‘Okay,’ she said, taking a moment to compose her answer. ‘Since I was young I’ve always listened to my father’s talks on freedom and revolt. I was fascinated and inspired. I went to America to study law and politics. When I returned it was not just to be by my father’s side. The battle for liberty won’t end with the vanquishing of Neravista. There will always be others like him. I’m going to be a part of this country’s political future. When men like you have brought the killing to an end I’ll take up the fight in the halls of government. But I’ll want people to know that I played a part in this struggle. When people hear me fighting for their rights they’ll know that I understand the meaning of those words as well as any soldier. I want to be known as the woman who rode with you to destroy Chemora and help bring down Neravista.’
Victor looked confused. ‘That’s it?’
‘Yes. I’m asking you to give me my future.’ Louisa looked serious and they all realised she was probably more determined to go on the mission than any of them.
‘And what if something happened to you?’ Victor asked. ‘What about your future then?’
‘If I don’t do this, I’m going to do something else. You might as well let it be this, with you, and get it over with,’ she said.
Victor looked at Stratton for help but all the other man could offer was a lame shrug. ‘I would not be able to face Sebastian. Does that matter to you?’
‘Victor, my life is here now, with my people. I’m a part of this. You might as well get used to it.’
He hated the way she could get him to change his mind. His meagre persuasive arsenal was exhausted. ‘I’m all out of words,’ Victor said to Stratton. ‘I cannot stop her. But this is your operation.’
Louisa looked at the English soldier, aware that he was a different proposition. She could wrap Victor around her little finger and ultimately do what she wanted but that would not be the case with Stratton. If he said no it would be over for her. Ultimately, she would not jeopardise the mission for her own needs. Stratton would know that too.
Stratton’s only consideration was Louisa’s lack of combat skills. But she wasn’t going to get any experience sitting in the camp. If she was going to stay with this struggle then her best chance of survival was to learn how to fight. She might even discover this really wasn’t the place for her. ‘You’ll do nothing without my say-so and that means nothing, even going to the latrine. If you disobey I will gag you and tie you to that horse until we return. Is that understood?’
‘It is,’ Louisa replied, looking him sternly in the eye.
Victor shook his head and flicked his horse’s reins to make it walk on. ‘I’m in so much shit,’ he muttered.
‘Ride in the middle of the group,’ Stratton told Louisa as they moved off.
She pulled her horse around behind his as he moved alongside Victor.
‘Wasn’t there a fifth musketeer?’ Stratton asked.
‘That was the king - not the king’s daughter,’Victor said, not amused.
‘I don’t think this group has quite finished growing,’ Stratton said, looking through the trees on the sloping ground above them.
Victor followed his gaze. Kebowa and Mohesiwa were running, carrying their bows and a small leather back-pouch each. They were dressed as normal, wearing their knee-length trousers, with their long black hair tied back.
‘I never told them I was going anywhere but they always seem to know,’ Victor said, impressed. ‘Yoinakuwa’s not with them. He must know we’re going a good distance. Is that okay, them coming along?’
‘Why not?’ Stratton said.
Victor rode ahead to greet them as they came down to the track.
Stratton looked back at Louisa. She looked solemn and held his gaze only for a second. He wondered if he had seen a trace of fear in her eyes. Despite the dangers, he could not help feeling pleased that she was there.
The group rode off the plateau, using goat tracks and stream beds, all the time heading due west. The Indians decided that one of them would remain near the party while the other scouted ahead. They often swapped places. The brothers were very similar yet Stratton had begun to notice slight differences between them. Mohesiwa appeared dominant although the two discussed everything. He found their dedication to the revolution bizarre in a way. They did not seek any payment except food. They didn’t stand to benefit much no matter what heroics they performed. The only explanation that Stratton could think of was that they now felt they belonged to a community once again. Having lost their own tribe they had found another.
The group went easy on the horses because of the time they were expected to travel with little rest. It was fifty-five kilometres to the ambush site as the crow flew but the map did not show any contours so the real distance was difficult to estimate. Once off the plateau the terrain became rocky, with patches of open ground where Stratton felt exposed. Yet crossing them was a calculated risk if they were going to make it to the ambush site on time. According to the GPS they were making good progress, using the most direct route. The map showed some woodland further south, but it would take much longer that way. Stratton was relieved when eventually they entered primary jungle and visibility could be measured in metres rather than kilometres.
On the journey he learned why David and Bernard had been chosen for the operation, despite David’s injuries. Victor told him how they knew the western provinces, since both of them were from there. But there was more to it than that. Although David’s immediate family were gone he had other relatives in the area, as did Bernard.The mission was even more important to them yet neither young man had said a word. Stratton realised that the more he learned about his companions, the more he was gradually becoming involved, whether he liked it or not.
The first day went slowly. A coral snake spooked the burros during a water stop. Mohesiwa deftly trapped the venomous creature’s head, using the end of his bow. He picked it up, walked it a safe distance away from the group and released it. By nightfall Stratton had a better estimate of their speed. As long as the ground ahead was similar, which David assured him it was, and they continued through the night, they could rest the following day. Then if they waited until last light before moving they would make the ambush site around midnight, giving them a few hours of darkness in which to prepare.
