Battle Lines

by Andy McNab

  Jenny nodded.

  He said: ‘I’ll have to visit Rose McKinley, too. Gerry McKinley’s lost a foot. He’s in Selly Oak. We thought he was going to die but he’ll be OK. I’m not sure whether to tell her what I know about it.’

  She waited. The way she always waited for him to tell her things, knowing he would, knowing he trusted her.

  ‘I was at the PB with an advance party. Gerry was following on with the others and the Bergens got blown off the top of the Mastiff into a field. Chalfont-Prick sent Gerry out to get his Bergen because he said it had secret mapping in it but, guess what, when they investigated, it turned out to be a load of crap. No secret mapping. Just a mobile phone he shouldn’t have had.’

  Jenny stared at him.

  ‘One of my men got blown up for the boss’s fucking BlackBerry,’ said Dave, his voice getting louder. ‘And two men died trying to get to him. It wasn’t some new sprog on top cover who shot Angry McCall out of ignorance; it was Chalfont-Prick out of selfishness. When I found out, I went to the NAAFI. Chalfont-Prick was sitting there with all his officer mates. I walked right up to him. And punched him. On the nose. And no one stopped me because they all knew I was right.’

  It had felt good. The surprise and then shock on the priggish face of the platoon commander had been even more satisfying than knuckle on jaw.

  But Jenny was looking aghast at the thought of knuckle on jaw. Maybe he shouldn’t have told her.

  ‘They’ll court-martial you,’ she said at last.

  ‘Oh no they won’t. He’s going. They could throw the book at him and his uncle’s defence review’s all finished so there’s nothing to stop them. But they’re quietly letting him out of the back door.’

  Jenny continued to stare at Dave. Searching his face. As if she was looking for something.

  Finally she said: ‘Afghanistan.’ Dave knew what she meant. For some people it was a country. For others it was a war zone. For Jenny it was an intruder. Afghanistan had forced its way into her life and her marriage, stealing things which were precious, violating her peace, leaving her life in disarray. And all because she loved a soldier.

  He dropped his voice and spoke quickly and urgently. ‘Jenny, this tour … I spent some of it on the edge. On the edge of endurance. Or maybe on the edge of despair. There was one night, at the end, when I was in a cave. I was lying on this wall in the dark. It was really cold and I couldn’t move. Because I was just a couple of metres away from about twelve Taliban fighters.’

  She looked horrified. He continued rapidly.

  ‘Jenn, I lay there sure I was going to die. And I thought about you. How much you mean to me. How badly I’ve treated you. I thought about dying and leaving you alone with the girls, how you’d have to cope and how unhappy you’d be. That was when I was on the edge, knowing our lives together could be finished when we’re still at the beginning. That was when I hit rock bottom. And then … I know this sounds crazy … I saw Jamie Dermott. He just came into my head. And he told me it wasn’t all over yet. And I knew I shouldn’t give up. Shit, Jenn, he was right. Jamie was right. I came through it alive, we’re here together again, the girls are safe at home, you’re going to recover. Jenny, everything’s going to be OK.’

  She was crying again. Women.

  Epilogue

  Lance Corporal William Finn, Sergeant S. Holliday of the Royal Army Medical Corps and Angus McCall’s parents waited nervously in the ante-room at Buckingham Palace.

  ‘We deserve another Military Cross for going through this,’ muttered Finny to Doc.

  ‘Just because I can do the Heimlich Manoeuvre doesn’t mean I can bow without tripping over my feet,’ said Doc dismally.

  Angus’s mother was large-boned and large-faced like Angus. ‘If Angus was here, he wouldn’t be nervous. Getting a medal wouldn’t bother him one way or the other,’ she said. Angus’s dad had been divorced from her for years and now he ignored her. He had the furtive look of a man who needed a cigarette and was prepared to sneak behind a potted plant if necessary.

  ‘Nah, nothing bothered Angus,’ Finny agreed generously. ‘He was the best, Mrs McCall. All the boys in the platoon miss him a lot.’

