Chapter 28

Jacky and Blair watched the men head back towards the road.

The men were unaware that Jacky’s shield over the lay-by would make them walk around the barrier so that it took them longer than they would expect to get back to the road.

“He hates your guts,” Jacky said conversationally.

“Yes, I’m quite sure the General will get to hear every perceived slight the Major can dream up,” Blair replied tersely.

He spun on his heels and started walking back up the hill to the cave with a heavy heart. Jacky walked beside him.

“I was planning to stay until the men got their supplies from the ship and then leave, but I have this feeling that we shouldn’t stay that long,” Jacky said.

Blair glanced at Jacky, “When then?”

“Once we hear the General is almost back and they are safe, we go,” Jacky told him.

“Where are we going?”

“Oh, just a little walk into the caves,” Jacky grinned.

“Fine, don’t tell me. Let’s go and get some sleep.”

In the morning, Blair sent a scouting party to meet the Major.

They came back an hour later and confronted Blair, who had been writing in his journal.

“That Major is a horse’s arse, no wonder he was in a POW camp. He insisted that they had to take the guns. We told him they would slow him down, and we only had a few shells for them.”

“He demanded that we produce the rest of the ammo. He only shut up about it when Bean went and got his records and showed him that we only had twelve shells to begin with, and you had to use eight of them to blow the bridges up.”

“He then berated you for using up all the ammo. The man has no fucking idea what it takes to blow up a steel and concrete bridge. Then he wanted to have the guns loaded before they left and couldn’t understand why that wasn’t a good idea.”

“Your brother and the other drivers had to refuse to travel behind a loaded AA-gun before he gave in. He even took that stupid staff car that he wouldn’t let us service because we told him that we had to keep a truck here. So, it will break down for sure. The man is a buffoon.”

Blair started chuckling, he had sent them a day early as it was, so it was probably just as well that he had. About three hours later, Nat received a Radio message and called Blair.

“Sir, the Major wishes to know where he was supposed to meet the General?”

Blair gave him the coordinates that he had already given the Major.

The voice came back, “What bloody good are they? What town am I to meet him in?”

Blair said, “Sir, there is no town at the coordinates the General gave me. He doesn’t want all and sundry to know his movements. Give the compass and map to Brian. He should be able to work it out, over.”

“We don’t have the bloody compass; you didn’t give it to the Lieutenant,” he barked back.

“Sir, Januario should have a compass, over,” Blair told him.

“Who the fuck is he?” The Major ranted, still not using the correct etiquette for calls over the radio.

“The scout I told you to take because he knew how to get to the location, Sir. Over.”

“He was extra weight. Why didn’t you give the information to my men?”

Blair wanted to scream back that he had. He looked at Nat, who was chuckling.

Nat said, “Sir, there is a map and an ordinary compass in every glove box. Jacky insisted on it.”

Blair closed his eyes and shook his head. Into the handpiece, he said, “Tell Brian to look in the glove box, Sir. Over.”

“Fuck! Why didn’t you say that in the first place?”

The line went to static.

Blair and Nat both started laughing and ended up getting a case of the giggles.

After that, Nat had tried every hour on the hour to contact the convoy. He didn’t get a response from them by 21:00hrs and gave up for the night.

He was just glad the other mission that day went off without a hitch.

Just after lunchtime that day, Jacky, Blair and the Ghost team, minus Nat, headed to the drop zone.

It was about an hour up the valley from their current location, and the plane was due to do its drop at around 13:00hrs.

The Dakota had followed the Rib River from the sea and then the road that led into the huge valley, as navigation points. It lost altitude once it had diverted around Same and into the valley flanked by Mount Cabalaki to the east.

Seeing the flare that Blair had released, it dropped its payload of five large crates and two parachutists. It then followed the northern side of the range around to the west to Mount Ramelau. It rounded the mountain and then turned towards the sea and headed back to Australia.

“Well, that is interesting. I wonder who else we are getting to visit us?” Blair asked as they watched the two parachutes being buffeted by the wind that traversed the valley.

One of the people dropped by the plane was obviously better at controlling a ‘chute than the other, and he was steering towards the road. A gust of wind picked the second ‘chute to play with, and the parachutist was soon dealing with trees.

“Ouch,” David said. “I think you and I had better go get that one, Jacky.”

“Abe, you and the boys, get those crates sorted out, and we will go get the men. Don’t forget to keep those parachutes too. They have a lot of uses, as you well know.”

Abe chuckled, “I do. I’m sure some new hammocks won’t go amiss in the caves.”

David and Jacky blinked to the road. They watched as the man tried to haul in the still billowing ‘chute. He had already dropped the pack. They both chuckled when he pulled his wand, and the material flattened and started folding itself up and returned to the pack.