Free Jungle Kill by Jim Eldridge

followed Ngola into the hotel.The rest of his men stayed outside, laughing and jeering at Adwana and the other prisoner.
    As they watched the bandits jeering, all of the men of Delta Unit had to fight the urge to burst out of their hiding place in the jungle and settle this issue once and for all. But freeing the two villagers wasn’t their primary aim.
    ‘Think they’ll kill them?’ asked Gaz.
    ‘Not yet,’ said Nelson. ‘Alive, they’re useful. Dead, they won’t be able to give Ngola the information he wants.’
    ‘From what I heard Ngola shouting at Adwana, he’s going to let the night soften them up,’ said Mitch. ‘Spending the night in the dark, with the bad magic and the dead body of his friend next to him is bound to terrify Adwana. Ngola thinks that he will be ready to talk by morning and, if he doesn’t, he’ll kill one of them.’
    ‘Looks like our timetable’s being set for us,’ said Nelson. ‘Tomorrow, if Ngola gets his way, either the guys with the money turn up to buy Mwanga’sfreedom, or someone else turns up to have him killed. And also tomorrow morning Ngola plans to kill one of those two people who helped us, which we can’t let happen.’
    ‘So we go in tonight,’ said Tug.
    Nelson nodded. ‘We go in tonight.’

15
     
    ‘OK, I think we can say that this is going to be the situation: most of the bandits have drifted indoors, so it looks like five outside the building on guard, and all the rest inside, with Mwanga,’ said Nelson. ‘Rule one: let’s make this as quiet an assault as we can. There are about twenty-five men inside that building. If we can do this without them realising what’s going on, we should be able to get away without casualties. If we don’t get Mwanga out of here alive, the whole operation has been a waste of time and men.’
    The others nodded in agreement.
    ‘Right,’ said Nelson. ‘Let’s see what we need.’
    ‘We need to cut the power to the hotel,’ said Tug.
    Everybody nodded in agreement. No power meant no lights inside,so the men of Delta Unit, using night vision, would have an advantage.
    ‘We take out the generator just before we go in,’ said Nelson. ‘Method?’
    ‘A quiet explosive charge set off by remote control,’ said Two Moons. ‘That way we’re in control of the timing.’
    Benny jerked his thumb towards Adwana and the other villager tied to the trees.
    ‘They’ve got to be released before we go in,’ he said.
    The others nodded in agreement.
    ‘We’ll need to take out the guards anyway, otherwise they’ll present a problem when we come out,’ said Mitch.
    ‘Silent strike,’ added Nelson. ‘Silenced single-shot rifle, knife, wire, whatever.’ He pointed to the sketch plan. ‘OK, the guards are taken care of. Adwana and the other villager are released. The generator’s knocked out. Two men stay outside the building as back-up – that’ll be Benny and TwoMoons – while the four of us go in.’
    Benny and Two Moons nodded.
    ‘While you’re outside you’ll disable all the vehicles except two. I suggest you also plant plastic explosives on the other vehicles so that when we drive off you can blow them up. That way there’ll be no noise while the actual operation’s going on; just a load of big bangs as we leave.’
    Two Moons grunted in agreement.
    ‘We’ll be using two vehicles for our getaway,’ continued Nelson. ‘We know the jeep the bandits used to bring Adwana here works and has fuel, and so does the other vehicle they turned up in. So I suggest those are the ones we take.
    ‘Four of us go inside the building. Two men control the top of the stairs at ground level, making sure that the area is kept clear. That’ll be Tug and Gaz. OK?’
    Tug and Gaz nodded.
    ‘Me and Mitch go down to the basement, find Mwanga and get him out. While all that’s going on,Benny and Two Moons start up the two vehicles so they’re ready for us to jump on when we come out with Mwanga. Any questions?’
    ‘Yes,’