Watching Yute (21 page)

“
Hrmph!” Cheryl stomped with
mock indignance. “We don’t have to stand here and take
this!”

“
Shall we lie across her lap
and take this?”

“
No, no, that would just
lead her on.”

“
Quite, quite. We can’t go
breaking the poor lass’ heart like-“

Cipriana’s quiet but firm voice
interrupted. “You two bimbos are dismissed. I insist.”

“
Bimbos?”

“
Who taught her such
language?”

“
I think we need to go hurt
Jim.”

“
Quite. I for one think of
myself more as a trollop.”

“
I have another word for
you, but it’s not the kind of thing one says in public.”

Cipriana sighed a sigh that began to
border on irritation. “If I tell you I’m planning something for
your six month anniversary, will you leave me alone?”

“
Oh?” That shut them up.
“Whatcha planning, aunty Cip?” Cheryl asked meekly.

“
It’s a surprise. One that
can be quickly un-planned if you two don’t let me have some quiet.”
Cipriana felt like she was negotiating with children. She hadn’t
planned anything, but it was a fair enough idea to plan something,
and got their attention enough to slow down the gibberish. “Now off
to the mess with you. Maybe ‘uncle Alan’ has a cookie for
you.”

They took the suggestion and went to
check on the state of the cookie ‘industry’. Jim was taking out yet
another batch, nearly dropping them when Cassidy snuck up and
jabbed his upper arm.

“
Cass! What the hell?!” Jim
shook the cookie tray carefully to un-bunch the cookies that had
jerked mostly to one side.

“
That’s your penance for
proliferating the ‘B’ word about me!” Cassidy said, nabbing a fresh
cookie.

Jim rubbed his arm, looking to Cheryl
to save him. She merely smiled contentedly. “What ‘B’ w..” Jim
clued in. “Oh. Uhm, I didn’t mean to! Honest! But the way you two
act together, it’s not entirely unwarranted.”

“
Fuck…! Hot!” Cassidy
juggled her stolen cookie after trying to take a bite.

“
You’re de-evolving into one
of the stupid greedy apes, I see.”

“
Shu-uf!” she responded,
mouth crammed full of the cookie, still a bit hot to be eaten
comfortably, much less in one bite.

Cheryl grabbed a cookie, and blew on it
a bit to cool it. “And for the record, I prefer ‘trollop’.” Cassidy
grunted with disapproval for teaching Jim new words, and snatched
the cookie from Cheryl, walking off. Cheryl snatched another, and
followed. “Thanks Jim! We’ve gotta go play with
tourists!”

“
Sure, now that you’ve eaten
half their cookies.”

The tour chopper touched town, slowed
its rotors, and eventually unloaded a typical tour group. Some
families, some couples, some students, some random miscellany.
Often, some people were very quiet, stricken by the scenery, or the
heat. A couple Aguei men seemed particularly quiet. This wasn’t
terribly unusual. Many Aguei saw the Yute ruins almost like a holy
land of sorts, remains of a lost history.

As usual, Cheryl led, and talked about
the different little stops. The notes she once used were now firmly
committed to memory. Cassidy had long lost interest in doing the
tours, but Cheryl really enjoyed dealing with the people, and
Cassidy was happier following her around, doing the tour, than
sitting somewhere waiting for Cheryl to come back.

The guards at the north door by the
main hall were Karl and Marcus. While Cheryl did her little speech
about the statue, Cassidy, eyes on the group still, lingered near
Marcus. “Hey,” she said in a quiet tone, “what are you doing on
morning shift? Did you get sick of Cip during the
afternoons?”

It was then that Cassidy noticed Marcus
had an unusual focused look on his face, watching the crowd
intently. “Be on your toes, “ he said, just loud enough for Karl to
hear as well, “the ghost smells something funny. Doesn’t like
it.”

“
What?” Cassidy said,
puzzled, mirroring Karl’s expression.

“
I don’t know. The ghost
doesn’t seem to know either. Just look sharp.”

Things progressed as normal, and Cheryl
invited the children closer to touch the statue, as had become a
regular part of the tour.

“
Now!” One of the quiet
Aguei men pulled a grenade out of his pocket, and the other did the
same. They both ran towards the exit, one grenade tossed into the
tour group, the other one towards the doorway with Cassidy, Marcus
and Karl as they got close.

