Fourth Vector Ch. 08

"I'm grateful that you did. Even a few moments longer and who knows what could've happened." Kat shuddered. "It's another reason I'm not looking forward to sleeping tonight. I don't want to have to shut my eyes and see those men standing over me again. Or try to figure out what their intentions were."

"Nothing good, I assure you," said Jack solemnly. "But it's okay now. You'll be safe with us."As long as you're not out to betray us, said his inner voice. Now that the topic had steered back to the confrontation from earlier this morning, Jack figured now was as good a time as any to probe into her story, even if just to put the rest of the group at ease. What scared him about it was that he in no way believed she was up to anything nefarious. Her story seemed to check out with him but only because he had spent so much time getting to know her.

"For what it's worth, I'm glad that you were the one to find me," said Kat with a trusting smile. "I'm grateful it was you, Jack."

Jack gulped and turned his face back to the fire. "Do you have any idea where those men came from? The ones that attacked you?"

"It was hard for me to tell," said Kat. "One moment Jacob and I were resting in a field, and the next, they were practically on top of us."

"Then they quickly melted into the forest once I killed a few of them," finished Jack.

"So I guess that's where they staged the attack."

Jack looked at her. "You guess?"

"Of course. I can only guess at this point," said Kat with a confused expression.

"How much have you been traveling in the Sorellan interior? Have you been here long?"

Kat leaned forward on the log. "A few weeks. Why do you ask?"

Jack took a deep breath. "It's just that this island has been in upheaval for quite a long while now. Over a year. The last few weeks have been so tumultuous that I'm curious where you've been during that time?"

Kat scrunched her eyebrows. "We've been here but moving around. Jack, you're confusing me. Why are you asking me this?"

Jack didn't want to answer. The look on Kat's face was one of pure bewilderment. He didn't blame her one bit. The tone of their whole conversation had shifted in the last few minutes. But as much as Kat was growing on him, he had a responsibility to his group to keep them out of harm's way. And that meant corroborating her story.

"Is there anyone out there you've met or visited with that can confirm that you were there? Or that you passed by?" asked Jack.

All traces of contentment dropped from Kat's face as she gave him a discerning look. "Why do I need an alibi for my whereabouts, Jack?"

He decided to stop dancing around the subject and answer it head-on. She might get pissed at him or even choose to leave the group but he had to be sure.

"There are some within our group that think the timing was just a little too good for this morning's rescue," began Jack. "Some that know this countryside and know the measure and the cunning of criminals inside. Some that think you may have staged the attack to join our group."

Kat's mouth fell open in amazement. She didn't respond for several moments, only gaping at him at having the audacity to say something so damning out loud. When her mouth eventually closed, she crossed her arms in front of her chest as her eyes narrowed. "Do you think I would let my only companion get murdered in front of my very own eyes just to pull a trick on you? Who the hell are you?"

"If you knew what this mission was for, who knows? What we're trying to recover is so serious that I wouldn't put it past someone to get theatrical in their attempt to stop us," said Jack.

"And about Jacob? Do you think I could just authorize his killing?"

Jack took a deep breath. "How do I know he wasn't already dead? How do I know it wasn't just a clever story you came up with to distract us?"

"How dare you!" Kat stood up from the log and placed her hands against her hips. Even in such an aggressive pose, she wasn't very threatening with her short stature. But the look on her face showed that all hell was about to break loose.

"I sit here with you and bare my story and my background with you and the first thing you do is accuse me of being a spy in your camp?" said Kat in a much louder voice. "You've got some nerve to accuse me on this day, when I've lost so much already!"

Jack stood up and raised both hands. "Kat, wait just a moment. Can you try to think about this from our perspective?"

"Why should I?"

"Because it might help, trust me. We're trying to recover stolen gold from a man who's turned his back on his own country," pled Jack. "Who is going to do something far worse if he reaches Mount Tarpeious. He's already shown that he's willing to throw his men in our path to try and stop us, and I won't put something this cunning out of his reach. Just swear to me that you're not in league with him."

