by C J Schnier
Vitality seemed to pour into her. "I can do more than stand. Look in that trunk over there and find me some clothes. Let's get the fuck out of here."
CHAPTER TWENTY
Bardales' trunk contained little that would fit Jaye's trim and athletic build, but she made the best of what was available. Except for her shoes, all of her clothes that I had found in the tent were ripped or destroyed. Bardales was a monstrosity.
I tried to avert my eyes while she was hastily trying on her captor's clothes, but she was unbelievably stunning to look at, and I couldn't help myself. More than once she caught me looking. Anyone who had eyes could have seen my cheeks turn red enough to glow in the dark.
Guilt flooded through me. It was a feeling I had grown accustomed to. Ever since Kelly had died, I always felt guilty when I admired another woman. Part of me remained faithful to her. I knew it was silly, but I still felt it.
This sense of guilt however was a little different. Jaye had been through an unimaginable ordeal. I had found her at her most vulnerable. Bardales had broken her, and even though she wouldn't say it, I was pretty sure he'd also tried to have his way with her. Yet she had pushed that vulnerability, the pain, and the mental anguish aside, and had immediately set about the current task of escaping. I couldn't help but respect and admire her for that.
Not wanting to stand around idly watching her dress, I looked through the rest of Bardales' stuff. The sleeping chamber was mostly devoid of material goods, but there were a few trunks and bags to look through back in the main room.
"Hey, I'm going to look in the other room and see if I can find anything that we can use as a weapon," I said, exiting the bed chamber. Jaye nodded and then pulled a shirt over her torso.
The first bag I looked in contained a few folders and a toiletries kit. I opened the kit, hoping for a straight razor or a knife, but it only contained a small pair of grooming scissors.
The second bag was a large green canvas duffel. I unzipped the top and caught my breath. Inside, halfway wrapped in a towel, was the Treasure of the Taino, the idol that had caused all of this trouble. I smiled to myself, zipped the bag back up, and slung it over my shoulder. Maybe this trip wouldn't be a bust after all.
"This'll have to do," Jaye said, stepping into the larger room. "Are you ready to get out of here?"
Startled, I spun around and looked at her. I let out a small whistle at what I saw. She had put on a pair of green army fatigues, cinched down tight around her waist with a black nylon webbing belt. A plain white wife-beater tank top was tucked into the top of her pants. It covered her smallish breasts but offered little to the imagination. She was braless, and somehow the tight fitting tank top seemed to mold to her form. I had to admit that I liked what I saw. It also reminded me she was a badass woman, and I was liable to get a fist to the face if I ogled her too hard.
"You know, if we get out of here you should take up something less intense, like modeling," I said, "You've got a kick-ass Gwen Stefani look going on there."
Her lips twitched upwards at their corners, hinting at a smile. "Thanks Chase, but you can flirt with me later. We've got more important things to do."
"Uh, right," I stammered, trying to get my hormones in check. "Dr. Blatt should be waiting for us in the back of the lead truck. If we can make it there unseen, I think we can get out of here."
"Sounds like a plan," she said, and then added, "What's in the bag? Did you find some weapons?"
"Oh, this?" I asked patting the bag, "This is just a bit of leverage."
Jaye looked at me quixotically for a moment and then accepted my vague answer. "Alright Chase, lead the way."
I nodded and took two steps towards the entranceway, Jaye a half-step behind me. We both came to a sudden halt when the flaps flew open and General Bardales stepped from the rainy darkness to the light of the tent.
His face lit up and the broad, predatory smile that crept across his face was made more sinister by his thick silver beard.
"Leaving so soon?" He asked, flashing yellowed teeth as his smile grew larger. His eyes, twinkling with delight, locked onto the duffel bag slung over my shoulder. "And you're trying to steal the idol. Again."
He reached to his hip and pulled his pistol from its holster, pointing it right at me. "You don't know when to die, do you, Mr. Hawkins?"
"You know, for someone that looks like they could win an Ernest Hemingway lookalike contest, you're a real asshole," I retorted.
