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“What’s in those chests?” Kawalski said, pointing to five heavy wooden boxes in one of the wagons.
Liada looked at the boxes and said something to him.
“Hey, Apache,” he said on the comm. “How do you say, ‘What’s in those boxes?’ in sign language?”
“Sorry, White Man, you’re on your own.”
“Gee, thanks. Whatever it is, it must be valuable. They’ve got six soldiers behind it, and six in front.”
Liada continued to talk and point out things as they rode past a wagon filled with sides of meat, jars of date wine, and bales of hides. When they came to the wagons loaded with earthen jars of grain, they heard three short blasts from a trumpet. Liada kicked her horse into a gallop, and soon they heard shouting and screams up ahead. Rounding the next curve in the trail, they saw the baggage train was under attack.
“Buffalo Dogs!” Kawalski yelled on the comm. He and Liada slid off the horse as she grabbed her bow and arrows, then he unslung his rifle and opened fire.
“How many?” Alexander asked as he and the others ran forward.
“Too many!”
Kawalski fired on a bandit running toward him, swinging a sword. The bullet hit the man in the chest, spinning him sideways and knocking him to the ground.
Liada said something, and Kawalski looked at her. She arched her bow and let the arrow fly. He followed the flight of the arrow to see it hit a bandit in the chest. He went down, clutching the arrow shaft.
More of them poured out of the woods, all along the trail. The foot-soldiers ran to attack the bandits, using their spears first, then at close quarters, swinging their swords.
“Kawalski!” Liada shouted.
He saw more attackers coming from the woods on the other side of the trail and shot two men who’d climbed onto a wagon. He jerked his rifle to the left, aiming at three more running toward him, but when he pulled the trigger, the magazine was empty.
“Liada!” he shouted. “Over here!”
He ejected the empty magazine and grabbed another from his belt. Liada released an arrow, piercing a man’s neck.
Kawalski hit the bolt, shoving a cartridge into the chamber, but the two men were almost on top of them. So instead, he dropped the rifle and grabbed his Sig pistol.
Liada shot her last arrow, hitting a man in the side, but he kept coming.
Kawalski got off one shot, killing the other man.
Liada grabbed the rifle from the ground and used it to block the sword coming at Kawalski’s head. Kawalski then grabbed the bandit’s sword arm, shoved his pistol into the man’s stomach, and fired. The man stumbled backward, clutching his stomach.
Kawalski wrenched the sword from the dying man’s hand and swung it to ward off another bandit who swung an axe at him. He heard Liada yell, but he couldn’t respond to her—the man with the axe came at him again. Kawalski raised the sword, aiming for the man’s neck, but hit his arm instead, knocking the axe to the ground. As the man scrambled for the axe, Kawalski felt a blow to his back. He stumbled, dropping his pistol.
Liada gripped the rifle by the barrel, and using it for a club, she fended off another attacker.
A bandit came at Kawalski, swinging a bloody sword. Kawalski raised his sword to ward off the blow. The two swords clanged together. Kawalski lost his grip on the sword and fell to his knees. He reached for the knife on his belt as the bandit raised his sword for another blow.
Liada swung the rifle, hitting the man in the back of the head.
Kawalski rolled away from the falling man. As he got to his knees, he saw a bandit coming at Liada from behind her. He snatched his pistol from the dirt and fired twice, hitting the man in the leg with his second shot. When the man stumbled and fell, Liada clubbed him with the rifle.
More bandits poured from the woods, yelling and swinging their weapons.
Liada dropped the rifle and grabbed a bloody sword from the ground. Without time to get to his rifle, Kawalski grabbed Liada by the arm, pulling her to him.
“Back to back,” he said and held her back against his. “We’ll take a few of them with us.”
Liada said something, and he knew she understood.
As the bandits came at them from all sides, Kawalski shot two more with his pistol. He ejected his empty magazine and shoved another into the receiver, but before he could chamber a round, he heard a volley of gunshots.
“Here comes the cavalry!” Kawalski shouted.
Liada screamed. Kawalski fired over her shoulder, killing a man who was almost on top of them.
“Kawalski!” Alexander said on the comm. “Hit the dirt!”
Kawalski wrapped his arms around Liada, pulling her to the ground. Bullets whizzed over their heads as Alexander’s platoon cut down the bandits.
The attackers weren’t so fearful of the gunshots as they had been on the previous day, but when they saw so many of their men falling to the deadly sweep of gunfire, some of them ran for the woods. Soon, all of them were in retreat, with a few wounded bandits limping after them. These were cut down by the foot-soldiers who swarmed onto the battlefield from both directions.
Kawalski got to his knees and lifted Liada from the ground. He pushed back her hair and brushed the dirt from her face.
“Are you hurt?”
She smiled as he inspected her for wounds. Many cuts and bruises were on her face and arms, but nothing serious. Her hands were bloody, but it was from the bandits. The skirt of her tunic was ripped on the side from her waist to her knee, but her leg was only scratched.
