Redback

by Lindy Cameron

  ‘No they bloody don’t.’

  Chapter Three

  Laui Island, Pacific Ocean

  Tuesday 6.30 pm

  ‘Redback Team One - you in place?’

  ‘Yes, Link. Still. We’re gonna die of old age here.’

  ‘Beats being shot, Gideon. Can you see the others?’

  ‘Coop and Wade are dozing in the sand beside me.’

  ‘The other teams, Gideon.’

  ‘It’s a small island, Link; but not that small.’

  ‘I take that as a negative.’

  ‘Whatever. We are three-by-three, and in place.’

  ‘Roger. Should be good to go in about ten.’

  ‘Wake me when the word comes through.’

  ‘If it comes down to it, Gideon, it’s your call not theirs. As usual. Okay?’

  ‘Yeah. As usual.’ Bryn Gideon pulled a face at Wade and Cooper, who’d heard both sides of the exchange through their aural implants.

  Wade caught the look. ‘The gunner who went bush for a piss has returned,’ he said, then returned his eye to the nightscope. ‘So we’re back to four under the tree, and five playing darts in the rec room. The solo is about to lock our package up again. And what I want to know is, how come she looks just as young and cute as she did in our briefing?’ Wade sat back on his haunches. ‘Video always makes me look older and fatter.’

  ‘You are older and fatter,’ Coop stated. ‘And hairier.’

  ‘Not to mention butt ugly to begin with,’ Gideon said, belly-crawling into position to catch a glimpse of their primo mission objective. Uh-huh. Cute was not word enough for that little honey-blonde package. No wonder someone’s desperate to get her back. Nine days in captivity and she’s still sparking.

  To all intents it looked like Dr Jana Rossi was out for a nice evening stroll with a good friend, except that she was all animated and chatty, and her armed companion wasn’t smiling.

  Gideon took stock again. The 36 hostages were being held in two adjacent precincts, each with ten cabins semicircling communal outdoor spaces. The lush vegetation that surrounded and separated the two private gardens also provided good cover from the main resort complex.

  Team One had already agreed on a divide and release option. Gideon and Cooper would each secure a hostage area while Wade dealt with the rec-room rebels, before returning to guard the path to the boats beached on the south side of the island.

  Gideon tapped the throat mike to use the inter-team comm channel. It was stupid to be sent out only half fitted. Having to rely on two systems during a live-op was asking for trouble. The aurals were good for listening but, for now, hard-mikes were all they had for communication between teams. That and good old face-to-face sign language.

  ‘Deuce Team. How’s your sandbox?’ Gideon asked.

  ‘Sitting on the dock of the bay.’

  ‘Quit singing Triko, you’ll scare the wildlife.’

  ‘We got three rebs fishing off the jetty here and four drinking beer by the scuba shack.’

  ‘Team Three?’ Gideon said. ‘You still awake, Finch?’

  ‘Barely. There’s still five in with Ifran. That’s odd. One of them’s wearing - oh mate, that’s weird.’

  ‘What’s weird?’

  ‘Yo, Gideon,’ Triko interrupted.

  ‘Triko,’ Gideon acknowledged.

  ‘There’s a Zodiac coming in slow and quiet. The PRA boys on the dock are obviously not expecting it. All but two are running back in a panic.’

  ‘Shit!’ Gideon swore. ‘Team Two, take out those rebels on the jetty do not let them return. And we’re not expecting either, Triko, so check that raft. Team Three, secure Ifran. All Redbacks: silent; zero body count. Go.’

  In two seconds flat the four machine gunners were smacked backward into the Banyan tree, paralysed by a precision spread of max-volt T-darts. A quad-shot crackle of Zeus juice was the only indication that Cooper had fired, but the rebels would be cactus for at least fifteen minutes.

  Gideon, whose first task was to get to the lone PRA escort before any hell broke loose, hit the ground running. Cooper was right behind, until he veered away to free the hostages in the other garden, and Wade took off down the path to the rec room.

  After dodging garden statues and furniture, Gideon leapt - right arm out, Browning 9mm in hand - onto the cabin’s veranda just as the soldier padlocked the cabin from the outside.

  Gideon was so suddenly right next to him, unfolding out of the dark like a carved island totem come to life, that the rebel’s voice locked in fear in his gulping throat.