"Defiant until the end, like Ms. Mercury here," he said, undressing her with his eyes. "No matter how many times I forced myself on her, she always fought me. But I like a spirited woman. I'll break her soon."
Before I could come to her defense, Jaye let out a primal scream from behind me and struck out at the general with the speed of a cobra. Her scream was blood curdling, elemental, and terrifying. It existed between a growl and shriek. Something from deep within her psyche. Something primitive and instinctual that caught us both off guard.
Her first strike knocked the general's arm away. Her follow-up strike, an elbow to the chin, connected with bone-crunching efficiency. Bardales reeled to his right, knocked off balance by the woman's unexpected and ferocious attack. Jaye, sensing his weakness, pressed her attack. Her hand snatched Bardales' wrist and twisted while simultaneously launching a low roundhouse kick to the back of his leg, buckling his knee. As he fell, she used her free hand to strip the sidearm from his grip and then backed away, pointing the officer's own weapon at him.
The entire set of movements had been quick and vicious enough to make a Muay Thai fighter proud. The attack had also been fluid and controlled, almost choreographed. She caught Bardales completely unaware, and he was now on his knees shaking his head and trying to make sense of his new, and considerably less authoritative, position.
He looked up at the gun pointed at him and chuckled. "Hah! Look at how spirited she is!" he said, rubbing his jaw where Jaye's elbow had hit him and then moved to get up.
"Fuckin' freeze, asshole," Jaye hissed. To emphasize her point, she racked the slide of the pistol, chambering a round.
Bardales stopped moving and glared at her. The jubilant look that had been in his eyes a moment before had turned to dark loathing.
"I'd do as she says, guy. I don't think she's screwing around," I said, trying to avoid escalating the conflict any farther. "Jaye, you don't have to kill him. Let's get out of here."
Outside of the tent, a chorus of shouts and noises were building over the now driving rain. I could hear men running past in the muck and expected them to burst into the tent at any moment. So far none had, but it was only a matter of time. We had to get out of here, and soon.
At first I didn't think Jaye heard me. Her gaze was locked on to Bardales and her pistol trembled slightly in her outstretched hand. Pain and rage fought for control over her, and for a moment I thought she would pull the trigger.
"Don't do it, Jaye," I pleaded. "It won't do us any good. We need to go, we have to get out of here."
Finally, her passions ebbed, and she regained some control. She blinked twice before lowering the gun a few fractions of an inch. She nodded slowly, almost imperceptibly at first. "Let's go," she whispered through her fading anger.
"You can't get away," Bardales spat at us as we turned to leave. "I will find you, and when I do, I will make you my personal prisoners, your entire life will be suffering."
I interrupted him with a stern look, "If I were you, I'd stop talking right now."
Bardales sneered at me and continued, "I am going to enjoy torturing you, and I will make you watch as I rape your woman over and over!" he growled., his brutish eyes glimmering with rage and anticipation.
A deafening pop and a flash of light exploded from the pistol in Jaye's hand and Bardales collapsed to the ground, crying out in pain. His hands clutched the inside of his upper thigh and I could see blood seeping between his fingers.
"I warned you to stop," I stated as I grabbed Jaye by the elbow and rushed u
s both out of the tent.
I feared the gunshot would alert all the troops in the camp, but as soon as we burst from the tent I could see that something else had gotten their attention first. The communications tent, a scant thirty feet away, was completely engulfed in roaring orange flames that hissed and licked at the falling rain.
I could hear the shouts and commotion as the men stationed in the barracks section of the camp retrieved their weapons and hustled out of their darkened tents towards the raging fire at the communications tent.
"Holy shit," I said, gaping at the fire. Jaye tugged at my hand, physically pulling me out of my trance. Ignoring the inferno, we ran straight for the vehicles parked nearby. Several soldiers passed us as we ran, but none of them seemed to notice our presence. They were all focused on the inferno.
Miles Blatt urged us on from the back of the lead truck. "Thank God you made it. When I heard the gunshot, I feared for the worst," he said as we arrived at the truck.
