Globusz^® Publishing 

t was several hours’ later and quite dark when Peter awoke, stiff and aching. He scratched first one leg then the other, his back then his neck before looking carefully at his body only to find it was alive with ants, swearing out loud he awoke Helen. “Come on wake up, wake up. We’re being eaten alive by ants, come on, into the water and wash them off.”

A sleepy response from Helen before she started scratching as she thought about what Peter had said. Then it penetrated her sleepy mind as she looked at her arms and legs. “Oh my God!” She leapt up and ran to the waters edge where Peter was removing his boots and socks, a few moments later they were both naked splashing in the water at the edge of the lake, washing the ants off their bodies. Getting them out of their hair was the most difficult, repeatedly ducking under the water and shaking the water off. At last they emerged, in the starlight but even facing each other naked didn’t arise any passion. Helen, however, raised a smile and with her eyes laughed at him. “Peter if you feel an itch, try and refrain from scratching, it will only make things worse.”

He immediately caught the double engender and grinned. ‘Trust her to see the funny side of it.’ But the smile soon disappeared as he contemplated removing the ants from their clothes and other things. They started with their underclothes, shaking them vigorously and carefully examining each garment, when Peter stopped and walked over to the raft. “Helen they are all over the raft, I think they’re in the wood. We’ll never get rid of them, as soon as we put things back on the raft... If we swim across first, now, like we are, it’s already dark enough. Then we can delouse everything when we get to the other side, we won’t need the raft any more.”

“Yes! Good idea, just pile everything on and let’s get going.” She was only too pleased to get away from this place; the beautiful picture that greeted them when they first arrived had faded into insignificance. They dragged the raft down to the edge of the lake and floated it before putting the rest of their things on top. Peter did a quick walk round to check nothing had been left behind. “I think we should pull the raft at first, any of the insects that are going to get washed off will then be left behind,” he said, joining her in the water.

They both started swimming side-stroke with one hand on the raft using the other to swim; fortunately the water was warm and soothed their itching bodies. They were in no hurry and after a while moved to the rear and pushed, then to the front again and pulled, it was slow work, but they appeared, at first, to make progress. Whilst near the shore they could see it receding but when in the middle of the lake, nothing. The water went past the raft as they swam but the far shore didn’t appear to get any closer. They could just make out the rim of the dam and once saw the sudden flare of a match as some soldier lit a cigarette. The night breeze, their flying wind, was causing small ripples on the surface, braking up the mirror smoothness but not hindering their progress. Then the gibbous moon came up casting a path of silver all the way to the rim of the dam. ‘It’s fortunate the dam is between us and the moon,’ Peter thought, ‘else the soldiers would see us in the moons path.’ Swimming here in the lake formed by the dam he couldn’t get out of his mind what the old man had told him back at the prison. ‘If they blew it and the dam broke now what chance would we have? Jump up on the raft and ride it like a surfboard, what a ride that would be... until we hit the valley floor the other side.’

Helen was also thinking about the dam, how it looked, so different from the other side down in the valley. Then she looked up at the stars and thought a little prayer. ‘I’m glad we are at your dam David, I hope you are looking down on us. I’m sorry I can’t recall your face properly, but I do love you. Please keep your dam in one piece for a while longer, at least until we get to the shore, and help us to preserve it for the future.’

They swam on. It took several hours of hard work before eventually they felt the stony bottom of the shore beneath their feet. But even this wasn’t enough, as they had to push the raft along the shore until they were out of sight of the dam and could at last stagger out of the water.

There was nowhere to rest, nowhere to sit down, and no warm dry clothes to put on. The wind was still blowing and producing a chill factor. “Right! First thing is to unload the raft and get our things far away from those ants. So let’s get on with it. Helen, clothes first give them a quick shake and toss them over there.”

Soon they had the raft unloaded with their clothes in one pile, their back packs separate and the glider still further along the waters edge. Though both were still completely naked there was no embarrassment between them as they knelt and rinsed of their hands.

