by Geoff Wolak
At 8.50am people started to arrive in the large downstairs briefing room, the lads from Panama now with it and awake, those who had been to Guinea benefitting from three day’s rest here. I greeted many, quick chats as seats were taken, Billy taking centre stage with his files and notes, Rocko stood with his clipboard – moustache trimmed.
In the room were just Echo men, the British Wolves now part of No.1 Field Recon, so we had more space. The intel team stood at the back, since some of what we discussed would be relevant to them, but Sanders was not in on the meeting. I greeted Parker, Tiller and Brace, soon shouting at people to shut up and sit.
Stood at the front, next to Billy as he sat with Moran, Mitch and Ginger, I began, ‘OK, you’ve all had a few days to recover from long flights, so today the work starts. Any injuries – or sexual diseases, report it this morning. Tomo, get yourself checked out.’
They laughed at him.
‘For those who may ask about bonuses for certain jobs, the cash should be arriving today. All men will get a small bonus thanks to Dicky.’ They glanced at him as he smirked. ‘And we will not be discussing why.’
‘Are we breaking any laws here?’ Billy asked.
‘Many, but London knows about it. I suggest we don’t write it down.’
He shot me a look, reminding me of Major Bradley.
‘Those who were in Central America get an extra bonus.’
Tomo raised a hand. ‘Don’t forget that bonus you promised me, I shot twelve men in twenty-four seconds.’
‘You did, yes.’ I faced Rocko. ‘Bill him for using the expensive ammo.’
With the lads laughing, Tomo protested.
‘OK, Sergeant Crab, is stores ready?’
‘We were in over the weekend, checked it, all sorted. No.1 Field Recon, they have the largest part, and Major Sanderson ordered up some uniforms and kit, so enough for everyone, green and brown. And Hamster says we have enough Valmet now.’
I faced Hamster. ‘You are, technically, part of No.1 Field Recon now, but can attend these meetings to know when and where we may deploy.’
He told me, ‘There’s a big steel box outside, new.’
‘I saw it, yes.’
‘It holds rifles with no slides, so they get slides and ammo from me, then grab rifles from outside. If lads need to run with a rifle they can get the keys in stores, no slides in weapons.’
I nodded. ‘OK, good. Next job may be in Yemen, hot in the day and cold in the hills at night, desert browns worn, brown rifles and magazines, brown ponchos. Stores, check we have enough. Wolves will be coming, probably 14 Intel as well, all good experience for them.
‘We won’t go just yet, I have things to do in London, and you lot need to get some training in. OK, Monster, Parker, Tiller and Brace, Greenie, there are gaps in your training compared to the rest of the lads.
‘Rizzo, I want a steep learning curve, keep them busy all day long. Start with all the various weapons we have, then mortars and RPGs, then pistol work and killing house, map reading tricks and tests, first aid on the pigs. Salome, you join that group and get up to speed on how we do things.
‘You should all have two weeks, so cram it in. Some have not done The Factory, so they need that added to the list – but just three days up there. Slider, I want the rest of them walking and running each day, ready for Yemen, gym work. I’ll also want some of the lads to teach 14 Intel and to work with the Wolves.’
I faced Swifty. ‘I want assessments made, fitness tested, injuries noted. You need to be in on the next meeting with them. Then it’s whatever training you think is best, but remember that we have the Americans here – so lots of warm bodies, and London Intel may have some ideas on courses, liaise also with Lt Col Sanderson, it’s his show.
‘The American Wolves are on placement here, keep that in mind, no intel work for them, but The Factory is OK, first aid, map reading, long walks. Try not to twist any ankles ahead of Yemen.’
I pointed at Crab. ‘You keep fit and get some weapons work in, you’ll be with us in Yemen, take an interest in training the American Wolves, chat to Sanderson about it. And all of you, check with Rocko about facilities and who’s using what, he has the master list, so you book them through him not just turn up and assume a place is empty.’
Henri raised a hand. ‘Will Tobo’s men come here?’
