The cook was a big man from New Jersey with a tattoo of Jesus on the cross on his right forearm and a floppy chef’s hat. He plopped a huge sirloin steak on Yokely’s plate, then shovelled on French fries and onion rings. ‘Help yourself to sauce,’ he said, pointing at four stainless-steel jugs. ‘Red wine, Roquefort, Béarnaise or just plain gravy.’
Yokely poured some of the red-wine sauce over his steak, picked up a couple of warm wholemeal rolls and looked for an empty table. The canteen was packed. The food in the Green Zone was as good as anything the military got in the United States, and the soldiers were tucking into plates laden with steaks, ribs and pizzas.
Yokely went to a table where two female soldiers were finishing their pasta. One was a blonde sergeant in her early thirties; her companion was younger and prettier. ‘Do you ladies mind if I join you?’ he asked.
The sergeant smiled and waved at the free seats, then carried on talking to her friend. Just as Yokely sat down, his phone rang. It was Nichols again. ‘Richard, one of the visitors was Wafeeq.’
Yokely swore, then made an apologetic gesture as the sergeant flashed him a frosty look. ‘There’s no doubt?’
‘None at all,’ said Nichols.
Yokely cursed again, under his breath this time.
‘What do you want us to do?’ asked Nichols.
‘What can we do, Simon? I presume the van’s gone?’
‘No way we could find it now,’ said Nichols. ‘Needle in a haystack.’
‘How much fuel do you have?’
Yokely heard Nichols talk to Howell, then Nichols was back on the line. ‘Five hours, maybe six.’
‘Stay put,’ said Yokely, getting to his feet. He looked wistfully at his steak but knew he didn’t have time to eat it. He phoned the Major as he walked out of the canteen into the hot sun and explained what had happened.
The Major realised the significance immediately. ‘Wafeeq didn’t take Spider with him? Why not?’
‘Maybe he smelled a rat.’
‘That’s what it looks like. Which means Spider’s in danger. Geordie too. Did the Predator track Wafeeq?’
‘We didn’t know it was him,’ said Yokely. ‘Look, I’m in the Green Zone. I’m going to commandeer a chopper but it’ll still take time. You’re going to have to go in, Allan. Now.’
‘I understand.’
‘I don’t want to start teaching anyone to suck eggs but there’s open farmland behind the house.’
‘Roger that,’ said the Major.
‘I’ll text you the number of the Predator guy and he can give you a visual before you act,’ said Yokely. ‘I’ll be there as soon as I can. And try not to kill too many of them. They’re our only link to Wafeeq.’
‘And Geordie,’ said the Major. ‘Let’s not forget him.’
‘I hadn’t,’ said Yokely. ‘But the way things stand, the only way we’ll find him is if we get hold of Wafeeq.’
The Major put the phone away and twisted in his seat. ‘We’ve got to go in now,’ he said.
‘What’s happened?’ asked Muller.
‘Wafeeq came and went but he didn’t take Spider with him. That means one of two things. They’re going to deliver him later, or Wafeeq got spooked. We can’t take the risk so we’ve got to get him now.’ He unfolded the map Yokely had given him. ‘Let’s get out so we can all look at this,’ he said.
They climbed out of the Land Cruiser and the Major held the map on the bonnet. ‘We don’t have time for surveillance. We have to go straight in,’ he said. He stabbed his finger on the map and looked at Jordan. ‘We’re here,’ he said. He moved his finger to the farmland behind the house. ‘We can get to here without being seen from the house.’ He put the aerial photograph on top of the map. ‘That’s where he is. We can come in over the wall and through the back.’ Jordan nodded and slotted a stick of chewing-gum into his mouth.
‘What sort of firepower do they have?’ asked O’Brien.
‘We don’t know.’
‘How many of them?’
‘No idea.’
O’Brien’s brow furrowed. ‘Back-up?’
‘Just us,’ said the Major. ‘We go in fast and we go in hard. But as we’ll have to interrogate them to find out where Geordie is, we’ve got to keep casualties to a minimum.’
‘Why don’t we make it a real challenge and tie our hands behind our backs?’ said O’Brien.
‘No one said it was going to be easy, Martin,’ said the Major. He folded the map. ‘Let’s get to it.’
