The soldier reached the tower and fumbled with a metal box mounted on the side that I had not noticed before. He made some sort of movement with his hand and suddenly blinding light erupted unexpectedly from the top of the tower, searing my eyes. Recoiling from the brilliance, I curled myself back into the darkness provided by the shadows cast by the stack of crates.
My eyes adjusted, but I spent a few moments blinking away the large red blind spots the light had burned into my retinas. The entire camp was now awash in bright white-yellow industrial lights. Three sets were mounted to the top of the tower, each facing out from one of the tower's triangular sides.
The lighting wasn't perfect. The tents and other obstacles cast deep black shadows behind them, but the entire barren circle around the central tents was now lit like a work site. This infiltration and rescue mission just got a lot tougher. Despite the low guard count, crossing such a lit area was a fool's errand. The soldiers would immediately identify me as an intruder.
The light provided other problems. I couldn't wait too long for my opportunity to cross to the big tents in the center. Eventually, the roving sentry would make his rounds, and the light hampered my ability to move and stripped away most of the hiding spots. I was entirely too exposed.
Retreating deeper into the cluster of tents was the one option open to me. At least there I had more shadows to use to my advantage. Staying close to the tent and using the crates as cover, I slunk back into the center of the storage cluster.
Options for hiding were limited out in the open, and I needed a place to think for a moment. I didn't want to make a break back to the woods. I knew Blatt was in the camp, but Bardales could move him at any time. If I was going to save him, and if I wanted any chance of getting out of Cuba, I needed to get to him tonight. I needed to form an alternative plan. The old military saying, "no plan survives first contact with the enemy," popped into my head. Bardales' men had changed the game, and I would have to adapt.
Movement drew my attention, and my heart jumped into my throat. The shadow of a person, distorted and elongated by the angle of the light, creeped out from the rows of tents. The sentry!
His shadow was growing larger, moving between the tents, pausing for a few seconds and then continuing. In seconds he would round the corner and see me. Desperate, I drew back the flap of the nearest tent and slipped inside.
The tent's dense canvas blocked most of the light, but one solitary sliver from a gap in the tent flaps cut through the darkness and gave me just enough light to see. Crate upon crate was stacked from floor to ceiling, filling almost the entire interior. There was barely enough space to stand in the entrance, the rest was a solid mass of wood boxes.
Briefly I wondered what all of this equipment could be for as I moved two crates off the top of the stack in the corner to my left and placed them on the floor. Both crates were heavy, and I had to stifle my grunts of effort, and ignore the pain from my elbow, as I hurried to move them. Time was a luxury I did not have. Hastily, I crawled on top of the shortened stack I had created and curled up in as small of a ball as possible and waited.
I could hear the rustle of fabric as the guard flipped one of the neighboring tent's flaps back. There was nothing left for me to do but to wait in my makeshift hiding spot. Anything more than a cursory glance and he would find me. I could only hope that he was complacent and bored.
The sliver of light that fell from the gap in the tent flaps went dark as the soldier moved in front of the tent. A second later the flap lifted, letting in a flood of yellow incandescent light. A few heartbeats later the soldier grunted, and let the heavy canvas flap drop back into place, leaving it swinging gently back and forth until it once again sat completely still in the night air, leaving a small beam of light cutting through the dark.
The sentry's footsteps crunched in the dirt as he moved on to the next tent. When I could no longer hear him, I unfolded myself from my hiding spot. A quick glance out of the tent confirmed he was gone. Rapidly, I moved from shadow to shadow, back to the stack of crates where I had been when the lights came on. I noticed some stenciled words on the wooden boxes. Equipo de mineria. Mining equipment? That didn't make any sense. What did the military need with mining equipment? My thoughts went back to the gold in the stream and the cave with the idol. Bardales was here for the gold, not the idol.
I fought back the urge to pry open one of the crates and see what was inside. Whatever it was Bardales was up to, it had nothing to do with me. My goal was to get Blatt and get out of here. I waited until I could see the sentry moving on, checking another set of storage tents farther away. It would be awhile before he came back this way. It was time for me to make my move.
Looking left and right, I saw that the path was clear. I darted across the well-lit expanse and into the shadow of Blatt's tent. It was a large tent with one opening, which appeared unguarded. That would make getting inside easier. Unfortunately, however, the opening was illuminated by the tower's floodlights and within plain view of the other two tents. There was
