TOMB HUNTER

The Adventures of Larra Court

Episode 10

Larra’s Indonesian Adventure

Chapter 28 Trapped Like Idiots

Matsu ordered his men forward. Opposing him were several hundred brown-skinned men and perhaps twenty elephants. However, there was not a firearm in sight. This was going to be a slaughter.

He let the enemy approach to within bowshot before sweeping his arm forward. His men swept the primitively armed warriors with rifle fire while at the same time the mortar crew loosed a single round.

That was all it took. As the mortar exploded among the elephants the huge beasts trumpeted their fear, and turning ran amok, trampling the dark-skinned men around them. The other soldiers, their ranks thinned by the murderous point-blank rifle fire were already running for their lives.

“So easy,” Matsu thought. “Cease fire!” The primitives had been defeated. He knew that the men he had routed would not stop running until they collapsed from exhaustion. As for the elephants, they were no problem. He would just wait until their frenzy had ended and then march into the city. From the appearance of the splendid architecture it promised to be as rich as Purwanto had promised.

The thought of the Javanese traitor reminded him that he had promised himself he would have the pleasure of killing him. It was time to execute that promise in a very personal manner. He took out his katana. “Bring me the Javanese,” he ordered. “It is time I gave him his reward.”

Purwanto was breathing hard. He had taken to his heels as soon as the shooting had started, knowing that Matsu would be distracted. He was hoping that the primitive civilization he had found would put up a good fight, but not too good. He wanted it defeated, but he also wanted the Japanese dead too. That would enable him to take advantage of the confusion to get a bit of loot for himself.

He had no idea who the people were that he had found. They certainly were not the Prahgan. Somehow he had stumbled across another lost civilization. Fortunately this one appeared very rich. If he could just keep Matsu from killing him he should be wealthy beyond anything he had ever imagined. With visions of diamonds and emeralds dancing before him, he climbed the steps and took shelter behind one of the huge elephant statues cut into the side of the canyon. Then he settled down to wait.

Private Noritake scowled. Up the canyon he could hear the shooting. “It’s not fair,” he grumbled. “Leaving us here while they have all the fun.”

“It’s not for you to question the lieutenant,” Corporal Shimazu said sharply. “He has always been good to us.”

The huge man shrugged. It had been a month since he had enjoyed a woman and the fact that he was missing the sacking of a city angered him. By the time he was allowed to participate most of the women would be taken and he would have to settle for someone’s cast offs. He glanced at his fellow private for support, but Private Gifu wasn’t having any of it.

Noritake grunted and squatted behind the elephant statue. It was a good position. He could see up and down the canyon, but would be shielded from an approaching enemy. Of course, the likelihood of an approaching enemy was about zero. He settled down for a long boring afternoon.

Melissa plodded along behind Lisha and Jia Li. It was hot as hell in the canyon and her clothes were soaked through with perspiration, but she was eagerly anticipating the end of the search for Larra. The elephant carvings had convinced her that she and her companions were getting close to something. It would be just like Larra to be in the middle of some strange new civilization. In spite of the almost year-long absence Melissa was convinced Larra was still alive. The audacious adventuress was far too intrepid to simply disappear like Amelia Earhart.

A number of sharp sounds echoed down the canyon, followed by a loud thump!

“Shots,” Melissa said unnecessarily. Jia Li and Lisha both looked at each other and then began to move forward quickly. Melissa followed. It wasn’t hard to figure out what was going on. The Japanese had finally come into contact with someone and a battle or perhaps another massacre had begun. If they moved quickly they could come up behind the Japanese and catch them off guard. Melissa worked the bolt of her rifle, chambering a cartridge, and began to jog after her companions.

Private Noritake watched in amazement as the three women jogged unsuspectingly past his hiding place. He knew all three of them, having enjoyed two of them before. Only the tall white girl had escaped his attentions, but he was determined that would not last long. Corporal Shimazu had to hold him back to prevent him from jumping out when he had first seen them. “We’ll let them go by and come at them from behind,” Shimazu said and Noritake slumped down and waited until the three women passed.

“Go slowly,” Shimazu cautioned. “We’ll take them alive.”

Noritake had always intended to take them alive; dead women had very low entertainment value, and he had thoroughly enjoyed his victory over the black savage. Perhaps he could do something similar once more.

