The Hunt

31

With darkness, Dodge truly came alive.

The throbbing beat of generators reached Jaeger and Raff clearly, as DIY street lighting sparked into life. Bare bulbs were strung from wiring looped along the dirt roads on makeshift telegraph poles. And with nightfall the narcos appeared to love nothing more than parading their weaponry.

As the ridge was shrouded in shadow, Jaeger and Raff didn’t need to worry too much about being spotted. There was no need to use night-vision goggles either. They could scan the well-lit streets with bog-standard binoculars.

They counted the individuals as they moved about, and ID’d their hardware. The gang was remarkably well armed. Apart from the ubiquitous AK-47 assault rifles, Jaeger noted rocket-propelled grenade launchers, scores of M60 light machine guns, and even the odd .50-calibre heavy machine gun mounted in the rear of a pickup truck.

In short, a ready-made war in a box.

But it wasn’t until approaching midnight that things really started to get interesting. Horribly distorted Latino-style music started pulsating out of speakers set around the central crossroads. More and more figures gathered in that area, nearly all of them male. They were drawn to a couple of neon-lit buildings – Dodge City’s main drinking dens. Every so often a pickup would arrive, disgorging more figures. Occasionally a scantily clad woman would emerge from a bar and drag one of the men inside.

It didn’t take a genius to work out that these had to be ladies of the night.

Shortly after midnight, the shit truly hit the fan. A group of men came tumbling out of a doorway and a massive brawl ensued. It culminated in several of them drawing their sidearms and loosing off wild shots. The chaos only subsided when a couple of trucks arrived, complete with some seriously tooled-up narcos.

The fight was broken up, some of the worst offenders relieved of their weapons and sent on their way. No one had been shot, and despite the obvious lawlessness of the place, there seemed to be a means of keeping order. Clearly El Padre would tolerate a degree of high spirits, but nothing that would endanger his operations.

At 0100 hours, Jaeger signalled that he was heading for the rear position. His five-hour watch was done. They’d stagger the changeover so that there was always one set of eyes on Dodge. Raff would be relieved in turn by Narov.

‘Change of shift,’ Jaeger whispered to Alonzo. ‘Raff’ll brief you in situ.’

Feeling exhaustion creeping up on him, he curled up on the waterproof poncho that Alonzo vacated. He dragged his lightweight sleeping bag out of his pack, zipped it open to act like a blanket, and got his head down. He was fully clothed and still wearing his boots, and his weapon was cradled at his side. That way, if they were hit during the night, he was good to move and fight.

He sensed the scores of mosquitoes homing in on his position. They began to dive-bomb him, their incessant whining drilling into his head. He flailed around groggily, found his mozzie head-net and pulled it on, bagging it out around his face like a beekeeper’s helmet.

Then he lay back and drifted into a deep sleep.

He awoke sometime later with a start.

He sat bolt upright, his hand on his weapon.

Gunfire cut the night; that was what had woken him. This time, though, it wasn’t pistol shots. It was the distinctive crack of ‘longs’ – assault rifles.

He glanced across at Raff, who was equally wide awake. ‘What the hell?’

Raff shrugged and glanced in Alonzo and Narov’s direction. ‘If it was aimed at us, they’d be here by now to warn us.’

‘High spirits in Dodge?’

‘Sounds like it’s party-bloody-city.’ Raff gave Jaeger a hard look. ‘Hardly strikes me as the kind of place where Kammler’s gonna build his INDs.’

‘Don’t I know it.’

‘Plus there’s no visible sign of him or his people.’

‘There isn’t.’ Jaeger paused. ‘You know what, mate, there’s only one way to prove this. We’ve got to do a CTR.’

CTR: close-target recce. SAS speak for getting spitting-distance close to the enemy.

‘We execute a CTR,’ Jaeger continued. ‘If we find Kammler or his people, we move in with the demolitions charges and blow the place to shit.’

Raff nodded. ‘Agreed. But that’s one for you and your Russian lady friend. You’ll enjoy it. Plus you two hide better than Alonzo and me.’

‘Makes sense. You wouldn’t be able to resist getting stuck into the nearest brothel or brawl.’

‘My kind of town.’ Raff smiled, his teeth showing white in the darkness. ‘You clock those ditches? Running from the edge of the clearing right into the heart of the place?’

‘Yeah. Why?’

‘Figure they’re a solid route in.’

‘What d’you reckon to them? Defensive?’

‘Nah. Drainage more likely.’

Jaeger shuddered. ‘Great. Another midnight crawl through a sodden jungle shit pit…’

He settled back to rest. Tomorrow promised to be a long day.