His training hadn’t completely deserted him.
The smell of damp earth and rotting vegetation attacked his nostrils. Hanging leaves from low branches whipped at his face, but he ignored their sting, his focus locked dead ahead as they moved at a crouched trot deeper into the jungle.
After almost an hour, they stopped and spread out. Nick indicated for Alex to stay with him as the other men headed off in a semi-circle, donning their
night-vision goggles and melting into the trees.
After adjusting his, he moved forward, stopping several moments later. A dozen yards ahead, two figures stood to one side of what looked like a small clearing. Outlined in shadowy green silhouette, one of them lifted a hand every few seconds to his lips. At the intermittent glow flaring from the soldier’s hand, Nick realized one of the rebels was having a cigarette break. Good. Their guard was down.
Crouching low, he trained his gun on the soldier and sighted him in his scope. A quick sideways glance and Alex nodded at his signal. They fired almost simultaneously, their silencers barely causing a sound in the night air as the two rebel soldiers crumpled to their deaths.
Two of Allen’s men materialized from the gloom and tugged the bodies out of view several feet into the bushes.
Sweat broke out on Nick’s brow. Two down. The problem was, the rest of the rebels were inside the cave. And at this time of the night, even if half of them were asleep, Nick’s band of mercenaries would in all likelihood be outnumbered.
Taking steady breaths, he crept closer to the clearing, Alex beside him, their guns poised and steady at shoulder level. In near-complete silence, one man extracted a minute video camera mounted on the end of a flexible fiber-optic cable. He fed it through a small fissure, while another man observed the feedback on a small screen.
After a few minutes, the men moved back and communicated their findings through hand signals.
Nick held his breath as Allen spoke. “We have a total of sixteen bodies inside, five up and moving around. Most of them are grouped at the front. I’m guessing those are the soldiers. Three are isolated in the far corner, and I think those are the hostages. There are lights in there, so we won’t need these,” he said, indicating the night vision goggles.
They split into two groups, advancing cautiously toward the entrance of the cave. Nick clenched his jaw to stem the fear and adrenaline. Not fear for himself, but for her. His wayward wife.
“Easy now. We’re almost there,” Alex whispered and clasped his shoulder in brief reassurance.
Nick nodded, exhaled in a slow breath, and rapped lightly on the wooden barrier with his gun.
There was a gruff response from within. Beside him, Allen answered with the guttural broken French Nick had heard the locals use.
They flattened themselves against the rock face as the soldier removed the barrier and stuck his head out of the cave. Nick yanked him out, slammed his elbow into the rebel’s neck, and silenced him before he could utter a word.
With a hissed warning, Allen pulled the pin from the small device in his hand and lobbed it inside the cave.
…
Belle jerked from the troubled sleep she’d fallen into as a loud, piercing sound shattered the silence of the cave. The harsh strobe flashes of light that lit up the dark cavern a second later completely blinded her, even after she shut her eyes against the painful intrusion. After several seconds of intermittent bursts, they stopped. Heart thundering, ears ringing, she lurched from her bed and wondered if she was dreaming.
Edda’s terror-struck face from a several feet away told her she was still enmeshed in the nightmare.
Dizzy and momentarily blinded by the flashes, she stumbled forward. What was happening? Had she given herself away somehow? Had Mwana decided they weren’t worth keeping after all and blasted the cave, burying them alive? Curiously though, the walls of the cave remained intact. She blinked a few times to dispel the blindness. Nothing happened.
Something brushed against her, and she bit back a scream.
Were they being rescued? Her spirits soared, then plummeted.
Who would rescue them? Only Liz knew her whereabouts, and her best friend wouldn’t give it up that easily. Besides, Belle wasn’t due to make her weekly phone call to Liz until Monday, so she wouldn’t guess Belle might be in trouble until after she failed to make the call.
As for Father Tom, having lived and run the mission in Nawaka for the last seventeen years, he wouldn’t be missed back in his native Scotland. And if somehow Edda and Hendrik didn’t make it out, then…who knew?
The Nawakan government had enough on its plate dealing with the very real dual threat of its gold and diamond mines being looted and bracing for Charles Mwana’s inevitable takeover to mount rescue operations of kidnapped foreigners.
Rescue was not an option.
The only other conclusion she could reach was that another rebel faction had caught wind of the Mwana’s bounty and intended to claim it. One rebel group often seized another’s hostages if they could profit from it. Sometimes rebels within the same group rose up against each other. Was that what was happening here? Had Mwana’s subordinates staged a coup?
If so, she and the other hostages had to take advantage of the gunfight.
“Father, I think we should make a run for it. This may be our only chance.” God, she prayed she was right and they did have a chance.