Sub-Sahara

by Ethan Arkwright

  Cavill’s voice came through their earpieces. ‘Harcourt, what’s the sit rep on that entrance?’

  ‘All secure. Nothing strange to report. The passage heads left and turns right into the structure.’

  ‘Good. Recce a few tunnels in to see what we’re dealing with. Go slow. Check for traps, air changes, anything. Anything strange, pull back. You’re on point for this. We need some intel and need to know what other equipment we may need before sending the away team in.’

  ‘Roger that,’ Harcourt responded. He shrugged at Sansom. ‘And sometimes you just get the shitty jobs. He’s being a realistic commander. Doesn’t want to lose half the team down there if it can be avoided. Let’s go, canary.’

  They checked their weapons and stepped over the threshold to enter the pyramid.

  Chapter 20

  ‘You need to look at this,’ Gil Evron said.

  ‘What is it?’ Cavill said, immediately walking back towards Evron’s laptop.

  ‘We’ve got a contact of something approaching us from the west,’ Evron said, pointing at a moving black dot on his radar screen. ‘Just picked up by radar on the drone.’

  Cavill touched his throat microphone to activate their communications system.

  ‘Lampack, you got the MK19 up and running?’

  ‘Roger that. Operational; it’s facing north, so I can cover arcs east and west too. I set up the drones on the south side, away from vibration.’

  ‘Good,’ Cavill said. ‘Get it aimed west, and get your eyes out there. We have inbound.’

  ‘On it,’ Lampack said. He grabbed his long-range binoculars and ran to the end of the container he was standing on to sight the potential enemy.

  ‘Ground crew, report,’ Cavill said.

  ‘This is Nathan.’ The voice came through his earpiece. ‘Sizemore and I are set up with a couple of antitank Javelins and an M72 LAW, though Fabrice and Rolleston still aren’t back yet.’

  ‘Okay, hold tight until further notice,’ Cavill said.

  ‘Lampack here. I can see a cloud of dust from the western inbound. It’s a big cloud. Looks like a column of trucks at this stage. It’s still far away.’

  Evron waved at Cavill in the control room and joined the radio conversation. ‘We now have contact on the perimeter from two sides. Contact from the east, though much smaller. I’m swinging the drone that way to get eyes on it.’

  Cavill had heard enough. ‘Cornell and I are coming down to join the ground team.’

  Both men immediately headed for the hatch and started the descent by ladder back to the ground. As they neared the bottom, they heard Evron’s voice: ‘Contact on the east side is a single truck, dirty white; it has Red Cross markings on it. Looks like an aid truck.’

  ‘Get Bramwell patched into the conversation,’ Cavill said.

  ‘Lampack here,’ he said from the roof. ‘The western inbound are army trucks of some kind. Six trucks. Could be carrying a platoon of men.’

  On the ground, Cavill and Cornell quickly moved to positions where Mike Nathan had the antitank weaponry set up.

  A new voice came over the radio. ‘Hello, James. This is Christian Bramwell. How can I help?’ he said from his operations room in GCHQ in England.

  ‘Thanks, Christian. We have an apparent aid vehicle approaching the site from the east. Can you confirm the nearest aid site where the Red Cross is operating? If yes, check the timings. If they set off from that location when the hurricane transmissions were being sent from here, do the timings match up? We need to know if these guys are genuine.’

  ‘Okay. I’ll get back to you shortly,’ Bramwell said.

  ‘Lampack, Evron,’ Cavill said. ‘Any more detail on this inbound army?’

  ‘They’re not new trucks; that’s for sure,’ Lampack said as he watched them getting closer through his binoculars.

  ‘We’re in the northern Ténéré desert,’ Evron said. ‘It’s still Niger. The only people who could have got here that quickly by land would be Niger Army. Have to assume at this point they’re army regulars come to secure the site for the glory of the Niger government.’

  ‘Okay,’ Cavill said. ‘Let’s not fire until fired upon from the army and especially not on a potential Red Cross vehicle.’

  ‘We’ve been spotted,’ Lampack said. ‘They’ve stopped on the edge of the city. They’re pouring out of the trucks. They’re pulling out weapons and gear. Look hostile to me.’

