Page 118 of Casualties of War
On the other side of the channel, another goat track lead up to the flat ground at the top of the cliff. Quickly now, the Insurrectos would spot the vulnerability and take action to halt the Loyalists from climbing up thecliff.
Only, Duardo and Flores had anticipated every possible Insurrecto response, two days ago. There were snipers behind the Loyalist sandbags with rocket and grenade launchers to discourage Insurrecto attempts to rush the head of the track. Every man swarming up the cliff was armed with blades and guns and a determination to win through, no matter what.
This was the crunch point.
“Time togo,” Flores declared.
They rushed down the last few feet of goat track and joined their men.
* * * * *
The trek to the beach where Adán had been found by the village guerillas, Jose and his people, took the rest of the night. Parris kept them at a jog-walk-trot pace to cover the ground as quickly as possible, while she juggled strategies in her head. The coming day presented a challenge butthere was no help for it. They could not stop now. She didn’t think her unit wouldwantto stop.
The men chewed jerky and drank energy drinks as they jogged. They had left their gear in the gully, covered over. Locke stayed as a nominal guard and coordinator, with two others to spell him. At first, Parris had decided Adán should stay with Locke, only she could not do without Adán’s local knowledge.It would be critical now. Instead, she had Locke give Adán his armor.
The unit ran with as little as possible to weigh them down. They used the narrow dirt road labeled “Coastal Highway 1” on the map. There was no time to pass silently through the land and ease through trees. They met no one on the road, though. It was as if everyone had left the area, instinctively escaping trouble.
The largeboat was still there. It laid on its side, the metal hull glinting in the first rays of the sun. The man Adán had called Joaquim was beside it, the arrow jutting from his throat and his sightless eyes filmed over. They dragged the body into the tree line, then flipped the boat back onto the keel and dragged it to the water.
The motor fired up with a deep burbling note that promised plenty ofpower.
“Everyone in,” she called. “Let’s go.”
Everyone found a seat. Everyone faced forward, even Adán. They were eager to finish this.
“There’s a quarter tank of fuel,” Ramirez reported.
“One pass should be all we need to find the place. After that, the motor will be too loud to use, anyway.”
They cut through the water at a speed that lifted the nose of the boat and bounced them over thewaves with flat slapping sounds. The coastline they had spent two hours running along slipped by in a blur. The solid cliffs lifted up from a rocky headland at the end of the last bay, climbing like stairs, rising higher and higher. As they curved to the west, wet rocks thrust out like jagged teeth before a massive headland.
Ramirez slowed down, bringing the boat in closer to the rocks. Closeenough so they could hear the slap of the water against them and the suck of surf as waves surged between them.
Odesky had the large scanner on his knees, his gaze on the dials, as Ramirez steered the boat along the edge.
“There’s a cave,” Donaldson murmured, pointing. “Right on the water, too.”
“That’s not it,” Parris said, eyeing the rocks between the cave mouth and the open sea.
“Yessir,”Donaldson replied.
“The cave they used has to be accessible by boat,” Adán told him. “They floated the core right inside.”
Twenty minutes later, they found the cave.
Parris sat up, staring at the tall crack in the rocks that widened at the waterline into a twenty foot chasm. At the same time, Odesky clicked with his fingers, his gaze on the scanner. He held up the scanner. “They’re here.”
“Now what, Captain?” Ramirez said.
She cocked her rifled. “We go in.”
The boat tilted and turned as Ramirez lined the prow up with the crack in the cave and opened the throttle.
* * * * *
Duardo didn’t see Flores go down. He heard it happen. They were in the rear of the line of Loyalists fighting to climb the steep track to the top of the cliff. Duardo needed one hand to pull himself up thetrack, so he slung the assault rifle and used the Mauser instead. They were close enough to the Insurrectos that the .45 slugs had stopping power.
He fired and watched the grizzled Insurrecto who had been stupid enough to lean out to see what he was firing at drop with a harsh gurgle. At the same time Duardo heard Flores grunt. He ducked down again and turned to check on Flores.
