‘Open your windows,’ Pandi’s uncle ordered. ‘All of them.’
The driver pushed several buttons on his console. The windows slid down.
‘All the way down,’ Pandi’s uncle ordered.
‘That’s as far as they go on this kind of car,’ the driver said politely, a forced smile in an effort to show he was friendly.
‘Are you sure?’ Pandi’s uncle asked.
The driver suppressed his sigh and pushed the window control button with pantomime exaggeration in order to prove his point. ‘That’s as far as they go.’
Pandi’s uncle looked at the person in the back. Pandi hovered close behind to get a look. It was a pretty girl in her late teens. ‘Are you related?’ he asked the man.
‘This is my wife and my daughter,’ the driver said.
‘Papers?’ Pandi’s uncle asked. ‘Everyone’s.’
The driver gave him his ID, collected the others and handed them over.
Pandi’s uncle went through them, each time comparing the face to the photo. ‘How long have you lived in Albania?’
‘I’ve always lived in Albania,’ the driver replied.
‘Always?’
‘I’ve spent some time in Skopje and Sofia.’
‘Macedonia and Bulgaria?’
‘Yes. Skopje is the capital of Macedonia and Sofia the capital of Bulgaria.’
Pandi’s uncle was quite able to absorb sarcasm without reacting. The comment seemed to increase the woman’s discomfort.
‘You have an accent,’ Pandi’s uncle said.
‘What kind of accent?’ the driver asked.
‘A Serbian accent.’
In Albania that was tantamount to an accusation.
‘That’s rubbish,’ the driver said, ruffled.
‘Get out of the car,’ Pandi’s uncle ordered, stepping back.
The exchange had attracted the attention of other officers. It was not that they were particularly interested. Pandi’s uncle was known for being antagonistic. Standing around a checkpoint all day was boring. Civilians were entertainment.
When the girl climbed out the officers’ interest increased. She was very good looking with long brown hair, slender legs wrapped in tight jeans and a jacket short enough to reveal her pert bottom and open at the front to present a pair of ample breasts inside a tight jumper. She had just about everyone’s attention.
‘Where did you go to school?’ Pandi’s uncle asked her.
She was nervous and didn’t answer.
‘Doesn’t she speak?’
‘You frighten her,’ the father replied. ‘Tell him where you went to school. Don’t be frightened. He thinks it’s his job to be scary and insulting.’
The girl took the advice and stiffened. ‘Qemal Stafa high school,’ she said.
‘Tirana?’
‘Yes,’ she said.
‘You sound Serbian too,’ Pandi’s uncle said, much to the amusement of the officers.
One of them stepped forward. Jeton was his name. ‘We’ll talk with her separately,’ he said, giving his colleagues a wink. ‘Come here.’
The girl didn’t like the invitation and looked at her father. He didn’t like it either but indicated for her to obey them.
She held her jacket closed in a nervous, protective manner as she walked over to Jeton. All the border officers were looking at her, including Pandi, who had forgotten about his uncle.
‘Open your boot,’ Pandi’s uncle commanded.
The father did as he was told. Pandi’s uncle inspected the contents. The father looked at the officer with his daughter who was joined by another. They asked her a question and as she answered they eyed her up and down. One of them felt her hair. She pulled away.
The father didn’t like what he was seeing but Pandi’s uncle distracted him. ‘Lift up the spare tyre,’ he asked. ‘I want to look underneath.’
The father removed the rug that covered the spare wheel.
‘Take off your jacket,’ Jeton said to the girl.
She refused, holding her jacket closed tightly.
‘I said take off your jacket.’
‘What are you hiding under there?’ another officer said, amused by his wit as he mimicked her boobs to his appreciative audience.
‘Come on, let’s take a look,’ Jeton said, tugging at her jacket.
She held onto it.
‘If you don’t take it off, we’ll rip it off you.’
She refused.
