Free Death in the Desert by Jim Eldridge Page A

outset, if this mission is to go ahead, we have to get out of here on our own terms, right now. Any ideas?’
    Tug gestured at the cages they were being held in. ‘These bars are solid steel. They’re sunk into cement all the way round at the base. We don’t have any equipment we can use to cut our way out, and even if we did the guys outside would hear it and be in here in a flash.’
    ‘Yes, that’s true,’ agreed Nelson. ‘So we have to be a bit shrewd.’ He looked through the bars at Mitch, Two Moons and Gaz. ‘Any of you fellas feel like dying?’ he said, smiling.
    The three soldiers exchanged thoughtful looks, then Two Moons laughed and said: ‘I think it better be me.’
    Omari gaped at Nelson. ‘What do you mean?’ he demanded.
    ‘Wait and see, pal,’ Gaz told Omari. ‘Your job is to shout.’
    Omari looked at Gaz bewildered. ‘I don’t understand,’ he said.
    ‘You will.’ Gaz grinned. To Two Moons, he said, ‘You and me, then?’
    ‘Both of you!’ said Two Moons indignantly. ‘I’ve got too much pride to be killed by just one man.’
    ‘Right,’ agreed Mitch.
    With that, he and Gaz rushed at Two Moons. Both men leapt on the big Indian and began to punch him. Two Moons fought back, blocking their punches and delivering blows of his own, and all three men collapsed in a brawling heap on the ground.
    Nelson looked at Omari. ‘OK,’ he said. ‘This is where you start shouting.’
    Omari gaped at him, and at the three men fighting in the next cage, and suddenly he realised what was happening.
    ‘Stop it!’ he yelled. ‘Stop it! Guards! Guards!’
    The commotion brought the two soldiers on duty running in. They levelled their rifles at the three men fighting in the cage.
    ‘Stop it now!’ ordered one.
    Reluctantly, Gaz and Mitch struggled to their feet and staggered back. Two Moons lay still on the ground, his mouth and eyes open, staring at nothing.
    ‘You! Get up!’ commanded the soldier angrily.
    Two Moons didn’t move.
    Mitch stepped towards the fallen Sioux. ‘Come on, Two Moons!’ he said. ‘Game over! Get up!’
    Two Moons stayed where he had fallen, dead still.
    A worried expression crossed Mitch’s face. He bent down, and then knelt beside Two Moons.
    ‘Get up!’ shouted the soldier.
    Mitch ignored him. He felt Two Moons’ neck, then his wrist. He stood up, and now he looked shaken.
    ‘He’s dead,’ he said.
    ‘He can’t be!’ exploded Gaz. ‘I hardly touched him!’
    ‘It must have been his heart,’ said Nelson. ‘He was due to have a medical just before we came out.I knew he was hiding something from us!’
    One of the soldiers gestured impatiently at the men in the cage standing around Two Moons’ still body. ‘Get your hands up, all of you!’ he ordered.
    Mitch and Gaz obediently raised their hands.
    ‘Get back against the side of the cage!’ ordered the soldier.
    The two men did as they were told. One of the soldiers kept his gun pointed firmly at the prisoners, while the other produced a key and unlocked the door of the cage where Two Moons lay.
    ‘Put your hands on your heads and walk out in single file,’ ordered the soldier with the rifle.
    Mitch and Gaz shuffled out of the cage.
    The soldier with the rifle now turned his attention to the other cage, the one that held Nelson, Omari and Tug.
    ‘You lot,’ he commanded brusquely, ‘hands on heads and get away from the door.’
    The three men complied, moving back, awayfrom the cage door.
    ‘Right, get in there with them,’ the soldier snapped at Mitch and Gaz.
    The two prisoners hesitated.
    ‘Do it!’ barked the soldier. ‘Or one of you gets a bullet in the leg! And, believe me, I hate drug dealers just as much of the rest of the lads, so don’t give me the chance!’
    Mitch and Gaz shuffled into the other cage to join their fellow prisoners. As soon as they were in, the soldier slammed the door shut and locked it.
    ‘Right,’ he said to the other soldier. ‘Keep your eye on this