Knowledge Is Power Is Time Is Money ₪₪₪ ONE SHOTS!

Rescue A la Ambrose

She's still not returned!

It has been two hours, forty-seven minutes and three seconds since she disappeared into the night for one of her 'secret' shooting practice sessions when she thinks Karim and i are asleep.
She usually only takes off for an hour and a half, give or take twenty or so minutes.

She still isn't back!

Something is wrong.

I shot out of my hammock already striding towards where Karim lay in his, just out of sight of camp.

He heard my approach.

'Sahib!' He stumbled out of his hanging and came to attention as well he could. 'Sahib, is something wrong?'

'Yes. Pack everything now.' I strode away back to my hammock and disasembled everything as quickly as was possible and did the same with Mr Lintons.

Mr Linton? Really? At a time like this? What a waste of time and effort!

I set out in the direction i watched her go not three hours ago. Why had i waited so long to go looking for her? Why had i let her leave my sight at all?

Because she would have found another way. Thats why.
And probably a more dangerous one at that.

Inwardly rolling my eyes, as i would never waste my time with actually doing it, i marched on till i saw the rifle shells littering the spot she had been practising. Spying her makeshift targets ahead of me, i realised how precise the grouping of her shots were becoming. Against my will i felt my chest swell slightly with pride.

Stopping the absurd emotion from taking over completely i followed the tracks left on the jungle floor.

Wasn't i against the whole idea in the first place? I didn't want her to know how to shoot! Its just another excuse for her to run into danger! The current situation could attest to that!

Karim following in blissfully obedient silence. Something becoming slowly but consistantly rare since she had shown up with her poor manners and unruly ways. She was slowly influencing my most loyal and once most obedient employee to start talking back to me! Which although displeasing, made a muscle in my cheek twitch up but before it contorted my face into a half grin i clamped down on it.

Karims sudden intake in breath brought me out of my thoughts.

'Sahib! There has been a struggle here. Look at this patch of dirt.'

I stiffened at this information and retreated to where Karim was indicating. I couldn't read the ground, thats what he was for after all, but i could see what he was talking about now that i was looking for it.

Clear signs of more than one person were visible and trail lines showed that someone had been dragged away from the area. These dissapeared abruptly about a meter away from where they began.

'What was she doing out here this late and on her own?' i heard Karim mumble to himself as i strode forward in the direction the tracks lead off too.

'What do you think?' Was my curt reply.

'Of course, Sahib. My appologies for asking such a silly queation, Sahib.'

'Indeed.'

Thats when i spotted more tracks. These were foot prints on the still moist jungle mud. Indicating not one man but several heading in a western direction away from our former camp site.

We followed this trail for an hour and five minutes exactly. Thats when the light of a dozen tiny torches started flickering between the leaves and tree trunks of the forrest.