He prodded her. ‘Take it off I said!’ He gave her a gentle slap on the side of her head. ‘It will only get worse for you if you disobey us.’
She continued to refuse. He hit her on the head a little harder. She yelped. Pandi’s smile faded, suddenly feeling sorry for the girl.
Her father took a step towards her but Pandi’s uncle grabbed his coat. ‘Stay,’ he warned.
The father tried to yank free. Storen took out his pistol and pointed it at the father’s face. ‘Stay where you are.’
The father obeyed and watched the officers struggle with his daughter’s jacket. ‘Leave her!’ he shouted. ‘Savages!’
They succeeded in pulling it open. The girl dropped to her knees as they yanked it off completely. ‘What are you hiding, bitch!’ Jeton shouted.
‘Pull off her jacket,’ someone cried.
‘Let’s see her tits.’
‘Take her trousers down.’
Pandi wanted to help her but it was pointless to try. His uncle and brother would be angry and so he just watched.
They lifted her up as if trying to get her to stand. She screamed and kicked out wildly. As she wriggled, she slid down until her breasts were jammed above Jeton’s arms, much to the amusement of the others. The father wanted to go to her, but Storen threatened him with his pistol.
The border patrol commander stepped out of the cabin wondering what all the commotion was. He saw the girl struggling, the others laughing, and Storen aiming a pistol at the head of a civilian. ‘What the hell is going on?’ he called out.
‘They’re Serbian spies,’ someone replied, prompting laughter.
What happened next was beyond surreal.
Jeton’s head suddenly exploded! Blood and brains spurted in all directions. A bullet entered one side of his head and came out the other taking his brains with it. The only sound was a sharp, loud slap. The life went out of his limbs and he dropped to the ground in a crumpled heap. His head was shattered.
Some of the officers dropped to the ground while others remained frozen where they stood. Everyone was trying to process what had just happened.
The first managed response was from Pandi’s uncle who snatched his pistol from its holster and aimed it at the father as he shuffled away from him, fully expecting to find a smoking gun in the man’s hands. But both hands were empty. He switched to the mother, shuffling his feet as he’d practiced many times on the range, knees bent, bottom out in a sitting position, arms reaching in front of him, both hands clenching the pistol. The woman was standing with her mouth agape in utter horror, staring at the dead officer who’s skull she’d seen explode. Her hands were empty and shaking.
The silence was broken by the girl’s high-pitched scream, blood and pieces of brain splattered across her face. Heads snapped around, searching in all directions, all wondering where the shot had come from. Hands reached for guns, bodies crouched, torsos twisted on heels, fingers on triggers.
It seemed longer than sixteen seconds before the next bullet arrived. It struck the other officer who’d been holding the girl, entering the back of his head just above the neck and exiting through his nose. He dropped like a discarded puppet.
‘It came from there,’ the commander shouted, pointing towards the wooded hillside to the west. ‘There!’
Everyone scrambled for cover except the mother who was catatonic, her eyes glued to Jeton’s shattered head. An officer grabbed the girl and dragged her to the cabin. The father stumbled back into his car before realising his wife was just standing th
ere. He yelled at her to get in. She didn’t respond. He pulled himself across the passenger seat, reached out the door, grabbed the bottom of her coat and pulled her inside.
The other officers all found a tree to hide behind.
‘Pandi!’ Pandi’s uncle shouted. ‘Get down!’
Pandi realised he hadn’t moved and scrambled as quickly as he could to a tree where he hugged the base of it.
‘Anybody see a shooter?’ the commander shouted.
No-one had a clue. The ground to the west of the clearing went sharply downhill from the edge of the clearing for eighty metres to a narrow gully before turning steeply back uphill for another thousand. The first few hundred metres were bracken and shrubbery turning into uncultivated woodland the rest of the way to the top.
‘They must be in the woods,’ someone shouted.
The commander peeked around his tree as much as he dared to get a look. ‘Did anyone see anything?’ he shouted. ‘Anything at all?’
