The Path Changes the Traveler Ch. 04

Darotai couldn't believe it.

"Azimuth now twenty one.

Range: two hundred.

Aim for either the bottom of the turret - no, that will be too hard. Just aim for the side where the wheels are, but not too low. Right in the middle. Wait until I say."

The second tank pulled ahead even more before it stopped again and Darotai stared as the top hatches opened and the two commanders began to talk to each other.

Darotai began to smile as she looked into her optics. "They are pointing at the hillside and the thickets there. One of them thinks that we are half a kilometer away!"

But then the other commander pointed at the darkness of the front of the building with a shrug. That forced things for Darotai.

"FIRE!" Darotai yelled and the lead tank rocked with the impact of their shot. They couldn't see much for the smoke and the dust, but Junah saw flames for a moment through the smoke.

"Azimuth: twenty-six."

"I cannot see anything!" Junah yelled up.

"Just turn the gun as I say, my friend," Darotai called over calmly, "We need another number one quickly!"

Junah relayed it to Morgan who dropped the smoking empty casing and grabbed the next shell from Priest. Darotai watched and she thought that for someone who had never done this, the American was doing well and working quickly, slamming the new round into the breech before he looked over and their eyes met; the three women and the man.

She'd never seen a man like him from this close before and really, she didn't know much more than her feeling that she liked him. What struck her were his eyes.

She'd never seen green eyes before either, but that wasn't the thing to her. They looked as though they burned with their strange green light. She knew the signs. He wasn't afraid and more than that - he was enjoying this, though he couldn't see what was happening outside. It was enough for her to appreciate.

Darotai turned her eye back to her sight optics.

Nothing happened for a moment and she began to talk to the tank commander inside the remaining tank as though he could hear her. He wasn't even swinging his gun toward them yet.

"Why so shy now, lover?" she chuckled and then added a softly muttered expression.

Not getting it, Junah asked.

Darotai looked a little embarrassed, "Never mind. I was calling him a coward in my language.

I wish for him to think that he still has some advantage over this situation if he thinks that we are trapped when really, he should be thinking of reverse gear to get off the road. I would pull away and shoot at this building from the side where we cannot see or turn our gun.

If it happens, we will come out and turn to face him and we will have to shoot very fast then. And two hundred meters makes it easy for my lovely new gunner, Junah."

"Yes, but what does it mean, what you said?" Junah asked.

Darotai shrugged as she looked over, "It makes little sense to someone who is not Kunama. It means 'you cannot even catch a one-eyed Abyssinian'.

See?" she smiled, "No sense. But to someone where I am from, it is an insult."

"I think that I understand it," Junah nodded, "but you must know that before there was an Ethiopia, my land was called Abyssinia, yes?"

Darotai nodded, "Yes. I have heard this. But it is in the past, I hope. I spoke a very old saying that still lives in my country. And you did ask me, Junah. I have no wish to offend you, my friend. I am sorry if I did."

Junah laughed, "I take no offense, Darotai. It is my country no longer."

She grinned, "I was really only curious about your comment over your shy lover. I thought the next part was something pleasantly dirty.

THAT was what I wished to hear about."

She sighed a little sadly, "I am disappointed now."

Darotai grinned, "If we get through to where it is that we must go, I will tell you many dirty stories that I know - all true - and whisper them into your ear late at night."

In the time that it took her to say it, the commander made up his mind and the gun swung around toward the building.

The ground shook a little and something landed on top of the turret.

"They are shooting at us!" Junah said.

Darotai nodded, "I think they have hit only the building with a little dirt. You would know it if they hit us." She added, "Or you would be already dead.

But our happy cow wears her thickest skin at the front."

She shook her head, loving this, "Two hundred meters and they miss?"

"They'll knock it down on top of us!" Junah exclaimed.

Darotai laughed, "So? We are in a tank.

We need to kill him before he remembers that he has a radio and calls for help. I hope that I do not have to get out and show him my chest to calm him a little so that he forgets. I have seen him before. That pig loved to hold onto me as though he was buying melons when he came to the market."

She looked through her sight and saw the lead tank in flames. "First target destroyed. Can you see enough to aim, Junah?"

"I think so. You said azimuth twenty-six. I am on him at that, right in the middle."

Darotai nodded, "Aim for the same place, since they are that stupid to give us the shot through less metal."

She looked over at Morgan, "Ready?"

He didn't understand her, but he got it anyway and he nodded, patting the breech with a smile.

"FIRE, Junah!"

Their count was up to three tanks then, but the armored personnel carrier commander had more brains and was already trying to turn around as his gunner sprayed their tank as well as the rest of the neighborhood with his machine gun.

"Load a number three, quickly!" Darotai almost screamed it and she held up three fingers to Morgan as Junah translated.

"If they dismount the troops in that thing, we will have targets everywhere and some of them can kill us with their rockets!"

Morgan seized the third type of shell and he slammed it home before he closed the breech.

"Loaded!" he said to Darotai, who guessed his meaning and began her little spell once more. Like the other times, only Junah understood what was said.

"Azimuth: thirty-three and moving right.

