Nelson to the east. Two Moons, Gaz and Benny headed west, all of them crouching low and keeping to the cover of the jungle.
A motley collection of vehicles was scattered outside the front of the building: six off-road cars, a battered ambulance and two lorries, including one with the words ‘Food Charity’ stencilled on the side.
‘Hijacked vehicles,’ muttered Tug.
He produced a small digital camera and began taking photos of the building every ten metres or so to get shots from different angles. Memory could play tricks; a photo was hard evidence.
Doing the recce was slow work. Fast movements could catch the eye of anybody watching and it was crucial not to rustle branches and disturb things, both plants and animals. Scare a bird and it would give away your position. So the men moved forward on their hands and knees, bellies sliding over the uneven ground, stopping for a minute at each vantage point before moving on, aware all the time of the armed men patrolling just a short distance away.
Nelson, Tug and Mitch crawled along until they came to a dust track that cut through the jungle to the hotel. The lack of weeds and the many tyre tracks showed the road was still in constant use.
So far they had scouted two sides of the hotel.The third side faced away from them, and to get to that they’d have to cross the road. Mitch gestured at the jungle on the other side of the road.
Nelson shook his head. ‘Too risky. We don’t want to get spotted this early. The road’s a dead end, so the other guys should be able to check out that side from their direction.’ He checked his watch. ‘We’ll head back and wait for them.’
The three men retraced their steps, using the same ‘crawl and stop’ routine as before. They got back to the rendezvous point first. Benny, Two Moons and Gaz joined them five minutes afterwards. They moved deeper into the jungle to avoid detection and swapped observations.
‘Fifteen men outside at different places,’ summed up Nelson. ‘Ten at the front, five at the back, but they keep moving around, exchanging positions.’
‘The good thing is there’s lots of cover because of all the overgrown vegetation,’ said Tug.
‘And it goes right up to the walls of the building,’ added Benny. ‘Plus there are the old outbuildingsfor the tennis courts, and storage sheds. All offer good cover.’
‘The question is: how many men are we dealing with?’ asked Tug. ‘How many are inside the building?’
‘The villagers said they reckoned about thirty men are here,’ said Mitch. ‘That makes sense, if you think about it. The satellite showed twenty men with Mwanga. Add another ten who stay and keep guard on the place when the raiding party is away and that gives us our thirty. So, we saw fifteen outside, and although some men may be out on patrol I think we should assume at least fifteen inside.’
‘OK, let’s look at ways into the building,’ said Nelson. ‘We saw the main entrance and two smaller doors round the side. The doors to the main entrance looked open, but there are at least two armed guards just inside them. The two smaller doors were shut, but whether they’re locked, and how thick the doors are, we don’t know. What did you see, Benny?’
Benny shook his head. ‘Two small doors at the back. Both shut, could be locked. No windows easily accessible. The downstairs ones are all very tightly secured with sheets of corrugated iron. Wood’s been used to board up the windows on the upper floor.’
‘It looks like the building’s power comes from a generator,’ said Gaz. ‘There’s an outbuilding with an oil tank next to it on the far side.’
Nelson nodded thoughtfully, taking all this in.
‘We really need more intel on what’s going on inside,’ he said. ‘Where Mwanga is. Where Justis Ngola is inside the building. Where the other fifteen men are. We need to get the intel and set up a proper plan of attack, and then we go in as soon as it gets dark.
A motley collection of vehicles was scattered outside the front of the building: six off-road cars, a battered ambulance and two lorries, including one with the words ‘Food Charity’ stencilled on the side.
‘Hijacked vehicles,’ muttered Tug.
He produced a small digital camera and began taking photos of the building every ten metres or so to get shots from different angles. Memory could play tricks; a photo was hard evidence.
Doing the recce was slow work. Fast movements could catch the eye of anybody watching and it was crucial not to rustle branches and disturb things, both plants and animals. Scare a bird and it would give away your position. So the men moved forward on their hands and knees, bellies sliding over the uneven ground, stopping for a minute at each vantage point before moving on, aware all the time of the armed men patrolling just a short distance away.
Nelson, Tug and Mitch crawled along until they came to a dust track that cut through the jungle to the hotel. The lack of weeds and the many tyre tracks showed the road was still in constant use.
So far they had scouted two sides of the hotel.The third side faced away from them, and to get to that they’d have to cross the road. Mitch gestured at the jungle on the other side of the road.
Nelson shook his head. ‘Too risky. We don’t want to get spotted this early. The road’s a dead end, so the other guys should be able to check out that side from their direction.’ He checked his watch. ‘We’ll head back and wait for them.’
The three men retraced their steps, using the same ‘crawl and stop’ routine as before. They got back to the rendezvous point first. Benny, Two Moons and Gaz joined them five minutes afterwards. They moved deeper into the jungle to avoid detection and swapped observations.
‘Fifteen men outside at different places,’ summed up Nelson. ‘Ten at the front, five at the back, but they keep moving around, exchanging positions.’
‘The good thing is there’s lots of cover because of all the overgrown vegetation,’ said Tug.
‘And it goes right up to the walls of the building,’ added Benny. ‘Plus there are the old outbuildingsfor the tennis courts, and storage sheds. All offer good cover.’
‘The question is: how many men are we dealing with?’ asked Tug. ‘How many are inside the building?’
‘The villagers said they reckoned about thirty men are here,’ said Mitch. ‘That makes sense, if you think about it. The satellite showed twenty men with Mwanga. Add another ten who stay and keep guard on the place when the raiding party is away and that gives us our thirty. So, we saw fifteen outside, and although some men may be out on patrol I think we should assume at least fifteen inside.’
‘OK, let’s look at ways into the building,’ said Nelson. ‘We saw the main entrance and two smaller doors round the side. The doors to the main entrance looked open, but there are at least two armed guards just inside them. The two smaller doors were shut, but whether they’re locked, and how thick the doors are, we don’t know. What did you see, Benny?’
Benny shook his head. ‘Two small doors at the back. Both shut, could be locked. No windows easily accessible. The downstairs ones are all very tightly secured with sheets of corrugated iron. Wood’s been used to board up the windows on the upper floor.’
‘It looks like the building’s power comes from a generator,’ said Gaz. ‘There’s an outbuilding with an oil tank next to it on the far side.’
Nelson nodded thoughtfully, taking all this in.
‘We really need more intel on what’s going on inside,’ he said. ‘Where Mwanga is. Where Justis Ngola is inside the building. Where the other fifteen men are. We need to get the intel and set up a proper plan of attack, and then we go in as soon as it gets dark.