Missions of the Retrieval Team - Land of the Kilts

[davedove]

Scene 15

The Guyana Highlands

“Wait a minute,” Frank said as he got a better look at the dog with me. “Isn’t that Wompet?”

Wompet recognized his name being spoken and trotted over to Frank to greet him.

“Yes, it is, and you can thank him for my finding you.”

“But if Wompet’s here, wouldn’t that mean the lost party must be somewhere relatively close.”

“I would assume that to be the case, as long as they weren’t taken away in a vehicle. That’s not all though; somebody shot at Wompet.”

“So they encountered trouble.”

“That seems likely, especially considering what happened to us over the clearing.”

“You think the same people had something to do with our guys?”

“Probably, those people at the clearing were obviously trying to hide something. Why else would they shoot at us?”

“Who do you think they are?”

“They’re probably not regular military, but you never know in this part of the world. My guess is they are part of the criminal element around here. Either drug or slave traffickers.”

“That doesn’t sound very favorable for our people.”

“No, it doesn’t. So we need to rescue them as quickly as we can. We need to be smart about it though. First, we need to find the rest of the team. I don’t suppose you saw anyone else?”

“No, I saw the chutes of those who jumped out before me. I’m not the most experienced with paratrooper operations though. I’m lucky I didn’t break my neck.”

“Ms. Swan left the plane after you. You must have drifted far enough away from her bearing that she missed you. I’m not surprised at that, considering the jungle. If it wasn’t for Wompet, I would have missed you too.”

“What’s our plan?”

I looked up at the dimming light. “First, we’re going to have to stop for the night. As hard as it is to see things in the jungle, it would be impossible at night. Then we try your radio and see if we can reach any of our team. In the morning, we follow the bearing back and hope we can find some sign of our team.”

[davedove]

Scene 16

Outside the Camp

The young hunter watched as the two pale men arranged the strange skin into a shelter.

Again, such wonders he was seeing. The strange shaggy beast had led the pale man into a clearing where another pale man was hanging by strange vines from the trees. But how had the second man come to be hanging from the trees. It was almost as if he had dropped from the sky.

The second pale man also talked to the beast and petted its thick fur. As the hunter watched, he could see that the great beast must be some sort of pet; much like the younger children of the tribe would befriend small jungle animals. But this beast was so much larger than the pets of the children.

There was strong magic in the strange skin they were using to make the shelter. When the first man had laid it over the plants, the second man had been able to fall very far without breaking his limbs.

As the hunter watched, the first pale man pulled something from a pouch on the strange garment he wore over his chest. It seemed to be some odd fruit as the man peeled off the tough looking skin before breaking off pieces of some strange food within. It must have been food, as the man shared it with the other man and the shaggy beast and they all ate it.

The first man asked the other for something and the second man pulled a small tool from his vest. The first man performed odd gestures and spoke into the tool. A strange hissing sound seemed to come from it.

The pale man seemed discouraged and passed the tool back to the second man. The two continued eating until their fruit was gone.

As night fell the pale men went inside their shelter and soon sounds of their sleeping could be heard. One of the men sounded like a great beast as he slept.

The young hunter kept watch over the shelter through the night, too fascinated to sleep.

[davedove]

Scene 17

The Guyana Highlands

Except for the normal jungle sounds and Frank’s snoring, the night passed quietly. In the morning we broke down our shelter and packed up the canopy again. Unfortunately, we had been unable to reach anyone using Frank’s radio. It still appeared to work, but we only got static.

The three of us backtracked to where Wompet had saved me from the jaguar and then resumed travel on my original bearing to find the rest of our team.

The sun was almost directly overhead when I called a break.

“Shouldn’t we have seen some trace of the others by now?” Frank asked.

“Yes,” I answered with concern, “unless everyone is scattered much more than I thought. That’s not a good thing though.”

Suddenly, we heard the rip of automatic gunfire ahead of us, answered by the single shots of an automatic pistol.

I drew my own handgun and signaled for Frank to follow me with Wompet. We pushed through the jungle as quietly as we could while still maintaining some speed.

As we neared the source of the gunfire, it suddenly stopped. I quickly motioned for my companions to stop and conceal themselves.

I slowly moved forward to determine the situation. As I examined the jungle around me, I could make out a small squad of men creeping through the jungle. Each of them held an assault rifle, AK-47’s from their appearance, and they were moving towards a small mound of rocks. Two men were slowly advancing directly towards the rocks, while another two men were flanking the position, one from each side.

As I watched, I noticed someone peeking over the rocks. He only exposed himself for a second, but I was sure it was Greg. At least one member of my team was trapped behind those rocks.

I motioned Frank forward and he moved up with Wompet. I quickly related the situation to him and told him my plan to rescue whoever was trapped behind the rocks. Frank would take Wompet and circle towards Greg while I would go the other way and try to distract the armed men. We only had the pistols against their rifles, but hopefully between Greg and us we could succeed.

As I moved to my position, I searched the ground for a suitable rock. I found one that was the right size and bent to pick it up. I glanced over to Frank’s position and then to Greg’s shelter.

I quickly threw the rock towards a large tree. As the rock struck the tree loudly, the armed men turned their rifles towards the sound.

As the men turned, I raised my pistol and fired twice quickly, hitting the two men in front of me. At the same time, Frank and Wompet jumped the man in front of them, pinning him to the ground.

