The Last Phoenix by Richard Herman Read Free Book Online Page B

circles, always coming back to the path that led to the east. He seriously doubted they even knew where they were. It would be simple to render them. When the last man had passed, Tel started to speak. Kamigami waved him to silence. On cue, four stragglers stumbled past. Kamigami held up his hand and waited. A lone man came into view, driven by the fear of being left behind. He struggled to keep from collapsing as he disappeared down the path.
    “I count twenty-seven,” Kamigami said.
    “My feet hurt,” Tel said in a low voice.
    “It’s only pain,” Kamigami told him.
    Tel pulled off his boots and rubbed his aching feet. In all his nineteen years he had never been so bruised and abused.Yet for some strange reason he felt good. “Will they come back this way?” he asked.
    “Eventually,” Kamigami replied. “When they realize they’re out of the park, they won’t go much farther. Might run into civilization. They’ll rest, maybe ten, twelve, hours before returning to base.” He pulled out his chart and GPS. “Go back to where I left the bicycle.” He pointed to the spot on the chart where he had dumped the bicycle laden with supplies. “There’s claymores in one of the bags. Bring back as many as you can carry. Meet me here.” Again he pointed to the chart. “Memorize the coordinates and never mark them on a map.”
    “What’s a claymore?” Tel asked.
    Kamigami stifled a sigh. Don’t kids know anything these days? he lamented to himself. He described what the olive drab, three-and-a-half-pound antipersonnel mine looked like and how it was carried in a canvas bandolier. Tel listened attentively as he pulled on his boots. “Off you go,” Kamigami said. “Heads up. Hurry.” He watched approvingly as Tel moved out, staying low and in the shadows. “The boy is a quick learner,” Kamigami mumbled to himself. He leaned against a tree to rest. He calculated he could make the journey in three hours, so Tel should do it in four or five—if he didn’t get lost. Then he fell asleep.
     
    The inner alarm was there, cutting through the fog of sleep. Kamigami came alert, pleased that the sixth sense that had saved him so many times in combat was still there, undiminished by time. There was movement in the brush off to his right. He cracked an eyelid as he freed the Beretta in his holster. It was Tel. He faked sleep to see what the boy would do. Tel emerged from the brush weighed down with bandoliers, paused, and gazed at Kamigami. Certain that the big man was asleep, Tel retreated back into the bush and made a loud noise.
    “Bull elephants in mating season make less racket,” Kamigami said half aloud.
    “I didn’t want you to shoot me by mistake,” Tel replied.
    Kamigami knew that Tel was only being polite and didn’t want to embarrass him by catching him asleep. “I saw you the first time.”
    Tel grinned, not believing him. “Yes, sir.”
    “Cheeky bugger,” Kamigami grumbled as Tel shed his cargo. “How many did you bring?”
    “All of them. Twelve.”
    “Six is the normal load,” Kamigami explained. He checked his watch. Tel had made it back in less than three hours. “Well done,” he conceded.
    “What now,” Tel asked, eager to get on with it.
    “Impatient bugger,” Kamigami groused. He set to work and showed Tel how to rig one of the small mines. He unfolded the short scissor legs and sat the mine on the ground. He read the words on the face of the claymore: “‘Front Toward Enemy.’ Pretty simple.” He attached the firing wire and rigged the firing device.
    “Why are the words printed in English?” Tel asked.
    “Because these particular puppies were made in the good old US of A and probably sold to some government in the name of military aid.”
    “Then they were resold into the black market.”
    “Something like that,” Kamigami allowed. “Okay, ambush time.” Tel watched as Kamigami found a relatively open area and set three mines twenty-five meters apart. Then he