Rebels of Mindanao (18 page)

He pulled Elaiza along and followed the Abu Sayaf at a distance, trying not to be noticed and staying in the early afternoon shadows as the enemy attack team withdrew.

Thornton saw Ugly Maria calmly approach a parked vehicle across the street and swing her heft onto the back of the jeepney, its rusted license plate numbers further obscured by strategically placed lumps of mud. She was the last to return before the Abu Sayaf squad departed the city, heading south back to the staging area. Harold, one of Lateef's men, drove. He smoked a cigarette, blew the horn from time to time for no reason, and together they looked about the same as the other loads of people trying to get out of the general area as expeditiously as possible. They needed the jeepney for transportation into and out of Davao City, but the false image of normality could last only a short distance. Such smaller jeepneys would not normally commute a long way; it was too far for such a smoke-pumping, inefficient vehicle in normal commercial operation. Just after Toril, they pulled into the Lake Forest Resort, where they were still registered and where they held Lito, their hostage from the cement factory, who had been uncomfortably sitting on a sack of cash while the hit squad carried out the attack. Lateef had decided to keep Lito with them, at least during the time they would be active near
his village. Lito was terrified, but cooperated. Most of the time Abu Sayaf hostages were eventually released, he thought, and he had many Muslim friends in his village, including one of them who was now holding him by force. Surely this could not be a kidnapping for ransom plot, as he obviously had no money. So he couldn't understand what was going on. Abu Sayaf irregulars Jun and Bong had guarded him at the resort while the hit squad had done their business in Davao City, and the two warriors were now well-rested and ready to assume their key roles in the move on toward Digos later that night. For now, they would take the early evening guard while the returning attack team rested following their bumpy withdrawal from the attack.

Thornton had seen the loaded jeepney depart as sirens began to sound behind him. It was good that Elaiza was with him, if she could keep up. She had the iPod and could connect with the embassy to report positions and get information. He asked, “How badly are you hurt?”

“Really, not at all. Just some cuts from glass or metal that was thrown around. Not serious.” She was easily staying with him as they walked briskly.

Because he was a white guy and an obvious foreigner, Thornton was able to stop a taxi on the outskirts of the city. The driver would expect a big tip from a foreigner during a moment of such urgency; news about the blast was already on the radio. Thornton told him, “Just drive, I'll point.”

This seemed to make perfect sense to the cab driver, assuming that his passenger could more easily direct than explain where to go and to get out of the area.

When they saw the rusty vehicle of the Abu Sayaf, Elaiza took over and ordered the driver in his own dialect, “Follow the old jeepney!” The jeepney puffed its way south, with the taxi following at a distance.

When Mahir, Lateef and their squad pulled into the resort area, it seemed to be their immediate destination. Thornton and Elaiza had the taxi drop them and they left the roadside to enter the brushy foliage. They climbed the wire fence around the resort just in time to see the last two of Mahir's men disembark from the jeepney and enter a reedthatched cottage on an empty beach on the Gulf of Davao, near the center of the Lake Forest Resort.

The jeepney had entered the tourist facility unchallenged through a sentry-guarded gate, the private security for the resort. The Abu Sayaf had no need to have their own man on alert, as the resort management did not suspect them of being the terrorists the radio was reporting on. The rental cottages for tourists were directly on the black sand beach; the lagoon behind them was an artificial lake created by diverting the flow of a small stream. The lagoon blocked off the approach of any police or army unit that would come after them, but it also blocked the men's own escape. They would have to choose a more difficult route around the lake when they resumed their move back toward Digos.

Although Task Force Davao acted quickly to seal off Davao City proper, Mahir and the Abu Sayaf squad had already arrived back at the seaside resort by the time the order was implemented. Because they had checked in as tourists some days before and had gone out and later returned in the same jeepney, there was no suspicion about their movements. There had never been a question about the truck, as it was apparently part of Kadayawan. Now they would abandon the jeepney, leaving it parked in front of the two cottages they had taken for their accommodations, the bill having been paid a week in advance. The entire team would disappear when the night was darkest, after 2:00
AM
, when Lateef knew there would be no moon. The squad spent the early evening trying to rest. Events of the frantic day had strained their physical and emotional limits and had drained their energies, but none were able to sleep immediately after they returned, although resting was exactly what they needed to do. Only Ugly Maria slept, making guttural noises and slobbering saliva onto the floor mat. The others gradually nodded into slumber.