  ‘Wait,’ Cavill said. ‘We don’t want an unnecessary firefight.’

  Lampack watched through his binoculars as a puff of smoke appeared by the side of one of the trucks. At the same time, the pinging of metal on metal was heard as rifle rounds started to pepper the containers and pyramid around him.

  ‘They’re firing. Mortar incoming,’ he said as he rolled away from the edge of the container and quickly crawled back to the MK19.

  Cavill and the men on the ground took cover as the first mortar detonated near the northwest corner of the pyramid.

  ‘Take them out quickly,’ Cavill said, looking where the mortar round landed. ‘If these idiots hit the scaffolding, it’s game over.’

  ‘On it,’ Lampack said as he got behind the MK19 and swung the barrel towards the enemy.

  Lampack loved the Mark 19 40-mm grenade launcher. It was his favourite weapon. He sighted the target and depressed the dual triggers. The feeding belt cavorted into action to start firing sixty 40-mm grenades a minute out the barrel in rapid-fire mode. It had a range of up to two kilometres. Each grenade had a kill radius of five metres and would wound anyone within fourteen metres. At the rate Lampack was firing, he could clear half a football pitch with explosions in thirty seconds.

  The effect on the poorly trained Niger Army regulars was predictable. Chaos erupted amongst their ranks as a hail of grenades landed in every part of their unit. Soldiers dived wildly for cover towards the trucks amongst explosions of sand and debris. They managed to get one more mortar off, which exploded closer to the pyramid and scaffolding below Lampack. In response, he adjusted his aim slightly to concentrate fire on the truck with the mortar next to it. The truck exploded in a fireball as a series of grenades hit it.

  ‘In case you were thinking of driving to another location to have another go,’ he said as he continued firing to take out the truck that had been at the front on their assault. This vehicle, too, was instantly reduced to burning scrap. He stopped firing.

  ‘Okay, boys, do the right thing now,’ he said.

  Given a moment’s reprieve, all of the soldiers scattered on the ground sprinted back to the trucks and leapt in. The trucks turned around and sped out of the area.

  ‘Good choice,’ he said as he opened up with the Mark 19 again, dropping grenades behind the fleeing vehicles to help chase them out.

  ‘They’re retreating,’ Lampack said into his radio. ‘Don’t think they’ll be coming back in their current form. By the time they get better kit and a better plan, we should be gone.’

  ‘Good job,’ Cavill said. ‘We’re all okay down here. Reset the kit and get into sniper position for whoever is turning up in the Red Cross truck.’

  The flying drone tracked the Red Cross truck all the way into the city. Nothing looked strange on Evron’s laptop screen as it got closer. No weapons showing from the windows or the rear.

  Cavill could see it coming through the optical sight on his rifle as it kicked up a cloud of dust in the distance. He could make out three people in the front. He lowered his rifle and got back on the radio. ‘Christian, we need an answer here; these boys are on our doorstep.’

  ‘Coming, coming,’ Bramwell said. ‘Got it. Right, Red Cross is operating three sites down there: one in Chad, two in Niger. They could have come from the site near Arlit in Niger. It’s a measles and rubella initiative. The transport timings match up to the emergency signals.’

  ‘Okay. Keep the next ten minutes clear, if you can,’ Cavill said. ‘May need to check identities.’

  There was still
no obvious threat as the truck rumbled into the open area near the team’s equipment. Cavill and his men kept all their heavy weaponry on it as it rattled to a stop.

  A heavy door on the driver’s side swung open, and a man dressed in cargo trousers and a white polo shirt got out.

  ‘Hello,’ the man called out, looking around.

  ‘Stay where you are,’ Jerry Cornell said, popping up from behind one of the storage containers with his rifle aimed at the man. ‘You have multiple weapons on you. Everybody get out of the truck with their hands in the air.’

  The man looked surprised but quickly did as he was told. The other two men climbed out of the cab and joined their colleague with their hands in the air. They were also dressed in casual clothes. All of Cavill’s armed men materialised from the surroundings and converged on the three men.

  ‘What’s going on here?’ the first man asked. ‘We are doctors, responding to a distress signal from this location.’