  ‘Jesus, you’re just a kid,’ Gideon said.

  The kid blinked, as his shock switched to confusion. An instant later he smiled, challengingly, and fumbled for the weapon draped around his neck.

  ‘Oh, don’t make me hurt you,’ Gideon groaned, realising the kid was also about to find his voice. A backhanded whack, with the gun-butt, put paid to that foolish idea. ‘Beats being shot, kid.’

  Dragging the unconscious teenager out of the way to get to the door, Gideon cut the padlock, stepped into the lit interior of the cabin and then swivelled on one foot as one of the hostages made a noisy and stupid move.

  Alan Wagner missed his mark entirely and sprawled face first onto the floor.

  ‘Need a hand up, mate?’ Gideon asked, scanning the room for any other surprises, and resisting the temptation to say: Dr Rossi, I presume to the woman sitting, cool as anything, in a cane chair.

  She, however, said, ‘At last! Deliverance from this fuckwit.’

  Her rescuer offered a wry smile and beckoned her towards the door.

  ‘Good heavens,’ Alan exclaimed, as he rolled over and stared up at Gideon. ‘You’re a woman!’

  ‘If you say so,’ Gideon said. ‘Time to go. Now.’

  Jana Rossi wasn’t wasting a moment. She grabbed hold of Gideon’s offered hand and stepped over the stunned mullet on the floor.

  ‘Rec room rebels neutralised,’ Wade’s voice announced. ‘Meet you on the beach.’

  ‘Roger that,’ Gideon said.

  ‘Can I get my stuff?’ Alan asked, scrambling to his feet.

  ‘What do you think?’ Gideon snarled, her senses prickling as something in the air signalled bad about to happen.

  ‘But I need,’ Alan began.

  Uh-oh. Gideon yanked Jana to her knees and shielded her body, as a huge explosion ripped into the quiet night a second before the shock wave hit the bungalow.

  ‘Righto,’ Alan nodded, getting up again. ‘I’m outta here.’

  ‘Indeed,’ Gideon agreed, letting go of Dr Rossi so she could stand. ‘Wait here one sec Dr Rossi,’ she ordered, as other voices clamoured for her attention: one inside her head, and the other two in her earpiece. Shit, that’s annoying!

  Link: ‘Team One?’

  Triko: ‘Oh man!’

  Finch: ‘Fuckenell!’

  Link: ‘Gideon!’

  ‘Not now, Link,’ Gideon stressed, stepping outside to find out just what had exploded. All she could see however, and only above the palm trees, was a helluva lot of smoke and shooting flames.

  She tapped her throat mike. ‘Redbacks? What the hell was that?’

  ‘Um,’ Triko responded. ‘The Americans are here.’

  ‘What? Why?’ Gideon motioned to Dr Rossi to stay down and in the doorway as a racket of auto gunfire suddenly hijacked the silence of the post-explosion void.

  ‘Not gonna ask. They just kinda arrived and blew up the bloody dive shack.’

  ‘And forget Ifran,’ Finch reported, ‘or any kind of containment, Gideon. We didn’t get near them. The rebels are firing at anything that moves now.’

  ‘And the Yanks are shooting at or blowing up everything else,’ Triko said.

  A second explosion ripped the night air, sending debris and water 20 feet above the tree line.

  ‘That was the bar. Oh, and a swimming pool,’ Triko said. ‘Get the hostages out, Bryn, before these fucken lunatics start carpet-bombing the c
abins!’

  ‘Righto. Triko, fall back and get the boats ready,’ Gideon ordered.

  The island lights went out. There was now no illumination but a starry canopy and a low-slung crescent moon.

  ‘Generator go boom,’ Triko reported unnecessarily.

  ‘Finch,’ Gideon said, flipping her right eye night-lens into place to scan the garden. ‘Give us a hand with the hostages.’ There was no movement in the vicinity. She nodded at Dr Rossi to get behind her.

  Jana glanced over her shoulder. ‘Move it, Alan.’

  ‘Cabin to cabin,’ Gideon said, handing her mission’s prime objective a small pair of bolt cutters. ‘Stay together. Take cover on the next veranda first. Go.’

  Gideon watched curiously for a second as the surprising Dr Rossi, all five-foot-four of her, dragged the much taller, sandy-haired and handsome whoever-he-was in her wake as she ran. Gideon shook her head, then scanned for danger as she backed along the path after them. She was particularly relieved they’d taken out the machine gunners - or they’d be in deep shredded shit right about now.