Kat gave a loud huff. "Why should I swear anything to you? If you think I'm in league with him, then my word won't make one difference one way or another."

Jack took a step closer to her. "Just swear to me, Kat. Please. I know you're not involved but this is for the rest of them." He pointed to the sleeping members of the group nearby. "I have to watch out for them as my first priority. If they don't trust you yet, I have to be suspicious."

"I had nothing to do with it, Jack," said Kat with blazing eyes. "This morning happened because a bunch of thieves thought we were an easy target. If you hadn't shown up, I wouldn't be standing here so I guess I owe you that. But I'm in league with no one. I'm on my own mission that has nothing to do with Sorella or any gold." She finished the sentence as her cheeks glistened with tears.

"I believe you," said Jack quietly. "I do. I just had to be sure."

"Well now that you got what you wanted, I'm going to bed," said Kat as she quickly turned heel. Her blonde hair flew through the air as she quickly moved away from the fire.

"Kat, wait," said Jack.

"Save it, Jack," said Kat as she walked away. "I don't want to talk to you right now."

He stopped in his tracks as she got further away. By the time she reached her pack, she hurriedly laid down and faced away from him. He watched her for several minutes trying to discern if she was just angry with him or worse, crying. Yet, eventually the steady rhythm of her breathing seemed to confirm that she had fallen asleep.

He laid back against the log and took a deep sigh, cursing his stupidity. There had to have been a better way to bring up their doubts than how he just went about it. But as different scenarios kept running through his head, most of them shook out the same way.Great story, Kat, now tell me, are you being paid to infiltrate our group by a greedy, former East Sorellan minister?

What was worse, he really sympathized with the woman and her story. She had been through much in her young life already and losing her trusted companion today had cast a long shadow. The confrontation had put him in a foul mood. It was for that reason that when he was relieved by Vera in the middle of the night, he crawled into his sleeping bag and found sleep nearly impossible. He couldn't remember how long he laid there, trying to think of how he could make things right between himself and Kat.

One thing was for certain—sleep wasn't going to come easily.

----------

"So what did you do to piss her off?"

Jack grimaced at the question. It was already the following morning. As he had expected, he didn't sleep very well the previous night. It seemed just as he was beginning to get tired enough for rest, everyone else was starting to wake up. It was a very groggy and somewhat grumpy Jack that rolled out of his sleeping bag and hit the path that morning.

Luckily, he didn't have to lead point. Nikias still took that honor with Elektra by his side. Behind them was Heron, who happened to be entertaining Vera with stories from his younger years. The young woman was eating up the stories handily and laughing as she went. Just a few feet behind them was Kat, close enough to listen to the king but far enough away not to interact. Bringing up the rear were Jack and Greg.

Kat hadn't said a single thing since she left him at the fire last night. She was almost content to pretend like he wasn't even there, often not even resting her eyes on him in her anger. Jack couldn't blame her. Frankly, he'd be pissed too if someone who he barely knew had called out his intentions. Yet after having a private talk with Heron that morning about her backstory, the king was more willing to trust her and give her a chance. Little help that did for his current reputation with her.

Greg elbowed him in the side again. "She just looked back at you, and if looks could kill, you'd be a dead man."

Jack's eyes went off the forested area to the left of the path and looked back to the Kat. He met her eyes briefly, seeing the cold expression inside before she resumed her attention in front of her. He couldn't figure out why it bothered him so much that she was upset with him. He was used to giving orders, and a good portion of the time, they weren't popular ones. Even when they first entered the Vector, a good portion of the crew had almost mutinied, no doubt upset over his command for them to sail here.

There was just something about Kat that pulled at him. Every time she pretended he wasn't there or looked daggers at him was another swipe to his heart. It was becoming tiresome, and he wished he could take back the way he phrased his conversation with her.

"What did you do? Make a move on her last night?" asked Greg. "Try to crawl into her sleeping bag?"

Jack shook his head. "We had to have a tough conversation last night." He filled Greg in on the earlier talk with Heron and his suspicions about the beautiful Galician woman.

Near the end of the story, Greg let out a low whistle. "Seems like a no-win situation. Glad it was you and not me."

