Major Mix-up
By: AliasCWN
Chapter 3
"This is as far as we go." Captain Kaufman came to the rear of the truck to wish the Rat Patrol luck on their mission. "We're headed back to our base and a nice leave of absence. Anyone who saw you will be shipping out for the next week to avoid any gossip leaking. I guess we can thank you for our leaves."
"You're welcome." Troy grinned as his mood improved when told they would be leaving the tight confines of the truck. He hated to be constricted in his movements preferring the open jeeps to the closed trucks. He would suffer the dust to feel the wind in his face and the sun on his back; not that dust didn't find its way into the trucks to choke anyone unfortunate enough to travel that way.
"You and your men are to get out here and wait for your new guides." The captain continued. "Did you get my message about these guys being dressed as Arabs?"
"Yes sir, thanks for the heads-up."
"They'll have extra clothing for you. If they don't, they're the wrong Arabs." The captain added helpfully.
"That helps a lot." Troy growled.
The captain laughed. "You're armed now Sergeant, but if I recall, you did all right before you had weapons."
"We got lucky."
"Maybe we all did." The captain sobered. "I like Lieutenant Todd. Make no mistake; headquarters is going to hear about this failure to communicate."
"We should have been told." Troy repeated.
"We're kind of even though Sergeant." The officer replied. "No one told us how good you were and we walked into that blind."
Troy nodded, knowing that the officer wasn't to blame. "We appreciate the weapons and the information on our new guides."
"We're leaving now but we'll drive slowly." The officer offered. "If we hear any shots, even one, we'll be back to check on you."
"Thank you Captain, hopefully that won't happen."
"I hope not Sergeant but we'll drive slowly for the first few miles just the same."
Troy and the others hid in the rocks along the trail and watched the truck and patrol cars drive away. Always cautious, they searched the hills and area around them for any sign that the truck was being watched.
"They left us one canteen Sarge." Hitch held up the single canteen they had been allotted.
"We'll make it last as long as we can." Troy decided. He urged his men to climb higher on the slope so they had a better field of view. As they reached a cluster of rocks near the top of the hill they took cover. "We don't know how long we're going to be here so we'll take turns on watch."
"That won't be necessary, we won't be here long." Moffitt answered. As the others turned to look at him he pointed to a small group of riders in the distance. The Arabs were making no attempt to stay out of sight.
"Eight men, eight horses." Tully counted. "Are you sure they're our guides?"
"They changed course to ride right past us." Moffitt answered.
"Stay out of sight." Troy ordered.
Moffitt studied the riders as they got closer. While all were male, some were older than the others. The horses were fresh, suggesting that they hadn't traveled far since their last rest stop. He wondered if they had been camped nearby awaiting the arrival of the Allied team. He got his answer a short time later when the riders stopped at the base of the hill.
All eight riders dismounted in the sheltered clearing where the truck had dropped off the Allies. The younger riders held the horses as the older men searched the ground where the truck had stopped.
"Sergeant! Sergeant!"
Troy looked at Moffitt and motioned for him to stay put. Crawling to the other end of the rock cluster, Troy rose slowly to his feet.
"That's me." Troy called with his rifle at the ready.
The Arabs began to walk toward him. They seemed surprised to see the rifle. "We were told that you would be unarmed."
"Change of plans." Troy smiled. "I felt naked."
The Arab looked confused at first, turning to his companion for an explanation. After a brief comment from his companion he began to smile and nodded at Troy. "Very well Sergeant, we have robes for you and your men, if you will cover your uniforms we will go."
"Go? On what?" Troy asked as he looked pointedly at the horses.
The Arab followed his gaze and frowned. "We were assured that you knew how to ride."
"We do." Troy answered. "But there seems to be a shortage of horses."
The Arab smiled and nodded his understanding. "Four of our young men will be staying behind. You and your men will take their mounts."
"We can't just leave them here." Troy argued.
"There is a camp a few miles from here." The Arab leader answered. "They will stay out of sight today and walk to the camp after it gets dark. If we were spotted we could not be caught leading extra horses. That would have raised too many questions. Our young men will blend in with the others in the camp and no one will notice them."
"That makes sense." Troy admitted. "Somebody was using their head." He turned and called the others down. They quickly covered their uniforms with the Arab robes and mounted the waiting horses.
The four young Arabs who had given up their mounts began to erase all of their tracks as soon as everyone was mounted. They were still at it the last time Troy looked back.
"May I ask where we are going?" Troy rode his horse beside the leader, far enough back to show respect but close enough to talk.
"There is a town about a day's ride from here." The Arab answered. "It is my understanding that you will be meeting someone there."
"What's there?"
"The Germans have set up a base just outside of the town. They have been adding troops and machines to the base for the last two weeks. There are numerous rumors about what they have planned. I was led to believe that you and your men would go in and discover what it is they are planning."
Troy nodded. That fell within range of the team's skills. He hated going into an operation blind. He would have preferred that they be told ahead of time what was expected. He suspected that this operation had been put together in a hurry and one hand didn't know what the other was doing. It was looking like they might need to do a lot of last minute improvisation.
The part he couldn't understand was all of the elaborate plots to get them to the base. Just giving them the jeeps and letting them drive would have sufficed. He understood the rush, but the plans didn't appear to have been very well coordinated to his eye. The lack of communication was evident all around them. A map and two jeeps would have been all they really needed.
"Are they expecting trouble?"
The Arab slowed his horse to look at Troy. "Didn't they tell you? The last team they sent in didn't come back."
"So that's a yes." Troy growled. "When was this?"
"Four days ago."
"Any idea what happened to them?"
"They were caught." The Arab replied. "The Germans shot them in front of the whole town as a warning to anyone who would offer refuge or help to their enemy." He watched Troy for a reaction.
"I guess we don't want to get caught then."
"I would think not." The Arab replied with a smile.
Troy wondered where he had acquired his language skills and his sense of humor. The old man fell silent and the sergeant was left to process the new information. He let his horse drop back until he rode beside Moffitt.
"Did you catch any of that?"
"All of it actually."
"So we're the second team and they are probably expecting us."
"That sounds logical."
"All of these precautions are starting to make more sense." Troy continued.
"It may also explain the problems we've had." The Brit suggested.
"What do you mean?"
"It would seem that the plans to get us here were made rather hurriedly if the first attempt failed only four days ago. They pushed it through so quickly that they failed to consider all of the possible problems involved. That would explain their failure to warn us about some of the lengths they have taken to fool the Germans."
"Like the fake capture?"
"Failing to arm us may have been someone's attempt to correct a problem they realized existed too late to rectify."
"You think someone thought the fake Germans would be safe as long as we weren't carrying weapons?"
"Precisely." Moffitt nodded.
"Captain Kaufman plans to correct that assumption the minute he gets back to base." Troy grinned.
"That still leaves us with a question." Moffitt replied soberly. "What other surprises do they have in store for us?"
"I've been thinking about it. We're going to need a lot more information before we try getting onto that base."
"Pump our guides?"
"Do you think they know anything useful?"
Moffitt shrugged. "I can find out."