Valley of Death (Jason Trapp Book 7) by Jack Slater

Author:Jack Slater [Slater, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-01-30T16:00:00+00:00

A stiff breeze tugged at the clothing of the male villagers lined up in front of Trapp, their faces lit only by a couple of hand-toted flashlights. They ported arms of varying vintages that shared one unique thread in common: they would be seen nowhere near the armories of any modern military. Just like the men themselves. A couple of boys scurried at the front of the line, laying down a blanket and setting the remainder of the village’s stocks of weaponry and ammunition onto it.

Perhaps recognizing a flicker on his face that Trapp hadn’t meant to display, Ali spoke softly, in English so that his people wouldn’t hear.

“So many of our young men went away to the war,” he explained. “Or to make their fortunes in the cities that grew after the Americans came. Some of us come back. Usually the broken ones. And this is what is left.”

“They’ll do,” Trapp said forcefully.

They’ll have to.

In total, they numbered a baker’s dozen. Half were teenagers, scarcely old enough to carry the weapons in their arms or strong enough to keep them off the ground. Three were former military or local police, all wounded in action and discharged years earlier. The rest were old men, lean and wizened, flowing white beards dripping past their chests. These last stood proudly, like soldiers from some long-forgotten army.

Old soldiers never die…

Trapp pulled a map of the area out of the pouch on his chest. He folded it open, then refolded it so only the squares adjacent to their current location were on display. He traced a small black line up the mountainside with an extended finger.

“The road up from the valley is the only one they can take, correct?”

Ali nodded. “There are other tracks, but they are too difficult to pass in winter. The road is the only way until spring.”

“And they won’t come on foot?”

“They never have before.” He shrugged. “It’s a long way. And they are coming for our food and supplies. They won’t want to carry them down the mountainside on their backs.”

“Good point,” Trapp said, tapping the map as he turned the problem over in his head.

“What’s your plan?”

Since he hadn’t yet arrived at one, Trapp thought out loud. “Our problem is we need to capture their trucks, not just destroy them. So we can’t simply catch them in an ambush, which is what I would have preferred. The boy you sent down to the town, where is he?”

Ali said something in Dari, and the child rushed over. He looked up at Trapp, nervous but eager to please, his hands knotted at his waist.

“What is it you want to know?” Ali asked.

“How many trucks did he see? How many men? And how were they armed?”

Ali relayed the question and conversed in rapidfire Dari with the child. He nodded several times, his face becoming more ashen with every word that escaped the boy’s mouth.

“Half a dozen pickup trucks,” he said. “Maybe twenty men. He doesn’t know what kind of weapons they had.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.