Silence followed.
‘Does everyone have their rifles?’ he shouted.
‘I don’t,’ an officer called out, his pistol in hand.
‘Me neither,’ shouted another.
Pandi realised he didn’t have his weapon. ‘Mine’s in the cabin,’ he shouted. ‘It’s with my body armour.’
‘It’s no good to you there, is it?’ the commander yelled.
‘So’s mine,’ another shouted.
‘Go get it,’ one of the officers called out.
‘I’ll get shot, you idiot,’ came the reply.
The commander considered the situation and came to a conclusion. ‘It was a long shot from that wood. The targets were standing still. No-one can hit a moving target from there.’
‘He’s right,’ one of the others said. ‘They won’t be able to shoot you if you run.’
The officer without his rifle, Eni, absorbed their comments. He wanted his weapon, not badly enough to get shot, but he felt he needed to show he wasn’t afraid.
‘Go on, Eni,’ a colleague shouted encouragingly.
‘You can do it, Eni,’ another called out.
‘Fuck you all!’ Eni shouted. But he wanted to do it anyway. He blew out his cheeks in an effort to get himself ready. He could see the sense in the argument that no-one would be able to shoot him from so far away if he ran. ‘I’m going for my rifle,’ he announced.
Everyone looked at him. He was nervous but confident.
‘I need to get mine too,’ another announced. ‘It’s in the truck.’
‘Go at the same time,’ the commander called out. ‘You’ll confuse the shooters.’
‘If they’re still there, which I doubt,’ Pandi’s uncle offered.
‘I agree,’ the commander said. ‘They will have run by now.’
The assumptions only increased the general confidence of the runners. Both tensed in preparation.
‘Ready?’ Eni called out. ‘Go!’
The two men propelled themselves forward. The one heading for the truck had taken hardly a second step before a bullet struck the side of his body, in the ribcage below his armpit, tearing through him and dragging tissue and blood out the other side. His legs buckled, he collapsed to the ground and after several spasms he lay still, his eyes open.
Eni had seen his colleague go down and put the brakes on. Panic set in. He couldn’t decide whether to go on or turn back.
‘Keep going!’ the commander shouted.
Eni half turned, changed his mind and took off towards the cabin. It was unlikely that either selection would’ve saved him. The distant crack announced the arrival of the bullet that slapped through Eni’s neck severing the vertebrae and he hit the ground.
Everyone was stunned. They pressed themselves tighter into their trees. One started to pray. Another began to cry.
The commander pressed his forehead against his tree, afraid to look towards where he thought the shots had come from. ‘Did anyone see anything?’ he asked.
‘I saw Eni and Marko shot while they were running,’ came a reply.
‘No-one move,’ the commander ordered. ‘Stay where you are.’
‘No shit,’ someone else muttered.
‘He can see me here,’ an officer shouted.
The commander was unable to see him from where he was. ‘Who said that?’ he called out.
‘It’s me. Duno.’ He waved briefly. He was beside one of the cars. The front of it was facing the shooter and he was down one side between the wheels.
‘You’re fine,’ the commander shouted.
‘No I’m not,’ Duno shouted back. ‘It’s alright for you to say.’
‘If he could see you, he would shoot you,’ the commander argued. ‘You’re good where you are.’
Duno wasn’t buying it. ‘That’s what you told the others and look what happened to them!’
Duno reached up, gripped the door handle and unlatched it, opening it a little. So far, so good.
He opened the door fully, crawled onto the seats, twisted onto his back, hooked his foot under the door handle and pulled it shut. He made it.
A shot rang out, striking the car with a metallic slap. The door eased open and Duno’s feet fell out limply.
‘Duno?!’ the commander shouted.
There was no reply.
The commander felt utterly trapped. He checked the signal on his cell-phone even though he knew there’d be none. The only radios they had were short range. He was going to have to wait until it was safe and then send someone up the road to where they could get a signal and report the incident to headquarters.
