Chapter Twenty Three

                  

On Wednesday the Wareikans stuck to their agenda and by seven-thirty that evening they made their way down to where the trucks were waiting for them. The prospect of getting the killers of Niah and Jacob had given the fighters new energy.

Premba led his men down into the valley, they wore camouflage uniforms. They carried the heavy M-16 assault rifles, taken from a quantity that had just arrived via a marijuana flight. Grosset’s group had been given a fifteen-minute lead as they had the more difficult terrain to climb to reach their positions.

They would be attacking from the east and southeast and Premba’s group from the west and north.

When Premba was sure that the others had taken up their positions, he ordered Lance and Decker to go for the guards. The two men crept forward, knowing that when their task was completed, they would take over the guards’ post and turn their guns on the house not firing until Premba started shooting.

They were to give an owl call once their mission was accomplished, then Rattigan and Troja would creep forward and throw their firebombs on the house. Once the roof caught fire Premba would give the signal to open up.

The night was black as the two fighters crept forward, they could make out the figures of the two men seated on the ground their backs against a bamboo bench. They were almost asleep, but trying desperately to stay awake.

“You take the one on the right and I’ll take the one on the left,” Lance whispered in Decker’s ears.

The two men moved in fast on the half asleep guards. Both men knocked out the two guards, they then tied them up.

At Lance’s owl call, Rattigan and Troja started throwing their firebombs on the house. There were loud explosions as the bombs ripped into the roof of the house and fire was roaring when Premba told his men to open fire on the house.

“What the hell,” Mose shouted, jumping off his sponge. “We’re being attacked!”

Wally and Benny were up too.

“Grab your guns and return fire,” Bucky shouted.

“The house is on fire,” Mose shouted as men rushed for guns.

“Who’s attacking us?” Wally asked.

An answer came almost immediately.

“We’re the police so come out with your hands in the air,” Premba shouted. “Or we’ll destroy the house.”

“Go to hell,” Mose shouted as a bullet flew over his head and he saw a man pitch sideways, fall and lay still. It was the first man hit as far as he could tell.

“He’s dead,” a trainee fighter who went to examine the man told them.

“Throw out the sponges, before they catch fire,” Mose ordered. At lease three fighters began throwing them out.

He grabbed up a gun and joined the others in returning the fire. The rooftop was blazing like a towering inferno and would soon cave in. Mose knew from the heavy blasts of their attackers’ guns, that they were using M-16s and AK-47s.

He knew that in this house they stood no chance because the bullets were ripping through some of the empty block pockets. If they didn’t die by bullets, they would surely die by fire.

The men in the house were firing through the open doorways, windows or cracks in the building walls, but they had no targets to shoot at as their attackers were hiding behind rocks and trees.

Mose and Bucky were moving from room to room, directing the fighters as to what to do as they tried to repel the attack.

Grosset’s men were also firing randomly at the house, the roof, which was now a furnace. The survivors were coughing up smoke.

“What do we do now, Mose?” Wally asked through the suffocating heat and smoke. They were in the big living room. They could hear the fire eating at the ceiling boards.

“I can’t take any more of this, they just killed Fuzzie and Churchill got shot in his leg,” a trainee fighter said. He coughed in the heat and smoke.

“Where are the guards, Bucky?” Mose asked.

“They must be dead or knocked out,” Wally choked out. He coughed.

Bucky looked at Mose.

“The roof, Mose, it’ll soon cave in, we have to get out of here.”

“They have us surrounded,” Mose replied. “This place is hell, feel the heat, if we don’t get out of here soon, we’ll be roasted alive. Hey you guys, stop shooting, maybe they’ll think that there’s not many of us left and decide to rush us.”

“You think those guys are idiots. They know that we can’t stay in the house, so they aren’t going to rush us. All they have to do is wait. You know how long I’ve been warning you about staying in this house because we’re in McCreed’s territory and he has spies all over. You guys don’t know about that man, but I can tell you that he is a wicked son of a bitch,” Churchill said. “If it wasn’t for you two guys, who don’t know anything about Jamaica, this would never have happened.”

He groaned from the bullet wound to his leg.

“Any private grievances you have against us, we can settle them when this is over,” Mose shouted.

“I’ve lost some good friends already guy, you remember that. I know New York and Miami just like you two. If I ever get through this I’m going to make sure to find you over there,” Churchill warned.

