Jack woke the others again at first light with an offer of hot sweet tea. Kathy came awake with a groan. Even Jack felt soreness from the trail. Anita was already up, slowly stretching out some tight calf muscles. Kathy eased up from her cocoon, donned her tee shirt, and groped for the cup of tea Jack offered. After a few sips she asked if they were still on that endless trail. Jack laughed, “Today we will adjust our pace a bit. Yesterday’s was a little too fast. Don’t forget your pack is lighter. When we finish our tea, we’ll hit the road but take it easy until our muscles loosen up and then after breakfast pick it up somewhat.”
Anita reminded them to sound off if they were hurting and to take care of their feet. Kathy wore the most tape on her feet. Anita coached Kathy through some leg stretches, and a few minutes later Jack gave the word to saddle up and move out. He let Anita get a 50-meter start before moving out.
Here the trail was at least 3,000 feet above the river gorge and climbing steadily as it reached for the ridge line. Anita was convinced this section of the trail would not be selected by anyone for a checkpoint. It was too high and provided too many ways to bypass any checkpoint manned by two or three people. The ridgeline here was too steep and cut by ravines, for anyone to live on the slopes. Anita told Jack, “This is the best place I’ve seen to sight in this rifle. I’ll need two, possibly three rounds to do any necessary sight adjustment.”
Jack set up an empty sterno can at a hundred yards.
Anita fired two rounds with three-minute spacing and said she was good to go. As she reloaded, Anita said, “The scope was close, considering the banging around it had taken on the boat trip. Bahadur always kept his weapons in good order.” She shrugged into her pack and led off.
Kathy found she was much more comfortable with the slower pace. After a very good sleep, she was looking forward to breakfast. Her legs felt strong, and all the soreness from yesterday’s ordeal was gone. She thought, boy, if you wanted to get to know a man, an illegal border crossing, an escape from a murder attempt, sleeping almost naked in a double sleeping bag, and then practically running all day in front of him should just about do it.
An hour later the trail dipped sharply down the mountain toward a crossing of a branch of the Trisuli River a thousand feet below. Anita had smelled wood smoke for the last ten minutes, and coming around a bend in the trail, she looked down the mountain and saw two tents and an eddy of smoke where the trail crossed the rivulet. Anita stepped off the trail and waited for the others to come up. She motioned for them to move off the trail beside her.
When Jack came up, she said, “See the river crossing down there?” When he grunted, she said, “Now look to your eleven o’clock. I see two khaki tents there.”
Jack took out his glasses and focused on the tents. After a few minutes he said, “Yeah. I see the tents and one person moving around at the river’s edge. I think a woman is washing clothes in the river. I’m sure she is not alone. A haze of smoke is coming up from somewhere near the tents. Let’s find a place to have our breakfast while we watch the area.”
Jack took first watch and cautioned all of them not to let the lenses reflect any flashes of sunlight. Kathy and Anita moved back off the trail to a concealed position. Anita gathered some stones to provide a nest for two cans of sterno and a resting platform for both pans, one for heating water, the other for cooking the last of the fresh eggs. After eating her fill of Anita’s fried eggs and mush, Kathy went down to relieve Jack at the lookout post.
Jack put his arm around her, kissed her and said, “Hmm, eggs for breakfast. How are you feeling?”
“Much better than yesterday. I’m actually beginning to enjoy this trek. You’d better go get some breakfast. Seen any action down there?”
“No. Only the woman at the river.”
He hugged Kathy and left to see if any eggs were left. Anita handed him a plate as soon as he approached the cooking area. She asked Jack if he had seen anything different at the tent site. When Jack answered he had only seen the woman at the river, Anita asked him if he had any ideas. Jack sat down on a boulder and thought out loud as he ate. “That woman isn’t there alone. It may be too early for the other person or persons in the tent to be up and around. Neither of the tents looks as if it could hold more than four people. Let’s consider the woman has her own tent or shares it with one man. My check of the area did not find any other sleeping places. The only fire is in front and between the tents. Anyone coming down this trail or approaching from the other side can be seen a long way off.
“It looks possible to descend from here without using the trail, but it would take a lot of time, and we would still have to deal with the tent people. The trail must cross the river there, because it’s the best place to cross for some distance. The water appears to be only calf-deep in mid-stream.”
Jack asked Anita to bring Kathy up, so they could go over a plan together. Once Anita returned with Kathy, Jack continued to outline the plan he had been working out back at the lookout point.
“Let’s move down the trail as far as we can without being obvious to the woman. Kathy and I will walk up on the tent area. Anita, you go down the trail first and find a good sniper nest. Kathy and I will walk in as close as they will let us. We have to assume they are armed, probably with a couple of AK-47s.
“Kathy, make sure you have a round in the chamber and the safety off. Carry the shotgun under your arm so you can swing it up and fire quickly. Anita, at the first sign of trouble, start taking them out. We don’t need any prisoners and can’t deal with them on this mission. Use your own judgment about closing in. We’ll get close while they are trying to figure out who we are and what we might want. I’ll ask them in some way if they have any food for sale. If the situation looks okay to me, I’ll take my hat off and you come up.”
Facts and Fictions 