Bad men were coming to Wareika by the hour. The two hundred United States dollars plus the free plane ride out of the island if they survived the inevitable war was the drawing card.
Most of them were experienced fighters, having fought in gang wars and shootouts with the police. Tony Little was one such man, he had been in various gang wars and had spent time in hospital nursing gunshot wounds. He had several murder charges against him dropped when the witnesses failed to show.
They came from the Kingston ghettos, the St. Catherine badlands and the Montego Bay squatter settlements.
These men were there to fight and earn the money. Most of them knew that once they landed on American soil they were safe because they had contacts there. The training was intense as Rattigan and the other commanders realized that the attack could come at any time.
***
On Sunday morning after breakfast, the men did unarmed combat exercises. Most of their shooting had improved. They had also practiced with high caliber weapons and did practice assaults with Neil McDonald and Guy Kerr-Coombs in the thick of things.
At noon the men rested and had lunch. After they finished lunch it was back to work. Supper was served at four o’clock that afternoon and finally at five o’clock all the men gathered in the old club house for the final briefing. Neil McDonald sat at the head of the table, beside him sat Guy Kerr-Coombs, Bendoo and Delbert Wood. The men were seated on some old wooden benches. Beside their table and over to the far corner of the room was an old blackboard that McDonald would find use for.
“I guess all of you know about our mission. We’re going to attack Wareika and capture it. This mission will give us a chance to root out all the traitors and cowards that are in the security forces in this country,” he finished.
He paused to look at the men.
“You see that man there,” he said, pointing at Bendoo. “We sent him to Wareika, so he knows the place. Some of the most dangerous men on the island are hiding up there. We have to flush them out. These men have killed more than one hundred people.”
“They call themselves soldiers, but we have to show them who are the real soldiers and policemen in this country,” McDonald finished to rancorous applause.
“We can defeat them,” a Mobile Reserve man declared.
“I’m more than willing to sacrifice my life to beat those murderers up there,” a soldier said.
He was greeted by loud cheers. McDonald’s fist on the table brought back silence.
“Our attack is planned to start at midnight, at one o’clock, other security personnel are going to raid the Factory. At two o’clock a big island-wide operation will take place to destroy their weed fields and arrest all their growers,” McDonald explained.
“Bendoo come and explain this map of Wareika to us,” McDonald requested.
Bendoo rose from his chair, he took the rough drawing of Wareika and pinned it to the old blackboard.
“All of you can see it clearly?” he asked.
There were nods all around the room.
“This is the trail that leads to the village. Anybody they catch on it, they kill. If we’re to get up there we have go through the bushes. Then we will drop onto the trail just below the village. They have a machine-gun guarding it, plus they have two men in trees overlooking it with sub-machine guns.”
“They have a big searchlight and an ammunition depot where they keep their ammunition. Our first goal will be to get rid of the guards who are manning the machine guns. Then we have to put out the searchlight and capture the ammunition depot. If we cut their telephone line they’ll have nothing to communicate with,” Bendoo stated.
“These shacks are where the top men live; these are Ardez’s, Premba’s and Grosset’s houses. We have to capture or kill these men before they can get to organize their fighters to repel our attack,” he finished and sat down.
“Wilson, Phillips and Bell will take care of the machine gunners. Once you take over their positions, turn your guns on the houses. We’ll be calling in reinforcements to blockade the whole area so that nobody can escape.”
“Tomlinson and Willet will take care of the two guards at the ammunition depot. Brown and Marshall will take care of the searchlight. Service and Essor will take care of the telephone line. Remember that we’re depending on you. Any of you fail and the whole mission could end up as a failure,” the Special Branch chief stated.
There was silence, finally, Kerr-Coombs spoke.
“I want to emphasize that we’ll tolerate no slackness on this operation. Anybody, who falls out of line, will be dealt with very severely,” he warned.
The men were absorbing what he said. Guy Kerr-Coombs looked easy going, but he was a hard taskmaster.