"Thanks a lot," said Jack sarcastically as their chatter earned another dissatisfied look from Kat.

Even without the distraction from Kat, the day went by quickly. The path had continued to narrow and soon they were steadily going upwards instead of bobbing up and down hills and valleys. It was around late afternoon that the forested area off to the left of the trail started to get heavier, with larger and taller trees blocking off a good portion of the area inside.

"So it begins," said Nikias ominously. "This is the Dark Forest."

"I hate to say it," said Heron. "But it looks quite darker than I remember from years ago."

Heron wasn't exaggerating. Almost all light was cut off from the inside by the dense canopy overhead. A thick barrage of limb and leaves extended out from every tree leaving little room for light to penetrate through those obstructions. What was left underneath was sparse. There were no bushes, flowers, or any other growth underneath. There just wasn't enough light to sustain it.

"I was hoping that the dark part of the name was just something people called it," said Greg while taking it all in. "I didn't really expect it to be so sinister looking."

"We should get this trap set up," said Jack. "At least now while we have the element of surprise. Who knows how quickly they might discover that we're here."

The rest of the group nodded and stepped into the forest as the sun was beginning to go down. Thankfully, the entire wooded area was not all shrouded in darkness, and they were able to find a spot some distance from the road where just enough of the canopy broke to allow a little light through. It was here that Jack stopped the group.

"This looks like a good place. The land slopes up from here and there's enough of a gap in those trees to allow our smoke to come through," said Jack. "If anyone's paying attention to the sky, this spot will be seen for miles around."

"Let's get to work then," said Heron. "We need to gather some wood for the fire, and then once it's burning, we need to make ourselves scarce."

"How about the men gather the wood?" suggested Elektra. "While the rest of the women get started on camp. Once we're in place, the men can get to their hiding places."

Without any further discussion, both sexes went about their assigned tasks. The men gathered enough wood to start a great bonfire while the women recreated camp. There wasn't much to talk about while they readied their own trap, and everyone tried to quiet their own level of nerves while they waited.

Soon enough, the fire was roaring and sending smoke billowing through the top of the canopy as the women sat to eat a meager dinner.

"That should do it," said Jack finally. "Let's get hidden."

--------

It was close to midnight when the steadycrunch-crunch-crunch of leaves began to signal the approach of Melitos and his men as they stepped carefully through their wooded surroundings.

"Should be just over here," said Baxos as he crept closer, leading their little group of five. "The smoke was coming from this way."

"This better be good," growled Melitos. "I had things to attend to tonight that you're interrupting me from." Melitos didn't clarify that the thing he was being interrupted from was his whore Mia's sweet ass. Still, he should either be sleeping or fucking, not creeping around the forest as he was right now.

"You'll see," promised Baxos. "This is worth it. I wouldn't have dragged you all the way out here if it wasn't."

The two men walked in the lead of the rest of the thieves, covering their approach as much as they could. They didn't have to cover much for it was the middle of the night. Much of the forest was already concealed even in the middle of the day. Yet, Baxos seemed to be leading them to a place where the light was beginning to shine brighter. It was with an exaggerated motion that he beckoned them behind a great maple tree and pointed to their target.

"Over there. What do you think of that?" asked Baxos with a wide grin on his face.

Melitos looked around the tree and found himself slowly breaking out in a similar smile. Just about twenty yards away from them was a campsite. But it was no ordinary campsite. He counted one . . . two . . . three women at the camp. As much as he craned his neck to look all around, he couldn't spot any men. They appeared to be alone.

"How did you find them?" asked Melitos in a whispered tone.

"You can see that smoke from halfway up the hill," said Baxos as he pointed toward their fire. "We just did a little investigating and we found them here. All alone," he said with an evil grin.

Melitos took in each woman. Only one appeared to be on guard duty, a small and lithe-looking redhead who was sitting upright against the fire. On each of her sides were two blonde women, something that immediately made Melitos grin maliciously.

"There's blondes! I haven't seen a blonde in this land in years," he said anxiously while rubbing his hands.

