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The jagged opening in the rock looked especially foreboding enshrouded in fog. And dark. They paused outside and listened for a minute. It would have been easy for the ...whoever they were... to hole up inside and wait, either for them or for daylight.
Scarecrow knelt down and groped around on the ground for something. He motioned her to stand against the rock wall behind him, then tossed the rock he'd picked up into the opening before quickly flattening himself against the other side of the mouth.
They waited a full five minutes, listening closely for any sign of disturbance from within.
Silence. Scarecrow took the tan tee shirt he'd worn when they fled camp a few hours ago and hooked it on a branch of a small tree next to the cave. He slowly bent the branch downward so the shirt hung in front of the cave, hoping to draw any fire if there was someone armed and waiting who didn't fall for the distraction from the thrown rock.
He moved the shirt around slowly, as much as the branch allowed. Still nothing. He tried breaking the branch off the tree but only succeeded in bending it. Dorothy knew what he was trying to do.
"Hang the shirt on the rifle." That way it could serve as a decoy without tying up his hands with something else if he needed to return fire. "And make sure it's on single shot."
Even that could be incredibly dangerous inside the caves and would be used only as a last resort. A ricochet in such a tight space would be as lethal as a direct hit. Oh good—brain's starting to wake up, at least the self-preservation cortex or whatever psychojargon Auntie Em would use.
They crept cautiously through the opening, Dorothy keeping along the wall on one side, stopping briefly to quietly fold the emergency blanket and put it in the ammo satchel. It seemed so noisy in the oppressively silent space. Scarecrow moved quietly along the other wall. They didn't have much room to maneuver in the low, cramped space. They met at the opening to the next chamber. Again Scarecrow cautiously thrust the rifle with the tee shirt into the opening. They stopped and listened for a minute. Still nothing
.
Dorothy knelt down beside the opening and set her flashlight on the floor before switching it on and drawing back out of any likely line of ill-considered fire. Again, nothing.
She picked the light up and moved it around the chamber.
The floor of this one sloped downward enough that Scarecrow could almost stand up straight. The space itself was long and narrow, perhaps 4 by 1 meters. Definitely not the place for a claustrophobic, especially in the dark. It's like being buried alive. Her beam lit on ...something... near the back of the passage where it branched off toward the village.
"My cigarettes." She picked up the crumpled package.
"Someone's been through here. There were 4 or 5 in there when I planted it."
They both sniffed the air for any hint of smoke. It was there, but faint. This close to the mouth of the cave, the air would have freshened fairly quickly, especially with the wind.
"Not fresh. I'd say an hour ow two.." She was surprised by his observation.
"How can you tell? You don't even smoke."
"Which means I'm not nose-blind to it."
"Oh." It made sense. She sniffed a bit more, vaguely hoping the faint second-hand odor might fulfill her nicotine craving. It didn't; just made it worse.
"It's a lot like how perfume smells different over time, and how you stop smelling it if you're the one wearing it."
"Even if people three rooms away can smell you coming."
Neither had to mention Glinda to know who the other was talking about. For all her annoying little quirks, her language ability was unsurpassed. Eight languages and the ability to follow conversations in three at a time more than compensated for her apparent desire to be whatever Vogue magazine told her was chic at the moment.
"Do you think they went in further or turned back?"
"Wrong redhead. That's Em's territory." She played her flashlight over the floor of the cave, then back to the first chamber. "I don't see any butts or snuff marks, so my money's on going further. They had flashlights and we should assume they know as much about the area as we did coming in."
"Probably. But would they head for the village, do you think?"
"Again, not my territory. If they know what we're training for, they know we're interested in the Armory as well as the caves. I don't know that they'd expect us to head there in the middle of the night, so if they thought we were headed for the village, it would probably be to the police, emergency clinic, or fire station. Nothing else is open."
"Unless they know about the apartment."
"Possible, but it seemed like they were expecting everyone to return to base."
"I still can't shake the suspicion that they had inside information, or that something leaked somewhere."
Unfortunately she couldn't shake that suspicion either. "Did 'Serdeych' mean anything to you? It has to mean something to someone."
"No. Not at all. So...onward, or back?"
"Shhh!" She extinguished her light and grabbed Scarecrow's free wrist, guiding him quickly into the narrow opening of the southeast branch, away from the village. It was a tight fit, which was partly why they hadn't mapped much of that branch. In the close quarters she wasn't sure it it was her own heartbeat or Scarecrows she felt pounding as she leaned into him, as far into the crevice as she could draw herself.
Someone was coming. Several someones from the sound of it. They were moving fairly quickly and making no effort to move quietly. She'd pulled him into the fissure rather than back toward the entrance figuring they -whoever they were- were heading for the exit. There was enough dim morning light penetrating the chamber that they should be able to get at least a rough estimate of how many of them there were. She figured once they'd passed, they'd give it a few minutes and hightail it through the passages and to the village.
The Lion had told them from the beginning of the exercise that sound travels strangely in caves and that it's next to impossible to accurately determine the basic "how many and how far" because while caves are oppressively quiet when everything's still, all the surfaces made any sounds echo extensively. They'd experimented that first day, yelling "hello" for the sheer pleasure of bizarre acoustics.