McDonald stood up and went to the old blackboard.
“The men to whom I’ve assigned special tasks will go forward first. Nobody is to fire until I give the word. I’ll be in charge along with Major Kerr-Coombs.”
“Well the briefing is over; all of you know what to do. We’re going to break camp at nine o’clock. Everybody is to be on the trucks by that time,” McDonald finished.
Bendoo went to the old blackboard and pulled down the map as the men filed out of the room after Kerr-Coombs and McDonald.
***
Gus McCreed, as he had reported at the meeting, knew that Camilla had left the island. It seemed that the security forces had whisked her out.
Although they had broken into the apartment they had found nothing to give them a lead as to her whereabouts. They had gone through Bendoo’s possessions without finding anything that could help them to locate him. That they hadn’t found anything belonging to Camilla, was further proof that she had left the island. The men at Wareika were on a knife edge. They were watching Bendoo’s apartment around the clock.
***
At eight forty five that Sunday evening, the men dressed in their camouflaged uniforms were ready to board the trucks. They had already loaded up their gear. Now they climbed up with their guns and ammunition.
Bull Mosely’s heart beat a quiet staccato against his massive chest. It had been a long time since he had been among such a confident group of men. For him this was a mission of redemption.
Bendoo and the two senior officers came out of the broken down club house.
McDonald went to both of the trucks and examined them. He and Kerr-Coombs had already passed all of the men as battle fit and ready for action. All of them now got into the truck; it was one minute to nine o’clock. McDonald was the only man left on the ground. Finally he climbed up into it and seated himself beside Wood and Bendoo.
“Everybody’s aboard, let’s go.”
The time was exactly nine o’clock.
***
Men were still coming to Wareika. On Saturday night, four more came in, still three more had come in the previous night. Many of them had heard of the sophisticated guns being used at Wareika and they wanted to get the experience of using them. Almost as soon as they arrived, they began training.
Meanwhile Dangler and a few of his men were now sleeping at the Factory.
A group of about sixty soldiers and policemen gathered at Up Park Camp, the Jamaican military headquarters, from about ten o’clock that night. Major Teddy Newman was in charge along with Senior Superintendents Donald Lewis and James Lawrence. At twelve-thirty that night they began to move. Twenty men under Lawrence’s command were to raid the Factory. The other forty would seal off all entrances and exits from Wareika. McDonald was making sure that if any of the Wareikans escaped, they would be picked up.
Peter Nesbit, Chemist, Williamson and Speng reached Wareika at eight o’clock that evening, thus swelling the ranks of the fighters. Nesbit and Speng were dangerous men, who had several killings to their credit. All four had escaped from the General Penitentiary and knew that only Wareika could offer them a safe sanctuary.
They were immediately inducted into the gang and were due to start training in the morning.
The assault on Wareika had begun. They parked the trucks in safely concealed places on the road. There was no need for guards, because of the expected blockade, that would soon be in place. Bendoo led the group of men through the thick bushes. Not a sound was heard. It was possible that Wareikans were on the trail returning from their search for him. One single shot fired now and the whole mission would be in trouble. It was the same route he and Camilla had taken when they escaped from Wareika. If the Wareikans knew about the attack, it was possible that they would be setting up an ambush so they had to be on high alert. They had reached a deep descent in the path and McDonald told them to rest there.
“Think we should contact Major Newman, Bendoo?” McDonald asked.
“It would be better to wait until the fighting starts before you do that. They have some heavy radios up there that can pick up
fyour signal,” Bendoo replied as the last of the men joined them.
The men sat on the ground and rested. Some of them drank from their canteens while others fixed up their gear and tied their boot laces tighter.
“Let’s move again,” McDonald told them.
This was the steepest part of the journey. Slowly the men moved behind Bendoo up its steep ridges.
“That’s it up there,” Bendoo whispered to McDonald pointing to the cluster of shacks on the hill. They had now cut across and were on the trail just below the village.