‘No, unless for a training exercise. Their jobs – and their families – are down in Sierra Leone and Guinea.’
‘I train them more?’ he asked.
‘Down in Sierra Leone maybe, not up here. They’re good men already.’
He gave a big Gallic shrug.
Billy turned his head to me. ‘Are those black soldiers to be on our books on-going?’
‘Technically no, we need them under HQ Freetown, and they should assist any and all special forces teams on the standard patrol routes. I would not take them to some place like Yemen, but for a job in Angola or the Congo, I might, yes.’
‘Best keep them as a detachment then, ready for us as – as and when needed; HQ Freetown would just screw it up and not know what to do with them. At the moment they’re down as an exchange posting, known to the MOD - wages and medical, so we could leave that as is and control them from here – we get questions about the teams down there anyhow.’
‘Fine,’ I told him. ‘I’d want them straight away if we go into Angola or a black country.’
Crab noted, ‘They have our kit, issued from here, and rifles.’
‘Keep the paperwork, saying that they’re on deployment then, leave them on the board upstairs. OK, boys and girls, you know what to do. You had your holiday, so get back to some hard work and training.’
‘Hold on,’ Bill called, forms to hand out to a few men, pension entitlement statements, some lost kit, blocked toilets in a hut, the gym up the road available on certain days.
The lads finally shuffled out as I led Billy and Moran upstairs. We sat for half an hour going through paperwork before the next meeting, No.1 Field Recon, back downstairs, the combined Wolves force stood mostly and all crammed in at the back.
At the front table sat Lt Col Sanderson, Major Harris, intel captains and the two 14 Intel captains off to the side, Swifty in the front row with Crab and Duffy, plus the American Wolf officers and NCOs, two officers and three NCOs. The British Wolves sat, our two ladies in 14 Intel plus some of their male colleagues sat, a few Americans sat, the rest stood at the back. Our two CT police come spies sat off to one side.
I stood chatting to many before they settled, then I stood at the front. ‘Welcome back … for those who travelled far and wide. American Wolves, any injuries we don’t know about?’
The captain reported, ‘Had a man crash his car, he won’t be coming back, spine gone.’
‘Pity. Let us know his name for the board upstairs. Any other issues?’
‘Had a man quit, don’t know why.’
A fourteen Intel captain put in, ‘We had two men quit.’
‘And the reasons..?’ I nudged.
‘They felt it was all a bit too dangerous.’
I held my hands wide. ‘What the fuck did they sign up for, some training exercises? Do they not know what might happen if a war comes along?’
‘Obviously not,’ Sanderson scoffed. ‘Cowards.’
The 14 Intel captain did not like that, but bit his tongue. ‘We are modifying our recruitment process with the profiling that Mi6 developed, already a few candidates.’
‘Check them out carefully before they set foot on this base,’ I insisted. ‘They train with you and prove themselves before they come here and waste our damn time.’
He nodded.
‘And Tiny?’ the 14 Intel captain nudged.
‘Is on a placement for Intel, not in any danger but getting some good experience. She’ll be back in a few weeks. And for the record … if you have teams with us here then they may be called up for an Intel job abroad, as well as a conflict someplace. You two captains will see action just as soon
as I can magic some up. If that worries you … quit soon. You are in uniform to fight, not just do the paperwork.’
‘Right, sir,’ they both acknowledged.
Sanderson asked, ‘The long term placement of American teams here?’
‘They’ll rotate, sir, new teams being recruited as we speak. Their bosses in the Pentagon like them placed here because I can send the men off to fight without permission from the White House. They’re on an exchange posting with me, so they go fight where I fight – good newspaper inches for the folks back home.’
I pointed a sweeping hand at the American Wolves stood up. ‘You lot will eventually go back to the States, under the control of Colonel Mathews or Admiral Jacobs, but … you may need written permission from the White House to deploy, and that can be a long process.
