Mercenary Part 16

'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 b.u.mped 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 circ.u.mstance 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. .h.i.tting 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 circ.u.mstances, 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, sc.r.a.ping 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?'

'What do you think?'

Louisa frowned. 'I think that ever since I mentioned my political ambitions I've been on some kind of leader-apprentice course. I didn't say I wanted to be Alexander the Great, you know.'

'Strategy plays a part in everything, including politics. The clue to the answer is in our limitations.'

'Like food? Kebowa and Mohesiwa could probably find some. Maybe until someone falls ill. Seriously, how long would you stay here?'

'Until I felt it was time to leave.'

Louisa rolled her eyes. 'That's a real gra.s.shopper answer,' she said, throwing a twig at him.

Victor stopped chewing and began slowly to rise without taking his gaze off the end of the valley. 'I think I see something,' he said.

Everyone looked in that direction.

David scrambled down the slope. 'Stratton,' he called out.

'Easy, David,' Stratton said, calming him.

'No! Look!' David pointed towards the bridge.

Stratton hurried to where he could see the bridge clearly.

'One of the mines has come loose,' David said, handing the binoculars to Stratton.

Stratton focused them on the struts above the road. David was right. A claymore had come loose from its binding and was hanging like a lantern by its wires. Anyone using the bridge would see it.

He hurried back into the wood and to the burros to get the twine.

'Those are definitely trucks coming,' Victor called out.

Stratton grabbed his AK47 and slung the magazine pouch over his back. As he turned away from the burros he was met by Bernard and David.

'I think it's one of mine,' Bernard said, looking ashamed. 'I'm sorry.'

'Don't beat yourself up about it,' Stratton said. 'These things happen. What we have to do now is fix it.'

As he walked around them they moved to block his way. 'We can do it,' David insisted. 'If they are coming you must be here.'

Stratton knew they were right.

'It looks like a convoy,' Victor called out. 'Someone pa.s.s me the binoculars.'

Stratton studied the men's determined faces. 'Quick as you can,' he said. 'Secure the mine and get back here.' David nodded as he s.n.a.t.c.hed the twine. He was about to go when Stratton grabbed his arm. 'If you can't make it back here without being seen just get well clear of the bridge.'

'We'll do it,' David a.s.sured him. The two men set off as fast as they could.

Stratton joined Victor and looked through the binoculars. There was indeed a convoy on the road. 'Ten, eleven vehicles,' he said.

'Chemora,' Victor said, the tension in his voice obvious. 'It has to be.'

Stratton moved up the rise to where he could see both the bridge and the convoy. David and Bernard were running like h.e.l.l into the river.

'What if they don't have enough time?'Victor asked.

Stratton was thinking exactly the same thing. 'It's going to be tight, maybe too tight,' he muttered.

'Should I send one of my boys to get them back?' Victor asked.

'No.' Stratton was calculating something.

Victor was growing anxious as it began to look like the convoy would reach the bridge before David and Bernard could complete their task.

'Go get your Indians.'