Chapter 47

George and I hooked all three trailers this time and it was more than a little complicated to get the whole rig headed out. We managed to do it though and soon enough we had Rose lined out for using her radio. I had to show her how to turn on the linear after we were a little distance away. Things might have worked with the amp balls to the wall from the start, but I didn't want to even think about it.

We'd already taken the time to install the smaller Ranger radio setup in the skidder and George followed my set of triples up the ramp and off down the plateau to the maybe or maybe not natural ramp/bridge to the river's valley level.

With no other radio signals to speak of we had no trouble hearing and getting back to Rose. Even after we'd gone nearly five miles after coming down off the plateau we could still communicate barefoot. It was about all of it I wanted to fuck with though so I turned on my box and she turned on hers. We didn't have one for George, but Rose said she could still hear him fine.

Playing with the CBs got old before long and we settled in to our slow traveling. Catla had decided she needed a trip this time and Keeta and Chalta had also come along. Zeeta, Zaata, and Cheela had come with George, but they were riding with us in the truck since there wasn't much room for riders in the skidder.

There was more wooded territory down on this level and sometimes it caused us to need to detour. There were also some smaller streams which made us search up and down stream a little to find a good place to cross. We made pretty good progress though.

Our first planned stop was more than fifty miles west of the plateau and there was no way to make it before sunset so we stopped an hour ahead of time and made a small camp. George's dogs were with him and we were counting on them to keep a watch over things while we slept. We also laid in enough firewood to keep our fire going all night.

Nothing seemed interested in us though and I was glad enough over it. We were up just before sunrise the next morning and with plenty of cooks along we had a nice hot breakfast before taking off again. Keeta spelled George on the skidder driving today and he rode in the truck with the rest of us.

Around noon I was sure we were near our first location and the terrain was mostly grassy with only a few bunches of trees scattered around. It didn't mean the pallet was easy to find though and we finally had to park the truck and start spiraling outward with the skidder and stopping it every hundred yards or so for careful searching with binoculars. We found what we were looking for after about an hour.

This guy had at least lived a day or two and he'd opened his container even though he didn't remove most of his things. He had pitched a tent for some reason and he'd slept in it in a sleeping bag.

In fact it looked as if he'd been killed in the sleeping bag and something had ripped it open to get him out for a meal. The odd thing to me was he had weapons, but hadn't bothered to unpack any of them yet. They were still in his container.

We were feeling sorry for him I guess since we dug a hole and put the remains of his sleeping bag and of his person in it and covered it up. The tent he'd put up wasn't really damaged and we loaded it and the few dishes he'd been using back into the pallet and then put it in a trailer.

Our next suspect was supposed to be about ten miles due south and when we came close we were able to spot the cave he was supposed to have been put into. The pallet was easily visible, but when we approached it we were not welcomed by the hyenas who seemed to be living there. We had to do away with twelve of them and I didn't wonder why no one had opened the shipping pallet container.

It was only five more miles to the next place and the pallet wasn't hard to find this time either. It hadn't been molested at all, but there were no remains around. I was about to just load the pallet and forget looking for a body when George called me over.

"See the sign there? It looks like there was a tussle going on here a couple or so weeks back. I can even see where four or five men left dragging something."

"I think you may be right George. Do you think the man the fish put down got waylaid?" I asked.

"No way to tell for sure from this, but it'd be my guess if I was guessing."

"Damned if it ain't mine too and we don't have a single horse with us. It'll be ankle express if we want to see if we can find out what went on," I said.

"I know it, and I'm not real curious, but if there's a bunch of caveman kidnappers around I think we ought to at least know about them."

"I guess you're right. Looks like we've got it to do."

When we got in touch with Rose she raised a little hell, but mostly it was fussing about Roscoe vetoing my pickup and horse trailer coming along. In actual fact he'd done us all a favor with that particular bit of foolishness, since it was what convinced Sigfried to go around him and give us the truck, skidder, tractor, and such.

It didn't help us here and now though so we all loaded our backpacks, locked up our stuff, and headed off following Chalta since she was an even better tracker than George.

Three miles later Chalta pointed out the five men who had been walking were now four walking and one being dragged. At least we were surer what we'd be dealing with now. To me it seemed unlikely any bunch of men could have ended up dragging someone this close to the set down spot unless the one they were dragging had been the one set down.

About twelve miles from where we'd started Chalta stopped the tracking and came back to talk.

"One man like you and George is tied but made to work. Six men like Catla making him work. Eight women like Catla too, and four young children," she said, doing a good job in my language if you asked me.

I hate to admit I hesitated while trying to think of a way to keep from acquiring more mates for myself. I shook it off after a few minutes and got us organized.

Catla, Chalta, and Keeta were carrying Marlins with Glocks for sidearms. George and I both had M1s with a Glock and a Super Blackhawk in holsters. We decided to approach the small camp with our rifles hanging on their slings over our backs and with our hands on our pistols.

Since George, my girls, and I were wearing blue jeans and cowboy boots the captive saw us at once and started screeching for us to save him. It earned him a quick cuffing from a nearby Cro-Magnon male and it also put the focus of everyone else in camp on us, even though I'm sure none of them understood a word the dummy had been shouting.

There were six mature males in the camp besides their prisoner and there were eight women and four children, just as advertised. The largest male came toward us and he was carrying a spear even if he wasn't threatening us with it.

"Howdy. We were looking for him," I said, in the best Cro-Magnon I could muster and I pointed at their captive/slave.

"He mine. We catch and we keep."

"I didn't come to argue over it. Will you trade him?" I asked.

"What you trade?"

I pulled out my big ten-inch bowie knife and offered it for the captured dip shit. The camp's leader held out his hand and I passed the knife over even though I had a feeling he wasn't exactly an honorable man. He looked the knife over carefully and then spoke up again.

"I keep, but no trade. Give us more or we kill you men and keep women," he said, and all the other men came closer with their spears in hand now.

I let my shoulders slump for effect and then pulled the SuperBlackhawk as if to hand it over. The sound of the detonation when I shot him in the chest surprised them all and of course it killed the leader promptly.

"I can see none of you have any honor, but I won't kill you if you drop your spears now," I shouted.

All but two of them did it and thankfully George shot them instead of me having too. There was quite a bit of confusion next and some of it was caused by Carl, the dufus who'd been captured. Catla went over to cut off his bindings and damned if he didn't cuss her and kick at her.

"Well, I don't give a shit if you sit there tied up from now on, but if you keep cussing me I'm going to shoot your ass," she told him, and pulled her Glock.

"Help, this beast is going to kill me," he shouted and I had a hint he was yelling at me.