Sergeant Zeke Anderson moved cautiously down the side of the trail, his CAR-16 at the ready, the selector switch in the "full-auto" position. Up ahead of him Taylor was carefully scanning the bushes and behind him the rest of the platoon was following their lead. He could hear Lieutenant Goldman on the radio, advising their progress, or rather lack of it, to the Command and Control helo high in the sky.

An hour previous to the platoon's insertion, someone here had fired on a Scout helicopter. The Bubble-top had pulled up and away as the observer sprayed the area with the M60 machine gun and dropped the ever-ready smoke grenade. The two Cobra gunships riding high cover had torn the immediate area up with rockets and mini-gun fire. When the dust settled, the returning scout had spotted a blood trail. The platoon had been inserted to follow the trail.

For two hours they had cautiously followed the streaks of blood. Someone, probably more than one someone from the marks in the dusty soil of the trail, had been seriously hurt. They had found nothing else though. There had been no bodies, no weapons, no supplies.

Taylor held his hand up in an alert signal. The entire platoon froze. Then "Get down" came from the point man and a burst of AK47 fire swept through the area.

Even as the platoon reacted, one section following Zeke to the left and the other following Goldman to the right, Zeke noted that the fire had come from no more than two weapons and had been high over their heads. There was no point in taking chances though, as the platoon executed an anti-ambush drill. Swinging around to both sides the men advanced, firing rapidly to ensure fire superiority.

"Cease fire," the Lieutenant ordered once all return fire had stopped. A sweep of the area revealed almost nothing. The blood trail had petered out. Two shinning piles of expended cartridges indicated to Zeke that his original estimate had been right on the money.

Goldman waved to Zeke, who joined his young officer. The two of them knelt together on the jungle floor and checked the map.

"Zeke, I don't see any point in going on. Whoever was here is long gone. There's no point in calling in the Quick Reaction Force."

"I agree El-Tee. All we had was a couple of stay-behinds who were probably doing nothing more than Landing Zone watching." Zeke shaded his eyes and checked the sky. "A couple more hours until dusk and I think I'd rather be back at the base camp by then."

Goldman nodded. Had they found anything at all in their search, a company size Strike force was standing by to reinforce them. If necessary an entire battalion or even larger force could be brought in. But there was nothing to indicate that any of that would be anything more than a waste of time and manpower. He conferred briefly with the Command ship and the platoon began a quick but careful pull back to the Landing Zone.