Chapter 2

 

At the moment Elaine cut the call to Dmitry, three Janjaweed rebels were perched atop a craggy hill not more than two miles away.

In the valley behind the last steep hill they had crossed were the charred remains of a fire which they had extinguished with urine. They had finally lost the tracks of the two Nasara for good and had stopped to kill a goat to fill their bellies. They had consumed the best parts of the animal, burning the rest so as not to attract vultures. Only the bones remained, along with a blackened, silver bell that rang no more.

The trio had been tracking the murderers of their tribal brothers since yesterday afternoon, after the three rider-less horses had showed up at their encampment. Since finding the killers’ jeep hidden at the clinic in Nertiti, the last six hours had been slow going. The two despicable Nasaras had left the clinic on foot, headed in the direction of the Marrah Mountains. The determined trio of tribesmen had followed the trail along the rocky path through the hills and eastern side of the mountains, their esteemed tracker, Khasir, studying the dirt path and goat droppings and broken twigs in the scrub. Several times they had lost the Nasaras’ trail and had to backtrack quite a long way to pick it up again, but eventually the trail had been lost for good.

Now, the three men were sitting atop their horses, their determination revived from the big meal, their senses alert, their rifles chambered and ready to fire. They had chosen the surveillance spot on the hill soon after they’d heard the single gunshot, which, according to their tracker’s finely-honed senses, had come from a handgun that was inside of a cave. As there were hundreds of caves scattered throughout this area, there was no point in trying to find the location—it would take far too long. A better option was to stay here on top of this hill. From this vantage point, they could see the hills, valleys, and mountains all around—once the sun came up, there was no way for the Nasara to escape.

Now all they had to do was wait.