Chapter 7

Abi really liked her new rifle. There was virtually no recoil, and the muzzle was easily held down on automatic fire. We even had a telescopic sight, as this was available on several European weapons. Of course, none of them had this kind of versatility, which included night vision, but I won't tell anybody if you don't. The pistols had a laser dot aiming device, but I was not sure that we would ever use that. Oh, well, it sure didn't hurt anything, and it would be very nice if we ever needed it.

That hollowpoint was combined with the normal stopping power of the .45 ACP, so we would have no more trouble with Indian horses continuing to run after being hit by one of our shots. The only thing that was now missing was a 40 mm grenade launcher, but I doubted that we could justify one of those. That would be an anachronism that anybody would notice. If it became a life or death decision, well, then I would ask for one, but not until then.

We reached the site of the possible mine about noon, and there it was. We had ridden up on the mine sooner than we had expected, so we did not have time to sneak up on it. Actually, the first I knew of the mine was the bullet that penetrated my shirt, but was stopped by the body armor. We turned and raced for a pile of rocks that would shelter the horses while we took care of business.

Abi was concerned about the bullet, but I took a moment to show her that I only had a minor bruise on my abdomen, and she relaxed. We took our rifles, canteens, extra ammunition clips, and lunch as we ran to find advantageous firing positions. We only moved a few yards closer to the mine, but our position was peppered by a rain of bullets. From the sound, they were all firing Mississippi Rifles, so there had to be at least 12 shooters. No less a number than that could keep up that volume of fire with that type of rifle.

We were both hungry, so Abi dug out the burritos while I put up a slow token return fire. I wanted to eat before we settled down to serious shooting. I would shoot, count off 10 seconds, and shoot again. That was enough to keep them from charging us, but not enough to show what we could really do when we got serious. After two burritos for each of us, we were ready to fight in earnest.

Abi was still a little unfamiliar with the crosshairs on her sight, so I put her in a position where she could shoot comfortably and would probably not have to move until after the battle was over. She continued to shoot in semiautomatic mode, but that was still a hell of a lot more shots per minute than our opposition. I'll bet they wondered what she was shooting.

I told Abi to keep their interest while I tried to sneak around and flank them. The rocks they were sheltered behind were doing too good a job of protecting them. I ducked down enough so that I could not be seen around or over the rock and moved out far enough so I would be lost in the general background. I then stood up and ran to try to find a position on their left flank.

Shit, running in this kind of heat was nothing to be happy about, but I finally managed to get far enough around the enemy so that I had clear shots at all of them. I had managed to make my way to the well for drinking water, so I had a wooden wall to shelter behind. I was not able to assume the prone position because if undulations in the ground, so I compromised with the kneeling position. I locked myself into position with the sling and set my rifle for full automatic.

I was able to fire a long burst, and one bullet strike was enough to put anybody out of commission. Thus, that one burst was enough to eliminate the 13 men who were busy shooting at Abi and not even aware that I was virtually behind them.

I was just congratulating myself on how clever I had been when another bullet bounced off my side, stopped by the armor. I didn't wait around to act, but dropped prone and rolled around to try to get some protection from the well wall.

The powder smoke plume showed that the shot had come from the mouth of the mine. I flipped on the night vision ability of my telescopic sight and tried to see into the mine entrance. Sheesh! Forget it! I just hope I didn't ruin the night vision by turning it on in this much bright sunlight.

Well, the alternative is a burst of fire into the mine entrance. It's the classic "spray and pray."

Abi called out, "MIKE, ARE YA OK?"

"YEAH, HONEY! COME ON OVER, BUT BE CAREFUL! THERE'S AT LEAST ONE SHOOTER IN THE MINE!"

In less than a minute, Abi had joined me at the well. I sprayed one more burst into the mine and changed clips. We both jumped up and ran for the entrance. Abi pressed her body against one side and I did the same on the other. We were far enough into the mine tunnel that I took a chance on the night vision setting. It worked perfectly, so I thanked whoever it was who had designed the thing. I told Abi to do the same, and we carefully examined the dim reaches of the tunnel. This worked so well, that I decided to ask for night vision goggles. A moment later, two complete sets were on the floor at our feet. I showed Abi how to use them, and we were ready to advance down the tunnel.

I caught a glimpse of motion farther down the tunnel. Without hesitation, I fired a short burst, but I doubted that I hit anything. I wasn't sure that I really saw anything, or I may have just reacted to a phantom sparkle of light. I certainly did not regret the expenditure of those few bullets. I subscribe to the better-safe-than-sorry school.

Dammit, now I was caught in indecision. I knew that I needed to look for tripwires, but I didn't know whether to go back to my LED flashlight or to trust my goggles. I decided to turn up the gain on my goggles and go with them. I told Abi what I was doing and warned her to stay about 10 feet behind me in case I screwed up. She groaned, but agreed to do as I asked.

We soon came to the living quarters, and I had to turn off the goggles for that. As expected, there was nothing of special interest here so we moved on. Previously, it was just passed the living quarters that I encountered the booby traps, so I pulled down the goggles and minced along taking just about the shortest steps I could and still move forward.

Yep, there it was! I saw the tripwire and was just about ready to go back for a section of bunk to trip it when BANG!, I was hit in the gut by another bullet. At that very moment, Abi fired a long burst, and we heard a scream of pain. Man, my body armor was getting a workout!

I was just about to turn away when I saw another tripwire. There were two of them, one about ankle height and the other about chest height. Shit! These guys were getting damned tricky. I went for a section of bunk. The one toss of the bed frame section set off both shotguns, and the roar was deafening. We just stood there while our hearing recovered.

Eventually, our hearing returned to normal, and we continued down the tunnel. We came to the end of the tunnel about 50 feet beyond the booby traps. That was also where we found a body in a pool of blood. He had two bullet holes in his gut from Abi's shooting, and there were no exit holes. However, there seemed to be gallons of blood on the ground, so there was no doubt that the man was dead. We checked out his body and left him.

Here's where I got lazy. I asked for some plastic explosive and time fuses which were deposited at my feet. I placed one blob of explosive against the wall and stuck in a fuse set for 30 minutes. We scooted out of the mine, and I left another charge with the fuse set for 20 minutes. This would give us time to find and move any horses in danger from the explosions.