They piled back into the Land Cruiser and Jordan put his foot down hard on the accelerator. The Major talked to Shortt on the transceiver and told him to get to the house as soon as possible. Shortt took down the directions and reckoned they were fifteen minutes away.
The Major’s mobile phone beeped and he checked the screen. It was a text message from Yokely with a Baghdad mobile-phone number and a name. Simon Nichols. The Major called and introduced himself.
‘The house is quiet on the outside,’ said Nichols. ‘No one has entered or left since Wafeeq.’
‘We’re in a white Land Cruiser, heading south,’ said the Major. ‘We have another unit coming from the east, also a white Land Cruiser.’
‘I’ll keep an eye out for you,’ said Nichols, ‘and I’ll call you if anything happens at the house.’
The Major put the phone on the dashboard and took out his Glock.
Shepherd opened his eyes. His face was wet and when he took a breath he inhaled water. He shook his head and his eyes gradually focused. Straggly Beard was standing in front of him, holding a bucket. Shepherd had lost count of how many times they had suffocated him into unconsciousness. They kept the plastic bag on his head until he passed out, then threw water over him until he came round.
The tall man slapped him across the face. Shepherd spat to clear his mouth and bloody phlegm splattered across the floor.
‘Who are you?’ the man shouted.
‘Peter Simpson.’
‘Your real name.’
Shepherd coughed. ‘That is my real name.’ Shepherd knew that the questions meant nothing. The men weren’t interested in his answers. There was nothing he could tell them that would stop the torture.
The tall man walked towards him, holding the plastic bag. Shepherd moaned. He had lost all sense of time. The light was on and the shutter on the windows behind him was locked so he had no way of knowing if it was day or night. He felt as if the torture had been going on for ever. The bag was dragged down over his head and instinctively he held his breath even though he knew it would do no good. His chest began to heave and burn, he took a breath and the plastic filled his mouth.
The Land Cruiser screeched to a halt and the Major undid his seat-belt. He put the transceiver to his mouth and clicked the transmit button. ‘Jimbo, we’ve arrived.’
There was a buzz of static, then Shortt spoke: ‘We’re five minutes away, boss.’
‘We can’t wait,’ said the Major. ‘We’ll go in the back way. When you get here, come in from the front.’
‘Roger that,’ said Shortt.
The Land Cruiser had stopped on a dirt road. To the left an olive orchard with stubby trees stretched half a mile to the foot of a gently rounded hill. To the right the farmland was less well tended and was mainly rocky soil dotted with date palms. A herd of wild goats looked at the Land Cruiser, then went back to grazing on a clump of brown grass.
‘That’s the house,’ said the Major, pointing through the palms. Two hundred metres away there was a mud-coloured wall, about six feet high, and beyond it a house with a flat roof on top of which stood a large satellite dish.
Jordan put a pair of binoculars to his eyes. ‘I don’t see anyone,’ he said.
The Major phoned Simon Nichols, who told him that no one was outside or on the roof. The Major put away his phone. ‘Okay, let’s do it,’ he said.
The four men ran towards the wall, bent low, guns at the ready.
Shepherd groaned and opened his
eyes, blinking. The man with the withered arm spoke in Arabic. Straggly Beard replied and they both looked at Shepherd. Their attitude had changed – Shepherd could see it in their eyes. Straggly Beard put down the bucket and went out of the room.
Withered Arm muttered to the tall guy, who grunted and nodded. Shepherd pulled at his wrists. There was no give in the rope but they weren’t planning to hurt him any more, he knew. They had come to the end of that phase. The two men were staring at him now. He stared back. He knew he could say nothing to stop what was about to happen. He couldn’t threaten them, he couldn’t intimidate them, and he knew that begging wouldn’t work. His mind raced. His wrists were tied and he was in a weakened state. There were at least three of them, maybe more, and they were armed.
Shepherd moved his legs. His boots may have been taken but he could still kick – and he could kick hard. Whatever they were planning to do, he would go down fighting. His heart pounded and he consciously slowed his breathing, not wanting to appear anxious. Giving up wasn’t an option. The thinking part of his brain knew it was hopeless, that he would die at their hands, but he refused to accept the inevitable. He hated the men – hated them with a vengeance – and he would do everything he could to administer as much pain and suffering to them as he could before he died.