Dally and Chaser were in the trees with the sub-machine guns, while Nelson and Mercan were on the ground manning the machine-gun, they were all trigger happy men.
“Okay men you know what to do,” McDonald told the selected men.
The men he had spoken to, took off their heavy gear
and armed with only a knife and a handgun, they approached their target. Nelson and Mercan were knocked out and tied up with surprising ease. They were also gagged.
The man assigned to take care of Dally fired a shot hitting him and he fell out of the tree.
The man who was to take care of Chaser had fired at him, but missed, Chaser spun the sub-machine gun around and ripped him apart.
The men who had taken over Nelson and Mercan’s position spun around the machine-gun immediately and fired at Chaser blasting him out of the tree.
All hell broke loose; the big searchlight immediately came on, focusing on the trail. The men, who were sent to put it out and capture the ammunition depot, had to dive for cover and roll down a hill.
Wareikans hearing the machine-gun fire jumped out of their beds, grabbed their guns and raced to their posts.
Down below McDonald heard the heavy bark of the machine-gun and sub-machine guns and wondered if something had gone wrong.
“We have to put out the searchlight before it picks us up for their guns,” Bendoo warned.
He could hear shouts as the Wareikans began taking up positions. He knew that Service and Essor had already cut the telephone cable.
“I’m going after the searchlight,” Bendoo said diving into the bushes. Slowly he crawled into the undergrowth. When he was near the compound, he stopped and looked ahead. He aimed the gun at the searchlight and fired several times. There was a crashing sound as his bullets tore into the searchlight and the whole place went black.
“They’ve put out the searchlight,” Grosset’s voice roared out.
Bendoo fired a shot in his direction.
“What happen to Nelson and Mercan? Those two idiots must have been asleep. They let them take away the machine gun from them. It’s the security forces and Bendoo, concentrate your fire on the trail. We’ve got to neutralize the machine gun,” Ardez told them.
“Bendoo has put out the searchlight,” McDonald said.
“We’re going up now, so aim your fire at the Wareikans,” he directed his men.
Bendoo was hiding in the bushes and shooting at the Wareikans.
He saw one of the men on the ground pitch forward and knew he had scored a direct hit. The security forces came up the steep trail braving the hail of heavy gunfire from the Wareikans.
McDonald began deploying the men as the Wareikans took up positions to make a fight of it. A bullet whipped past Bendoo’s head as he dived into the bushes. Tony Little had seen him put out the searchlight and knew that if this man was taken out of the fight, they stood a better chance of beating off these soldiers and policemen. He saw Bendoo poke his head out of the grass and he fired, Bendoo dived into the bushes as the shot screamed over his head.
Again Little fired, this time Bendoo could see where the flashes were coming from. He took off his hat and broke a piece of stick and put the hat on top of it and put it in the air. Little fell for the bait, firing at the hat immediately.
Bendoo saw his position and his first shot struck the man in the left side. He gave a throaty cry and fell, Bendoo heard him screaming, but paid him no mind. He turned; he heard frantic shouting from the ammunition depot and knew that the Wareikans were loading up with magazines for their rifles and handguns.
He began running towards the security men’s position. They were now scattered around the machine-gun nests. Shots were being exchanged between both sides.
“Ardez,” Bendoo shouted. “We’ve captured Gus McCreed and Fred Billings, so give yourself up.”
“Go to hell, Bendoo. What are you going to do with them? You can’t hold them on anything,” Grosset shouted.
Bendoo knew that he was telling the truth. It made their tasks more urgent to capture some of these men to use against McCreed. He dived into the bushes as a shot rang out over his head. He reached his comrades to find that the casualties were mounting.
McDonald looked at him.
“It appears that they have more men than we thought,” the Special Branch Chief remarked.
“They must have done some recruiting, but sir, I see them moving several magazines out of the ammunition depot. I’d like four men to go with me and take it over,” Bendoo requested.
Delbert Wood stood up with three men.
“We’ll go with you Bendoo,” Wood volunteered.
