Free THERE BE DRAGONS by Peter Hallett Page A

standing with his back facing Stephens.
    Jackson was hurling his chow onto the rough terrain.
    Maxwell was stood in front of Cook taking pictures.
    Jacobs was speaking frantically into the radio handset Buttons had handed him.
    The Doc was injecting Cook with morphine.
    “Repeat: Private Cook has been hit by a Malay Gate!” Jacobs shouted down the radio. “He tripped the booby trap and has been skewered by the spikes. The Doc is administering morphine. It doesn’t look good. Get some engineers up here now, this place is crawling with booby traps. Repeat … get some Sappers here now! We are located at …”
    Stephens passed by Jacobs and Buttons. Jacobs’s words fell into the background.
    Spikes had skewered Cook. They were fixed to a six-foot bamboo post. He was dead. Pinned up into a standing position.
    “What are you doing?” Stephens screamed at Maxwell.
    “I was—”
    Stephens grabbed the camera from Maxwell’s hands. The cord around Maxwell’s neck snapped. Stephens opened the back of the camera and removed the film. It unrolled and fluttered to the jungle floor.
    “Hey, you can’t do that!” shouted the reporter.
    “I just did!” Stephens pointed at Maxwell. “You need to stay away from me! You understand? You’re now on my shit-list. And that ain’t a good place to be.”
    Maxwell swallowed. “Sure.”
    Stephens turned back to Cook’s body. The Doc was now leaning on the dead man’s shoulder, exhausted from his work. “Get him down, Doc.” Stephens patted the Doc on the shoulder. “Jacobs, I need a word.”
    Jacobs and Stephens walked away from the men just as Diaz exited the tunnel. “What happened?” he asked.
    They both ignored him and moved out of earshot.
    “There was nothing I could have done for that man, Sergeant. I warned them to not touch anything,” Jacobs said.
    “You’re right,” said Stephens.
    “Command has given me new coordinates. We’re on ambush tonight. In the morning we move out to search a village.”
    “Okay, but at the moment I couldn’t care less about ambush,” Stephens said.
    “You wanted to speak to me?” asked Jacobs. “Make it quick. The chopper will be here to pick Cook up soon, I need the men to pop smoke.”
    “What was you doing sending Diaz in that hole?” Stephens said through gritted teeth.
    “We heard a shot,” said Jacobs.
    “I tugged on the rope. Cage knew I was safe.” Stephens pressed forward.
    “I wanted to make sure, I didn’t want to lose my sergeant.” Jacobs took a step back.
    Stephens took a step forward. “You almost got Diaz killed, we coulda lost two good men today instead of just one!” The sergeant placed a finger on Jacobs’s forehead. “Think, will you?”
    Stephens turned from Jacobs and shouted orders. “Jackson, get ahold of yourself! I know you two were boyfriends, but we need to pop smoke for the chopper. Get on it!”
    Jacobs breathed a sigh of relief. Stephens heard.
    “LT,” said Diaz. “I need a word.”
    “Make it quick, Private.”
    “I had a good look around in the tunnel, it’s free of enemy. Well, free of living enemy. It was a place to bring the wounded. The room was full of hammocks containing dead NVA. Nothing unusual about that, except one of the men looked to have been attacked by an animal. Bitten. I also found some medical records. It said a dragon had attacked him. I just thought you should know. Just in case we run into a dangerous creature out here.”
    Jacobs lost the small amount of composure he was holding on to. He screamed into Diaz’s face. “I have enough to be dealing with here, Private! I don’t want to be hearing stories about mythical animals!”
    Stephens smiled at that moment.
    “Yes, sir,” said Diaz to Jacobs.
     
    • • • • •
     
    That night, back at the LZ, Jacobs was stood with Buttons on the edge of the perimeter. Their faces illuminated red from a flashlight Jacobs was using to view his map.
    “Okay, that’s the route,” Jacobs said as he ran his