Missions of the Retrieval Team - Land of the Kilts

[davedove]

Scene 28

Jungle Outpost in the Guyana Highlands

The pain shooting through my left arm shocked me awake. I discovered that I was being strung between two poles, my arms and legs spread wide. The stretching of my wounded arm was causing the pain.

“Well, Mr. Dove, I see you are awake again,” Secuaz said to me with a sneer. “I must say I was very surprised to see you here. You do get around.”

I did my best to maintain my composure. “I like to travel,” I said to him.

“Meddle is more like it!” he shot back. “Because of you I was relieved from my position in the Mexican Army.** I was forced to leave in disgrace and become a mercenary. Now I’m stuck out here in this miserable jungle watching slaves.”

“Couldn’t be helped,” I said. “I didn’t care for your accommodations.”

“Oh, I suppose you think you’re funny. Because of your escape, General Ricos stripped me of my rank and threw me out of the Army. He had to blame someone, and I was the victim. I should have killed you when I had the chance.”

“So, are you going to kill me now?”

“Oh, yes, Mr. Dove, I am; but first I am going to make an example out of you. Two of my slaves escaped because of you, but they will be found. That young one will bring me a lot of money on the market. After my men ‘train’ her, of course.”

I knew what kind of ‘training’ took place in these operations. Hopefully, Ms. Crane would get the girl far away.

“You see,” Secuaz continued, “I can’t have people like you disrupting my operations. It gives the slaves hope and I can’t have that. I’m first going to leave you strung up here as an example to the slaves and then you will be executed right in front of them.”

“Try to enjoy the next few hours,” he said sarcastically. “They will be your last hours alive.”

He turned to the two guards with him. “Guard him,” he said in Spanish. “He has allies in the jungle and they will try to rescue him.”

** Lieutenant Secuaz was first encountered in my third story, Kilts in a Cage.

[Livingston]

We're working on it Dave, really, we are. Now where did that native go?

[davedove]

Scene 29

Jungle Outpost in the Guyana Highlands

I examined the parts of the camp that I could see from my position. I was strung up in the middle of the clearing between the mine entrance and the main building. As I watched, a man would regularly come out of the mine and empty a basket into the wagon.

I noticed that there were no women in sight. I could only assume that they were all being held in the building on the side of the mountain.

The two men guarding me stood nearby. I would be unable to get to my bonds while they were there.

I noticed a bit of movement to the side and turned my head to look, but I couldn’t see anything.

Were the members of my team coming to help?

As I waited, I noticed two more men had gone up the side of the mountain and were bringing down another woman. This one was darker skinned but not a native. She was probably from one of the cities in the area. The woman struggled against the guards, obviously knowing what awaited her, but one of the guards struck her with his rifle, causing her to fall to the ground. The guards again pulled her to her feet and drug her towards the building.

As they watched the two men pull the woman towards the building, my guards laughed at her situation.

I felt anger growing inside me at the brutality of these men, but what could I do; I was bound securely.

My answer came at that very moment. One of my guards suddenly fell forward, an arrow sticking out of his back.

The other guard yelled out and spun around, just in time to receive another arrow in his chest. His hands flew to the arrow as he fell over backwards.

“Manna Konnal, Aye eppu,” I heard from behind me as the rope holding my right hand was cut.

As my bonds were being cut, the guards with the woman had noticed their companions had fallen. One held the woman tightly as the other started towards me.

As my last bond was cut, I dove for my fallen guards rifle. Even though my left arm was nearly useless, I was able to brace the rifle on the fallen man’s body and fire. The guard running towards me fell back.

The other man shoved the woman away and I saw her slam into the building. As she fell to the ground, the man raised his rifle and aimed at me. I quickly shifted my aim towards him and pulled the trigger.

The rifle jammed, leaving me defenseless. I glanced back at who had freed me. The hunter cringed from the gunfire.

He grabbed my shirt and tugged. “Manna Konnal,” he pleaded, “cum inna junga!”

I started to follow him when the bullet hit the ground near us and we both hit the ground. I did my best to keep my rescuer’s body behind my own, shielding him from the gunfire.

As we lay on the ground, unable to get away. I again turned to look at the guard.

The man was adjusting his aim for a better shot when the woman plowed into him, knocking him to the ground. Amazingly, she struck the guard again and again, not allowing him to recover his weapon. He did the best he could to block her blows, but she continued to strike him furiously. After only a few moments, he lay still but she continued to strike him.

I rushed over to her to pull her away and she spun towards me. There was fury in her eyes as she pulled back to hit me, stopping at the last moment.

“Let’s go!” I said to her.

She nodded and followed me.

We ran towards the native who had rescued me. He was gesturing wildly for us to follow him.

Together, the three of us fled into the jungle.

[Livingston]

Ahhhhhh....that's where he is. He sure beat us to it, didn't he.

[davedove]

Scene 30

The Guyana Highlands

As the woman and I followed the hunter into the jungle, I heard the alarm being raised in the camp behind us. I glanced back and saw several guards running in our direction.

I continued farther into the jungle, pulling the woman with me. Ahead, the hunter gestured frantically for us to follow.

