‘Christ!’ Tommy said, running beside him. ‘I can’t see a damned thing!’
‘Just keep running,’ Taff told him.
Marty almost fell, one foot slipping into a shell hole, but Taff grabbed him by the shoulder and tugged him upright, then pushed him ahead. Tommy was there beside him, his face streaked with sand and sweat, running beside Welsh and Raglan – a trio of ghosts. The mortar shells were still exploding, causing the sand to roar and swirl about them, and green tracer stabbed through the murk with a vicious hissing sound.
Suddenly, from the gloom of the swirling sand, they plunged back into daylight.
For a moment it was dazzling, seeming brighter than it really was, but then, when Marty managed to adjust to it, he saw that the bottleneck leading to the airstrip had been blocked with a barricade of trees and barbed wire. Then he saw the adoo– they looked just like the firqats– retreating across the airstrip, firing on the move, and gradually scattering up the rocky slopes beyond, where they could hide behind boulders.
‘We should be in range!’ Crowley bawled. ‘Set up the machine gun!’
Relieved to be unburdened, Marty and Taff dropped to their knees and hurriedly set up the GPMG. Once it was fixed to its heavy tripod, Marty closed the top cover on a belt of 200 rounds and Taff hammered out a test burst of fifty. After replacing the hinge-clip, he again took up his firing position and started pouring bullets into the hills beyond the airstrip where the adoo were sheltering.
By now the other SF machine-gunners were also peppering the hill and the mortar crews were laying down a barrage that soon covered the whole area in smoke. The adoo were in retreat, moving back up the hill, allowing the SAS demolitions team, led by Corporal Jack ‘the lad’ Lisners, to race across to the bottleneck and begin the task of blowing away the trees and barbed wire that were blocking the way to the airstrip. They were given covering fire not only by the many machine guns, but by a fusillade of fire from the rifles of the SAF, firqat and Baluchi troops massed on both sides of the barricade.
With Marty feeding in the belts and Tommy acting as observer, Taff kept hammering away with his GPMG, helping to force the adoo back up the slopes of the western hill. Minutes later, a call came in over the radio, informing Marty’s team that the barricade was about to be blown. By this time most of the adoo were well up the western hill, retreating over the rim, out of range of the SF guns, so the machine-gun fire gradually tapered off and Taff also stopped firing. Finally, the SF rifles fell silent and the troops at the barricade hastily left it to crouch on the ground near the SAS.
Marty saw the adoo clearly through his binoculars. Wearing djellabas, shemaghs and sandals, heavily burdened with webbing, ponchos, bandoliers of ammunition and kunjias, they looked just like the fearsome firqats. Most of them had stopped firing and were retreating back up the hill, holding their Kalashnikovs in the cradle of their arms. Marty lowered his binoculars as the last of them were about to disappear over the rim of the hill.
The demolition men had completed their work and were retreating backwards, crouched low, uncoiling the detonator cord as they went. From where he was kneeling, Marty could clearly see the plastic explosives taped to the upended trees. The det’ cord, with one end fixed to blasting caps embedded in the explosive charges, was running out from the explosives to the roll being uncoiled by Corporal Lisners. When he and his assistant had reached the detonator, Lisners cut through the det’ cord with scissors, expertly bared the wires with a pocket knife, fixed them to the electrical connectors on the detonator, then rested his hands lightly on the plunger.
He eyeballed the barricade to ensure that no one was near it, then glanced at Lieutenant Barkwell, who was kneeling a short distance to his right, beside RSM Patterson and a radio crew. When Barkwell raised and lowered his right hand, Lisners pressed on the plunger with both hands.
The noise emerged from what seemed like the bowels of the earth to explode with a deafening roar and erupt in a mighty mushroom of spewing soil, sand, dust and loose gravel. The trees were blown apart and burst into flames, raining back down through the angry dark smoke as a fountain of fire, falling into the murk well to each side of the bottleneck, caused more dust to billow upwards.
The fading sound of the explosion was followed by another: the spine-chilling, macabre wailing of the excited firqats, rising eerily above the cheering and shouting of the SAF and Baluchi troops.
As one man, they jumped to their feet and raced through the smoke in the opened bottleneck, between the exploded, flaming trees, then spread out across the deserted airstrip, firing their weapons repeatedly in the air to announce their triumph.
The SAS troopers, bemused by the furore, followed them in.
Marty was right there with them, between Taff and Tommy, running as fast as he could, exhilarated beyond measure and feeling his heart racing with excitement.
Suddenly, unexpectedly, he felt a stabbing pain in his chest, became dizzy, lost his balance. His weapon slipped from his hands as he plunged towards the ground and the pain clenched like a fist around his heart and threatened to squeeze the life out of him.
Oh, no! he thought. Not now!
When he hit the ground, darkness swooped in to claim him and release him from agony.
To be continued… Also available in the ‘Exit Club’ series as Kindle ebooks:
Book One: The Originals Book Two: Bad Boys 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 casualty evacuation (a casevac helicopter)
CCO
changkol
chappal
COBR
COMMCEN COPS
CQB
CT
DPG
DPM DS DZ
E and E Exfiltration Fincos FOB
Fred (a Fred) futah
GEO
gharries Ghibili GIGN
GPMG 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 a meal of raw pork, rice and salt, Clandestine Communist Organization a kind of hoe
Indian sandal
Cabinet Office Briefing Room communications centre
close-observation platoons
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
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 Ju Stukas
Keeni-Meeni
kijang
Kremlin, the kukri
LZ
maroon machine Milos
officers
MIOs MPI
MSR
NITAT
NOCS OP padi
parang
PC
PIRA
PNGs 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
movement of a snake in the grass, adopted by soldiers as a 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
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
military intelligence officers mean point of impact, a term used by marksmen
main supply route
Northern Ireland Training
Advisory Team
Italian Nucleo Operativo 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 QRF R and I
RAOC
Rattan
REME
RTU RV
samsu
SARBE SAS
SBS
seladang
Senussi
SF
shemagh
souk
Tab
TAOR Tapai
ulu yomping 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 Muslim fraternity found in 1837 security forces
a type of shawl worn around the head by Arab peoples
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
Other Kindle e-books by Shaun Clarke Underworld Red Hand
The Opium Road Dragon Light