The Last Mission Of The Seventh Cavalry. Charley Brindley

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СКАЧАТЬ got up, roaring with anger, and came at her. She spun around, bringing up her right foot, landing her boot in his ribs. But the blow had no effect on him. He then grabbed her foot, twisted it, and threw her to the dirt.

      The men yelled and cheered, urging on the fighters.

      Sharakova sprang to her feet and went after him, hitting him in the face with a quick one-two punch, bloodying his nose. He wiped his hand across his nose and looked at the blood on his fingers, then lunged at her. Sharakova swung her fist at his stomach, but he sidestepped, grabbed her arm, and spun her around. He wrapped his arms around her waist, lifting her off the ground. Her arms were pinned against her sides as he began to squeeze the life out of her. She squirmed around and pulled her right arm free, then grabbed her pistol, cocked it, and pressed it behind her back and into his side.

      A loud gunshot startled everyone.

      Alexander held his smoking handgun in the air. He brought down the pistol and pointed it at Fuzzy Face.

      “Let her go.”

      All the foot-soldiers knew what the gun could do—they’d seen it used on the buffalo dogs. Fuzzy Face let go of Kady, then stared at Alexander.

      “Apache,” Alexander said.

      “Yeah, I’m right behind you.”

      “See if you can communicate with this ape and calm things down.”

      Autumn came forward and swung her rifle over her shoulder. She stared at Fuzzy Face for a moment, then began to speak. “I am Autumn Eaglemoon. My people are the Seventh Cavalry. We came here from the sky.” She used sign language, hoping he would understand a little of what she was saying. “We wish you no harm, but if you don’t stop fighting, we will shoot every last one of you bastards.” She cocked her thumb and index finger like a pistol, then pointed to each man around the circle. “Bang, bang, bang, bang.”

      “Uh, Eaglemoon,” Alexander said, “I was thinking more along the lines of a little diplomacy.”

      “Do you know how to sign ‘diplomacy,’ Sarge?”

      “No, but—”

      Fuzzy Face cocked his hand and pointed at Autumn. “Bang, bang?”

      “That’s right,” Autumn said. “Bang, bang.”

      He burst out laughing and came toward Autumn. She stepped back, but he thrust out his hand in a friendly gesture. She hesitated, then reached toward him.

      He gripped her hard and said a string of words, ending with, “Hagar.”

      “Hagar?”

      Fuzzy Face nodded. He wiped blood from his nose, then tapped his chest with his fist. “Hagar.”

      “All right, Hagar.” She pulled her hand from his. “Apache.” She patted her chest.

      “Apache,” he said, then signaled to one of his men.

      The man came forward, and Hagar took a smoking bowl from his hand. He offered the bowl to Autumn. She looked at the bowl and shook her head.

      “I would rather have something to drink.” She made a drinking motion.

      Hagar yelled a command. Soon, a woman came forward with a clay jug and two drinking bowls. She handed a bowl to each of them, then poured a dark liquid from the jug.

      Autumn sipped from the bowl, then smacked her lips and smiled.

      “Wine.” She held out the bowl to Hagar.

      He clinked his bowl against hers, then gulped down his wine. She took another sip, then drank the whole thing. They held out their empty bowls to the woman, and she refilled them.

      Autumn pointed at Lojab, who was still being held by the two foot-soldiers. “How about if they let go of him?”

      Hagar looked where she pointed, then made an impatient gesture toward the two men. They released Lojab. He stumbled forward, regained his balance, then dusted himself off.

      Autumn toasted Hagar. “Diplomacy!”

      “Apache!”

      They both emptied their bowls.

      “Take it easy,” Alexander said, “you know you can’t handle your firewater.”

      Lojab picked up his rifle and went toward Sharakova. “Can’t you ever mind your own business? I had the situation under control until you went berserk.”

      “Yeah, you had it under control all right. I saw how you were attacking that guy’s fist with your stomach.”

      “If Sarge hadn’t showed up to save your butt,” Lojab said, “you would’ve been dead meat.”

      “Uh-huh. Well, next time you want to get high, go climb a tree,” she said as she traded rifles with Karina.

* * * * *

      The next day, late in the afternoon, Liada and Tin Tin came to the platoon. But they were without their usual smiles and cheerful comments.

      “We find you Rocrainium,” Liada said.

      Chapter Ten

      It was almost dark when they walked into the small clearing, two miles away from their camp on the river.

      “My God,” Sharakova said, “what happened to him?”

      “He was tortured,” Alexander said. “A slow, painful death.”

      Six members of the platoon, along with Tin Tin Ban Sunia and Liada, stood looking down at the body. The rest of the platoon had stayed in camp, with Kawalski.

      A dozen foot-soldiers waited nearby, watching the surrounding woods.

      Autumn took a yellow and blue scarf from an inside pocket to cover the captain’s genitals, at least what was left of them.

      “Goddamned animals,” she whispered as she spread the scarf over him.

      “Did they do this because we killed so many of them on the trail?” Sharakova asked.

      “No,” Alexander said. “He’s been dead for several days. I think they killed him as soon as he landed.”

      “They must have seen him coming down and captured him when he hit the ground,” Autumn said. “But why did they have to torture him like this?” His body was covered with numerous small wounds and bruises.

      “I don’t know,” Alexander said, “but we have to get him buried. There’s not enough of us to fight off a major attack.” He glanced around at the darkening woods. “Not out here.”

      “We can’t bury him naked,” Sharakova said.

      “Why not?” Lojab asked. “He came into the world that way.”

      “I’ve got a Mylar blanket in my backpack,” Joaquin said, turning his back to Sharakova. “It’s in the side pocket.”

      When she removed the tightly folded blanket, a long object fell from his pack. СКАЧАТЬ