Cassidy threw herself on the grenade,
and counted the last few seconds of her life. Somewhere in the
direction of the statue, she heard Cheryl yelling to the tourists,
“Get clear of it! GO, GO, GO!”

While she was waiting to die, Cassidy
saw Karl and Marcus run past her. Marcus caught the one Aguei man
under the chin with the dull end of his spear, tossing him on his
back, coughing. Karl got into bit of a struggle with his opponent,
both grabbing the spear handle. Karl pushed him against the nearby
wall. Karl released the spear to get his hands free, and dealt the
man a grievous right hook. Knockout.

“
Good one!” Marcus
congratulated, holding the sharp end of his spear to the neck of
his own downed foe.

How many seconds was that? Felt like
more than five… While Cassidy tried to remember how many seconds
had passed during the fight, and realized many more seconds were
passing still. She looked forward to the tour group. They were also
notably not blown up.

“
Cassie!” Cheryl ran over,
and knelt by Cassidy. “Cassie, are you hurt?!” She was on the verge
of crying.

“
She’s fine.” Marcus said
assuredly. “Cassidy, you can get up. It’s fine.”

Cassidy got up slow and careful,
revealing the grenade. Cheryl’s jaw dropped. “You…? How…. How the
hell do you dare to be a hero?!”

“
Seemed like a good idea at
the time.” Cassidy said, as Cheryl grabbed her tight.

“
It’s alright, everyone!”
Marcus said to the tour group. Some of the group started
applauding, and eventually, they all were. Marcus turned to Karl,
Cassidy and Cheryl, and spoke kindly. “He doesn’t like cameras,
what the heck made you think he’d put up with grenades?”

Cheryl wasn’t hearing anyone but
Cassidy at this point, not that Cassidy was saying
anything.

Marcus, still holding his captive at
spear-point, spoke to Karl. “Karl, tell the front door guards to
come in and help, then get back to the post, tell Cipriana to call
in a chopper that can take out two prisoners to Yute central. Then
get some rope, and come back here with four more troops. Got
it?”

“
Front door troops here, Cip
calls chopper, rope, four troops. Got it, Sir.”

“
Right. Go.
Quick.”

Karl ran off, and was heard hollering
to the people out front. Marcus looked at the grenade on the floor,
then over to the statue. He waved it a little friendly salute.
“Much obliged.”

The tourists were guided out by Cassidy
and Cheryl. Cheryl was rattled and quiet.

Cheryl asked Cassidy quietly, “Trade
places, please?” Cheryl didn’t feel like leading, and was far more
comfortable in the rear guard position, keeping en eye on everyone,
especially Cassidy.

“
Sure, hon.” They shared a
discrete hug, and Cassidy took point ahead of the tourists. “Kay,
folks! Let’s step it up a bit. Right now we just need to sort
everything out, get everyone away and safe.”

As they walked the same path as always,
the gentle quiet was tarnished by a little aftertaste of violence.
Cassidy found that she was unconsciously walking slower, as if
expecting an ambush, and constantly had to force herself to keep up
the pace.

Before long, five soldiers came running
up with Karl in the lead, carrying a coil of rope. As he got
closer, he called out to Cassidy without breaking stride. “You
good?”

“
Yeah, yeah, go.” Cassidy
called back.

The five ran past the tourists. A boy
was heard to say, “Cool. Ma, look!” as he pointed at the soldiers.
It didn’t seem so cool to Cassidy. Suddenly this military unit was
forced to be a bit military. It wasn’t nice at all. She glanced
back through the group at Cheryl. She looked afraid. Face devoid of
colour, almost nauseous. Cassidy called out loud to everyone,
“Doin’ OK?” but she was looking at Cheryl.

Cheryl nodded meekly, ignored by the
various tourist calling positive replies to Cassidy. Ahead,
Cipriana was approaching, walking. Her aura of peace was a little
weakened, but very welcome. “Cassidy.” she said in her usual tone,
taking pace beside Cassidy.

Cassidy’s voice sounded calm but
cautious. “Hey Cip. Karl got you up to speed?”

