Rogue Element

Marturak spat an order and three men went off to check the remaining claymores. Marturak felt like screaming. This was without doubt the most frustrating op he’d ever undertaken. The animal, some sort of wild cow or deer the size of a large dog, had obviously been running down the trail and tripped the first and second wires, discharging the mines. The first claymore had probably been set too high for the ball bearings to do their job. The second mine had effectively decapitated the animal as it ran in terror from the first explosion and the thrash of ball bearings that flailed the surrounding vegetation.

Marturak wondered how far the noise of the explosions and the ensuing automatic fire had carried. He hoped like hell that he hadn’t given their position away but, as with every other aspect of this absurd chase that had them stumbling about virtually blind, he couldn’t be sure. ‘Allah!’ he cried in desperation at the top of his voice. A flock of birds which had only just resettled in the treetops overhead were again frightened into the sky.

The sergeant knew he was going to have to replan, but what in God’s name to do next? He paced around the small clearing considering the limited options, his men stepping out of his way. Perhaps the ploy of passively setting an ambush was flawed from the beginning. One thing he was reasonably sure of was that he had the two passengers bottled up. He had the noose in his hand; he just had to tighten it.

Marturak had sixteen men left from the original deployment, including the soldier who had lost three fingers from his left hand to the weapon wielded by one of the survivors. The man was in a lot of pain but a low dose of morphine helped, and he could still hold and discharge his weapon. Marturak decided to divide his force into pairs, providing eight separate opportunities to make contact with, and kill, the objectives. If his men struck serious opposition — which he doubted, but then nothing would surprise him on this job — the two-man team was a reasonably effective weapon — one man could advance under the covering fire laid down by the other. He would have preferred three-man teams but concern about spreading his force too thinly across the jungle swung his mind against it. Marturak gave each pair a compass heading to follow and established an RV, the place where his two men had been left behind after the cobra strike.

Silently, Marturak cursed their lack of equipment, in particular the lack of inter-section comms. He’d been told that this op had to be strictly emissions free, except for the scheduled broadcasts. Marturak completely understood the need for security. The Qantas plane, the elimination of civilians — it was the kind of mission that would either set him up for life if he succeeded, or get him killed if he failed. A sudden pang of objectivity made him realise that having him killed would be the safe option for his superiors, no matter what the outcome of this mission. The op was black and would have to remain so forever. It would be prudent to consider some kind of insurance policy, he decided. Marturak was vicious, but he was no fool. The disk. He tapped it in his webbing once to make sure it was still there, and found himself reassured by its presence. It was something only he knew the existence of and it might prove to have considerable value.

* * *

Suryei and Joe were again searching for a tree they could climb so that they could get another fix on their bearings. The hunt proved fruitless. Trees that were big enough to get them above the canopy had no branches low down, just broad, smooth trunks, gigantic living columns that appeared to support the green roof overhead, and they provided no purchase whatsoever.

They had just decided to keep moving in the direction they thought was the correct one when the distant pulse of the twin explosions, followed by a large number of popping noises, bounced off the canopy overhead. Both Joe and Suryei guessed correctly what those sounds were. They glanced at each other anxiously, and for a number of reasons. The blasts confirmed that people with guns and other explosive devices were still in the jungle and obviously still searching for them. Of more concern was that neither Joe nor Suryei had the slightest idea from which direction the sounds originated. The jungle fractured and splintered sound so that it appeared omni-directional, virtually surrounding them. For all they knew, they could be walking straight towards the source, and certain death.

‘Shit,’ said Suryei, looking left and right and then turning slowly in a complete circle attempting to pinpoint the direction of the explosions.

‘I reckon it came from down there,’ said Joe, indicating off to their right.

‘Are you sure? Sounded to me like it came from just up ahead. Or maybe from over there.’ Suryei gestured up the ridge to their left. ‘How far away?’