Bear shook his head. “I don’t know, but I’ve already underestimated this man once. I don’t intend to do it again.”
He hesitated, “But since you don’t think it’s possible, why don’t you take point, Psycho?”
“But…”
Bear’s hand fell to his Glock. “I said take point. I won’t say it again.”
“Yes, sir,” Psycho said and he turned and began to follow the trail through the jungle, but Bear smiled to himself as he noticed Psycho was moving at a much slower pace and his head was swiveling back and forth as he checked the jungle ahead for a possible trap.
In less than twenty minutes they came to the edge of the jungle where a grassy embankment rose to the apex of a hillock up ahead.
A clear trail of trampled grass led up the sides of the hill to the top where an outcropping of boulders and fallen trees blocked their view of what lay waiting for them up there.
“Shit!” Bear growled. “They’ve taken the high ground.”
“But boss,” Babe said, “There’s only two of them and one of them’s a woman. We can surround the hill and rush it all at once and it’s damn sure they can’t get all of us.”
Bear looked at Babe as if he were crazy. “Yeah, you’re right, Babe. We do know however that they have at least two rifles up there. What we don’t know, however, is what kind of rifles they have, if they’re single shot or semiautomatic, how much ammunition they have, or how well trained they are. For all we know that ‘woman,’ as you put it, can shoot the balls off a gnat at fifty yards.”
He looked around at the others. “Now I don’t know about you boys, but I personally am not inclined to rush a fortified position, uphill, through at least a hundred yards of open ground.”
He shrugged. “I don’t know where you boys got your combat training, but my old instructor would kick my ass up to my ears if I suggested a harebrained battle plan like that.”
Babe’s face flushed bright red. “You’re right, boss. I wasn’t thinking.”
Bear put his hand on Babe’s shoulders. “That’s all right, Babe. You are correct that we are up against amateurs, but even amateurs can get lucky, especially with modern long guns in their hands.” He shook his head, “Trouble is nowadays everyone goes to the gun clubs and they all think they’re Buffalo Bill.”
“So, what do you want to do, boss?” Psycho asked. “Wait until dark and then try to sneak up the hill?”
“Maybe eventually, but not just yet. Why don’t we see what a little reasoning might accomplish, especially after they lay up there in the sun without any shade for a couple of hours? The way they took off from their boat I’ll bet they didn’t take a whole lot of water with them.”
“Reasoning?” Jinx asked skeptically.
“Sure,” Bear said, and then he pulled them all together. “Now here’s what we’re gonna do…”
Chapter 37
Mason turned on his phone and called Grant Battersee.
“Hello.”
“Grant, this is Mason. What the hell happened to the ship and our reinforcements?”
“Oh, thank God it’s you, Mason. I’ve been trying to call you but I keep getting voicemail.”
Mason took a deep breath, puzzled by Battersee’s greeting. Dealing with bureaucrats almost always gave him a headache. Most of them had their heads up their asses, but none of them had ever thanked God when he called. “I’ve had the phone turned off to conserve battery power, Grant, but just answer my question, where in the hell is the ship with Marines on it I told you I needed?”
“I screwed up, Mason. I don’t know anyone in the Department of the Navy so I called General Mac McGuire instead since we worked with him before.”
“You mean you dealt with the General McGuire who is Colonel Blackman’s boss?” Mason interrupted. “The man who has tried to hijack every bug we’ve ever found and use it as some sort of biological warfare agent?”
“You don’t have to yell, Mason. I know now that it was a mistake. Congressman Michael O’Donnell just called and said that McGuire and Blackman have inserted a mole named Janus in our Wildfire Team and that they are the ones who sent a team of mercenaries after you to steal the specimens. I’m sorry I didn’t believe you when you said you suspected a traitor on the team, Mason. It might have made a big difference in how all this turned out.”
“Why did this Janus decide to change sides?” Mason asked.
“Janus found out Blackman planned to tie up all the loose ends, including killing Janus as well as the rest of the Wildfire Team.”
Jesus, what a clusterfuck, Mason thought. “What else did this congressman say?”
“He said his committee had been investigating Blackman and USAMRIID for some time, and that he would use his influence to see if he could get a ship with some Marines on it to your location as fast as possible but that it might take some time.”
Mason’s shoulders slumped as he looked around the small area on top of the hill where they were surrounded. “Well, we just might not have much time, Grant.” He hesitated, another idea popping into his head. “Did O’Donnell tell you who the spy in the Wildfire Team was?”
“No, he just said he got a tip from someone calling themselves Janus, and the phone had a voice distorter on it so he couldn’t even tell if it was a male or female.”
“Okay, never mind, I’ll try and figure it out. Now, get out your cell phone, I’m going to send you some pictures of the plants we think might be a cure for the plague. Get someone on the horticultural team at the CDC to try to identify them and if they grow anywhere else get some samples and begin work on them on your end just in case our samples don’t make it back.”
Battersee gulped, knowing that Mason meant in case he didn’t survive the mission. “Mason,” he said, his voice choking, “I’m… I’m sorry I messed up so terribly.”
Mason chuckled grimly. It wouldn’t be the first time a deskbound bureaucrat had messed up his life, but it might well be the last. “That’s okay, Grant. You take care, and God willing we’ll see you soon. Oh, by the way, I’ll also text you the coordinates of the village in southern Mexico that’s filled with Indians immune to the plague. They might be useful to formulate a vaccine in case our blood samples also don’t make it.”
Mason turned and saw that Lauren had already pulled the plant samples out of their bags and laid them out on a small blanket in the sunlight so the colors of the blossoms would show up the best. He snapped several pictures of them and forwarded them to Battersee’s cell number along with a text of the coordinates of Motzi’s village.
“I’m guessing by the tone of your conversation that it didn’t go exactly as you expected it to?” Lauren asked, a grin on her lips.
Mason turned to her as they packed the specimens back into their bags. “I don’t know what you find so funny,” he growled. “It seems we’ve been hung out to dry and to fend for ourselves. We can’t expect any help from the United States to get here in time to make a difference.”
“Hey,” she said, punching him lightly on the shoulder. “You’re superdoc, boss man. Just do what Indiana Jones would do and we’ll be all right.”
He glared at her for a moment, and then he gave a crooked smile. “Yeah, but I left my bullwhip and fedora back at home, and pretending to be Indiana Jones might just get us killed.”
She shook her head and leaned over a fallen log, her Armalite at the ready. “Don’t count your chickens, Mason. We’re not dead yet. You may not be Indiana Jones, but I’m as good with a rifle as Annie Oakley. I’ll bet I can part that bastard’s hair down there at a hundred yards with this scope.”
He shook his head. This woman never ceased to amaze him with her grit, determination, and courage. She was very special. Then, shaking off such thoughts, he grabbed his rifle and peeked around a boulder on his side of the small flat area on top of the hillock. “What’ve we got, Motzi?” he called softly.