as the Landing Zone.
Geordie and Jimbo had stirred themselves at the engine note changed and as soon as the chopper landed, the five men unloaded their gear, jumped out and ran clear. At once, the rotors thundered and the downwash whipped the jungle, sending a dust storm of leaves and broken branches spinning through the air as the Puma lifted off and swung back towards the north.
As the noise of the rotors faded, the sounds of the rainforest resumed; the insistent cries of birds answered by the buzzing of a billion insects. Shepherd crouched by the buttress root of a strangler fig for a moment, watching and listening as they’d been trained, but also savouring the beauty, the strangeness and the silence. Then at a nod from Pilgrim, they shouldered their bergens. As they entered the jungle, they could hear behind them the chop of rotors as a succession of other helicopters began landing the local infantry company who were providing cover for the op and would form a defensive perimeter around the RV point just inside the border.
The SAS patrol had already disappeared from sight, moving through the dense jungle, maintaining the silent patrolling routine they had practised. Pilgrim took the role of lead scout - or point man - at first, navigating and keeping the patrol heading broadly the right direction, but as they moved on, he brought each of them in turn up to work as lead scout, though again he remained at their shoulder, second in line.
When Shepherd’s turn came, he began picking his way through the tangled vegetation, following the faint, wavering trace of the animal track they were following, avoiding breaking twigs or rustling dry leaves. He had practised the technique of looking through the foliage that Pilgrim had described to him and to his surprise, he had found both that it was relatively easy to master and that it really did enable him to see through what had seemed impenetrable jungle, glimpsing any suspicious shapes that might be lurking in cover. He was hyper-alert for the first sign of danger - a movement, a sound, an unfamiliar smell - that might be the only warning before another contact with the enemy. It took ice-cool nerve, constantly alert for the least sign of danger but not so on edge that he would be startled into an overreaction by the sudden movement of a bird or animal. It was exhausting, physically and mentally.
They travelled along the ridge tops where there were no tracks and only animals moved. The terrain was punishing, dense secondary jungle with no open ground. It took them three hours to cover the first mile, fighting their way through dense undergrowth, constantly splashing through swamp and stagnant water, climbing and descending steep, slippery mud slopes, clambering over rotting tree trunks and skirting around thickets of understory palms, their trunks bristling with spikes, and thickets of razor grass, sharp enough to cut them to ribbons if they tried to push through it.
The air was cloudy with mosquitoes and sand-flies, and leeches lined the animal tracks, raising themselves to search for their next meal like plant-stems waving in the breeze. Every time they stopped they had to pick the leeches from the soft tissue of their armpits, necks and groins. They covered as little as five miles in the entire day, slept on the jungle floor and the next day they moved on.
Eventually, when Pilgrim decided that they were deep enough into Guatemala, they dropped down towards the river system and then tracked the course of the river very cautiously for two more days until they reached a large village. As Pilgrim had predicted, they found that there was a military camp alongside it.
They sat watching the camp all day from across the river and eventually, as the sky began to darken, their patience was rewarded when a group of soldiers emerged from one of the huts in the centre of the village and came down to the river bank to wash and bathe. The other ranks hung back, deferring to
Geordie and Jimbo had stirred themselves at the engine note changed and as soon as the chopper landed, the five men unloaded their gear, jumped out and ran clear. At once, the rotors thundered and the downwash whipped the jungle, sending a dust storm of leaves and broken branches spinning through the air as the Puma lifted off and swung back towards the north.
As the noise of the rotors faded, the sounds of the rainforest resumed; the insistent cries of birds answered by the buzzing of a billion insects. Shepherd crouched by the buttress root of a strangler fig for a moment, watching and listening as they’d been trained, but also savouring the beauty, the strangeness and the silence. Then at a nod from Pilgrim, they shouldered their bergens. As they entered the jungle, they could hear behind them the chop of rotors as a succession of other helicopters began landing the local infantry company who were providing cover for the op and would form a defensive perimeter around the RV point just inside the border.
The SAS patrol had already disappeared from sight, moving through the dense jungle, maintaining the silent patrolling routine they had practised. Pilgrim took the role of lead scout - or point man - at first, navigating and keeping the patrol heading broadly the right direction, but as they moved on, he brought each of them in turn up to work as lead scout, though again he remained at their shoulder, second in line.
When Shepherd’s turn came, he began picking his way through the tangled vegetation, following the faint, wavering trace of the animal track they were following, avoiding breaking twigs or rustling dry leaves. He had practised the technique of looking through the foliage that Pilgrim had described to him and to his surprise, he had found both that it was relatively easy to master and that it really did enable him to see through what had seemed impenetrable jungle, glimpsing any suspicious shapes that might be lurking in cover. He was hyper-alert for the first sign of danger - a movement, a sound, an unfamiliar smell - that might be the only warning before another contact with the enemy. It took ice-cool nerve, constantly alert for the least sign of danger but not so on edge that he would be startled into an overreaction by the sudden movement of a bird or animal. It was exhausting, physically and mentally.
They travelled along the ridge tops where there were no tracks and only animals moved. The terrain was punishing, dense secondary jungle with no open ground. It took them three hours to cover the first mile, fighting their way through dense undergrowth, constantly splashing through swamp and stagnant water, climbing and descending steep, slippery mud slopes, clambering over rotting tree trunks and skirting around thickets of understory palms, their trunks bristling with spikes, and thickets of razor grass, sharp enough to cut them to ribbons if they tried to push through it.
The air was cloudy with mosquitoes and sand-flies, and leeches lined the animal tracks, raising themselves to search for their next meal like plant-stems waving in the breeze. Every time they stopped they had to pick the leeches from the soft tissue of their armpits, necks and groins. They covered as little as five miles in the entire day, slept on the jungle floor and the next day they moved on.
Eventually, when Pilgrim decided that they were deep enough into Guatemala, they dropped down towards the river system and then tracked the course of the river very cautiously for two more days until they reached a large village. As Pilgrim had predicted, they found that there was a military camp alongside it.
They sat watching the camp all day from across the river and eventually, as the sky began to darken, their patience was rewarded when a group of soldiers emerged from one of the huts in the centre of the village and came down to the river bank to wash and bathe. The other ranks hung back, deferring to
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