Chapter 3

Once everybody was together and sitting comfortably with coffee or tea, I explained that I was the king's representative who was there to rescue the kidnapped girl. I was given a picture of her and a description of her vital statistics. I could tell from the photo that she was the typical "babe" that seemed to dominate the landscape of Horurie, and that she was 17 years old. The most unusual thing about her was that she was only mediocre with a sword, but she was deadly with a pistol. That was a rarity, but I was not sure at the moment how much use I could make of that skill.

I told them that I was a specialist at this kind of solo work, and I did not need any backup at this time. However, I would call for Sir Jerlets if and when that time came. Mostly, what I wanted from them was logistical backup and nothing else. In fact, I wanted them to ignore the fact that I was in the neighborhood so that the kidnappers would not get suspicious. I asked to spend the night here as I planned to journey to the wild territory before sunup tomorrow.

That was acceptable, and I moved back into the suite that I had occupied on my previous visit. The next morning, I boarded my flier and left for the wild territory. I headed for that place where I had seen the smoke rising on my last trip. I figured that would be the most likely place for the kidnappers to be hiding and to have the girl under guard. I flew very high and used my scanning sensors (military ships, only) to look where I had seen the smoke.

Dammit, there was no sign of people there at this time, but there were ample signs that a large number of people had camped there in the recent past. Okay, that had to be good enough for now. I had the flier land so that I could begin my hunt. Once I had my supplies and weapons pulled from it, I sent the flier back to Sir Bornly's mansion to wait until I needed it again.

I was already wearing my sword, shield, fighting knife, and two revolvers, so all I had to take in addition to that was my double-barrel shotgun and my backpack. To my weapons harness I had clipped my water canteen, my remote control for my flier, and my pouch of spare ammunition. I went into the empty encampment and looked for the path followed by the former occupants as they left for a new camp.

Yes, I could see that they had a prisoner with them, and said prisoner was a woman, the only one in the gang. I was sure that the woman needed rescuing even if she were not the woman I had originally set out for. Of course, I had no doubt that the woman was Lady Sinola.

I set off at a fast trot to follow the trail I was sure would eventually lead me to her. Since one could never be sure that he was safe from immediate attack, I carried my fighting knife in my left hand and a revolver in my right. That would not prevent attack, but it would certainly provide me with effective weapons if and when I were attacked.

It was not long before I was forced to drop back into a walk as I got deeper into the forest. The people I was following left plenty of sign that I had not lost their trail, but the general undergrowth got thick enough to hinder me so that I had to slow down to keep from tripping on something. As a result I was moving at only about 1-2 miles per hour, but the signs indicated that I was still gaining on my quarry.

Late in the afternoon, I smelled smoke. Aha! I must be approaching some people who had a campfire going. I did not want to reach them too soon, so I slowed down and moved much more carefully. It was well that I did because I almost stumbled upon a sentry as I approached the new camp. I debated whether or not to kill him, but decided not to: I did not want to warn the camp that I had approached this early in the game. I was anxious to get a look at the camp before I stirred up a beehive of activity.

I was not worried about being spotted if I were careful. After all, I had been able to creep around Comanche camps when I needed to, and those people were not easily fooled. This was not the rainy season, and that explained the lack of tents being in use. There was only one tent, and that was where the captive was held.

At the moment, she was standing in front of her tent, arms akimbo, and watching what was going on around her. She was wearing only her g-string and a collar with a chain that ran to an anchor in front of her tent. The anchor appeared to be a heavy metal bar driven securely into the ground. Lady Sinola was not going anywhere as long as she was anchored that way.

Lady Sinola's tent was very close to the exact center of the camp, so she was not going to be easy to reach unless I could eliminate some of the gang. Okay, now I had seen enough of the camp to have a good idea of what I needed to do. The first thing I was going to do was to eliminate as many of the sentries as I could reach before dark. I could make a second round after dark, and that should really shake up the leadership of the kidnappers.

I dropped back away from the camp and went sentry hunting. The easiest one to reach was that one I had nearly stumbled over as I approached the camp. What made him an easy target was that I knew exactly where to find him. I holstered my pistol and drew my sword. I wanted to keep the noise down at this stage as best I could. The less the gang knew, the better off I would be.

This sentry really didn't know how to do his job. He was just standing in one place and watching what went on in the camp. The fact that he had to look through the bushes to see the camp made it very unlikely that he could be seen from there. I hoped that was true as I slipped up behind him. He never heard me as I drew back my sword arm and neatly chopped off his head in a single sweep of my sword. It was perfect from my point of view as he never made a sound as he fell.

I left the body where it was and went looking for the next sentry in line. This one was a bit more difficult to find as he was squatting in the bushes relieving his bowels. Again, I was able to approach him from behind and chop off his head before he knew that I was there.

I was able to eliminate three more sentries in a similar manner, and I had taken out five men without letting my presence be known. Based on the spacing of the sentries, I figured that there should be three more to complete the set. These five men had been spaced uniformly in a circle around the camp, so I knew where to find the rest of the guards. I made my way to the next sentry and was met with a surprise: this man must have had some formal military training because he was walking his post with his weapons ready for use.

This man presented an interesting conundrum: should I take him out now or should I leave him for last? I decided that he was liable to raise an alarm before I could eliminate him, so I should skip him for now and go on to the next man. If things worked out to my advantage, I could come back for this man. I slipped away from this man and went looking for the next man in line.

He was as easy to eliminate as had been the others, so I went on to the last man in line. Once I got rid of him, I could go back to that one whom I had skipped. This man was not the pushover the others had been, though he was not at the same level as the one I had skipped. Just as I was about to decapitate him, he moved. My blow landed on his shoulder rather than his neck. Naturally, he screamed loud enough to be heard a hundred yards away, and that was enough to shake up the camp.