Thornton had found a patch of garden crops surrounded by vines growing on a wire fence and stomped out a clearing where he and Elaiza could observe the cottages. “You rest for a while, later it will be your turn,” he told her.

“Right, like I can just go to sleep after all this,” she answered, but curled up with her back pushed against his and closed her eyes.

Thornton planned to stay hidden there in the fast approaching night, the sun setting quickly this close to the equator. He wanted to take out
that tall dark Arab, leave him dead, but mostly he wanted the money without having to get into hand-to-hand combat with several rag-tag Muslims. He knew the U.S. had the capability to do the job with one high explosive bomb and pinpoint accuracy based on Elaiza's tracking with the TIAM. Then they could walk in and claim the bags of cash. But, after all, it was not just about the money; Thornton knew he had to get Kumander Ali too if he was going to make Charlie Downs happy.

Shortly after midnight when the world had turned charcoal black, Elaiza took her turn on guard; Thornton could doze off for a while. When she initially heard more than saw the squad of Abu Sayaf leave their beach cottages, she quickly awakened Thornton. “I believe I see the silhouette against the sea of a taller man who could be the Turk.”

Thornton squinted, “I think you're right. Let's go.”

The Abu Sayaf squad pulled out slowly, not leaving the resort through the gate, but around the lake and parallel to the Davao-Digos highway, then stealthily overland through the brush, where they did not expect to be seen after they entered the thicker growth.

Six hundred meters down the road and south of the resort, the hit squad paused. When it was quiet on the road with no traffic or pedestrians moving in either direction, they crossed all at once in a line parallel to the road, pulling along the stumbling Lito tied by a leash around his neck, with Ugly Maria tugging at the other end of the short rope.

Thornton and Elaiza waited as long as they could before crossing the road without losing direction or being seen. They paused almost too long, but the night was dark and their target moved slowly. It was easy to follow them now. The Abu Sayaf moved cautiously, but made some sounds while tramping down brush. Thornton went first, and Elaiza followed him along the new path bent through the high grass, and later through thicker underbrush and then the jungle itself. The torment of the mosquitoes and the flesh-cutting grass blades gave way to volcanic black mud swamps. When the footing turned solid again, it was a shortlived blessing, as the trek up steeper terrain drained valuable moisture from their bodies and they had no drinking water to replace lost fluids. Thornton could continue to follow the group, he supposed, but he would have to keep them in sight in the minimal ambient light.

On the outskirts of Digos in the province of Davao del Sur, about
seven miles from the resort where they had started their trek, Lateef stopped and checked his map. Thornton saw them all kneel or lie down and take up defensive positions, indicating that these soldiers were well trained and disciplined when on patrol. Elaiza took advantage of their halt to turn on her iPod again, with one earplug speaker in use. She tuned in to Moser's program as the DJ. was nearing the end of his show for the night. She waited for Schloss Code messages, prefaced by something like “For my loyal listener Luv-Luv …” It didn't matter what name he gave; the key words “My loyal listener” would indicate to Elaiza that the message was for them. The Chopin First Piano Concerto was playing. Then, after the predictable requests for Strauss's “Blue Danube,” Moser announced, “And for my loyal listener, Magda, in Bislig,” and some mumbled words in German: “Zwoa Kalb Thurgau Kalb.” It was the Schloss Code.

And later after another similar dedication, “Silvaner Fluss.”

The two messages literally were the code words for cardinal directions and the words Zwoa for Zwei, meaning “two” and Fluss for “river.”

