The Serpent and the Crow

Book 3: Chapter Two

Wade and Hank neared Redfern. The Chief had dismounted and tethered the horse to a tree. Hank would choose the most direct route. Wade would cover the flank. A contingent to spring an ambush. However, Hank observed signs suggesting they moved their Indian friend off through the woods.

"You certain about this?" Wade said.

"Sure, as my saggy blueberries aching from that horse ride up here."

"I'll accept it, that's pretty sure."

"I've seen this before, in Vietnam. They yanked him off here."

The police officers followed the trail. Now and then Hank would find more sign in bent branches, depressed rocks, shale transferred over long grass. He impressed Wade with his tracking skills.

The Marines attuned Hank to the natural world. He held a hand signal to Wade to halt. Although Special Forces had changed since Hank's generation. Wade was glad that hand signals had evolved little since then.

Hank saw a thin tripwire near Wade's shin. It was the first time he was close to being snared. They connected the tripwire to a claymore. Hank made quick work of disarming it and he handed it to Wade.

Hank said, "It ain't police practice. But both you and I realize this is not a regular police investigation. My bet is shit is going to get heavy. And, why waste a good claymore? Maybe send this fucker back to its owner."

Hank spotted someone splayed out in front of a cave entrance. Wade saw it too. Hank checked the flanks to see what was what. Wade approached, wary about making a cock-up rookie mistake like stepping on a boobytrap.

It was Douglas. He laid there unconscious. He heard the all-clear from Hank that signalled that nothing was lurking around to spring a trap.

Wade was careful to flip Douglas over. He had seen it in Afghanistan where downed men would act as the pressure trigger to a grenade or IED. A fellow marine would drag their brothers off to safety. Wade wedged his combat knife around Douglas. He rifled through the dirt, feeling for that solid metal response of an IED. Wade turned him around. He looked like he was pistol-whipped.

"Doug, wake up buddy. This ain't a suitable place or time to be catching Z's."

Douglas came around, looking around, disorientated.

"What the hell happened?" Wade said.

"Cortez..."

"She's alive. A few in our war party took her back to safety."

"Elmer?"

"You know, Elmer? Did he do this?"

Douglas propped himself up and shook off the worst of his symptoms.

"Where are we?"

"You tell me, buddy?"

Hank said, "Something went in here."

Wade and Douglas glanced at the cave at least it was a cave it looked to be an empty mineshaft. The rotten beams supporting the precarious rocky walls were a dead giveaway.

"Let's go. Halonie is in there," Wade said.

Hank and Wade moved towards the entrance, but Douglas remains as he was.

"Douglas, let's move."

"I can't do it."

"What do you mean you can't do it?"

Hank agreed. He said, "Doug, your daughter could be down there."

"I just can't do it."

"You were in a hole back at Owl Creek. What the fuck is the difference?" Wade said.

"We ain't got the time for this shit. I'm your superior and you're disobeying a direct order."

"This ain't the marines, Chief," Douglas said.

"Yeah, because if it was, I would kick your ass right now. I do not want to bring you up for insubordination. What the fuck is wrong with you?"

Douglas paced around, frustrated he could not conquer his fears no matter how he tried. He was not prepared to go back into any tunnel. It was the same one that held him trapped for three days as a kid.

"We're wasting time," Hank said while gritting his teeth.

"You stay here. Don't let anyone come in or out unless you know that, Dick."

Wade gave him his colt Taxes and a handful of ammo. Douglas nodded.

"When we get back," Hank said and held his tongue.

He learned that tunnel rats in Vietnam suffered the same sort of trauma, but it still pissed him off. Hank did not enjoy running into a cave network was dangerous work, but he at least thought Douglas would cowboy up for his own daughter.

Wade knew you couldn't force a man to confront their fears, especially when there were other things more deadly than the expected collapse, like the foe Wade and Hank were to meet at the end of their descent into darkness.