Chapter 25

The following new characters appear in this chapter:

Captain Pol

Works in the Intelligence Department, 5’-7’’ tall, 135 pounds, 28 years old, short black hair, brown eyes

Colonel Pham smiled at Trish, and I could see from the look in his eyes, that he thought he knew why we were interested in visiting Sihanoukville. He may have even been partly right. He also appeared to believe that we would fail, just as others before us had failed.

This, however, did not prevent him from giving us a complete briefing on the route to Sihanoukville, especially the part of the route that went through what he called the Elephant Mountains.

“They are called the Elephant Mountains because they are rounded like the backs of elephants, and going through them is like moving through a herd of elephants. These are not high mountains like those on the north and south parts of the continent. The road goes through the only pass in the mountains. It is very winding and there have been many ambushes there. It is the most dangerous part of the trip.

“The mountains are not high enough to block the rains off of the ocean, so there is much rice and other products grown in the area between them and Phnom Penh. The mountains are not suitable for growing rice, but the hottest peppers are grown on them along with other types of fruit. Sihanoukville is a large port with many businesses that package the seafood brought into the port from the islands further off the coast. There is a large airport and the railroad goes there, but not through the mountain pass. There are many visitors to the city and its beaches are a major resort area,” he told us. He also presented us with detailed maps of the entire area.

When he had finished, he looked at the large clock on the wall.

“It is too late for you to start for there today. You could never get there before dark, and it is even more dangerous to travel that road at night,” he told us, before turning to one of his men who was just outside of the conference room. He asked him something in Khmer and shortly received an answer.

“There is a hotel where you can stay for the night. It belonged to the Woos, but has been taken over by the government. No one is staying there presently, but the manager and all of the staff and other employees are still there. You are welcome to remain there as long as you need to draw up your operation to Sihanoukville and also when you return. There will be no charge, as the government has to pay the employees whether there are guests or not,” he told us before calling in the man who he had spoken to.

“This is Captain Pol. He will accompany you to the hotel and ensure that everything is to your satisfaction. He will also go with you when you are ready to guide you to the road to Sihanoukville. He has already arranged for a police escort to take you to the hotel,” Colonel Pham informed us. Captain Pol was a young man of about 28 years of age, 5’-7’’ tall, 135 pounds with short black hair and brown eyes. His uniform while starched was a bit rumpled, as it appeared that he had been very busy that day.

“If you are ready, the police will arrive shortly, and we can leave following that,” Captain Pol told us in very good Standard. We thanked Colonel Pham and followed the Captain out of the Intelligence Department and out of the building.

Outside, our people had moved out of the vehicles and many were relaxing. Part of the Marines were on guard. Gonzales and Rodrigues had the Jaguars out on alert. Thyne had Chet the Eagle in the air checking for trouble, and Kaera had a ward around the Operation vehicles. On seeing us emerge from the building, they all stood up and waited as we approached. The Colonel addressed all of them over our helmet radios.

“We’ll be leaving here shortly. The police will be guiding us to a hotel for the night. We’ll have a planning meeting once everyone is settled,” she informed everyone.

We were all returning to our vehicles when the police arrived in their vehicles. Captain Pol spoke with them before joining us in Tiger Team’s vehicle.

“The police will clear the way to the hotel. It has a large parking area, as those working for the Woos and the other Chinese Clans from the surrounding areas often stayed there. Just have your vehicles follow the police. May I ride there with you? The police cars are often unpleasant to ride in,” Captain Pol told us.

The police soon started out of the square, and we followed them in our usual order of march. We went north for several blocks before turning west on a one-way street and traveled about half a mile ( nearly a kilometer) before turning into a large parking area. The police left us there.

“Have your vehicles park. I will go in and speak to the manager. How many men do you have?” Captain Pol asked.

“We have 66 men and four Partners that will be staying in the hotel. The three Eagles will find a place on the roof,” the Colonel told him, before calling Greg on the radio.

“Greg, how do you want to arrange the parking?” she asked.

“In Vientiane, we parked the assault vehicles on the corners of the buildings and warded each vehicle and the hotel. Of course, we only had one Magic user,” he told us.

“Did that work satisfactorily?” Trish asked.

“Yes, it worked very well for the entire time that we were at the hotel,” Greg told us.

