but climbable. I made my way to the top and looked around.

  A dune buggy sat under a camouflage tarp next to a clump of sage. I pulled the tarp back. The keys were in the ignition. I removed the distributor cap and hid it under some brush where I could find it easily if I needed it, then headed back. I’d known Roy would have a back door, but this was my party and I didn’t want anyone leaving before the last dance was over. Also, it was good to know which way he’d run if things got tight.

  On the way back, I stopped at the corral, opened the gate, and shooed the horses out. They milled around in front of the stable. I grabbed a set of reins and whipped them until they took off down the canyon. Then I moved the two vehicles parked in front of the house as far up the canyon as I could and disabled them both. The Mexicans watched me and looked at each other, but they said nothing.

  Dinner was ready when I returned. Steak and beans. Roy watched me furtively as we ate. He was probably wondering where I’d been. Hughie, Dewey, and Louie sat together under the trees. The rest of us ate on the patio. April sat beside Sissy. They watched me too. Everyone was getting nervous as the hour approached.

  After dinner, I waved them all over and told the assembly how I wanted things to happen.

  “They’re going to come up the road,” I said. “They won’t be on it. They’ll stick near the brush on either side. They’ll move up in small groups, depending on how many there are and on their discipline. I figure there will be two groups, with three or four men in each. One will take cover while the other moves up. They’re going to be hard to see. You’ll probably hear them long before you see them, so keep both your eyes and ears open. When they see the house, they’re going to stop and wait. They won’t move right away.”

  Roy interrupted me. “Why did you turn my horses loose?”

  “I didn’t want to shoot them,” I said. “Too noisy.”

  He just looked at me.

  “If Corvin reaches the house or stable, he’s going to know he’s in a trap. I didn’t want to leave him any way out. Not even a desperation run on a horse. We’d probably get him, but we might not. And we’d have to shoot the horse anyway, just to stop it. You can round the horses up tomorrow. They’ll survive a night in the desert.”

  I waited until he nodded.

  “Here’s the setup. We’re going to take three positions. Sissy and April will be on the west side of the canyon, just behind the house. They are the least mobile, and they’re going to block the back of the canyon. They’ll provide general fire and take any targets that present themselves. In addition, their job will be to stop anyone trying to reach the hacienda or the corral and block the path that leads up to the airstrip. We don’t want a siege if we can avoid one, and we don’t want anyone escaping up to the mesa. It’d be too hard to chase them down up there.

  “Roy, you’ll be on the same side of the canyon, two hundred meters closer to the mouth, with one of your men. You will be responsible for blocking their escape back down the canyon. The other two will be opposite you, but a little closer to the house and slightly above it. Between the two of you, the road and the canyon from the house and stable will be covered.”

  “What about you?” Roy asked.

  “I’m going to float. My first position, while Corvin makes his approach, will be in the rocks a hundred meters down the canyon. As soon as they pass me, I’ll drop closer to the road. When they are even with Roy, I’ll open fire. That should push them forward into the trap and turn them around to return my fire. At that point, they’ll be exposed to the positions on either side of the canyon. The survivors will take defensive positions in the rocks and brush near the road. They’ll be boxed in without much cover. Remember, you’ll be shooting down on them, so try to aim a little high. If they move up the canyon, April and Sissy will force them back. If they move back, I’ll tie them down and you and your men can work on them. Once they’ve taken cover, we fire for effect until no targets present themselves. At that point, Roy, his men, and I will have to close with them.”

  “It sounds to me like you’re more worried about them getting up the canyon than back down it,” Roy said.

  “I walked up to the end. It’s closed by a rock slide, but a man might be able to climb it if he had to. I didn’t have time to try, but there’s no point in taking a chance. Anyway, if we do this right, Roy and the other group will both be above and slightly down-canyon from Corvin. He’ll come in with maybe eight men. We should be able to take out four of them in the first few minutes. After that, the rest will be pinned
in the rocks and brush along the road. And no matter which side they hide on, someone will be behind them.”

  “We’re just going to shoot them. Not even give them a chance.” April looked sick.

  “When a man wants to kill you, you don’t give him a chance,” I told her. “Don’t forget that Corvin killed Toker. He tried to kill you. He killed Archuleta. And he was behind the attack on Luzon.”