Greg, thinking quickly, fired his own pistol at the remaining man, dropping him with one shot.

Our surprise attack had worked.

[davedove]

Scene 18

Nearby in the Jungle

The young hunter pressed himself against the tree in terror. What strange magic was this? The pale man had raised his hand holding a strange tool and suddenly thunder barked from it and the two darker skinned men had fallen. And another pale skinned man behind the rocks had done the same.

These men must come from the people of the Konnal. It was said that the Konnal had strange tools that roared with thunder and killed.

Why were they here and what did they want? The young hunter knew he must follow these people. The chief would want to know what they were doing.

The young hunter peered around the tree to see what was happening. He saw that in addition to the third pale man, another person was also behind the rocks. From the shape of her body, this person must be a woman.

And what was this? Two more strange beasts came from behind the rocks. They looked similar to the shaggy beast, but they were not as shaggy.

What was happening here?

[davedove]

Scene 19

The Guyana Highlands

I quickly examined the two men I had shot. The bullets had hit them squarely in the torso and they had died quickly. I picked up their rifles and removed their load-bearing equipment.

I looked over to see that Greg had done the same to the man he had killed and was helping Vmac from behind the rocks. Her two dogs bounded out of cover and ran to where Wompet had tackled the fourth man. The dogs proceeded to examine one another as all dogs do upon meeting.

Frank had picked up the man’s rifle and was keeping watch over him. “What are we going to do with this one?” he asked as I approached.

“Let’s have a chat with him,” I answered.

I leaned over the man as he lying on the ground. “So, do you speak English?” I asked him.

He shook his head and answered in Spanish, “I don’t speak English, only Spanish.”

“Very well,” I answered, “we’ll talk in Spanish then. Why are you men out here? What are you doing?”

“I’m not answering you, American pig. You’ll not get any information from me.”

“Well, then you’re useless to us and we’ll have to kill you.”

The man just spit at me and stared defiantly.

I slowly wiped the spittle from my cheek and smiled evilly. “Or, I suppose we could just let the dogs eat your testicles.”

The man’s eyes went wide and he looked over at Wompet. At that very moment, the dog’s tongue came out, as if he were licking his lips.

The man looked at me again with fear in his eyes.

“What about it, friend?” I asked him. “I don’t think the ladies would like you too much after the dogs are finished with you.”

At that, the man couldn’t tell me enough. He served as a guard for the mine, apparently located in the clearing we had seen earlier. His job was to help oversee the slaves that worked there. His lieutenant had sent him and the others out to find out what had happened to the plane that had flown over. They had spotted the couple with the dogs and were closing in on them when we ambushed them. He couldn’t give me any more useful information, as he was apparently just a low level guard.

I stood up and told Greg to watch the man. Frank and I moved over to make sure Vmac was okay.

“I’m not real sure of my Spanish,” Frank said to me, “but did you just tell him the dogs were going to eat his testicles?”

“That’s right.”

“You weren’t really going to do that, were you?”

“Of course not,” I chuckled, “but he didn’t know that.”

[Livingston]

Wompet, come sit over here and growl at him a few times for me.

[davedove]

Scene 20

The Guyana Highlands

As we sat and discussed our situation, we quickly caught up with each other’s experiences. Apparently, Greg and Vmac had landed near enough to each other to meet up quickly. They had been headed in my direction when the guards had spotted them. They were making a stand at the rocks.

“Vmac went out the plane just before I did,” Greg said, “and Frank was right behind me. I did notice that he seemed to be drifting off to the side quite a bit.”

“Yeah, he did,” I said. “Have either of you seen Ms. Swan? She was the last person out of the plane before me, so she should have met up with you.”

“No, we haven’t seen anyone else,” Vmac told me. “Are you worried about her? Do you think something happened?”

“A bit, she’s well trained, but she’s not an expert in the jungle. If I wanted to hack into the Pentagon’s systems, she’s the first person I would ask, but she’s not a survival expert. Another question, have either of you tried your radios?”

“Only static,” Greg answered.

“We need to find the rest of the team. Then once we find them, we need to find our lost research party. On top of all that, I need to find out what happened to Ms. Falcon.”

“Do you think she survived the crash?”

“It doesn’t matter. I have to find out, so I’m going after her.”

“We all will go,” said Greg.

“Then why are you all standing around chatting?” asked a woman’s voice from the jungle.

When we turned towards the voice, we saw Ms. Crane walking towards us.

“I heard the gunfire and came as quickly as I could,” she said.

“We’re glad to see you,” I told her. “Have you seen any sign of the rest of the team?”

“Only one, I found a spot where a firefight had taken place. Several nine-millimeter casings, rifle casings in several locations around that, and a lot of blood, more than one person could produce. From the way it looked, one person was putting up a heck of a fight before their pistol ran out of ammo.”

“Ms. Hawk?”

“That would be my guess. There were just too many of them for her to take on alone with one pistol. No bodies though, so I suspect they captured her. They left a pretty good trail to follow, but I thought it would be better to find everyone else first.”

“It’s the only thing we have to go on right now, so we’ll check on that first.”

“What about our prisoner?” Greg asked.

I pondered the question for a moment. “We’ll have to leave him here,” I answered.

“Is that wise?” Frank asked me.

“No, but I’m not going to execute him. I’ll tie his hands so that it will take him a while to get loose. That will buy us the time we need. Plus, we’ll leave him a knife nearby so that he’s not completely unarmed.”