“
Yes. We have two
helicopters incoming. One’s for the tourists, the other is bringing
Colonel Calvert, and will take out the prisoners. The civilian
helicopter is going to be a different one than the one that brought
them here. The original one is being inspected for bombs and other
threats at Yute central. This group is likely to be interviewed as
well.”

“
Are you going to the
temple, Cip?”

“
Not anymore. I was just
coming to see about getting the tourists out, but I see you and
Cheryl beat me to it. I’ll go with you to the helipad from here,
and wait for Calvert.”

“
Kay. Good stuff. Hey, can
you do me a favour, and go back and talk to Cheryl for me? She’s
kind of shaken up.”

Cipriana nodded. “Alright.” Cipriana
had considered just taking over point, but just went along with
Cassidy’s initial suggestion. She walked around the tourists, and
got walking beside Cheryl. “How are you?” Cipriana said
calmly.

Cheryl stopped walking, as did
Cipriana, letting the group migrate away. “My girlfriend threw
herself on a godddam grenade, Cip.” Cheryl was trembling slightly,
eyes trying hard not to cry.

“
She’s alright, Cheryl.
She’s right up there, doing her duty. She’s fine.”

“
Yeah, well.. that doesn’t
make me feel better.” The two of them continued walking, now with a
bit of space between them and the group.

Cipriana put her hand on Cheryl’s
shoulder for a moment. “She was trying to save people. But this
isn’t about logic, is it?”

“
Sure as hell isn’t.” Cheryl
muttered bitterly. She looked at Cipriana with an apologetic
expression. Cipriana’s trademark soft smile told her not to
worry.

When they arrived at the helipad, the
civilian helicopter was already cooling its rotors, preparing to
take its passengers.

Many of them wanted to shake hands with
Cheryl or Cassidy, thanking them for their heroics. Some wanted
them to pass on the sentiment to “those men guarding the door”.
Cassidy did her best to seem professional, and upright, while
Cheryl just tried to keep herself together.

The door closed, and they got clear.
Cipriana scanned the sky for the other expected chopper. As the
tourists made their liftoff, Cassidy went to hold Cheryl, but even
held, Cheryl beat on Cassidy with her fists. “You stupid… A
grenade! What the fuck…!?”

Cassidy held her tighter. With her head
over Cheryl's shoulder she saw Cipriana doing her best to not
overhear anything. Cassidy nuzzled in, her face half buried in
Cheryl’s hair. “Hon, it was what I had to do. It turned out
okay.”

“
Well, you could have done
something else. I grabbed the grenade near me and threw it to the
other end of the statue!”

“
You what?”

“
I figured if I blew up the
statue’s butt, the Grand Elder would understand, given the
situation!”

Cassidy burst into giggles. “Oh,
Cheryl, did I ever mention I love you?”

Cheryl squeezed back. “You’re still in
trouble. If it happens again, throw it somewhere!”

“
I didn’t have a giant stone
dog’s ass handy. If I threw it down the stairs, or into a corner of
the hall, it could have hurt someone.”

“
You’re someone too. Should
have bowled it into that gap between the two front doors.” Cheryl
was now just pouting.

“
I couldn’t take the chance.
Not much time to think, either,”

“
Yeah. Well, you’re in
trouble.”

“
I’ll make it up to
you,”

“
Hell yes, you
will.”

“
There they are.” Cipriana
called to them, pointing at an approaching dark spot in the sky.
The Colonel’s helicopter landed and the Colonel hopped off, along
with two subordinate soldiers armed with standard rifles. The
typical minor sand storm washed across them all.

“
Sir.” Cipriana saluted, so
Cassidy and Cheryl followed suit.

The Colonel saluted back. “Where’s
Major Douglas?”

“
He’s at the temple. I’ll
take you there if you like, Sir.”

“
Yes, ah...” Colonel Calvert
looked around. “You people need to get a jeep.”

The group of six headed back to the
temple. Cipriana, Cheryl, and Cassidy in front, The Colonel and his
two troops behind. Just a bit past the stump, they ran into Karl,
who was leading the same group of four others, transporting the two
prisoners. The prisoners had their hands tied tightly behind their
backs, a line tied to that, each held by one of the outpost men.
The two others followed ready with spears.