Email:
Lespion@msn.com
Larra had no difficulty following the German
expedition’s trail. Although
she was not an expert in woodcraft, the Germans had cut a swath through the
forest that resembled an elephant
migration. She did not
hurry. She knew that the Germans
would not be moving quickly and she wanted to give them time to move far
enough away from the main camp that any encounter with them would not be
heard.
It did not take her long to catch up with the
expedition. The Germans were
in a long column. Grey was up
near the front. Larra started
to formulate a plan. It was based
on a technique she had used earlier in her
career. Using the rainforest
as cover, she closed on the unsuspecting Germans.
Her plan was quite simple, but if it worked the Germans would never know
what had hit them. She worked
her way through the vegetation, moving ever closer to the end of the German
column. Eventually she was within
a few paces of the last German in line.
The Germans were walking in single file, each a few steps behind the
other. Larra drew her
knife. Then she
hesitated. This was going to
be a gruesome business. She set
her jaw. She had to save
Grey. There was no telling what
the Germans might do to him.
She stepped into the trail right behind the nearest
German. So silently did she move
that he never even suspected her presence until her knife plunged into his
kidneys. He opened his mouth
to scream, but Larra’s hand clamped over his
lips. His knees buckled and Larra
lowered his dead body to the ground.
“One down, twenty-nine to go,” she
thought.
She wiped her knife on the dead man’s shirt and moved toward the next
German. Her attack had been carried
out so successfully that he had no notion that his comrade was no longer
behind him. She then advanced
on the next man. He was completely
unaware of her proximity. She
readied her knife.
Suddenly there were shouts from the top of the column, followed by a scattering
of rifle fire. Larra halted in
midstride. The Germans were on
the alert and she could no longer count on surprising
them. Quickly, she melted back
into the forest. The sound of
firing quickened and then slacked off, but the shouting of the German soldiers
continued. Crouching low, she
moved through the foliage, parallel to the
Germans. What had they been firing
at? Suddenly she spotted a movement
in the forest, directly in front of her.
It was a black warrior. No,
several black warriors. She dropped
flat. The warriors were crouched
down behind a screen of vegetation.
Immediately, Larra knew what had
happened. The black warriors
had ambushed the German column, but had been repelled by their
firepower. Most likely they had
never before encountered firearms and had received a rude shock when the
Germans opened up on them.
Larra tried to make herself as small as
possible. The black warriors
were impressive, standing well over six feet
tall. Larra had never seen the
Ullabomba before, but she guessed that she was seeing them
now. They matched the description
given her by Katie and Jia Li.
Larra knew from her friends that the giant warriors were not to be
taken lightly. She decided to
keep out of sight and watch to see what would
happen.
On the trail, the Germans were still milling
about. The warriors that had
attacked the column were moving off parallel to the trail the Germans were
on. Larra guessed that having
failed in their first ambush they were probably moving ahead of the Germans
to either attack again or to keep track of their
movements. She knew from Katie
and Jia Li’s description of the Ullabomba that they did not give up
easily. Her best plan was to
follow the column and try to take advantage of whatever opportunity was
offered. Grey was still a prisoner,
and it would not do if she were discovered by the Ullabomba while trying
to rescue him. As a result she
allowed the warriors to get a bit ahead of her and then followed in their
footsteps. The Germans, less
familiar with the rainforest, and in strange surroundings, kept to the main
trail, but they had now bunched up in preparation for another
attack.
For an hour or so the Ullabomba, with Larra following, moved silently through
the forest, keeping parallel to the path taken by the
Germans. At
About three hundred yards farther along, the trail the Germans were on wound
through a narrow tree-lined defile.
It was the perfect spot for a different type of
ambush. The Ullabomaba set themselves
along each side of the defile.
Their advantage of height would enable them to rain missiles down
on anyone passing along the narrow trail.
This time they would not be repulsed.
Larra watched the Ullabomba set up their ambush with
interest. The black warriors
were certainly courageous. Any
other people who encountered firearms for the first time were usually too
stunned to dare another attack so soon after their first defeat, but the
black warriors were coming right back at the
Germans. With any luck their
second attack would give her the opportunity she needed to free
Grey.
The Germans finished their break and moved on up the
trail. They were heading straight
into the ambush. But Diels was
not a fool. As soon as he came
to the narrow defile he suspected a trap.
He halted the column and sent ahead a small reconnaissance
party. The black warriors, seeing
that their trap had failed to catch the entire party, attacked anyway, believing
that they had a chance to wipe out the advance
party.
The attack failed miserably. Diels
had taken the precaution of setting up a 50-mm
mortar. As soon as the Ullabomba
attacked, the five German scouts went to ground, seeking whatever cover they
could. At the same time the mortar
team lobbed a half dozen high explosive rounds onto the slopes of the
ravine. The explosions caused
a complete panic among the attacking
warriors. They attempted to retreat,
but many had already committed themselves to the attack and were caught in
exposed positions. They were
mowed down like chaff.
Watching from her hiding place, Larra felt a certain
sympathy for the defeated Africans.