The going was much slower and more dangerous in the dark. The trees looked black, and on some of them barbs grew. They pointed out from trunks and branches at odd angles and looked like spears. A few had grown to several feet in length and had tips as sharp as javelins. Travellers had been known to impale themselves. Poisonous manchineel trees also grew in the forest. Simply touching them or breaking a leaf and releasing their sap could cause lesions. Slashing a branch with a machete would create a spurt of poisonous milky liquid that could blind someone if it struck their eyes.
By midnight the moon shone brightly, lighting their way through the rare patches of open ground, but under the forest canopy it stayed black. At one point the cover was so dense that they had to dismount and lead the horses in single file. David was clearly not fit enough to spend an entire day on a horse and he seemed to be in great discomfort much of the time though he did not complain. The walking came as a relief to him. Victor tripped over several times and, cursing heavily after one particu larly heavy fall where he bashed his head and almost lost his hat, he got out his flashlight. Stratton told him to put it away, explaining that soldiers used lights only to check maps, make signals and to figure out how to dismantle a booby trap if it could not wait until daytime. Victor put the light away, muttering something about not being in the British Army.
As dawn broke through behind them they arrived at the edge of the wood and Stratton called an end to the march.They removed the equipment and saddles from the animals and provided them with food and water where they were tethered. They did not light a fire, since it could easily have been spotted by patrolling troops. Everyone was too tired anyway and set about preparing their beds.
/> Louisa came over to ask Stratton if she could go for a pee. He looked at her poker-faced as if considering it but could not help breaking into a grin. ‘Get out of here,’ he told her. ‘Just don’t go too far.’
Victor cleared away the fallen twigs and leaves from his chosen spot, placed a blanket on the ground, lay on it and shuffled around to smooth the surface as much as possible before draping his poncho over him. David and Bernard prepared their sleeping places in much the same way but with less fuss.
Stratton looked for the Indians, wondering what their sleeping arrangements might be, but they had disappeared. He pulled a bundle from his pack and unravelled a thin Gore-Tex sleeping bag designed for the jungle, cleared a selected spot and rolled it out. Without removing his boots he pushed his way inside and rested his head on his pack, his assault rifle beside him.
Footsteps signalled Louisa’s return and Stratton watched her prepare her bed a few metres away. Holding her blanket, she took a moment to work out the best way to go about setting up the bed. A glance at Stratton’s revealed no lesson to be learned there and she looked at Victor’s. She spread the blanket on the ground and searched inside her pack for a poncho, which, it quickly became evident, she had forgotten to bring. Unperturbed, she lay down and pulled the blanket on top of her, resting her head on her pack and closing her eyes as if blissfully comfortable.
The Indians returned, carrying several large banana leaves as well as some of the tree’s fruit and quickly set about erecting a small shelter against a tree. Stratton suspected they had some inkling about the weather and studied the small patches of sky that he could see through the forest roof. He couldn’t see any stars. He sat up and unravelled a green lightweight nylon canopy from a pocket of his pack. It was a large rectangle with string attached to the corner and mid-length eyelets.
He climbed out of his sleeping bag and as he tied the first corner to a tree a tapping sound from above signalled rain hitting the jungle foliage. He secured the other three corners and a couple of the sides, pulling the canopy as tight as a drum. The final touch was to secure the line attached to the centre of the canopy which he tossed over a branch directly above, pulling it tight to give the canopy a pointed roof. The rain started to drip from the highest branches onto the forest floor, making a drumming sound that gradu - ally became louder and faster when it hit Stratton’s cover.
Stratton ducked beneath his new shelter, lay on his sleeping bag and watched Louisa to see how long it would take for her to react. He did not have to wait long. She had fallen into a deep sleep but the large raindrops striking her face soon dragged her back out of it. She sat up and looked around as her mind came back into focus.
She looked over at Stratton to see him watching her. He shifted to one side and indicated the space beside him. Louisa did not waste any time dragging up her blanket and saddlebags and scurrying beneath his canopy. Within seconds she was lying back down with her blanket draped over her. She wriggled a little to get comfortable.
‘Thank you,’ she said.
Stratton climbed back into his sleeping bag. ‘First time camping?’ he asked.
‘Yes, actually. I missed out on the Girl Scouts.’
He looked at the water dripping off the edges of the nylon sheet. ‘I always find this nostalgic, lying beneath a piece of canvas in the rain.’
Drips hit the side of Louisa’s blanket and she moved her bedding closer to him, her back against his side.
‘You take to camping naturally,’ Stratton observed.
‘I prefer this to a caravan, pulling into some commercial campsite and plugging into an electricity and water supply.’
‘Good for you.’
‘I suppose this is the best way to start. Get stuck straight in.’
‘Your first camping experience or your first ambush?’
Stratton’s words were food for thought to Louisa. ‘That hasn’t even hit me yet. I can’t even begin to imagine what that will be like.’
