Chapter 29

In the morning, Nat started calling the Major at 06:00 hours.

At 08:00 hundred hours, the General answered. “Operator, ask Captain Black where the trucks are? Over.”

Nat called for Blair and then told him what the General wanted.

Blair got on the comms and replied, “We sent them yesterday, Sir. They were lost and called us at 12:00 hours. They didn’t tell us where they were, and we have not been able to contact them since, over.”

“Shit! I have wounded. We ran into some Japs that were trying to move into Lepo. We have been harried by bloody planes too. Some idiots south of us tried shooting at them with AA-guns and really stirred them up, over,” he said.

“That is probably the Major. He took the two AA-guns we had. We only had four of the twelve shells we had for them, left.”

“Didn’t you take out three bridges with those guns? Over.”

“Yes, Sir. Over.”

“I am bloody surprised you still had any shells left if you only had twelve to start with. That would have been some fine shooting, Captain Black. Well, Shit! I’ll have to send some boys and see if they can find them. We will call back in an hour or so. Over.”

“Oh, Sir, we also stashed some rifles and ammo under the trucks. We still have at least two hundred Japs in this area, and the boys reported that five trucks headed past us last night, probably trying to get to Dili, so keep an eye out for them. Over.”

“Good to know, Blair, thanks. Over and out.”

“We will be here, Sir. Over and out,” Blair replied.

It was, in fact, four hours before the General called back.

He was really pissed when he said, “Captain Black, why the hell did you send me that idiot? Over.”

“He insisted, Sir. After all, he out-ranks me, Sir. Over,” Blair replied with a smile.

“The silly bastard got the trucks shot to shit and lost two of his men. We got five of the trucks going, and I filled them up with the wounded and those I appointed as guards. I left him camping with the rest of my people.”

“Then, as we got near the crossroads, we found that patrol you warned me about parked up on the side of the road. One of their trucks was broken down.”

“We ended up in a firefight. Thank God you made sure the trucks had the cases of ammo and new rifles stashed under them, as we needed them.”

“The Japs’ idiot commander tried running away, and one of his own men stabbed him. So, we have ten POWs now too. A Corporal Wang said that the commander wasn’t an honourable man.”

“Apparently, this bloke had tainted them all with his actions by killing some of the young women in Same. He had then tried to run away when the locals got into a fight with the Japanese soldiers.”

“He also told us the other soldiers you mentioned headed to Betano, and they plan to get back to Dili by going north. He said they acted very strangely as they had insisted, they had to go back to Japan.”

“We sent the new trucks, once we fixed them, to get some more of my people and will wait here. I’ve sent two trucks with the worst wounded to you. Hopefully, we will see you tomorrow. Have you seen any more traffic coming our way? Over.”

“We will take care of them, Sir, and no, we haven’t seen any more trucks coming from Same, Over.”

“Good, you should see my people soon, over and out.”

“We will make sure they are met and treated, Sir, as we now have a doctor with us. Over and out,” Blair replied.

Blair mobilised his people, and they were all waiting at the rest area when the two trucks were waved in. He was rather surprised that Anton, Jacky, and David jumped on the trucks with Doc Sam, the new Medic.

They had all been shocked that Major James had come back. They were all very happy to get the Medic, even more so now they had more wounded coming in. They now believed that getting the Medic was the mission that Anton had disappeared to do.

The three magicians touched each of the eighteen wounded people before they were handed off to Jacky’s men and Doc Sam. Jacky’s men also touched the wounded before laying them in a cart, or they palmed them off onto Blair’s people, who then evacuated them up to the cave.

Blair looked at Jacky’s men after the truck drove off with fresh drivers from his team. They all looked drained.

“What did you do?” he asked.

“Healing,” David said wearily as he supported Jacky. Anton wasn’t much better, and Abe and Vic were helping him.

“We need to go to the cave to recuperate,” Jacky said with exhaustion.

Blair realised it was their parting gift, and it was time to go.

Blair helped get the exhausted team to the cavern.

He handed the two compasses to Bean and told him what they did. They were going to need access to the two by-ways when they got the next shipment of stores.

He also told Bean that he had to go on a mission with the Major and the Ghosts and that he was to make sure the General knew they had left and not deserted.

Bean nodded as he took the compasses, “Thank you, Sir, and I do know how they work.” He then grinned at Blair.

“Gazza has already told me that the Ghosts weren’t a normal commando group. I’ll keep their secrets too. You go do what you have to do, Captain and the best of luck to you,” Bean said with a wink.

“The compasses will probably not work in about three months, Bean,” Jacky told him. “I didn’t want to leave the spells here indefinitely. So, after that, the by-ways will be visible to all.”

“That’s okay; I’m sure that it will give us the time we need. Thanks, Jacky, and you fellas for turning up when you did. Things were getting dire here,” Bean told them.

Blair stopped to shake Gazza’s hand, but Gazza shook his head and said, “I’m coming with you, fellas.”

Blair went to argue, but Jacky intervened, “He knows what we are, and he is one of us, so he can come with us.”

Blair shrugged and wondered what sort of trouble he and Gazza would get into hanging around with Jacky and her team.

Jacky’s men ate a quick meal to pep them up a little and then went to grab their packs.

They told the men they had eaten with that they needed to go and get some sleep, as they had a mission to go on this evening. Since they had picked a cavern to bed down in that was away from most of Blair’s people, the men didn’t think much of this statement.

As it was, most of Blair’s people were busy helping the doctor with the wounded or Bean with putting away of the new stores they had collected the day before, to worry too much about what the Commandos were doing. Plus, most of them had done the guard duty the night before and often went off on scouting missions.

Blair and Gazza met up with the commandos in their cavern with their packs. The others all grinned when Jacky presented Gazza with a bracelet. They all congratulated him on joining the team.