They were brave warriors, but were no match for the weapons of the
twentieth century. However, the
distraction offered by the slaughter of the Ullabomba afforded her a chance
to create a little havoc of her own.
She had the rear of the column in full
view. Unslinging her Mauser she
sighted on the German who was farthest
back. She waited until the next
mortar explosion and then squeezed the
trigger. The bullet caught the
German just above his ear. It
was a good shot. That was exactly
where Larra had aimed. The dead
man collapsed without a sound.
Larra moved over a few feet and selected the German who was now at the back
of the column. She was firing
down the line, picking off the last
soldier. It was a technique she
had used in
She fired again, toppling a second
German. But then the Germans
ceased fire. The Ullabomba had
fled, leaving their dead and wounded strewn on the slopes of the
ravine. Now her next shot would
reveal her presence. Larra, however,
did not intend to stop. She wanted
to cause a panic. Grey was now
guarded by only three soldiers, all unaware of the fact that Larra had just
picked off two of their compatriots.
She fired directly at the group, the crack of the rifle echoing through the
forest, unmasked by any other firing.
Another soldier dropped.
There was immediate pandemonium.
Larra moved quickly, expelling the spent cartridge casing and shoving
home another round into the chamber.
This time she fired several rounds from her new hiding place, working
the bolt as quickly as she could.
The German column had disappeared.
This unexpected attack had generated the chaos Larra had hoped
for. Grey was now alone, abandoned
by his guards, who were now firing wildly in the direction of Larra’s
hiding place. Except, that she
was no longer there. Larra was
moving rapidly toward Grey, who quick to pick up on the opportunity Larra’s
distraction had provided, had moved off the trail into the shelter of the
trees. His legs were hobbled
and his hands were still bound behind his back, but he could move well enough
to get out of the sight of the Germans.
Within seconds Larra was by his
side.
“What kept you?” he asked
calmly. In spite of herself Larra
smiled. Grey seemed
unflappable. Quickly she used
her knife to slash through his bonds.
A few inches from her head a bullet tore a branch off a
tree. The Germans had located
her. It was time to
leave. Grey was still a little
stiff from his captivity, but was able to move well
enough. They both ran a few yards
into the forest. Here Grey took
over. Leaping into the lower
branches of one of the forest giants he extended an arm to Larra and pulled
her up after him. Then with his
help, both the ape-man and the adventuress gained the canopy layer of the
rainforest. Fifty feet above
the forest floor, they were safe from any
pursuit. To the Germans, it seemed
as if they had simply disappeared.
Wary of an ambush, the Germans did not attempt to follow up the two
fugitives. Instead Diels ordered
his men to form up and move off through the narrow ravine where they had
repelled the Ullabomba ambush. For
their part, Larra and Grey, wary of the German’s superior firepower,
decided to let them go. They
could catch up with them later after Grey had been given time to recover
from his captivity.
Grey set up a safe camp high in the canopy and then left Larra in search
of some fruit. He could have
eaten the food Larra had brought with her, but preferred to seek his
own. Larra thought that he should
have rested first, but Grey insisted that he would not have to go
far. So she sat back in a fork
formed by two great branches and waited for his
return. She kept alert,
however. She had just encountered
two different sets of enemies. The
Ullabomba were still somewhere in the area and the Germans might always come
back. And then there were always
the natural dangers of the rainforest.
So she stayed awake and waited for Grey’s
return.
It was well that she did. A slight
rustling in the foliage above her alerted Larra to danger and she reacted
just in time. Even as she drew
her P38 a giant hairy body dropped beside
her. She saw in the spilt second
before it attacked her that it was some sort of giant ape, not a gorilla,
but something resembling an enormous
chimpanzee. Its arms encircled
her and she fired. The bullet
tore through the creature’s chest, sending it tumbling to the forest
floor. Even as she watched it
go a second ape burst from the limbs above
her. She fired again, but this
time was not so lucky. The bullet
struck home, but the ape crashed into her, knocking her from her
perch. Larra flung out her arms,
dropping her pistol, as she fell toward the ground sixty feet
below.
A lucky break saved her from serious
injury. Or rather, a lucky
branch. She dropped about ten
feet and landed square across a bough that broke her
fall. It caught her in the small
of her back, and knocked the breath from her body, but it probably saved
her life. It gave her enough
time to grab hold of a hanging vine as she bounced off the
branch. The vine arrested her
fall, but unfortunately was not strong enough to bear her weight longer than
a second before it too snapped.
However, the change in her direction meant that instead of plunging
into an open space she instead dropped into the branches of a
sapling. Bouncing from branch
to branch she crashed her way to the ground, landing in a semiconscious
heap. She was battered and bruised,
but still alive. Groggily she
attempted to rise. It was then
that she noticed a pair of large black feet attached to long black
legs. They were right in front
of her face. Before she could
recover from her fall, several pairs of strong hands laid hold of her arms
and legs. She lunged and contorted
her body in a desperate attempt to escape, but was held
fast. She had been captured by
the Ullabomba!
PREVIOUS
CHAPTER WIZARD'S
LAIR MAIN PAGE
L'ESPION'S
STORY
PAGE
NEXT
CHAPTER