  ‘We’ll see,’ Cavill said. ‘We’ll need identification papers, and you’re going to get searched.’

  Cavill and Cornell kept their weapons trained on the men while Sizemore searched them and Nathan set about searching the truck.

  ‘They’re clean,’ Sizemore said. ‘You got some ID?’ he asked, holding out his hand. The men lowered their hands, and each produced a small laminated card from his pocket. Sizemore collected them and brought them over to Cavill.

  Cavill lowered his weapon and clipped it back onto his chest to inspect the cards. The cards were emblazoned with the Red Cross logo and stated names and serial numbers.

  ‘These say two of you are doctors,’ Cavill said.

  ‘That’s correct,’ replied the man who got out of the truck first.

  ‘What does the third guy do, then?’ Cavill asked.

  ‘He’s our driver,’ the man replied.

  Cavill frowned. He reached into his plate carrier, pulled his smartphone from its protective case, and turned it on. During a short mission like this one, it was an invaluable piece of kit. It connected to their wireless network as a backup communication device, and it contained some essential special-forces tools: compass, altimeter, speedometer, unit converter, and camera. He took pictures of the identification cards and sent them through a messaging service via their network to Christian Bramwell. He put the phone back in his pocket.

  Mike Nathan appeared from the back of the truck. ‘It’s clean inside. Nothing in the cab. The back is full of medical kits.’

  ‘Contact again,’ Evron said over the radio.

  ‘Who is it?’ Cavill asked.

  ‘Wait…it’s Fabrice and Rolleston. They’re coming in quickly. Will be with you shortly.’

  Cavill was relieved; they needed time to reset things.

  ‘Right,’ he said. ‘We have three badly wounded people upstairs. You two doctors, grab what you need to treat burns and shock. You’re coming with us under guard. Your driver is staying here and is going to sit in the truck.’

  ‘Wait,’ the lead doctor said. ‘Who are you? Why do you have weapons here?’

  Cavill smiled. ‘We’re the good guys. With guns. There’s no time to explain, so while you’re under our jurisdiction, you’ll follow our orders. Understand?’

  The men looked dubious, but they all nodded in agreement.

  ‘Quickly get what you need,’ Cornell said, ushering them around to the back of the truck for medical supplies.

  A cloud of dust appeared further down the main road as the team’s second Land Rover came into view. It soon pulled to a stop, and the last two members of the team got out.

  ‘You guys all right?’ Cavill asked.

  ‘All good,’ Rolleston said. ‘We picked up as much of the strewn kit as we could find.’

  ‘Good,’ Cavill said. ‘Take a couple of minutes to catch your breath.’

  Cavill got back on the radio. ‘Right, team. Next phase…I want Fabrice and Rolleston to stay down here with Sizemore, Nathan, and Lampack, under command of Cornell. Lampack, come down off the roof to help sort the kit and these containers. We’re taking two Red Cross doctors up to treat the wounded, and I’ll start preparing the away team to go into the pyramid. We need to pick up the pace here.’

  He could see his men on the ground nodding in agreement. They were already way behind schedule, and everybody knew it.

  With their kit attached, the two doctors climbed up the ladder to the containers. Cavill was behind them. Once they were inside, they saw that Evron and Van der Westhuizen had done some housekeeping.

  ‘It was too cluttered in here as our command centre and medical area,’ Evron said. ‘So we’ve moved the wounded to the pyramid entry room. It’s the only container that’s nearby and not full of stuff. We needed to get all the civilians out of here as well.’

  Cavill nodded in agreement.

  The science offices container they were standing in did look much clearer. Evron’s laptop and IT kit were on the central table.

  Cavill ushered the doctors forward into the pyramid entry room. The three dead archaeologists had been put into body bags brought up from the equipment boxes on the ground. They lay in the far corner, out of the way. The three wounded were in the near corner with the two scientists and Matt Hayden and Rebecca Grainger. All of them were still under the watchful eye of Schalk van der Westhuizen.

  ‘How’re the wounded?’ Cavill asked Schalk.

  ‘They were stable enough for us to move them, but they’re still in shock,’ Schalk said.