  Three minutes later, under Gideon’s armed cover, Jana had finished cutting the padlock to the fourth cabin in the semicircle and opened the door to the terrified hostages. Not surprisingly, coaxing them out into a dark night of staccato gunfire, thumping explosions beyond the garden barrier, and a lot of hysterical shouting had taken up most of that time, even though the source of the noise was still out of sight.

  Gideon wasted a quick thought on why no one had come after them yet. Either the rebels and their other unexpected visitors were keeping each other nicely occupied or the Americans didn’t have a clue where the hostages were actually being held.

  ‘Incoming team,’ Finch’s voice announced before he, Marco and Pete broke cover on the other side of the garden.

  ‘Got you,’ Gideon said. ‘Pete, go help Coop with the other cabins.’

  ‘I’m on it,’ Pete acknowledged, disappearing back into the vegetation.

  Gideon turned back to her charge. Dr Rossi flinched and swore as every extra loud blast smacked the air over-and-above the clamour of the firefight, but she was obviously determined to get everyone out. And by herself - if necessary. The woman was already on her way to cabin number five.

  Gideon took off after her, shouting orders to her squad as she ran. ‘Marco, get over here. Finch, take all five cabins from your end. I’ve got our package.’ She leapt onto the veranda. ‘Dr Rossi.’

  ‘What?’ Jana asked, whacking the padlock to unwedge it from the door jam so she could cut it.

  ‘My team will look after the others. Come with me.’

  ‘I’m not leaving anyone,’ Jana said and kicked open the door. Sally Tan and Shirley Moore, another Australian and one of the Kiwi delegates, rushed into her arms.

  ‘Marco, take these nine to the boats,’ Gideon said, indicating the clutch of ex-hostages huddled on the path, and the two women that Dr Rossi had just released.

  Jana directed her colleagues towards Alan and the other eight delegates - oh, and another soldier, she noted - then turned to make for the next cabin.

  Gideon rolled her eyes, flung out her arm and grabbed Dr Rossi by the back of the neck.

  Jana was running on pure adrenalin now. She turned with her fists up, ready for a fight.

  ‘Whoa,’ Gideon frowned. ‘Same side, remember.’

  ‘Come on then,’ Jana urged, peering up into the blue eyes of her rescuer’s grease-blacked face. Well, one blue eye - the other had a lens device over it now. And to be honest, the colour was simply recall from the quick glimpse in her cabin. It was certainly too dark now to see the finer points of this statuesque soldier who, not an hour before, had been nothing to her but a desperate hope. And, admittedly, she had envisioned Rambo or The Rock. Jana planted her hands on her hips, rain-checked the promise of allegiance, and continued the challenging stare. It didn’t work.

  ‘Dr Rossi. We are going. Before they,’ Gideon hoicked a finger in the direction of the mayhem behind them, ‘any of them, catch up to us.’

  ‘Boy, am I sick of people telling me what to do.’

  ‘Let me be the last then.’

  Chapter Four

  Laui Island, Pacific Ocean

  Tuesday 6.50 pm

  Jana surrendered to the inevitable, but only because the other soldier had already rounded up her liberated colleagues and disappeared into the dark with them.

  ‘How come your friend gets a crowd and you only get me?’ Jana asked her rescuer.

  ‘Because I’m in charge.’

  ‘Oh,’ Jana said.

  ‘See that shed over there?’ Gideon scoped the area as she spoke. ‘Run and wait. Go.’

  Jana cut straight across the lawn to the sun shelter and crouched by a low cane table. ‘So how many of you are there?’ she asked when the woman-in-charge joined her.

  ‘We’re a squad of nine.’

  ‘I gather the rest of your men, or women, are blowing the island to smithereens then.’

  ‘No. The Americans are doing that. And please don’t ask me why,’ Gideon said, pushing through the thick garden barrier to get to the edge of the path. The way appeared to be clear.

  ‘Is that because you can’t tell me, or you don’t know?’

  ‘Yes,’ Gideon acknowledged, wondering if there was any kind of situation in which this woman would shut up. With a swift hand movement she indicated that Dr Rossi should stay behind her as they headed down the sandy path.

