When a female guerrilla suddenly appeared in front of Marty, swinging a parang that was, he noticed, still dripping blood, he ducked and weaved, backing away, instinctively trying not to fire at her. Then, while ducking, he caught a nightmarish glimpse of a man’s head resting upright on the ground, the eyes still flicking frantically from left to right, fresh blood gushing out around its neck – the severed head of Rob Roy Burns.
Rage abruptly flared through Marty, obliterating all reason, making him stand upright to fire his SLR at close range into the woman’s frail body– repeated bursts of semi-automatic fire that nearly cut her in two. She screamed and staggered backwards, dropping the parang, the fell to her knees, appeared to be bowing respectfully, then coughed blood and fell face down in the mud.
Marty didn’t bother checking that she was dead. He just stepped up to her and kept firing his SLR until someone, Bulldog, grabbed his arm and jerked him back, bawling, ‘Stop it, Butler! It’s all over! We’ve done it! The rest of the CT are surrendering! Go back and check on your friend!’
Jerked back to reality, though still feeling demented, Marty glanced in disbelief at the dead bodies, male and female, Chinese and SAS, that were littering the muddy ground. Then he saw the last of the guerrillas raising their hands in surrender as smoke swirled across the jungle clearing and SF men closed in on them from all sides. Not wanting to see more, with only one thought in his mind, he turned away and hurried back up the hill, then back through the ulu, not stopping until he reached the place where he and the others had left Tone, stretched out on his belly, sobbing, with the Browning High Power handgun beside him.
Marty stopped when he reached that spot, then he turned cold all over.
Tone was still there, face down on the ground, exactly as Marty had left him, but he had placed the Nine-Milly to his temple and blown his own brains out. He had chosen the ‘Exit Club’. Suicide.
Marty knelt on the grass, held his dead friend in his arms, and closed his eyes to stop himself from crying as grief overwhelmed him. He remained that way, devastated and disbelieving, until Lieutenant Kearney and Bulldog Bellamy arrived to offer what comfort they could. They were with him when Tone was carried away and they stayed with him a long time.
Marty wanted to cry, but no tears fell as he marched out of the swamp.
Bad boys don’t cry, he thought.
To be continued…
Also available in the ‘Exit Club’ series as Kindle ebooks:
Book One: The Originals Book Three: The Professionals Book Four: Conspirators Book Five: Old Comrades
GLOSSARY
agal small Arab cap or band for holding a head-dress in place
ARU Air Reconnaissance Unit
ASU active service unit
atap a kind of jungle palm
BBE Bizondere Bystand Eenheid
beasting psychological trick of pleasantness followed by abuse, used by Directing Staff (DS)
during exercises
Bofors gun light anti-aircraft gun
Casevac
CCO changkol
Chappal
COBR
COMMCEN COPS
CQB
CT
CT
DPG
DPM DS DZ
E and E casualty evacuation (a casevac helicopter)
Clandestine Communist
organization
a kind of hoe
Indian sandal
Cabinet Office Briefing Room communications centre
close-quarter battle
communist terrorist (note: two CTs, see next)
counter-terrorist
Diplomatic Protection Group
disruptive-pattern material
directing staff (in exercises)
drop zone, a landing zone for parachutists
escape and evasion
exfiltration
Fincos FOB
Fred (a Fred) Futah
GEO
gharries Ghibili GIGN
GPMG surreptitious withdrawal of troops, spies etc., esp. from danger field intelligence NCOs
forward operating base
a tout for MI5
long-sleeved Arab robe
Spain’s Grupo Especial
de Operaciones
horse-drawn carriages
a hot, dust-carrying wind
Groupment d’Intervention de la Gendarmerie
general-purpose machine gun
green slime nickname for members of the SAS Intelligence Corps
GSG-9 German border police antiterrorist unit
HALO high-altitude, low-opening, said of a certain kind of dangerous parachute jump
Int and Sy Group Intelligence and Security Group
jarit
Ju Stukas
Keeni-Meeni
kijang
Kremlin, the kukri
kunjia LMG LRDG a meal of raw pork, rice and salt, left to putrefy buried in the ground in a bamboo shoot, favoured by
the Dyaks of Borneo
German fighter planes
Swahili term used to describe the
description of
undercover work
a barking deer found in the jungle nickname for the intelligence
section of Regimental HQ
a machete
Omani knife
light machine gun
Long Range Desert Group
LUPS
LZ
maroon machine
Milos
MIOs MPI
MSR
NITAT
NOCS OP padi
parang
PC
PIRA
PNGs QRF R and I
RAOC
Rattan
REME
RTU RV
samsu
SARBE SAS
SBS
seladang
laying-up positions, dug out of the desert floor or earth, usually for sleeping in
landing zone
Parachute Regiment troops in Northern Ireland
military intelligence liaison officers
military intelligence officers mean point of impact, a term used by marksmen
main supply route
Northern Ireland Training
Advisory Team
Centrale di Sicurezza
observation post
Malayan paddy-field
large, heavy Malayan knife also used as a weapon
patrol commander
Provisional IRA
passive night-vision goggles quick-reaction force
resistance to interrogation
Royal Army Ordnance Corps Malaysian climbing palm Royal Electrical and
Mechanical Engineers
return to (original) unit, a form of punishment for
misdemeanour
rendezvous point
a strong spirit made from rice surface-to-air rescue beacon Special Air Service
Special Boat Section
wild ox or bison of Malaya Senussi
SF
shemagh souk
Tab
TAOR Tapai
ulu yomping Muslim fraternity founded in 1837
security forces
a type of shawl worn around the head by Arabs
Arab market-place
route march
tactical area of responsibility a rice wine favoured by
the Dyaks of Borneo
Malayan jungle as known by the natives
a colloquial word for marching
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