Joe said, “The camera recorded that two hours after our ‘local’ bad guys passed by, so we’ve got one group about an hour back and the mercs two hours behind them.
We sat there talking quietly. “So, how do you want to play this, Colt?” Dimitri asked. “We’ve still got two days before we get to Tamara’s village.” Tamara was the chief of the village we had met the elders at on our last visit to the mountains. “Do we really want to lead these guys there?”
“No, but if we get into a protracted confrontation with them that could give the mercs time to catch up, then what?” Doc asked.
“No telling what the outcome would be if that happened,” O’Reilly added.
“Yeah, at the very least, we have five days before we even get close to finding the city of the gods that the elders talked about, so I’m open to suggestions. I don’t relish the idea of having to contend with these guys for the next five days,” I said.
Joe had been quiet, obviously considering options before speaking, and when he did speak, it was with a furrowed brow.
“So, we have two situations to deal with. One, what do we do about the bad guys, and two, can we keep Tamara’s village safe from them?” He paused and then continued, “On the second point, I remember from our first trip to the village that we followed a section of the Inca Road for a bit and then turned uphill on a small path that led to the new trail that took us to Tamara’s village. Remember, we asked Felipe how far the stone road went, and he said for miles. I think it runs parallel to the trail that took us to the village. I can use the GPS to confirm that since I have our original route loaded. So, I believe we could continue on the Inca Road until we are safely past Tamara’s village and then head up to intersect with the trail that leads out of his village and further into the mountains.”
Joe handed me his tablet. “We can follow the Inca Road until we are about here,” he said, pointing to a spot beyond the village, “and then turn toward the path that leads out of it. We should not come anywhere near the village. We could bypass it completely.”
“That sounds like it might work; good job. But I was hoping to speak to the elders again to see if we could get more precise directions to the village they abandoned.”
“We already have that,” Doc said, beaming, as he pulled his notebook from his pack and held it up. “I asked them about that in our initial interview, and they gave it to me. All we have to do is use our maps, start at Tamara’s village location, and plot out, as best we can, a route from their description. I don’t think they could give us any more than I already have.”
“And then we can plot an intersecting route from the road to that route, using the GPS and our satellite images,” Joe said, “which brings me back to my first point, the two groups of bad guys. From what I see on the mapped-out route, we have about three hours or so before we hit the stone road. What if we created a roadblock of some kind that would slow the Brotherhood group down enough to allow the Vatican mercs to catch up with them? If the mercs are as well trained as we are led to believe, then I’ll bet they’re traveling faster than the Brotherhood, and they have closed that initial two-hour gap that was between them.”
As we sat in the dark, digesting the beginnings of our new plan, a sneaking feeling of confidence began building inside of me. This could work, I thought.
Dimitri piped up, “I seem to recall some narrow trails we had to traverse before we got to the road.”
“Yeah,” O’Reilly said, “almost like small gorges with vertical rock walls on each side; I remember those.”
“I could cause a rockslide that would close one of them off and really slow down the guys behind us. It wouldn’t stop them, but it would surely slow them down while they figured out how to get through.”
“And in the meantime, our Vatican mercs could catch up with them, and they could have the confrontation we are hoping for. To what end, I have no idea, but that could at least give us more time to extend our lead and potentially thin the ranks of our pursuers in both groups.”
Reggie chimed in, “When we get to the turnoff you used on your first trip, we have to make sure they can see that our trail indicates we are continuing to follow the Inca Road. When I followed you guys before, I remember missing it and having to backtrack to find it when I didn’t see any sign of you continuing on the road. It’s easy to miss, so that’s a good thing.”
“All right, let’s check on our Brotherhood friends. Joe, pull up the last trail cam we put out.”
He looked at the screen glowing eerily in his lap. “Nope, nobody has passed by, so hopefully, that means they stopped for the night before they got there.”
“Okay, so, here’s the plan; we camp here for the night with guards posted for three-hour shifts, watching that last camera. If there is no movement, then we leave at first light. If we get movement, then we load up immediately and move on. Tomorrow, Dimitri, you find the best choke point to create the rockslide and make it happen, but we want as small a boom as possible to get the job done. No
