A Taste of Honey

by Tom Benson

  The backpack, once filled with her regular outfit, was strapped over her shoulders. There was little chance that she would need her pistol, but to keep her options open, she had slipped it inside a studded pocket on the Ghillie suit. There should be no need of her rifle, so it remained in the backpack in the compact, collapsed condition.

  It took her two minutes to orientate her position, and she set off through the trees, with map and compass both in use, as she used gradients and contours instead of trails. Although it wouldn’t occur to her until later, within a few minutes the streetwise woman was at home and enjoyed the trek through the undergrowth and forestry.

  *

  Honey made progress for an hour, only twice leaving the trees to cross a recognized trail, but the position, shape and width of the trails were easy to pair up with nearby streams or trail intersections. It gave Honey the confidence boost she needed. Her navigation was within a few yards in accuracy, which was just as she had hoped. Sights, sounds, and smells would be her natural guides, and the use of map and compass would keep her true on her course. She took a ten-minute rest.

  It was at the end of her second straight hour of effort that Honey noticed the daylight was no longer making it down through the dense canopy. It was light enough to see what she was doing, but the greens, yellows, reds, and browns would soon start fading to shades of gray. To avoid making her presence obvious, this was the right time to have some nourishment.

  The city girl unburdened herself and unpacked what she would need. She was careful to keep all equipment within arm’s reach. Items came out of the backpack or a pocket only when required. When their use was over, they were packed away.

  She used her large hunting knife to dig into the ground. Like any good weapon of its type, it had several key features, including a strong, broad, pointed blade with an indented groove, a razor sharp cutting edge below, and a serrated edge above.

  A small hole gouged out of the earth, surrounded by a mound of turf provided an ideal hiding place for her mini gas stove. A single block of solid fuel once ignited was covered in small pieces of bracken and the heat was intensified by the sunken, enclosed pit.

  Honey enjoyed hot stew from a tin, followed by coffee and a nutritious cereal bar. The smells might drift, she thought, but they’d dissipate. There was little chance that anybody else would be in the forest on a mission like hers, and it wouldn’t matter if the aromas carried on the breeze. There would probably be one-night thrill seekers in the woods.

  Anyone spending one or two nights in the forest would be there purely for the experience of living in the wilderness. Sitting in the semi-darkness alone and at one with nature, Honey was taken back once again to her youth. “Thank you, dad,” she whispered.

  For a few minutes, she allowed her thoughts to wander back to days and nights in just such an environment. Thoughts of Harriet came to mind, and she was brought back to the present and reminded why she was there. It took only five minutes to break up her small camp, pack equipment, and set off again.

  Honey had not invested in night-vision goggles, but she did have infrared field glasses. At one stage, she arrived at the edge of the tree line and was able to see across a wide valley in the intermittent moonlight. She remained near the edge of the trees and scanned the view on her chosen bearing.

  There were no pylons or other large metal objects in view, but in the middle distance, not far inside the trees there was something. She adjusted her lenses and saw movement. Metal objects moving, possibly being moved by one person?

  It was hard to judge the time and distance accurately due to the contours and darkness, but Honey allowed herself two more hours to get close to her target area. She was determined to reach the general area before resting properly because she wanted to perform a night reconnaissance before sleeping. She would allow herself a break after another hour.

  *

  Saturday, June 21st, 2003

  At 1am, Honey knew she didn’t have far to go. There were smells and sounds that told her she was closing on her target, although she felt she was a little ahead of schedule. She slowed down and took a final short rest before her approach. It would be counter-productive to march on in the dark because one stumble would give away her presence.

  Honey knew from the variety of aromas reaching her nostrils that she had the light early morning breeze in her favor. She had come in from behind a building and was pleased to be upwind.

  It took only a moment to survey the area ahead with her field glasses. The structure stood out as a dark, oblong mass among the trees, but it wasn’t particularly large. It was a small building, close to the edge of the tree line, which was to its front. There was something else between Honey and the cabin. She would investigate after confirming her location.

  She opened her map and orientated it with her compass. The confidence she had gained from her trek through the forest was reassuring. The building ahead was not the outward bound lodge seen on the website that Higgins advertised. Although on a similar bearing as the crow might fly, the lodge should be further away by about a mile. The main trail would serve a hunting lodge, but not this small shack.

  From her position within a rock formation, Honey was able to look toward the back of the building. It was a log cabin, which she estimated was about 100 yards away. Using her field glasses, she could see that between her position and the cabin, there were several struts, like long metal bars sticking upright from the ground.

  She panned left and right, and it looked even more peculiar. To the left there was nothing but trees and a narrow trail or footpath. To the right, the metal bars were regularly spaced, their continuous line disappearing into the distance. She wondered if she could see netting, or perhaps something similar? Whatever the metal bars represented, they didn’t cross the trail.

  Honey went forward for a closer look. The metal struts were staged at such uniform spacing because they formed the supports for a high wire-mesh fence. It was difficult to judge the size, but it appeared to encompass a large area of forestry, as if the section of woodland was a natural compound.

