Tiger by the Tail (40 page)

Checking the man with the broken teeth, she found he had managed to draw his pistol and pull the slide back. Before he could aim it at her, she was on top of him, grabbing the gun and wrenching it free hard enough to break three fingers. He clutched his injured hand and opened his bloody mouth to scream. Katya prevented that by clubbing his jaw with the butt, breaking it again and knocking him out.

She looked around to see all four men incapacitated or dead. Just then the drug wore off, and Katya steeled herself against the muscle spasms that sometimes followed the strenuous activity. They subsided in a few seconds, and she quickly began stripping clothing and equipment off the four bodies.

When she was finished, she had the rifle and two extra magazines; four pistols and four extra magazines; four combat knives; and four grenades, two smoke and two tear gas. Most important, she had found a set of keys in the sergeant’s pocket.

Weapons first.
Katya dressed herself in the cleanest shirt she could find. Then she tucked a loaded pistol into her waistband, hiding it under her shirttail, but still available for a fast draw. Wrapping up the other three pistols and extra magazines in another shirt, she tied it into a pouch. When she was done with that, she slung the rifle over one shoulder and the gun-filled bag over her other one. Taking two canteens, she rinsed her mouth before filling them with water at the sink. In the small refrigerator she found moldy chicken curry and curdled goat’s milk, which she skipped. There was a container of cold, plain rice and an unopened mango drink of some kind. She grabbed both; every extra calorie would help in what she had to do.

Someone pounded on the door from outside, making Katya almost drop the canteen as she drew the pistol and aimed it at the door. The soldier outside shouted something that sounded like a question.
What the fuck is he asking? Wait—that has to be it!

Katya moaned loudly as if getting fucked. A loud cheer went up from the other side of the wall. She kept going, varying her cries of simulated pleasure as she pulled the pins on a tear gas and smoke grenade. Tipping a chair over, she wedged the top of it against the grenades, placing them with the spoons held against the door.

Still groaning, she changed the tone so it sounded like she had her mouth full before slipping out the side door, making sure to lock it behind her. The Cascavel armored cars were parked right outside. Katya shook her head.
The Kildar would never allow such sloppiness
. . .

Inside, the party was going on in full force. She could hear the men singing drunkenly even from here. Checking the cars until she found the one her keys fit, Katya dumped the stolen gear into it and drew one of the knives. Going to each vehicle, she punctured three tires on each one. It was hard work, and her fingers and wrists were sore by the time she was finished, but all of the nearest vehicles were disabled when she was done.

Climbing back into the Cascavel, she locked the outer hatch and took a moment to familiarize herself with the controls. Everything seemed fairly basic; steering wheel, gas and brake pedals. It was an automatic transmission, which made Katya breathe a sigh of relief, as she wasn’t that great with manual. Its gas tank was also almost full. Finally, she located the headlight switch and flipped it on.

Taking a deep breath, she turned the key, making the 190-horsepower Mercedes Benz diesel engine rumble to life. Shifting into gear, she depressed the gas pedal, taking off as men began spilling out of the barracks to see one of their armored cars being stolen.

Over the rumble of the engine, Katya could barely hear the shouts and screams as the men found the surprise she had left for them in the kitchen. She found what looked like a main road leading out of town and took it, making the armored car leap forward to put as much distance between her and the barracks as possible.

Once sure she was safely away, she called the
Big Fish
. “Vanner, this is Katya. Tell me how to find Mike and the others.”

* * *

“So, you don’t know shit about what’s going on either?” Copilot Major Jonathan Wolfe said as he completed the preflight checklist for the C-130J-30 Super Hercules cargo plane.

“I know exactly the same things you do. Get our asses in the air and get to Tbilisi airport with all due haste.” Aircraft Commander Major Alan Timmons ran through his checklist as well, then lowered his voice. “But the scuttlebutt on the tarmac says the orders came straight from the top.”

“The Joint Chief?” Wolfe asked incredulously.

Timmons shook his head and pointed upward.

“The POTUS himself?!”

Timmons shrugged as he strapped himself in. “Take that for what’s it worth, but everyone who mentioned it so far said that’s who gave the order.”