“We can do the same thing here. Get the assault vehicles positioned. We’ll move our Operation vehicles out of the way and ward them. You can release half of each vehicle’s personnel to get rooms once they are positioned. The rest can be released once the initial group has returned,” Trish told him.

Greg issued directions, and the vehicles took up their positions. Jaguar Team and Tiger Team moved our vehicles to either side of the front entrance of the hotel with the rear exits near the hotel’s large entrance way before we unloaded.

The hotel proved to be quite nice. Not five star but certainly at least four star. It had 75 rooms, a bar, and a large restaurant. There was a pool outside and a game room inside. Everyone got a room, even the Partners. The manager assured us that they would be able to serve dinner to all of us, but it wouldn’t be ready until about 1900 hours. However, he was very shocked when we brought our Partners in and asked about meat for them.

“Meat ... how much meat?” he asked looking at the two Tigers and the two Jaguars that are our Partners.

“About 20 pounds (9.9 kilos) each a day,” I told him to a shocked expression from him.

“We ... we don’t keep that much meat on hand. When will you need it?” he asked and was definitely sweating even in the air conditioned hotel.

“Tomorrow will be fine. We brought sufficient meat for them for today,” I told him to a look of relief.

“Yes, tomorrow,” he answered.

“Early tomorrow,” I reminded him, as he looked over at our Partners again. Our other Partners, the Eagles, could fish in the river for their meals with no problems.

The planning meeting started about an hour and a half after we arrived and everyone was settled. Captain Pol stayed for part of it and explained the route we would be taking again. We all went over it on the maps that they had provided. The route was fairly straightforward until we reached the mountains.

“The mountains aren’t that high, but the pass through them is very winding and must be driven slowly. That is why there have been so many ambushes there. It is definitely the most dangerous part of the trip,” Captain Pol reminded us again. We had satellite pictures of the pass, and it was definitely very winding and a bit steep in places. We waited until Captain Pol had left before making plans on how to deal with it.

As soon as Pol was gone, Trish turned to Lucy.

“Cast a strong ward around the room and a Silence spell around us,” she told her. Lucy instantly started work, while Trish turned to the rest of us.

“We don’t know that this entire hotel isn’t bugged, so we will take appropriate precautions,” she told us. “No discussions of our plans inside the hotel without a Silence spell. Outside, move well away from the hotel and other buildings. The Intelligence Department seems to have the entire city bugged and under observation,” she told us, before we got down to the serious planning for our trip to Sihanoukville the next day.

It was approximately 135 miles (215 km) to Sihanoukville from Phnom Penh. We discussed the order of march, and the speed on various legs of the journey. Finally, we discussed the move through the 10 miles or so (16 km) through the mountains between the villages of Ti Prammuoy and Ou Bak Roteh, as this would be the most difficult part of the trip. We were finished by 1830 and went to wash up for dinner after Lucy canceled the ward and the Silence spell.

Following a fairly good evening meal, Trish and I returned to her room after seeing to our Partners and checking on the other Partners, our people, and the Marines. Those on guard duty were in their assigned vehicles which Lucy and Kaera warded for the night. Our Operation vehicles were also warded. Lastly, Lucy, Trish, and I warded the hotel building after notifying the manager. Those employees still here would need to remain for the night. Finally alone in her room after showering, Trish was very serious.

“This is going to be a dangerous trip tomorrow. Are we ready?” she asked.

“We are as ready as possible. We will need to see what happens. It’s the best we can do,” I assured her, as no missions are entirely predictable. Following that, we went to bed, and I hugged and kissed her for a long, long time to try to relax her. Eventually, she did relax and pulled me over on top of herself. The sex was long, slow, and passionate. I could tell that Trish really enjoyed it.

Eventually, our needs overcame our desire to enjoy each other. The pace became faster and then very fast before becoming nearly frantic as we both sought release and then went over the cliff together before crashing back to the mattress and reality to recover. That took a long time, as we were both worn out. After a time, Trish cuddled up against me, and we both fell asleep for the night.

Early the next morning, Tiger Team and Jaguar Team were the first ones up. We sent the Eagles out to do a survey of the surrounding area, and then took both Teams’ ground Partners out to check the area around the hotel on foot. The Marines who had been on guard all night were also changed with a new set of guards. Nothing unusual was found by either the aerial or ground sweeps. Those on guard duty had not seen or heard any activity over night. Neither had their electronic equipment detected anything. Trish, however, was worried.

