being followed,’ Pilgrim said at once. ‘And the only people who can track us through the jungle are the local Maya tribes. The Guatemalans don’t like the jungle but the Maya live in it, it’s their home and they can travel through it faster than anyone, including us, so we need to send them a message not to come too close. Come on, don’t worry about leaving tracks for now, the more the better.’
For a few hundred yards they hurried on, leaving clear evidence of their passage in the bootprints and bruised and broken plant stems in their wake. Pilgrim then chopped down a small sapling, pointed the end and set up a pig trap for the people following them, lashing the pointed stake to a whippy sapling and then tying it down to a “trip wire” - a piece of plant stem that would trigger it when a stray boot knocked against it. ‘I’ve set it at an angle to one side, so it won’t hit the front man who triggers it - he’ll be a Mayan - but it will hit one of the Army guys further back in the patrol and that will slow them down,’ Pilgrim explained.
They moved on again at once, still taking less trouble to conceal their tracks. Pilgrim explained that however carefully they concealed their tracks, the Mayan would read it as if he was reading a book. So speed was more important. They looped their track and lay up in ambush towards nightfall but the Guatemalans did not enter the trap. None of the SAS men slept that night and they moved on again at first light. As soon as they paused, they again heard the Guatemalans pursuing them.
By mid-afternoon, they were close to the Belizean border but were still being followed. ‘We can’t afford to lead the enemy too close to the RV with the infantry and certainly not to the LZ,’ Pilgrim said. ‘We need to buy ourselves some more time. We’ve got to frighten them but not kill them. One or two senior officers dying fifty miles from the border can be explained away as the fall-out from a dispute with the drugs traffickers about bribes, but like our brave colonel almost said, too many dead soldiers on the border could start an international incident.’
They again doubled back on their own tracks and sited themselves on a low ridge overlooking the way they had come just a few minutes earlier. They did not have to wait long before they heard movement below them. As the Guatemalans moved into the ambush area, advancing in single file behind their Mayan scout. At Pilgrim’s signal, Shepherd and the others opened up with their SLRs, laying down a barrage of fire that flashed inches above the heads of the troops and ripped the vegetation around and in front of them to shreds. The Guatemalans fled in all directions, two of them dropping their rifles as they ran.
The SAS patrol then split up and moved away quickly in different directions. Shepherd moved through the jungle alone for an hour, paused to listen, and then began to make his way towards the RV point. Pilgrim was already there when he reached it, appearing out of the shadows like a ghost. The others arrived within a few minutes. They compared notes and since Jimbo told them he’d heard sounds of pursuit, they again split up, and came back together again, using the rendezvous system until they were certain they had broken contact with their pursuers. ‘It’ll take the Guatemalans several hours to get themselves reorganised,’ Pilgrim said at last, ‘and even if they do manage to pick up our trail again, they’re very unlikely to attempt to follow us into Belize.’
They re-crossed the border soon afterwards and in another hour were close to the RV with the local infantry. Pilgrim peered through the jungle towards the RV point about three hundred yards away. ‘You get down in cover,’ he said, ‘while I go forward and make contact with them.’ He disappeared noiselessly through the jungle and a few minutes had ticked by when there was a sudden ragged burst of firing. Shepherd and the others sprinted
For a few hundred yards they hurried on, leaving clear evidence of their passage in the bootprints and bruised and broken plant stems in their wake. Pilgrim then chopped down a small sapling, pointed the end and set up a pig trap for the people following them, lashing the pointed stake to a whippy sapling and then tying it down to a “trip wire” - a piece of plant stem that would trigger it when a stray boot knocked against it. ‘I’ve set it at an angle to one side, so it won’t hit the front man who triggers it - he’ll be a Mayan - but it will hit one of the Army guys further back in the patrol and that will slow them down,’ Pilgrim explained.
They moved on again at once, still taking less trouble to conceal their tracks. Pilgrim explained that however carefully they concealed their tracks, the Mayan would read it as if he was reading a book. So speed was more important. They looped their track and lay up in ambush towards nightfall but the Guatemalans did not enter the trap. None of the SAS men slept that night and they moved on again at first light. As soon as they paused, they again heard the Guatemalans pursuing them.
By mid-afternoon, they were close to the Belizean border but were still being followed. ‘We can’t afford to lead the enemy too close to the RV with the infantry and certainly not to the LZ,’ Pilgrim said. ‘We need to buy ourselves some more time. We’ve got to frighten them but not kill them. One or two senior officers dying fifty miles from the border can be explained away as the fall-out from a dispute with the drugs traffickers about bribes, but like our brave colonel almost said, too many dead soldiers on the border could start an international incident.’
They again doubled back on their own tracks and sited themselves on a low ridge overlooking the way they had come just a few minutes earlier. They did not have to wait long before they heard movement below them. As the Guatemalans moved into the ambush area, advancing in single file behind their Mayan scout. At Pilgrim’s signal, Shepherd and the others opened up with their SLRs, laying down a barrage of fire that flashed inches above the heads of the troops and ripped the vegetation around and in front of them to shreds. The Guatemalans fled in all directions, two of them dropping their rifles as they ran.
The SAS patrol then split up and moved away quickly in different directions. Shepherd moved through the jungle alone for an hour, paused to listen, and then began to make his way towards the RV point. Pilgrim was already there when he reached it, appearing out of the shadows like a ghost. The others arrived within a few minutes. They compared notes and since Jimbo told them he’d heard sounds of pursuit, they again split up, and came back together again, using the rendezvous system until they were certain they had broken contact with their pursuers. ‘It’ll take the Guatemalans several hours to get themselves reorganised,’ Pilgrim said at last, ‘and even if they do manage to pick up our trail again, they’re very unlikely to attempt to follow us into Belize.’
They re-crossed the border soon afterwards and in another hour were close to the RV with the local infantry. Pilgrim peered through the jungle towards the RV point about three hundred yards away. ‘You get down in cover,’ he said, ‘while I go forward and make contact with them.’ He disappeared noiselessly through the jungle and a few minutes had ticked by when there was a sudden ragged burst of firing. Shepherd and the others sprinted
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