Kawalski tried to stand but fell back to his knees. “I guess I’m a little dizzy.”
Liada placed her hands on his neck, checking for wounds. She ran her hands over his shoulders, then down his arms and around his waist. She uttered an exclamation when she saw fresh blood on her hand. She examined his back.
He heard her say something as she put her arm around his shoulders to lower him to the ground. She helped him onto his side, leaned close to his mouth, and spoke into the mic in his helmet.
“Autumn, Autumn!”
“I’m coming,” Autumn said as she ran toward them.
She dropped to her knees, placed her fingers in the bloody rip in Kawalski’s camo shirt, and tore it open. She caught her breath. “Damn it, Kawalski.”
“What is…” He passed out.
Chapter Eight
“Anyone missing a web belt?” Sharakova asked on the comm.
“No.”
“No.”
“No,” Alexander said. “Why?”
“I’m looking at a web belt on a dead buffalo dog.”
“What kind of web belt?”
“U.S. Army issue,” Sharakova said. “Just like the one I’m wearing.”
“Where are you, Sharakova?” Alexander asked.
“A hundred yards up, on the left.”
“Don’t let them strip him before I get there.”
“You got it, Sarge.”
A few minutes later, the others watched Sarge pull the belt off the dead man. He examined it, then passed it to Joaquin.
“It has to be the captain’s belt,” Joaquin said.
“Do you think they’re holding him captive?” Kady asked.
Alexander stared at the belt for a moment. “I have no idea.”
“We need the Apache,” Joaquin said.
“And Liada,” Kady Sharakova said.
“Hey, Eaglemoon,” Alexander said on the comm. “Where are you?”
No answer.
“She must have her helmet off,” Lojab said.
“They put Kawalski in Cateri’s wagon,” Lori said, “and took him to the main camp, by the river.”
Alexander looked around, watching the women and children strip the dead bandits of their clothing. “Let’s get out of here before they start on us.”
* * * * *
At the main camp, Alexander counted heads and found everyone present.
“Don’t wander off, people. Let’s stick together until we find out what’s going to happen.”
He walked into the shade of a tree and sat next to Kawalski, who was wrapped in a Mylar thermo blanket. Autumn was there, kneeling beside the unconscious Kawalski, checking his blood pressure. Liada and Tin Tin Ban Sunia knelt beside her, watching everything she did.
Lojab took a pack of Marlboros from his inside jacket pocket and slouched against a tree as he lit up. He exhaled smoke from his nose as he watched the people around Kawalski.
“What do you think, Eaglemoon?” Alexander pulled off his helmet and rubbed a hand over his buzzcut.
She took the stethoscope from her ears and handed it to Liada. “He lost a lot of blood, and the wound is deep. We cleaned it and stitched it up, and I gave him a shot of morphine.”
Liada placed the stethoscope earpieces in her ears as she’d seen Autumn do, then she opened the blanket and slipped the endpiece inside Kawalski’s unbuttoned shirt. Her eyes widened at the sound of his heartbeat. Autumn had become accustomed to using her hands as she talked, for the benefit of Liada and Tin Tin. Both women seemed to be able to follow the conversation, at least to some extent.
“His blood pressure is good, and his pulse is normal.” Autumn was quiet for a moment as she watched Tin Tin try the stethoscope. “I don’t think any of his organs were damaged. It looks like the sword went under the edge of his flak jacket and pierced him all the way through, just above the hip bone.”
“You’ve done all you can do for him,” Alexander said. “Probably when the morphine wears off, he’ll wake up.” He handed the web belt to Autumn. “We need Liada’s help with this.”
“Whose is it?”
“We took it off a dead buffalo dog.” Alexander watched her as she puzzled it out.
“Oh, my God! The captain.”
“They could be holding him prisoner, or–”
“Liada,” Autumn said.
Liada looked at her.
“This belt,” she handed it to Liada, “is like mine.” Autumn showed her the one around her waist. “And Kawalski.” She pointed to Kawalski. “And Sarge.”
Alexander showed her his belt.
“But this one, our man is lost.”
“Lost?” Liada asked.
“Yes,” Autumn said. “Our man, like Rocrainium.”
Tin Tin removed the stethoscope from her ears. “Rocrainium?”
Alexander looked around at his troops. “Spiros, give us some help with Tin Tin.”
Private Zorba Spiros knelt beside Autumn. “What’s up?”
“I’m trying to tell her about Captain Sanders being an officer like Rocrainium.”
Spiros spoke to Tin Tin in his broken Greek. She took the belt from Liada.
“You man Rocrainium?” Tin Tin asked Autumn.
“Yes.”
“He lost to you?”
Autumn nodded.
“Belt come where?”
“One of the bandits had the belt from our Rocrainium.”