"Three of them means plenty to go around for the rest of us too," said Baxos while he unsheathed his knife from his belt. "The boys could use a little action too, couldn't you men?" The three men behind him grinned eagerly, nodding their heads at the prospect of easy sex.

"How do you want to do this?" asked Baxos. "Spread out and surround them?"

"Yes, that's a good plan," said Melitos as he scratched at his chin. "This is all a little strange though. Why would they be alone? Surely they know what lurks in the forest at night?"

"Bah," scoffed Baxos with a dismissive wave. "Look at them. They're not from Sorella with those features so maybe they don't know. Travelers, I bet you. Just looking for a little shelter from the road but don't know enough not to go into the old, dark forest. We'll teach them a lesson they won't forget, won't we?"

Melitos grinned again. "That we will. Let's take our places. On my order, we'll attack."

With that, the five of them split up. Melitos stayed in his spot near the tree while Baxos and another man went off along the right flank of the campsite. The other men went along the left flank. Soon enough, Melitos flashed a signal consisting of using a pocket mirror to catch the reflection off the fire to signal the attack. He hesitated whether or not to lead with his musket but then again, how dangerous could a small group of women be? He pulled his knife instead and began to advance.

"Beautiful night for a fire," he said out loud as the five of them emerged from the surrounding trees. The redhead was the first to notice, jumping upright with a look of panic on her face and then running for her pack. She was too slow as Baxos reached it first and kicked it out of the way. She recoiled quickly with a yell and turned her back to the fire as the men surrounded on all sides. Quickly, she woke her companions, still ignorant to the danger before them.

"Vera! Kat! Wake up!" she yelled. The two blonde women were on their feet in a hurry and moved rapidly back against the fire as the thieves came into view.

"Well, aren't you three pretty," said Melitos with a lust-filled grin. The girls flinched away from him as he got closer and the rest of the men closed the ring. There was nowhere for them to go.

"Stay away," warned the redhead as she found the space behind her rapidly diminishing. Soon they would be right up against the great fire.

"Isn't that cute," said Melitos with a laugh. "It looks like they're a little frightened. What do you think, Baxos?"

"Seems to be that way," said the man with another laugh as he reached out to grab a piece of Vera's hair. Vera quickly pulled away from him, earning another chuckle.

"What would you three, pretty, young things be doing out here on a night like this? Out for an evening stroll? Don't you know these woods are dangerous?"

"Leave us be. Leave at once," said the redhead more seriously. "If you leave now, we'll consider letting you live."

It was more than Melitos could take. He roared with laughter as did the rest of the men in the group. Struggling to regain his breath, he wiped away tears of laughter from his eyes.

"You're forgetting one thing, missy," said Melitos. "There's five of us and three of you. You would be so lucky if we let you live!"

The redhead crossed her arms in front of her chest defiantly.

"Oh, a fighter, I see," said Melitos. "I like the ones with a little extra pep in them. Do you know why? I like to see if I can be the one tofuck it all out of you! I'll be looking forward to breaking you in specifically. Your ass will be on fire when I'm done with you, I can promise you that!"

"Somehow, I doubt that," said a voice from above them. Melitos whipped around to find a man hanging by a rope and sliding down from a nearby branch rapidly. The man was holding an odd-shaped gun and was pointing right at the rest of the men.

"Scatter! Quickly!" shouted Melitos as each of the thieves began to bolt in different directions. Almost immediately, the sound of gunfire opened up all around them. A quick glance around told him that this man wasn't alone as others began to descend from hiding places up in the trees. It was like the trees were dropping soldiers instead of leaves and all around him, Melitos heard the telltale sounds of bullets whizzing by. Every so often, a scream would pierce the air, but it wasn't from any of the women nearby. The scream was from men, a ghastly yell that chilled the very blood in his veins.

Melitos found himself hiding behind one particularly large tree a good hundred yards from the campsite. He sprinted the entire way, leaping around pulled-up roots and doing his best not to become a target for the ambush left behind him. Soon enough, just about all the gunfire had stopped which meant one of two things—either the men had gotten away, or they were now all dead and he was the only one alive.