  Higgins, Honey recalled, had been a soldier for a few years, but he wasn’t Special Forces. Even so, a good infantryman would be a formidable foe in this environment, especially if he were an outdoor type. He would probably count on defense by ambush or booby-trap.

  She thought about this man’s other interests and then like a bolt from the blue it struck her. He had one particular interest which had a passing mention on his website, but Honey had noticed it and stored it away in her memory. Surely not, she thought as she tried to peer through the darkness into the massive fenced-off area. It was a secondary consideration, and she could afford to confirm her suspicions later.

  Giving the compound a wide berth and staying upwind, Honey set off to check out the possible approaches to the cabin. There was a margin of woodland about 50 yards wide between the fenced compound and the back of the building.

  On the compound gate, a large padlock was fitted to a sliding bar. Hanging on the wire fence beside the gate was a wooden sign with an official-looking logo painted on one corner and a safety declaration underneath. Even in the moonlight she could see that the compound was not symmetrical, but within the tree line it extended around a section of woodland, to include trees and a small rocky outcrop.

  Honey pulled out her field glasses again and scoured the area around the cabin. Metal shapes, sticking out of the ground, almost, but not all the way around the building. Without her special glasses, the shapes would have been invisible within the grassy tufts.

  The cabin was in such a remote and inaccessible location; it didn’t make sense to have any defense in place, unless Higgins was expecting unwelcome visitors; like Honey. Perhaps her bogus call as a teacher had put him on edge, and if it did, that was still good.

  Parts of the metal objects stood out when seen through her field glasses. Without the infrared lenses, she could easily have stepped on one of the structures. She took careful steps
towards the nearest of them and glanced around. With a hand cupped around the lens, she shone her pen-light. It took a matter of seconds to recognize the gruesome claw-like devices. Bear traps were distinctive.

  The area around the cabin was laid out like a minefield, except for the narrow trail and the grassy route from the log cabin to the compound. It occurred to her that these were the metal objects she’d seen being moved around, when she was on the other side of the valley. The preparations must have started in daylight and taken the man hours to complete.

  It took an hour for Honey to do a recon of the surrounding area, and it confirmed her suspicions. There was a narrow strip between the traps. It was an escape route from the front door of the cabin to an overgrown trail up ahead. The nearest public trail was about 300 yards away. A visitor would only see the cabin if they knew where to look.

  Honey figured that somewhere down along that overgrown passage, Higgins must have his vehicle parked. There were no tire marks in the grass or patches of bare earth, which led her to believe that the vehicle never came within the vicinity of the hut. More than once among the natural fragrances, Honey tasted the aroma of coffee on the breeze. If it was Higgins in the cabin as she suspected, he was still up and about.

  Keeping close to the trees, Honey walked with the stealth of a wild animal along the grass covered area. She paused occasionally, lips slightly parted to improve hearing and her eyes moving slowly to use her peripheral vision. Her senses were on high alert, pacing the distance as she went. When she reached what she believed to be about 200 yards, she stopped and looked around. There was a tree with a fork close to the base, so it would serve as a recognition feature on her recon.

  She set off again, pacing once more, but she didn’t have to go far. A mere ten yards from her forked tree she saw leaves hanging out of character to the foliage around them. Even in the semi-darkness the dead leaves stood out to her in the moonlight. Sure enough, under the simple camouflage was a dark-colored pick-up. She would bet money that it was green.

  Using her pen-light beam, Honey confirmed the vehicle’s color before she flipped the hood and looked around the engine compartment. She used her knife blade to ease the cables from the battery terminals.

  When satisfied, she then used a knife to saw through the wiring loom near the bulkhead. She considered deflating the tires, but decided she’d done enough. The pick-up wasn’t going anywhere unless it was on tow.

  The truck had been located about 200 yards from the log cabin, so Honey walked along the pathway to locate the nearest public trail. It was a little under 100 yards to reach what looked like a regular forest trail, so her first estimate was accurate.

  It seemed logical that none of the man’s outward-bound training would take place anywhere near the log cabin. Another, possibly more elaborate building for business would be further down the public trail.

  The small cabin was private, and to all intents and purposes, a secret bolt-hole, for times such as this. Honey realized she had located it easily because it was on route to the location of the publicly declared and mapped building. It had been a chance discovery, thanks to her chosen direction of approach.

  She made her way back and saw a dim light in the cabin going out. A revised plan was already forming in her mind, and she decided against taking any further action in the dead of night. She made her way back to the rock formation and climbed up onto her chosen ledge, sheltered by a rocky overhang.

  It was 2am, so Honey set her watch to vibrate at the appropriate hour and then she unrolled her Goretex-coated Bivvy-bag, got inside and closed her eyes. Higgins had a few hours left to enjoy his hiding place; and the rest of his life.

  Unusually for an area so far east, a wolf howled in the night.

  ***

  Chapter 12

  Natural Causes

  .