The next job was to delouse their clothes, shaking them vigorously and inspecting them as best they could in the moonlight before slowly getting dressed. Both realised that the better job they made of this the more comfortable they would be later. It was the better part of an hour before they were satisfied, warm, clothed and booted once again. Then it was the turn of their back packs and the remaining food, fortunately they only had the tomatoes and some cheese left which the ants hadn’t taken a particular interest in. These they washed in the lake before eating and then washed them down with water. Next after a glance at each other they turned their attention to the glider. Helen insisted it couldn’t be washed but it was still in the plastic-bag and so not badly infected. After brushing some ants of the bag it appeared they hadn’t been able to get inside. As Helen had pointed out, ‘why bother with that when they had some juicy humans to nibble.’

“Now we have to pull the raft up into the forest and hide it. Helen, can you take this side.” Peter said, as he moved round to the far side.

“Why don’t we just push it back into the lake, that would be easier and we won’t want it again?”

“And when it drifts to the dam wall and some soldier sees it! No! It won’t take a minute to drag it into the edge of the forest.” Heaving and pushing, trying to avoid touching the raft too much they got it far enough under cover for Peter’s satisfaction. He stepped back to the waters edge to check it couldn’t easily be seen. It was getting closer to dawn and the sky was beginning to lighten above the mountains in the East as they gathered everything together before entering the forest.

* * *

The two observers on the knoll had spent a restless night on el Castillo Botas, alternately doing two hour watches they’d had a peaceful night apart from the ordinary forest noises. Dawn was just breaking when yet another call came on their radio. The watcher had the binoculars to his eyes. The sleeper answered the call. “Yes, we are awake. No, there is nothing to report, we have neither seen nor heard anything remotely suspicious during the night.” At that moment the watcher raised his hand and pointed. The other seeing this interrupted on the radio, “un momento, I will get back to you shortly we see something,” and without waiting for a reply switched the radio to standby. He reached for the binoculars and had a look where he was directed. ‘Ah! Some movement, at last.’

Fidel was immediately informed that something had been seen, and they were now waiting for a further report. His lieutenant was wakened and also told the news. Moments later he also was beside Fidel standing behind the radio operator. “We nearly have them; they must have slept well last night and are now walking into the trap. An hour, maybe two at the outside.”

“Si! It may indeed be them Seņor Gamboa, but I would not count on it. My men are walking along that edge. They are about due to come into the sight of your scouts.”

“Your men! ... True! But the escaped prisoners must be in front of them, perhaps they heard your men coming and are now running scared ahead of them.”

“Si! Is possible Seņor.”

An hour later it was confirmed the scouts had sighted the army coming along the ridge and there was nobody ahead of them. Fidel marched over to the table with the map. ‘This is not possible, the bloody army are useless. They must have walked right by them during the night. Now what? Tell the army to go back, they’ve missed them once and tired men will not search well. Let the men walk to the dam, leave the scouts where they are and set up another line at the dam. Yes! That’s better. We will need a boat on the lake in case they try to swim across. Will this get in the way of Shaun? No! It just gives us an additional reason for security.’

“Radio operator, tell the scouts they should ignore the army and stay where they are in case the escaped prisoners follow some way behind. They must be up there somewhere. Lieutenant! Tell your men to ignore the scouts and to walk on by to the dam. They must not acknowledge them at all in case they are being followed. And get a boat up to the dam; I want to establish another line at the dam and the lake behind it. Oh! And get some more dogs that can follow a scent.” He turned and started pacing only to stop and chastise him self for the melodrama he despised in others. “Order my helicopter to be made ready. We will move to the dam and have a look from above on the way.”

* * *

Peter was absently scratching at his waist. “I think we should aim for the edge above the valley, if we arrive there about a couple of miles beyond the dam and well past the head of the cable car, we should be safe. I don’t think they will be sending soldiers in that direction yet.”

Helen put a restraining hand on his to stop him scratching and then held it a moment longer. “If you think that’s best, anything would be better than the hike we did yesterday.” This was accompanied by a weak smile. Then she added, picking up her end of the glider. “We should be extra quiet though... just in case, no loud chopping with the machete. Do you want me to lead off?”

“No I’ll take the lead, whilst it’s fairly flat. You can take over if we have to climb.”