“It’s been too quiet. Something is up,” she told me at breakfast after we had reviewed everything.

“It is difficult to say what it could be without anything happening. It’s difficult to prove a negative,” I reminded her. She was still nervous.

We had figured that it would take three hours for the trip especially considering the part through the mountains. Captain Pol arrived at 0730. He had three police vehicles with him in addition to his own vehicle and a driver. We were ready to leave when he arrived.

All of the vehicles had been topped off and checked yesterday while we were having our operation meeting and were ready to go. Everyone had eaten breakfast, even our Partners. The meat had arrived at about 0600 that morning after all of the wards had been dropped.

Captain Pol and the police led us out of the city and got us on route #6 to Sihanoukville before leaving us. He wished us good luck. The first 60 miles or so (100 km) were an easy drive. The road was a four lane divided highway in good condition all of the way to Ti Prammuoy. We stopped there to rearrange our order of march as we had discussed yesterday.

We had left Phnom Penh with Tiger Team as the second vehicle in our convoy. We now moved the second squad’s assault vehicle to the number two position, and our vehicle to the third position with the extra assault vehicle behind us and just ahead of Jaguar Team’s vehicle. Third squad brought up the rear. While we had been traveling at 50 mph (80kph) on the way here, we moved out to the mountains at a much slower speed. We hadn’t even cleared the village when third squad’s vehicle had news for us.

“We detected a radio signal from the village as we moved out,” the Gunny in that vehicle notified Greg on his radio.

“Was there an answer?” Greg asked.

“No sir, no reply yet,” we were told.

“They know that we are coming,” the Colonel said on hearing this. “Once we are well into the mountains and out of sight of those in the village, we’ll stop and send the Eagles out for a reconnaissance flight. Following that, we’ll see how we proceed,” she added.

Initially, the road into the mountains was fairly straight, but we soon came to the first of the many ‘S’ type curves where the road also started to climb, as the pass wasn’t flat, and eventually the road rose a couple of hundred feet (65 meters or so). When we were well out of sight behind the first ‘S’ curve, we stopped and released the three Eagles. They followed the road from high altitude, as we didn’t know what weapons the guerrillas might have.

It didn’t take them long to discover the ambush site. It was close to the top of the pass just after a particularly steep portion of the road with a deep drop off on the other side. The site was about a hundred yards (100 meters) long and 40 yards ( 40 meters) wide. The area just off the road was lined with large boulders that had been cleared from it and the remainder of the area had a scattering of more boulders. It was an ideal site for an ambush, as there was nowhere for a convoy to go or turn around because of the steep drop off to a small river far below.

“They certainly appear to have all of the advantages,” the Colonel said on looking at the pictures the Eagles had sent to us on her battle board after the Eagles had returned and the pictures were downloaded.

“The only way to hit them would be from above,” I said but was looking at the ridge some hundred feet (32 meters) above us. “The problem is we don’t have any climbing gear with us, and none of us are expert enough to climb up there without gear,” I added.

“We couldn’t get enough people up there to make a difference,” the Colonel added.

“We could call for help from the fleet,” Greg suggested.

“Maybe as a last resort,” Trish told him. “I would rather deal with this ourselves,” she added. Lucy was the one with the next suggestion.

“We could just transfer up there,” she said mildly.

“What?” Trish asked.

“Think out of the box,” Lucy suggested. “We could do a line-of-sight transfer. On Parthas, Eachna and Eavan transferred all over the place. We can surely transfer a hundred feet or so, especially when we can see where we need to go,” she continued. Trish looked thoughtful for a short time.

“All right, who all should go?” she asked.

“The four of us,” Lucy said before pausing for a few seconds. “And the radio operator, so we can stay in touch. It may be too far for our helmet radios to maintain good contact,” she added.

“All right,” the Colonel agreed before turning to Greg Roanoke.

“Greg, you’re in command of the convoy while we are gone. We’ll keep in touch by radio,” she told him before turning to Jaguar Team with instructions.

“Keep one of the Eagles in the air checking the area but rotate them. Have the Jaguars on guard for anyone approaching from the village. Kaera, keep a ward ready in case of trouble while we are gone,” Trish told those on the Team who had joined us outside of our vehicle. All of that cross-training would really pay off here, I thought.

“Are we ready?” Trish asked after returning her battle board to our vehicle.