"The troops seemed too distracted by the fire to even notice. How did the fire happen, anyway?" I asked.
"All part of the plan," Blatt said, beaming with pride. "It's amazing this whole place hasn't gone up in flames. They've stored flammable solvents and fuels all over the place here. All I needed was a little electrical fire and an accelerant, and presto! A huge fire. We won't have to worry about their long-range communications for a while."
"Fantastic work!" I said, giving him an enthusiastic pat on the shoulder. "What about this hunk of junk? Can we steal it?"
Blatt's pride deflated at my mention of the truck. "I don't know. I ran and hid back here after overloading the generator. The actual escape was your part of the plan," he said.
"Shit," I spat. I hadn't thought this far ahead. Leaving Jaye and Miles at the back of the truck, I ran up to the driver's side door and yanked it open and stuck my head inside. There were no keys hanging from the ignition. There wasn't even an ignition for a key to hang from. Where the switch should have been was a hole. What the hell?
I looked for some sort of ignition. The vehicle had to have one. But there was nothing. No switch, no push button, nothing that looked like it could be used to start the truck. Frustrated, I slammed the door shut and ran to Bardales' odd Jeep-like vehicle, opened the door and hopped inside.
This vehicle at least had a standard ignition switch, but again the keys were of course not in it. I rooted through the seats and finally spotted a pair of keys on a plain metal split-ring laying on the dash. I snatched them up and tried the first key. The vehicle rumbled to life immediately. I let out a triumphant whoop.
I jumped back out of the Jeep and hustled back to Jaye and Miles, motioning them to follow me. "C'mon, I got Bardales' Jeep working."
"Hell, yeah," Jaye said, "Let's get out of here."
Miles Blatt vaulted over the rear fender as if it were nothing more than a street curb and landed in the back seat. His athleticism and agility were at complete odds with his bookish and frail, scholarly look. Jaye jumped into the passenger seat, holding her pistol in her lap, hidden but ready for use.
I was halfway in the driver's seat when sparks and a loud "Ping" exploded on the front fender, immediately followed by a single shouted word.
"Hawkins!" Bardales bellowed. Immediately my eyes searched the camp, but it only took half of a second to find the enraged man. He was standing between the command tents pointing a pistol at us, his body silhouetted by the colossal fire behind him. He staggered on his one good leg, heavily favoring his bad one, a ragged strip of cloth tied around his injured thigh.
"Damn! I hoped that bullet you put in him would have slowed him down more."
"I was aiming for his dick," she said bluntly. "I guess I need to get to the range and work on my aim."
"What are you waiting for? I, for one, would very much like to get the hell out of here. You can talk about this later," Miles said from the back seat. "Vamamos!"
"Right with you, Doc!" I said as I shifted the Jeep into first gear, stabbed my foot down on the gas, and simultaneously let out the clutch. The Jeep leapt forward, its tires slipping in the loose mud as we gained speed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
A tent flashed by, and I had to spin the wheel sharply to avoid hitting another that materialized out of the gloom. If not for the flickering light cast by the huge fire in the center of the camp, I would have wrecked us within seconds.
"What the hell are you doing, Chase?" Jaye yelled, gripping the door with white knuckles as I again cut the wheel hard over, this time to avoid hitting a soldier.
"I can't see!" I said exasperated. "Where is the switch for the headlights?"
"Seriously?" Jaye replied. She reached over and pulled a knob on the dash that I had not noticed. Immediately the headlights came to life.
"Thanks," I muttered, concentrating on the narrow swath of illumination ahead of us, aligning us to make our escape.
Pushing the gas pedal to the floor, we barreled towards the entrance to the camp. As we approached, a glaring hole in my plan landed squarely in the beam of my headlights. They had blocked the sole road that led into the camp with two cement blocks and a rolling gate made of razor wire. While it wouldn't stop anybody on foot, it could wreak havoc on a vehicle.