  She swallowed like she was trying not to throw up. The three cowboys watched her without interest. I told Roy to pick the man he wanted with him and led the way outside. I showed April and Sissy their position. He picked up two M16s and a pistol and April shouldered the pack of food. I told him to show her how the weapons worked when they reached their position. I told her to try not to kill Sissy when the shooting started.

  They began making their way slowly toward the rocks. She led with the knapsack and he limped along behind. I went back to Roy and asked him where the water valve for the house was. We turned it off, just in case anyone made it that far, and kicked over the horse trough. I told Roy to turn off the generator and get into position. He grabbed one of the remaining packs and took off. I prepared a light backpack for myself and then looked over the two men I’d been left with.

  Hughie and Louie. If I remembered right, their names were Jorge and Nestor. I tossed the remaining pack to Jorge and led them up to the last position. The sun had almost set. Only the rim of rock above me was still lit. A thin sliver of gold that rapidly turned red. The sky overhead began to purple as they settled in.

  Their position was about nine feet wide and four deep, just a little roomier than a coffin. Our backs were to the cliff. Rocks lay in a jumble on the other three sides. There were four decent gaps in them. One on the left faced down the canyon. The gap on the right offered a view of the house, stable, and a clear field of fire that included the path up to the airstrip. The remaining two faced the opposite wall of the canyon. Across the way, I could make out the spine of a large slide. Roy and his man, José, were somewhere just below it.

  I heard the scratch of a match behind me. “No smoking,” I said. Hughie looked at me belligerently and slowly stubbed out his cigarette on the cliff behind him. I met his look until he dropped his eyes.

  “No cigarettes until this is over,” I told them.

  “I was below the rocks. Nobody could see me.”

  “They could smell you. Feel the wind?”

  He felt it. “Shit, man!”

  “Turn around and try to keep your eyes open.” They both nodded. I crawled through the gap on the right and moved up the canyon. The rocks along the base of the cliffs were pretty much continuous. They offered plenty of cover if I kept my ass down. I wasn’t worried about company yet, so I went to check the other positions. I kept near the cliff until I was opposite the path behind the house, then crossed the canyon and cut up toward Sissy and April. I could hear them talking softly long before I reached them. He was telling her about life in Tierra Amarilla. They jumped when I stood up beside them.

  “You didn’t hear me coming,” I said.

  Sissy just looked out over the canyon. April started to apologize. I lay down beside her and told her to shut up. I made her show me how to change clips and release the safety on the M16 she was carrying. She had paid attention when Sissy gave her the lesson.

  I put my hand on her shoulder. Her muscles felt like wood. “Try to relax,” I told her. “Wait until Sissy starts shooting. Try to fire only one or two bullets at a time. Don’t use all your ammunition at once, but don’t be afraid to waste a little if you have a good target. You understand?”

  She squeaked, “Yes.”

  “You’re going to be fine, April. Just fine.” I tousled her hair and turned to Sissy. I laid a fragmentation grenade in the dirt by his leg. “Don’t let them get too close, compadre. It would not be a good thing to be captured.”

  His hand closed around the steel ball and his eyes flicked understanding. The three of us spent a few minutes listening to the wind. Then I got back to business.

  “Where did you see him?” I asked April softly. She looked confused until I prompted her. “The Bohemia, remember?”

  “Oh! I’m not positive, but I think he was the man in Hong Kong. It was a long time ago, and the man had a beard. Funny-shaped.” She drew a Van Dyke on her chin. “Like this.”

  Sissy was listening. “What is she talking about?”

  “She’s describing the man who located her for Toker.”

  “You think it was Roy?” He sounded incredulous.

  She said, “I’m not positive,” but she nodded.

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means we’re going to have another talk with Roy after this is over. In the meantime, cover your asses. Expect trouble from any direction. And spend more time listening and less time talking.”

  It was getting very dark. I backed out of their position and into the rocks. The last of the light had faded and the stars were spread across the sky like a blanket of fireflies. The cliffs had a faint silver sheen, but there were shadows everywhere, and the floor of the canyon was as well shaded from the distant stars as it had been from the closest. My eyes were as adjusted to the light as they were going to get, and I could barely see my own hands. There was no way I could see to walk, so I crawled, feeling my way among the rocks along the western face of the canyon. It was very slow-going, but it was quiet. I paused every ten feet to listen and look.

