“Conserving battery power,” Carter said as he stuffed the phone back into his backpack. In addition to the fire smoke, they could now detect a new odor wafting throughout the camp, a sweet, fragrant scent, kind of like incense.
“Maybe those guards are smoking some good stuff and we should go join them out there,” Jayden suggested, no doubt only half-joking.
“You might change your mind after you hear this,” Carter said. Then he recapped the call for Jayden, emphasizing Maddy’s warning about what the tribe might have in store for them.
“There goes my plans for a relaxing night of Z’s on the desert sands.”
“Yeah, we need to get out of here. Here’s what I have in mind.”
Chapter 28
Two hours passed while Carter and Jayden waited for everyone in camp except the guards to fall soundly asleep. Two men they felt they could handle, but the entire tribe? The time did not pass as slowly as they might have expected, since their minds were occupied with a heady mix of trepidation, excitement, critical planning, and a general fear of the unknown that would have made sleep difficult even had they allowed it. Even after the day’s exhausting activities, they were able to stay alert while at least resting by laying down in their lean-to and pretending to sleep. But in curt, whispered phrases, they lay the plans for their escape from Camp Nomad, as Jayden had dubbed it.
At first, Jayden was openly doubtful about their odds of a successful getaway. He questioned that the nomads would really be turning them in to anyone. But Carter laid out the facts: if Maddy was right, and they were planning on turning them in, it would absolutely be easier to escape now than later. Also, even if the nomads weren’t planning to turn them in — they needed to get to Africa as soon as possible to continue their search for the ark. Which ark, Carter was no longer exactly sure, but he hadn’t had time to think further on that issue; he only knew that the longer they stayed here, the longer they were giving Treasure, Inc. to make their next move, while making no move themselves. Finally, Carter pointed out that the nomads had already threatened them with violence and were in fact holding them captive against their will, decent treatment or not. Jayden reluctantly agreed that in light of all this, they would have to undertake what he termed the most “hairbrained jailbreak plan ever in the history of the world.”
Everything was ready: the gear they anticipated needing, such as the compass, flashlights, and pistol, placed in accessible places such as pockets or clipped to the outside of the pack, which still safely concealed the precious map and the satellite-phone. Boots on, clothing on, a second backpack strap improvised out of strips of cloth torn from the tent blankets so that it would stay securely on Carter’s body while in rapid motion. They were ready.
One at a time, they reoriented themselves in the lean-to so that their heads faced the exit. The guards had lapsed into less of a walk-the-perimeter routine, and more of a stand-around-and-talk, then patrol-a-little-bit-every-twenty-minutes-or-so routine. Carter couldn’t blame them, and was actually surprised they were as attentive as they were, given the circumstances.
“Next time they look in here, we go,” Carter whispered. Jayden nodded. Every twenty minutes or so one of them had taken a look into their lean-to, and not from very close. They lay there, peeking out from beneath their blankets, fully dressed and kitted out, waiting to move. Somewhat frustrating was that they could hear the guards talking, not about anything important by the tone of it, and the occasional quiet laughter, but just shooting the breeze. Carter had just begun to wonder if they’d be here all night simply waiting for them to stop talking when the sound of their voices started to come from a different direction. They were moving again.
Carter tapped Jayden on the shoulder. Almost time. When the plan was conceived the guards had mostly been apart, talking only in passing. But for the last hour or so, after everyone was fully asleep, Carter guessed, they had spent more time together, conversing, possibly smoking and sharing the wine. He preferred them to be apart, since it made for a clean one-on-one takedown for him and Jayden, very stealthy. Two men sneaking up to the same place was inherently less stealthy than two going to physically separated targets. But either way, they both knew they were capable of getting the job done.
Sure enough, they could hear the guards chatting to one another as they walked behind the rear wall of the lean-to. Carter quietly threw the blanket off of him and pointed out of the lean-to’s entrance and to their left. Jayden nodded before shedding his own blanket. No moon lit the night sky, but the campfire, which the guards periodically kept going strong by adding more wood, provided a decent amount of light throughout the camp.
Carter looked to their right, to make certain no one else besides the guards happened to be up. Seeing no one in that direction, he crept to a kneeling position and stuck his head out of the lean-to entrance. Looking left, he also saw no one, and could still hear the guards taking their leisurely stroll around the shelter.
He and Jayden exited the lean-to at the same time, Carter on Jayden’s left. He wanted to get around the corner of the shelter to be shielded from view by most of the rest of the camp, should someone happen to look out of their shelter or get up for some reason. They crept around the side of the lean-to and crouched, waiting for the pair of patrols to walk around the structure.
They were laughing softly when they walked around the side of it, one man with his head thrown back, looking up to the sky, while the other looked at him. Carter tapped Jayden on the shoulder as he sprung, the signal that it was go-time. Both ex-warriors moved fluidly and as an efficient, single unit. Jayden took the guard on the right, while Carter was responsible for the other. They had the guards in headlocks so fast the men hardly realized anything was wrong until they were having trouble breathing.
Carter knew it would only take a minor slip for their breathy gasps to turn into an audible scream, and so he looked at Jayden and nodded. It was obvious to them what they had to do. They had no desire to kill or even seriously hurt these people, they only wanted to temporarily incapacitate them so that they could be on their way. Still, there was no way to avoid some pain, and both treasure hunters were okay with that.
Simultaneously, Carter and Jayden pushed the heads of the guards into one another in swift, decisive motions that cracked their two skulls together with an audible thud. Both nomads fell to the sandy dirt like dropped laundry bags. Carter immediately put two fingers to his eyes, then pointed to Jayden and then pointed to the main camp in front of their shelter: go check to make sure no one heard that and is coming out of the tents. Jayden silently complied, and while he was creeping around the front of the lean-to, Carter dragged the first unconscious guard into their shelter. He eyed Jayden, who gave him the okay sign. No one had been alerted, at least not yet.
Carter returned for the second body. Unfortunately this man was beginning to stir, moaning softly and so Carter gave him a medium punch to the face which knocked him out cold. Then he dragged this guard into the lean-to and lay him down next to his comrade. He checked their pulses to make sure they were steady, which they were. Then he covered each with a blanket and left the shelter to join Jayden outside. Jayden looked at him expectantly and again he gave the okay sign, indicating that they were ready to proceed to Phase 2 of their hastily contrived plan.
They snuck past the far side of the camp fire, which still burned strong, sending a thick column of dark smoke high into the clear night sky. Past the visual cover of the bright fire, since while they were behind it shielded them from the view of anyone happening to peer out from the tents, they dropped to their bellies and low-crawled the rest of the way. It offered a much lower profile and was quiet. When they were behind the shelters and no longer in direct view of anyone, they stood and moved to the area behind the camp where the animals were tied for the night.