A bullet whipped past Bendoo’s elbow and he dived to the ground and from his kneeling position he heard a man scream and roll on the ground.
“Only a leg wound,” he heard Kerr-Coombs say.
“Let’s go,” Bendoo said to Wood and they began to crawl through the grass.
***
The men under Newman’s command began to move immediately they got word from McDonald that the attack on Wareika had begun. The twenty men under Lawrence moved to raid the Factory. The others would be blockading all entrances to Wareika.
Lawrence’s men reached the Factory to find high walls, with a big iron gate surrounding the buildings. The men climbed out of the truck and moved up to the gate.
“Gate’s too high to jump,” Lawrence remarked. “Two of you go around to the back of that lane and seal it off. We’re going to shoot the locks off the gate.”
They shot the locks off the gate and rushed inside.
“We have you surrounded, Dangler, so give yourself up,” Lawrence shouted.
There were several vehicles parked in the yard.
There was a shout.
“It’s the security forces to hell,” a voice shouted and shots came from the building.
“Take cover men,” Lawrence shouted. “And return their fire.”
The security men darted for cover behind the vehicles. Bullets were ripping into the building where Dangler and the five men were. Already one man was shot in the shoulder.
“I’m trying to get Wareika to ask for help,” Dangler shouted.
He dialed the number again.
“All I’m getting is a busy signal,” he shouted as one of the five men looked at him.
“What are we going to do?” the man asked.
“We have to leave. I have a feeling that something big is taking place. It doesn’t make sense to stay here. It seems as if they’re attacking the camp,” Dangler replied.
“Dangler, I’m ordering you to surrender, this is the last warning,” Lawrence shouted.
Still Dangler hesitated, hoping that he might get in contact with Wareika and summon the help he needed.
***
At one o’clock that morning policemen from all the rural parishes started the biggest island wide crackdown on marijuana production in Jamaica’s short history.
Frantic calls were made to the Factory, Coopers Hill and Wareika but there was no response.
Huge plantations of marijuana worth thousandsf of dollars were set to the torch.
Rusty, Talbot, Pinchie and Joey were already arrested.
Policemen, who had once turned a blind eye towards these marijuana farmers while opening them to Gus McCreed’s money, were now taking part in these raids and destruction of his marijuana plantations.
***
Decker and Troja were at the apartment waiting to kill Bendoo. Despite his being their former unit commander, both men had no qualms about killing him as they considered him a traitor. They were to be relieved at six o’clock that morning by men from the Factory. Both men were armed with semi-automatic rifles, which they kept in shopping bags and also a handgun each. A police car came cruising down the road in response to a call from a resident about two men standing by the non-existent security guard post. The car drove past the gate, saw the two men and backed up into the entrance to the apartment court.
“What are you guys doing here?” the Sergeant and team leader asked.
Decker reacted instantly; he ripped the rifle out of the shopping bag and was just about to squeeze the trigger when the cops fired, hitting him in his left shoulder and he fell and another bullet took him in the right thigh. Troja had run and dodged behind some cars and was now shooting at the policemen. Two of the cops were running to flank him, desperately Troja tried to thwart them when his gun jammed on him. He whipped the handgun from his pocket and fired without aiming at the policemen and missed. Then something hard hit him in the back of his head and he fell and then everything went black.
“The two of them are badly wounded, it seems like they were waiting here to kill somebody,” the Sergeant said. He took out his radio and radioed for an ambulance for the two wounded men. Meanwhile, residents and other onlookers attracted by the gunfire converged on the scene.
Gully was the last man to join the Wareikans. He arrived at the camp at eleven that night. Three nights previously he had been involved in a police shoot-out and had seen one of his friends killed and two others wounded and captured and felt he would be safer at Wareika.
Meanwhile, at Wareika Hills, the fighting had intensified. Bendoo lay behind some trees, Wood and the three men beside him. They were about ten meters from the gun depot. He could hear the sound of the heavy caliber rifles as the battle intensified. Bendoo and the others crept forward slowly. Nearing the edge of the clearing the five men jumped up and ran towards it shooting as they ran.
