Chapter 10

“How long before this help you mentioned arrives?” Danni asked Durant as she checked the shoulder of the man she had earlier operated on.

“This guy could use some more medical attention and it better be pretty quick,” she told the Sergeant.

It was now early in the afternoon and Sarina was fast asleep on a sleeping bag somebody provided and the rest of the soldiers were sitting lazily under trees. Since the Sergeant barely mentioned the promised help except for the one time, Danni had decided to use the medical condition of his men to further probe him on it.

“I told you. We need another day before help arrives so we have to hang until then. I haven’t lost a man on a mission yet and I don’t intend to lose one on this one either,” Durant answered.

With nothing to lose, Danni decided it was time to bring up the subject of going along with the rest of the soldiers. Durant had not mentioned where exactly this help was coming from but Danni surmised it would most likely be air. She figured the Canadian Armed Forces would have no problem landing a chopper nearby and loading everybody on it. That operation would be completed in a matter of minutes.

“Since we’re lost out here, what are the chances of me and Sarina bumming a ride back to civilization with you?” Danni casually asked.

“What? Durant promptly replied. “It’s impossible. This is a Forces mission only and it specifies no civilians are to be involved.”

Durant’s response sounded pretty definite but it caught the attention of his soldiers just as Danni hoped it would. She was not above playing devil’s advocate to get what she wanted, even if it meant putting Durant’s men against him. And when push came to shove she was pretty sure they would side with her. After all, she had just bandaged up their wounded comrades so they owed her and she had her ace in the hole. Sarina was her trump card. What she couldn’t do to convince the soldiers to extract them, she knew the girl would. She had seen the way the squad had fallen under her spell and she figured there was no way they would allow the Sergeant to abandon them.

“What do you mean, impossible?” Dempster asked.

He stirred himself from his tree and came to life, along with the rest of the squad.

“Yeah, surely you don’t intend on just leaving them here? Look at the little girl, will you? Then ask yourself how long she’d survive out here in the middle of nowhere. If the rebels don’t find them eventually then they’ll probably both die of starvation and thirst,” Miller added.

Manci also quickly presented her view.

“Look what Ruth did for our mates. Practically saved Simpson’s life by taking that bullet out of him and that’s how you repay her.? Something doesn’t seem right to me.”

Danni fought to keep the smile off her face as the retorts continued to fly. Although she had expected Durant’s squad to put up a strong argument against abandoning them, it was going much better than expected and the Sergeant now faced a hornet’s nest of opposition.

“Look guys.” He tried to reason with them. “Our mission statement was explicit. It definitely stated no civilians. We just get in, observe and get the hell out. Besides, if the Columbian government discovers we’re extracting civilians from their country they’ll unleash a shit storm. The government will probably accuse us of kidnapping them or something.”

“Yeah, but our mission was fucked up from the beginning. Remember, how we were told this was supposed to be easy. No confrontation with anybody but then the rebels fucked that up. They wounded two of our guys and Simpson might of died if Ruth hadn’t helped,” protested Manci.

“Yeah, and what about the girl?”

Dempster pointed to Sarina who was sounding sleeping through everything.

By this time the rest of the squad were all voicing their opinions and they were all opposed to their Sergeant’s.

Durant was losing the battle and he knew it. Danni sat quietly and let the squad wear the man down.

“Okay, okay.” He held up his hands in surrender.

“I gotta admit I agree with you but what the hell are we going to tell the Lieutenant? He is going to be like ... really pissed if we bring civilians back. It just wasn’t part of our mission. Everybody here knows it.”

“Yeah but nothing else went right either. This whole mission was fucked up from the beginning so what’s one more screw up,” replied Miller.

“I know. We’ll tell the lieutenant they are Canadian.” Manci interrupted.

“Yeah, I guess that makes them an exception to the no civilian rule because then we are only rescuing our own people,” Dempster agreed.

“Well, maybe you might have an argument there,” Durant replied although he looked doubtful.