Ник Картер - Death Island

He crept the rest of the way to the edge of the cliff that led down into the meeting place and looked over.

The place had been the scene of a bloodbath. There were at least twenty bodies scattered around the amphitheater. Most of them were bare-chested natives. But among them he saw at least one body clad in dungarees.

There was no movement below. Only the wind in the treetops made any sound.

He crawled back away from the edge, then stood up and made his way around the rim of the natural depression, coming at the bottom to the path that led back into the bowl.

The officer who had led the patrol lay dead on the path, hacked to pieces by what must have been at least a half-dozen machete-wielding natives. His body was horribly mutilated. His left arm was severed from his torso, his spine was nearly chopped out of his body, and the entire back of his head had been peeled back, revealing his brain.

One of the crewmen lay beneath a pile of four natives just within the amphitheater, and the third crewman lay in the middle of the meeting area.

Blood and mangled bodies were everywhere.

Carter started to turn away when a small noise, like a wounded animal or a crying baby, startled him, and he spun around, bringing up the M-16 and flicking off the safety.

It was silent in the amphitheater for a long second. The noise had come from up front, near the altar. There was a pile of bodies on and around the stone.

Carter started forward when the whimpering came again. It was definitely human, and it came from near the altar. Someone was still alive.

He hurried forward to the altar, picking his way around the bodies. He leaned the rifle against the stone and gently pulled one of the bodies from the pile.

Bob Tieggs, his face covered with blood, looked up at him.

“Christ,” Carter breathed.

“Oh... Carter...” Tieggs croaked.

Carter pulled the other bodies from the wounded pilot. He had been cut deeply on the shoulder, probably with a machete, and an arrow stuck out from his left thigh. He had lost a lot of blood.

“Hang on,” Carter said. He jumped up and hurried back to the body of the crewman just in from the path. He had been carrying a small musette bag with a red cross on it.

He grabbed the first aid kit and the canteen on the crewman’s hip, and went back to Tieggs. He helped him drink, which seemed to revive him somewhat.

“Am I glad to see you, Carter,” Tieggs said, his voice weak.

“What the hell are you doing here, Bob?” Carter asked. He opened the first aid kit and found the bandages and disinfectant.

“I went up to the governor’s place like you asked me to do... to see if I could find out what happened to Gabrielle... to his wife. They were busy as hell up there. I watched from up in the hills.”

Carter took out his stiletto. “The arrow has to come out, Bob.”

Tieggs swallowed hard, but he nodded. “I watched as they started taking off in their helicopters. I saw the governor and his wife leaving. I figured they were coming out here to watch the show.”

“How’d you get here?” Carter asked. He pulled out a syringe of morphine and some cotton. He swabbed an area of Tieggs’s hip with the disinfectant.

“I got into their compound and managed to steal one of the helicopters. When I got here I saw all the fighting, so I landed on the beach and came up.”

“No sign of the governor?”

“None,” Tieggs said.

Carter gave him the shot of morphine.

“I was lucky. I got up here, and it was mostly all over,” Tieggs said, but then his voice began to slur, and after a moment he blinked and grinned. “God Almighty, she’s beautiful...” he mumbled.

Carter poured some of the disinfectant over the blade of his stiletto, and then over and around the arrow wound.

Tieggs did not flinch. He kept grinning and mumbling as Carter carefully cut deeply around the arrow. Within a few seconds he had cut the arrowhead out of Tieggs’s thigh, the blood welling up slowly.

He poured some more disinfectant into the wound and bandaged it firmly. He did the same for the wound on Tieggs’s shoulder.

It had taken less than ten minutes. Tieggs was sweating profusely.

“Don’t feel so good, old man...” he slurred. It was the loss of blood and the effects of the morphine.

Carter bundled up the first aid things back in the bag, threw it and the M-16 over his shoulder, and carefully picked up Tieggs. On the path, Carter turned south around the volcano toward the beach. It was several miles away, and Tieggs was heavy. The spunky helicopter pilot had passed out, but he came to when they stopped by the spring and Carter splashed some cool water on his face.

He winced when he tried to move, and his eyes fluttered. “Christ,” he swore out loud, his voice ragged but a lot stronger.

He had passed out less than an hour ago, but already his color was a lot better.

“How do you feel?” Carter asked.

“Feel? Like a goddamned Mack truck ran over me.” He pushed himself up with his good arm. Carter helped him, then gave him the canteen. Tieggs drank the cool spring water, letting a lot of it spill down his chest.

When he was finished he looked from his leg up to Carter. “You do pretty good work for a cop.”

“I only did it because I needed another favor.”

“It figures.” Tieggs said. He glanced toward the trail. “What about the shore party from the sub? Did any of them make it?”

Carter shook his head. “I found four of them on the other side of the island. They were dead. The Chinese killed them.”

Tieggs looked back. “There was an explosion. Everyone bugged out. It’s the last I remember. Was it you?”

“The Chinese base here is destroyed.”

“Where’s our sub?”

“Out there someplace, chasing down one of theirs.”

“It was based here, on this island, all this time?”

“Yes.”

Tieggs whistled. “And you think Governor Rondine is involved somehow.”

“He’s involved up to his ears. Our sub will take care of theirs, but we have to get to Rondine.”

Tieggs grinned, although he was obviously in a great deal of pain. “And you’d prefer that I fly the chopper.”

“Are you up to it? You know your way around those things a hell of a lot better than I do.”

Tieggs shrugged with his good shoulder as best he could. “Who the hell knows until we try it.”

Carter refilled the canteen, then hefted the first aid kit and the M-16, and picked up Tieggs, who protested.

“I want you to save your strength for flying. I’ll do the walking for the both of us.”

They passed the spot where Fenster’s helicopter had been shot down. As far as Carter knew there were no missile emplacements on the island. His helicopter had probably been brought down by a bazooka or some other hand-held weapon carried by one of the Chinese patrols.

Gradually the land began to drop away from the volcano’s southeast side, and the jungle became much thicker and almost impossible to break through until they came across the trail he and Gabrielle had walked up.

A half hour later they could hear the surf. Ten minutes after that they came to the beach. The helicopter Tieggs had taken from Governor Rondine’s compound was parked several hundred yards farther west on the beach. But there were men standing around it.

Carter had just stepped out of the jungle, when he spotted the helicopter and then the men. He ducked back into the undergrowth and laid Tieggs down.

“Chinese?” Tieggs asked.

“I think so,” Carter said. He gave Tieggs his Luger. “There’re only a couple of rounds left. But it’s better than nothing. I’ll be back.”

“Don’t get yourself killed,” Tieggs said, but Carter had already gone back into the jungle.