I slammed on the brakes and the Jeep skidded to a stop twenty feet from the gate. On either side of the concrete barricades, dense jungle dropped away from the ridgeline that the road had been constructed on.
"Uh, Chase," Miles said from the backseat. "We're about to have a very bad day. Bardales is loading up men in the trucks. And about a dozen more look like they're headed this way."
I looked behind us in the rearview mirror. Bardales' entire force had abandoned the raging fire and was now heading our way. Just then, I saw the muzzle flash of several rifles. The sounds of gunfire and bullets whizzing by was enough to spur me forward. Saying a silent prayer, I once again stomped on the accelerator.
Going through the concrete and barbed wire would not work. That left one option, I had to go around. Both sides of the gate ran downwards as steep slopes, but the left side looked to have fewer trees. And, knowing that the road ran along the coast, I chose the side farther away from the cliffs and water.
I slowed as much as I dared, and approached the barricade. I let the driver's side wheels roll over the flat road and onto the sloped hillside. The jeep leaned hard to the left, and I gripped the steering wheel tighter. All of us braced ourselves against the shift in gravity.
"You know what you're doing, right?" Jaye asked, shifting in her seat.
"I've seen it done on YouTube, how hard can it be?" I replied, concentrating so hard that I couldn't even manage one of my disarming winks.
The Jeep's tires spun and slid, trying to slip down the embankment. I kept the throttle steady, feathering it as needed. We passed by the concrete barricade with barely an inch to spare on the passenger side. As soon as it was behind us, I gunned the Jeep and turned the wheel, letting the rear tires break loose. They slid down the hill until we were perpendicular to the road. A moment later, they caught traction, and the Jeep began to climb. The ancient vehicle powered up the steep incline and onto the rough road with relative ease, fishtailing slightly as I turned to head down the mountain.
I could see headlights bouncing wildly in the rearview mirror, but turned my attention back to the rough road ahead that snaked left and right.
"Is anyone following us?" I asked, braking for a sharp turn.
Miles, who had turned completely around in his seat and was now staring out of the back of the Jeep, was the one who replied. "It looks like they opened the gates and both trucks are trying to catch up to us."
"If they get close enough, do you think you could hit them?" I asked Jaye, motioning to her pistol.
"The way you're driving?"
I glanced back in the rearview again and saw two headlights coming around the sharp curve, somehow gaining on us. "Well, you're about to find out. They know this road better than I do,
and they're catching up."
Another sharp curve appeared ahead of us and we nearly slipped off the narrow path, the rear passenger wheel spinning furiously as it left the gravel. The rest of the vehicle would have followed, but the quarter panel sideswiped one of the many tropical trees that grew alongside the road and knocked us more or less back on course.
The collision ripped away the rear fender, and I suspected it must have messed up the alignment of the rear axle because the jeep, already difficult to control, started pulling towards the right. Worse, I could feel something rubbing against the body.
"Whoops," I said.
"Whoops? What the hell, Chase? Could you please try not killing us?" Jaye demanded. Her face was ashen and pale, and her expression was one of stark fear.
I braked for another sharp curve and then smiled with relief as the road suddenly straightened and opened up. It was no longer a green tunnel with steep drop offs on either side. Now there was room for two vehicles to run side by side, though there was still the drop off on the seaward side.
"Uh, Chase, they're catching up," Blatt yelled, panic growing in his voice.
He was right. The first truck was nearly on top of us now.
"Can't you go any faster?" Jaye asked, looking over her shoulder at the massive vehicle right behind us.
"This is as fast as we go. I think my little mishap with the tree slowed us down some."
The huge green truck kept gaining on us, its headlights illuminating the entire Jeep. Their reflection was blinding in the mirrors, but I was glad I was in Cuba and not The States. At least they were old incandescent bulbs and not the horrifyingly bright LED bulbs most cars used today.
"Chase..." Miles said before the entire Jeep jerked forward, causing all of our heads to whiplash backward with the sudden jolt. The heavy truck had rammed us and once again I had to fight the steering on the Jeep. I recovered quickly, but the massive truck was already ramming us again.