  Cavill turned to the doctors. ‘Here you go, gents. Do your thing. I’ll be back shortly.’

  He exchanged a nod with Schalk and left the room to check in with Evron.

  Schalk knew his duty and watched intently as the doctors started pulling out various pieces of medical equipment to help the injured.

  ‘Anything new on radar?’ Cavill asked Evron, joining him at the command table.

  ‘Nothing,’ Evron replied. ‘Quiet on all fronts.’

  ‘Good. We can speed things up now,’ Cavill said. He got back on the radio. ‘Cornell, lay out those lead boxes, largest to smallest. I’m coming back down to deal with them.’

  ‘Copy that,’ Cornell said in his earpiece.

  As he exited through the hatch, Cavill made a hand gesture towards the pyramid entry room. Evron nodded in return and tilted back on his chair to look into the room where Schalk and the doctors were. Everything appeared normal, so he went back to his laptop screen.

  ***

  ‘Right, here’s the plan,’ Cavill said as he finished checking the lead boxes that were lined up in front of him. ‘We’ve got ten containers here. Six will fit into backpacks, and the rest will have to be carried. The one that’s the size of a trunk will need at least two of us. We need to get all of them up there because we have no idea how big this energy source is. So put the six small ones into camouflaged backpacks that will go in with the away team, and we’ll carry in the two largest as backup. Start hauling them up.’

  His men immediately got to work, and Cavill grabbed one of the backpacks to help Rolleston with the task.

  ‘Get in there, you bugger,’ Rolleston said as they wrestled the fabric over the container.

  Cavill smiled but was distracted by his phone beeping in his plate carrier. He had a message. He fished the phone out with one hand and looked at the screen while still holding the weight of the container with his other hand.

  ‘Shit,’ he said. ‘Take it, take it.’ He passed all the weight to Rolleston, who looked surprised.

  Bramwell had sent a picture in response to the pictures on the doctors’ identity cards that Cavill had sent. Cavill was looking at an official Red Cross record, but the picture of the doctor did not match the name of the doctor he had let into the pyramid.

  He spun and started sprinting back to the ladder.

  ‘Schalk, they’re fakes,’ he yelled into the radio. ‘Immobilise them.’

  ***

  In the pyramid entry room, the docto
rs caught the change in Schalk’s movement as he brought his hand to his ear to listen to the radio. As he was bringing his rifle round to bear, the doctor kneeling nearest him kicked out from a crouching position and buckled Schalk’s knee, causing his firing rifle to pivot away and send a line of bullets up the wall. The second doctor pulled out a folding Magpul FMG9 submachine gun from the underside of a medical kit and deployed it in a second, as the front and back swung out automatically to connect and form a working gun. He pressed the trigger and released a burst of automatic fire that caught Schalk in the midriff and sent him spinning sideways. The first doctor had pulled out a garrotte hidden within his belt, and as Schalk staggered towards him, the garrotte flew around Schalk’s neck and immediately tightened.

  The lethal burst of fire from the MFG9 continued in an arc through the door of the pyramid entrance room into the science room to hit Evron in the shoulder.

  Evron rolled to the floor and behind some metal boxes, releasing his pistol to return fire. Kate Edwards and Rebecca Grainger, in the pyramid entry room, screamed in the deafening noise and chaos.

  06:38:00 to Endgame

  On the ground, Cavill’s men were still clustered around the lead containers and boxes of equipment. Lampack caught movement in his peripheral vision. It was four men rolling out from underneath the Red Cross truck and bringing weapons to bear.

  ‘Cover!’ Lampack yelled as he crash tackled Cornell over the containers and landed heavily on the other side.

  ‘What the hell—’ Cornell was cut off by a hail of bullets hitting the containers and whistling overhead.

  ‘Caught flat-footed,’ Lampack said, trying to unclip his rifle from his chest. ‘They had guys hiding under the truck.’

  ‘How many?’ Cornell asked.

  ‘Saw four, plus the driver makes five.’

  ‘Plus two up top, we’ve got seven.’

  Cornell looked around and saw the other four members of the team had also hit the deck in time behind the containers and were now returning fire.

  ‘They’re moving,’ Sizemore yelled.