Elaiza and Thornton listened, and figured out that Starke and the Otazas were located two miles east northeast on the south side of a river from their present location, which had been tracked and reported to Major Hayes by a text message from the embassy; Hayes had then passed it on to Moser for encoding and transmission.

“Elaiza, it's working! The Schloss Code works. Starke and your uncles also took the road south after getting our position. When we need them, they'll be near.” Thornton was relieved to know that Starke and the five well-armed, definitely motivated, and well-rested Otaza brothers would be ready to move out within minutes after he gave the order.

Looking at his map, Thornton drew a semi-circle on it with a two-mile radius from the point where the code told him STAGCOM was positioned. He was situated on that curved line, two miles on a back azimuth west-southwest from where it intersected with the point where the river crossed the highway. Thornton now knew that with Elaiza's help in communication he could direct STAGCOM. He felt reassured. The insurgents had no idea that they were being followed, so Thornton held the strategic advantage. After the message was received, Elaiza moved four paces backward on the line of approach and then forward
again, with two side paces notching the line. She was right back where she had started, but her movement was detected by the TIAM, mounted along with the GPS device on the iPod circuit board. By prior agreement with the embassy, her movement signaled, “Your message received and understood,” and “those I am following are dead ahead along this line one hundred meters.” She did not draw a circle to signify a fire mission; Thornton wanted to take out Mahir himself, with STAGCOM. No international mess, no questions.

Thornton had covered himself with a small canvas tarp he had folded into his back pocket, to keep the light of his small flashlight contained while he did map reconnaissance, and it had made him sweat even more than when he had been moving through the stagnant night air. He now folded it back up. Mosquitoes smelled his warm blood and took out their frustration on the netting hanging loosely from his safari hat.

Beside him, Elaiza was sweating. The scent of
Innocent Angel
was gone, and she had changed into the fatigue outfit she kept in her butt pack. She had covered her face with a scarf to protect herself from the thirsty insects. There was some movement of the air, but it was not a cooling breeze; it was hot, wet wind. They were thankful when Mahir began to move again, continuing south, and they followed.

When the last star began to fade, the Abu Sayaf halted. They would need to find a place to spend the day, to “lie dog,” the tactic of waiting quietly and in concealment until after dark, before continuing. The general area had been reconnoitered on their way north through it a few days before, the local inhabitants were few, and even fewer lived inland away from the road.

“Our patrol needs to find a place to survive the heat; the day that is coming soon will be hot,” Mahir told Lateef, wanting to know his tactical plan. “Maybe this high grass is not enough shelter.”

“And we will need fresh water if we are to continue, fresh, running water which should be easy to find in this region; water runs away in all directions from the summit of the big mountain. But we do not want to be walking back and forth in the open carrying water.” Lateef understood their situation and led them to the luxury of a grassy mound under a broad-leafed tree floating like an island on a sea of savanna grass with a small stream running through. It would do, and it was just in time
as they could discern recognizable forms beginning to take shape in the blackness of the dying night.

Thornton saw the spot they chose, and made a similar plan for the coming day, opting to stay near the tree line from where he could observe them, a scant distance of less than a hundred yards separating them, elevated in a copse of broad-leafed scrub brush raised a few feet above the grassy plain.

Elaiza, breathing hard, had some good news. “Look what's here. These are “paco”—salad ferns. We can strip fronds off the young and tender plants and eat them for the moisture they contain, as well as for nourishment.”

As soon as they settled in and felt concealed, they collected what they could and stuffed more ferns into a plastic bag for later, if they had to move out suddenly. “Wherever we find more growing along our way, we should eat as much as we can on the spot and collect what we can carry with us.” Elaiza set herself to the task.

During the night's trek, they had not been able to see well, and there was no opportunity to pause. Now the paco ferns would be all they would have to eat or drink for at least the next twenty-four hours, and they were thankful. Their position was tactically good. Thornton and Elaiza were located where they could observe the resting Abu Sayaf, but could not be seen themselves. However, the great disadvantage was that they were not near even a small rivulet of fresh water.