Many of the villagers had now fled in panic, but one man, braver than the rest, tried to lash out at Shepherd with his foot. He dodged the kick, sprang up to pistol-whip the man to the ground, and then moved again as a burst of automatic fire tore the air apart in the place where he had just been standing.
As he dived and rolled again, he heard the clatter of rotors and the rattle of miniguns as the helis flashed overhead.
The Taliban fighters swung to face this new threat, but they were now outgunned and outnumbered. Two attack helis kept up a withering fire, the miniguns’ incessant rattle punctuated by the whoosh of rockets flashing from their pods and torching the Taliban pick-ups.
The other four helis landed at the edge of the square in a whirlwind of dust and debris. McIntyre, Mitchell and the others jumped off the helis and joined the fight, pouring in a torrent of rounds that cut the Taliban apart.
The sound of double-taps echoed through the square as the SAS killed the Taliban fighters with ruthless efficiency, flattening any villager who stood in their way. They kicked their legs from under them or punched them to the ground and while the SAS assault teams kept up their withering fire, others secured the villagers’ wrists with plastic ties. When the battle was over, they would be searched and identified and any Taliban who’d thrown away their weapons and tried to hide among them would receive short shrift.
The sound of gunshots and double-taps slowed and then stopped altogether as the last fighter was cut down. Every local had fled and the square was now completely deserted, but for the dead and wounded and the SAS troopers patrolling the perimeter, still watchful and alert. Mitchell moved among the wounded, treating two SAS men who had non-fatal gunshot wounds.
Mitchell had spotted Shepherd and ran over to him as he dusted himself down and looked around for Karim. ‘All right, Spider?’
‘I’m fine, not a scratch on me,’ he said. ‘But see what you can do for her.’ He gestured to where the burqa-clad woman slumped against the wooden post that held her. Mitchell ran over to her and after checking her over gave Shepherd a thumbs up. ‘She’s badly bruised and has a couple of broken bones, but she’ll live,’ he said.
Shepherd pointed at the woman who had been shot. She was curled up in a ball, sobbing. ‘She took a round in the thigh, can we patch her up before we go?’ asked Shepherd. ‘If not we can take her with us.’
‘I’m on it,’ said Mitchell.
Shepherd looked around again and shouted for Karim again. The boy suddenly appeared from behind one of the market stalls, grinning from ear to ear and holding a fistful of dollar bills in one hand. ‘The stall-holder doesn’t seem to want these any more,’ he said, as he ran over to Shepherd, ‘so I thought we might as well have them.’
Shepherd smiled. ‘We? You nicked it, you keep it.’ He put a hand on the boy’s shoulder. ‘It’s time to go,’ he said. ‘We’re finished here.’
‘I have one thing to do,’ said Karim, reaching into his bag and pulling out a curved knife. ‘I have to do to Jabbaar what he did to my father.’
‘He’s dead, Karim. That’s enough.’
Karim’s eyes blazed. ‘I will cut off his dick and put it in his mouth. And I will tell everyone that I did it to avenge my father, Qaseem.’
Shepherd put a hand on the boy’s shoulder. ‘Do that, and you’ll be no better than him,’ he said. ‘You need to remember your father as the good man he was. He wanted the best for you, he wouldn’t want you to be ruled by revenge. Jabbaar is dead. It’s over.’
Karim looked as if he wanted to argue, but eventually he nodded and put away the knife. One of the helicopters lifted off and flew away. ‘Thank you, Spider,’ said Karim.
‘It was a pleasure,’ said Shepherd. ‘I liked your father. I hope I can be as good a dad to my boy as he was to you.’ A second helicopter lifted off and Shepherd clapped Karim on the shoulder. ‘Come on or we’ll miss our lift home.’
*
Spider Shepherd left the SAS at the end of 2002 and joined an elite police undercover unit. You can read the first of his undercover adventures in Hard Landing, where he goes undercover in a high security prison to unmask a drugs dealer who is killing off witnesses to his crimes. The Spider Shepherd series continues with Soft Target, Cold Kill, Hot Blood, Dead Men, Live Fire, Rough Justice, Fair Game, False Friends and True Colours.
Hard Landing is available in the UK for 49p at – http://amzn.to/xxX2YU
And in the US for less than a dollar at – http://amzn.to/xWg1E7
You can read more about Stephen Leather’s work at www.stephenleather.com
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Dead Drop (A Spider Shepherd short story) Page 5