The door opened and the tall man came back. He was holding a large knife with a wooden handle and a serrated edge. A bread-knife. He closed the door.
‘My company will pay you,’ said Shepherd, surprised at how calm he sounded. ‘They’ll pay you a lot of money.’
The tall man took a step towards him. The man with the withered arm said something to Straggly Beard, who moved to the right. Withered Arm started to mutter: ‘Allahu Akbar.’ God is great. Straggly Beard repeated it, then the tall man. All three got themselves into a rhythm. ‘Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar.’
The door opened and a fourth stepped into the room. Shepherd hadn’t seen him before. He was stocky with a shaved head and a beard that went half-way down his chest. He was wearing a floor-length dishdasha and stood with his hands clasped together. He joined in the chant.
Shepherd pulled at his wrists again, even though he knew it was futile. The ropes tying him to the chair were as tight as those binding his arms. He hadn’t tried to stand up but he knew that when he did the chair would force him to bend forward making his head an easy target. He stared at the bread-knife. The man was swinging it back and forth as he chanted. He pulled at his wrists again and felt the rope bite into his flesh. He welcomed the pain: it was a reminder that he was still alive, that blood was still coursing through his veins.
‘Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar.’ They repeated the mantra as if somehow invoking their God legitimised what they were about to do. Shepherd knew that it was also a way of distancing themselves from it. Killing wasn’t easy, and killing with a knife was just about the hardest way to take a life. Guns were easy: you pointed, pulled a trigger, and technology did the rest, but knives had to be used. You had to thrust, hack or saw and keep at it until the blood flowed and the victim died.
The man with the knife was just four feet from the chair. Shepherd could see his Adam’s apple wobbling as he chanted, his right eyelid flickering, and his jaw tightening. The man was preparing himself for what he was about to do.
So was Shepherd. He grunted, bent forward to raise the legs of the chair off the ground, then turned quickly. He yelled, to get his adrenaline flowing, and to shock the men in the room. He bent further down, angling the chair legs up, then powered backwards with all his strength, screaming at full volume. He pushed hard and felt the man with the knife stagger back. Shepherd kept the momentum going and when the man hit the wall Shepherd felt the chair leg sink into his body. Shepherd pushed until he couldn’t go any further, then stepped forward and whirled round. The bread-knife dropped from the man’s hand and he sank to his knees, blood pouring from his stomach. Shepherd turned, bent low and lashed out with his foot. He hit the man in the throat but the kick put him off balance and he staggered forward, trying desperately to regain his footing because he knew that if he fell over he wouldn’t be able to get up.
He slipped on the wet floor and went down on one knee. The man in the dishdasha picked up the knife. He glanced at the man with the withered arm, who nodded. Straggly Beard shouted something in Arabic and pulled a gun from under his sweatshirt. Shepherd dropped low and spun around, lashing out with his right leg. He caught the man at the ankles, tipping him backwards. The gun went off but the bullet buried itself in the ceiling. Shepherd moved backwards and kicked out again, catching him in the knee.
The man with the withered arm grabbed at the chair with his good arm and swung Shepherd round, screaming in Arabic. Shepherd staggered, still bent double – the old man had a strong grip. Shepherd saw the man in the dishdasha waving the knife, a manic look in his eyes, then saw Straggly Beard trying to take aim at him.
The door flew open and a man came into the room bent low with a Glock in his hand. It was the Major. The gun fired twice and Straggly Beard fell to the ground. Another man came in, this one with an Uzi. Jordan raised it but before he could fire O’Brien stepped in and slammed his handgun against the head of the man holding the knife, who went down without a sound. ‘No point in wasting a bullet,’ he said.
The man with the withered arm fell to his knees and began to wail. The Major kicked him in the chest and told him to shut up. He curled up into a ball and sobbed quietly.
Shepherd sighed and sat down heavily. He felt drained, physically and emotionally.
O’Brien grinned. ‘Yet again we pull your nuts out of the fire, Spider.’
The Major walked over to Shepherd, picked up the bread-knife and cut the ropes that were holding him to the chair, then freed his wrists. Shepherd gasped as the blood flowed into his hands and shook them. ‘Are you okay?’ asked the Major.
