Chapter 24

The point man held up a closed fist and the six men behind him stopped and moved their weapons to the ready. The patrol leader signaled for his men to hunker down as he moved up the line to the side of his point man.

"We've got company, Sir," whispered the point man as he indicated four figures just moving onto the beach across the lake.

"Well, it had to happen sometime," said the Sergeant softly. He reached for the microphone clipped to his shoulder and keyed it.

"Chick one to mother hen, chick one to mother hen, over."

"Mother hen to chick one, go ahead, over"

"Chick one to mother hen, we have company. Four people on the east shore, over"

"Mother hen to chick one, acknowledged. Wait one for instructions, over."

"Chick one to mother hen, understood, over."

"I don't like exposing ourselves like this," muttered Cara.

"Look, we discussed this before. We're supposed to be hunters so we need to behave like hunters. Yes we wouldn't normally do this on a mission but this isn't a normal mission, is it?" asked Dixie.

"Cut it out, you two. Cara, see if you can bag us some meat with your new crossbow. The rest of us will set up camp in the meadow over there, and get the fire going," said Asha.

"Ok, Boss."

Cara let her pack slide off her shoulders and then untied the case that was strapped to its side. Five minutes later she moved off along the beach with the now assembled compound crossbow resting in the crook of her arm and a quiver of bolts hanging from her belt. The new weapon was very powerful as well as compact. It was only half the size of a traditional crossbow but at least twice the power. That coupled with the top of the line day/night scope made Cara a tremendously accurate and stealthy hunter ... of man or beast!

The rest of the women erected the tents, dug a latrine, started a fire and set water to boil. They gave the impression, to their watchers, that the women were there to stay for some time.

Cara moved down the beach looking for an animal trail. About one thousand yards along she veered into the forest and disappeared from sight.

Back at camp Yumi was cutting up mushrooms and other types of flora for a stew—she had been gathering foodstuffs all along the trail to the lake. The women had agreed from the start to forage as much as possible on the trip in. That way, if a quick escape were needed, the team would still have their field rations.

Even though the women looked occupied with their domestic duties, each was watchful for possible enemy activity.

Cara was gone so long that her companions began to get nervous. It was then, that she stepped into the back of the meadow from the forest, and walked into camp. She had a duck and two rabbits hanging from her belt.

"We were beginning to worry about you," said Dixie.

"Hell, girl that's not a supermarket out there. I can't just walk up to the meat-case and pick up a roast, ya know," Cara said with a laugh.

"Those rabbits should be tasty in the stew, but what about that bird?" asked Yumi.

"This? I thought that it would make a good breakfast, if we roast it in a pit oven over night with some of those roots and herbs that we gathered along the way here. What do you think?" asked Cara.

"Sounds good to me," said Yumi.

"Did you see anything of interest while you were out?" asked Asha.

"Well ... I thought that I saw an optics flash across the lake, but I'm not sure, it was too fast and not very bright. How about you?"

"Nothing," said Yumi.

"Well then, girls, let's get these animals ready. I'm starved," said Cara.

"Mother hen to chick one, mother hen to chick one, over."

"Chick one, over."

"Mother hen to chick one, keep eyes on the intruders and advise every hour. A relief team will be sent in six hours, over"

"Chick one to mother hen, acknowledged, over and out."

"Mother hen, over and out."

"Ok ... we sit tight and observe. We'll do one-hour watches. The watch order is as follows: I'll take the first watch followed by Jones, Mackey, Knight, Dean and Clancy. Move back into the bush and try to get some rest. Our relief will be here in six hours."

The men all acknowledged their orders and faded back into the forest, as the sergeant set up a high-powered scope.

"Now let's see just who you are ... Ok..." muttered the Sergeant as he focused on the camp across the lake.

"Well, this is a surprise! Four pretty women. Huh!"

"They sure know what they're doing, though, look at that camp, and they even dug a latrine."

As time passed, the observers made note of all that the women did, and relayed the information back up to the mine.

"It took us a long time getting where we are and I don't want that idiot that heads up the Hamper messing everything up!" said Senator Woodridge angrily. "We need to find the Reapers and Team Abattoir, IF that bunch actually got out of the bunker before the explosions."

"Yes. The Director is becoming a bit of a problem ... but ... we aren't going to go off half-cocked like you did in Africa. If you had kept your head then, then none of this would be happening. Just calm down, and let's see what we shall see, ok? I'm sure that there is a quiet and safe way to extricate ourselves from what is happening north of the border," said Senator Lockhart calmly.