Once again the dawn chorus began as the sky began to attain that deep blue colour. This time the noise appeared to be a little different and Helen was trying to identify why this was so when she realised that there was no screeching from the spider monkeys. The birds were making their usual noise; she could here Toucans calling, and the occasional squawk from the Macaws. Altogether the forest noises appeared more civilised and less wild. They had only been walking for twenty minutes or so when they came across the remains of a track, it was an old road that had not seen a vehicle for a year or more and was over grown. It was better than cutting their way through the forest though so they stayed on it for a short time before it curved away to their left. “It leads towards the head of the cable car Helen. Probably used when they built the dam. We had best leave it carefully, try and leave as little trace of our passing as possible.” They ducked under the over hanging branches at the edge of the track and wormed their way back into the virgin forest making their own path by parting bushes and cutting very little. Progress was slow, ever westwards and slightly South.

After another hundred metres Peter called a halt. “We’ll have to stop a moment, I’m still getting bitten, and I’ll have to find the little bugger before it eats me alive.” He undid the top of his trousers and stripped of his top, carefully examining both he found nothing but shook his top hard. Helen was examining his waist which had a line of red spots but no ants. “They have certainly been having a go at you but I can’t see any now. Whatever you do though, don’t turn quickly at the waist.”

“How do you mean don’t turn quickly? Why’s that?”

She looked up at him her whole face alight with glee, the twinkle back in her eyes. “Why? Well you may tear along the dotted line.”

Peter looked at her with a frown, which was quickly chased away by a smile; he made a grab for her hand and pulled her into his arms. “Oh! So you think I may fall apart, eh!” He slowly squeezed until she gasped for breath then kissed her hard.

After a few moments they came up for air, Helen put her arms around him and running her fingers up and down his back gave him another kiss. “If you do come apart then I will just have to hold you together, won’t I?” Peter made to give her another kiss but she put her fingers over her lips. “No more for now we have work to do.” She said, gently pulling his arms from around her waist. “Time to move on. We have no food left and a long way to go.”

A couple of hours later, they ware still carefully moving through the forest, Peter was using the machete less and less now as they didn’t want to leave any trail. Yet again they came across another rough road but this had been used much more frequently, in the dirt and detritus on the ground were the tracks of both four and two wheeled vehicles. The overhanging leaves and some branches were ripped and broken. “There has been traffic along here, possibly this morning but probably yesterday.” Peter still conscious of the speed that the motorbikes appeared the previous night added further comment. “We can’t afford to use this road, with the glider we may not be able to get into cover quick enough the forest deadens sound very effectively. A motor bike could be on us before we realised it.”

“That’s a shame because the road goes in the right direction. But as you say we can’t use it so we had best get across it now and back into the forest before anyone wakes up.”

A quick check up and down the ‘road’ listening for any sound of an engine, nothing, and they then made their way across. Once they were into the forest on the other side and screened from the track Peter lowered his end of the glider and removed his pack. “I’m just gong back to where we crossed, must check that we haven't left any sign, foot prints or whatever.” Again he listened and looked before carefully stepping onto the road. There were no obvious marks except a vague heel print, as he removed it he felt a tremble from the ground and the same time heard the rumble of a heavy engine. Quickly he shuffled back into forest and lay low with barely seconds to spare as a big six-wheel army truck thrashed past. The truck continued up the road without a pause as Peter picked him self up after the near miss and returned to Helen. “Thank god you’re okay, they didn’t see you? I thought you may have been in the middle of the road when it appeared.”

“I nearly was... in the middle of the road that is, I felt the truck through the ground before I heard it... just managed to make cover. I think it must have been a supply truck or something, only caught a glimpse but it didn’t have any soldiers in the back.” He picked up his pack and the end of the glider. “We’ll have to be extra cautious with roads in future. Try and get across quickly. It would be a bit ironic to be run over in the middle of the rain forest.”