‘I am now,’ said Shepherd. ‘Did you follow Wafeeq?’
‘No,’ said the Major, ‘but these guys should be able to fill us in. With the right incentive.’
‘Yokely’s on his way, then?’
The Major nodded. He helped Shepherd to his feet. ‘Can you walk?’
‘I’m fine,’ said Shepherd, but he needed the Major’s support to get to the door. Jordan knelt down and examined the man that Shepherd had impaled with the chair leg. Blood was pumping from the wound in his stomach, which meant that an artery had burst. He didn’t have long to live.
‘Get them downstairs, Martin.’
‘Will do, boss.’
‘This one’s dead,’ said Jordan. ‘Or will be soon.’
The Major helped Shepherd down the stairs. At the bottom two Iraqis were lying face down on the floor, their hands clasped over the back of their necks. Muller was covering them with his gun. He grinned at Shepherd. ‘Good to see you, Spider.’
‘You can say that again,’ said Shepherd.
‘There’re two alive upstairs, John,’ said the Major. ‘Get them all in the front room.’
The Major took Shepherd into the kitchen. Half a dozen bottles of water stood on the draining-board and Shepherd unscrewed a cap and drank. As he put the bottle down he saw a face looking in through the window and flinched, then realised it was Carol Bosch. ‘Hey,’ she said, and waved her shotgun.
Shepherd grinned. The kitchen door opened and Shortt came in, his gun at the ready. He relaxed when he saw Shepherd and the Major and holstered the Glock.
‘Tell me, Jimbo, why are you always late?’ asked Shepherd.
‘Traffic was murder,’ said Shortt. ‘Camels, goats, all sorts of shit on the road.’
‘Any excuse,’ said Shepherd, ‘but I’m glad you made it.’
Shortt held up a pair of boots. ‘Thought you might like these,’ he said. ‘The guy who took them from you doesn’t need them any more.’ He tossed them to Shepherd.
‘How did it go?’ asked Haschka, following Shortt into the kitchen, Uzi in his right hand, barrel pointing
at the floor.
‘Two dead,’ said the Major. ‘Four still alive.’
‘Are you okay?’ asked Bosch, who was in the doorway, her shotgun at her side.
‘I’ve had better days,’ said Shepherd, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. Blood streaked across it and he wiped it on his jeans. ‘But, yeah, I’m okay. A few minutes later and it would have been a different story.’ He sat down and put on his boots.
‘What went wrong?’ asked Bosch.
‘Wafeeq found the transmitter,’ said Shepherd. ‘I guess he put two and two together.’
O’Brien walked into the kitchen, opened the rattling refrigerator and found a cooked leg of lamb wrapped in Cellophane. He took it out, sniffed, pulled a face and tossed it back. ‘Why don’t these people buy any decent food?’ he growled, and slammed the door.
‘What do you want, Martin?’ asked Shortt. ‘A kebab?’
‘They probably weren’t expecting guests,’ said Bosch. She went to Shepherd and put a hand on his cheek. ‘Still got your rugged good looks.’
Shepherd smiled at her. ‘You too.’
She patted his groin. ‘They didn’t hack off anything down there, did they?’
‘No, it’s fine.’
‘Are you sure? I could check.’
‘Maybe you two should get a room.’ Haschka laughed.
‘Yeah, and maybe you should get a life,’ said Bosch.
The windows started to vibrate and seconds later they heard the rotors of an approaching helicopter.
‘Five will get you ten that’s Yokely,’ said Muller.
‘Doesn’t like bullets, I guess,’ said O’Brien.
‘He was in the Green Zone,’ said the Major.
‘Convenient,’ said O’Brien.
‘Trust me, Richard Yokely isn’t scared of a bit of rough-and-tumble,’ said the Major.
Shepherd went to the kitchen door and looked out across the backyard. A Blackhawk helicopter was hovering above the farmland close to the boundary wall. The helicopter continued to hover a few feet above the ground as Yokely clambered out, holding his M16, and jogged over to let himself in through a wooden gate. He waved at Shepherd as he hurried across the courtyard. The Blackhawk lifted into the air and flew off.
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