The hunter stopped next to a clump of small trees and again gestured.

“Manna Konnal, eesway!”

The woman and I ran into the shady patch he had indicated and someone immediately knocked us to the ground and clamped their hands over our mouths. At the same time, the hunter pulled a small vine and a net of leaves fell over us, concealing us from our pursuers.

As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I saw that is was Ms. Crane and Ms. Stork who had pulled us down. Ms. Stork had grabbed the woman who had fled with me and was whispering to her to keep her quiet. Ms. Crane released her hold on me when I relaxed. I saw the young girl we had rescued hidden with us, her eyes wide with fear. The young hunter also lay hidden with us, completely silent.

As we hid, we heard the guards run by our position, unable to find us.

After several minutes without hearing the guards, Ms. Crane carefully peeked out from under the leaves. “Clear,” she whispered to us.

As we crawled out from under the camouflage, I spoke to my associates. “Thank you, where are the others?”

“Unknown,” Ms. Crane answered. “We circled around to join up with them and they were gone. I found where they had been and there were many extra tracks from men and some strange animal tracks from a large creature I couldn’t identify.”

“Couldn’t identify?” I asked.

“Well, that’s not exactly accurate. I know what they looked like.”

“And what was that?”

“They looked from all appearances to be rabbit tracks, but bigger than any rabbit I’ve ever seen. From the size of the tracks, they would have been the size of horses.”

Just then, the hunter gently tugged on my shirt. “Manna Konnal, oowell?”

Ms. Stork turned to him. “Es Pivat, eeswell,” she answered.

“You speak his language?” I asked.

“Of course I do,” she answered. “So do you.”

“What do you mean? It’s no language I know.”

“Ah, but you do,” she insisted. “He’s speaking English.”

[Livingston]

Not again!

[davedove]

Scene 31

The Guyana Highlands

“What do you mean? That doesn’t sound like any English I’ve ever heard.” I replied.

Ms. Stork laughed a bit at this. “No, it doesn’t. But consider this, a remote tribe of natives suddenly encounters a small group of English speaking men. In order to communicate with these men, the natives quickly learned a broken form of their language. But after these men left, the natives could no longer refine their English and the broken form was passed down through several generations to the present day.”

“Several generations, so you’re saying that this man’s tribe encountered the MacGregor expedition?”

“That’s what I’m saying. For further proof, did you notice what he is wearing?”

“Yes, I did. It looks something like a kilt, but many cultures around the world develop kilt-like garments. It does appear that the coloring is similar to the Black Watch tartan though.”

“Exactly, it’s as if whoever made the garment was trying to mimic the pattern.”

Something dawned on me then. “Wait a minute, what he called me, Manna Konnal?”

“Yes, Manna Konnal or Man of the Colonel, because of your light complexion he probably assumed you were from the same people as Colonel MacGregor. When you think about it, he’s right. You are of the same general racial stock as the Colonel.”

Apparently, the hunter was trying to follow our conversation, but didn’t understand our words.

“Mes Stork?” he asked. “Hees Manna Konnal?”

She turned back to the hunter. “Es Pivat.” She pointed to me. “Hees Mayja.”

The man’s eyes widened in recognition and he quickly snapped to a position of attention. His right hand flew up to his brow is an imitation of the typical British salute. Not sure what else to do, I returned his salute. The man’s face broke out into a wide grin.

I turned back to Ms. Stork. “I think I’m beginning to understand now. His name is Pivat, or Private, and you just called me Major. Why Major?”

She smiled at me. “It seems that his tribe is based on a military model, hence his name of Private. This is obviously the influence of MacGregor and his unit. From what I have been able to determine in my short time with the Private, they hold the Colonel in an almost godlike reverence. I needed to show you as an authority figure, but I couldn’t give you a rank of Colonel, so you’re a Major.”

“Todd’s going to love this,”

“Yes, I imagine he will.”

“Sir?” I heard from behind me. I turned to see the woman I had rescued from the guards. She was sitting with the girl that had been rescued along with Ms. Stork.

“Yes?” I answered, “and the name is Mr. Dove, or you can call me Dave.”

The woman rose and stepped over to me. “And my name is Marta Pombo.” Her accent placed her as Brazilian. “Mr. Dove, I want to thank you for getting me out of there and especially for rescuing Emily. You saved her from something I would rather not talk about. But I have to ask, what are we going to do now? We’re in the middle of the jungle with no supplies and no way to get out.”

I thought about her question for a moment. “Well, Marta,” I replied. “We are going to take what we need from the slavers and rescue all the slaves in the process. I have people among the slaves and I mean to get them out of here.”

“But how?” she asked. “We have only got a few weapons among us. You have been wounded. Three of us are weak from our capture and to the best of my knowledge, Emily has never even held a weapon, let alone joined in an attack.”

I passed my hand over my wounded arm. She was right; my arm was nearly useless right now.

“You ask good questions,” I said, “but I don’t plan on doing this with just those of us here. We brought friends with us into the jungle; we just need to find them.”

I looked over at the hunter, who grinned at me.

“And,” I continued, “I think we may have found some allies.”