  The confusing din of gunfire, which was now coming from directions other than just the docks and rec area, made it almost impossible to hear anything else - like approaching soldiers. Anything, that is, except Dr Rossi.

  ‘You know,’ Jana said, ‘it’s nice that you’re the main man here, but it doesn’t explain why I…’

  Gideon stopped dead and put her hand on her charge’s shoulder to stop her progress. Gideon looked down at the woman who, without the advantage of a night-lens, had no idea she was being glared at. ‘You are the reason we’re here, Dr Rossi,’ Gideon explained.

  ‘Me? Why?’ Jana, all but speechless with surprise, assumed she was being teased until she felt the taken-aback twitch in her rescuer’s hand.

  ‘You’re asking me?’ Gideon asked.

  ‘Well yeah. There’s no one else here,’ Jana said, waving at the dark.

  That’s what you think. Gideon caught a movement to their right, down the other path.

  ‘Well, I don’t know anything. I’m just your escort for the night,’ Gideon whispered, keeping her night-eye on the two men who were looking in every direction except their six.

  ‘Oh,’ Jana said. ‘Well do you at least have a name?’

  ‘Yes.’ Gideon noted that the bare backs and sheer variety of dangling weapons meant the men were easily tagged, even in this distance, as PRA fighters not Americans and certainly not her Redbacks.

  ‘Well what is it?’

  ‘Gideon. Commander,’ she replied quietly. Ah good, they’re moving out. No they’re not. Yes. No. Oh come on boys, which way? Make up your alleged minds.

  ‘Commander what? I didn’t catch…’ Jana was silenced by a hand clamping over her mouth. She allowed herself to be pushed down to her knees. Again.

  Concentrating on the now departing enemy, Gideon became aware of an impatient tapping on her leg. The Doc probably can’t breathe; but three more seconds and the rebs would be out of sight. Two, one - gone. Hmm, just a few more secs and she won’t be able to talk at all.

  The attention-seeking tap had become a full-on whack on her thigh, so Gideon let go of her package and turned to peer in the direction of Dr Rossi’s pointing finger.

  Breaking cover from the foliage behind them - but moving diagonally across the path not directly down it towards them - was trouble. The rebel, who was still about 12 metres distant, vanished back into the garden, only to repeat the crisscross manoeuvre a couple of seconds later.

  Jana, who’d only seen a hulking shape doing a slow
zigzag, nodded to indicate she understood from the Commander’s light touch on her shoulder and lips, that she should stay low and silent.

  A moment later - as the entire island began exploding around her - she found herself alone on the path.

  A thunderous series of detonations accompanied Gideon’s crash into the vegetation. While grateful for the cover provided by the superfluous destruction of Laui resort, she also registered the curious but distinctive click-bang-reverberation of the explosions. As every explosive device owned a particular sound and a unique blast wave, or ‘atmosphere-smack’ as the Redbacks called it, Gideon wondered who the hell was using time-coded C4. She knew it wasn’t her team, which meant either the PRA had booby-trapped the island, or the Americans were redefining overkill.

  She crouched and waited a little behind the spot where the stray rebel should cross in another two moves, if her timing was right and assuming he hadn’t dug a hole in the sand to hide from the chaos.

  Seven seconds later he passed within a breath of her position.

  Gideon tackled him around the thighs, rammed her shoulder into his lower back and sent him face-first to the ground. She sprang to her feet then dropped again, driving one knee heavily between his shoulder blades. A quick jab to the left side of the rebel’s head, and the guy was both down and out.

  ‘Commander!’ It was Dr Rossi. ‘Help!’

  Gideon crashed back onto the path to discover belatedly that trouble comes in pairs. A second man had already found Dr Rossi.

  Jana had been dragged to her feet by the very large man who’d materialised out of the dark much closer than the rebel the Commander had gone after.

  ‘I’m not armed,’ she’d said, holding her empty hands out. ‘I’m a hostage.’

  ‘You escape,’ he shouted right in her face, twisting her collar till it choked her, ‘you pay’.

  Jana tried to kick him but the man held her at arm’s length, while his right hand searched his belt for something. He clamped a large knife between his teeth. His pants were also suddenly around his ankles.

  Oh crap. Jana struggled even harder.

  The rebel released his chokehold to grab her arm instead. He dragged her close, ripped at her collar and forced her to the ground and onto her back.