‘One idea … is that you stay outside the States, in Africa or here, moving around, time off for holidays, but always available for some work when needed. Admiral Jacobs would like to see many of you based in the Red Sea area. If you guys have commitments back home, a girl waiting for you, you need to let your bosses know.’
I took in their faces. ‘Raise your hands if being overseas for a few months is an issue.’
None raised their hands.
Murphy put it, ‘Sir, we all dumb enough to like this shit.’ They laughed.
I asked, ‘And who here let the folks back home know that they were at Camel Toe Base?’
They again laughed.
Murphy put in, ‘In Rome I got me some free drinks from American tourists, sir.’
Everyone laughed.
‘Murphy, if we ever need a man for some undercover work, don’t volunteer – you’re a celeb now.’ I faced them. ‘All of you, we have two weeks here then maybe a job in Yemen, hot in the day and cold at night. It’s my plan to take all of you along, experience for 14 Intel, and we’ll need the numbers.
‘Start working on fitness, we’ll be walking across the mountains.’
‘We leave Sierra Leone empty?’ Sanderson asked.
‘Is there a pressing need for the Wolves down there, sir?’
‘As and when some trouble arises,’ he noted. ‘Which is often.’
‘The Yemen job is high profile, and the power brokers want a good show, and I need the men. But as a general rule I would say that we always have ten Wolves in Sierra Leone ready, yes. Jobs like Yemen don’t crop up that often.’
‘How long will you be there?’
‘Hard to know, but I’d say two weeks or less. We’d hit the training camp and pull out.’
Major Harris turned to me. ‘I’ve been studying al-Qaeda units in Yemen, and in the east central region there are three camps, each with six hundred men, impossible to tell who is al-Qaeda and who simply supports them and makes the tea.’
‘There are less than two hundred al-Qaeda all in, globally,’ I told him. ‘Rest are just men hanging around.’
‘Do we have a plan yet?’
‘I was busy, and waiting for you to come up with a plan,’ I teased.
Sanderson asked, ‘What objective has London and Washington stated?’
‘Knock back al-Qaeda in the region, nothing more complicated than that. Rest is down to us. Al-Qaeda attack buses with tourists on, set off bombs, but left unchecked they can grow – and we don’t want them to grow.’
‘There are caves,’ Harris warned. ‘Air strikes would be limited.’
‘We’ll walk in and take a close look,’ I told him. ‘Via Oman, who will cooperate fully with logistical support - and helos and jeeps.’
‘That helps,’ Sanderson noted. ‘Oh, whilst you were away they hung some chap in Oman, large fat chap, head came off when they opened the trap door, bit of a mess. So they then shot his headless torso.’
‘That man … was the middleman who killed my father.’
They exchanged looks.
Sanderson noted, ‘And he just happens to end up in Oman…’
‘It is a funny old world, isn’t it.’
He shot me a look, also reminding me of Major Bradley.
I faced the men. ‘OK, you know that we have Yemen planned, so plenty of training here in cold England. Make sure you all have desert brown kit ready.’ I faced Sanderson. ‘I’ll need your Intel team to know the target area better than they know this base, the valleys east towards Oman, the local tribes and affiliations, water sources.’
He nodded. ‘We’ll be ready.’
The next meeting was for the Intel staff, held in the main Intel room, people sat around the edges mostly. I complimented Mutch on looking fit and well, the staff laughing.
‘OK, first I want GCHQ to think about signals intel in the region of Carlos The Jackal on the Mexican border with America, an on-going operation.’ I faced Tinker. ‘Send my formal request in. I’m interested in Lobos attacking him, since Carlos The Jackal – who lives with his mum, is now in a position to provide those nice chaps at the CIA with intel on Lobos gangs north of the border.
‘That intel is sought by the CIA and the White House, and as we all know the CIA and the White House are useful friends to have, friends with an undue influence on our own Prime Minister. This next job, Yemen, was at the request – firstly – from the Israelis, then the Americans, but it falls within a British interest because we all want al-Qaeda knocked back.’
Harris noted, ‘Or they might attack Barclays Bank in Cirencester next.’
Faces hid their grins.