Wolfe didn’t mind in the least. He had been finishing up his rotation at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. They had just completed a supply run to Incirlik the day before, and were about to head back home when the orders had come in diverting their aircraft northeast to Tbilisi instead. It would be about a two-hour hop, and that was only the start of the mystery.

“What are we supposed to do once we get there?” Wolfe asked.

“Orders said we will be contacted by a party on the ground, and that we are to give any and all aid and assistance possible. That’s what the Old Man told me, and that’s exactly what I plan on doing, regardless of any secret squirrel stuff going around.” He hit his mike. “Sergeant, prepare for takeoff.”

“Yes, sir,” Tech Sergeant Sandra Wilcox replied from the cargo hold.

Wolfe nodded and concentrated on his duties as Timmons contacted the tower and got clearance. As far as he was concerned, anything coming down from the President had to look good when the promotion boards came up, right?

* * *

Mike, Jace, and Adams stood in the middle of the trustees’ quarters, which now looked like a hurricane had gone through it. Several of the rough bunk beds had been smashed to pieces, and the dozen prisoners lay scattered among the wreckage.

Injuries were light among the three operators. Adams had dislocated three knuckles, which he had popped back into place. Jace had received a split lip from a lucky punch, and Mike had suffered a graze from a swinging board off one of the beds that had come a hair’s width away from beaning him.

“Any more questions?” Mike asked.

“Yes.” The leader pushed himself up into a sitting position on the floor. Gingerly probing his swelling jaw with scraped fingers, he spat out a tooth. “What the fuck are you going to do with us now?”

After getting the translation from Jace, Mike replied. “Well, as attractive as digging gems for the fucking military for the rest of my life sounds, my friends and I are going to break out of here tomorrow morning. All of you can either stay here, or you can join us.”

Those trustees who were still conscious broke out in ragged laughter. “Man, you must be crazy, and not just by taking all of us on,” the leader said. “Don’t you think others have tried to escape? Where do you think you are going to go? There’s a hundred kilometers of jungle between us and any place larger than a village. We can’t count on the surrounding villages to help, not since the warden put out a five-hundred-thousand-kyat reward for any information about escaped prisoners. We can’t even smuggle out gems to try to pay our way to freedom, since the guards strip search us every day—every goddamn inch.”

Another prisoner spoke. “The last two times someone tried to escape, the guards hunted them down like dogs, running them through the jungle until they dropped from exhaustion. They shot them and brought the bodies back for us to bury. No one’s been stupid enough to try since then.”

“Then it’s a good thing I have an ace in the hole. How many people are held prisoner here?” Mike asked.

“At least three hundred,” the leader said.

“And how many guards?”

“About fifty,” came the reply.

“Don’t you see?” Mike asked. “Our enemy has already given us enough energy for victory.” He pointed at each one of them. “All of you and the rest of the prisoners are a force powerful enough to overcome twice as many guards.”

“Oh yeah? And what about their guns?” Another one asked.

“Before morning, I will eliminate that advantage,” Mike said. “However, there will be plenty to do in the meantime. Look, either you all accept what you think is your fate here, and work until you die, or you take a shot at being free men again. Me, I would rather die than live under another man’s boot. None of you really look like the kind to do that either. Now, what’s it going to be?”

“Do you swear you can take care of the guards?” a prisoner asked.

“I guarantee it,” Mike replied.

“We need to talk about this,” the leader said. “Give us a few minutes.”

“You’ve got five. Master Chief, Jace, with me.”

Jace followed Mike over to a relatively unspoiled corner of the room to huddle with Adams.

“Okay, now I know you can pull off some crazy shit, ’cause I’ve watched you do it, but how in the hell do you expect to do this?” Adams asked.

“Because Katya’s coming to find us,” Mike answered.

“And just how do you know that?” Adams pressed.

Mike shrugged. “The practical answer would be that she hasn’t gotten paid yet.” He tapped his chest. “This part that knows she’s coming would say, even though she would never admit it, that we’re her—”

“You’re not going to say family, are you?” Adams asked.

