But there was no water anywhere. This jungle held hundreds of streams and muddy bogs — in fact, the jungle floor was usually like soft reddish clay — but he’d managed to find the only spot where the soil was solid and dry, and it suddenly occurred to him that he was a rat in a trap. Of course, Musa had known about his “secret” trail through the jungle. Musa knew everything that happened on this island.
The helo thundered overhead and he looked up to see a looming black shape block the shining stars above. The noise was unbearably loud.
He felt naked and helpless under the helo’s menace. Grabbing an armful of the loose mulch, he crouched behind the closest trunk and covered up as best he could in the two seconds he permitted himself. Any further movement at this point would be of no use and would only aid the helo in finding him.
The helo’s shadow ran back and forth across the forest floor blocking the few beams of moonlight that managed to pierce the dense canopy. The recurring Doppler effect of the rotors indicated that the helo was now circling above his position. He suddenly wished for his Kalashnikov, but of course not having it eliminated the temptation to use it, which would give away his position and almost certainly lead to his death. Instead, he closed his eyes and did not move.
The helo circled relentlessly. It circled what seemed like a hundred times, but he did not move. The deafening noise and the rhythmic vibration seemed to grow louder and louder until he felt it inside his head, rattling his brain, but still he did not move.
The rotors changed pitch now, the Doppler effect was no longer there, just a steady thunderous pulsation that shook the very earth around him. His eyes opened in time to see the helo’s shadow cease its movement across the jungle floor. The helo was hovering now. It had found something. It hovered overhead for a moment and then began inching lower, ever lower, until it was practically touching the jungle fronds, most likely to gain a better view of its prey.
Now Ahmad knew they had found him. It was hopeless. He pictured in his mind a fatigue-clad man with infrared goggles leaning out of the open doorway of the helo, aiming the door-mounted M60 heavy machine gun directly at his heat signature, correcting the aim ever so slightly before squeezing the trigger. They had to have found him. The helo was not moving and there was no other explanation.
He felt the surging wind on his face. The trees above swayed awkwardly in the unfamiliar downward draft. If he ran now, he might have a chance. Maybe he could run faster than the door gunner could shift his fire. Run toward the noise, that’s what Musa had taught him. Run under the helicopter, so that the helo has to reposition itself before it can shoot again. Then run and find a stream somewhere or anything that could better hide him. Maybe, just maybe, he could run fast enough.
He had just made up his mind to do it, when something suddenly moved out of the darkness to his left. He looked in time to see a shadowy figure bolt out of a patch of low brush less then fifteen yards away. It moved like lightning, charging in his direction. Instinctively, he prepared to defend himself, but before his attacker could reach him, the sky exploded above. All hell seemed to rain down from above as the helo’s heavy machine gun opened up in an ear-splitting crescendo, ripping apart the jungle’s canopy with a torrential downpour of 7.62-millimeter bullets. Forgetting about his attacker, he lay flat on his back and did not move as the foliage, the trees, the mulch, everything was turned to jagged splinters by the heavy machine gun’s large missiles. The air around him soon filled with flying dust and atomized pieces of trees that filled his lungs with every breath. Round after round hit the ground with such force that he felt it in his bones, each successive round drawing closer as the gunner high above methodically swept the powerful weapon across the field of fire.
As the rounds impacted the soil near his feet, he closed his eyes and braced for a quick death. Instantly he felt prickly stings on his face, forearms, and ankles as dozens of projectiles struck his body. The impacts were mildly painful, especially the ones in the face, but he knew something was wrong. He wasn’t having trouble breathing and he wasn’t losing consciousness. The blasts of the gun and the rhythm of the rotors were just as loud in his head as they had been a moment before, so he wasn’t fading. But still the impacts continued as sharp stings on his chest and face.
Opening his eyes and expecting to see wounds, he found hundreds of shiny cylindrical pieces of sizzling metal covering his body. They were the spent 7.62-millimeter cartridges from the M60 machine gun, and they continued to rain down on him by the hundred. Clattering and thudding, fresh cartridges hit the fallen ones, hit the ground, hit the branches and the fronds all around him. He looked up between pelting shells and caught brief glimpses of the muzzle flashes fifty feet above. A few yards away on his left the jungle was being systematically destroyed.
The burning cartridges on his face hurt like hell, but still he did not move.
Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the firing ceased.
He did not move as the helo continued hovering. The dust hung low in the air near the jungle floor. Gutted trees and severed branches lay everywhere. A large section of canopy overhead had disappeared and now much more moonlight reached the jungle floor. The light shone down through the dusty air in eerie rays, like a spotlight focused on the mangled piece of jungle. The dust had begun to settle by the time the helo’s rotors changed pitch again.
The helo resumed circling.
Ahmad couldn’t believe his luck. Had they not seen him, after all?
The helo did eleven more passes, and Ahmad held his breath through each one, as if breathing would give his position away. Then, the sound of the rotors suddenly began to fade. It diminished rapidly in the direction of the camp, fading and fading, until it was no longer perceptible, and the jungle resumed its former tranquility, as if it had all been a dream.
Ahmad slowly rose to his feet, brushing the shells off his chest and legs. They clinked and jingled with those spread on the ground, but the noise did not concern him. There was no one around. There couldn’t be. None of the foot patrols could have come this far yet.
Then it suddenly occurred to him what had happened. What it was that had saved him.
He walked over to the demolished area of jungle, only a few yards away. There, under a twisted tangle of branches and leaves lay the remains of what, a few minutes before, had been an adult male orangutan. The unfortunate beast must have been hiding from the helo, too. Only it broke before he did, and when it ran the gunner in the helo assumed he had sighted his target.
Ahmad had never been much of an animal lover, but he came close to kissing what was left of this animal. Now Musa would think he was dead. That was good. On the other hand, Musa would send a foot patrol to collect his body. That was bad.
He had to keep moving. Speed was his only hope. Taking a few sips from the small water bag slung across his chest, he darted into the bush and quickly resumed his original pace.
It took him another hour to make it the four miles to the southern beach. When he finally broke out of the jungle and onto the snowy white sand leading down to the water, the stars had already begun to fade and the eastern sky was showing the first signs of dawn. The jungle behind him was coming alive with the morning calls of a thousand different species of bird.
He removed and buried his boots, socks, and jacket in less than a minute, then looked across the water at the only land in sight, a dark mass rising out of the sea six miles away to the southwest. Dim lights from a local village speckled its coastline, betraying its position to the darkness. A few red and green lights dotted the open ocean east of the distant island. Local fishermen getting an early start, maybe a few merchant ships, or maybe even a patrol craft snooping around after detecting Musa’s helo in the air.