Once again they set off, Peter still in the lead trying to set a course with the sun, when he could see it, on his left front. Whenever they had to divert for trees or bushes it was always to his right, away from the dam and the head of the cable car. Another hour and they were both feeling the strain as it was more difficult to make progress without using the machete and Peter was looking for a clearing in which to rest. Ahead of him he saw extra daylight through the leaves of the trees. “There’s a clearing just ahead Helen, we’ll be able to have a proper rest.” He increased his pace yet still felt an extra push from behind. But as they came through the last bush there wasn’t a clearing, there was nothing. Peter grabbed at a nearby branch to avoid being pushed over the cliff. “Whoa! Hold on we are at the edge, don’t push.”

They backed up and moved to their right a few metres where the edge was not so overgrown. The view that presented itself was spectacular, over to their left some three miles away and way down in the valley they could just make out the railhead and part of the lower cable car station. Whilst directly across the river from it was the president’s ranch. The valley road and railway dotted and dashed between the trees right beneath them and for some way down the valley until disappearing around a curve on the way to the sea. In front of them the other side of the valley rose in gentle pastures to the fertile plains of the South, separated from the lush green forest below them by the river which meandered and sparkled in the sunshine.

“Beautiful! What a lovely country this is... when you’re out of the rain forest that is. This is a natural view point, let’s sit awhile and enjoy it Peter.”

“No! Sorry! No time to look at the view, we have work to do. See that rock formation over to your right, it sticks out nicely and looks just like a launch pad for tonight's flight. When we get there you can look at the view for the rest of the day, as long as nobody spots you that is.”

Helen started with alarm. “Oh! I’d forgotten about that, could someone maybe see us... from down there? They would need good eyesight.” She crawled back from the edge and only stood up when the other side a bush. “Okay! Let’s go then, I think it will take us an hour to get to that rock and then we can rest and take a siesta.”

“An hour you think, more like two hours... at least, but we don’t have a watch to judge it.”

It was late morning, nearly noon by Peter’s estimate of the sun, when they arrived at the projecting rock formation. As they lowered the glider, dropped their packs and sank onto the rocks Peter’s first comments were food. “It feels like lunch time, my stomach is complaining, haven't we got anything left to eat?”

“No! The cupboard is bare; you had the remains of the eats last night, or was it this morning. I forget which. Anyhow all we have left is some water and you had best go easy on that, I don’t know when the next water fill up will be.”

“Water! Is that all you can offer me? Don’t worry about the next fill up though, there’s a fast flowing river in the valley, we’re bound to end up somewhere near it tonight.”

Helen handed over a bottle of water. “So what now, are we just going to crash out here for the rest of the day? That would give us a twelve hour rest. Do you think the opposition will allow that?”

After first checking around for ants, Peter lay back to think and absorb the sun’s rays. Several minutes passed before he continued the conversation. “I don’t know about allowing us a rest, but think... think. First, what do they know? Second, what might they know? And third, what can they surmise? Now, what do they know? The last thing they know for certain was where we were two nights back, fifteen, maybe twenty miles back up the valley, and the other side of the lake. And they also know or rather think we are on foot, I’m sure they don’t know about the glider. I’ll explain why later. Second, they probably think we have had assistance. After all we were much to fast, for walking to where they lost the dog. But they know we didn’t have any help with us when we bought that lunch. Just boots clothes and back packs. And where did we get the boots and things from. Third, they know where we are heading for, and why.”

This last comment brought a gasp from Helen as she sat down beside him. “How? How can they know where we are heading, even I don’t know that.”

“Come on, of course you do, we are not going over the mountains to the North, or across the Southern plain, so down the valley to the city and the sea. Agreed they don’t know precisely where we’re going, neither do I. As for the why and what for, they’re obvious but don’t really matter.”

“Yes! I’ll concede that, but why are you so sure that they don’t know about the glider. There are a lot of people back in that prison who could tell them. And we may have been seen by those soldiers on the motorbikes, or those in the valley or the roadblock at the bridge.”

“Yes that’s true, but they haven't done anything about it. They haven't deployed their forces to counter us from flying, ergo; they don’t know we can fly... Also no air force! Or rather we haven't seen any apart from the odd helicopter.”

“So what you are implying, if I read it right, is that they have set up a... cordon, of soldiers, the other side of the dam to catch two hungry, exhausted escaped prisoners who had a bit of luck getting a lift down the road from the prison.”