"Oh, sure! Blame it all on me, you bastard! Just remember that I was the one in the field. As a matter of fact I'm always the one in the field, out front and visible, while you sit here behind your desk, hiding. When the shit hits the fan, who do the authorities go after? Me! That's who! While all of the time you sit in the shadows. I'm tired of it, all of it!"

"Look, Malcolm, you got good mileage out of all of those Congressional hearings. I'm sure that they were a main factor in you getting elected. Your constituency loved your hard-hitting style. Just calm down and we'll get through this little rough patch," said Senator Lockhart. However, what he thought was, "Damn it I'm surrounded by sniveling, whining babies! Walter is getting as bad as that Canadian fool! Looks like I'm going to have to get rid of him, too. Perhaps I should get rid of the lot of them, and retire ... hmmm."

Still muttering, Senator Malcolm Woodridge did as he was told and sat down in the visitor's chair.

"Do you still have contact with all of the Director's contacts, Malcolm?"

"Of course I do! Most of them were mine, first. Remember, I helped him set up the Hamper team."

"Good! Then we really don't need the director anymore do we? So why not arrange for a little accident ... say a hit and run or something that looks clean?"

Senator Woodridge sat up suddenly and smiled, leaving his morose attitude behind.

"Are you serious?"

"I'm always serious, Malcolm, you know that. Can you handle a clean accident?"

"Sure! Sure!" said Senator Lockhart almost giddily.

Senator Lockhart picked up his brandy snifter and swirled the fragrant amber liquid around a few times before taking a sip.

All the while he looked at the man sitting opposite him and thought, "How the hell did I ever get tied up with this crazy bastard? Retirement is beginning to look better by the minute."

The four women were becoming the talk of the base. Each day the women would head off in a different direction with only bows and arrows as weapons. Only Cara used a crossbow. Yumi used a recurve bow, Asha used a traditional long bow, and Dixie used a compound bow. The women never failed to bring home some kind of game, and the watching men were suitably impressed. On the third day, the women staggered back into their camp under the weight of large moose sections. It took three trips to get all of the meat back. The women even brought the head, and hung it from a tripod, just to keep the scavengers away.

That day two of the women stripped down and began to butcher the meat as the other two went back into the forest to gather wood for drying racks and burning. The hunting was over for now as the women settled in for the duration. The moose would feed them for some time.

That night the whole base was buzzing about the women hunters. Word even got to one of the supply men, deep inside of the mountain. He knew who the women were, and was filled with longing for his Mediterranean beauty. Jake went to the men that belonged to the other members of Team Valkyrie. The four men had worked out a plan that would allow them to leave the base undetected, they thought ... but they were wrong.

"Did you see that?" asked Yumi.

"You bet. We should of thought of getting naked sooner," said Cara.

Later as the other two women came back loaded down with fire wood Asha asked, "Did you two honeys catch any flies?"

Dixie smiled and slipped back into her southern drawl and said, "Sure did, darlin', two solid flashes from across the lake. See that big outcropping halfway up that first hill?"

"Yes," said Asha

"They are just to the left of the rocks."

"That's about where I thought I saw that flash, earlier," said Cara.

"Well what the hell are they waiting for? They know that we're here why don't they do something? Shit," asked Dixie.

"Down girl! We don't know if those people there are with our guys, or not. Just keep cool, and let things play out, ok?" said Asha. Now let's get back to drying the meat. You have first watch, Yumi, so get some rest now. We can handle this."

The tiny Asian nodded and crawled into her tent and was soon sleeping.

"Do you think they have night vision?" asked Dixie.

"I'd bet on it," said Asha. "That's why we haven't done any night work. I want them to think that we are just a bunch of women hunters. If we start acting military, we lose our edge."

"Gotcha! It's true that men always underestimate us, until things get going."

"Exactly!"

"Ok, back to work. Are we going to keep the hide?" asked Dixie.

"I thought we could start to treat the hide if things really stretch out, and we need a good cover job. We can stop whenever we needed to. For now, though, let's just roll it up, and stick it off to the side. The only problem is that now that we have all of this stuff, we are going to have to stand night watches, because of all of the critters that will want to share our bounty," said Asha with an inclusive wave of her hand at the meat on the drying racks, as well as the hide.

"Well, if I have a choice, I really don't want to smell the place up with the tanning process. It makes me gag."

"I know what you mean."

Each evening the Director arrived home to an empty house (his wife had long since divorced him) and changed into biking gear. He then went for a long ride to clear the stresses of the day.