13.
At home in the jungles, Riddhi was a hard figure to track. There was a thin path that went from where they had each entered the thick snarl of greenery, but it was carefully snarled and tangled up in a dozen different switchbacks. An hour of silent, careful tracking covered less than a mile's worth of travel and Pendergast couldn't be absolutely certain his course was correct. He kept one eye on a basic compass, watching to be sure his sense of direction never wavered.
Movement broke the quiet jungle sounds now and again, nocturnal hoots of unseen birds and the crackle of something large moving less than a quarter of a mile away from him. There were still tigers in the deep jungle, often made restless by the incursions of illegal logging camps. Pendergast knew their smells; heavy and thick with predatory musk and rotting meat if they'd fed, but no such warning wafted its way to him and he was careful to skirt any possible hiding places for the beasts that he could identify.
As the evening crawled on and the nightsounds began to spiral louder and more shrill, he smelled distant smoke and his eyes picked out distant gleams of light along an ascending hillside. He froze in place for half the hour, assessing the distant camp and marking its location and its few small shacks on a mental map. He didn't intend to invade that night; only track, identify the possible core group, and get a concept of the surrounding terrain. Since traditional apprehension was unlikely, he considered a number of more tactical options of disposal, with an attempt to at least bring 'Siha' in while he was some approximation of alive to ensure that his crimes would go acknowledged. That would mean preparations for extraction, extra rope besides the slim cords he kept on hand, perhaps even drugs to pacify the target.
. . .
Once he had the camp's outline firmly fixed in his mind, he cautiously began to move closer, circling in around a quarter of a mile to count heads and examine their patterns. To his surprise, he found the camp activity quite low, four men remaining and two gone on into the jungle. Riddhi sat by the fire, clearly drunk and laughing at things unheard while there was no sign of Siha. Pendergast considered the possibility that this was not the main camp and found it extremely likely. A muscle twitched in his jaw and he wryly thought to himself that Tep's devas couldn't do everything for him. The question now was whether to linger, track one of these outliers and see if they led to a main location, or to return another night from another angle.
He began to withdraw, assessing the hours of the night that remained and judging them too slim. He kept silent, leaving even slower than he had arrived, and the gleam of the fire had only just disappeared from view when something crackled sharply not far behind him.
Pendergast pulled his gun in a quick, smooth motion as something heavy slammed into his side and disrupted his balance. Rapid-fire Khmer was shouted out to seek response from other crackling figures, breaking the night and causing a dozen black-outlined birds or more to flutter into the sky, screaming their offense.
There were three that he could see – the two that had left the fire were not among them. That was troubling. Pendergast's eyes widened, rapidly considering the odds and finding complete retreat from the situation best. He raised his firearm and shot at the center mass of the man that shoved into him, winging him as the man managed a life-saving jerk of his body. The man dropped back with an angry cry and Pendergast attempted to sidestep the two men that were now charging towards him. His line of fire was obscured and he ran, glancing back to see if his aim would clear.
He made it a dozen yards, spotting a short drop that, if he could take it right, would give him a precious few seconds of extra lead. As he ducked a low branch and straightened, a short wedge of rebar slammed hard into his chest and knocked out his breath. He staggered, not stopping, but then there were three – and four – and five men catching up to him with strong, grabbing hands and knocking the gun from his grip. The rebar returned, catching him in his left arm to crack at his elbow and the glittering pain took almost a second to gain control of. It was a second too long, and his balance was fully destroyed. He hit the ground and saw there were now seven men around him. They did not look surprised by a white man's intrusion.
I was trapped, he thought with growing flame. Then the seventh man thumped him hard on the temple with a short club and he was gone.
~End of Part One~