“Sort of but not quite, the lift they think we got down the road. They must think that it was pre-organised. Our boots! They know we have them, they must have asked the couple that fed us what we were wearing. So where did we get them from.” Peter rubbed his stomach at the thought of food. “I hope that couple don’t get into trouble for helping us.”

“So we are already through their cordon, what will they do next?”

“Hey! I can’t read their minds; I’m just trying to second guess them... You try it, use that woman's intuition, what do you think they will do.”

Helen did some hard thinking and closed her eyes, a moment later they were both sleeping.

* * *

They woke up at the same moment to the unmistakable noise of a helicopter and it was close by. The glider lay at the edge of the forest but they were out in the open getting the warmth of the sun. Peter looked towards the sound but couldn’t see the helicopter. ‘Was it below the ridge?’ “Helen, quickly crawl this way.” Peter called, as he slid over the side of the rock, dropping a metre or so into the shrubbery. A moment later and Helen landed head first on top of him. He quickly pushed her in close to the rock and pulled the bush over them.

“Lie still and don’t move, hold this bush and make sure it doesn’t blow away. And don’t be tempted to peek around the edge, a face is very visible.”

Helen grasped the bush tightly and stopped breathing.

Woomf! Woomf! Woomf! Woomf! Woomf! Of the rotor blades.

The leaves of the bush flicked and fluttered in the down draft. ‘Oh! God they’re going to land on top of us. Go away! Go away!’

Woomf! Woomf! Woomf!

A hand rested on her shoulder and pressed down, a voice shouted in her ear. “Hang on, stay still, they’ll only see us if we move.”

Woomf! Woomf! Woomf!

After an eternity the sound depreciated, the bush stopped fluttering; Helen gasped and started breathing again. Peter slowly lifted his face and peaked through the leaves. Careful to keep his face in the shade he looked towards the source of the noise. Tail onto him, two hundred metres distance, but moving away was the same helicopter they had seen previously. He watched it go out of sight where the cliff edge curved round to the dam.

“That was close.” He sighed, as he helped Helen to stand. “Much too close. It climbed up from the valley and flew right over the top of us.”

“The helicopter, that’s just what I was thinking when I fell asleep, why don’t they use the helicopter to look for us, it can search the terrain much quicker than some one on foot.”

Peter turned and looked at her, a grin on his face. “Well thanks for sharing those thoughts with me. Perhaps you were a bit late though. Anyhow, the reason why they haven't used the helicopter to search is because anyone who is half alert will here it coming a mile off and take cover.”

“You mean like we did?” With a smile returning to her face.

“Exactly! Now either we take it in turns to stay awake, keeping watch, or we hide properly and sleep the whole time.” He climbed back onto the rock they had just fallen off and walked back to the forest. “If you keep watch for a moment I’ll see if I can find a place to hide and sleep.” Five minutes later, after much blundering about he was back. “There is nothing really, a small cave but it is damp and full of creepy crawlies.”

“Why not cover ourselves with leaves and the grey blanket, we could sleep underneath, from the air it would look like a few sticks and a hole in the ground. With a few leaves spread around the edges for camouflage. What do you think?”

“We could try, see what it looks like.”

Five minutes later it was done, but Peter was still full of trepidation. “Okay! I would still prefer one of us to stay awake. If the helicopter returns it could blow our cover... in more ways than one. You sleep first. I need to think.”

He crawled to the edge of the rock and peered over watching the traffic below in the valley. Occasional military vehicles, a few van’s and 4X4’s, a motorbike, even the obligatory donkey and cart passed. No trains, nothing else until about two hours later the helicopter returned, this time staying low along the valley floor as Peter watched from above. The heat had gone out of the day and the sun was low on the horizon when he woke Helen, they swapped places and he crawled under the blanket, and despite his rumbling stomach fell asleep immediately.

Helen searching around found the best place was to lie down with her head over the edge and watched the valley. There was some light traffic on the road but nothing to get alarmed about and the railway track, now little used, was rusty. ‘What was that above the railway, two, three lines? Ah! There’s a pylon, must remember to keep a sharp lookout for those power cables when flying. They probably run all the way along the side of the valley from the dam to Sao Agusta.’ The valley held her interest until the sun set in a magnificent display of red and orange away to her right. It was whilst she was watching the changing colour of the sunset that she saw a train coming up the valley from Sao Agusta. It was only a shunting engine pulling three carriages and moving slowly along the track, as if unused to the experience of being away from Porto Agusta.