Pandi hugged the base of his tree where he planned to stay until it was dark. The girl was still sobbing as she lay on the ground against the cabin. She wanted to join her parents in the BMW. The vile border police were as much a threat to her as whoever was shooting at them. They were going to rape her, or worse. None of them were taking any notice of her. She got to her knees and into the sprint position. An officer nearby happened to look at her and realised her intentions.
‘No!’ he shouted.
His warning had the opposite effect. She leapt forward. The officer managed to dive and grab her leg. She fell as he hung on and fought to pull away. His grip slipped to her foot. She cried out, unable to go any further.
They all looked towards her as she called out. The officer holding her was also exposed. He suddenly realised his vulnerability, released her and scrambled back to cover. She took off towards the BMW, ripped open the door and dived inside into her father’s arms.
The commander had the same thought as the rest of his men. The officer hadn’t been shot which meant the shooters had gone. He needed to get on their trail as soon as possible. There was no time to lose. First thing was to find the ambush location. Before he could get started of course, he had to be sure the ambushers had indeed gone. That meant someone stepping out of cover. That someone was going to have to be him. He couldn’t order one of his men to stand in the open. They’d refuse and ask him to do it anyway. He had to accept the responsibility. The only other option was to remain where they were until darkness.
‘Throw me your rifle,’ he said to an officer hidden behind a pile of logs.
The commander holstered his pistol. The officer held his rifle in both hands and threw it. The commander caught it neatly.
He checked the gun was loaded and the sights set on maximum range. He stepped back from the tree while remaining behind it, put the butt into his shoulder, aimed at the woods and shuffled back. He was partially exposed. He fired a dozen shots at various parts of the woodland. The gun was deafening and hurt his ears but when no fire was returned his confidence increased.
He shuffled from side to side, exposing more of himself and then went for it. Keeping the weapon aimed at the wood, he bravely stepped away from the tree and moved to where he was in the open. He scanned the woodland through the weapon sight, beads of sweat forming on his brow. With every passing second he became convinced the attackers had made good t
heir escape.
‘It’s clear,’ he shouted.
No-one else moved. Not immediately. A couple poked their heads from cover to search the hillside. Pandi decided not to look just yet. Confidence increased throughout the others that the ambushers had indeed fled the scene. One of them stepped from cover. Then another. Pandi decided he didn’t want to be the last and eased into the open.
The commander went to the nearest victim to see if he might be alive. ‘Check the others,’ he ordered.
It was pretty obvious they were dead. Three had their brains shot away and the eyes of the other one were open, his tongue hanging out.
Pandi’s uncle opened the door to the police car to see his nephew lying dead inside. Pandi joined him to look at his brother. His uncle put a hand on his shoulder to comfort him. Pandi wasn’t particularly close to his older brother. But they were brothers after all. He would have to tell their mother. She’d be devastated. He was her favourite.
‘Close in everyone,’ the commander ordered. His officers made their way to him. He looked towards the BMW, unable to see the family inside. ‘Hey. You inside the car.’
The driver’s door opened and the father looked at him without getting out of his seat.
‘You stay there,’ the commander ordered. ‘Don’t go. I have your vehicle details. If you drive away you will be considered an accessory to this and hunted down.’
The father knew well enough to take the commander seriously.
‘Now listen in,’ the commander said, facing his men. ‘We have experienced a great atrocity here today. Two things must happen immediately. Someone must drive to where there is a phone signal and report what has happened and get a response team down here right away. The other thing that must happen is we have to find the ambush position and in which direction the ambushers went. We have to find out as much as we can so that when the response teams arrive they can immediately start to track them down. Is that understood?’
None of them said a word.
‘I can go make the call,’ Pandi’s uncle offered.
‘No,’ the commander said. ‘I need you to help search for the ambushers. Pandi is the youngest and least experienced so he can go and make the call.’
The Becket Approval Page 3