Target: APC.

Range: Two fifty.

Armout-piercing, hollow charge.

FIRE!"

The shell caught up to the personnel carrier just as it was in the process of driving off after a frenzied three point turn, punching in through the steel of the rear doors before it detonated. No one inside had time to even draw a breath. The fragments of metal took a second to come to rest. The rest of it just burned hotly.

Darotai clenched her fist and yelled, "We are lions!

Do not look at that mess for too long," she advised, but it was too late and Junah watched as a man managed to get out of the second tank. He didn't last ten meters before he collapsed burning to the ground. Darotai opened her hatch and scrambled up to shoot him with the machine gun on top.

"Why did you -"

Darotai sighed, "A little mercy if he was not dead as he fell. There is no good death in a tank fight."

She looked over at the ruin of the APC for a second, not understanding why the tank crewman had lived even that long. She didn't want to think about ...

"Stop and tell our loader to give me a number two shell quickly."

Junah translated but didn't understand the need. Morgan had a clue, so he did it as quickly as he could.

"Loaded," he called out and by then, the Eritrean woman knew what he meant.

"Azimuth: three two.

Target: APC.

Range: two ten.

High explosive, anti-tank.

FIRE!"

The wreck was even worse after that, but Darotai was now confident that there was no one alive and trapped in the burning hulk. Survivors were out of the question.

She took a minute to decide on their next course of action and was about to call down for the kid to pull out of the building, but she saw something moving far off to the side and opened the hatch to look with the binoculars. She had to lean to the side to manage it because of the edge of the doorway.

"There is a command car there coming to the top of the hill. They have radios!"

"What are they doing?" Junah asked.

"They have just arrived," Darotai said, "And they came from the other direction. They must be surprised to see this mess. They will be trying to understand what happened here. They must have heard the shooting!"

She pressed her face against the binocular eyecups for a moment, "A man is standing up and using binoculars. I hope that he cannot hear our motor running. Probably not - from half a kilometer away.

But he sees two tanks and a MT-LB burning. They did not shoot each other, so there must be a cause. It is what he must be thinking."

She groaned, "He WILL call to report this. He must.

If I ask you to move the turret so that you can bring the gun to bear, he will notice and make his report even quicker - as his driver reverses back down the hill where we cannot shoot."

Darotai hissed out another curse in her language and pounded the heel of her fist against the hatch ring in frustration. "I cannot use the machine gun up here! The wall is in the way. We cannot use the other machine gun at the front because we will need to turn the tank for that too.

We cannot move the tank or he will know everything in a moment, he would have to see how it happened then, and he will make his call.

Even if I could swing the machine gun around, I doubt that I could hit them before he uses the radio!"

She looked down, "This is not good. The ones who answer the call will be Republican Guard. We will have no chance."

Maggie didn't understand what was said between the two women, but she had a sense and she called down to Morgan to come up and bring his rifle.

As Morgan clambered up, Junah gave him the news. He flipped open the caps on the rifle's scope and looked for a moment.

Without a word, he climbed up the rest of the way and eased himself into a sitting position with his back against the front of the turret. He unconsciously sought for any solid means of support with which would make his shot good.

After that, he lowered his head and tightened his grip, pressing his left elbow into his ribs for more support. Then he focused on his breathing.

"Tell the kid to shut off the engine," he said, "It's not much, but the main gun barrel is shaking a little - the turret too."

"Hurry Morgan!" Maggie exclaimed as the motor stopped.

"You should know ... " he said quietly in time to his slow exhalations, "better than anyone ... that you can't just rush ..."

The Dragunov barked and they saw Morgan shift his point of aim slightly.

"a ... "

The rifle spat again, "shot."

He sat looking through the scope for a few seconds before he put the caps over the ends and leaned forward to get up.

"Done. Let's get out of here. This place stinks of diesel oil, tank exhaust, feathers and goat shit," he grinned, "But it's a better smell than the ass end of a tank's gun and the aroma of a crowded tank on a hot day."

As he stood up to go back inside, Darotai jumped up and grabbed the binoculars to stare at the vehicle for a moment.

She saw two men sprawled backwards and hanging out of the vehicle.

She lowered the binoculars and stared at Morgan. He didn't understand her words, but he did catch the tone of awe.

"Half a kilometer," she whispered and looked again with the binoculars, "More than even that, maybe six hundred fifty meters! Two men, two shots." She lowered the binoculars and looked at Morgan.

"Where did you aim? The one on this side looks like he has no ... head.

And the other one is half out on the ground.

How ... How did you do that?"

Morgan shrugged, "Look, the tank stopped shaking after the kid shut it off and there's no wind right now. And I had the tank to lean on so I could get really still. The far one, I aimed for the center of mass," he said, pointing to the side of his own chest.

The near one looked like he was the commander, so I went for him first and made it a head-shot. No wind, remember?"

Junah was translating as Darotai lunged for Morgan and hugged him, kissing him eagerly while Morgan stood there a little dazed.

Junah smiled, "She says that we have another chance to live!"

Darotai recovered from her joy a moment later and turned to Junah.