While it sounded like a herd of elephants was practically on top of their position, it took close to ten minutes for the first of them to step into the hub chamber Dorothy and Scarecrow were hidden off of. They'd been using flashlights, but had extinguished them before exiting the passage. Okay, we can assume they're familiar with the cave. They know lights in here could be visible from the outside.
There were 4 of them. They stopped in the chamber rather than passing through.
"You're sure they're hers?"
"They're her brand. They're hers unless someone else imports American cigarettes and coincidentally spends time in the caves."
"Then where are they? Did we miss them in the woods? They would have stayed near the trail. Obviously they made it through the cave. Do you think they were pursued in here?"
"Not likely. They were moving slowly. 5 cigarettes would take, I don't know, 40 minutes to an hour if she smoked them continuously."
"I bet Scarecrow was thrilled about that."
"If he's with her. Nobody saw him, just her when she untied us."
That's The Lion! For once, Dorothy was happy to hear his voice.
"Yeah, he's with her." Scarecrow greeted them. "Boy are we glad to see you guys."
Various flashlights were turned back on, revealing The Lion,Toto, and two of the Munchkins.
They left the cave, grateful for the fresh air and early morning light. The patchy fog hadn't burned off yet, but it no longer made the woods look otherworldly. It looked like the beginning of a cool, crisp fall day.
Scarecrow told them about their flight and planting the cigarettes in the cave. Toto told them they'd found the first butt about half way through the passage and thought possibly it was left to mark their trail.
Dorothy recounted freeing everyone from the tents, then they both detailed everything from the moment the first shots were fired. She noticed that he'd missed the opportunity to brag about besting her in their match but wasn't about to volunteer that information herself.
The Lion and the Munchkins didn't have much to add about the attack on the base. They'd all been gathered around preparing for dinner when smoke bombs and tear gas were lobbed in from several directions. They were quickly subdued and bound in whatever tent they were closest to. After Dorothy had freed them, they regrouped at the designated spot then made for the village as soon as they heard the commotion from the camp. They all heard Scarecrow's SOS shots, but those in the village had been asleep.
I was right! Those bastards ate our dinner! Now that she wasn't distracted by survival concerns, the hunger and irritation were bubbling close to the surface again. Out of habit, she pulled out a cigarette, forgetting that her lighter was useless. Fortunately -probably for everyone- Toto had matches.
She took a long, greedy drag. Okay, one basic need met.
"Where is the rest of the team?" She noticed something in Scarecrow's voice. Suspicion maybe? After all, this location had been The Lion's idea.
"Probably near base by now. They're supposed to wait for our signal." Toto waved his walkie talkie. "Good thing we had a few extras."
"We should get moving. They were expecting us a few minutes ago." Dorothy noticed him pressing the transmit button several times.
"I just let them know to hold position. Scarecrow, how long do you think it'll take us?" Phew! Don't get paranoid... just Morse code. Just pay attention to what he's tapping.
"Fifteen, maybe twenty minutes."
His transmission matched Scarecrow's answer, but she thought she heard something not quite truthful in his voice. He's on guard too. Even if they didn't find their target, they've managed to make us suspicious of eachother.
The walk back to base was quiet. She was chilly, so she pulled the blanket -her superhero cape- back out of her pack and draped it around her shoulders. Sure wish I had Wonder Woman's truth lasso right now.
About 15 meters out, Toto stopped the group to contact the others. Dorothy and Scarecrow both watched and listened to the response. They fanned out for the approach, weapons drawn.
Silently, all twelve of the operatives assigned to the mission entered the camp. Tent flaps were cautiously opened, equipment checked for nasty surprises, and the perimeter searched for signs of the invaders. Other than the 3 sets of tracks leading toward the camp, the smashed remains of the empty whiskey bottle the men had been passing around, and the 2 weapons caches Dorothy and Scarecrow had left on their way back to camp, there was no evidence that they'd ever been there. Even the smoke and tear gas canisters had been removed. Dorothy wondered if there was some kind of clue in those canisters, and wondered what Scarecrow had done with the one he picked up after she'd handed it back to him.
"Serdeych." She let the word hang for a moment, studying everyone for some sign of recognition. Nothing. They stood silently, looking at eachother, all expecting someone to know something, anything.
"That doesn't mean anything to anyone?" she asked.
"It meant something to the guys who tied us up. They mentioned it more than once."
It didn't escape Dorothy's attention that The Lion had been the only one who heard or noticed the significance of the word. She might have thought he'd misunderstood if she hadn't used it herself to great effect.
Even The Wizard looked uncharacteristically puzzled. "Serdeych? I'll have to check my files, but I don't think I've heard the name before."
Dorothy's concern ratcheted up a few notches. There wasn't much activity, or many names, that Paul was unfamiliar with in this business.
Unknown is unfamiliar. Unfamiliar is dangerous.
While it was the first time they'd encountered the name, somehow she knew it wouldn't be the last.
Suddenly, she wasn't very hungry anymore.
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