  Sergeant Dave Henley found the prospect of meeting the Queen more daunting than an encounter with the Taliban. For your average skirmish in Helmand Province there was no strict protocol to observe and the enemy didn’t seem to care much if your uniform was a bit ally. Here at Buckingham Palace that sort of thing was considered important.

  But when he heard his name and walked in for the Queen to award him the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross, he immediately located Jenny across the room, saw her great happiness and found himself grinning from ear to ear.

  Evidently the Queen knew the whole story. ‘Your bravery is exceptional, Sergeant. Tell me, how did you manage to stay so still and so quiet for so long with the enemy just a few feet away?’

  ‘Well, ma’am, I thought about my wife and my two little girls. And I decided I couldn’t let death separate me from them,’ Dave heard himself say.

  ‘Is your wife here today?’ asked the Queen.

  Dave glanced across at his Jenny, smiling happily.

  ‘Yes, ma’am. And sometimes I feel that she should be the one awarded a medal.’

  The Queen gave him a regal but conspiratorial grin. ‘Actually, you aren’t the first soldier to say that to me,’ she told him. ‘Just make sure you say it to her sometimes.’

  Smiling warmly, she pinned on his medal. ‘Well done, Sergeant Henley.’

  Glowing, Dave walked to the back of the room. Later they would go out with the boys. Leanne and Steve would join them. They would put everything that had happened on this tour behind them and start to look forward again.

  Jenny turned to him and they smiled at each other. She had emerged from her bandages and bruises and the day-to-day chores of motherhood as though from a chrysalis. Her face was healed; her smile was even; her dress made her look like a bright blue butterfly. And, looking around this most exclusive of rooms, Dave was sure of one thing. His wife was the most beautiful person here.

  ANDY McNAB

  In 1984 he was ‘badged’ as a member of 22 SAS Regiment.

  Over the course of the next nine years he was at the centre of covert operations on five continents.

  During the first Gulf War he commanded Bravo Two Zero, a patrol that, in the words of his commanding officer, ‘will remain in regimental history for ever’.

  Awarded both the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) and Military Medal (MM) during his military career.

  McNab was the British Army’s most highly decorated serving soldier when he finally left the SAS in February 1993.

  He is a patron of the Help for Heroes campaign.

  He is now the author of twelve bestselling thrillers, as well as two Quick Read novels, The Grey Man and Last Night Another Soldier. He has also edited Spoken from the Front, an oral history of the conflict in Afghanistan.

  ‘A richly detailed picture of life in the SAS’

  BRAVO TWO ZERO

  In January 1991, eight members of the SAS regiment, under the command of Sergeant Andy McNab, embarked upon a top secret mission in Iraq to infiltrate them deep behind enemy lines. Their call sign: ‘Bravo Two Zero’.

  IMMEDIATE ACTION

  The no-holds-barred account of an extraordinary life, from the day McNab as a baby was found in a carrier bag on the steps of Guy’s Hospital to the day he went to fight in the Gulf War. As a delinquent youth he kicked against society. As a young soldier he waged war against the IRA in the streets and fields of South Armagh.

  SEVEN TROOP

  Andy McNab’s gripping story of the time he served in the company of a remarkable band of brothers. The things they saw and did during that time would take them all to breaking point – and some beyond – in the years that followed. He who dares doesn’t always win …

  Nick Stone titles

  Nick Stone, ex-SAS trooper, now gun-for-hire working on deniab
le ops for the British government, is the perfect man for the dirtiest of jobs, doing whatever it takes by whatever means necessary …

  REMOTE CONTROL

  Dateline: Washington DC, USA

  Stone is drawn into the bloody killing of an ex-SAS officer and his family and soon finds himself on the run with the one survivor who can identify the killer – a seven-year-old girl.

  ‘Proceeds with a testosterone surge’ Daily Telegraph

  CRISIS FOUR

  Dateline: North Carolina, USA

  In the backwoods of the American South, Stone has to keep alive the beautiful young woman who holds the key to unlock a chilling conspiracy that will threaten world peace.