“Let’s settle it right here with this bad guy Mose,” Bucky demanded.

“You guys cool it,” Benny said. “It doesn’t make any sense we start fighting among ourselves and those men are out there shooting at us.”

Churchill didn’t reply, he tried to sit up against the wall. Suddenly he screamed and pitched sideways as a bullet ripped into his right shoulder.

Men dived for new cover.

“Concentrate your fire on the house, and don’t waste bullets," Premba ordered. “They’ll soon make a run for it or surrender.”

It was his bullet that had just wounded Churchill.

“We only have thirty-five minute left for this to be over, they should be out by now. I’m wondering how many of them are alive,” Mallards inquired.

Premba fired a burst of sub-machine gun fire at a window, then looked at Mallards who was beside him.

“There are about a dozen of them or so left, we have them surrounded. They’re going to try to rush us, but we’ll mow them down,” he replied.

“They don’t look like they have anything heavier than the M-16,” Mallards remarked.

“It doesn’t appear as if they’re that well organized, but I’m glad. If it was us they’d attacked, we’d have wiped them out already,” Premba told him.

Benny lay on the floor; cinders of fire from the roof were falling around him.

“How the hell did they know that we were here?” he asked.

Bucky looked at him.

“They don’t seem to be police, they must be McCreed’s fighters.”

“What! How did they know about us? That grower mightn’t have been alone,” Wally remarked.

Mose nodded in agreement with him.

“Ken’s lucky that he’s not here.”

“I bet he’s still in Miami,” Benny remarked.

Wally grunted.

“I thought Dickson would have been down here too.”

“What difference would he have made?” Benny scoffed.

Bucky and Mose were firing burst after burst of lead at their attackers without having yet scored a hit.

Benny spun over on his back.

“Let’s make a run for it. How many fighters do we have left?” he asked.

“We have about eight left,” Bucky replied. “There isn’t much point staying here. Some of us might make it if we try, if we stay, none of us will.”

“If we rush out there it will be suicide,” a trainee fighter remarked. He was tall and bearded and had surmised that as he wasn’t wanted by the police he might stand a chance of getting off with a light sentence.

“Let’s surrender to the police peacefully,” he advised.

“You want to go first?” Mose asked. “Those men out there are McCreed’s men. We go out there with our hands in the air and we’d all be mowed down.”

A piece of firewood dropped on Wally and scorched his neck. He gave a cry of pain and jumped up putting his hands to his neck only to be knocked down by the force of a bullet to his left leg.

Mose went and bent over Wally, who lay on his back.

“How do you feel? Can you move?” he asked.

“Yes, I can move,” he choked.

“To hell with them,” Benny said. “If we stay here like this they’re going to wipe us out. We have to try to escape.”

“Don’t forget Gus McCreed, what we’ve seen here tonight, just goes to show the son of a bitch we’re dealing with. If we ever get through here we’re going after him personally, Burke or no Burke,” Bucky declared.

“Well, I am not dying in Jamaica. I want that money from Burke. Bucky are you ready?” Mose asked.

They rushed through the doors shooting as they came. Bucky and three of the fighters rushed to where Grosset’s group was.

The three fighters were cut down within a few meters after leaving the house. Bucky survived the deadly fire by falling to the ground and rolling into some bushes.

Grosset had seen his movements and fired at him but missed and Bucky fired at him and missed also. Grosset jumped into the bushes as Bucky’s gun fell from his grasp. The two men met headlong.

Grosset grabbed Bucky’s neck intending to break it, but Bucky grabbed his hands and writhed out of his hold and jumped up. He spied the machete and dived for it. Grosset came after him and dived under his wild swing.

Grosset dived for Bucky’s legs and brought him crashing to the ground and the machete flew out of his grasp. He tried to flick Grosset over his head, but the man was too heavy for him. Grosset kicked at Bucky’s head and missed as the man dodged the kick and instead kicked him in his belly. The giant groaned and fell and Bucky seeing no other way of defeating this man rushed for the machete again. Grosset was on his feet in a flash and in two strides caught up with Bucky. A right hook to the side of Bucky’s head sent him flat on his back. Grosset followed it up with a kick to Bucky’s side, but he only spun over and rushed him with the machete. Grosset again ducked under his wild swing and drove a left and right combination to Bucky’s belly. He dropped the machete and doubled up in pain. The giant sprinted for the razor sharp machete and aimed it at Bucky’s neck. But at the last moment Bucky flung himself away and rolled down a hill.

