Able.Team.06.Warlord.of.Azatlan.1983 by Pendleton Don

Author:Pendleton, Don [Pendleton, Don]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0100-12-31T22:00:00+00:00

10

Wheeling against the sky, the Cobra gunship dropped down to treetop level. The ripsaw sound of mini-Gatlings firing six thousand rounds a minute of 7.63 NATO struck a particular fear in Gadgets and Blancanales. During the Vietnam War, they had seen the mini-Gatlings of gunships reduce People's Army of Vietnam soldiers into nauseating heaps of chopped flesh and rags. Now, in the Sierra de Chuacus of Guatemala, a Cobra came at them.

Fire flashed from the gunship's rocket pods.

But the rockets exploded three hundred yards downslope. Gasoline flames rose into the sky.

"It's Luis they spotted!" Blancanales shouted out. "Not us. They're hitting the cars."

"Time to make distance." Lyons broke into a jog.

Laboring against gravity and thin oxygen, they force-marched uphill. They followed woodcutter trails overgrown with grass. Behind them, the Cobra ripped into the mountainside again and again with its mini-Gatlings. Flames sent a black column of smoke into the clear morning sky.

The ridge crest offered a vista of the valley. They dropped their packs and found concealment. Binoculars revealed the Cobra's markings. On the gray-painted fuselage, the black letters stood out: UNO.

From the mountains to the west, gray troop trucks raced into the valley in a cloud of dust. One truck stopped to offload a platoon of gray-uniformed soldiers. Two other trucks cut across the fields, their wheels leaving deep ruts.

"The goons on the road are the blocking force," Blancanales told Lyons. "The other two squads will sweep down from the hills. We have to watch for troopships dropping ambush teams up ahead of us."

Circling the flaming truck and car, the Cobra fired two more rockets. Metallic fire enveloped the hillside.

Gadgets whistled. "They ain't messing around. White phosphorous."

"Well, sports fans," Lyons ended their minute of observation, "we're wasting time. Think Luis got away?"

Blancanales shook his head. "Ashes to ashes."

They left the ridge crest. Following overgrown sheep trails along the south face of the mountain, they left the Cobra and the burning forest miles behind. The pines grew thicker. Clouds swept over the mountain slopes. Able Team walked from brilliant midday sunlight to swirling mist to cool shadowy forest. Like flames in the half-light, the red and pink and soft purple of the orchidlike flowers called Bromeliad graced branches above the trail.

Walls of black volcanic stone stopped them. Hiking north, they returned to the ridge crest that overlooked the valley of Azatlan. They crouched in a tangle of ferns to consider their next move.

Lyons pointed to the valley below them. "If we follow that road..."

"Unomundo's meres will spot us," Blancanales told him.

Lyons offered another idea. "If we can find a trail up those cliff faces, we might come down behind the base. It only took a few minutes for his troops to show up once they got the alarm. I figure the base is maybe five miles to the west. What's the vote? We climb?"

Gadgets nodded. "Beam me up, Scottie, I'm tired of walking."

Laughing, Able Team searched for a trail. When they found the pathway leading up the cliffs, what they saw stopped their jokes.

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