The hours passed. A light rain fell. An owl on the hunt settled in a pine tree nearby. The sniper did not move. Mind alert and body relaxed. The hardest part of being a sniper was not the skill of shooting. It was the skill of finding and staying patiently in a hide for hour after hour of tense boredom without losing your edge.

After a few hours, Jack heard footsteps on the path. In front of the cave a flashlight switched on. A man went inside, a very big man. Jack knew the man must be Jim Marshall. If he took Jim now, the chances of the girls getting away would be greatly improved. He drew his .22 High Standard semi-automatic back up and followed Jim into the cave. Jim was intent on checking the wooden door and must have seen something on the dirt floor that bothered him. Without saying a word, Jack shot him twice in the head with two hollow point rounds. Jim fell in his tracks. Jack thought, I told him if I ever came back he wouldn’t see me. Going through his pockets, Jack found the keys to the doors. Opening both doors, he dragged Jim inside and relocked the doors. He cleaned the blood and scuff marks on the floor and hurried back to the building containing the dynamite and small arms ammunition. He cut off 70 feet of wire to connect the sticks, grabbed blasting caps out of an unlocked chest and a small electrical detonator off a shelf and hurried back to the cave. Inside the first chamber of the cave, near the entrance, he used his KA-BAR knife to carve several small chambers large enough to hold three sticks of dynamite. The excess dirt was put inside between the doors. He used water from his canteen to soften the earth enough to make mud to conceal the dynamite. The charges were placed to bring down tons of overhead dirt and rock. After wiring up the blasting caps, he brought the wire down the wall, concealed in a crevice he made to the floor, buried the cord along the bottom of the wall and across the path to his concealed hide. All he had to do now was wait. When Jim didn’t show someone would come looking for him. Jack hoped more than one would come. In the second hour, he heard Bobby calling her husband. Jack saw lights coming down the path. The lights stopped outside the cave. Jack could see Bobby and two men talking outside the cave.

“He may be inside with the girls,” Bobby said. “Come in and help me with the heavy doors and to make sure the girls aren’t causing trouble.”

When the last shape disappeared into the cave, Jack waited a few minutes and pushed the detonator switch. He was up and running as the explosion blew half of the cliff down. The dirt and rock swept across the path. Jack ran out of a cloud of dust. He knew no one would be coming out of that cave alive. They may never be found. After the explosion stopped and the dust settled, he went back and luckily managed to find the detonator. He decided it would be nice touch to put it back were he got it.

There wouldn’t be any pursuit. Only one of the badges was left out of the three he saw. No sense hanging around. He turned up the ridge and started after the group of rescued young women. Using a light, he could overtake them in three or four hours of a steady lope.