I told him. ‘If they do attack Barclays Bank, Cirencester, we would not have far to travel. But domestic CT work is down to the regular SAS, and to the new police units.’
Sanderson noted, ‘They now practise breach techniques…’
I nodded. ‘At some point they will handle their own serious situations, not just a man holding his wife hostage because she burnt his toast.’
Harris asked, a glance at Sanderson, ‘On behalf of many of us, do you have an opinion … on how things will turn out in London, and with the likes of the late Lord Michaels?’
I considered my answer. ‘I’m led to believe that 95% of those involved in wrong-doings have been arrested, been killed, or have fled. Lord Michaels, and NordGas’s middle-men in Africa have been dealt with, firmly, and the chances of armed incidents in Sierra Leone and Liberia have been greatly reduced.
‘Those people being motivated and paid by the Comertz Bank are no longer being motivated by that bank, the bank having suffered a series of mishaps and … it finally burnt down, a very bad episode in the history of this country and Europe, people playing at being god, rich men sat behind closed doors and thinking that – because they were rich and well-connected – that they should have a hand in shaping things, as well as making a few quid by breaking the law.
‘For thirty years NordGas was investing in coups and illegal deals in Africa, the poor people being robbed of their inheritance under their feet. I guess, that after the first time they grabbed a mine illegally and no one challenged it, that they kept going, getting more and more confident till they considered that they could even take on the British Government and our armies.
‘What is annoying, is that our own intelligence chiefs told me that Lord Michaels was above suspicion and that no action should be taken.’
‘Damned ridiculous,’ Sanderson noted. ‘No one is above the law.’
Harris noted, ‘It’s been a lesson – for people like Lord Michaels – about what can happen when you play with fire. But tell me, how many of the attacks on us here, and at the FOB, were down to the bank?’
‘Nearly all of them, through proxies,’ I told him.
Harris told me, ‘My wife would have liked to catch up with them. To be worried about terrorists is one thing, but to be worried about our own lords and peers…’
‘Yes, a betrayal,’ I told them. ‘And the most stupid situation this country has put itself in for a while, the left hand attacking the right hand.’
‘And Lesely?’ a lady captain asked.
‘The bank
was behind her abduction,’ I told her. ‘But we missed a trick when we tracked back to the Nigerians, because they were plausible enough as bad boys for us to look no further. But the Nigerians were borrowing money from the bank, a nudge from the bank to attack us. That … is a lesson for you all, for the future.
‘You may find the shooter, but who’s his manager? And that manager, who’s his boss, and what motivates him? You have to go up the line to the top, to get the final answer. We had men attack us at the FOB, from Ivory Coast, motivated by a company, that company motivated by NordGas, NordGas motivated by the bank.’
I pointed at Mutch. ‘That facility in Niger where your friend worked, the one that suffered a mishap. It was all paid for by the bank through Izillien, but we mistakenly stopped with Izillien and considered that he just wanted at the oil in Liberia.’
I held my hands wide. ‘The car bomb at the FOB with the ex-SAS guy driving it to us … that was facilitated by Sandline and Bob Littlewood, on behalf of Lord Michaels directly – to help the bank get at the oil.’
I sighed. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, we wasted years fighting the wrong people for the wrong reasons, not knowing what was really going on. In future we need to be smarter.’
‘We have learnt a great deal,’ Harris insisted. ‘We survived, and we’re better equipped and better staffed, we have the experience, so I think that next time, if there is a next time, we’ll sort out the little shits.’
My phone trilled so I stepped out.
‘It’s Miller, can you talk?’
‘Just back at base sorting out the teams.’
‘Some bad news. We got an intercept, and the boys in Yemen know you’re coming, they’re getting ready.’
‘Good, that helps.’
‘It helps! How the fuck does that help!’
‘They’ll move in predictable ways, I know what they’ll do, and I can play them. They have a timescale, and an objective, so theirs is the weak hand. I have no timescale, no objective, no pressure for a result, and I can make my own plan.’