"Have your friend start the motor again and get us back onto the road and away from here. There is now more smoke to see in the sky. I only hope that he did not use his radio and it is my wish that there is no one who has the thought to hunt us with an airplane.

These ones here were fools, but there are good tankers among the Republican Guard. They do not use old tanks like this. They use T-55s. We would have our hands full facing even one of their tanks, and they always come in groups of at least four.

Face to face, one shot from them and we would look just like what we have left behind us."

"You" she said to Morgan, "will stay by me for a time. I still need to understand how you can shoot like that."

When Junah translated, Morgan smiled at her, "Get ready, Junah. This won't be easy to say."

---------------

Darotai was incredulous.

"So ... he says that he learned this by shooting ... rats?"

Junah shook her head, "Not rats. I do not know what these things are that he talks about - something that lives where he comes from, I guess.

He says that in that place, there is much space, like here I think, but with more grass. He said that there are mountains there and many cold lakes full of fish. He is comfortable there, even during the very cold winters. It is where he was born and where he grew up.

He says that many boys learn to shoot, some girls too, but they learn more to hunt one day. Morgan knows this way too, but he says that what he used to hunt for practice is not what most people would want to eat, though it can be done.

There are many farmers there who have much land and let cattle graze and grow fat. These animals that he shot, he calls them groundhogs, and they are not pigs at all. They are closer to rats, but fatter with shorter tails and a thick coat.

He says they live in groups, something like little villages, with many holes down into the ground so that they can hide from the things which hunt them.

They are very cautious, he says. They may stand with their heads out of their burrows, looking around, but if even one of them thinks that he or she sees a threat, that one will pop down and all the rest will do the same.

The entrances to their burrows give the farmers trouble. A cow or calf who steps in one might easily break a leg. Where these pastures are is usually far from people. The injured one might linger, suffering until some other hunting creature finds them, such as wolves. It could be days before the farmer even knows what happened.

As well, he says that the animal is a loss to the rancher - as these farmers are known. They only hold their worth if they grow up and are sold.

So, when he was a boy, Morgan learned to shoot. When he was a little older, he learned to fly airplanes. Airplanes are what his family used to make their living.

Sometimes, a rancher would have trouble with the groundhogs and he would seek Morgan out, offering a little pay to remove the trouble. If he had time, Morgan would fly out in a small airplane and land as close as he could to the place.

He would spend the whole day sitting high on a hillside with a rifle such as he has used today, shooting groundhogs, one after another. He says that though they are nervous and fearful, they cannot understand what is happening and they are curious. Not long after one is killed by an unseen foe, many others pop up again to see what happened.

Those ones are the next to be shot.

He says that you cannot just walk up and shoot one. They drop out of sight in their holes and will not come out again, listening for the sounds of your feet in the earth.

You must shoot them from far away, so far that they cannot see you. That is a special kind of shooting.

He says that such a hunter must be able to know and understand the flight of a bullet over long distances. That hunter must be able to look through a telescope at nothing but the grass to learn of the breezes and winds, for they will change the way that a bullet flies."

Junah laughed a little, "And, he says that such a hunter must be sure to bring his midday meal with him, for it will take a long time, this kind of hunting."

"Please ask him how old he was when he did this," Darotai said.

"He says he began - without much success on his uncle's ranch. He was fourteen then. He got better at it and it was how he earned his money to spend, if he was successful.

But many of the ranches were far away and even in his father's truck when he was old enough, he still had to walk a long way most times. He did not care about the walk, but it took too much time that he could have been hunting.

He could drive a truck and fly a plane at sixteen years-old. His father would let him use a plane, but he insisted that Morgan pay something for the fuel so that he learned to think of his costs.

After that, Morgan always used the smallest plane which used the least fuel. He says that he is cheap. He could keep more of what he earned then.

He didn't use much of this shooting in the army, only sometimes. But later, he used it often."

Darotai nodded with a smile, "I saw it and still I cannot believe it."

She took Morgan's hands in her own and lifted them to kiss them carefully once before she pointed inside, so he went back to the loader's seat.

"Junah," she called out softly, "Please tell him that his debt to me is paid. It is not plain to maybe anyone but me, but he has saved our lives with his hog-shooting."

--------------

They rolled on and after a while, Maggie found a better pair of binoculars and handed them to Darotai as she spoke to Junah.

"Tell her that we need a place to hide until dark if she can manage another miracle. We can't take an Iraqi tank anywhere near the border with Saudi Arabia. We've already screwed this up bad enough as it is. The last thing we need now is to start an incident over a stolen tank ending up in the wrong country.

I'd like a place close to the border, which ought to be up ahead in the next forty-five minutes. We'll have to walk across the border out in the dirt and then we have to find the other truck, but I know pretty well where we left it. I just hope it's still there."

Darotai nodded, but she said that she didn't know the ground here and had no idea if there was such a place.

It turned out that fate was still smiling down on them at least a little when Darotai pointed half an hour later.

"She says that there is a stream bed over there. With luck, there might be a wadi not far away."

Ten minutes later, they were idling in under some trees.