Mallards wheeled and spun around holding his right side, he fell screaming. Clinch wheeled and ran, but Wood’s bullet took him in his left leg and he fell.
Two shots from the soldiers wounded both Peter Nesbit and Chemist. Speng who was in the ammunition depot, was about to line up his gun on Bendoo when the latter hit him with his shoulder. Speng fell and Bendoo knocked him out cold with the butt of his gun. Five other fighters, who were in the depot loading up with magazines for the rifles were all captured. The security men soon found rope to tie them up.
“Guard this place well,” Bendoo told Delbert Wood as he saw them looking in awe at the types of magazines in the depot.
He darted behind the building to see if there were any prisoners in his former cell.
Ardez and the rest of the men with him were fighting back.
“I’m trying to get the Factory but I’m not getting through. It seems that they’ve cut our telephone cable. We can’t get a word out, we’re on our own,” Ardez told them.
“I must kill Bendoo,” Grosset said angrily and ran with his machete and gun.
Gully saw Bendoo move from behind the armory and fired immediately, Bendoo felt as if fingers had clutched at his shirt sleeves, he threw himself to the ground as Gully fired again. This time Bendoo fired at the figure and heard the high pitched scream and knew he had scored a direct hit and then he heard a ‘thud’ as the mortally wounded man fell to the ground.
Premba knew that he had seriously wounded two policemen during the attack as he had seen them taking cover with their wounds. His fighters were successfully counter-attacking the security forces and were waiting for additional ammunition to arrive from the depot when he heard that it had been captured. Immediately he crept forward remembering where they had hidden some guns and ammunition. If they could get hold of that ammunition it might be enough to drive them off. He was circling the shacks remembering the spot as near to Bendoo’s cell, when he saw the undercover man.
“Bendoo, you dirty fucker!” Premba shouted, firing at him.
Bendoo flung himself on the ground and rolled into some nearby bushes.
Premba was firing after him; Bendoo watched the flashes and fired back but knew that he had missed when he saw the man dart behind a tree.
Bendoo heard another voice, which he recognized as Grosset.
“Where is he, Premba? Where is Bendoo?” the giant asked.
Bendoo crawled further into the bushes, not wanting the two men to try to outflank him and get him between their cross-fire.
A barrage of gunshots came in his direction. Bendoo responded with the M-16, firing several rounds in their direction. Then everything went silent.
“You shoot me, Bendoo. I’m going to kill you,” Premba shouted and let off a barrage of gunshots in his direction. Bendoo stood up and fired at the man, hitting him in his right thigh and the man fell, lost his balance and rolled down a gully.
Where was Grosset he wondered when he heard a huge voice bellow.
“Grosset!!”
For a moment Grosset, who was running to get behind Bendoo, thought that it was Gus Mc Creed but it was Bull Mosely. As the realization hit him, something hit him in his stomach like a bulldozer and the machete and gun fell out of his hand.
“You’re finished now, Grosset,” Mosely shouted, trying to hold Grosset around his neck and break it. Grosset rolled away and grabbed the bigger man’s feet and jerked them and Mosely fell heavily. He was fifteen pounds heavier than Grosset and two inches taller. Now agile as a cat Grosset sprang up and kicked at Bull’s head, but missed, the force carrying him over the man’s body. Mosely threw his legs up in the air in an effort to flip Grosset
and probably break his neck, but Grosset regained his balance and grabbed hold of Bulls’ legs and yanked. Bull shoved his left foot at Grosset and it caught him in the stomach and sent him sprawling. Bull saw Grosset’s machete and dived for it, but Grosset had already spotted that move and dived for Bull’s legs and the two men went down together.
From his position Bendoo could only watch in amazement as the two giants slugged it out. He knew that Premba’s leg was probably broken and he had also shot him in his left shoulder. He would get a handcuff from Woody to make sure that he didn’t escape.