  ‘When it comes to thrills, he’s Forsyth class’ Mail on Sunday

  FIREWALL

  Dateline: Finland

  The kidnapping of a Russian Mafia warlord takes Stone into the heart of the global espionage world and into conflict with some of the most dangerous killers around.

  ‘Other thriller writers do their research, but McNab has actually been there’ Sunday Times

  LAST LIGHT

  Dateline: Panama

  Stone finds himself at the centre of a lethal conspiracy involving ruthless Colombian mercenaries, the US government and Chinese big business. It’s an uncomfortable place to be …

  ‘A heart thumping read’ Mail on Sunday

  LIBERATION DAY

  Dateline: Cannes, France

  Behind its glamorous exterior, the city’s seething underworld is the battleground for a very dirty drugs war and Stone must reach deep within himself to fight it on their terms.

  ‘McNab’s great asset is that the heart of his fiction is non-fiction’ Sunday Times

  DARK WINTER

  Dateline: Malaysia

  A straightforward action on behalf of the War on Terror turns into a race to escape his past for Stone if he is to save himself and those closest to him.

  ‘Addictive … Packed with wild action and revealing tradecraft’ Daily Telegraph

  DEEP BLACK

  Dateline: Bosnia

  All too late Stone realizes that he is being used as bait to lure into the open a man whom the darker forces of the West will stop at nothing to destroy.

  ‘One of the UK’s top thriller writers’ Daily Express

  AGGRESSOR

  Dateline: Georgia, former Soviet Union

  A longstanding debt of friendship to an SAS comrade takes Stone on a journey where he will have to risk everything to repay what he owes, even his life …

  ‘A terrific novelist’ Mail on Sunday

  RECOIL

  Dateline: The Congo, Africa

  What starts out as a personal quest for a missing woman quickly becomes a headlong rush from his own past for Stone.

  ‘Stunning … A first class action thriller’ The Sun

  CROSSFIRE

  Dateline: Kabul

  Nick Stone enters the modern day wild west that is Afghanistan in search of a kidnapped reporter.

  ‘Authentic to the core … McNab at his electrifying best’ Daily Express

  BRUTE FORCE

  Dateline: Tripoli

  An undercover operation is about to have deadly long term consequences …

  ‘Violent and gripping, this is classic McNab’ News of the World

  EXIT WOUND

  Dateline: Dubai

  Nick Stone embarks on a quest to track down the killer of two ex-SAS comrades.

  ‘Could hardly be more topical … all the elements of a McNab novel are here’ Mail on Sunday

  ZERO HOUR

  Dateline: Amsterdam

  A code that will jam every item of military hardware from Kabul to Washington. A terrorist group who nearly have it in their hands. And a soldier who wants to go down fighting …

  ‘Like his creator, the ex-SAS soldier turned uber-agent is unstoppable’ Daily Mirror

  Andy McNab and Kym Jordan’s new series of novels traces the interwoven stories of one platoon’s experience of warfare in the twenty-first century. Packed with the searing danger and high-octane excitement of modern combat, it also explores the impact of its aftershocks upon the soldiers themselves, and upon those who love them. It will take you straight into the heat of battle and the hearts of those who are burned by it.

  WAR TORN

  Two tours of Iraq under his belt, Sergeant Dave Henley has seen something of how modern battles are fought. But nothing can prepare him for the posting to Forward Operating Base Senzhiri, Helmand Province, Afghanistan. This is a warzone like even he’s never seen before.

  ‘Andy McNab’s books get better and better. War Torn brilliantly portrays the lives of a platoon embarking on a tour of duty in Helmand province’ Daily Express

  TRANSWORLD PUBLISHERS

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  First published in Great Britain

  in 2012 by Bantam Press

  an imprint of Transworld Publishers

  Copyright © Spoken Group Ltd 2012

  Andy McNab and Kym Jordan have asserted their rights under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the authors of this work.

  This book is a work of fiction and, except in the case of historical fact, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  Version 1.0 Epub ISBN 9781407069449

  ISBNs 9780593065273 (cased)

  9780593065280 (tpb)

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