Stratton could foresee clearly most of the action that he had planned. He did not need to imagine the outcome, either. He had countless previous examples to draw on and could hear in his head the explosions and see the terrible destruction the claymores would wreak. ‘You’d better prepare yourself. You’re going to see and hear people die and in a bloody awful way.’
‘I thought we were going to be well away from it when it happened.’
‘Haven’t you learned that Steel is little more than a salesman? If we want to ensure that it’s done right we have to be there.’
Louisa should have felt more nervous after hearing that. But she could not properly prepare herself emotionally for something she could not even imagine. ‘Have you ever thought about having a normal life?’
‘Sometimes. Just before the ambush I probably will. Definitely immediately after it.’
‘You’re different from any man I’ve ever known. The men react to you in a way I’ve not seen before. They don’t fear you, yet they know you’re someone to be feared. They want to be like you but they don’t want to be you because they know they cannot.’
The rain fell harder, the drumbeats on the canopy now a constant roll. Louisa turned onto her side to face Stratton, her cheek touching his shoulder. ‘Why is it that I feel safe with you?’ she asked sleepily. ‘I hated you when I first saw you. You represented the worst form of capitalism I could think of.What’s strange is that even now I don’t see anything different about what you do. All that’s changed is how I perceive your motives . . . You’re not interested in money, are you?’
‘No.’
‘I bet you don’t even know what your motives are.’
‘No, I don’t. Not completely.’
‘I should study you more closely,’ she said, drifting off. ‘I’d like to know why you’re like you are and why you do what you do.’
A strand of her hair fell against Stratton’s face. He could smell her. It was pure delight. Her breathing changed its rhythm as she dropped into unconsciousness. Only then did he close his eyes and allow himself to follow her.
When Stratton awoke the rain had ceased. Louisa was snuggled close to him. He looked for a moment at her beautiful face inches from his.
He eased away from her, slid out of his sleeping bag and got to his feet. The other men were still asleep and one of the Indians lay rolled in a ball beneath the banana-leaf shelter. There was no sign of the other.
Stratton walked to the edge of the wood and looked at the valley that spread out before him. The blood-red sun at the far end was setting in a magnificent blaze of colour. He sensed something to his side and turned to see Mohesiwa watching him from a distance. Stratton waved and, to his surprise, the gesture was returned.
He went back to the group and stood over Victor who was still sound asleep. ‘Victor,’ he said, nudging him with his toe.
Victor opened his eyes and within a few seconds remembered where he was. ‘Everything okay?’ he asked quietly as he sat up.
‘We should get going. By the time we get the animals loaded the sun will be gone.’
Victor hawked to clear his throat, spat out the phlegm and got to his feet. ‘I would love a cup of coffee right now,’ he said. ‘I was dreaming of a little café I used to go to in Pau. You know Pau?’
‘I do. I used to parachute there.’
‘Well, I used to drink wine and coffee there, a more civilised occupation but no less dangerous. It was where I met my wife. And where I divorced her. That town had everything.’ Victor got to his feet.
David stirred, yawned and reached across to give his cousin a shake. Both young men got up.
Stratton dismantled his shelter without waking Louisa. He crouched beside her and gently pinched her nostrils together. Her eyes flickered open and he withdrew his hand. ‘You just saved me,’ she said.
‘I did?’
‘I was having the most bizarre dream about the president of Mexico - who I’ve never met.’ She sat up. ‘He asked me to marry him. He was repulsive and s
tarted to chase me.’
‘It must be these woods,’ Stratton said, closing up his pack. ‘Victor was dreaming about his ex-wife.’
‘I heard that,’ Victor called out as he saddled his horse. ‘I was dreaming about drinking coffee in the town where my ex-wife lives. She was a beautiful woman, actually. And she truly loved me at one time. Love is one of life’s gifts that few really experience. I hope you discover what I mean one day,’ he scoffed.
The group ate a light breakfast of bread, bananas and wild canistels, an eggfruit that the Indians had supplied, and within a short while they were mounted and heading out of the forest into the valley.
They were soon in complete darkness, following a winding goat track up the side of a steep, rocky hill that Victor had referred to as a ‘goddamned mountain’ when he first saw it. But the size of such things is always deceptive at night and within an hour they had reached the top.
Stratton halted them short of the ridge line in order to find a place to cross over without exposing their silhouettes. A road ran along the valley floor on the other side and they had to assume that it was patrolled by government soldiers.
They followed the ridge for some distance before Stratton ordered a dismount and they passed through a narrow cut, emerging the other side to find themselves overlooking another and much larger valley. They could see none of its features in the darkness but according to the map a small river meandered along the bottom alongside a tarmac highway.
They weren’t far from the ambush site now and they stayed on foot down the steep, rocky incline, Kebowa and Mohesiwa sticking close by. The group had not gone far when a light appeared at one end of the valley. They stopped to watch what was obviously a vehicle on the road. As it drew closer the gentle rumble of its engine could be heard. The headlights suddenly began to flicker, strobe-like, as they passed behind something. At the same time the sound of heavy-duty wheels driving over a metal grid drowned out the noise of the engine.
‘The bridge,’ Victor said.
The truck’s red tail lights glowed as it headed down the valley and disappeared out of sight.
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