Buller looked like he wanted to be offended, but wouldn’t meet Bank’s gaze and went to sit in his office without another word.
Hynd picked up the whisky bottle and waved it toward Banks with an eyebrow raised.
“No, put it away, Sarge,” he replied. “Orders is orders. We’ve got to watch that bastard’s back and get him back to yon temple. God help us.”
“So what are we dealing with? Fucking shapeshifters?”
“I told you what I saw at the pyramid. You saw it for yourself just now, Sarge. And you saw what a bite did for Giraldo. So rule one: Don’t get fucking bitten. We’re going to get Buller to his temple, get it secured, then fuck off and leave him and his rich pals to it.”
Hynd smiled thinly.
“As Wiggo would say, that sounds like a fucking plan to me.”
The whop of approaching choppers sounded in the night air and the squad, with Buller at their back, were all outside waiting as the two craft approached and landed on the wide deck at the docking area. Banks saw that they were Russian-built, Mil Mi-24s, with Brazilian Air Force Insignia.
They waited for the rotors to stop, then greeted the crew as they disembarked. As Banks had guessed, the four pilots were all Brazilian, but their English was as good as Giraldo’s had been, and he had no trouble briefing them in the kitchen. If they noticed the blood smears that the squad hadn’t quite managed to clean up, they were too professional to make note of it.
“We were told there was a sick man to transport,” their senior officer, a captain by his insignia, said. “We should send him back straight away before we talk anymore.”
“He didn’t make it,” Banks said bluntly, and again the pilots were too professional to make anything of it. He explained the plan of action, and gave them a rundown of what would be waiting for them in the highlands at their destination. One of them made the sign of the cross and muttered a prayer under his breath at the mention of the temple in the highlands upriver.
“We’ll go at first light,” he said when he was done.
“Bugger that. We go now,” Buller replied.
“No, we don’t,” Banks said. “You might be in charge, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to allow you to get away with fucking stupidity. We are not going into a blind situation in the dark. I won’t put my men at risk that way, orders or no orders.”
“Then I’ll see you busted back to private on our return, and I’ll just take these local chaps. We’ll go without you,” Buller said, and looked to the Brazilian crew. Banks was pleased to see they were as professional as he’d expected.
“I’m afraid I must agree with Captain Banks,” the chief officer said. “Going blind into the dark is something only an idiot would contemplate, especially on this river. We go in the morning.”
Buller blustered and complained. He made threats. Then he tried offering bribes. All that got him was contempt, and once again, he left to sulk in his office.
“I do not think I like him very much,” the Brazilian captain said.
“Then you and I should get along just fine,” Banks replied, and got a grin in return.
Banks set up a watch schedule for what little was left of the night, and told the squad to get any rest they could manage.
“We’ve got a big day ahead of us, and I need us all sharp.”
Dawn was approaching all too quickly.
- 17 -
Banks and Hynd took the last watch two hours before dawn. The sergeant went straight to the choppers for a closer look at them.
“They’re old, but the Ruskies built these things to last. They’ll get a job done,” he said, looking at the mounted ordnance. “Half-inch Yak-B Gatling guns, carrying maybe 1500 rounds of ammo per gun. These rockets under the wings are 9K114 Shturm mounts, two-pound warheads, six missiles in each wing.”
“Enough for a big bang then?” Banks said.
“Aye. We’ve enough between these two beasts for a lot of big bangs. These are normally anti-tank missiles. We’ve got enough to blow the top off yon temple and level the causeway back to base rock.”
“I don’t think that’s what the colonel had in mind when he told us to secure the site,” Banks replied with a grin. “But it’ll be nice to have the option available if we need it.”
They made a tour of the perimeter of the facility while smoking another cigarette each. The banks of the river on either side were dark lines of deeper shadow, and the river itself shone and shimmered under the blanket of stars with only wispy clouds passing quickly over to obscure the view.
“Do you think the wanker was right, Cap?” Hynd asked as they approached the docking deck on their return. “About us having got most of them already?”
Banks shrugged.
“Who knows?” he said. “I only saw about 20 or so myself, like he says. But that doesn’t mean there’s not more of the fuckers. And we know fuck all about these things. We don’t know where they come from, whether they breed or not, or how big they get. Let’s not have any assumptions in mind going in.”
“Maybe they were all like Giraldo? Maybe you only get it by getting bit?”
“Maybe aye, maybe naw,” Banks replied. “All we know is that they can be put down fast with a bullet or two. So as long as we’re tooled up, and don’t lose our rifles again, we can get the job done. Don’t over think it, Sarge. I have a cunning plan. We get in, secure the site, and don’t get dead.”
Dawn came between the acts of them lighting another cigarette each and finishing it, a soft orange glow in the eastern sky that ate the night in a matter of minutes. On cue, biting insects started to swarm across the rippling surface of the river, and the day immediately warmed, a hot kiss full of promises of later fire.
Banks flicked his butt away and watched until the current took it away out of sight downstream.
“Time to go to work. Fetch the others, Sarge. Let’s get this day started.”
Within a few minutes, the squad were all out on the deck and ready to load the choppers with what little gear they had left.
“Who is traveling with who?” the Brazilian captain asked.
“Buller, you’re in the second chopper,” Banks said. “You’ll hold off with them away from the main site until we get it secured. The rest of us will load up with the captain here and go in first.”
“Nope, no way,” Buller said. “This is my find. I’ll be with you when you secure it. Remember, I’m in charge of this operation.”
“We’ve had this discussion already,” Banks said.
“And I gave in then. But not this time. There’s no danger, I’m telling you. They’re all fucking dead already.”
“I’m all out of fucks to give for what you think,” Banks replied. “So come with us, if that’s what you want. But I’m not responsible if you screw up, agreed?”
He saw doubt in the other man’s eyes, but the greed overrode it.
“Agreed,” Buller said.
Banks played his high card.
“Okay then. Wiggo, you’re on babysitting duty for the duration. Shoot him if he does anything that might jeopardize the rest of us. That’s an order.”
Wiggins’ wide grin more than made up for Buller’s surly demeanor as they loaded up into the first of the choppers.
After lift-off, the noise from the rotors precluded any conversation in the cabin. Wiggins sat opposite Buller, saying nothing, but grinning while staring straight at the man, which only made Buller squirm all the more.
“Suit up, lads,” Banks shouted, and opened the kit bags.
Each man wore a light camouflage suit, to which they each added a helmet with an attached pair of night vision goggles. They all wore thin but sturdy waterproof boots and a lightweight flak jacket with pouches filled with spare magazines for their weapons.