The air was still warm and humid from the day, the evening breeze hadn’t yet set in, and her eyes grew heavy. Twice she found her self dozing off and in exasperation stood and started walking round. It was a good launch pad but needed a fissure to be filled or bridged. With the rapidly fading light she searched in the edge of the forest for dead branches and stones to fill the gap. Ten minutes later, to the accompanying sound of Peter’s snoring, the gap was filled. They now had a decent runway and Helen was looking for something else to do. Careful not to disturb Peter she started to assemble the glider, thoroughly checking each joint and connection by the light in the darkening sky. She took her time, thrice checking the joints at the top of the king post and checked all the guys and the sail for snags before carefully repairing two small tears with the remains of the duck tape. Two hours later it was all done and this time there were no bits left over. Once again the glider was ready to fly. Helen moved it back to the edge of the forest in case the wind picked up. It looked rather odd sitting there nose to the ground like some huge giant moth resting with wings unfolded.

* * *

Shaun sat on one of the three chairs which were bolted to the floor of what can only be described as a shed on a railway flat bed. A big guy dressed in dark army fatigues similar to those that Shaun wore, occupied one of the other chairs. The big guy was asleep. On the third chair rested a cardboard box sealed with masking tape and a back pack bulging at the seams, whilst two more packs lay on the floor. The pack with the elevated position contained the disassembled explosive component of two anti-tank mines, some climbing ropes and two reels of commercial masking tape, a coil of fusing wire and a few assorted tools. The other packs contained a change of clothes, sleeping bags and personal gear for the two men. The cardboard box contained the remains of a toy aeroplane.

Alto opened his eyes, awakened by the train clanking and banging over points before coming to a stop. “Are we there?” Climbing to his feet he opened the one and only door of the ‘shed’ before answering his own question. “Si! We are at the dam, time to go gringo.” He picked up the back pack of explosive and casually swung it over one shoulder letting it bang against the wall in the process. Shaun grimaced, much to Alto’s amusement. “Don’t worry my friend it will not go off by banging it against the wall.”

“I’m not concerned about it ‘going off’ as you put it; I’m concerned about you breaking the pieces of explosive into little bits. It wouldn’t be as effective, blowing up the crumbs.” Alto just nodded, scooped up the other two packs and hefted them onto his other shoulder as Shaun carefully picked up the cardboard box.

An hour later they were standing at the top of the cable car where other specials and weary soldiers were waiting to go down. They made their way to the door that lead to inner realms of the dam when Alto produced a bunch of keys. At the third attempt the lock clicked and the door swung open. He’d had good intelligence, the light switch was by his left ear and shortly they were on the open metal platform after locking the door behind them.

Shaun gazed around, looking with interest at the steel cross-beams below him. It was just like he had imagined it to be. Yet it wasn’t. It was bigger and surreal, almost cathedral like in its immensity. In an attempt to get some idea of its size he shouted. “Hi!”... “Hi! Hi! Hi!” Came back the answer as Alto dropped the remaining pack and reached for his side arm. Shaun held up his hands in surrender before apologising. They were both a little on edge and they had work to do. The eight quarter-segments of explosive were laid out beside a long coil of rope. Shaun put on a climbing harness and clipped on to a climbing rope which he had ensured was securely fastened to the platform. Next he threaded two rolls of masking tape onto a length of cord, tied it into a loop and slung it around his neck. Each of the tools he would use already had a similar loop of cord attached which also went around his neck. Then he pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and checked everything against the list, before announcing him self ready. Another good heave on the climbing rope and a check that it was round the ring at his waist before he was ready to step over the rail.

Yet another pull on the climbing rope before he put all his weight on it and started lowering him self down. Past one girder, another, a third and a forth before he stopped at the fifth. He examined it carefully before calling to Alto to lower the first of the quarter-segment of explosive.