“I doubt if she would go as far as that, but yes, that’s the general idea. We, or I, if you prefer, have given her a home, a place to belong. That is something she has never had, not even as a child. Call me sentimental, call me soft if you want, but deep down, I know that counts for something with her. Trust me, she’s coming.”

“And if she’s not?” Jace asked.

“Then we go to Plan B,” Mike replied.

“Which is?” Adams asked.

“General prisoner revolt. Ideally, through, we’ll be able to combine both of them. Right now we’ve got to establish communications with the other groups, and to do that, we need a way out of here. Let’s rejoin the others, see what they say, and figure out how we’re busting out of this building.”

“You know that if some of them don’t go along with this, they’ll have to be put down so they don’t rat us out to the guards,” Jace said.

“I think they’ll all go along with it. I know I wouldn’t want to stay here a day longer than I had to.” Mike looked over Adams’ shoulder. “Looks like they’ve come to an agreement. Come on.”

He walked back to the center of the room, where the deposed trustee leader was waiting for him. “You talk a really big game.”

“I’ll deliver on it, too,” Mike said.

“If we throw in with you, everyone here goes free, not just some of us.”

“I can get you all out of the camp. Getting anywhere else is your problem. But at least you’ll have a fighting chance.”

The man stared at him for a few seconds, then thrust out his hand. “We’re in, all of us.”

Mike shook it. “All right, we’ve got a lot to do, and not a hell of a lot of time to do it. First assignment is to find us a way out of this building that isn’t visible from the yard out front.”

That proved easier than expected—the boards on the back wall had already been modified to provide a secret way out. When Mike frowned at the leader, who identified himself as Maung, the man said, “I said people tried to escape, I didn’t say that the guards found every bit of work that had been done on each plan.”

The trustees’ building, along with the rest of the prisoner barracks, had been built along a high cliff of rock. Mike, Adams, and Jace used this cover to sneak from building to building, where Keldara were already waiting to talk. Mike filled them in on the plan, which all hinged on one thing; that Katya really was coming to find them.

* * *

“
Nabozvaro! Bozis shvilo!
” Katya cursed as she retraced her route for the second time. “Son of a bitch! Son of a whore!”

When she had set out to catch Mike and the others, Katya had figured she was only about forty-five minutes behind them, an hour tops. But that was before she had had to navigate the Myanmar jungle in the dark with no readable maps and only voice directions from the
Big Fish
command room to guide her. Exhausted and pissed off, she was worried about getting lost, of running out of gas, of running into more soldiers, and of failing most of all.

“You are almost there. Just a few more kilometers,” Greznya said in her head.

“Easy for you to say. You are sitting on boat while I am driving circles in goddamn jungle!” Katya took a deep breath. “I am sorry, Greznya. I do not mean to be so harsh. I could not be doing this without your help.”

“That is all right. I am not sure I could do what you are doing right now.”

Katya snorted. “I bet you would do a better job of not getting lost!”

That made the Keldara girl chuckle. Katya grinned at hearing the other woman laugh, then chuckled, then finally laughed at the absurdity of it all. “Damn it, girl, do not make me drive off the road!”

“Is not
my
fault, you made me laugh first.” Greznya took a deep breath. “Okay, are you back on Route 312?”

“Yes, finally! Main road, my ass! Is barely better than the dirt roads you all had before the Kildar.”

“You are doing fine. If you are where I think you are, you have only about twenty kilometers to go,” Grezyna said.

“If there is a prison camp there, I certainly do not want to just barrel in, even in this thing,” Katya said.

“True. Are you planning to try to sneak all of the weapons inside?” Greznya asked.

“Depends on what I find when I get there. I am sure that the Kildar and the others will need everything they can get to break out. I am driving a vehicle with a big gun, but it is not as if I know how to use it.”

“True, but the guards at the camp do not know this,” Greznya replied. “That may work to our advantage later. Best to concentrate on the here and now. The rest is something to figure out once you find where the Kildar and the men are.”

“Right.” Katya drove in silence for several more kilometers, then slowed when she saw a road sign covered with gibberish. “Please translate this and tell me how far I have to go.”