Free Jungle Kill by Jim Eldridge Page A

said Mitch. ‘Although it’s more of a concern than a question. The generator.’
    ‘What about it?’ asked Tug.
    ‘Trust me, in this country those generators are always breaking down.’
    ‘So?’ asked Benny.
    Nelson cursed. ‘Damn!’ he said. ‘Good thinking, Mitch!’
    Gaz frowned, puzzled. ‘OK,’ he said. ‘Maybe I’m not the brightest penny in the box …’
    ‘Torches!’ explained Nelson with a groan. ‘If the generator keeps breaking down, they’ll have powerful torches ready.’
    ‘And our night-vision goggles will be more of a hindrance than a help,’ added Two Moons.
    Bright light from a torch was the worst enemy of night-vision goggles. Even the smallest torch blinded anyone wearing night vision.
    Two Moons turned to Mitch and grinned. ‘Yeah! Good thinking, Mitch.’
    ‘You’d all have made the connection,’ said Mitch, shrugging.
    ‘But only when someone started pumping bullets into us while we’re blind,’ Two Moons grunted.
    ‘OK, so either we make sure the bandits don’t suddenly start waving torches at us, or we go in without night vision, just ambient light,’ said Nelson.
    ‘We could lock them up,’ suggested Gaz. He pointed to the receivers, which were still picking up sound and vision. ‘It looks to me that quite a few of them are in the rooms we bugged.’
    ‘And how do we lock them up?’ asked Mitch.
    Gaz grinned, produced his small pack of burglar tools and opened it. ‘Lock-picks, pal. They can be used to lock a door as well as unlock it.’
    Benny looked doubtful. ‘It’s risky,’ he said. ‘For one thing, we don’t know if any of the doors still have locks on them, let alone whether they’ll actually work.’
    ‘It’s worth a try,’ said Nelson.
    ‘If we can’t lock the bandits in, we’ll use flash bangs,’ said Tug.
    Flash bangs were stun grenades that produced intense white light and an incredibly loud noise when they exploded.
    Nelson looked doubtful. Everyone knew what he was thinking. The noise would alert Ngola and the other guards, and once that happened it would be an open fire-fight inside the hotel.
    ‘OK,’ said Nelson. ‘Flash bangs are a back-up. But only use them if you have to. That’s it. Anything else?’
    ‘Once we’re away, where do we meet up?’ asked Tug.
    ‘Somewhere along the line,’ said Nelson. ‘Keep on the main road. We’ll find each other.’
    ‘And getting out of the country?’ asked Benny. ‘We’ve already said we can’t trust anyone. Not even our own side.’
    Nelson nodded thoughtfully. ‘I’m working on that,’he said.
    ‘Will you have finished working on it by the time we go in?’ asked Benny.
    Nelson grinned. ‘Maybe. Maybe not,’ he said. ‘But hopefully it’ll be sorted by the time we need to get out of the country.’

16
     
    Darkness fell.
    Delta Unit lay ready in the long grass, equipped for a night assault: black Kevlar body-armour, full-face balaclavas beneath their protective helmets, night-vision goggles ready to be slipped over their faces, assault rifles with silencers and laser sights.
    The three bandits guarding the front had given up any pretence of being a military fighting force and were sitting on the ground playing dice and drinking from bottles. The labels on the bottles looked as if they were half torn off.
    ‘Some kind of local hooch,’ whispered Mitch. ‘If we’re lucky, the guys inside will be drinking it as well. A few bottles of that and they won’t be able to walk, let alone hold a gun.’
    ‘Benny and Two Moons, you take out the guards at the back and prepare the generator as we planned,’ said Nelson. ‘Me, Tug and Gaz will take the guards at the front. Mitch, you’d better be the one who frees Adwana and tells him what’s going on. We don’t want him freaking out and giving the game away.’
    Benny and Two Moons slipped into the darkness, heading for the back of the hotel.
    Mitch slid along the ground towards the trees where Adwana and the other