Men rushed up to Grosset.

“You got him, Grosset?” Lance asked as the giant vented his frustrations and looked down at the gully in which Bucky had fallen.

“It seems like it was Bucky if Rattigan’s pictures are right. I hope he breaks his neck. He’s no fighter. Rattigan built him up too much. Where’s Mose?” Grosset asked.

Mose and two of the men had rushed to the area where Premba’s group was. The two men were cut down within a few meters of leaving the house. Mose was all alone when he came upon Butler. He aimed the gun at him, but when he found that it was jammed, he dived at the man’s legs and brought him down, sending his gun spinning out of his hand. Both men fell heavily, but quick as a flash were upon their feet again. Butler rushed at Mose and hit him in his belly. Mose grunted, but stood his ground and hit Butler under the heart, making him gasp for breath. He kicked Butler in his knee, sending him to the ground, and then he spied the machete and rushed for it. He would put a speedy end to this fight. Mose grabbed the machete and rushed at Butler who lay prostrate on the ground. He chopped down at his neck, but the man twisted away from the machete as it dug into the earth.

Butler grabbed hold of Mose’s ankle and twisted it and flung him to the ground, making him lose hold of the machete. Both men sprang up and came at each other.

Butler drove a right hook to Mose’s stomach, which staggered him. Mose came in kicking at him, but missed. Butler bucked him in his belly and he fell. Butler went after the machete. Mose saw his actions and jumped up and came after Butler, who had just grabbed hold of the machete. Butler swung it, but Mose went under it and rolled away. Butler picked up a huge stone and threw at him. It caught him on his right shoulder almost dislocating it.

“The trucks are moving out, we only have five minutes to catch them,” Premba shouted, and men were already moving out.

Butler jumped down a gully, but Mose made a huge jump and was gone down another gully. Butler hissed his teeth, grabbed up his machete and gun and started after the others.

The man with Wally and Benny was cut down by the

gunfire coming from the group of Rattigan, Troja and Decker. Wally and Benny had dropped in the grass and rolled down into a gully. Errol by seeming to drop dead immediately he left the house and then crawling into some bushes survived the deadly hail of fire. Churchill had done the same thing as Errol and managed to hide in the thick bushes.

Butler was the last of Premba’s group to reach the truck just as it was moving off. He threw up his gun, machete and war bag into the moving vehicle. Three of the men drew up his great weight into it. All the trucks were now moving, the time was two minutes past two o’clock.

Mose lay in the thick bushes, he was feeling excruciating pain from the blow the man had given him with the stone. Where was Bucky? He knew that Wally and Benny were alive as he had seen them rolling down a hill.

“Bucky!” he shouted.

All that Churchill had said about them was true. He and Bucky had handled this job like two amateurs and had paid the price. He had to get attention for his injured shoulder. Bucky must be dead.

Who had betrayed them? It couldn’t be Burke, he

hadn’t yet collected on the marijuana so it hardly made sense. It had to be either the two women or Errol. It was all his fault, Bucky had been reluctant to go. Their mission had failed.

***

Errol had come out of the bushes now. He heard running footsteps and knew that their attackers were moving out. He had changed sides on two occasions from King to Brad and Jack and then to Burke and had lost out in the end, thanks to those two fools, Mose and Bucky. He picked up an M-16 rifle and checked the magazine. It was full, this must be the one carried by Benn Sanderson, who hadn’t fired a shot. He rifled through several pockets without finding anything. The house was now a burnt out shell so there was nothing to be taken there.

The best thing for him to do was to find out where Burke was, threaten to expose him and get some money out
of him since the weed wasn’t yet sold. Burke could have murder charges hanging over his head if he talked and they found Jacob’s body. Then he remembered that neither Ken Stone nor Dickson Lunan were here. Had Ken and Burke set them up or had McCreed found out about them? Maybe the answer lay in Leta and Tena, in any case he had to see them, then try to get to Burke before anybody else did. He picked up the M-16 and moved off. It was best to get away from here. He knew that several of the trainee fighters were dead. The high pungent smell of roasted human flesh assailed his nostrils. A few seconds later he came upon Mose.

“Where is Bucky?” Errol asked.

“Don’t know,” Mose replied. He was holding his injured right shoulder.

“I’m going to look around to find out how many of us are alive. We have to get out of here before the police arrive,” Errol told him.