It had never solely been about freeing the hostages, but obviously about getting them back to the LZ as well.
Now that the long-range radio was gone, God only knew how and when they would have made contact with the MacV again, especially by using those damn emergency, short-range radios.
Considering where they were, Ortega had to seriously take into account that they may never get an emergency evacuation. Unfortunately, that meant getting back to Vietnam on foot, which was nothing short of impossible.
Actually, it wasnt just impossible, it was unconditionally and fucking categorically impossible.
So, once they’d managed to calm Jorghenson down and were waiting for Coletta’s to come back, Ortega went through everything in his head all over again. Each time he did, his conclusions hit him as hard as a hammer pounding mercilessly on his head. He was on the verge of having a mental breakdown.
Ortega wanted nothing more than to yell a loud and throw off all that gear weight that he’d had on for days but he knew that wasn’t an option.
As a result, he swallowed it like a bitter pill and forced himself think straight, especially since there wasn’t much time left. Five or ten minutes at best and then, considering all the commotion they had made in the valley, the whole North Vietnamese army would be at their doorstep in full arms.
Ortega consequently tried to calm down at least, even if it certainly wouldn’t be enough.
In order to come up with a working plan which gave those prisoners a real chance of surviving, Ortega had to put his humanity aside, and so he did. He had no other choice.
As a consequence, for the first time ever, Ortega held back his feelings and became a fighting machine.
A Goddamn fighting machine.
He finally managed to collect his thoughts, put together ideas and relate them back to his past experiences. He not only discarded all the previously planned LZ options, but even got it on his first try. This brand-new plan suited the situation much more realistically than trying to ask for a pickup using short range radios and beepers ever could.
What’s more, the plan took into account the chance of sacrificing or leaving behind whoever need be, himself including himself. Anyone was expendable at whatever point if it guaranteed the hostages their safety.
Now the only thing left to do was decide on the best possible route with Coletta.
Ortega took a deep breath.
A long march awaited them.
It was time to get at it.
*
In an effort to get as much distance covered as quickly as possible, Ortega destroyed some of their own equipment including one of the two M60s and then split the team up into two units.
Four would have marched wearing two rucksacks which meant wearing one on their back and another on their front, while the other four would each carry a hostage on their backs.
At first, Ortega didn’t tell them in which direction they were really heading.
All things considered, the direction they took at the beginning served to help lose their tracks.