  On the far side of the canyon I saw an orange flicker. The light from a match. A bird cried far down the canyon, near the mouth. An occasional blackness fluttered overhead, a silhouette against the stars. Bats feeding. Something rustled in the brush along the road. I was alarmed at first, but after five minutes of heavy sweating I decided it was some sort of fauna. Mice, snakes feeding, something like that.

  Forty minutes of groping and crawling, waiting and listening, brought me to Roy’s position. I approached from behind and eased into the space next to him. Neither he nor the Mexican looked around, but they both tensed up.

  “Can’t you be any quieter?” Roy whispered. “We heard you coming fifty feet away.”

  He was lying, of course. His idea of psychology. “Just out for a stroll before bed,” I answered.

  “What’s happening?”

  “Nothing yet. I just made the rounds. I’m moving down to my position now. Thought I’d tuck you boys in first.”

  “You’re a real sweetheart, Rainbow. Do I get a good night kiss?”

  “It isn’t dark enough for that.”

  “We thought we heard something down by the road.”

  “Just critters,” I told him. “Don’t get spooked.”

  “Right. Exactly where are you going to be?”

  “About a hundred and fifty meters down, this side.”

  “And you want to fire the first shot.”

  “You got it. Wait for me.”

  “What if they take you out early?”

  “I’ll try to make a little noise while they’re killing me. After that, you’re on your own.”

  “Right.”

  “I’m serious about that, Roy. You wait for me. Open fire early and you’ll blow the whole deal.”

  “We’ll wait.”

  I slapped his back and slipped into the night. It took almost an hour to work my way along the base of the cliff to the rock fall I’d chosen for myself. It was high enough to provide a decent view across the valley once the moon had risen, but the cover wasn’t ideal. Still, I didn’t plan on being there when the action started. Down near the road, about forty meters away, there was an outcropping of rock. As soon as Corvin’s force passed me, I’d take a position behind it and start the action from there. I estimated that moon rise was just over an hour away. I opened my pack and stuffed the grenades in my pockets, then chewed on a stick of jerky for a while and washed it down with water from my canteen.

  I settled back and listened to the rustling of the night feeders in the sagebrush and mesquite on t
he valley floor. Way up the canyon, somewhere behind Sissy and April, an owl hooted a couple of times. Maybe it could see to hunt. I sure as hell couldn’t. Next time, I decided, I’d get a starlight scope. Being blind was hard on the nerves.

  After an hour or so, the water began working on me. Or maybe it was just anticipation, the old familiar excitement that had driven me to accept Roy’s offer. I lay still and breathed deeply until the erection passed, then rolled to one side and took a leak. The moon began to rise.

  At first it was only a brightening of the sky as a very thin layer of stratus cloud diffused the light. Then the top of the cliff behind me began to glow with a silvery light that slowly crept down the face toward my hiding place. The night was very still. Too still. The leaves on the cottonwoods up by the house began to dance in the growing light, and the sage looked frosted. I heard the muted padding of runners on sand off to my left, way down the canyon.

  I hunkered down with only my eyes above the rock line. It took a long time to see them. They came about as I had expected, but there were three groups of shadows, not two. The first two groups took turns moving. One would run forward ten to twenty meters and take cover in the brush. The second then moved forward past them and took cover. When they stopped, the third group moved up to the position the first group had left. It always stayed behind the others.

  It was impossible to make out individuals until they were almost even with me. I took a count as they passed. There were four men in each of the first two groups, three in the last. Corvin and his two Filipinos, I assumed. It was more company than I’d expected. My adrenaline high was building.

  I left the knapsack where it lay and eased my way down from the rocks. Once I reached the foot of the slope, I could no longer make out any of them. I began moving from one clump of brush to another, toward the outcropping. When I reached it, I paused and listened. I couldn’t hear anything coming up the canyon behind me. I wondered where the family was, if this was supposed to be a family affair. But there was nothing to be done. They were either around or they weren’t.