The three women moved cautiously, keeping to the side of the canyon and taking advantage of any irregularities in the ground. It made it difficult to keep them in sight and Noritake realized that the women were much more skilled as soldiers than he had first thought. However, he and his companions had the advantage of surprise. When the time came they would never know what hit them.

Lisha felt like a wild animal that knows it is being stalked. Her scalp tingled, but she gave no indication of her feelings. Instead she settled into a crouch and waited until Jia Li and Melissa came up beside her. She had chosen her position carefully selecting a small hollow in the canyon floor that shielded her both front and rear.

“Do not look,” she said softly, but someone is behind us.”

Melissa dropped lower into the hollow as did Jia Li. “How many?” the Canadian girl asked.

“I do not know,” the Ullabomba warrior answered. “I think only a small number.”

“Damn,” said Melissa. “We’re trapped like idiots.”

“It would appear so,” Jia Li agreed. “We dare not go forward while we are being followed, and we cannot go back.” As she spoke the Manchurian girl shifted her position so that she was flat on her belly facing back the way they had come. “Perhaps if they do not know we are onto them, we can give them a nasty surprise.”

That optimistic thought was dashed a second later when a bullet ricocheted off the rock next to her head. She flinched as rock splinters sprayed her face, but kept her position, muttering something in Mandarin that Melissa and Lisha could not understand.

She held her fire, however. Between the three of them they had only thirty rounds. A prolonged firefight would see them defenceless. However, they could not just sit where they were and not return fire. If they allowed the Japanese too get to close one of them would certainly lob a grenade at them.

Two more bullets struck close and Jia Li finally returned fire. Melissa crouched beside her, rifle at the ready, but content to leave the shooting to Jia Li unless the enemy sought to rush them. It did not escape any of them, however, that their position was untenable. If the Japanese they had been following decided to send some men back to help out their rear guard they would be facing fire from two directions. It would make their position impossible.

Matsu’s normally placid face flickered in annoyance. He had told his men to stop firing, but someone had ignored the order. And then he realized the shots were coming from behind him. His trained ear quickly picked up the fact that the firing was very light. He turned to Sergeant Chiba. “See what is going on down there. Take two men with you. It appears the rear guard has come up against something, and I want it dealt with before we go farther.”

Chiba saluted briefly, and recruiting two men moved back down the canyon. He had a slight advantage in that the canyon sloped downhill from him. He would come across any enemy with a height advantage. It didn’t take long to determine what the problem was and his eyes widened in amazement. Incredibly it was the same women he and the rest of the troop had captured and fucked so recently. For a few moments he considered simply killing them and then remembered he had not had a woman since the Javanese comfort woman had been abandoned in the jungle several weeks ago. He could feel his member throb just thinking about it.

Instead he took out a smoke grenade and signaled the two men following him to do the same. It was the last one he had and he had been considering throwing it away, thinking that he might never need it in the thick forest. Now he was glad that he had kept it. He moved to within throwing range, pulled the pin, and let fly.

Jia Li was mortified at her stupidity in leading her small expedition into a trap. She was supposed to be the member of the expedition who had the most battle experience. How the soldiers shooting at her had escaped her notice she had no idea, but it was something that she felt should not have happened. As Melissa had so bluntly stated, they were “trapped like idiots,” and now she feared they might pay a very high price.

Pinned down by the Japanese who had come up behind them, and with other soldiers almost certainly closing in on them from the other direction, their situation was desperate. If the soldiers farther up the canyon came upon them, the shallow depression in which they sheltered would provide little cover.

There was, however, no thought in Jia Li’s mind of surrender. She had already been captured by the Japanese once. Being captured a second time would be a death sentence. She would almost certainly be killed, but only after every Japanese soldier had enjoyed her many times over. The same fate also awaited Melissa and Lisha. The Japanese were tough, unforgiving enemies. They would show no mercy toward the women who had dared to defy them.

The grenade landed just a few feet from where she lay. Instinctively she shouted a warning to Melissa and Lisha and rolled away, and then it exploded, wreathing her in dense, choking smoke. Blinded, and almost asphyxiated, neither she nor either of her companions saw the Japanese soldiers as they overran their position until the stock of a rifle slammed into her head. Jia Li’s last thoughts as her consciousness rapidly faded were of how completely she had failed in her mission.

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