Whoever it was, he was leading Decker due west, directly away from the pit. Harvath was pissed off at her all over again. What was she doing? He could not have been clearer with her. Damn it. She seemed determined to get all of them killed, including herself.
Walking off, though, was soon no longer the worst part. Two hundred meters into their hunt, Eddie picked up on a third set of tracks. Decker was being followed.
Ash signaled for them to split up. He took Simon and Mick into the jungle to flank, while Harvath and Eddie stayed on Decker’s trail and closed the gap with whoever was following her.
Despite his size, Eddie moved with incredible speed. He ran with his lips pulled back, his jet-black Van Dyke highlighting two sharp canine teeth that made him look like some kind of giant vampire.
While Harvath was tripped up twice along the overgrown path, Eddie never once lost his footing. It was like watching an enormous jaguar tear through the jungle.
And then, out of nowhere, he put on the brakes, thrust his left hand behind him, and signaled for Harvath to stop.
Harvath did as he was ordered and waited while Eddie surveyed something in front of them. Finally, he waved Harvath up to join him.
Cradling the shotgun he had taken from LC1, Harvath crept up to where Eddie was on his stomach peering through the foliage.
Through a quick series of hand signals, the Brit relayed to Harvath what he had seen. He parted a cluster of ferns and rolled to his left so Harvath could peer through.
In the distance, was a small village. There couldn’t have been more than ten, perhaps, thirteen individual huts, as well as a smattering of animal pens and some sort of communal pavilion.
“Which one?” Harvath whispered.
“The big one,” Eddie replied. “Three o’clock.”
He had a small monocular with him and he handed it to Harvath so he could surveil the village.
After the pavilion, the hut was the largest structure in town, which wasn’t saying much. There were pens, but they were empty. There were no animals, no signs of life at all. No children, no smoke from cook fires, no nothing. It was a ghost town.
“Are you positive?” Harvath asked.
Eddie nodded.
“Can you lase it for Ash?”
The man nodded and hailing his boss over the radio, relayed everything to him. He then removed a black tube the size of a half-smoked cigarette and depressing its switch, painted the roof of the big hut with a tiny green laser. Ash radioed back and confirmed the target. Now, all they had to do was come up with a plan.
Harvath snapped a mental grid over the scene and surveyed the village one slice at a time. He was trying to figure out two things — first, where was everyone? and second, was this a trap?
What looked like heavy tire tracks on the edge of the village helped bring the picture quickly into focus.
Handing the monocular to Eddie, he showed him what to look for. Once the man had seen it, he radioed Harvath’s plan to Ash, who agreed. Stepping out of the jungle, Harvath and Eddie cautiously made their way down to the village.
There was sparse cover and concealment, and they took turns moving and providing overwatch for each other. In any other situation, exposing themselves by running through so much open space would have been insane, but the circumstances offered no other alternative.
When they made it to the village, they pulled up at the first hut, flattened their backs against the wall, and took several heavy, but quiet gulps of air.
Once their breath had begun to return, they tried to listen beyond the thudding of their hearts and the blood rushing in and out of their ears. Was there any sound coming from inside that hut?
They waited and listened. After enough time had passed, Harvath directed Eddie to the hut’s lone window on that wall as he made his way forward in anticipation of hitting the front door.
At the edge of the wall, Harvath flashed Eddie the five-second signal and then disappeared from view. Coiled tighter than a jack-in-the-box, Eddie began counting backward, ready to pop into the window.
Harvath slipped beneath the hut’s front window and positioned himself outside the front door. As he mentally kept track of the countdown, he placed his hand against the door and applied a whisper of pressure. This was a village in the Ituri rain forest. It was amazing there were even doors. He didn’t expect to find any locks.
When his countdown hit zero, he applied pressure against the door. Encountering no resistance, he swung it open wide and spun inside. At the same moment, Eddie and his AK-47 announced themselves via the window.
The hut, as they had expected, was empty.
Harvath did a quick reconnaissance, while Eddie extricated himself and took up a defensive position outside.
There was nothing at all to tell Harvath what had happened. Everything seemed to be normal. As best he could tell, the family in this hut had been living their lives the way they normally did until something had happened, and they had all disappeared. Seeing a doll lying in the corner, Harvath corrected himself. The people of this village hadn’t disappeared. They had been cremated.
Death dripped from the thatched rooftops of this village. The sooner they could get Decker and get the hell out of here, the better he was going to feel.
Stepping back outside, he waved Eddie up to the next hut and let him clear it.
It was empty — as was the one after that, and the one after that. The only hut that appeared to have any life was the big one, and that was where Eddie had seen a man rushing a woman, who they all believed to be Jessica Decker, inside.
One hut away from the big one, Harvath and Eddie stopped and crouched down.
“I guess we now know why the burn pit was so large,” the Brit said.
It didn’t make any sense. “Why would they need to take out an entire village?”
“Maybe they were all infected.”
Harvath hoped that wasn’t true. Not that it made any difference. These people were all dead. Their children were dead. Those were the little skulls they had seen back at the pit. There might be even more, just waiting to be uncovered. The idea of going through that little lake of ash with a rake was more than Harvath could take.
He held up three fingers, counted down, and spun into the hut. It was empty. Just like he knew it would be. With this side of the village secure, they waited inside for Ash and Mick to come down and join them. Simon would remain out of sight in the jungle to provide overwatch.
Once the rest of the team arrived in the hut, Ash deferred to Harvath.
“She’s your colleague,” he said. “How do you want this to go down?”
It was a sign of respect. Technically, she was his colleague and he should be the one making the call as to her recovery.
Harvath gave Ash a nod. “Okay,” he said. “Here’s how we’re going to do this.”
The improvised flashbang grenade Harvath had fashioned created more bang than flash, but it did the trick. Before the occupants of the hut knew what was happening, the entry team was already inside.
Harvath moved to cover Decker while Ash and Mick took down the two tangos.
No sooner had Harvath gotten to her, than she began screaming.
“No!” she cried. “Stop!”
She fought to push Harvath out of the way and get around him.
He grabbed her wrist and tweaked it, just enough to get her attention.
“That hurts,” she protested.
“Good,” he replied. “Now back up.”
It wasn’t a request.
When she failed to move, he applied more pressure. The pain brought her up onto the balls of her feet, and he stepped her out of the hut, to allow Ash and Mick to finish securing the two inside.