  Saturday, June 21st, 2003

  Monongahela National Forest,

  West Virginia

  At 5:30am, Honey’s watch vibrated on her wrist. In less than a minute, she went from sleep to wide awake and eased her head from the hood of her Goretex bag. The dawn chorus was underway, and the light of the new day was forcing itself down through thousands of intricate pathways in the colorful, leafy canopy.

  Honey could smell the fresh, omnipotent fragrance of the forest around her. Prior to leaving her bag or exiting the cleft in the rocks, she moved only her eyes, checking what she could see, and if anyone might see her. She next moved her head slowly to have a look around. She rubbed her eyes and slid out from her bag.

  Honey donned her Boonie hat to help reduce the loss of body heat in the early morning chill. By 5:45am, she had packed away her bivvy-bag, drank some water, and ate two cereal bars.

  She lifted out the collapsed AR-7 rifle and accessories. Sitting cross-legged, she unclipped the base-plate from the butt section and removed the various parts, laying them out in order alongside each other. Honey re-capped the hollow butt with the removable base-plate and then rapidly, but carefully assembled the weapon.

  The first thing to be attached to the narrow end of the butt was the main assembly. The assembly consisted of the stock and breech components, which included the trigger mechanism. Next came the barrel and a pre-loaded magazine of five rounds.

  Following the first two minutes of activity, Honey stopped briefly to look and listen. There were still the sounds of birds but nothing untoward, so she continued to assemble her weapon. She screwed the large suppressor to the end of the barrel and then attached the telescopic sight to the top of the main body.

  Honey lifted the weapon into a firing position and pulled the butt into her right shoulder. She aimed at the padlock on the compound gate below, which was approximately 100 yards distant. She checked and adjusted the telescopic sight to her satisfaction, and then worked the action to slide a round into the chamber. She was ready, and now so was her rifle.

  To get a better view, Honey made a steady climb higher into the rocks within the surrounding foliage and branches. From her new vantage point, her view was cut off in certain directions by the heavier foliage, but she had a clear line of sight to the cabin.

  Honey was able to confirm that at least one of her theories about the large mesh-fenced compound was correct; it was very big. She could see that the fence disappeared into the distance, and the rock formation she was perched on was overhanging the back end of the compound perimeter.

  A movement caught Honey’s eye. She looked down to the right of the cabin and saw that there were another, much smaller compound and a tiny hut. There were five red deer in the enclosure. Unlike the large area, the smaller compound had corrugated metal sheets around its perimeter, but Honey could see inside because of her new vantage point.

  There were food and water troughs along the center of the small compound, but the animals had little room to exercise and would be highly stressed in comparison to their natural surroundings. They stopped moving every few seconds to prick up their ears, and raise their snouts to taste the air. It was as if they sensed immediate danger, but they were unable to see outside their enclosure.

  *

  At 6am, Higgins made an appearance. He stood a little over six feet tall and weighed about 200lbs. Long, unruly brown hair, hung to his broad shoulders and his jeans were pushed down at the front by a belly that resisted the waistband. His shirt was a badly faded blue and white plaid which looked too small for him and hung outside his jeans. His white sneakers looked new.

  When he left the cabin, he walked out to the left side, where he stopped for a moment to look around the area. He seemed relaxed and satisfied that he was alone, so went on to check the traps he’d set. One in particular caught his attention, and he knelt close to inspect it.

  He quickly stood up straight and looked around again, eyes squinting. Something had spooked him, and Honey wondered if it was the one trap that she’d intentionally cleared of foliage. She had wanted to see if he checked them and what his reaction would be.

  Hi
ggins disappeared around to the front of the cabin and returned with a hunting rifle. He looked around again, and when he couldn’t see anything amiss, he strolled along the grassy pathway to the large compound. He stood his rifle against the fence, unlocked the padlock and hung it on the mesh fence near the gate. It only remained for him to push back the small metal bar to gain entry.

  He left his rifle leaning near the gate and walked the 15 yards to the small, screened compound. As he put his hand on the gate, there was a high-pitched ricochet when metal struck metal. There was a tiny scratch on the frame of the gate. Higgins hadn’t registered hearing a shot. He turned, looking around, eyes wide and staring.

  He looked back towards his rifle and turned to dash for it, but another bullet struck the ground kicking up dirt between him and the weapon. He instinctively dived to the ground and rolled away into the longer grass, away from the compound gate, and his rifle. There had been no sound of a shot, so he knew that whoever was shooting had fitted a silencing device to their weapon. That told him that they meant business. He already recognized that they could shoot.

  Due to the effectiveness of the suppressor on Honey’s rifle there was no telltale crack to aid the ex-soldier below about locating the sniper. If the bullet had gone overhead, it would have given some indication, but the distance from the rifle to target was too short. The second shot hit the ground between Higgins and his weapon; so it was now too far for him to reach safely.

  The man pressed his body to the earth and started to leopard crawl towards the back of the cabin, but 50 yards was going to be a long way in the open. A bullet struck the ground in front of him, and he rolled to the left, towards the fence of the large compound, away from the cabin. It was at that point he realized his predicament. Whoever was shooting had the advantage and was toying with him.